There had been heated discussions on that topic in the station lunchroom lately, following several cases where women had been raped and killed by known sexual offenders. Inquiries were lengthy and the creeps were often permitted to walk the streets with every opportunity to reoffend, potentially escalating, before they were charged and remanded in custody…or let out on bail. Even prison stints could result in early release for good behaviour – and almost immediate repetition of the crimes. By consensus, this was the part of the job they all struggled with.
Lunny spoke again. ‘If Ealding’s been under surveillance, he could’ve been stopped from contacting Hannah, grooming her, meeting her. But he probably wouldn’t have been because the squad doesn’t focus on isolated cases in sting operations –’
‘Risk one for the sake of many?’ Sam shook her head. ‘I get the theory, but it makes me sick.’
‘They want unlosable briefs. They won’t show their hands and risk successful prosecution unless someone’s life is clearly at stake.’
The sarge’s face took on a dull grey tinge.
Sam was scared his poor complexion could be the precursor to a heart attack, but she couldn’t help snapping, ‘Which is hard to prove before it happens.’
The place was a dive, as Georgie had expected. She walked through a throng of smokers to get to the entrance. Dodgy guys who hassled her, girls showing more skin than clothing. But maybe the place wasn’t so bad, merely tainted by the scum she was about to meet. And what she’d have to do.
She nodded to the huge bouncer at the door and entered the club, channelling an edgy and sour mood…ready to take on Ealding. Like most clubs, it was dimly lit and it took Georgie a few seconds to adjust. She spotted Josh slide into the shadows. Ealding was dead ahead, propped on a pillar, ogling her. She deliberately searched the room as if looking for someone – the fictional Wylder.
Hannah
The dog was going mental, working itself up to something. Then its screams changed to a new pitch and Hannah heard what she’d dreaded – glass smashing and the dog’s barking coming closer.
Coming for me. Fast.
It was probably like her Buddy – he used to be able to see really well at night. The way she felt, all woozy and hardly able to make out anything in the dark, she couldn’t outrun the rottie.
She started to climb a tree and freaked out. Some dogs climbed trees. Anyway, it’d definitely be able to jump really high, especially because it was so mad.
She needed a better idea.
She pictured the dog when it went for her yesterday…or was it the day before? He was mean and solid. Probably weighed more than she did.
Hannah thought about what Josh had taught her.
One chance. Take your best shot. Surprise them. Your big advantage is being small and quick.
She hid behind a wide tree trunk, her heart pounding so loudly she was sure the dog would hear it.
But it wouldn’t make any difference. Because he’d follow her scent. And her blood.
‘Hey, are you Georgie?’
Her heart thumped as she turned her gaze on Ealding, unsure she masked her disgust and fear. Then she reminded herself what was at stake and turned on a sexy smile.
Ealding shuffled closer, not creepy looking or overly cocksure. Nothing screaming sexual predator. She shivered.
‘My mate Haydn asked me to look out for you.’
She caught her eyebrow before it lifted at his smooth lie.
‘He had to go home but said you were keen to hear my band play.’ Ealding held out his hand.
She shook it and dropped it quickly.
‘I’m Trey.’
Good alias: close to Trent, so less chance of stuff-ups.
He ran his eyes over her face and her skin felt the look as a touch. She flinched, disguising it with a toss of her hair.
‘What can I get you?’ Ealding nudged his head in the direction of the bar.
Georgie didn’t want anything. She didn’t trust him not to spike her drink – expected him to do it. But she had a role to play. It was important to be the flirty fluffball he wanted.
She giggled, hating herself. ‘Vodka and raspberry, ta.’
That’d guarantee she didn’t touch it.
Chapter 57
Franklin paced the room until Slam told him off. So he moved to the hallway and stalked through the station, grunting at Maeve when she asked if he was okay, shaking his head as he passed the sarge’s office in answer to Danni’s mute question.
His mobile was wrapped in his hand on ring and vibrate, the volume up to full. But every couple of seconds, he rechecked the screen.
He thumped his forehead with his free hand.
I shouldn’t have asked Georgie to do it. God help me if something happens to her.
With his next step, his mind switched to Hanny and his gut shrivelled. He didn’t want to think about what she’d been through with Ealding, but he couldn’t stop.
He reached a point of wondering if she’d be better off dead.
Georgie hoped she wasn’t overdoing it. She used a touch of harmless flirting in her job and generally got what she wanted. But she’d never had to chat up a sex offender before with the weight of someone’s life pressing on her shoulders.
Another guy pulled Ealding aside for a chat. There was a lot of nodding, laughing and glances in her direction. She managed to pour some of her alcopop under the table when they were in a huddle, faces suddenly intense.
She panicked. Were they onto her? They slapped each other on the back and separated, and Ealding joined Georgie.
He sat so close their hips touched. ‘Tell me about yourself.’
I’m going to nail you and help bring Hanny home.
Everything hung on her being convincing. She smiled, all cute and coy. ‘I’d rather hear about you.’
