Blood Tears (39 page)

“
Absolutely not.”

“
No,
you’re right. It would be a terrible idea. I might even believe
what she said to me.” I looked up at him. “I think I’d prefer to
stick with your prediction of me having a great future.”

“
Me
too.”

I pulled up sharp. “Oh,
shit.”

Although it appeared
that today, at least, the teen Bycrafts had made themselves scarce
– perhaps even have gone to school, I thought with a cynical
chuckle – lounging out the front of the grocery store were some of
the adult Bycrafts. And smack bang in the middle of them was
Jake.

“
I
don’t want to do this,” I said in a low voice to the
Sarge.

“
Tessie, you can do it. Just ignore him. Ignore all of
them.”

“
No.”

“
Come
on. I want to check with Grimmell that those Bycraft kids haven’t
been bothering him again.”

Jake sat with Rick and
Mark, who’d obviously been released on bail while awaiting trial
after being charged with king-hitting Baz. All were drinking beer,
even at this hour, and Jake and Rick were sharing a cigarette,
though he never normally smoked.

Dorrie Lebutt sat next
to Jake. She was draped all over him, her arm around his shoulders
and her hand resting indecently high on his thigh, despite the fact
that Rick and Mark had been fighting about her only a few days ago.
The expression on her face of triumphant malice left me in no doubt
that Jake had found some physical comfort from her last night.

My face burned with
humiliation. While I was crying my heart out over him, he’d been
off screwing Dorrie, of all people. The heartless bastard. That
only made me more determined not to shed another tear over him.

As we walked past them,
the Sarge’s eyes raked over Dorrie with contempt. He said
scornfully to Jake, “You gave up Tessie for
that
? You’re
even more stupid than I suspected.”

“
You
shut your face, Maguire,” Jake said, half-rising, his fists
clenched.

“
Oh,
yeah? You want to make me?” the Sarge responded, stepping forward,
his fists also clenching.

“
What
happened between Tessie and me is none of your business,” Jake
seethed.

“
It’s
every bit my business,” the Sarge snarled back. “You better listen
to me, Bycraft. You won’t have anything to do with her from now on.
You stay away from her, and you keep your family away from
her.”

“
Fuck
off. Don’t tell me what to do.”

“
Say
that to me again.”

“
Sarge,” I warned, tugging on his arm.

I wasn’t prepared to
have him get into trouble for picking a fight on my behalf. If Jake
wanted to dump me and then immediately screw a skank like Dorrie,
who’d just had either his brother’s or his cousin’s brat, then let
him. It somehow made it easier for me to see that I was better off
without him.

“
Sarge,” I said again. “Let it go.” And this time he
listened.

Jake and he eyeballed
each other the whole way until we stepped into the grocery
store.

After checking with Mr
Grimmell that the young Bycrafts had left him in peace since we’d
spoken to them, we departed. I released the tension in my shoulders
when we saw that Jake and the others had gone.

“
Why
isn’t he at work anyway?” asked the Sarge, still simmering from
their encounter.

“
He
told me he was having a few days off because of Denny’s
funeral.”

“
When
is the funeral?”

“
I
don’t know. I would have thought it would be soon, sometime in the
next few days. They’ve waited so long for his body to be released
that I wouldn’t think they’d want to delay it much
longer.”

“
I’m
worried about the funeral. I think what you said before was right.
It’s almost like a build up to something – that the funeral is
going to burst some kind of release valve.” He stopped and looked
down at me. “Tessie, you have accepted that you’re not going to it,
haven’t you?”

“
Yes.
After what’s happened, I wouldn’t want go to it now. I told the
Super that I’ll pay my respects to Denny at a later time, when his
family’s not there.”

He sighed in relief.
“You have no idea how glad I am to hear that.”

I smiled wryly. “I
think I have some idea.”

We walked around town
for a bit longer, stopping now and then to pass the time of day
with shopkeepers and other townsfolk.

“
Where do you think Annabel is?” I asked him as we strolled.
“Do you think she and baby Jamie are safe? They’re on my mind a
lot.”

“
I
honestly don’t know, Tessie. We can only hope that Merrick has come
to terms with the fact that the baby is born, and that there’s a
good chance it’s his.”

“
Helping deliver the baby is an experience I won’t forget in a
hurry.”

“
Me
neither. I know I said it before, but you really did a great job
that night.”

“
Thank you,” I said sincerely, not being all that used to
receiving praise for my work.

He checked his watch.
“Okay, I think we’ve walked around enough. Probably time to get
back to the station. I can’t quite believe we haven’t been called
out for anything today. It all just seems too . . . unnaturally
calm. Especially for this place.”

“
It’s
like everyone’s waiting for something to happen.”

“
Exactly. It’s hard not to think it will have something to do
with the funeral.”

“
I’ll
be glad when it’s over then, if it’s going to have everyone in town
on tenterhooks.”

“
That
reminds me. I want to ring the Super this afternoon to discuss
security at the funeral. How many prisoners will be
attending?”

“
Four. Ritchie, Red, Karl, and Tommy. As far as I know,
they’re not letting any of Denny’s cousins out to come to the
funeral, and I’m very glad about that. I wouldn’t want to see Craig
back in town. Abe would go ballistic at the sight of him. It would
be very ugly.”

“
He’s
the one who murdered Abe’s wife?”

“
Yep.”

“
Okay, four of them will be more than enough for us to manage.
They better send an adequate number of Correctional Services
officers with them. The last thing we need is one of them doing a
runner, or something stupid like that.”

“
I
wouldn’t put it past Red or Karl to try something on. Ritchie’s
probably too institutionalised by now to try to escape, and Tommy’s
being rehabilitated, so probably wouldn’t want to jeopardise his
chances of earlier release.” I paused. “I’m not really looking
forward to seeing any of them. I wish they hadn’t decided to give
them compassionate leave.”

