Blood Tears (14 page)

“
In
the car park,” I informed her. “And in our lockup.”

“
He
better not spew in one of my cells or I’ll rub his face in it,” she
tutted, and tapped industriously on her keyboard as I gave her all
his relevant details. “Okay, Tess. I think that’s enough
information to process him. I’ll get him to fill in some of these
gaps when he’s
compos mentis
again. Not that those Bycrafts
ever are.” She gave a hard bark of laughter. “Anyone else to
process?”

“
Nope. The other one didn’t want to press charges against this
Bycraft,” said the Sarge.

“
Typical! Bloody Bycrafts. Pack of wild animals, if you ask
me.” She leaned on the counter. “I have to warn you though, I’ll be
chucking him out of here the second he’s sobered up and he has his
court date. We’re bursting at the seams. Must be coming up to a
full moon again.”

“
Great,” I complained. “So he gets to walk after assaulting an
officer?”

“
He’ll get his comeuppance eventually,” she said calmly. We
made moves to leave. “Oh, guys, I almost forgot. The Super’s after
you.”

“
We
know,” I said gloomily.

“
She’s rung down here about three times looking for you this
morning. Better not keep her waiting.”

“
Do
we look suicidal?” asked the Sarge wryly, making the Senior Sarge
laugh.

“
You’d have to be to keep her waiting this
morning.”

“
That
doesn’t sound very promising for us,” said the Sarge to me on our
way to the lift.

“
Oh,
and Maguire?” called the Senior Sarge. He turned around. “Welcome
back.”

“
Finally!” he exalted, following me to the lift. “See,
she
didn’t find it that hard to welcome me back.”

“
Good
for her.” I repeatedly jabbed the floor number we needed. “She’s
always liked tackling the impossible.”

“
You’re so funny, Fuller.”

Determined to get
whatever bollocking the Super planned for me over and done with so
I could scuttle out of her sight again, I barged out of the lift
first. And ran smack bang into the huge, over-muscled hulk of Bum,
the impact sending me reeling back into the Sarge.

“
Steady on there, Tessie,” he said, holding my arms to
stabilise me.

I surprised everyone,
even myself, by jumping away from him as if I’d been poked with a
cattle prod. I did not want him touching me. Unfortunately, my
rushed movement caused me to virtually throw myself at Bum, which,
in my humble opinion, was going from the frying pan into the fire.
I especially didn’t want
him
touching me either.

“
Tessie,” Bum exclaimed in delight, slipping his arms around
me. “I’m really pleased to see you too. It’s been a while. Didn’t
know you’d miss me that much.”

“
Ugh!
” I said, shoving him away, and stalking off down
the hall.

The Sarge caught up
with me at the Super’s doorway. She was on the phone and held up
her palm to tell us to stay outside.

“
What
the hell was that about, Tess?” he whispered fiercely, leaning down
to look me closely in the eyes.

“
Nothing,” I hissed back. “You know I don’t like people
touching me.”

He sighed harshly. “I
thought we’d moved beyond that.”

I rounded on him.
“Look, if you think you can just waltz back into town and
everything will be the same, then you’re deluding yourself.
Everything
isn’t
the same. Everything’s changed. Learn to
deal with it.”

“
Get
in here, you two!” the Super bellowed in her hard, husky voice. A
constable passing by jumped in fright at the sound of it, dropping
all his papers to the ground, leaving him nervously scrabbling
around scooping them up. The Super kind of had that effect on
everyone.

We stood obediently in
front of her desk, waiting for her to invite us to sit down. She
kept us waiting for a while, before the merest flick of her wrist
indicated we had permission to sit.

“
What
was all that fucking hissing about just then? I thought Bum had
sprung a leak on one of his over-pumped muscles,” she commented,
casting baleful eyes on me, and then the Sarge. “Were you two
fighting?”

“
No,
ma’am,” I lied.

“
No,
ma’am,” he lied.