She brought her bottle up to her mouth, wrapped her lips around the neck and gave it a suck. Sexually suggestive, without swallowing any liquid.
He fell for it and leaned in, touching her leg as he talked shit in her ear. Beer and smoker’s breath wafted in her face. He stroked the inside of her thigh. Midway, not crotch level, not yet.
Georgie wanted to belt him.
Hannah
Twigs snapped. Bushes swooshed as some creature let out a screech, bolting through the scrub. The dog was getting closer. Its paws pounded the ground and it had stopped barking and snarling. That nearly made Hannah wet herself. It was as if the rottie thought it’d already won.
She took a firmer grip on the branch. It was twice as thick as her arm and pretty heavy in her injured hand. She lifted it to shoulder height. The pulse in her neck raced and her whole head throbbed with every heartbeat.
One shot. Surprise. You can do it.
She held up her right fist, guarding her face and chest. As it got closer, the rottie let out a growl. The dog smelt her blood and fear.
Spotting its nose, she yelled, ‘Donga!’ making her voice loud and gruff, as much like a man’s as she could.
As if in slow motion, but still too fast, she saw the dog follow the sound of her voice to her face, then fix on the hand holding up the branch. In that same moment, she swung the branch like a baseball bat. The dog’s snarling head flew at her. Massive teeth snapped for her face just as the branch smashed the rottie’s jaw with some gross crunching and rattling sounds.
The dog shook its head. Hannah waved the branch and the dog’s eyes shifted.
Good.
It sprung and she feinted with her left again as she threw her right fist, pivoting all her weight behind the punch. It connected with the dog’s throat. Drool splattered her face. The dog dropped, just missing her toes. The ground shook with its dead weight.
‘You’re not going anywhere, right?’
Ealding licked the side of her neck, under her ear, and Georgie cringed. She fought the urge to kick him in the nuts and giggled instead, ducking out of reach.
He stood up. ‘We’re on for twenty, then I’m al
l yours.’
She stared at his dilated pupils and bloodshot whites. Stoned? Or on a high from whatever he’d done to Hannah and had planned for her?
Before she knew it, he’d stuck his tongue in her ear, jackhammering against the drum. When he was done, she turned and reached for her drink, masking her nausea.
Apparently, he didn’t pick up on it. He rubbed a hand down the side of her face and sauntered towards the stage.
Franklin plugged a number on his mobile. He was desperate to check-in with Georgie.
His cop persona jumped in, disconnecting before the first ring. A mistimed call from him could put her in more danger.
Danni seized his hand and Franklin stared at her.
‘Trust Georgie.’
‘For a tick there I thought you were going to say trust God.’
The pastor smiled. It lacked her usual sparkle. ‘That too.’
Chapter 58
Ealding’s band was bloody awful and Georgie almost skolled her raspberry vodka to numb the pain in her ears. But she plastered an expression on her face that she hoped passed for awe, tossing frisky glances at Ealding and faking swallows of her drink.
At one stage, she toyed with her fringe, to hide the eye-roll she couldn’t stop.
‘You all right?’ Josh brushed past with his back to the band.
‘Yeah.’
In one smooth move, he swiped Georgie’s bottle and replaced it with another one, almost empty.
‘Ta.’
He disappeared into the swell of head bangers and pissed girls pumping their hands at the roof and bouncing on the spot.
As soon as the set finished, Ealding squashed in next to Georgie. He radiated heat.
She felt a surge of fear and adrenaline: Now or never.
She hadn’t stopped thinking about her next move since Ealding’s first approach, but still wasn’t sure it would work. She didn’t want to end up at his place in Boronia with Hannah elsewhere.
Where?
Ealding sucked on her neck and she wondered what Franklin would think of her coming back with a hickey.
She crossed her fingers for luck.
‘Do you know somewhere quiet we can go?’
He gave a deep nod, then put a sweaty hand around hers. He pulled her through the crowd, past a couple dry humping behind a pole, digging out keys as he moved.
Georgie saw Josh over Ealding’s shoulder. The young boxer was unnaturally pale.
She clocked Ealding signal to the mate he’d been in deep conversation with earlier—one of the guitarists—as he returned from carting an amplifier outside with the other guy from their band. He hoisted his guitar and shadowed them at a distance.
If Georgie hadn’t anticipated it, she wouldn’t have noticed.
They’ve done this before.
Her heart pounded, jackhammering her chest as Ealding’s tongue had done to her ear. The hickey on her neck throbbed as the blood-rush from her racing pulse heated the fresh bruise.
I could be fucked.
She didn’t miss the irony.
‘Hey, Georgie. Great to see you, girlfriend.’
A strange woman suddenly hugged her. Taller and broader than Georgie, she gave her an air-kiss, crushing her sideways against her chest – hissing in her ear, ‘I’m Tash Dunn, Franklin’s mate.’
Gunner.
‘This is my friend, Tash,’ Georgie told Ealding.
She slipped out of his grasp and shifted off a foot or so, drawing Tash with her. With a huge smile to the creep, she giggled at nothing, half-turned and shot the policewoman a wide-eyed look.
