Blood Sunset

by Unknown

  ‘You knew about the scam, didn’t you?’ I said.

  No response.

  ‘That’s why you called Dallas on the night he died. You knew he had the laptop and was planning to blackmail The Holy Brethren. Did you try and talk him out of it?’

  ‘The Holy Brethren?’ he repeated. ‘Never heard of them.’

  ‘Sure you haven’t. What about all those referrals you get from Back Outside, all that money you get by being in bed with them?’

  He located something in a drawer and then slammed it shut.

  ‘I know about the priest, Miles Jorgensen,’ I said. ‘He used to run Breaking the Wall until it got exposed by the Feds in Operation Locust. So he packed his bags, changed the program name to Back Outside and moved to Melbourne. Tell me, how’d you secure such a sweet funding deal with him? You have the minister in your pocket, maybe a member of The Holy Brethren in the health department?’

  Novak gripped my left arm and yanked it back. ‘If you try to fight me, I won’t shoot you,’ he said. ‘Instead, I’ll tear out every last stitch in your neck. Got it, partner?’

  I almost vomited with the pain as he pinched my neck wound hard. I lay limp on the floor, taking long breaths until the nausea passed. He took advantage of my helplessness to tie my wrists together with string.

  ‘What happened, Will?’ I wheezed. ‘Did Dallas tell you he wanted to run a scam on them and you freaked because so much of your funding here depends on them? Did he want your help to do it? Is that why you did it?’

  The shredder whined and groaned as Novak filled it with documents from a box under his desk. Blinking away sweat, I noticed the box was an old beer carton, the label Amstel on the side.

  ‘I have to admit, you’re slick,’ I said. ‘You fooled me; fooled everyone. You knew Dallas was involved in the sex game. I bet he even told you he was selling porn for Kirzek. That’s why you chose to dump the body at the café, isn’t it? It was a safeguard in case us cops realised it wasn’t an overdose. You knew if we worked out it wasn’t an OD, we’d eventually look at the owner of the café.’

  ‘That’s it, just keep talking,’ he said. ‘Get it all out. No one else is going to hear it anyway.’

  I used my right leg to push a few inches along the carpet until I was able to peer up out of the window. No one was out there. I briefly contemplated screaming for help, but it was too risky. Novak might panic and shoot me or one of the staff. Or we might end up in a full-blown hostage situation. Better to keep him distracted.

  ‘I know how it went down,’ I said. ‘You rang Dallas on the night to arrange a meeting, didn’t you? I’ll bet you told him you’d help him, maybe over a beer or two. What he didn’t know, of course, was that good old Uncle Will had no intention of helping him and that you’d dosed the beer with GHB. I wouldn’t have picked you for a Dutch beer man, though. Amstel, a nice drop. Thought you’d be more the VB type.’

  Novak pulled a file from the cabinet, the name ‘Jardine’ written in the top corner, and fed its contents through the shredder. I gritted my teeth, knowing vital evidence was being destroyed.

  ‘What happened next, Will? After you did the deed, you raced up to the soup kitchen and started work, knowing everyone there would vouch for you and no one would remember exactly what time you arrived. That how it went?’

  Novak seemed almost frenzied now. He had both guns tucked down his pants and kept feeding more papers into the machine.

  ‘But that wasn’t good enough, was it? No, you wanted a foolproof alibi, so you bought a pack of smokes and got yourself on camera, just in case you needed to prove you were somewhere else at the time of death. Just brilliant, Will. Fucking perfect.’

  He ignored me, raced back to his desk and punched a series of commands into his keyboard, no doubt to erase any incriminating electronic documents he had stored.

  ‘Don’t you think it’s ironic? It was the 7-Eleven alibi that nailed you. You hung on to Dallas’s phone because you wanted to get rid of it, because you were worried it would come back to haunt you, and guess what . . . it has.’

  When he started emptying another filing cabinet, I noticed the top buttons of his shirt had come loose. Underneath I could see he wore a silver necklace with a tiny silver crucifix attached to it.

  ‘You slimy bastard,’ I sneered. ‘You’re not just in bed with The Holy Brethren. You’re one of them.’

