Jill Jackson - 04 - Watch the World Burn (26 page)

‘And you don’t think we should bring some uniformeds in with us?’ asked Jill as they raced along Anzac Parade.

‘We don’t want to corner her,’ said Gabriel. ‘Looking at what we think she’s done, she’s going to be impulsive, and who knows what the fuck she’s carrying. We just want to play this calmly. Let’s just try it this way at first.’

Jill glowered. ‘I’m not fucking armed,’ she said. ‘Again.’

‘I noticed. We’ll be fine,’ he said. ‘She’s just a kid.’

They found the school office and the deputy principal pulled Mona’s schedule. She directed them towards the library. Jill left the woman with the impression that Mona had some family problems and they’d be taking her off the school grounds with them. Jill and Gabriel crossed the deserted quadrangle and slipped into the cool, quiet library.

Mona was the first kid in eyesight. Sitting in the first row of desks, next to Lucy Berrigan. Jill noticed that the pair appeared as mismatched as they had at the hospital: Lucy, warm skin, sunshine hair. Mona, pale, pierced, midnight fringe framing jet-black eyes.

These eyes now met Jill’s across the entryway. Widened.

‘Hey, you’re the girlfriend,’ said Mona, smiling as they approached.

Lucy Berrigan smiled up at them inquisitively.

‘What did you say?’ Jill stared at Mona. How does she know that? ‘What did you just fucking say?’

Gabriel spoke calmly. ‘Are you Lucy Berrigan?’ he said, ignoring Mona.

The blonde girl nodded, her eyes very wide. ‘Yes ... Is something wrong?’

‘Your brother needs you, Lucy.’ Gabriel held out a hand.

‘Stay with me, Luce,’ said Mona. ‘There’s nothing wrong with your brother. They’re here for me.’

‘Mona, let go! What’s wrong with you?’ The Berrigan girl tugged to move away from Mona, whose hand clutched the sleeve of Lucy’s uniform.

Jill saw Mona reach her other hand down under her desk. Gabriel took a step forward. Lucy suddenly pulled away, thrown off balance when released, and Gabriel shook his head once at Mona, his hand on the Glock at his hip.

Mona grinned, but Lucy had missed the gesture. Jill stepped forward quickly to guide Lucy behind them.

‘Call your brother from the front office, Lucy,’ said Gabriel. ‘Now.’

Lucy gave them all a last startled look and set off at a jog.

‘What did you say just then?’ said Jill slowly, moving forward. ‘About me being the girlfriend?’

‘Yeah, the girlfriend,’ said Mona, her voice carrying, ‘of that big, goofy cop I set on fire.’

A moment to register – play it back.

And then every cell in her body screaming for her to act, Jill crouched to spring. Gabriel moved first. He swung his arm sideways, slamming a fist into Jill’s diaphragm. Her vision darkened and she dropped, completely winded, to one knee.

‘Stay there or get out, Jackson,’ he said.

Across the table, Mona barked out a laugh. ‘Hey, good shot,’ she said. ‘My turn?’

Jill sucked in air. Through watering eyes, she watched Mona wave a syringe in front of her. If she had lunged for this sick-fuck bitch, she would have run straight into it.

Gabriel had his weapon drawn.

Right then, a single scream from a balcony above them triggered a chain reaction, and the library erupted. Someone had seen Gabe’s gun.

‘Call the police,’ yelled Gabriel above the noise.

Jill tried to breathe through the pain in her chest. She sucked in air, still on one knee, as the library emptied around them. Gabe and that creature stared at one another across the desk, the girl’s dark eyes glossy, animated. She had not stopped grinning once since they’d walked in.

‘You
killed the cop in the police car?’ said Gabriel, when the din had died down. ‘I don’t think so.’

‘Well, I wasn’t actually planning for it to be him,’ said the evil vampire bitch. Jill listened in horror. ‘It could’ve been anyone that day,’ Mona continued. ‘I had the bottle with me and I wanted to get it into a car window. I waited at the bus stop for someone to get caught at the red light. And that cop recognised me – can you believe it? He actually wound his window down to say something to me. It was just wrong place, wrong time for him.’ She smiled.

