Red Mist

by Angus McLean

  Her heart was still racing and she needed a drink. If this was what Dan did every day, he could keep it.

  Chapter Seven

  It was after five and the office was nearly empty when Dan and Buck arrived back at the station.

  A couple of investigators were standing at the white board in the far corner, sorting out witnesses for a High Court sex trial. The trial had been running a week already and had another two to go. The rest of the desks were empty.

  It had taken longer than anticipated to finish up at the scene and get the CCTV downloaded-there was one camera inside the dairy which covered the front door, and it showed a fleeting glimpse of the robbery. Naturally the dairy owner didn’t know how to download the footage to a USB stick, and had to wait for his son to come over.

  Aside from that they had a handful of witnesses who had seen parts of the incident, but no ID on the offenders. The getaway car had been found dumped a few streets away and they had got it towed to a secure yard. It was stolen, of course, and needed to be forensically examined.

  While Buck copied their notebook entries for the file, Dan logged on and checked his emails. A few rats and mice which could wait until tomorrow, and one from the Area Commander requesting he come and see her. His in-tray was almost full with files that needed to be checked and minuted. He decided the boss was probably more important right now. He locked the computer and made his way to her office.

  Inspector Newlands looked up and waved him forward. ‘Come in, Dan, come in.’

  He stepped in and stood, waiting.

  Newlands finished what she was doing then sat back and looked up at him. ‘Has it been a productive day today, Dan?’ she asked.

  He nodded. ‘Yep. We’ve got plenty on, and the boys are churning through the work.’

  ‘Good, good.’ She nodded as if she was listening and cared. ‘Good news then; you’re getting a new staff member next week. You’re carrying a vacancy and you have three on secondments or operations, plus one on a course and two in court.’

  Dan said nothing. He knew this already.

  ‘That will bring you up to strength.’ Newlands smiled, looking pleased with herself.

  ‘Cool,’ Dan said, ‘who is it?’

  ‘It’s Julie Carter,’ Newlands replied. ‘Which I think will be a good thing for the office.’

  Dan knew Julie Carter. Having worked with her before, he didn’t know why she would be such a good thing for the office. He had also heard she’d applied for the DS vacancy as well, which would make it awkward.

  ‘It’ll be good to have a balance in the office,’ Newlands said. ‘I noticed just now you referred to the team as “the boys.” It will be healthy to have a good gender balance. We don’t want that whole rugby club mentality do we, we’ve moved on from those days.’

  Dan gave a short nod. He wasn’t into that mentality either. ‘Fair enough,’ he said. ‘Although we do have Rebecca and Weng, they’re just elsewhere at the moment.’ One thing was itching at him. ‘Isn’t Julie part-time?’

  Newlands leaned forward now, elbows on her desk. ‘She is on FEO, that’s right. She will be working four seven-hour days, Monday to Thursday.’

  The Flexible Employment Opportunity capability allowed staff to work limited or set hours. In Dan’s experience it was a mixed bag of how effective it was. He hadn’t heard of an FEO being used in an area squad before.

  ‘That will give us good cover on your rostered days off after the team works a duty weekend,’ Newlands was saying. ‘And she’s a good operator.’

  Dan wasn’t sure when Newlands would have ever worked with Julie Carter to know that for sure. He knew differently, but kept that to himself.

  ‘So she won’t be working any weekends then?’ he asked. ‘We’ll just have to make up our required minimum numbers amongst the rest of us?’

  ‘No, her agreement is Monday to Thursday.’

  ‘Late shifts?’

  ‘No. Monday to Thursday day shifts.’

  ‘Any early starts for warrants and that sort of thing?’ he asked, already knowing the answer.

  ‘No, day shifts.’ Boom-three for three.

  ‘Right.’ There wasn’t much else for him to say. He felt he was getting a hospital pass and was just expected to take the hit.

  ‘Is there a problem, Dan?’ Newlands arched her nearly-plucked-to-death eyebrows at him, and she stood now.

  ‘No ma’am.’ In Dan’s opinion it was always better to go formal with the boss when things were taking a turn for the worse.

  ‘The look on your face tells me something different,’ she said, coming around her desk. ‘If you have concerns about this, I’d like to hear them. You know I like to encourage open dialogue.’

