Evidence of Love

by Elisabeth Rose

  ‘If you won’t tell him about Lucas why don’t you ask him to find out about Cam Rogers?’

  ‘Are you kidding?’

  Ivan laughed. ‘Yes. My bet is he’d be very surprised to find out exactly who Lara Moore really is.’ Back to that astute assessing look.

  ‘He already knows. And he knows about you too, thanks to Branko and your visit to Brooke in hospital.’

  ‘I haven’t done anything wrong.’

  ‘Recently,’ she corrected. ‘He knows that, too.’

  ‘Just how close are you?’

  ‘Friends.’

  He laughed. ‘Are you kidding? Did he want to be your friend before or after he found out who you were? Haven’t you learned anything?’

  Lara shook her head dismissively. So. She’d told Ivan about Nick, not as fully and completely as Nick would like but she had told him and his reaction was exactly as she expected. Disbelief coupled with suspicion.

  ‘Why did you visit Brooke?’

  ‘I was bored for one thing, and when Branko told me he’d run into you and why you were there I thought I might be able to find you.’

  ‘Using an alias, John?’ She smirked. ‘Old habits die hard.’

  He grinned. ‘Too many cops about for my liking. Can’t be too careful.’

  ‘Why was Branko visiting you if you don’t want anything to do with him?’

  ‘It’s not necessarily a mutual sentiment. I wasn’t delighted to see him but I could hardly stop him, could I? I was captive in bed. It was a nice thing to do. He’s an old friend after all.’ He paused and gave her a piercing look. ‘You didn’t visit.’

  ‘Did you expect me to?’ When he didn’t reply she added, ‘I did call the hospital to see how you were.’

  ‘Thanks.’

  ‘Who’s for dessert?’ The sliding door opened and Susanna placed a pavlova on the table. Crisp white meringue with whipped cream, strawberries, pineapple and kiwifruit topping. Petey slid off the bench and ran to see.

  ‘I like dessert,’ he announced with a very hopeful look.

  Susanna caressed the dark curls. ‘I thought you might, darling.’ She glanced at Lara. ‘Is he allowed?’

  ‘Absolutely. Did you make this too, Ivan?’

  ‘No, desserts are Susanna’s specialty.’

  Lara lifted Petey onto his chair while Susanna served pavlova into bowls. She gave Petey the first serve.

  ‘Ta, Aunty Susanna.’ He poked his spoon in for a mouthful then grinned at Lara. ‘Yum, yum, yum, yum.’

  ‘I think that means he likes it,’ said Ivan.

  ‘I’ve yet to meet a child who doesn’t.’ Susanna passed the bowls to Lara and Ivan and sat down.

  ‘Thank you for lunch, Susanna.’

  ‘You must come again. I want us to be friends, Lara.’

  ‘Thanks. Me too.’ And she meant it as much as Susanna did. Would life have been different if she’d had a sister? Someone in her corner regardless, someone she could confide in, someone to share the fear and the pain, to help her fight? Maybe.

  Wasn’t a mother supposed to do that though, and brothers? A father? She was damned well going to fight for her son.

  ‘Let’s have a girls’ get together sometime.’ Susanna beamed with enthusiasm. ‘We could see a movie.’

  ‘That would be fun. I haven’t been to a movie for ages.’

  ‘Good. We’ll do it soon.’ Susanna spooned pavlova happily. ‘Ivan can babysit.’

  Chapter 17

  Lara was slipping away from him. Nick felt the inexorableness of the separation like a deep ache in the stomach. Not just the stomach. His heart ached. How could she calmly take up with her brother and reinsert herself into that life? A life she’d run from, terrified to the point of changing her name and cutting herself and her baby off from everything familiar to her. It was a very brave thing to do for a relatively naïve, inexperienced young woman, proving how desperate she’d been to start afresh.

  And now, just when she was beginning to open up and explore some new directions, she deliberately walks back to the very family she’d escaped.

  Family. That was the operative word. They have a stranglehold on every one of us from birth to death whether we want them to or not. Even as adults many people strive to make their parents proud. As adults many children seek to heal rifts and make amends for youthful wrongdoings. Inescapable and unbreakable as silken, sticky, spider webs reaching through time and across distance, connecting siblings with siblings and parents with children.

