by JD Nixon
“I wouldn’t put it past Red or Karl to try something on. Ritchie’s probably too institutionalised by now to try to escape, and Tommy’s being rehabilitated, so probably wouldn’t want to jeopardise his chances of earlier release.” I paused. “I’m not really looking forward to seeing any of them. I wish they hadn’t decided to give them compassionate leave.”
“Yeah, it’s not like Red Bycraft has even one millilitre of compassion inside him.”
“Especially not for his victims. I wonder what they’d think if they knew he was waltzing around outside prison, even if it’s just for a day or two.”
“They’d be appalled, I’d imagine. Every bit as much as you’re appalled by the decision.”
“You’ve got that right, Sarge.”
He rang the Super when we returned to the station. He didn’t say much on his side of the conversation, so it was impossible to tell what they’d discussed, but the growing anger on his face made me suspect he wasn’t happy about the news.
“The funeral’s tomorrow afternoon,” he told me when he eventually hung up.
“Wow. Okay. I knew it would be soon, but I’ll have to get my head around that.”
“The prisoners will be escorted down here from the city to arrive about two o’clock. After the funeral, they’ll be escorted to Abe’s pub to stay the night before returning to the city first thing in the morning the day afterwards.”
“Abe’s rooms aren’t very secure. Why don’t they take them to Big Town? They could keep them overnight at the watch house.”
“Who knows? But the short window of time that they’re actually here in town should reduce the chances of anything happening. And they’ll be under constant guard.”
“I should bloody well hope so.”
While the Sarge popped out to buy us some lunch, I rang Dad to check on him, glad to find him awake and assuring me that he’d eaten the breakfast I’d prepared for him. He sounded rested and relaxed, and talked of pottering around the house for the afternoon, leaving me with a lighter heart.
We ate our lunch sitting on the back stairs of the station, though we could easily have gone up to his house for a bit more comfort. Finished, I scrunched up my wrap and was about to take his to the bin too, when he stopped me from rising with a hand on my shoulder.
“Tessie, how do you feel about what we saw before? With Jake and that woman?”
“How do you think I feel, Sarge? I feel completely humiliated over the whole thing. I feel well and truly spurned, and cast off. He couldn’t even wait one night to get it on with someone else. And he had to choose Dorrie, just to rub it in.” I shook off his hand and stood, not wanting to look at him. “That’s how little our relationship meant to him. I find that really hard to take. I honestly thought he loved me.”
“He’s a major fool.”
“It’s not really my concern what he is or isn’t anymore.”
And with that I left him to return inside with the rubbish.
“Will we do a bit of radar work this afternoon?” he asked when he came in.
“Seems like a bit of overkill for us both to do it. Why don’t I do it by myself for a couple of hours? It’s not like I’ve never done it by myself before.”
“Okay, makes sense. I’ve got more paperwork to catch up. I swear to God it never ends. I think it even multiplies when we’re not here.”
We bickered a little about where I’d set up, but I managed to convince him to let me run the south side of town, as we’d done the north for the breath testing. I had a lovely little spot behind the ‘Welcome to Mount Big Town’ sign where I was virtually hidden from approaching motorists until the last minute. I’d sit in the patrol car and clock incoming vehicles with the speed gun. I’d pursue any caught speeding until they pulled over, and then I’d issue them with an infringement notice on the spot.
“Do you have your phone on you?” he asked when he handed over the keys to the patrol car.
“Of course I have my phone.” I pulled it from my pocket to show him. “So you can stop fussing.”
“I’m not fussing. It’s called being cautious. I know that’s not a word you’re very familiar with, but it’s something essential that I need to be whenever you’re around.”
“I can’t hear you,” I sing-sang as I swiftly exited through the front door.
I worked my patch for a couple of hours, the Sarge checking on me about every fifteen minutes, which started to piss me off after the third time. Where I parked was where the road flattened out after a steep climb up the Coastal Range. Certain drivers felt that was the perfect time to let loose on their speed, even though they were entering a sixty zone. During that time, I caught five speeders – three of them sheepish and apologetic, one tearful, and one fairly belligerent who threatened to rip up the ticket in front of me. I managed to stare him down into compliance, and he drove away, his ticket intact.
I was on the verge of radioing into the Sarge my plan to pack it in for the day, when a mud-brown car putted past me on its way out of town. I froze, recognising it immediately as the one Merrick drove.
Chapter 27
I hastily packed away the radar gun. As the patrol car was partially hidden from the road, I didn’t think I’d been seen. I was pretty sure I knew why he was here – the same reason that brought him to the station the first time. He was hunting down his treasure. And now that I’d seen his collection of valuables, it was easier to understand why he’d hazard being spotted in town again to find them.
I turned on the car, ready to zoom off after him, cursing that I hadn’t been able to see if anyone accompanied him. But before I could pull out, the car came trundling in the other direction, heading back into town. This time I could see that he had a passenger. I couldn’t be sure, but it looked like Annabel.
Not far down the road from me he must have thrown a u-turn. But why?
He’s trying to force her to remember where she and Jamie left his valuables, I thought. But she’d told me she was distraught and heavily pregnant at the time, and hadn’t paid attention to where they were.