Jill rose to her feet. Gabriel shot her a look:
Stand down.

‘You used one of your father’s Molotovs?’ he said.

‘Shit. You don’t get it.
I
made that one. With love.’

‘What was in it?’ asked Gabriel, speaking to this devil as he might to a cashier.

‘Petrol, with styrofoam to gel the mix. Really, it’s napalm,’ said Mona. ‘It sucks all the air out if you can get it into an enclosed space. You shoulda seen that bitch burn. Course, I wasn’t expecting the bus crash as well. Honestly. It was fucking spectacular, man.’

Jill thought a vein would burst in her brain if she couldn’t shut this bitch up soon.

‘Your father teach you how to make that?’ asked Gabriel.

‘Nan, actually,’ said the girl.

‘Your grandmother taught you to make napalm?’

‘She taught me a lot of things. Dad too. I’ve been schooled. You got my father?’

‘He’s in custody,’ said Gabriel.

‘And Nan’s dead,’ she said.

Mona dropped the smile with her bright bird-eyes to the table.

‘I’m sorry,’ said Gabriel.

Mona’s eyes snapped back up. She grinned again. ‘What are
you
sorry for? Nan took herself out. It was her idea. She died a soldier.’

‘What are you saying, Mona? That your grandmother killed herself?’ asked Gabriel.

How does he do that? wondered Jill, still on the floor, her vision still blurred. How can he just keep speaking to this demon this way?

‘Well, Dad helped, of course,’ continued Mona. ‘The problem was that Nan had dementia. She kept it together as long as she could, but she’d find herself rambling shit to people. She knew she was a risk to everything we’ve worked for. She was the one who thought of doing it at the restaurant so that Dad could learn where everyone would run during a fire.’

‘Because your father had already targeted the party last night at Incendie. Right,’ said Gabriel. ‘But if your Nan was part of it all, it explains a lot more. Mona, did your nan apply an accelerant to her face before she entered the restaurant?’

Mona laughed. ‘Yep. I told you she’s a soldier. And then, before they left, Dad hooked up a small charge under her blouse, remote-detonated it, and ... toast.’

‘I guess then he just had to remove the charge. And he could do that while pretending to try to help her.’

‘They worked through it for weeks,’ said Mona. ‘Pretty perfect, huh? I decided not to go. Nan said it would have been good for me, but I guess I catted out.’

Had anyone told Jill right then that the girl sitting in front of her was an actor or an alien, she’d have believed either explanation immediately.

‘Why were your family doing these things?’ asked Gabriel.

‘You’d never get it,’ said Mona. ‘You’re all brainwashed to go about your business like fucking sheep. If my own mother couldn’t understand, I’m not about to try to explain it to you.’

‘I’m sorry about your mother,’ said Gabriel. ‘I know she was electrocuted.’

‘In the bath,’ said Mona. ‘I still see it.’

‘You were there?’ asked Gabriel.

‘Dad sent me in. He and Mum didn’t get on. But he knew she’d let
me
go over to her.’

‘Oh, Mona,’ said Gabriel. ‘How old were you?’

‘Four,’ she said.

‘You threw the hairdryer into your mother’s bath?’

‘Sometimes, at night, I hear her screaming.’

Jill cried quietly now, still seated on the floor.

‘I can’t do that anymore,’ said Mona, gazing at Jill, her head on an angle. ‘I can’t cry like that. I’ve tried everything to make myself, you know. But I think the wiring’s snapped.’

‘We can get you help, Mona,’ said Gabe.

Mona met Gabe’s eyes.

‘There is no cure for someone like me,’ she said. ‘I’ve read up – it’s in my blood.’

Jill watched Mona register the first of the sirens.

The girl raised the syringe.

‘Don’t. Please don’t, Mona,’ said Gabriel, his voice thick.