  Which melancholy philosophical thoughts reminded him he hadn’t seen his sister and her family for months. She wouldn’t mind if he called and invited himself over on Sunday. He picked up the phone.

  ‘Great, you can help Joe build the cubbyhouse for the kids,’ Linda said. ‘And as a reward you can stay for dinner.’ Childish voices said something along the lines of ‘who’s coming for dinner?’ She said, ‘Uncle Nick’s coming tomorrow to help Dad.’

  He distinctly heard, ‘Good, they’ll work faster and it might get finished at last,’ from what sounded like eight year old Rory.

  ‘Hear that?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Love to see you, Nick. Joe will be at it all day so come when you like.’

  ‘Thanks. I’ll bring the beer.’ He laughed as he disconnected. Linda sounded happy — busy, with kids yelling in the background, but grounded and normal. He needed a dose of normal.

  Lara and Petey would fit in perfectly with Linda’s tribe. There was a fantasy, if ever there was one. He had to find out what her involvement was with the disappearance of Cam Rogers or whoever he was. She must know more than she let on and her brother would certainly know plenty. And he wouldn’t be at all surprised if that shifty Branko was involved as well.

  First thing Monday he’d start asking questions of the Melbourne Organised Crime Squad.

  ***

  Steve Wingate was his first point of contact just to clear up a niggling query. After the usual courtesies he posed his question.

  ‘Have you come across someone by the name of Branko, mate?’

  ‘Got a last name?’

  ‘No but he’s a friend of Ivan Djokovic from Melbourne.’

  ‘Right. Branko Simek. Real lowlife. We’ve had our eye on him for a while, just waiting for the right time.’

  ‘Is Djokovic involved with him?’

  ‘Not that we can verify. They know each other, Simek occasionally goes to that club where Djokovic works but we’ve no evidence Djokovic is part of any dealing he does.’

  ‘So you reckon Djokovic is clean?’

  ‘I’d hardly say that given his history but since he’s been in Sydney he hasn’t put a foot wrong.’

  Maybe Lara was right and her brother was trying to go straight despite all prior evidence of the unlikelihood of such a situation.

  ‘Okay, thanks, Steve.’

  ‘By the way I was going to give you a call — we’ve got someone you might be interested in talking to about that home invasion.’

  ‘Really? I’ll send Rob over.’

  That, at least, was a positive.

  ‘Why are you so interested in Ivan Djokovic?’ asked Marie when he’d finished the call.

  ‘Where’s Rob?’

  ‘Taking a statement from a witness to that bag snatch yesterday.’

  ‘Right. Steve said they’ve got someone for that home invasion. How about you go over there with Brian and ask some questions?’ He knew she’d jump at it. The case had been going nowhere for weeks, driving them all nuts.

  She slung her bag over her shoulder. ‘I’m there. What about Djokovic?’

  ‘Suspected missing person case from a while ago in Melbourne. He might have something to do with it.’

  ‘Mmm.’ Her eyes narrowed but she took his word at face value and as predicted was too keen to wrap up the other case to ask awkward questions about any of the Djokovic’s.

  As soon as she’d gone Nick picked up the phone again and rang a contact in Melbou
rne. Ken had transferred years before but they’d kept in touch sporadically, meeting up at training courses and, on the odd occasion one or another visited their respective cities, caught up for a beer. Ken would know a few names and numbers to point him in the right direction. It wasn’t going to be easy getting information about undercover operatives or operations, especially ones that had failed.

  Fifteen minutes later he had a name and number — Jim Kershaw — retired but had worked on organised crime for most of his career and knew pretty much all there was to know about Melbourne’s underbelly.

  He’d have to call tonight. Rob would be back any minute and he should report in to Jervis about the home invasion breakthrough so the man didn’t come and bother them later with his exhortations to work faster and harder.