  ‘Say what you like, McCauley. It’s all just theory. When all’s said and done, who do you think they’re going to believe – me or some fruitcake from Romania, who you guys touted as the next big paedophile? What did you call him again – Mr Fatty?’ He came around the desk and stood over me. ‘I really like that name. Did you make that one up?’

  I ignored the jibe.

  ‘Gervas Kirzek killed Dallas just like he did the others,’ Novak went on. ‘That’s the way it’ll play out once I’m done. No one’s going to believe you, McCauley. You’re just as washed up as Kirzek, only you’re too stupid to realise it. I know you’re on leave. All I had to do was ring your boss and he just told me. So I knew all along you weren’t on the team. Don’t you get it, I exploited that. I exploited you. And you thought I was trying to help. Who do you think gave Kirzek your address?’ He squatted down next to me. ‘How’s the rehab coming along, Ruby? Still swimming every week?’

  Anger clouded my thoughts. The son of a bitch had betrayed me.

  ‘I suppose you gave up Sparks as well?’ I said. ‘Where’s the client care in that, Will?’

  ‘The greater good, McCauley. You know how it is. Speaking of which, who do you think gave him Ella?’

  ‘You motherfucker!’ I roared, a surge of rage bursting through me. Novak looked pleased. This was exactly what he wanted. Somehow I had to ignore the agitation, not let it affect my judgement. Somehow I had to turn the tables.

  ‘You know what I don’t get,’ I said. ‘How you can look yourself in the mirror and pretend you’re actually helping these kids.’

  ‘We are helping them.’

  ‘What, by putting them in porn movies, getting them to fuck each other so you sickos can jerk off over it? You’re no better than scrotes like Vincent Rowe. You’re just better at hiding what you do.’

  ‘I was helping them!’ Novak said. ‘Those kids come in here more fucked up than you could ever imagine. They’re hooked on all sorts of drugs, living on the streets with absolutely nothing. But we turn their lives around. We buy them clothes, find them a place to live and we have a sixty per cent success rate at getting them off drugs. Jesus, some of them even get jobs or go back to school. Who else does that? Nobody has a track record like ours.’

  ‘And after everything you’d worked for, Dallas was going to bring it all down,’ I said, finally realising why he’d done it. ‘You couldn’t let that happen, so you killed him. Just like that, huh?’

  Novak pushed my face into the carpet, opening the wound in my neck even further. ‘Don’t you get it?’ he hissed. ‘I didn’t want to do it, but I had no choice. Dallas knew I was in business with them. He knew CARS depended on them, but he wanted to bring them down anyway. I tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn’t listen. He said either I could jump on board or go down with them.’

  ‘Them?’ I said. ‘You mean The Holy Brethren?’

  ‘Yes!’ Novak snapped, tearing off his necklace and throwing it across the room. ‘When the laptop went missing I told them I’d get it back and talk Dallas out of whatever he had planned. But he wouldn’t budge. He wouldn’t even tell me who had the bloody thing. That’s when I knew I had to do it.’

  I looked up gingerly and saw a broken and beaten man.

  ‘Because if you didn’t do it, someone else would’ve?’ I said.

  Novak sniffed and his lower lip trembled. ‘They would’ve sent Gervas Kirzek to do it and he would’ve cut him up like he did Sparks and Justin Quinn. I couldn’t let that happen. I just couldn’t.’

  ‘So you made sure he went peacefully?’ I prodded.

&nb
sp; ‘Yes! There was no way I was going to let Kirzek near him. He’s a fucking monster.’

  ‘You’re all monsters, Will. Dallas trusted you and chose to tell you about the scam, but you betrayed him and killed him anyway. What makes you so bloody different?’

  Suddenly Novak began to cry. I tried to wriggle my hands free but they were bound tight.

  ‘Because I loved him, you know?’ he spluttered. ‘I really loved him.’

  I closed my eyes, wincing at his use of the word.

  ‘I know what you’re thinking,’ he said, wiping his face. ‘But you’re wrong. Years ago society didn’t accept that a man could love another man. Homosexuality was shunned as immoral and wrong, but now everyone’s starting to accept it. Some day it will be the same for us and you people will see that we’re no different. There’s nothing wrong with us. Nothing wrong with what we do.’

  ‘Nothing wrong? You can’t be serious.’

  ‘I know you don’t understand,’ he said, leaning over me, ‘but let me tell you something. There’s nothing more beautiful and pure than to be in love with a child.’