‘Nitric,’ she said. ‘It’s my favourite acid. I used it on those kids at Pagewood. But don’t worry. It’s not for you.’

Something in Mona’s voice made Jill reach for the deepest breath she could. She scrambled up at the same moment that Gabriel hurled himself across the table.

By the time Jill was on her feet, Gabriel had frozen. He stood there, shoulders stooped, blocking her view of the girl.

Jill raced around the desk. Mona, in her school uniform, sat motionless in her chair. The syringe quivered, the lever fully depressed, protruding like a dart from her luminous white neck.

At first Mona just watched them both, her black eyes surprised, questioning.

And then her screams of agony split the air.

Jill arrived half an hour early, to ensure that she’d be the first of the group at the pub. She waited in the corner of the beer garden set aside for the gathering, facing the entrance. The hostess who’d directed her to the reserved space had seemed surprised when she mentioned she was with Captain Andreessen’s party.

‘The farewell drinks for Scotty?’ said the girl, her eyes filling. ‘Oh, shit,’ she said, pulling a tissue from beneath her black apron. ‘Sorry.’ She wiped her nose carefully around a silver piercing. ‘I told the boss that I wanted to take care of you guys, but she’ll be pissed if she catches me bawling already.’

‘Did you know Scotty?’ asked Jill.

‘Well, we’re his local.’

‘I know. It’s just, I never came here with him.’

‘I didn’t think I’d seen you before. My name’s Kadee,’ said the girl. ‘Just follow me and I’ll show you where you guys will be.’

Jill followed the petite, dark-haired girl. An intricate butterfly tattoo was in full flight on the back of her neck; as she had a number-one buzz-cut, the tattoo was especially striking. Jill’s heart swelled with pain as she remembered the butterfly pendant Scotty had given her. Delicately perched atop a magnifying glass, he’d told her it meant that he thought she was smart and beautiful. She’d told him to shut up. With no curtain of hair now to hide any tears, Jill swallowed them, her throat aching.

The waitress stopped in front of an area of several reserved tables. Jill manoeuvred around the last table and took the seat in the corner.

‘What can I get you?’ said Kadee, her notepad in hand, determinedly efficient again. ‘Everything’s on the house for you guys tonight.’

‘Really?’

‘We loved Scotty here too.’

It took Jill a moment to form the words. The waitress dropped her eyes while waiting. ‘Just some water, please,’ Jill said.

‘I’ll bring you sparkling.’

‘Thanks, Kadee.’

Jill watched a group of people playing pool back inside the spacious hotel. Their laughter carried over the music. Above her, the twilit Maroubra sky peeked in through the open-air trellis enclosing the beer garden. A warm breeze blew in through the wisteria plant swinging with swollen bunches of honey-scented purple flowers. Jill thought she could smell the ocean too. She took a deep, shuddering breath. Scotty had loved it here.

Where are you now, my Scotty?

Kadee arrived with her water with Gabriel behind her. Jill lifted her wet face. Nobody spoke for a moment. Finally, Kadee said, ‘What’ll you have, mate?’ and Gabriel ordered a beer. He moved around the other chairs and took the seat next to Jill.

‘You don’t like beer,’ she said.

‘I like it with chips.’

She smiled. ‘How’d you go talking to Caine today?’

‘Same as yesterday,’ he said. ‘Nothing. Like I told you, no one’s going to get anything more out of him. We’re going to have to accept that we’ll never really understand why he did what he did. We just have to go on what we know and what Mona told us.’

‘Poor kid,’ she said, shaking her head, hearing the screams again.

‘I think he was probably once a poor kid too. What Mona said about her grandmother indicates that the woman was paranoid as hell. I’d say she raised Caine from birth to fear all governments, all systems. She made her family unit her very own terrorist cell.’

Jill again shook her head. ‘It’s all so pointless,’ she said. ‘It’s such a waste. Look what they’ve done to all these people, to themselves. To Scotty.’