“
Fuck
knows I’m less pleased than a cannibal at a vegetarian buffet to
see you two working together again, but if you have to, you’ll do
it as a fucking team. Understand?”

“
Yes,
ma’am,” we said.

“
A
team tighter than Bum’s arse muscles. Understand?”

“
Yes,
ma’am,” we chorused again.

She took a moment to
light a cigarette, enjoying a few drags before speaking again.

“
So
you,” she poked her cigarette in the Sarge’s direction, a bit of
ash flying off the end, almost landing in his lap, “recognise that
she’s fucking pissed off with you for leaving her to deal with the
Bycrafts while you swanned around overseas drinking champagne and
eating croissants. Sort it out. Pronto.”

“
And
you.” My turn for the ash flicking. “Get over yourself already and
move on. What happened has happened, so move on. Maguire fucked off
on you, but now he’s back, so move on. Your disciplinary time is
over, so fucking move on. Are you managing to see a pattern in what
I’m saying to you?” I pursed my lips tightly. “And think about
this, Tess – the next time you want to go batshit insane,
don’t
do it in a room full of fucking brass
.”

I steeled myself not to
flinch at her angry words, keeping my eyes determinedly fixed on
hers.

“
And
you can stop giving me the evil eye all the time. I’ve fucking had
enough of it.”

I thought that was
unfair, as I hadn’t set eyes on her since the Sarge was suspended.
Though to be honest, I’d been sending her hundreds of telepathic
evil eye looks since then, so maybe she’d picked up on those.

I stood. “Is that all,
ma’am?” I asked politely.

“
No, it fucking isn’t!
” she shouted, loud enough to
make someone in the hall squeal in fear, followed by the sound of
running feet. “Plant your arse back on that seat now.”

I planted my arse and
waited for the rest of the bollocking to come, fairly confident she
definitely hadn’t called us in to congratulate us for arresting
Mark, or to welcome back the Sarge.

“
Now,
I want you two to listen up, and to listen good, because I don’t
intend to say this twice.” She paused, making sure we were all
ears. “I did not want you two to work together again. If I’d had my
way, Maguire would have been sent back to the city. I was
overruled.” She shot the Sarge a malevolent glare, as if it was all
his fault. “So I don’t want to hear any more bullshit from either
of you. You will police that shithole of a town, and you will
police it well. Maguire, you
will
fucking supervise your
senior constable. Tessie, you
will
fucking listen to your
sergeant. I don’t want to hear about any more unauthorised high
speed chases, or any more bumbling detective work, or any more
fucking complaints, especially from that old sow, Villiers. Do I
make myself perfectly clear?”

“
Yes,
ma’am,” we both said with a palpable degree of
resentment.

“
It
would make me the happiest superintendent in the whole fucking
state to not hear one word about you or that arse-smear of a town
you call home for the
next fifty fucking years
. Do you
understand?”

“
Yes,
ma’am.”

“
Good. Now, fuck off. I’m flat out trying to decide what to do
about all these petty thefts. They’re sucking up too much of my
uniforms’ time.”

But at the door, she
called the Sarge back. “And get a fucking haircut, Maguire. It’s
not one of your hipster Euro nightclubs around here. It’s a
workplace with rules. Do you remember what they are?”

“
Yes,
ma’am.”

We almost made it out
the door this time before she yelled out my name. “Tess, I forgot
to tell you that Baz has formally ticked off on your disciplinary
time.”

“
Is
that good or bad, ma’am?” I asked, suddenly remembering all the
times I’d spoken back to him.

“
It’s
good, you dumbarse. That means I can sign off on it, and it’s done
and dusted and relegated to history.”

“
The
Deputy Commissioner won’t ever forget it.”

Her ashtray being too
full, she crushed out her cigarette butt on a pile of Police
Commissioner memos. “Stop big-noting yourself. That dipshit has
more important things to think about than a senior constable in a
flyshit town like yours. He’s forgotten about you already.”

“
It
will still be recorded on my personnel file.”

