Blood Tears (46 page)

“
She
is now saying we need to maintain a presence at the
funeral.”

“
What? God, what a turnaround. Does that include
me?”

“
I
did say we, not me.”

“
Did
she say what she means by a presence?”

“
Pretty sure she doesn’t want you standing with the family at
the graveside or anything.”

“
Obviously.”

“
I
think we should take the car and park out the front of the
cemetery. Everything going on is visible from there, isn’t
it?”

I considered. “Yep,
should be.” I glanced at him. “Perhaps we should do a reccy
now.”

“
Was
just thinking the same thing, partner.”

I gave him a small
smile. “Are you still angry with me about yesterday?”

“
Tessie, considering you’re probably going to do something
that will make me angry tomorrow, or possibly even today, I just
need a break now and then from all that angst. I’m really not
liking all these grey hairs you’re giving me.”

“
Stop
being so vain, Maguire,” I laughed, flinging my cap at him. “You
haven’t even got any grey hairs.”

He caught my cap and
brought it back to me, fixing it on my head. “The second I find
any, I’m going to bill you for all the hair dye I’ll need to cover
them.”

“
Good
luck getting any money out of me.”

He gave my shoulder a
gentle shove towards the door. “Come on. Let’s go reccy, or we’ll
run out of time before the funeral.”

In the car, I thought
about Abe’s good news, and without thinking said, “Gee, there won’t
be any female cops left around here if all the pregnant ones
leave.”

His glance was intently
questioning. “Tessie, is there something you want to tell me?”

Feeling guilty about
even mentioning Mr X and Blondie’s pregnancy when I’d promised to
keep it a secret, I said, “No, I better not. I don’t want to say
anything to anyone about it.” I couldn’t believe I’d inadvertently
broken a confidence, worried about what Mr X would say if he found
out. “Oh boy. I’m in so much trouble now if he finds out.”

An expression crossed
his face that I couldn’t interpret. “Tessie, I’ll do what I can to
help. I honestly mean that. I don’t expect that Jake is going to be
interested. Not now.”

“
Why
would Jake care?” I asked, looking out the window, not wanting to
bring up the topic of him again.

“
I
can see now why you were so concerned about that girl and her
baby.”

“
To
be honest, I barely know one end of a baby from the other. That
delivery was a real eye-opener.”

“
You’ll learn in time.”

I stared at him. “Why
would I want to? I don’t really have any interest in babies at the
moment.”

He stared back at me,
puzzled. “You’ll have to learn. But now I understand why you worry
so much about money all the time.”

It took me a while to
twig to what he meant. “It’s not
me
! I’m not talking about
me. I’m not the one who’s pregnant. God! Why would you think such a
thing?”

He shook his head in
confusion. “It was what you said. The way you said it.”

“
No.
Someone told me in confidence they were having a baby, and I felt
bad that I’d blabbed to you about it.”

“
I’m
glad that you’re not. I really am.”

“
So
am I. It’s the last thing I need at the moment.”

We looked at each other
and laughed.

“
Were
you talking about X and his girlfriend?”

“
How
did you know?” I asked in disbelief.

“
Everybody knows.”

I shook my head in
amusement. “Obviously either Mr X or Blondie isn’t too good at
keeping a secret themselves.”

“
The
Super told everyone yesterday when we were gathered trying to
coordinate your rescue.”

“
It
was hardly a rescue,” I butted in. “I was about to walk out the
door with Annabel when it burst down with all those muscle
men.”

“
She
was berating X about something to do with work, telling him pretty
much that he’d better pull his head out of his arse if he wanted to
have any chance of being a good father. So then he had to confirm
it to everyone, and five seconds later everyone in the station
knew.”

“
How
did the Super find out? I can’t imagine either of them confiding in
her about it yet, especially as it means she’s probably going to
lose a probie cop.”

“
It’s
a mystery to everyone. Perhaps she has Bum eavesdropping on
everyone for her?”

“
Bum?” I said scornfully. “He’d be as subtle at spying as an
elephant at a mouse conference.”

“
She
obviously has some sort of sixth sense or something.”

“
She
sees stupid people. Especially when Bum’s around.”

We stopped at the
terminus of Dead End Street where the old town cemetery was
located. It was closed to new ‘tenants’, but there were family
plots from some of the pioneering families that were still used on
occasion.

The Fullers had a
family plot, which was unfortunately rather full. The Bycrafts had
one as well, though it was positioned in a far corner of the
cemetery, quite a distance from the rest of the plots. Their plot
was badly neglected as evidenced by the overgrown grass. Many of
their homemade gravestones had either rotted or rusted completely
away. Other Bycrafts weren’t cared about enough for anyone in their
family to have even bothered making them one.

“
Let’s drive in there,” the Sarge said, so I jumped out to
open the creaking gates that did nothing to prevent vandals and
kids looking for a thrill – mostly all Bycrafts, of course – from
entering.

As I did, I notice that
the Fuller gravestones had been defaced yet again. Sighing to
myself, I knew that would mean a long weekend for me scrubbing
offensive comments off my ancestors’ gravestones. I never told Dad
about each act of vandalism as I figured he didn’t need to be
bothered about one more thing in his life. He was no longer able to
visit, as the cemetery wasn’t wheelchair friendly, consisting of
dirt paths between the graves that turned into mud puddles in wet
weather.

We drove slowly down
the main path. It was mostly used by hearses and maintenance
workers from the local council attending to the annual mow and
clean up of the cemetery grounds.

“
There’s something about cemeteries that make them eerie, even
during the day,” commented the Sarge.

“
I
think it’s the utter silence.”

“
It’s
not as if you want anyone talking back to you,” he
smiled.