“
Yeah, it’s not like Red Bycraft has even one millilitre of
compassion inside him.”

“
Especially not for his victims. I wonder what they’d think if
they knew he was waltzing around outside prison, even if it’s just
for a day or two.”

“
They’d be appalled, I’d imagine. Every bit as much as you’re
appalled by the decision.”

“
You’ve got that right, Sarge.”

He rang the Super when
we returned to the station. He didn’t say much on his side of the
conversation, so it was impossible to tell what they’d discussed,
but the growing anger on his face made me suspect he wasn’t happy
about the news.

“
The
funeral’s tomorrow afternoon,” he told me when he eventually hung
up.

“
Wow.
Okay. I knew it would be soon, but I’ll have to get my head around
that.”

“
The
prisoners will be escorted down here from the city to arrive about
two o’clock. After the funeral, they’ll be escorted to Abe’s pub to
stay the night before returning to the city first thing in the
morning the day afterwards.”

“
Abe’s rooms aren’t very secure. Why don’t they take them to
Big Town? They could keep them overnight at the watch
house.”

“
Who
knows? But the short window of time that they’re actually here in
town should reduce the chances of anything happening. And they’ll
be under constant guard.”

“
I
should bloody well hope so.”

While the Sarge popped
out to buy us some lunch, I rang Dad to check on him, glad to find
him awake and assuring me that he’d eaten the breakfast I’d
prepared for him. He sounded rested and relaxed, and talked of
pottering around the house for the afternoon, leaving me with a
lighter heart.

We ate our lunch
sitting on the back stairs of the station, though we could easily
have gone up to his house for a bit more comfort. Finished, I
scrunched up my wrap and was about to take his to the bin too, when
he stopped me from rising with a hand on my shoulder.

“
Tessie, how do you feel about what we saw before? With Jake
and that woman?”

“
How
do you think I feel, Sarge? I feel completely humiliated over the
whole thing. I feel well and truly spurned, and cast off. He
couldn’t even wait one night to get it on with someone else. And he
had to choose Dorrie, just to rub it in.” I shook off his hand and
stood, not wanting to look at him. “That’s how little our
relationship meant to him. I find that really hard to take. I
honestly thought he loved me.”

“
He’s
a major fool.”

“
It’s
not really my concern what he is or isn’t anymore.”

And with that I left
him to return inside with the rubbish.

“
Will
we do a bit of radar work this afternoon?” he asked when he came
in.

“
Seems like a bit of overkill for us both to do it. Why don’t
I do it by myself for a couple of hours? It’s not like I’ve never
done it by myself before.”

“
Okay, makes sense. I’ve got more paperwork to catch up. I
swear to God it never ends. I think it even multiplies when we’re
not here.”

We bickered a little
about where I’d set up, but I managed to convince him to let me run
the south side of town, as we’d done the north for the breath
testing. I had a lovely little spot behind the ‘Welcome to Mount
Big Town’ sign where I was virtually hidden from approaching
motorists until the last minute. I’d sit in the patrol car and
clock incoming vehicles with the speed gun. I’d pursue any caught
speeding until they pulled over, and then I’d issue them with an
infringement notice on the spot.

“
Do
you have your phone on you?” he asked when he handed over the keys
to the patrol car.

“
Of
course I have my phone.” I pulled it from my pocket to show him.
“So you can stop fussing.”

“
I’m
not
fussing
. It’s called being cautious. I know that’s not a
word you’re very familiar with, but it’s something essential that I
need to be whenever you’re around.”

“
I
can’t hear you,” I sing-sang as I swiftly exited through the front
door.

I worked my patch for a
couple of hours, the Sarge checking on me about every fifteen
minutes, which started to piss me off after the third time. Where I
parked was where the road flattened out after a steep climb up the
Coastal Range. Certain drivers felt that was the perfect time to
let loose on their speed, even though they were entering a sixty
zone. During that time, I caught five speeders – three of them
sheepish and apologetic, one tearful, and one fairly belligerent
who threatened to rip up the ticket in front of me. I managed to
stare him down into compliance, and he drove away, his ticket
intact.

I was on the verge of
radioing into the Sarge my plan to pack it in for the day, when a
mud-brown car putted past me on its way out of town. I froze,
recognising it immediately as the one Merrick drove.

Chapter
27

I hastily packed away
the radar gun. As the patrol car was partially hidden from the
road, I didn’t think I’d been seen. I was pretty sure I knew why he
was here – the same reason that brought him to the station the
first time. He was hunting down his treasure. And now that I’d seen
his collection of valuables, it was easier to understand why he’d
hazard being spotted in town again to find them.

I turned on the car,
ready to zoom off after him, cursing that I hadn’t been able to see
if anyone accompanied him. But before I could pull out, the car
came trundling in the other direction, heading back into town. This
time I could see that he had a passenger. I couldn’t be sure, but
it looked like Annabel.

Not far down the road
from me he must have thrown a u-turn. But why?

He’s trying to force
her to remember where she and Jamie left his valuables
, I
thought. But she’d told me she was distraught and heavily pregnant
at the time, and hadn’t paid attention to where they were.

“
He’s
cruising up and down waiting for her to recognise some kind of
landmark,” I said aloud. “Time to pull him over for a nice,
friendly, little chat.”

But I would make sure
that chat was neither nice nor friendly. I patted my gun.
Let’s
go bust his arse
, I told myself with a nasty smile.
And his
head.

I had every right to
pick him up now on the basis of the red alert out for him, so I had
no concern about the legalities of pulling him over. Or even
roughing him up a bit. Or a lot.