Blood Sport (Little Town)

by JD Nixon

“I’m not giving you a choice, Tessie. Frankly, it scares the shit out of me to think of you on the loose without a phone.”

  “I’ll pay you back,” I promised, wishing that he hadn’t bought such a fancy phone. It wouldn’t have been cheap and would take me forever to repay him.

  He sat back in his chair, left ankle resting on his right knee and regarded me patiently, his head on one side. “I don’t think you quite grasp the concept of a gift. Let me explain. It’s a situation where one person gives another person something, with no expectation of payment or return. Usually the gift is given as a token of their affection or esteem or, as in this case, because the first person can’t sleep with worry over the thought of his disaster-prone partner not being contactable at all times. The second person, the giftee, usually says ‘thank you’ prettily, and their opinion of the gift-giver rises significantly.”

  “Oh, it does, does it?” I smiled. “Thank you very much, Sarge. Was that pretty enough?”

  “It’ll do. I’ve already programmed in some numbers for you.”

  I checked and he had put in numbers for his mobile, his house, the station, the Big Town station, Fiona, the Big Town forensics team, emergency, and the doctor at the prison.

  “That’s a real cheery bunch of numbers,” I laughed. “Where are Dad, Jake and my friends?”

  He waved dismissively and turned back to his computer. I played with my new phone for half an hour, programming all my favourite numbers and taking photo after photo of him as he worked, learning how to use the phone’s camera and video. I sat back in my chair, boots on my desk, and reviewed the photos.

  “You take a nice photo, Sarge. You’re very photogenic.”

  “This ugly old mug?”

  “Don’t be silly. You’re not ugly.” I propelled myself towards him in my chair, rolling too fast and colliding violently with his chair, the momentum knocking him sideways.

  “Tess!” he reprimanded, righting himself.

  “Sorry,” I said sheepishly, leaning over to show him a profile photo of himself. “Look at this photo. You have a great profile. Very masculine. Look at your jawline. Nice.”

  “Get back to work,” he ordered, but it was said very mildly. He pushed my chair away, back in the direction of my desk.

  I rolled backwards towards my desk. “Seriously, Sarge. You’re a pretty good-looking guy.”

  “You just noticed, did you?”

  I smiled and turned back to my phone. “I like this photo. I’m going to keep it. I’ll show it to every female cop I meet so they’ll be jealous of me for having such a nice-looking boss.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Well, in that case you have to let me take a photo of you for my phone then.”

  “No way.”

  “It’s only fair.”

  “I don’t care, you’re not taking one.”

  “But I want to show every male cop that I meet your photo. Then they can see what a strong-willed, disobedient, trouble-making partner I have to work with and feel sorry for me.”

  And with that he received a lovely photo of me poking my tongue out and giving him the finger with each hand.

  “Tessie! That’s not very polite,” he complained. “And although it does bolster my argument considerably, I’m going to have to delete that one.” He did just that. “Doesn’t matter if you won’t cooperate anyway, because I already have a very nice photo of you.”

  “What? Let me see!” I stormed over to him and tried to snatch his phone off him. He pushed a few buttons and held up the screen for me to see. It was a close-up photo of me in uniform, hair up and sitting at my desk. I had my chin in my palm, with an absorbed, contemplative look on my face as I read something. “Gee, I look real intelligent in that photo, don’t I? I look like I’m solving all the world’s problems. But I was probably actually reading a trashy magazine or a boring memo from the Commissioner or something.” I took another look at the photo. It was hard to tell when it had been taken, but I was wearing my winter jacket so it wasn’t too long ago. I shot him a sharp glance. “When did you take this, Sarge? And why did you take this?”

  “About a fortnight ago. You were safe and sound, sitting quietly at your desk, doing your paperwork without complaining. Nobody was trying to kill you. You weren’t trying to kill anybody. You weren’t whining about being hungry. It was such a rare moment of peace around here that I felt compelled to take a photo to record it for prosperity.”