“He’s cruising up and down waiting for her to recognise some kind of landmark,” I said aloud. “Time to pull him over for a nice, friendly, little chat.”
But I would make sure that chat was neither nice nor friendly. I patted my gun. Let’s go bust his arse, I told myself with a nasty smile. And his head.
I had every right to pick him up now on the basis of the red alert out for him, so I had no concern about the legalities of pulling him over. Or even roughing him up a bit. Or a lot.
I eased out on to the road.
But then an idea swirled through my head – maybe I should follow him for a while instead. It would make a stronger case against him if we could also prove that he was involved in receiving and fencing stolen property. It would strongly support his prosecution if I could confirm that he’d been actively seeking to reclaim his collection, especially if forensics weren’t able to lift any of his prints from the bag or the stolen valuables.
Annabel must have finally recognised the Kilroys’ property because Merrick pulled over to the side of the road. I drove past as if I hadn’t noticed them, keeping an eye on them in the rear view mirror until they disappeared from my sight.
I wanted him to have a false sense of security that I hadn’t recognised him or his car, though I hoped when he’d spotted the patrol car it had given him a real fright. I found his sheer cockiness galling. He probably imagined he’d escaped any consequences for his kidnapping of Annabel and her baby because she was a runaway who nobody cared about. Otherwise, why would he be so blatant in driving around in his old bomb in public?
I couldn’t wait to show him just how wrong he’d been about that assumption.
I pulled over to the side of the road, and waited patiently for five minutes before doubling back on myself. Merrick’s car was vacant and locked. I pulled up on the other side of the road from it and stepped out.
I dismissed radioing it in t
o the Sarge, though I knew he’d be really angry with me. I didn’t want to have to drive back into town to pick him up, in case Merrick drove away, and I didn’t want to wait for him, in case something happened to Annabel in the meantime. I told myself I was merely undertaking a quick reccy, and would contact him when I discovered something concrete – like a positive identification of Merrick and Annabel. It wasn’t as if he could come to assist me right at the moment, unless he drove his Beemer. And that little sporty thing really wasn’t the sort of car he’d wanted to leave by the side of the road while he went for a little policing jaunt in the scrub.
That’s what I told myself anyway.
Checking that I’d securely locked the patrol car – Chad Bycraft would wet himself with excitement if he managed to get his hands on it – I crept down the Kilroys’ driveway behind the pair.
The dogs started up a racket again, but as nobody came out to investigate, I could only presume that Valmae and Gerry weren’t currently at home, or were out in the fields.
In the distance, I could see two figures, and from where I stood, they were definitely a male and a much smaller female. It could be Merrick and Annabel, but I needed to see their faces to be one hundred per cent sure of that before I called the Sarge for help.
I turned my radio right down so that it didn’t alert the couple in front of me. I also muted my phone for the same reason. I didn’t want an inconvenient phone call from the Sarge checking on me.
Now I was closer to the pair, I could hear a female voice through the deafening sound of crickets in the surrounding bush. It certainly sounded like Annabel, and she was crying. I dared to move closer, hoping they didn’t turn around, though I was partially hidden by overhanging trees from the Kilroys’ unkempt neighbouring block.
The woman said something to the man in a teary voice, and he shook her arm violently, speaking loud, angry words in return. He stopped and looked behind him for some reason. I hastily jumped behind a paperbark tree and froze.
The couple in front conversed again, the woman cowed and the man furious. When I peeked around the tree, they were climbing through the barbed wire fence. They were definitely on their way to the old shed.
I crept after them, staying a prudent enough distance behind that I couldn’t hear what they said to each other, only the indistinct murmurs of their voices. I managed to climb through the barbed wire fence after them with only a resulting small scratch on my arm.
My trailing activities began to become more difficult the further we moved into the bushes. I swatted away a few pesky flies, using all my will power not to slap at a stinging mosquito. As I drew closer, careful that each step was cautious and as quiet as possible, I was able to hear their conversation.
When they reached the shed, the woman said in a shaking voice, “Yes, that’s it. That’s where Jamie and I stayed before . . .”
“Before he was killed,” Merrick finished heartlessly. “Get used to the fact that your young lover boy is never coming back to you.” Annabel cried harder. “And stop blubbering about him all the time. It’s really getting on my nerves.”
He pushed her roughly towards the door of the shed. She stumbled and fell on to one knee. He dragged her up by her arm, and pushed her towards the door again.
“Get up, girlie. Show me where the things you stole from me are. And you’re going to pay for fucking me around so much when we get home.”
“I wasn’t fucking you around, Merrick. Honestly,” she sobbed. “I couldn’t remember the name of the town or where we were.”
“Lucky I found the card that female cop gave you. Otherwise, I’d have wasted even more time trying to find which little shitpile of a town you were playing hidey-hole from me in.”
“But you knew this was where Jamie . . .”
“Died, girlie. He died. Say it.”
“He d-died,” she stammered.
“That wasn’t so hard, was it? And yes, thank you very much for pointing out the obvious. I do know this was the town where that shit died. Didn’t mean it was where you were hiding my property though, did it? Use your brain for once.” He smacked her hard across the back of her head.
