by David Menon
‘Emily, I’ll get to the point’ said Barton. ‘I do have a reason for inviting you to this impromptu lunch’.
‘Yes, I thought you might’ said Emily. ‘So what is it?’
‘I wanted to give you a get out card’.
‘A get out card?’
‘Well look, I wouldn’t take it personally if you wanted to jump ship and go and work with another DSI. Like Maggie O’Hara for instance? She’s got a gap on her squad and I wouldn’t blame you if you decided to go for it. I’d have a word with Maggie too to make sure you got it. She and I are good friends’.
Emily wiped her mouth with the paper napkin that the restaurant provided. ‘Now why would I want to do that?’
‘Because I’m toxic in the eyes of the likes of Ronald Hermitage and I don’t want your career to be blighted because of working with me’.
‘Let me tell you something about myself, sir … ‘
‘… call me Jeff when we’re in a situation like this, Emily’.
‘Okay then, Jeff. Let me tell you something. When the authorities in Vietnam allowed my parents to take us back there and see our grandparents we were so thrilled, my brother and me. Both sets of grandparents live just outside of Hanoi in the same village and to get to the local shops there are two routes. You can either go down the beaten path like everybody else or you can cut through the bush which takes only half as long. However, the snag about cutting through the bush is that there are lots of snakes in the undergrowth. Now I was confronted with giant pythons and a couple of the venomous species several times but it didn’t stop me. I had to prove to myself that I could face down the danger and come out the other side unscathed. So yes, I could apply to join DSI O’Hara’s team but that would be like taking the beaten path. Staying with you is like going through the bush with all its hidden hazards’.
‘Wow’ said Barton, blushing. ‘That was quite some picture of our working relationship you painted there’.
‘And I want to learn from an honest cop which is also why I’m staying with you, Jeff’ said Emily. She was being totally sincere in what she said. She’d rather risk everything with Barton than be brought into the darkness by the likes of Hermitage who’d completely lost his sense of what justice actually means.
‘Thank you, Emily’ said Barton. ‘I appreciate the support, I really do’.
‘You see, if I can face down pythons that are longer than a Manchester bus and would just love to see what I taste like whole then I can face down whatever shit a load of bent cops try to throw at me’.
‘You make me shiver when you talk about snakes. I can’t even stand the sight of them’.
‘They’re more scared of you than the other way round’.
‘Yea, I hear that but it doesn’t reassure me’.
‘And they only attack when they think they’re cornered’.
‘Yea, I hear that too but look, let’s get back to the human kind of reptile. These people in the circuit aren’t afraid of anything or anybody and it sounds like they’ve been getting away with it for a very long time which means their operations must be pretty entrenched in the legal profession as well as the police force’.
‘That would make sense’.
‘But we still don’t really know exactly what we’re up against. I mean, how many of them are there? How do they operate exactly? Do they have some kind of high command that directs whatever they do? Is there one person at the head of it or a group of people directing the rest? Who has ultimate responsibility for them?’
‘And whilst we’re trying to find all that out the killer is still out there’.
‘Yes’ said Barton. ‘And I’m just afraid he’s going to strike again before we can get to him and if he does then because of Hermitage and his obsession with pinning everything on Scott Delaney there’ll be another victim who went through an horrific death because we were looking in the wrong place’.
‘Scott Delaney was just as much of a victim as anyone here’.
‘Yes’ said Barton. ‘The only thing he was guilty of was falling out of love with his fiancé. And the last time I looked that wasn’t a crime’.
When Ben got home that night the house was quiet. He went upstairs and looked in on his three-year old son Josh. He was sleeping soundly and Ben leaned down and kissed his forehead. Although there was no evidence so far that his father-in-law and his evil cohorts had ever involved boys in their filthy paedophile activities but who knows what he and Detective Constable Emily Ng might turn up in the course of their investigations? Who could yet say how deep the depravity of these individuals has gone? In that moment he kissed a sleeping Josh and silently vowed to protect him in whatever way he needed to.
He then crossed the landing to the main bedroom and found his wife Kaitlin propped up against the headboard of the bed with several cushions and reading a magazine. Her knees were bent upwards and she was resting the magazine on her upper legs.
‘Hi, handsome’ she greeted.
Ben leaned down and kissed her. She sounded like she was in a good mood and for that he thanked God for small mercies. It was a relied to know that she didn’t sound like she was in the kind of mood that would ultimately lead to her hitting out with her fists. It made him wonder what it must feel like for a woman in his situation. He was a big bloke who could defend himself. He was a police officer who was used to breaking down doors and apprehending Melbourne’s criminal fraternity. And yet the wrong word said in the wrong way by his own wife could destroy his resolve and strike fear into him as to where the moment would lead to. So what must it be like for a woman in a situation of domestic violence? When she knew that she was physically inferior to the immature bastard who was attacking her? If a woman could reduce a man like him to fearing whatever mood he found his wife in then what the fuck must it be like for a woman in the same situation?
‘Do you want me to fix you something to eat?’ asked Kaitlin as Ben lay down beside her. She put her magazine aside and cuddled up to him.