  I wasn’t sure if he was serious or not, but I thumped him on the upper arm, just in case he was.

  “Ow! Stop beating me up,” he moaned, rubbing his arm.

  “Stop making me beat you up.”

  I had just placed my hands on the keyboard to restart my report when the bell to the front door jangled.

  A husky, growly voice rang loudly through the station. “Oi, you two pig-pokers! Get your hands off each other’s pink bits and get the fuck out the front now!”

  We looked at each other and groaned quietly. It was the Super.

  Chapter 32

  “Ma’am, what a lovely surprise,” I lied, as I walked to the counter.

  “Get moving. I’ve brought the dogs with me,” she snapped, indicating over her shoulder where two stocky female uniforms I only knew in passing were standing, looking around them with undisguised scorn.

  “Ma’am!” I hissed in protest. “Don’t use that kind of language –”

  She glanced behind and sighed, rolling her eyes. “Not them, you dumbarse. The cadaver dogs. Let’s get moving. You know I hate spending even a second in this shitpile of a backwater. I’m already getting itchy from all the lice.”

  “There’s no lice here,” I grumbled at her as I gathered my things. She noticed the broken window.

  “Tessie, you haven’t been having a temper tantrum again, have you? You can’t go around breaking windows whenever you want to just because you’re on the fucking rag.”

  I flushed, because the Sarge had walked in then and heard that comment.

  “I’m not having a period,” I whispered at her furiously, then louder. “Dorrie Lebutt did that.”

  “What the fuck? Are you all drinking the same moonshine or something in this town that every bitch gets her tits off by breaking windows?”

  “No! She’s mad at me because I told Rick Bycraft that her baby might not be his.”

  She sighed in frustration. “Have you ever stopped to think that you are the direct cause of eighty percent of your problems with the Bycrafts?”

  “Yes,” I said honestly. “But I don’t seem to be able to help myself.”

  “You can’t leave the station like this. Every fucking Bycraft in town will be here five minutes after we’re gone, stealing everything that’s not nailed to the floor, and pissing on everything that is. Maguire, you stay here. Tessie, you come with me.”

  The Sarge was clearly torn and debating whether to argue with her or not. On the one hand, he didn’t want to let me out of his sight. On the other, he was glad not to be spending more time with the Super. She didn’t give him an option though, and we exchanged a wry smile before I left with Fiona.

  “Tessie,” he called back to me. “Don’t forget your phone.”

  “Wouldn’t want to leave that behind, would I now, Sarge?”

  “No, you wouldn’t,” he smiled and tossed it to me.

  “Hey, ma’am,” I said, chasing after her. “Look at this photo I took of the Sarge. It’s a nice one of him, isn’t it?”

  She glanced at the photo, then at me intently. “You are spending too much time with that man,” she snapped and climbed into the passenger seat of her unmarked without another word. Bum was waiting patiently at the wheel and I jumped in the back seat. The two uniforms climbed into their patrol car.

  “Bum, look at this,” I insisted. “It’s a nice photo, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah, I guess,” he conceded. “Hey, he looks like Sergeant Maguire.”

  I never knew if he was yanking my chain or not. Nobody could possibly be th
at stupid. Not all the time, surely. “It is the Sarge, Bum. It’s a photo of Sergeant Maguire.”

  “Oh, really?” he asked, turning right when he reached the gate. The patrol car and the vehicle with the dogs followed us in a flotilla of law enforcement through the town. Townsfolk stared after us curiously, wondering what was going on.

  “Didn’t his uniform give you a clue?” I asked with bemusement.

  “Didn’t notice, to be honest.” And this from a detective.

  “Bum, you’re a shining example of the Wattling Bay police station’s finest and brightest,” I noted sarcastically.

  “Thanks, Tessie! That’s real sweet of you.” He smiled at me in the rear view mirror.

  “Bum, you’re a fucking idiot,” muttered the Super, looking out the window, her nose turned up at the town’s beautiful bucolic scenery. “God, I hate the country. Nothing but rednecks and animals and sometimes it’s hard to tell which is which. Drive faster, Bum. The sooner we’re finished, the sooner I can get back to civilization. Running water. Electricity. The internet.”

