The Hanging

Angela Betzien

• Publisher: Currency Press
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781760621896
• Topic: Letteratura
• Subtopic: Teatro

'We're a circle. We're forever. For eternity.'

Three teenage schoolgirls go missing in Melbourne's hinterland. The clock is ticking, the search is on. One of the girls turns up days later. Confused and unkempt, she has no apparent memory of what happened and where her friends are. Sound familiar?

The Hanging is a gripping thriller that questions the frequently occurring spectre of the missing girl in the Australian bush. Its mystery is a postmodern study of social panic and what lies hidden, just out of reach.

A voice from the darkness.

IRIS: He picked his way across the ridge.

The air was thick with ash, its taste in his mouth metallic.

The heat bore relentlessly at his back while below the edges of the forest burnt fast and hot and the rock cast its million-year-old shadow.

Flint paused to catch his breath.

When he glanced at his watch he saw that it had stopped.

He pushed on, climbing slowly.

Ants panicked beneath his boots, a bird shrieked …

No.

A bird screamed.

Perhaps a minute or was it millennia that passed before he found it, the place described.

The edge, the mouth.

The right place.

The wrong time.

A bush landscape.

The circular formation of birds and insects.

A scream or the shriek of a bird?

The sound of sudden running.

The ocean.

An affluent, modern property located on the Brighton beachfront.

The room is dominated by a wall of Victorian bluestone.

IRIS enters, running. She stops when she sees FLINT.

IRIS: I want to go back.

FLINT: Where?

Beat.

IRIS: Maidstone.

FLINT: You can.

IRIS: I can’t.

FLINT: Of course you can. I’ll drive you there.

IRIS: When?

FLINT: After I’ve asked you a few questions.

IRIS: You mean as soon as you have answers.

Pause.

FLINT: You’re safe here.

IRIS: Where?

FLINT: Your father’s place.

IRIS: Which one?

FLINT: Brighton.

You’ve been here before?

IRIS: Once. A million years ago. My father stays here when he wants to be alone.

It’s not like I have a bedroom here or anything. All my things are at Maidstone.

FLINT: Well this is just temporary.

IRIS: Purgatory.

FLINT: A place to talk.

IRIS: No-one knows.

FLINT: Knows what?

IRIS: I’ve returned.

FLINT: Not yet.

IRIS: It’s a secret.

FLINT: For the moment.

IRIS: I want to go home.

FLINT: I know. And the sooner we / find—

IRIS: I don’t remember. I already told the other policewoman.

FLINT: You spoke to a constable, correct? In the house at Daylesford?

IRIS: It’s not a house, it’s a hospital.

FLINT: You spoke to a constable at the hospital?

IRIS: Yes.

FLINT: I’m a detective.

IRIS: Am I supposed to be impressed?

FLINT: I thought you and I could have a special chat.

IRIS: Is that allowed?

Beat.

FLINT: There’s an officer outside.

IRIS: Listening?

FLINT: Your English teacher, Ms Corrossi, will be here soon.

IRIS: Don’t call...