  Dan recognised the time to keep his mouth shut, so he simply shrugged and said, ‘No, all good. We could do with another set of hands on deck.’

  Newlands pursed her lips. ‘Remember our values, Dan,’ she said. ‘We pride ourselves on respect and integrity, don’t we?’

  He nodded.

  ‘Don’t we?’ she pressed, as if speaking to a child.

  ‘Yes,’ he managed.

  ‘We value diversity, and that includes maintaining a positive gender balance and flexibility for staff. It will do your office good to have an FEO member in your mix, and it’s incumbent on you to model the way with embracing that. That’s the sort of attitude we expect of aspiring D Sergeants.’

  Dan could feel his blood pressure rising, and he was itching to reply. He knew that whatever response he gave now would be the wrong one.

  ‘No problem,’ he forced himself to say. ‘We’ll make it work.’

  ‘Good,’ she said pointedly, ‘that’s the sort of positive attitude that I like to hear. And it won’t be a matter of making it work, it just will work. Because we’re all on the same team here, and there’s no “I” in team, is there?’

  ‘No ma’am, there’s not.’ His immature side wanted to remind her that there was one in “unit” though, but he held back.

  Which was probably lucky, because her next words almost knocked him on his butt.

  ‘And in the interests of fairness, Julie will take over as Acting DS next week.’

  He felt the air sucked out of his lungs and rocked back on his heels. Left field had just come screaming in and smacked him in the head.

  ‘Sorry?’ he managed, his voice sounding strangled to him.

  ‘I said Julie will be having a turn at the acting,’ Newlands repeated. ‘You do know she has applied for the vacancy as well, don’t you?’

  Dan nodded dumbly. He couldn’t form the words to reply.

  ‘So it’s only fair that she’s given the opportunity to show us what she can do too, don’t you think?’

  He presumed that was a rhetorical question, and besides, no, he didn’t think. Not at all. Not even close.

  ‘I was told...’ he started to say, but even as he said it, he knew it wouldn’t wash. It sounded weak even to him. He stopped mid-sentence and just stood there, his head spinning.

  ‘Yes, I appreciate you weren’t given an end date,’ Newlands said, ‘but we work in a dynamic environment, and that’s what makes it so exciting, isn’t it?’

  If by dynamic she meant car chases and hunting baddies, then yeah, he thought so. But he knew that wasn’t what she meant at all. He opted to nod silently. At times like this, it was best to play safe. It was better than pointing out that Julie was a lightweight and a divisive personality. Down that road lay danger, he knew.

  ‘Good,’ Newlands continued. ‘I’m glad you’re mature enough to take a little setback on the chin, Dan. It shows good integrity, so thank you for that.’

  He managed an “Uh-huh” without throwing up, but his reticence didn’t go unnoticed.

  ‘And there is no room for misogynistic dinosaurs either, Dan.’ Inspector Newlands was really on a roll today, ramming her message home with all the subtlety of a Klan rally.

  Just when he thought they were getting close. He bli
nked.

  ‘I can’t think of any pterodactyls in our office, ma’am,’ he replied.

  She didn’t seem to appreciate that either, but at least she let it go and he could make his escape. He walked back to the office with his head buzzing. There was so much going on right now that he was struggling to keep up. So much change, and none of it for the better. His cheese was not only being moved, it was being stomped on and ground into the dust.

  Buck was waiting for him when he got back. ‘Everything okay?’ he asked.

  Dan sighed tiredly. ‘Yeah mate. Home time, eh?’

  He checked his watch. Molly would be nearly home now. He was looking forward to getting out of there for the day. He was looking forward to dinner and probably a cold Corona. But more than anything, he was looking forward to seeing his wife.

  ***

  The smell of baking chicken greeted Molly when she returned from her walk. She made her way into the kitchen and found Dan fussing over vegetables at the bench.

  ‘Hey.’ She gave him a kiss on the cheek while she ran the tap. She could hear Genesis playing in the lounge.

  ‘Hey yourself.’ He sniffed her. ‘Mmmm, you smell...’

  ‘Sweaty?’ She filled a glass from the tap.