  “Ma’am!” I exclaimed with exasperation. Her prejudice against my home town pushed my buttons sometimes. “We have all those things here, as you well know.”

  She confined her response to a snort expressing a strange mix of disbelief and disinterest.

  Xavier and Zelda were waiting for us at the junction of the highway and Mountain Road. The two uniforms were left behind to close Mountain Road off to the public and to enforce that closure. I guess the Hungarian tourists weren’t going to be happy about that. The rest of us drove to where I thought I’d emerged from the gully on to the road. When the Super questioned my memory, I explained about the fifteen kilometre sign I’d seen when I’d started trudging with Kylie on my back. I guesstimated that I’d already walked perhaps about a kilometre before I’d even reached that sign.

  We stepped out of our vehicles, handbrakes on tightly because of the steep incline. And did nothing but stand around while the dog handlers prepared their animals.

  Bored of waiting, the Super cornered the senior dog handler. “Are you ready yet, or do you need to tickle its balls some more, or hold its dick while it takes a piss? Fuck me, but you treat those mangy fleabags better than my husband treats me. And I have a fantastic husband.”

  “Blossom’s a female dog, ma’am,” he replied huffily. “And I certainly don’t do any of those things for her.” He obviously hadn’t worked with the Super before.

  “I didn’t ask for a fucking biography of the bitch, Senior Sergeant. Just get it ready for searching. Tessie!” I jumped. “Where did you come up from the bush?”

  I opened my mouth to speak when she turned away from me, no longer listening. “Bum! Make yourself fucking useful for once and go buy me a coffee. Get one for everyone. Go to the same place you bought coffee from that day when Tessie went berserk. That coffee wasn’t as vomit-inducing as you’d expect in a one-donkey town.” Her eyes flicked to me briefly and I could tell that it was killing her to admit that small concession about Little Town. So when I dared to smirk a little, she immediately jumped down my throat. “What the fuck are you waiting around for, Tessie? Get your arse moving! Find that spot for me.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” I scrambled to obey. Closing my eyes, I thought back to that freezing, wet morning when I dragged Kylie up from the steep bushy incline. Think! What did I see when I reached the road? I remember looking both ways before deciding that I was definitely on Mountain Road, but how did I know that? There were a few roads heading towards Mount Big, but only Mountain Road took you to the Lake and the base of the mountain. It came to me suddenly – it was the width of the road. Mountain Road was wider, being used by a lot of tourists in the warmer months. The other roads led to private properties and were much less travelled and narrower in comparison, some not even sealed.

  That realisation didn’t really help me much though. There was only one thing to do and that was to walk from the fifteen kilometre sign back up the slope towards the mountain and hope that I recognised something. Understandably, nobody was thrilled with that plan.

  The senior dog handler chatted to me about the two dogs they were using as we walked. They were both German Shepherds and both were dual-trained general purpose/cadaver dogs. He had worked with his dog, Blossom, for six years and the other handler had worked with hers for five years, so they were both experienced dogs nearing the end of their working careers. The affection he shared with Blossom was touching. I guess that you would become very attached to an animal that you trained and worked with every day.

  Curious and thinking about that skull, I asked him whether the dogs were able to pick up any scent from completely skeletonised remains.

  “Depends,” he explained. “Cadaver dogs have found skeletons, but obviously they’re much better at finding bones when there is still some tissue attached or the surrounding soil still contains leached nutrients from the body.” His eyes rested on me briefly. “I’m no forensics expert, but from the sound of it I don’t think that skull could belong to the girl you saw alive late last year.”

  “Oh. Really?” That was disheartening. There was no hope that Lucy was still alive because she’d been murdered in that movie, but I’d hoped at least that we’d be able to find her remains and give her the dignity of a proper burial. And maybe even to reunite her remains with her family, if they cared. “Do you think that means that Lucy’s not there or that there’s even another person down there as well?”

