Tevita Suarvea

by David Manoa

  “The operation transcript has it all. You were listening weren’t you?”

  “No I was dealing with your obnoxious brother.”

  “With what?”

  “That’s classified.”

  “Anna I need you to do something for me, I want you access the Sydney Police department’s database and upload to me, files of any drug activity in the last three months within a 50-mile radius of the suburb of Crow’s nest.”

  “Understood. How is Jessica? Is she still recovering at the hospital?”

  “She’s ok,” I said tapping the phone.

  “I listened to some of your audio back when you saved her. I don’t think she is mentally fit for active duty.”

  “We put her in too early.” Anna said.

  “Jessica handled herself well, she’s got my back with this operation - I can vouch for her.”

  “Rooks stop thinking with your balls and use your brain.”

  “What?”

  “She’s a risk, she flipped out calling for her mother! Did you not hear that?”

  “Something’s not right with her.” She added.

  I cringed when I heard a rustling in the background of Jessica’s phone being picked up. Shit I forgot for a sec that she was there.

  “Listen, bitch! we don’t need to know your psychoanalysis of me. Rooks vouched for me so I am here. Fuck off!” I pressed the button and ended the call and Anna was pissed off that I let her eavesdrop on our debrief.

  “What?” I said with my arms up and palms out.

  “You should have told me Rooks…”

  “She’s my partner.”

  “That’s not the point.”

  “You do it us,” I said.

  “I’m your boss though.”

  I bit my tongue.

  Anna picked up the phone and made a call, while she was tapping away on the computer. I thought about Jessica freaking out, and the image of her freaking out.

  “Rooks before you go come and grab your itinerary. I just booked your flights for Sydney.”

  “For one?”

  “Two.” She said.

  I got up and left for the hospital.

  ***

  I arrived at Middlemore hospital, to see the amount of people waiting to get looked at from the alcohol related injuries they were suffering. I wondered if heroin was the real problem in society. I waited at reception when a fat lady walked past with a cart of white lilies and a random arrangement of pretty flowers in a bunch. There was also a box of savories and pies in the bottom.

  I bought a pie and started eating it.

  The receptionist pointed down the hallway and I spotted Jessica walking briskly to and fro. I was about to say something when she cut me off.

  “Sorry, she has some nerve.” She exhaled out.

  I paused.

  “To judge me.” She said.

  “Jess I have our tickets we are headed to Sydney in the next couple of hours.”

  “I’m good to go Rooks.”

  “Anna should have the files ready that we need to sift through tomorrow, but I do want to talk to you about what happened at the crash site back in Manukau.”

  Jessica was uncomfortable and began to hesitate.

  “We need to talk this shit out. I don’t want you to freak out on me again.”

  “I’m alright. It won’t happen again.”

  “I promise” she added.

  “Bullshit it won’t. I know you faked your psychometric tests to get in.”

  It was like I caught a deer between the eyes when I said it. Jessica paused, her eyes began to well up slightly, her jaw clenched. She slowly nodded to acknowledge when I held my arm out to give her my handshake and my man hug of bad assery.

  “I got you no matter what. But I need to know.”

  Jessica nodded again when her hand smoothed over her face.

  “C’mon there’s a restaurant at the hotel we are staying at. We can talk it out over dinner.”

  ***

  I couldn’t sleep on the two-hour flight into Sydney there is something about the jet engine noise that fucks with my head, but Jessica was all cozied up and out like a light. Can’t blame her for being so tired, it’s been a rough day for her. I moved her blanket up to cover her shoulder for warmth. She made a subtle moan and drifted deeper to sleep.

  We arrived in Sydney at 18:00 hours to the forty-degree weather, shit it was hot. I squinted to adjust to the light here. It was so orange it looked like there were fires and clouds emulsifying in the sky. Quite a stark contrast to the blinding white light we get in New Zealand.

  The Sydney police department sent one of their own to take us to the hotel. His name was Sione Taufa a second-generation pacific islander. My mind went straight to the negative associations of my brother until he spoke. It was awkward to hear an Aussie accent from him.

  He looked like Tiger Woods.

  “Mate everyone is excited that you are here in Sydney.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Mate you are a bloody legend here brah.”

  I paused when I caught Jessica raising her eyebrow at me.

  “I watched that mad episode of Police-Ten-seven.”

  My head dropped and my eyes closed soon after. That’s when I heard Sione say, the phases and the misconduct that got me banned from the show. The programme was a real-time T.V reality documentary that had a camera man follow me around when I started on the force. The ratings shot up when I shot a couple of drug dealers in the arse for running away.

  “Freeze motherfucker or I’ll shoot!” Sione said making a gun with his hand.

  I cringed for the infamous catch phrase that put me into the history books of police pop-culture.

  “Bang! Bang!”

  “Game over bitches…” Sione said blowing on his pretend gun. An action I never did when it aired.

  My eyes rolled from his embellishments and I heard Jessica laughing.

  “Sione can I ask you a question?” I said.

  “Sure Mate.”

  “Has there been any heroin-related activity in the last twelve months?”