  What he really wanted to do that evening was drop in on Lara and find out how lunch with her brother had gone yesterday. He couldn’t, of course. She’d be even more furious and accuse him of prying which would be true. Instead he resisted temptation and went home to his small two bedroom terrace house to cook himself a solitary meal and sit to eat in the small garden in the warmth of late evening.

  She and Petey would be settling for the night. He’d be in bed by now and Lara would be curled on the sofa watching TV or reading all alone. She didn’t mind being by herself, he sensed she enjoyed the freedom after a lifetime of having decisions made for her by overbearing, bullying and abusive men. Did she see him as the same? He hoped not. He didn’t want to impose his will on her. Did she feel he was already doing that by trying to prevent her visiting her brother?

  But he was attempting to protect her. He’d protected her before, from Branko Simek. He really was someone she should be afraid of given what Steve had told him today. With any luck Jim Kershaw would be able and willing to fill in more details. If Nick could present Lara with some facts about Cam Rogers perhaps she would be willing to…what? In reality he himself had to be willing to accept Ivan as part of her life both past and present. The implications of that had ramifications which would affect his career and open up avenues for serious questions about his reliability and honesty as a policeman. if a lawyer so chose, in defence of a client Nick had arrested.

  Did he want her enough to risk his career? The fact he was hesitating said it all.

  His phone rang inside and he heaved himself up to answer it.

  ‘Hello, Nick.’

  ‘Lara!’

  ‘I said I’d call.’ She was hesitant, unsure of his reaction. She had said she would and he, in his anger and disappointment, had said don’t bother or words to that effect.

  ‘Yes, I’m glad you did.’ Her voice did it to him every time, disarmed and made him want to hold her and love her, save her from every evil and painful thing in the world. ‘How are you?’

  ‘Fine. How are you?’

  ‘Fine. How’s Petey?’

  ‘Asleep.’

  Was he supposed to ask or had she rung to tell him? The silence stretched while he tossed words around in his head in an attempt to make them fit into a suitably tactful question.

  ‘I had a nice time yesterday,’ she said eventually. ‘Better than I expected. Susanna is very nice. I think she’s changed my brother, or at least he’s trying to change to measure up to her.’

  ‘New life for him, you think?’ Amazing how these people thought they could walk away from some horrendous crimes and expect to live a normal life without paying a price. War criminals did it, too. Their victims couldn’t. And it was equally amazing how many of these criminals suddenly developed acute, life-threatening illnesses at crucial moments — like during their trial or on the point of starting a lengthy prison sentence.

  ‘I hope so. She was furious with him when she discovered Tony bashed me. She said he should have helped me.’

  ‘He should have.’

  ‘I know but it’s in the past, Nick. I want it to stay there.’

  ‘I understand.’ Did this woman Susanna, however, fully understand the man she’d married? Didn’t sound like it. A nurse with no criminal ties at all according to Steve. At least he and Lara knew the worst of each other. Ivan was like a landmine waiting to be stepped on.

  ‘Ivan asked how Brooke is — that’s a change. He never cared about anyone else before.’

  ‘Why is he so interested?’

  ‘He liked her when he talked to her in hospital. Maybe he feels he can take an interest in her when he failed with me. Start to make amends — I don’t know.’

  ‘Maybe.’

  ‘He knows she’s a friend of mine so he’s trying to be nice.’

  ‘Mmm.’ Possible. Who knew what went on in the mind of a man like that? He’d convinced Lara, though.

  ‘What did you do yesterday?’

  ‘Visited my sister and helped my brother-in-law build a cubbyhouse for their kids.’

  ‘That sounds like fun.’

  ‘It was.’ He left it there, didn’t add ‘wish you and Petey had come’ or ‘I’ll take you to meet them one day.’ He couldn’t take Lara to his sister’s home, not with the situation unresolved the way it was. Not when her brother was an allegedly ex but definitely one time crime gang member.

  The conversation stuttered to an uncomfortable halt. Had she told her brother about the new man in her life?

  Was he the new man in her life? He’d thought so last week until that disastrous conversation on Saturday, now he wasn’t so sure.

  She said in a rush, ‘I told Ivan about you. He asked, actually.’

  ‘What did he say?’

  ‘Tell me about this policeman friend of yours.’