  He shrugged. “Who knows? Like I said, I’m no forensics expert. But I have seen a few remains in my day, and that skull sounds as though it would be more than just eight months old.”

  That was food for thought, and I quietly pondered the depressing possibility that there could be two bodies buried around here. As we approached the general area where I must have emerged from the bushland, both dogs veered off the road, sniffing at the same spot on the edge of the ravine. When we drew closer, we could see broken branches on a bush to the right and some well flattened grass. Any drag marks had been obliterated by the heavy rain.

  “I’m pretty sure that’s the place, ma’am. It looks as though something was hauled through the bush there.”

  The dogs led us down the incline, following the path I’d taken to climb upwards. We all stopped when I recognised the large tree where I’d found Kylie, and I was able to vaguely recall the direction from which I’d ascended. The dogs confirmed this and we all headed lower to the approximate location that I’d regained consciousness. Everything looked different in the light and sunshine, and I wasn’t entirely confident that I was taking them to the right spot.

  The ground was still slippery and muddy and it wasn’t long before we were all covered in mud splatters.

  The dogs sniffed around experimentally, heading in one direction, but not finding anything interesting. They turned and moved in the other direction, towards the mountain instead. After a few difficult minutes pushing through the thick wild growth, the dogs more eager than any of us, Blossom found the skull that I’d woken up next to. We all crouched down to examine it, the Super gently poking it with a stick.

  “Find out where forensics are,” she ordered Xavier, checking her watch. “They should have been here by now.” She looked down at the skull. “Tess, I could be wrong, but I don’t think this belongs to the girl you saw last year. The skeletonisation seems too advanced. So that leaves us with two interesting questions: who the fuck does this belong to and where’s the rest of them?”

  We took a breather for a moment while Xavier was on the phone, having to move around until he found a strong enough signal. As we waited for him to finish his call, we speculated idly on whether the skull had been scavenged by animals from a shallow grave or if the body had just been dumped in the bush like Kylie and me.

  “They’ll be here soon,” Xavier assured and we pressed on, all scratched from branches and now dirty, each one of us having slipped over at least once on the rough ground. Before long,
the dogs stiffened with suppressed excitement, a frenzy of sniffing following.

  “Something around here, ma’am,” called the senior handler and we held back, letting the dogs have free reign in the locality. They both honed in on the same area and sat on their haunches, panting happily.

  “You can see that the ground’s been disturbed, but not for a while,” I mused. “It’s slightly lower than the surrounding ground, but has since been revegetated.”

  “It’s not a dead rabbit or something, is it?” the Super asked the senior handler suspiciously.

  “No, ma’am! These dogs can tell the difference between animal and human remains,” he shot back, insulted on behalf of Blossom.

  “Nobody buries dead rabbits, ma’am,” Zelda dared to point out, earning herself a rebuking glance for her trouble.

  “Looks as though we have ourselves a bush grave, people. Tessie, you go up top and wait for forensics. They’ll need help bringing all their shit down here. It’s a fucking nightmare of a crime scene. Nah, scratch that. You’re no use with your arm in that sling. X, you go. Tessie can stay with me.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said and obediently started climbing the incline, hauling himself upwards by hanging on to branches. She was right – it was going to be a difficult crime scene to investigate.

  The dogs strained at their leashes, surprising the handlers. The senior handler turned to the Super in question.

  “Give them their noses,” the Super ordered and the handlers and animals were off again. “Tessie, mark this spot so we can find it again.”

  I scrabbled around for something that couldn’t be overlooked. The best I could find was a forked branch that I jammed into the earth, before taking off my sling and wrapping it around the forks.

  “You need that,” the Super said patiently.

  “I’ll put it on again when we return here,” I promised.

  We followed the dogs through the bushland. It was the same as last time – the dogs sniffed around, both heading for the same spot before sitting down again.

  “Shit,” said the Super panting, hands on her hips. “Another one? Mark this off too, Tessie.”