Challis - 05 - Blood Moon (21 page)

Yes. I think she went to lunch with
a friend and had various outside appointments after that.

Groots office continued the theme
of the foyer: grey tufted carpeting, frosted glass, gleaming pale wood that
might have been supplied by Ikea, and fluorescent lighting at saturation point.
Everything was new and probably intended to be cheerful and comfortable but it
irked Challis.

What can you tell me about her job?

Groot was about fifty, jowly and in
poor shape, with sparse hair, an unhealthy flush and too many kilos straining
the fabric of his trousers, shirt and jacket. He had tried to compensate with a
youthful tie and narrow black-rimmed spectacles, but only succeeded in
conveying incongruity, not youthfulness. He looked desolately at the floor and murmured,
She was our infringements person.

Challis nodded encouragingly.

Groot looked up, mustering himself. Here
in Planning East we process applications, give advice and feedback about what
can and cannot be allowed, and examine projects on completionanything from
that backyard granny flat you build for your elderly mother to a huge new
shopping centre. Were bound by federal, state and local regulations, and they
change over time and from district to district. He paused, said challengingly,
Where do you live?

Challis told him.

Zoned rural, Groot said, nodding
wisely. He counted on his fingers: No further subdivision permitted. If you
erect a new house youll need permission to go higher than eight metres. The
roof must be a muted colour, nothing glary. Youre not allowed to cut down any
of the notable trees. I could go on.

Please dont, Challis thought. And
Mrs Wisharts job?

Naturally there are individuals who
ignore the regulations.

Mrs Wishart investigated these
instances?

Yes. I did too, when she was
overloaded.

Well need access to her files,
diary and computers.

Some of the information contained
therein is confidential.

Challis hoped hed never have to
read any of the mans reports. Besides, he was pretty sure that planning
applications were on the public record, so that objections could be lodged. He
said nothing but presented Groot with a warrant. Groot read it, his hands
trembling a little. This seems to be in order.

Lets get started. Then we can be
out of your hair.

They stepped into the foyer, where
the two Mornington detectives on loan to Challis were waiting. Their names were
Schlunke and Johns, but everyone on the Peninsula knew them as Smith and Jones.
Challis nodded, and all four men continued along a corridor to an office
opposite a photocopying room, where a young woman was standing numbly, watching
sheets of paper spill into the collating trays of one of the machines. Her eyes
and nose were raw from weeping.

Mrs Wishart was popular?

Very, Groot said, unlocking the
office and stepping in quickly ahead of the detectives, the set of his body
tense, as though the killer awaited them or Ludmilla Wishart had left
incriminating files open on her desk.

The Mornington officers began to
unplug the computer and box up the files. Challis went straight to the desk
diary. He motioned to Groot. Can you explain these entries?

The chief planner stooped to peer at
the page, breathing audibly. Staff meeting in the morning, he murmured, lunch
with CGher friendthen three appointments: Tyabb 3 p.m., Penzance Beach 4
p.m., Shoreham 5 p.m. He straightened his back with a thoughtful frown. Lets
see.. .Tyabb was an unauthorised bed-and-breakfast. The people concerned had
built a second dwelling on their property, but instead of demolishing their
original dwelling theyd restored it and rented it out to holidaymakers. They
said they didnt know they needed permission and a permit, but thats no
defence.

Penzance?

Ludmilla had been helping a
residents action committee, Groot said shortly.

To do what?

Get a heritage protection order on
an old house.

Was it successful?

Groot shook his head. It was
demolished.

When?

Yesterday morning.

Challis nodded. The house that Pam
Murphy had told him about. Demolished before the protection order could come
into effect?

Yes.

Was Mrs Wishart upset?

I expect so.

Were the residents upset?

I expect they were, Groot said.

He sounded more sullen than
professionally outraged or disappointed. And Shoreham?

Groot brightened. A rather arrogant
young man chopped down trees he shouldnt have. He was fined and obliged to
replant.

Mr Jamie Furneaux?

Well, yes.

Was he angry with Mrs Wishart?

I really couldnt say, Groot said,
making it sound as though he had nothing to do with the grubby end of the
business.

They walked back along the corridor,
Groot pausing to duck into the photocopy room. Challis, waiting outside the
door, saw the set of Groots body as he stood close to the weeping secretary
and murmured in her ear. The woman went rigid, gathered her pages together and
hurried out, brushing past Challis. We have pressing deadlines, muttered
Groot, rejoining him.

* * * *

Challis
questioned the departments other planners and office staff, learning only that
Ludmilla Wishart was well liked but in a stressful job, the stress coming from
abusive calls, which the office staff attempted to divert, and from Adrian
Wishart, her husband.

Did you ever see him abuse her in
any way?

None of them had.

Threaten her?

No. But he was obsessive, forever
keeping tabs on her.

This is in confidence, Challis
said, but could she have been involved with someone else, in a romantic sense?

Not that they knew of. I dont
think shed dare, someone said, relating the observation to the husbands
obsessiveness.

Challis decided to be direct. What
about her relationship with Mr Groot?

That earned him hunted looks, as if
the walls had ears. One of them said, Lets just say he likes being the boss.

* * * *

Challis
and Smith and Jones returned to CIU for the remainder of the morning. Ellen
arrived at lunchtime, poking her head around Challiss door and saying, Grab a
sandwich?