  Fishing. His mate Branko would have told him his sister was consorting with the enemy — again.

  ‘And you said…’

  ‘That you knew who I was and who he was.’ She paused. ‘I asked him what you said I should — about Cam — and he said I should ask you to find out what happened to him.’

  He would throw that back at her. Ivan wasn’t going to admit to murder just because his little sister, the policeman’s friend, asked.

  ‘Do you think he knows anything?’

  ‘He swore he didn’t, he said Tony sent Guido and Lucas to sort him out but Cam had disappeared. They couldn’t find him. No-one saw him again. They thought he’d been sent to the outback out of harm’s way.’

  ‘Do you believe him?’

  ‘I don’t know. He’s a very good liar. He crossed his heart though — we used to do that as kids so…I really don’t know.’ She sounded defeated. ‘Are you doing anything to find him?’

  Lara had been discussing this with Ivan. Ivan would likely be extremely interested in any developments. He’d want to know what information was being unearthed and he’d pump her with great skill. The less she knew the better at this stage. Especially the more Ivan regained her trust.

  ‘I’m asking around. It’s not a priority though. This was a Melbourne operation, it’s old and I have plenty of open cases right here.’

  ‘You’ll let me know, won’t you? If you find out anything?’

  ‘Of course but I can’t promise I will find anything. They’re not going to hand me all the files on an undercover operation and say go for it.’

  ‘I suppose not.’

  ‘Definitely not.’ He glanced at his watch. Getting a bit late to call Jim Kershaw tonight. ‘When can I see you?’

  ‘Do you still want to?’

  His system short-circuited momentarily. His hand froze on the phone. ‘Why not?’

  She said in a voice so soft and tentative he barely heard her, ‘On Saturday you were…when you left you sounded as though you weren’t coming back. That you’d had enough of me.’ Her breath feathered into the phone.

  ‘I…’ It was true, he’d been annoyed and upset that she was visiting that despicable brother, choosing that man over himself. Jealous. ‘I’m sorry. I was angry. You seemed so afraid of him before, I couldn’t understand why you would want to go there.’

  ‘He’s my bro
ther,’ she said softly. ‘You visited your sister.’

  Linda wasn’t part of a well-known criminal gang. Linda didn’t consort with drug dealers and thugs who terrified people or tortured them to make them toe the line. Linda hadn’t stood by and watched a sister be bashed by her husband.

  ‘I’m sorry.’ A pause. He asked again, conscious his need might be seeping through the phone line, didn’t care. ‘Can I see you?’

  ‘You could come for dinner. I won’t put chilli in anything.’

  He laughed softly with relief. ‘When?’

  ‘Tomorrow?’

  ‘Thank you. I’ll try to be there by seven — seven thirty at the latest. I’ll call if I’m held up.’

  ‘All right. Goodnight.’

  ‘Goodnight.’

  He replaced the phone on its stand carefully. What a hopeless case he was. Nothing good could come of this relationship but he was powerless to stay away from her, helpless as soon as she spoke. Realistically, what possible future could they have with Ivan Djokovic breathing down their necks and her whole sorry family lining up behind him? She had two other brothers who were hell-bent on a similar career in crime — not as smart as Ivan because they’d both done time — but what would they think of a sister who fell for a cop? Another cop.

  And what would his family say? Not that he cared much but he wanted to be able to take Lara and Petey to family occasions without them looking sideways at her and wondering if she was as innocent as she said she was. They read the papers, they knew the history of Tony Petrovic as it was played out in the news, they understood the level of corruption, the violence he represented.

  And all that was apart from the effect a serious relationship with Lara would have on his career prospects and workplace situation. He couldn’t have chosen a path to love more strewn with obstacles if he’d tried, and an object of his affection less suitable for a man in his profession. But loving someone wasn’t a matter of choice and he loved Lara.

  ***

  On Tuesday morning Lara went with Ellie to the shops for their regular supermarket raid. She clung to the seatbelt as Ellie shot around corners like a Formula One driver.

  ‘Ellie, slow down,’ she gasped.

  ‘I don’t want to miss the lights or we’ll take all day.’