‘No, I’m good, thanks’ said Ben. ‘I had something earlier and I’m not very hungry anyway’.
‘You’re not coming down with something?’
‘No, no’ said Ben. ‘Not at all’. He stroked her tummy bulge. ‘So how’s the third in line to my throne coming along?’
‘Don’t call him that’.
‘Why not?’
‘Because he’s the second in line of your legitimate children’ said Kaitlin. ‘Harvey is your illegitimate son’.
‘All my children are legitimate to me, Kaitlin. You know that. I made it clear right from the day we met’.
‘Yes, but it doesn’t mean to say that I have to accept it’ Kaitlin retorted with a slight sharpness in her voice that reflected the way she felt about Ben’s first born son Harvey. She hated him. She detested him. And if she could she’d wipe him off the face of the bloody earth. She’d once driven over to where the true love of Ben’s life Abigail had her pub. There was a crossing right in front of the pub and she’d sat in her car and waited for either Abigail or Harvey to cross in front of her so that she could put her foot down on the accelerator and take them out. Her father reassured her time and time again that she would suffer no consequences for her actions because he and his ‘friends’ would see to that. But when it had come to it, when either Abigail or Harvey had crossed in front of her she just hadn’t been able to go through with it. And she hated herself for having been so weak.
‘Let’s not go through all this again please, Kaitlin’.
‘No, we won’t. I won’t mention the scratch marks on your back that tell me you’ve been to see Camilla, sorry Abigail. I won’t mention the jealousy I feel about you working with that Emily Ng, as if I didn’t fucking well have enough to cope with, because she’s so bloody pretty’.
‘She’s also very loved up with her fiancé who she’s getting married to shortly’.
‘It wouldn’t stop her though if she decided to get her claws into you’.
‘Kaitlin, no
t everybody thinks like that’ said Ben. ‘You know, some people don’t have an eye for another once they meet the right one’.
‘So they’re not like you then’ said Kaitlin. ‘You had an eye for me even after you’d fallen in love with Camilla, sorry Abigail’.
‘I don’t know what to say anymore, Kaitlin’ said Ben, wearily. ‘Whatever I say isn’t going to suit whatever goes on inside that head of yours so I’m just not going to bother’.
‘I just want to please you’ said Kaitlin as she began to cry. ‘That’s all I‘ve ever wanted. To prove that I could please a man’.
‘Hey, hey’ said Ben who squeezed her tight in his arms. ‘Don’t get upset, darling. You do please me. You please me without you even thinking about it probably. You please me enough to want to make this relationship work even though I wonder sometimes if you really want me to make that effort’.
‘I do, Ben’ she sobbed. ‘I really do’.
‘Hey baby, what’s brought this on? Tell me. Tell me what’s making you so upset?’
‘I just never believed that I could please any man until I met you’ she whimpered. ‘You took me on even though I’m a bloody basket case’.
‘Why do you describe yourself as that?’
‘Because … well because … you helped me understand that I am attractive to men’.
‘But why did you ever think that you weren’t?’ asked Ben who could hear echoes of what Kaitlin’s sister Rosie had told him about what life had been like for her and Kaitlin when they were growing up. This was all connected. He just needed to act with as much sensitivity as he could if he was ever going to make his wife absolve herself of what she was so obviously hiding. Kaitlin looked at him through tear stained eyes and said ‘I’m just being silly. Take no notice’.
‘Kaitlin, tell me. Tell me what’s going on inside that pretty head of yours?’
‘Stop talking bullshit, Ben. I may be many things but I’m not pretty’.
‘And the fact that I’ve invested enough in our relationship to have one child with you and another on the way means fuck all?’
Kaitlin lifted herself up and positioned herself over the top half of his legs. She undid the belt on his trousers and pulled down the zip on his fly. ‘Just shut up, okay? Just shut up and let me give you some good head’.
‘You don’t need to do this, Kaitlin’.
‘Are you rejecting me?’ she demanded.
‘No, I’m not rejecting you, I’m just saying that you don’t have to do this in order to please me, that’s all’.
Ben’s entreaties were met with a sharp slap across his face from Kaitlin who then announced that she was going to sleep in the spare room. Ben didn’t know what the fuck he could do but it was clear that his wife had brought her desperately unhappy childhood right into their marriage.
Dr. Rashid Ahmed walked over to his car outside the lab where he worked at the end of a long day and was now anxious to get home to see his kids before they went to bed. He flicked the remote lock and was about to open the door when he became aware of someone walking towards him. He looked up and saw the unmistakable figure of Chief Constable Ronald Hermitage but in plain clothes.
‘Dr. Ahmed? I wonder if we could have a word?’
‘Look, it’s been a long day and I’m anxious to get home to my family’.
‘Of course you are because you’re a decent family man’.
Rashid wasn’t buying any of that. Hermitage had the smile of an assassin going right across his fat face. ‘What do you want?’
‘A little word from the wise’ said Hermitage. ‘You’re conducting the autopsy on Scott Delaney’.
‘Yes? And?’
‘I want you to record that it was a straightforward suicide and there’s no evidence of anyone else being involved. Is that clear?’