  ‘I was trying to think of something polite,’ he grinned, ‘but yeah, sweaty covers it.’

  Molly gulped water, draining half the glass before pausing for breath. Her cheeks had a ruddy glow. Dan finished chopping a carrot and dropped it into a saucepan, alongside fresh beans. Molly checked the oven and saw a pair of chicken leg quarters baking in a dish, with cheesy garlic potatoes on the bottom rack.

  ‘You’ve got time for a shower,’ he told her, wiping his hands on the tea towel. ‘This’ll be probably half an hour.’

  Molly drained her glass, put it down and gave him a wet kiss on the mouth. He screwed his face up as she laughed and headed for the bathroom.

  By the time she returned he was serving up, and they sat side by side at the breakfast bar to eat. Roxette had been and gone, replaced by what Molly presumed was one of Dan’s mixes-Bon Jovi rolled on to Meatloaf as they ate. Dan seemed preoccupied for most of the meal, despite her attempts at talk, and she eventually gave up. He pushed his plate away and turned sideways on his bar stool to face her.

  ‘I don’t know what’s going on at work at the moment,’ he said, ‘but it’s frustrating me.’

  Molly pushed her plate away too, and mirrored his pose. Their knees interlocked and she put a hand on his thigh. Despite the mid-spring weather he wore shorts and she tickled the hairs on his leg.

  ‘Tell me,’ she said.

  He took a breath, composed himself and let it all out. Kennedy, Newlands, Julie and the relieving duties, the young guy Dale, the pressure of the heavy workload, Ace’s interaction with the Major Crime Ds. It all came out in an impassioned flood, interspersed with cursing, until finally he sat back and caught his breath.

  ‘All I want,’ he said, ‘is to be able to do my job, just get on with locking up bad guys and doing what I’m there for. But it seems like people just want to either hold you back from that, or push their own agenda, and it is so frustrating.’ He shook his head in despair. ‘It never used to be like this. It’s just changed so much, and I feel like I’m struggling to...’ He trailed off as he searched for the right words.

  ‘Keep up?’ Molly suggested.

  ‘No. I can keep up, but I’m struggling to accept it, I guess. I don’t agree with all the changes and the way things are going now.’

  ‘The only way to change it is to be the boss, isn’t it?’

  ‘But I don’t want to be the boss,’ he said. ‘Being a sergeant is okay, but I wouldn’t want to go any further. The further you go up the chain, the more you become one of them. A fish-head.’

  ‘Like this guy Kennedy?’

  Dan grunted. ‘Exactly like him.’

  Molly’s brow furrowed. ‘Why are you so dark on him, anyway? Is it the whole business with CP?’

  ‘Yeah, pretty much.’ Dan sighed. ‘I mean...CP was pretty old school, no argument there, but there’s no way he was corrupt. No way in hell. He could run rings around clowns like Kennedy, and they just wrecked his career and his reputation.’ He ran a hand over his face. He looked and felt tired. ‘What they did to him, it’s just unacceptable.’

  Molly almost smiled, despite the situation. Her husband’s passion when he was riled never ceased to amaze her.

  ‘And that,’ Dan concluded, ‘is why I could never be one of them. We’re ideologically different.’

  Molly nodded silently. ‘What d’you want to do, then?’ she asked. ‘Do you think maybe a change of squad or station?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Dan said honestly. ‘I actually don’t know. The thing is, I love what I do. I just don’t agree with the way things are being run, and the direction the department’s taking now.’ He shrugged and looked away. ‘I think I probably need to just suck it up and stop being a princess.’

  Molly reached out and stroked his cheek tenderly. She wasn’t used to seeing her husband this way; he was usually so in control and positive. It was unsettling to see him down.

  ‘Whatever you want to do,’ she said, ‘I’m always right behind you. You know that, eh?’

  ‘Yeah,’ he said, squeezing her hand, ‘I know.’ He leaned forward and kissed her forehead. ‘I love you.’

  ‘Same,’ Molly said, straightening up. ‘So...dinner was very nice, but is there any dessert?’

  Dan ran an appraising eye over her. ‘Well, I did have one good idea...’

  Molly rolled her eyes. ‘Why am I not surprised?’