‘How’re you going with that?’ he said.

‘I miss him a lot.’

‘You always will.’

‘It’s like that with Abi? You still miss her as much?’

‘Exactly as much. The amount of pain is always the same – it’s just that you get so used to it being there that it just becomes like one of your arms or legs. You forget it’s there sometimes.’

Jill covered Gabriel’s hand with her own. A tear splashed onto her finger. She couldn’t be sure it was hers.

‘Anyway,’ she said, pulling back her hand. ‘The week away helped, Gabe. Thanks for looking after me like that.’

‘Do you think they’ll automatically bring chips with the beer?’ he said.

‘I wouldn’t think so.’ She smiled. Then her eyes became hooded again. ‘Hey, I keep wondering whether Caine would have known that Mona killed Scotty. What do you think?’

‘I think he figured it out pretty quickly, Jill. And he was pissed. That’s why he was so upset during the interview when Emma Gibson linked the crimes together. But he wasn’t angry because she killed someone, just that she’d drawn attention to them – that she hadn’t yet learned how to kill quietly.’

Jill was silent a moment.

‘Speaking of Gibson...’ said Gabriel.

Jill stood when she saw Emma Gibson crossing the courtyard towards them. Emma wore a black sheath dress, her jet-black hair curled in a side ponytail around the white skin of her neck. She looked pale and daunted when she saw them waiting.

‘Excuse me a sec, Gabe,’ said Jill. She manoeuvred out from around the table to the other side just as Emma reached them.

‘Hi, Jill,’ said Emma.

For weeks later, Jill would startle herself with the memory of her next action. She breached the space between them and threw her arms around Emma’s neck, hugging her close. They stood quietly for a moment, then each broke away, wiping at their eyes. Jill didn’t speak. She just grabbed Emma by the hand and led her around the table to sit with her and Gabriel.

Superintendent Last was next to arrive, followed by a glut of uniformeds from Maroubra and Central. Captain Andreessen showed up later, when the courtyard was noisy and glasses already covered the tables. Jill spotted Elvis in a huddle near the front of the courtyard and he caught her eye at the same time. He began to walk towards her.

Gabriel ate chips as he watched Elvis approach. Jill took another sip of water.

‘Jackson, you got a minute?’ said Elvis when he reached them.

Jill again weaved her way behind the chairs around the table, and met Elvis in a small pocket between people sitting and standing. Ordinarily, this scene was Jill’s image of hell, but she’d felt strangely calm since Emma and Lawrence Last had arrived. She’d even coped with the speeches and toasts for Scotty.

‘Hello, Eddie,’ said Jill.

‘Ah, Jill. I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for what happened to Scotty,’ said Elvis. He carried his half-full beer glass like it was an extension of his hand.

‘I know,’ said Jill. ‘Everyone is. It’s fucked.’

‘And I wanted to say that I know you, me and Hutchinson had our moments, but I really respected Scotty as a cop.’ He took a long sip, came up with the glass empty. ‘And you, Jackson. You’re a good detective.’

‘Thanks, Eddie,’ said Jill. ‘I feel the same about you.’

Elvis belched and let out a laugh. ‘’Scuse me,’ he said. ‘Look at us, bonding like two old women.’ He dropped the smile. ‘I don’t know how good a bloody detective I am when I fingered the wrong perp. I was sure it was Berrigan.’

‘Caine has been getting away with shit like this for years, Eddie,’ said Jill. ‘At least we got him.’

‘And that cunt daughter of his is dead.’

Jill looked back towards her seat.

‘I’m gonna get another beer, Jackson,’ said Elvis. ‘What are you drinking?’

‘I’m right, thanks, Eddie. I’m still going on mine.’

As Elvis made his way through the throng, Jill stood in the pocket surrounded by people. Lawrence Last was bent over a Scotch, speaking quietly to Emma. Andreessen shouted out a laugh. Jill met Gabriel’s eyes over their heads.

It was time for her to go home.