  It was a line I’d heard before and it sickened me. I wanted to tell him that he had no right comparing what he did to consenting homosexual adults. I also wanted to ask how he figured a young child was supposed to understand the real meaning of love when many adults couldn’t. But it wouldn’t change a damned thing. Instead I just waited while he stood up, an emotional wreck. This was the end. He was either going to shoot me or kill himself. Or both.

  ‘You’re going to let me go, McCauley,’ he said slowly. ‘You let me walk out of here and we all live happily ever after. Kirzek killed Dallas and I get to keep helping the kids. That’s the way it’s gonna work.’

  ‘I can’t do that, Will. It’s over.’

  ‘Then we both die,’ he said quietly, pulling one of the guns from his waistband and pressing the muzzle hard against my head. ‘You first, then me. We go together, the cop and the social worker, on opposite sides of the street but heading in the same direction. Isn’t that how it goes?’

  ‘You don’t need to do this,’ I pleaded, my words muffled against the carpet. ‘You did it to protect Dallas from Kirzek because you loved him. The courts will understand that.’

  ‘Nice try,’ he snorted. ‘See you on the other side.’

  I used every bit of strength and adrenaline to break free. Then, suddenly, the window exploded with a loud crash, glass spraying over us, a chair landing beside me. Another chair flew through the window, smashing against the wall, then somebody jumped through the broken pane.

  Rolling over, I saw Fletch leap across the desk. As Novak raised his gun to fire, I kicked his ankles, throwing him off balance. Fletch dived on top of him and they wrestled on the floor, Fletch punching Novak and grappling for the gun.

  I clambered to my feet, pressed my back against the door and unlocked it. Novak scrambled across the floor after the gun and I kicked out at him but the kick didn’t stop him. He grabbed the gun and swung it towards me just as the door burst open and Tammy York charged in.

  ‘You sick bastard,’ she screamed. ‘It was you! We heard you talking through the –’ The gun went off, the bullet clipping her left arm and catapulting her body backwards. Her shriek filled the room.

  Fletch hurled himself at Novak and the gun went sliding across the carpet. Novak swung his elbow, catching Fletch across the jaw, before making another grab for the gun. I leapt into the air, bringing my good knee down on the back of Novak’s neck. There was a loud crunch and I fell sideways. Fletch raced over and kicked Novak in the face, knocking him out.

  ‘Shit, look at your neck, man,’ he said to me. ‘You’re hit.’

  I looked down. My wound had split completely and blood covered my shirt, but I couldn’t feel any pain. Adrenaline.

  ‘I’m okay, just cut me loose,’ I said.

  Fletch found a pair of scissors and cut the string, which I then used to bind Novak’s wrists. A groan sounded from Tammy – she was crumpled on the floor, blood running from her arm. Fletch staggered towards her as several residents and staff appeared at the door. Panicked screams began to sound from the hallway and I heard the receptionist yelling for an ambulance.

  I stumbled outside and slumped on the front porch, waiting for the circus to arrive.

  36

  BY LUNCHTIME I WAS BACK in hospital, the Alfred this time. Tammy York had been lucky; the bullet had only clipped her arm. They didn’t even need to put her into surgery; simply stitched and bandaged the wound, then pumped her full of painkillers and antibiotics.

  ‘So this is round two?’ Ella’s friend Jenny said as she restitched my neck wound. She’d jabbed me with a hit of local anaesthetic so the whole area was numb, but I could feel her pulling and tugging. ‘Stuff like this happens in threes, you know?’ she added.

  ‘Then we might as well just leave them undone,’ I said, trying to joke with her but wincing at the same time. ‘How many more stitches are there?’

  ‘This is the last one. Have you heard from Ella?’

  ‘I saw her this morning,’ I said, knowing they were all probably blaming me for her being in hospital.

  It was no secret that Ella wanted me to transfer out of detective duties and many of her colleagues and friends agreed with her. Some of them were in the same boat, also having boyfriends or husbands in high-risk jobs. Knowing Ella had suffered because of my work would only cement their views.

  ‘I’m going to quit,’ I said as she snipped off the last stitch. ‘I’ve made a decision. I’ll tell Ella as soon as she’s out.’