  ‘That doesn’t sound like a no...’

  ‘I’ve just had a shower, so yes, it’s a no.’ She gave an impish grin. ‘But if you play your cards right, I’ll let you give me a foot rub.’

  Dan pulled a face. ‘Not exactly what I had in mind,’ he said.

  Chapter Eight

  Friday

  The sun was warm on his face as Ace leaned against the white washed block wall of the car park.

  An I car was just rolling out the gate, red and blues already flashing as the crew inside rocked out to save the world. He waited for a few seconds until the gate had opened enough for the driver to gun it out to Great South Road. The siren began to scream as they eased out onto the street and roared away.

  Ace hit the dial button on the burn phone and put it to his ear. Hoani answered after six rings.

  ‘Eh.’

  ‘All good?’ Ace asked, checking first that his source was clear to speak.

  ‘Tumeke,’ Hoani replied. Too much. ‘’sup, G?’

  Ace smiled to himself. He could hear Hoani moving, probably walking away from his younger siblings. He should have got himself to a safe place already, knowing that Ace was calling him, but he’d never been good at timekeeping.

  ‘Are you free to speak now?’ Ace asked.

  ‘Yep.’ Hoani gave a sniff. Ace could picture the flat nose in his mind’s eye.

  ‘What’s the go?’ Ace asked. ‘How did you get on?’

  ‘So I’s at Trey’s yes’day morning,’ Hoani said, ‘and one of those dudes were there. I didn’t say nothin’ to him eh, and Trey come outside for a smoke. I aksed him who was that dude, he just tol’ me it was a fella he knew from a ways back and I ain’t need to know him.’ He gave another sniff. ‘We jus’ had our smoke, and that dude left, went on his own.’

  ‘Where’d he go?’

  ‘Jus’ walk down the street.’

  ‘No car?’ Ace watched a female cop emerge from the back door, a cigarette and a lighter clutched in her hand. She spotted him and broke her stride for a second before angling towards him.

  ‘Na. Jus’ walkin’.’

  The girl was pretty enough, he decided, at least for a cop. In Ace’s experience the pickings were pretty slim. She strutted rather than walked, head up and confident, even grinning at him as she got nearer. Heavy on the eyeliner, he decided, made her eyes too
sharp and dark.

  ‘Trey say anything after the dude left?’

  ‘Na, not really. I din’t wanna push it, aks too many questions you know? We jus’ had our smoke and then I jus’ left.’

  ‘Right.’ Ace pondered that for a moment. The girl had paused a few metres away, bent her head to spark up her smoke. She took a deep drag, made sure he was looking, then with her hip thrust out and her head cocked, she blew a stream of grey smoke into the air.

  He guessed it was supposed to be sexy. It wasn’t. He turned his back and drifted away to get some space.

  ‘But I fink I know what house he went to,’ Hoani continued. ‘It’s the yellow house two doors up from Trey’s place.’

  ‘How come you think he went there?’

  ‘Oh, I went past on my bike when I left Trey’s place, an’ I saw that dude by the garage. Jus’ goin’ in the garage.’

  ‘Sure it was the same guy?’

  ‘Eh, course. I jus’ seen him like only jus’ two minutes ago. For sure it was him. An’ there was another dude there too, a big dude. Mean as.’

  ‘What’d he look like?’

  ‘Oh, mean as, bro.’

  Ace rolled his eyes to himself. ‘Aside from mean as.’

  He listened as his informer described the two men as best he could. Hoani was not the most articulate speaker and his best subject at school had been lunch-usually somebody else’s-but he gave what he could.

  While he listened, Ace surreptitiously watched the female cop out of the corner of his eye. She was nearing the end of her cancer stick, and was now tapping her foot impatiently. She was throwing furtive glances his way. Joe had mentioned some chick asking about his car. Ace guessed this was her. He assessed her while he listened to Hoani. She wasn’t the prettiest girl in the station, but she had a certain something, he had to admit. Quite what that something was he wasn’t sure, but it was there.

  When Hoani had exhausted his descriptions, Ace organised to call him again on Monday. He double checked that Hoani understood their cover story-he did-and triple checked that he was keeping his burn phone secure.