She cried again. “I’m sorry, Merrick. I’m sorry. I tried to remember where we were. I honestly did.”
“There’s nothing honest about you, girlie. We both know how you thanked me for picking you up off the street, and giving you somewhere to live and food to eat, and a family to be with. You stole my property and ran off with some young punk, who also owed me a world of gratitude.” He shook her arm again, even more roughly. “Never forget again. You’re my asset, girlie, no one else’s. Now get in there and bring me back my property.”
“Yes, Merrick.”
She stumbled into the shed, closely followed by him. I stood watching, my fists clenched with anger at the brutal way he was treating the young girl. Not willing to stand by while he took his anger out on her at finding his property missing, I stealthily approached the door of the hut.
Annabel crouched next to the discarded blankets, frantically lifting them and moving them. “I don’t understand,” she said, her voice trembling.
“Where the hell is my property?” he demanded.
“I don’t know. I left it here when I went to get help for my baby. I haven’t been back, Merrick. I promise. You know I’ve been in hospital.”
I heard a sickening dull thud and the low helpless crying of someone who accepted her fate in life was to be regularly abused.
“I’ll ask you one more time, girlie. Where’s my property?”
She was sobbing in full now. “I don’t know. I honestly don’t know.”
Another thud had me creeping in the doorway, my gun out and up.
“Police,” I said, startling the two.
Annabel lay sprawled across the blankets crying, two red marks across her face. Merrick stood over her, staring at me in surprise.
“You stand right over there, buddy,” I said to him, indicating with my gun for him to step away from Annabel into one of the shed’s corners.
But instead of obeying, he grabbed Annabel by her hair, yanked her to her feet and held her in front of him, his arm around her neck. He pulled out a small pocketknife, flicking it open and holding it to the frightened girl’s throat.
“You tipped her off about me, didn’t you, girlie?” he asked, pressing the tip of the knife into her neck. Blood began to trickle down on to her light blue t-shirt, staining it purple.
“I didn’t, Merrick,” she pleaded. “Please, I didn’t. I swear. I’ve been with you the whole time. You know that.”
“This girl had some of my property and I want to retrieve it,” he said to me. “Perhaps you know where it is?”
“I know where it is, all right,” I told him, covering him closely with my gun. “It’s in the hands of a couple of detectives and the forensics team at the Wattling Bay police station.”
“Fuck! That’s my property. You have no right to confiscate it.”
“If you want to, I suggest you go ask them personally to return your property. But I should tell you that they also have a couple of photos I found in your previous residence. Remember pushing me down the stairs as you escaped from me? Hmm, I won’t call them interesting photos. I found them quite disgusting and disturbing actually, but the detectives found them extremely interesting. They’d be very keen to talk to you, I’m sure. In fact, I know they’re very keen to talk to you.”
I edged a little closer to him.
“Stay back,” he warned. He pressed the knife against Annabel’s throat again and the trickle turned into more of a stream.
“You made the mistake of thinking nobody cared about Annabel, but you were wrong about that. Lots of us care about her. Not so much about you though. So put the knife down and let the girl go, unless you want a bullet in your head.”
“I don’t think so,” he said. “She’s rather my advantage at the moment, you’d have to agree.”
“Stay still. Don’t move,”
I warned. “I feel it’s only fair to advise you that I’m a very accurate shot. Third best at the police academy ever. You won’t even know what hit you.”
He made a movement with his hand. “I’m getting something out of my pocket.”
“Stay still! If you hurt Annabel any more, or if you make one more move towards your pocket, I will be very tempted to shoot you. Let me remind you that I won’t miss.”
“Let the girlie get it out of my pocket then.”
“What is it?” I asked.
“My phone.”
“Why do you need it?”
“Because this girlie stole precious property from me, I’m holding precious property belonging to her as security against her full cooperation. And it’s property of hers that I won’t hesitate to destroy if I don’t get what I want.”
“No,” wept Annabel in despair. “Please don’t.”
“What is that you have?” I asked, though I dreaded hearing the answer.
“A mewling, spewing little creature that I told this girlie to get rid of.” He laughed and it wasn’t a pleasant sound to hear.
“My Jamie,” Annabel said, and I’d never heard a more heartbroken voice in my life.
He dug the knife into Annabel’s throat and she flinched, making a horrible gurgling noise. “Think of it as a double hostage deal. I’m sure you’d agree I’m holding all the cards at the moment, Officer.”
“That baby is yours, you know,” I said. “How could you even think of putting her in danger? You’re her father.”
“Am I? I thought I was for a while. But now, all I know is that this little slut,” and he pressed the knife into a fresh spot on Annabel’s pale smooth neck until a bead of blood appeared, “has been putting it about behind my back. All I asked from her was a bit of respect, and to be treated like the father I’ve been to her for years.”
“You’re a sick bastard. You’ve no more been a father to her than any old filthy pedo.”
He laughed again. “I don’t really care what your opinion of me is, Officer. All I care about is recovering my property, and getting the hell out of this shitty little town.”
