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Back Man at the Window Save as PDF
Chapters (61)
  1. Cover
  2. One
  3. Two
  4. Three
  5. Four
  6. Five
  7. Six
  8. Seven
  9. Eight
  10. Nine
  11. Ten
  12. Eleven
  13. Twelve
  14. Thirteen
  15. Fourteen
  16. Fifteen
  17. Sixteen
  18. Seventeen
  19. Eighteen
  20. Nineteen
  21. Twenty
  22. Twenty-One
  23. Twenty-Two
  24. Twenty-Three
  25. Twenty-Four
  26. Twenty-Five
  27. Twenty-Six
  28. Twenty-Seven
  29. Twenty-Eight
  30. Twenty-Nine
  31. Thirty
  32. Thirty-One
  33. Thirty-Two
  34. Thirty-Three
  35. Thirty-Four
  36. Thirty-Five
  37. Thirty-Six
  38. Thirty-Seven
  39. Thirty-Eight
  40. Thirty-Nine
  41. Forty
  42. Forty-One
  43. Forty-Two
  44. Forty-Three
  45. Forty-Four
  46. Forty-Five
  47. Forty-Six
  48. Forty-Seven
  49. Forty-Eight
  50. Forty-Nine
  51. Fifty
  52. Fifty-One
  53. Fifty-Two
  54. Fifty-Three
  55. Fifty-Four
  56. Fifty-Five
  57. Fifty-Six
  58. Fifty-Seven
  59. Fifty-Eight
  60. Acknowledgements
  61. About the author

‘We just couldn’t go there at the time. We didn’t want to believe her or John. Then when the school said it was all part of a conspiracy to discredit Edmund for demanding high standards, we jumped at it like drowning men. I’m sure you would do the same, Cardilini.’

Cardilini turned his eyes from the window to the sky and wondered if Paul would be outside watching the movie at the drive-in or helping the girls in the cafe.

‘Mrs Lockheed can say what she likes, when she likes, as far as I’m concerned,’ Sheppard said watching her through the window.

‘Yep,’ Cardilini added after a pause.

The men watched the cigarette smoke push at the night then disperse as tiny tendrils.

‘We had a hell of a dog problem a few years back,’ Sheppard drawled. The others listened without looking. ‘It was during lambing. Town dogs and a couple of strays would hunt in packs. Not for food. They would run down a mob of ewes and their lambs. Some of the lambs would run with their mothers, others stood bleating, too terrified or too young to know what to do. The dogs would latch on to the weakest ones first, crushing them in their jaws several times until blood filled their mouths, then they would rush to the next. Sometimes two dogs went at a lamb until it was decapitated or torn in two, then onto the next, leaving broken, squealing lambs in their wake. This would continue until no lambs were left or the dogs started on the ewes. The ewes, heavy with mothering, terrified out of their minds, would be latched upon by a mob. The head, the throat, the downy underbellies were torn at by as many as ten dogs until, blood-sated, the dogs would bound to the next.’

Cardilini wondered where Sheppard was going with this but felt content to stand, take in the night, and listen.

Sheppard continued, ‘In one attack I lost twenty-two lambs and three ewes. That night, six dogs were spotted trotting along one of the roads. Not dingoes, town dogs: mongrels, a big shaggy black bastard leading them. A bunch of farmers had lost lambs. It was a killing spree and the dogs were expert. When we got to the paddock, lambs and ewes in all stages of dying were scattered bloody across the field under the most glorious night sky. Some ewes, dragging their intestines, staggered bleating through the carnage, others pushed and nosed at limp corpses. One lamb, missing a hind leg, stumbled and fell screaming as if it was still being torn at. I shot two ewes and twelve lambs that night.’ He paused. ‘We’re not sentimental men, are we, Doney?’