Ealding was already reaching for her. They couldn’t talk and Tash nodded.
‘I’ll call you. We have to catch up.’ She sounded like a typical girlfriend, keen for hot goss.
Georgie nodded. Ealding tugged her hand.
Tash gave her another hug, murmuring, ‘I’ve got your back.’
Ealding dragged Georgie away.
Hannah
Hannah watched the dog’s chest to see if it was breathing. She couldn’t tell. Through the overhanging trees, the moon cast more shadows than light.
She didn’t want to touch it. She’d never imagined wanting to kill a dog – kill anything aside from insects and spiders, really. But right now she hoped she’d killed the rottie.
She might’ve just knocked it out though. Any second now, it might spring up and go for her again.
Hannah’s body felt heavy, sore and clumsy, but she had to put distance between her and the dog in case it did come after her. She couldn’t imagine tricking it a second time. She wouldn’t win if it came to an all-out fight.
As she hobbled away, using a stick to take some of the weight off her sore leg, her teeth started chattering. She couldn’t stop it—she was freezing and scared—but it sounded loud in the dark night. Which would be a bad thing if Ealdy and Dicko came looking for her.
She stubbed her toe on her left foot, tearing her sock and jarring pain up her leg. The gash on her thigh went on fire and she cried out, tempted to sit down and give way to howling. But she bit her lip, leaned on the stick and told herself to keep walking until she got to a road or, better yet, a house.
She whispered, ‘Please don’t let me be walking in circles.’
It’d break her heart if she ended up back at the shack she’d run away from.
Georgie sat on the van’s bench seat, the passenger armrest jabbing into her leg, wishing there was another way to help Hannah.
Ealding settled in behind the wheel. ‘Hope you don’t mind?’
She glanced across, suspicious of his too-casual tone.
‘Just need to drop my mate off on the way.’
Georgie’s mouth opened, but what could she say? Although petrified at the idea of being alone with two sickos, she needed to stay in character.
Tash Dunn has my back…
Before she managed an answer, her door opened and the guitarist climbed in, forcing Georgie into the middle. His and Ealding’s shoulders pressed against hers. Ealding’s thighs were spread, so that his left leg pushed into her too.
She smelt her own fear layered over their sweat, along with beer, stale tobacco and weed.
Tash assured him, ‘I’m following them, don’t worry.’
Franklin was worried. Gunner was good…but good enough to manage this alone?
‘I know how to do a tail; I worked covert ops for three years. They won’t know I’m there. And I won’t lose them.’
‘Maybe we –’
She cut him off. ‘Gotta get this call. I’ll update you.’ She disconnected.
Franklin stared at his phone for a minute. He’d been about to suggest getting her some backup. Now, his hands were tied. He couldn’t throw her into potential strife with the brass over their unsanctioned surveillance exercise without her okay. It could wreck her career. And she was a career copper.
Chapter 59
Hannah
Hannah layered some leaves under her windcheater, pulled the hood over her head and, even though it was dorky, tied the strings under her chin. She was a bit warmer but her hoodie pressed on bits of glass stuck in her skin. She ignored the pain – it wouldn’t kill her. The bleeding had mostly stopped. Some of the blood was sticky. A few cuts were oozing, but she didn’t think she was going to die from bleeding out.
And she didn’t think she’d die from cold now either.
She’d kept moving in the same direction – she was pretty sure of that because the moon was always sort of to her right, when not behind the clouds or trees. She had no idea how long she’d been gone, but she’d covered a lot of ground and thought she had a chance of making it.
Hannah pictured her mum and little bros and got a lump in her throat thinking how good it’d be to see them.
Georgie said, ‘So where’s your place?’
Ealding just smiled. He’d stopped making small talk about five or ten minutes up the road from Shenanigans. He and the friend he called Dicko spoke in code around he
r.
‘Is your place nearby?’ She half-turned.
Dicko smirked but didn’t answer.
She went back to trying to work out how long they’d been travelling and where they were.
They’d driven up Canterbury Road, passing over the roundabout in Montrose where Josh had earlier turned left off the Mount Dandenong Tourist Road. After the darkened shops in Mount Evelyn, they’d followed minor streets.
Ealding had confiscated her phone: he’d asked to borrow it, laughed and pocketed it. That was when Dicko had pulled out beers and the two guys had started chugging booze. He’d also lit a joint, sharing it with his mate before pushing it between her lips, but she wouldn’t take a drag. She hoped she wouldn’t get high by passive smoking.
Georgie realised any normal girl would have alarm bells going off by now. So she had put up a protest…but not too much. She’d be no use to Hannah injured or trussed up. At that cold truth, she’d turned compliant, even acting open to sex with both of them while bile rose with the rate of her pulse at the thought.
‘Go on.’ Dicko waved a fresh joint at her.
‘Nah, ta. I’ve quit.’
They were stoned and pissed, and killed themselves laughing.
Georgie went back to her calculations.
It’s been around twenty or twenty-five minutes. Winding roads. Quite hilly. We could be somewhere near Healesville or maybe Gembrook.
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