  “Mate its a bloody epidemic here.”

  “Yeah?”

  “We are always booking people for possession and dealing with the overflow from the S.C.C.”

  “S.C.C?”

  “State Crime Command they head up all the twelve squads that are trying to combat the problem.’

  “Have there been any recent busts lately?”

  “The last one was some Rugby league player from New Zealand, who got done.”

  “Yeah?”

  “About ten months ago. It was a huge bust.”

  “The S.C.C asked us to transport him, guy was crying like a bitch. I felt sorry for him.”

  “Why? He was convicted right?”

  “Yeah, but I have been on the force long enough to know the guilty ones from the innocent. The eyes are the window to the soul… ” Sione said with his eyes shifting to the rear view mirror.

  “How many years have you been a cop?”

  “Two years mate.”

  “Then you’re full of shit.” I said.

  I stroked my chin when we arrived at the hotel. I could see the shade umbrellas on the restaurant floor. It looked like we had a few hours of light left.

  Daylight savings.

  ***

  “Jess for fucks sake, focus!” Jessica snapped out of her dream state to pay attention to me. She appeared all flustered like this was some romantic date. We sat at the table adjacent to the window with the view of the Sydney opera house and the setting sun. The rays of light that entered the restaurant had some orange, fiery tinge to it. The way it lit up Jessica’s face made her look like those girls with an overdone orange tan.

  “Sorry Rooks, all this brings back memories you know, all that is missing is some candles,” she said when she sat comfortably back in her chair. She took a sip of her wine, breathing out when her eyes shifted to me.

  “What’s missing is your bloody pla
ne ticket back to New Zealand!” I said annoyed. Jessica sat up and gave me her undivided attention. I paused for a moment. My mind replayed the events at the crash site and her psych reports.

  The Police recruitment process was cut throat to weed out undesirables and possible head cases. Was Jessica one of those? Do I have a potential headcase? Can I be fucked dealing with it? There were so many questions, but I focused on understanding her deep-seated pain, the memory of her calling out for her mother. For some reason, that bothered me and that was a risk we needed to fix.

  “Jess, when you crashed into the pole you was disorientated. Do you remember much of the crash?” I said.

  Jessica shook her head, “I remember slamming into the side of Jaspers car spinning out before hitting a pole. I basically blanked out when the airbags deployed.” Jessica was repeatedly blinking looking side to side trying to recall more.

  “What was Anna on about? What actually happened to me?”

  “You looked straight at me, you were screaming out, for your mother.”

  Jessica closed her eyes, and she began to massage her forehead. She then made a fist and was tapping her head for a few seconds before she opened her eyes to look at me.

  My eyes widened when I put my hand on hers.

  “Jess you gotta tell me… Talk your shit out.”

  “Jeez Rooks, You remind me of Jacob you know…”

  “Who?”

  “An old flame.”

  Jessica lifted my hand of hers when she cupped her wine glass for comfort. Her shoulders closed in. I could see the tension in her hands, the slight veins popping out. Her grip could almost crush the glass into powder.

  “When I was seventeen, we were on our way to our uncle’s house. I remember sitting in the back seat giggling. We took turns telling jokes, I was so happy back then- we were a family you know. My mother turned to smile at me when it was my Dad’s turn to tell a joke. Suddenly a four wheel drive hit us on my side and our car rolled down the ditch. I felt my stomach churn and almost rise up to my lungs from the turbulent motion, it was like were in a tumble dryer when we finally stopped.”

  “I could smell petrol and soon there were flames. My mother and I were both trapped as the car crumpled on our side. My father tried to free my mother first, but she started shouting at him to save me. The heat from fires began to burn me when I starting screaming, it was like my hand was forced against the metal surface of a boiling kettle of water. But imagine that sensation all over the left side of your body…”

  “And you can't let go…” I said.

  I noticed Jessica began to get bloodshot eyes, her body was tense from the way she explained the situation. Fuck, it even sent shivers down my spine, she continued on.

  “I remember my Dad trying pull me out, when he kicked the door free that held me down. I could hear my mother in excruciating pain, the way the flesh on her arm started to fall off trying to assist to get me free. It was horrific and disturbing to see that. But she kept screaming ‘Save my baby! Save my baby!’

  When my dad got me out he tried to go back, by then it was too late.

  I saw my mom’s face relieved that I got to safety. It was then that she stopped screaming. I guess she was embracing the pain when I called out to her to let her know.”

  “I was safe.”

  “My last image was of her smiling… I’ll never forget that.”

  “I’ll never forget...”

  Jessica put her glass down and started to make a fist with her right hand. She smoothed over the surface of the deep scars on her wrist, when she broke down in tears.

  I paused to give her a moment. She was rubbing her eyes trying to shake off the emotion, she took two breaths in when she put on a brave face for me.

  “Rooks I promise you what happened out there - won’t happen again.” She said.

  I paused.

  “And it won’t. Like I said, I got you.”

  I stood up with my empty plate to go back to the buffet.

  Jessica cheered up a bit and looked up at me puzzled. “Where are you going?” she said sniffling.

