Cement stolen from Helm’s Excavations up there on Oyster Crescent in Kettering, Tasmania, was used to dispose of the body. It was 1976, a few years after the release of Godfather II, and gangster-fever was in the air. Dead fish wrapped in butcher paper were not uncommon.
It was an accident, but the sort of accident that is so irregular that, really, it would be a mistake to get the police involved. This thing would start and end with cement. Concrete shoes were made by pouring cement mixed with water, sand and gravel into a packing case of Troubadour brand soft drinks and were filled with unconscious feet.
The body was dumped up past the Tasmanian Visitor Information Centre, up past the Mermaid Café on Ferry Road, somewhere between Kettering and Barnes Bay. The decision of how to dispose of the body, in fact, was made at the Mermaid over dim sims and tomato sauce. This was 1976, mind, and whilst dim sims had made inroads onto the island, soy sauce certainly had not.
It was there, finally, out in the ocean, with the concrete shoes acting as an artificial reef that an ocean of oysters, periwinkles and winklepickers made a life off the life-giving cement.
Written on Wednesday, 31 March 2010