Feeding the Demons Read Free Page A

‘Anything’ had been underlined three times.
    ‘I’ll come in, if you’ll let me,’ said Kit, ‘and we’ll go out together. I’ll go with you while we sort this out.’
    ‘That bitch will tell the cops I tried to kill her.’ The baby seemed to understand the reference to his mother and started wailing; Kit could see the red flush moving round his narrow neck and upper shoulders. The yelling grew louder.
    ‘Adrian, you’ll have to trust me,’ said Kit, already feeling like Judas. But the child’s growing level of distress and Adrian’s resumed rocking created its own compulsion. ‘Please,’ she said. ‘We can work something out, even with the baby’s mother. We can get a counsellor. Lawyers. You don’t have to be alone in this.’ The little boy’s wailing reached a sobbing crescendo.
    ‘Make this kid shut up!’ Adrian yelled. ‘It’s driving me crazy!’
    Behind her, the two SPG officers had mounted the stairs. ‘Adrian,’ Kit said, ‘put the radiator down off that surface. I can sense that you’re feeling a lot of pressure. I am, too. We can fix this muddle, you know we can.’
    Adrian rocked faster and faster, hands over his ears. The child was becoming hysterical, coughing and choking on his own distress, jerking tiny fists about in anguish. Adrian had started screaming, too. ‘Shutup, shutup, shutup! ’and his violent yelling terrified the little child even more. Please , Kit prayed. Give me the wisdom to know what to do.
    ‘Let me in and I can stop the baby’s crying,’ she yelled over the noise. ‘Turn the radiator off and let me in. I can help you, Adrian.’
    What happened next was like a weird, slow-motion series of violent actions in which her role seemed dreamlike and disembodied. She’d remembered Alexander’s counsel and had been automatically watching Adrian’s hands, so she saw the very beginning of the movement, heard herself hiss to Angie, ‘ He’s going for the radiator !’ Almost while she was saying the words, she heard Angie yell something behind her, felt herself knocked to the ground. The door suddenly crashed inwards onto the bathroom floor and GP boots raced past bare inches from her nose. Shots rang out, louvres shattered, the baby’s crying changed to a shriek, Adrian’s voice pierced the air with obscenities, she saw Angie dive past her and into the bathroom, while Kit herself rolled to one side instinctively as the powerboard, ripped from the inside wall, smashed outside through the louvres. ‘ Jesus you fucking bitch! You conned me! You bitch! ’ Adrian Adams’ crazed face screamed down at her as she huddled on the floor. He was rushed bodily past her, naked and dripping, his one arm twisted cruelly up behind his neck, the other in a wrist lock. ‘I’ll kill you for this,’ his voice continued from around the side.‘ You’ll die! ’ She heard the sickening sound of a heavy punch on a wet body and the curdled scream of her erstwhile client. Angie ran out holding the shrieking little boy wrapped in a towel. From nowhere came his mother, now permitted on the scene, a thin young girl who broke away from the policewoman attending her. ‘Give me my baby!’ she sobbed, pushing Angie out of the way, grabbing the terrified child. ‘That bastard! I’ll kill him for this!’ she screamed. Kit covered her face with her hands. She felt Angie’s hand on her shoulder and slowly started to get up. But her legs were like jelly and she suddenly sat down again. ‘Thank God,’ was all she could say. ‘Thank God.’
    •
    Later, Angie drove her to Gemma’s place at Tamarama and came inside with her. ‘You’ll need to make a statement,’ Angie said. ‘But not now. Let your sister look after you a bit. I’ve got to get straight back.’
    ‘It was awful, Gems,’ she told her sister as they sat on the deck, having a stiff Scotch. ‘I just didn’t know what to do. I’ve reached that place in the therapy room quite often with a client and that’s