  “I’m getting seconds. What’s wrong?”

  “Rooks, that’s your third plate!”

  I shrugged my shoulders.

  “So?”

  ***

  The next morning Jessica and I gathered into the conference room in the hotel, it reminded me of something out the movie ‘The shining,' with the defunct 60’s décor and the mahogany floors that made each step make an uncomfortable creak. We setup our laptops and projected onto the screen and started the download of the files from Anna.

  “Shit there’s hundred’s of these scumbags!” I said as the mug shots and case files flickered down the screen. I turned to Jessica when she lifted her hot cup of coffee to blow off the steam that rose from it, I got annoyed.

  “Where’s my coffee?” I said.

  Jessica shrugged her shoulders.

  “So?” she said giving me the evils.

  I shook my head and noticed the download had completed and we sat down to begin to sift through and isolate the files. There were 1450 total drug offenses in the 50-mile radius of Sydney. “This is gonna take a while Rooks, how we are going to find the files we want?” she said.

  I paused to think about everything that has happened so far, I cast the net out wide but it was time to distill it. We knew a number of things. The importer was located somewhere in a suburb of Crow’s Nest, which was 5km north of the CBD in Sydney. Which makes sense because the heroin the importer received from the exchange for the bulking compounds would be shifted straight into their lucrative target market.

  “Jessica bring up the map of the area the suburb of Crow’s Nest.”

  Stroking my chin, my mind started to crunch all the information, I scanned the suburb looking at the topography. It wasn’t too far from the waterways, the route confirming the boat transports Jasper was talking about on the phone.

  “Rooks snap out of it, what’s next?” she said clicking her fingers.

  “Jess open up search box, we have in total 1450 drug offenses in the 50-mile radius add in heroin and money laundering charges into the search string.”

  I put in money laundering because I thought there might be a connection from my last operation. Jessica entered in my request and we were reduced to ten results. I looked at the locales and eliminated six of them since they were too far out from the suburb of Crows Nest and the CBD district. The last four files, three of them were active one file was already closed.

  “Printout the remaining case files,” I said.

  Jessica browsed through all the case files when she noted that one of them was the case the cop Sione talked about.

  “Bring it up,” I said.

  “Ok Rooks, the perpetrator is Rodger Folau, convicted and sentenced for ten years for the possession of heroin and stolen shipments of paracetamol. His file says he pleaded not guilty, but three testimonies from his teammates identified him responsible. He was a rugby league player for a Sydney club on a contract. He’s from New Zealand.”

  I paused to think again,

  “Bring up the file photo,” I said.

  Jessica brought up his photo, He was a solid bloke with tattoos over his body. He had a distinctive one of Jesus holding the cross on his shoulder and a pair of praying hands on his neck. He was looking down at a rugby ball so I couldn’t see the eyes.

  Guilty… I thought.

  “He looks like your cousin Rooks…” She snickered

  I was not amused.

  “It’s not the one, show me the other three.”

  “C’mon it all makes sense. Put it all together.”

  “He’s in jail end of story. Next.”

  “Hold on I’m still looking at the file, he has no previous criminal record. He has only been in Australia for less than a year, currently serving his sentence at Long bay correctional in NSW, shit he’s in the ACMU unit.”

  I watched when Jessica sat back as she scratched the sc
ars on her wrists.

  “ACMU…” she said again.

  “What?” I said puzzled at the acronym.

  “Rooks he’s on active suicide watch,” she said.

  “I don’t give a fuck! Bring up the other three.”

  Jessica tapped away when she brought up all three on screen.

  “All right jeez Rooks you can be such an asshole! The first two are minor offences one is for the possession of a heroin crack pipe and utensils. The other is for the possession of a meagre one-gram bag of heroin locations are both in the CBD, files are still pending.”

  “Ditch those two bring up the last one,” I said.

  Jessica pressed the enter key to access the last file. It was for a sting that was in progress for money laundering and heroin at the casino in the CBD.

  “Jess that’s the one, money and drugs we got the motherfuckers.”

  Jessica wasn’t so convinced when she scrolled down the contents of the file, and stopped.

  “You know, I was joking before… but are you honestly related to him?” she said. Jessica pointed at the name at the bottom of the screen. It names the person on active duty on the case. My jaw fucking dropped when I found out who it was…

  Sione Suarvea.

  I patched through Anna pissed off at not being advised…

  ***

  “Anna what the fuck is my brother doing on this case?” My temper was starting to bubble to boiling point.

  “Why didn’t you tell me you were running him!” I said.

  I shouted so loud the echo could have cracked or shattered the windows in the conference room. Jessica's ears pricked up as she placed her pen down to listen to my conversation.

  “Rooks, you were on a need to know…” Anna said bluntly.

  “Fuck you Anna, after all we been through? and you bullshit me like this.”

  “I didn’t lie to you about anything, it was a coincidence that what you uncovered, led to Sione’s drug sting.”

  “If I know my brother he’s gonna botch it up I’m headed over!”

  “Rooks don’t. You will only make things worse!”