They walked down High Street to Cafe
Laconic, where they ate little goats cheese pizzas in the sun. Ellen filled
him in on her meeting with Carmen Gandolfo. She suspects the husband.

Shes not the only one, Challis
said. Her boss and workmates didnt have a good word to say about the guy.

Whos checking his alibi?

Scobie.

Wishart could have hired someone.

True.

Did your famous antenna tell you
anything about the planning department?

Challis shrugged. Nothing I could
take to the bank. She might have made enemies, but we knew that. Her boss is
unpopular, but so is ours.

Ellen grinned. A little red Subaru
Impreza throbbed past, wreathing them in toxins. She waved to clear the air. According
to Gandolfo, Mrs Wishart suspected Groot, or someone at Planning East, of
leaking departmental decisions and deliberations to the wrong people.

Challis looked past her and into the
far distance, his way of thinking through the next stages and anticipating
cockups. Eventually he took out his mobile phone and called CIU. Pam? Doing
anything?

She sounded faintly harassed. Lot
of schoolie stuff, sir.

Okay, tell Smith and Jones that I
want them to run checks on everyone who worked with Ludmilla Wishart. Mainly
financial.

Sir.

Challis and Destry wandered back to
the police station, signed out the CIU Camry and headed a short distance south
around the coast. Penzance Beach was a ribbon of sandy soil around a small bay,
with humble holiday shacks and more modern architect-designed houses screened
by ti-trees, wattles and gums. City people holidayed there, but most of the
residents were retirees and people who worked locally. Challis steered slowly
along the main access street, which followed the line of the beach, behind the
beachfront houses. An uncomfortable feeling settled in the car: Ellen Destry
had lived here until recently, before her marriage ended and her daughter went
away to university and the house was sold. Challis had been a mealtime guest
now and then, back when hed been mildly attracted to her without it crossing
his mind that theyd end up together.

Then the road turned inland and
immediately climbed to a bluff above the town. Here all consistency had fled,
as houses, egos, vantage points and monetary worth battled it out. And at the
very top was a raw gap in the mix of expensive trees, gardens, fences and
walls. Challis pointed. An old house was demolished there yesterday morning.
Our victim tried to stop it from happening.

Challis had called ahead and Carl
Vernon was waiting for them. The amateur historian took them into the cluttered
sitting room of his cottage, the kind of room that in a tiny house is lived and
worked in. A cracked and faded green leather sofa faced a small, dusty
television set and a wall of shelves crammed with books, vinyl records,
cassettes, CDs and a small sound system. Two glass cabinets contained sharks
eggs, shells and driftwood, and a huge table with ornate legs supported a
laptop computer, a printer and piles of manila folders and typed manuscript
pages.

Excuse the mess.

It was a mess, but comfortable and
focussed. Challis looked at the man whod made it. Carl Vernon was about sixty,
with salt-and-pepper hair, sinewy legs inside loose, faded shorts, and broad
tanned hands that had presumably created the typescript on the table but looked
chopped about and grimy, as if he spent most of his time tackling weeds,
chopping firewood or tinkering with engines. His face was lean and seamed,
steered by a blade-like nose. An intelligent face.

Challis looked closer and saw grief
there. No tears or histrionics, just quiet sorrow and disbelief. Of course the
world was full of actors.

Perhaps you could tell us about
your relationship with Mrs Wishart.

Relationship? We all had a
relationship with her.

Meaning?

The residents committee. You know
about the house that was demolished?

Yes.

Ludmilla was helping us to gain a
protection order.

I understand that it failed.

It didnt fail. We were too late,
thats all. There is a distinction moral if not legal. Im confident that wed
have been successful, except the new owners were tipped off by someone.

Strong words.

Its true. Everyone knew it.

Who tipped them off?

Im afraid I dont know.

Did Mrs Wishart know?

She had her suspicions.

She didnt confide these to you?

Not specifically.

Challis said, Could
she
have
tipped off the new owners?

Mill? No!

You sound very sure.

Ive never seen anyone so upset as
she was yesterday.

What time was that?

Twice. First thing in the morning,
and again around four oclock in the afternoon.

Why twice?

As soon as the bulldozing started,
I called her. Of course it was too late by the time she got here. She said shed
look into the legalities and get back to us.

What did she tell you on her second
visit?

That she intended to hold an
inquiry, and block or delay any building work on the site.

That wouldnt make the new owners
happy.

The Ebelings can get fucked, as far
as Im concernedpardon my French. Theyre new-money people. Vulgar. More money
than sense or taste.

Challiss mind clicked on Pam Murphys
unauthorised LED inquiry. The subjects had been Hugh and Mia Ebeling. One of
our detectives lives near here.

Pam? Lovely girl. She had a word
with the hard-hat guys, but it was all too little, too late.

So, there were some very heated
people here yesterday.

Yes.

Could others on your committee have
suspected Mrs Wishart of being a spy for the Ebelings?

Vernon looked doubtful. She was
terrific. No nonsense. Honest. Tireless. Everyone liked her.

Mr Vernon, said Challis, what if
I said that she was sleeping with someone other than her husband?

The question was one way of
provoking a guilty flicker. Instead, Vernon exploded. You must be joking.

Its been known to happen.

Not to that poor lass. Not the way
her husband followed her around everywhere.

* * * *