“
Definitely not.”

I directed him to the
Bycraft plot. He parked and we got out to survey the overgrown
patch. It saddened me enormously to see the grave dug out and ready
to receive Denny, particularly when I hadn’t been very nice to him
during his life.

I suppose that my
melancholy must have shown on my face, because the Sarge placed a
kind hand on my shoulder.

“
He
died a hero, Tessie. That’s not something that happens to many of
us.”

“
It’s
not like he had a choice about it.”

“
He
did. He could have done nothing to save you.”

“
Most
of his relatives wouldn’t have lifted a finger to save
me.”

“
Exactly. And I won’t deny that I’m grateful it’s him who’s
being buried today and not you.”

“
Thank you, Sarge.”

He checked out the
surroundings. “We can mostly see what’s happening from the car if
we park outside the gates. At least the ground is flat.”

“
Yeah, but those trees are going to impede our view,” I said,
pointing to the fig trees planted a hundred years ago and now
behemoths, their roots cracking tombs and toppling
headstones.

“
I
don’t want to go closer than the gates, Tess. The Super said to
maintain a presence, not join the ceremony.”

“
But
we could just go to –”

“
Tess,” he said in the voice that told me he meant
it.

“
Oh,
all right,” I conceded ungracefully.

He felt my forehead,
mock surprise on his face. “Are you feeling okay? You just agreed
to do something I told you to without me having to wrestle you to
the ground over it.”

“
That’s only because I can’t be bothered arguing with a
blatant rank-puller.”

He smiled. “Sometimes
it’s the only advantage I have over you, kid.”

Chapter
32

We had lunch at his
place, sitting on his front verandah to keep an eye on the station.
When we finished eating, I rang Annabel to check on her. She told
me the hospital would release her in a few days and her Community
Services case officer had organised some temporary accommodation
for her.

“
I
think I’ve done everything I can for her,” I said to the Sarge when
I’d hung up and relayed her information to him.

“
Yep.
You need to leave it to other professionals to help her now. You
have other things to worry about at the moment.”

“
Speaking of which, maybe it would be a good idea for us to be
at the pub when the Corrective Services officers bring in the
Bycrafts. Just in case.”

He poked me in the arm.
“You want to see Red again that badly?”

I poked him back
harder. “No, I want to see Red rot in hell, wise guy. But it would
be good to let them know we’re not taking their presence in town
lightly. And maybe introduce ourselves to the Corrective Services
officers?”

He checked his watch.
“Why not? They’re supposed to turn up in about fifteen
minutes.”

“
Can’t wait.”

We cleaned and locked
up his house and walked down to the patrol car.

“
How
are you feeling, Tessie?”

“
On
edge. How about you?”

“
Same. But I’m not sure if that’s just your edginess rubbing
off on me.”

“
I
just wish the Super had given us some more uniforms.”

“
It
was her call. And if anything goes arse-up today, I’m not going to
let her get away with blaming us for it.”

“
Ooh,
I love it when you talk tough.”

He smiled. “Face it –
there’s a lot to love about me.”

“
Is
that what your mum tells you?”

“
Always the smartarse, Fuller.”

“
It’s
my most attractive personality trait.”

“
Oh,
I don’t know. I’m personally quite fond of your incredible
insubordination. That’s quite fun to work with, especially with the
Super riding my arse about it every five minutes.”

That made me laugh.
“Hey, I can’t be that bad to work with. You came back to me, after
all.”

His eyes rested on me
for what seemed like a long moment. “That I did. I must be a
glutton for punishment.”

“
See,
and that’s one of your most attractive personality
traits.”

He didn’t answer,
because as we pulled into the pub carpark, so did the transport van
carrying our four visiting prisoners.

“
They’re early,” the Sarge noted.

“
Must
have had good traffic.”

I was pleased to see
that they weren’t taking any chances this time, particularly with
Red being a previous escapee. The van was one of the newer fleet,
with segregated compartments for each prisoner, usually used for
transporting them between the city prison and the courthouse
complex.

The van parked and we
parked next to it, stepping out. Two armed burly Corrective
Services officers stepped from the cabin of the van.

“
Are
there only two of you?” I asked in dismay. Red alone needed two
officers to secure him.

One of the burly men, a
dark-skinned man who’d suffered terrible acne in his youth judging
by the pocked scarring on his cheeks, shrugged.

“
Budget cutbacks. You know how it is.”

We introduced ourselves
and learnt that our shrugger’s name was Arapeta; the other, a
light-brown haired, freckled giant with a surprisingly high voice,
Quentin.

Abe, alerted by one of
his staff, came out to meet the two officers, shaking hands.

“
So
what’s the deal?” asked Quentin.

“
You
have two rooms, both upstairs, both with their own bathrooms and
capable of sleeping three each. I’ve set them up for three single
beds in each room.”

“
Good,” said Arapeta. “How are the locks?”

Abe shrugged. “You
know. Normal hotel room locks – swipe card access.”

The two officers looked
at each other.

“
We’ll discuss that later,” Arapeta said to Quentin. “Let’s
get these peeps out and upstairs.”

“
Glad
you guys are here,” Quentin said to us. “We can take one each.” He
looked me up and down disparagingly, immediately dismissing my
physical ability with a scrunch of his face. “You can take the old
one. He’s not much trouble.”

“
No
worries,” I said mildly.
Sexist arsehole
.

The Sarge shot me a
warning look, obviously recognising the expression on my face.

The first one they let
out was Tommy. He stumbled out, blinking a bit in the bright
sunshine. His hands were cuffed, but he was wearing ordinary
clothes, a buttoned shirt and jeans.