  ‘Really?’ Jenny said. ‘My hubby says that after every bushfire. He’ll probably say it this time too. Never makes any difference.’

  ‘Well, this is different. I’m different.’

  ‘Okay,’ she said, wiping down my neck with something. ‘Just tell her I said hi, will you?’

  ‘Sure.’

  On my way out of the emergency department I stopped by Tammy York’s cubicle, where Fletch was waiting with her.

  ‘Sarge,’ he said when I opened the curtain. ‘How’s the neck?’

  ‘Bit stiff. I’ll be right though. How’s she doing?’

  ‘Not bad, by the look of her,’ he said, a cheeky grin on his face. ‘She looks pretty happy to me, all that pethidine they got her on. I tried to get ’em to give me some, but they wouldn’t cop it.’

  Tammy opened her eyes halfway and her lips stretched to a smirk. ‘Hey there,’ she drawled. ‘Can’t believe I got shot.’

  ‘You’re very lucky,’ I said, nodding at her bandaged arm. ‘Could’ve been a lot worse, but they say you’ll be fine. You should be able to go home tomorrow.’

  ‘I don’t think she wants to go home at all,’ Fletch said, tapping the drip stand next to her. ‘Not with all the good gear they’ve got her on. It’s like a free ride, hey babe?’

  I tried to think of something polite to say but couldn’t.

  ‘So what’s gonna happen to Will?’ Tammy asked as I was about to say goodbye. ‘He’s gonna go down, right?’

  ‘Depends if he makes a confession,’ I said. ‘He’s with the Homicide Squad now and they’re usually pretty good at talking you into a confession. So we’ll see.’

  ‘And what about The Holy Brethren?’

  ‘Well, that depends on how much cooperation Will is prepared to give, but the laptop should go a long way towards ensuring we get a good result.’

  Tammy’s hand slid out of the sheets and Fletch took it. ‘Least it wasn’t all for nothin’,’ he said to her. Then, looking at me, he added, ‘Dall tried to do the right thing and he died for it. So did Sparks and Jussie. Fuck, maybe even Derek. But at least if some of them go down, then Dall would’ve been happy.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ I said in disbelief. ‘Dallas was trying to blackmail them. You all were. How is that the right thing?’

  ‘What blackmail?’ said Fletch, frowning.

  ‘We weren’t trying to blackm
ail no one,’ Tammy added.

  ‘Hang on,’ I said. ‘Dallas hired Justin Quinn to star in the kiddie porn movie, then he recruited Sparks to steal the laptop once the movie was made so he could force The Holy Brethren to pay up. It was a scam. No point trying to hide it now.’

  ‘That’s bullshit,’ Fletch said. ‘Dall wanted to give the laptop to the coppers. He wanted The Holy Brethren to go down. He wanted them busted. That was his plan.’

  I shook my head, confused.

  ‘That’s why me and Dall made that movie,’ Tammy said. ‘Because we wanted as much dirt on them as possible. Getting Jussie on board for the blow job wasn’t easy, but he went along in the end.’

  A nurse I didn’t recognise pulled back the curtain and checked Tammy’s blood pressure and drip bag.

  ‘But Sparks never mentioned anything about that,’ I said when she was gone.

  ‘Sparks wasn’t in on it,’ Fletch said. ‘Dall just hired him to steal the laptop.’

  I nodded, remembering Sparks saying he was just a ring-in. From that I’d assumed the laptop was part of a scam. It had never entered my mind that Dallas Boyd had justice in his sights.

  ‘Is this about his sister?’ I said.

  ‘Yeah, her and Derek Jardine,’ said Tammy. ‘Derek and Dall were best mates. Both of them got recruited by The Holy Brethren when they came out of Malmsbury. Derek went to the Gold Coast and started working as a scout up there and Dallas came to St Kilda. They used to keep in contact on the phone and through email, but then all of a sudden Derek stopped returning calls and emails. So Dallas went up to Queensland to look for him and found out he’d been bashed to death.’

  Suddenly it all fell into place. I remembered Will Novak saying that Dallas had given him an ultimatum: either jump on board or go down with them. He never said anything about blackmail.

  ‘Go on,’ I said. ‘What happened when he came back?’

  ‘He was furious,’ she said. ‘Said they were to blame, that they’d killed him.’