‘Hermitage, I’m a professional. I record the truth and I strongly resent you trying to compromise me in this way’.
‘Yes, I thought you’d say something like that. You have a reputation for being honest and upfront and I respect that. But you see, DSI Barton has these flights of fancy that make him question what is so obviously the truth when it comes to Delaney. That’s why I need you to help me make him understand. I know the two of you are as thick as thieves’.
Rashid could see right through the idiot in front of him. He was such a transparent villain. ‘Jeff Barton is a close personal friend of mine and there’s no way I’d get involved in anything behind his back. So what’s really going on her, Hermitage?’
‘Now look’ said Hermitage as he leaned into Rashid’s face and sneered. ‘I let you get away with it a couple of times but now I’m insisting. It’s Chief Constable Hermitage to you. Alright?’
‘And it’s Dr. Ahmed to you. Alright?’
‘You people think you’ve got the better of us, don’t you?’
‘What do you mean by you people?’ Rashid asked as he noted the sudden change in the tone of Hermitage’s voice.
‘Everybody knows you’re all one Friday prayer meeting away from blowing up decent English people’.
‘I couldn’t give a shit who the fuck you are, Hermitage, but one more remark like that and I will knock your fucking block off. Understand?’
‘I understand what poison your lot have brought into our society’.
‘Oh you do, do you?’
‘Yes I do’.
‘My family puts out the union jack on the Queen’s birthday and I make sure that my kids pay their respects as part of thanking this country for giving their grandparents sanctuary from persecution. My family, Chief Constable Hermitage, are as British as you and your family’.
Hermitage smirked. ‘You go on thinking that, son. You keep on deluding yourself with that’.
‘It’s not a delusion because I know that the vast majority of my fellow Brits would look upon you with the same contempt as I do’.
‘Is that right?’.
‘Oh yes. Because they believe in the old British values of fairness and its people like you who are destroying that, Hermitage, not people like me. And as for that autopsy? I will record it as I see it and no amount of your intimidation will make me do otherwise. It’s called honesty, Hermitage. I don’t suppose you’ve ever heard of the concept or if you ever did then it’s long since passed through your consciousness. Now if you’ll excuse me’.
‘Where’s your brother Faisal at the moment, Dr. Ahmed?’
‘Faisal? Why are you bringing him into this?’
‘I understand he’s in Pakistan visiting your extended family? Is that right?’
‘Well if you know then why do you ask me?’
‘Well you see, I have friends in very high places and it would be such a shame if Faisal’s name got mixed up with someone on the terrorist wanted list and he was arrested when he turned up at the airport in Lahore for his flight home to Manchester’.
Rashid felt sick. Roper’s threats against his brother were hitting him like a ton of bricks. ‘You wouldn’t dare. There are laws to protect us from bastards like you’.
‘Yes, but do they always work at the time you want them to? Now Faisal is a fine upstanding citizen just like you and you’re both doctors only he’s in general practice of course. Still, you’ve both done well and your parents must be so proud but if such a confusion over Faisal’s name was to occur then all of that would be lost in some faraway prison where Faisal would be interrogated by our friends at the CIA who would also turn a blind eye to the local security services being somewhat heavy handed with their suspect’.
Rashid was incandescent with rage. ‘Neither Faisal nor I nor any other member of our family has ever had anything to do with extremism’.
‘Yes but if we brief our CIA friends otherwise then Faisal might not like the way he’s treated whilst he struggles to prove his innocence’.
‘You contemptable bastard’.
‘Yea, it’s been said before. So like I say, Dr. Ahmed. Please make sure that the autopsy report doesn’t raise
any questions about the suicide of Scott Delaney’.
EIGHT
Abigail’s pub was putting on a concert by an INXS tribute band who’d called themselves ‘Mystify’ after the song on the original band’s worldwide bestselling album ‘Kick’ which came out in 1987. Ben went down for the show because he’d always been a huge fan of Australia’s biggest rock band in music history after his cousins in Sydney had introduced them to him whilst he’d been down there on a family visit. He thought it had been tragic when the lead singer of the band and rock God Michael Hutchence had slipped off the mortal coil of life in a Sydney hotel room. The band could’ve gone on and achieved so much more. As it was they stood alongside the likes of U2 and the Stones and Bon Jovi as far as Ben Masters was concerned. They hadn’t done too badly thank you very much and Ben had always celebrated the fact that an Australian band from Sydney’s northern suburbs which was also where his cousins lived, had gone out and conquered the world. But they’d told him that some of their fellow Australians had a downer on the band simply because they had achieved great worldwide success. It was as if the great Australian public liked a band to be successful as long as they confined their success to Australia. As soon as they started to have hit records internationally they were regarded as being ‘bigger than their boots’ and ‘forgetting their homeland roots’. What a load of old bullshit. If Ben was Australian he’d have been proud of the fact that INXS had got to the top of the charts in the UK and the US and played to sold out crowds in arenas and stadiums all across the world. Those who tried to pour cold water over their international success were just inadequates who could only feel better about themselves by pulling down the success of others.