Her face softened a
little, but only a little – like a light dusting of snow on a
craggy mountain. “So fucking what? It’s not necessarily a block to
your future career. Now, piss off. I’m busy.”

I knew then that what
Baz had implied was true. Fiona
had
been cop-wrangled
herself. Feeling slightly more buoyant at that thought, I joined a
patiently waiting Sarge at the lift.

“
I’d
hoped she’d give me a bit of a break instead of chewing my arse off
on my second day,” he commented wryly as we waited for the lift to
arrive.

“
That
was
her affectionate welcome back. I think she missed
you.”

He laughed. “Just as
much as I missed her.”

“
Before we go, can I drop these copies of my latest report
into Mr X and Zelda? It’s really important.”

“
Sure
thing.”

We detoured to the dees
area, but neither Mr X nor Zelda were at their desks. One of the
other dees informed us that they were out on a new violent assault
case that had landed on their desks yesterday afternoon.

“
They’ll never give priority to an accidental death over a
violent assault,” I complained to the Sarge as he waited for a gap
in traffic to pull out from the police station. “Mr X told me they
were already working multiple cases. They need to hire more
cops.”

“
I
suppose the department can only hire as many as allowed in the
budget it’s given each year.”

“
Bloody politicians. They wouldn’t have a clue what it’s like
being a frontline cop.”

“
To
be fair, I’m sure they try to find out as much as they can about
frontline conditions.”

“
Sure
they do.”

Spotting something off
to the side of the road, he said, “Think you can entertain yourself
for ten or fifteen minutes?”

“
I’m
sure I’ll manage without you somehow.”

He pulled over and
parked, disappearing into a shop.

While he was gone, I
spent the next ten minutes mulling over my interview with Mr
Mansfield, and what he’d told me about Jamie and his girlfriend. I
wondered if it was worth the Sarge and me poking around the
bushland in the area where Dave’s ute had been abandoned to see if
we could find a place where Jamie’s girlfriend might be
staying.

When he returned, his
hair was newly cut to required length.

“
Do
you like it?” he asked.

“
Meh.
It’s so boringly regulation. I preferred your hipster Euro
nightclub look better,” I smiled. “Lucky for you, the Super didn’t
set eyes on that hairy abomination you called a
moustache.”

“
I
think I have to agree with you there, though it would have been
interesting to have heard what she said.”

“
It
certainly would have been colourful.”

I was just about to
open my mouth again to suggest my idea of looking for the place the
teenagers stayed, when he spoke. “Tessie, as much as I hate to say
it, I think there was a lot right about what the Super said. I know
you think I abandoned you, and I guess no matter how I try to
rationalise it to you, you’re always going to see it as a betrayal
of sorts.”

I looked down at my
hands, deciding not to bother to deny it. “I’ll get over it,” I
said quietly.
One day
.

“
I
just want to say a simple sorry, without going into the reasons why
I thought it was the best decision at the time. I’m really sorry,
Tessie.” Eyes still down, I nodded to let him know I’d heard him.
“I wish none of it had happened. But you trusted that I would come
back, didn’t you?”

I guess my continuing
silence told him everything.

“
I
promised you I would. You know me better than to think I’d break my
promise to you, don’t you?” I could hear the disappointment in his
voice.

“
It
doesn’t matter anymore,” I said, my voice muted. “You’ve returned
for now, but you’ll leave again one day. And one day, I’ll leave
too. And eventually that horrible day on Mount Big might just fade
away to be nothing more than a bad memory that both of us only
think about now and then.”

“
This
might surprise you, but that’s exactly what I hope for too one day
– that we’ll both leave and can put the past behind us.”

That made me sad for
some reason I couldn’t explain, except that it suggested he’d
already decided that he wouldn’t be staying in Little Town for
long. He probably wanted to relegate both Dylan’s death and working
with me to his same bad memories file. All I could hope for myself
was that I wouldn’t be there forever either, because I knew I’d
never forget that awful night I’d spent alone with two dead men on
that damn mountain.