The Darkest Hour (14 page)

Joe came close. ‘If you die, I’ll be very annoyed.’

She tried to laugh. He wrapped his arms around her and she buried her face in his shirt and let the bubble of grief and fear and pain explode into sobs.

The HR girl wheeled a clean whiteboard into the meeting room. ‘Thanks, Trace,’ Kuiper said, pulling it to the centre and writing LAUREN YATES across the top.

‘So you all heard what Marconi just said,’ Kuiper said, looking around at the detectives. ‘First things first: we no longer discuss the case with anyone outside this room. Anybody who asks you questions, who seems particularly interested, I want you to let me know. Finding the mole could be our best link to finding Werner himself. I’ll be talking with DI Radtke after this, but I don’t doubt there will be outside detectives brought in to assess the situation also.’

Ella knew this was standard procedure in such circumstances.

Kuiper went on. ‘Lauren Yates was certain that it was Thomas Werner who phoned her yesterday and attacked her today, and Benson Drysdale stated he met a man with the same name in James Kennedy’s company six months ago. However, Immigration shows the last recorded entry of Werner’s passport was just over five years ago, with an exit date of a year later. We’ve sent a request to Interpol for information on his record and to ascertain his whereabouts. Meantime, however, we’ll have surveillance on the Yates house and a tap on their landline, and we’re getting the records of calls in and out to see if we can track down where he called from. Lauren is to be followed to work, and followed home at the end of each shift. While she’s at work she’s to remain in the company of at least one other person. She’ll be given a tracker device also. Marconi, I want you to explain all that to her, and keep in regular contact throughout each day. Make sure she knows she’s not alone, that she can get help whenever she needs it.’

Ella nodded.

‘Now, the case is still proceeding along other avenues. I believe we’ve got some info from around Steyne Park, Strong?’

Detective Graeme Strong cleared his throat. ‘The canvass of the area near where Kennedy’s motorbike was found turned up a witness who says she saw him park his bike then walk into the park and sit on a bench, at about twenty to seven Tuesday night. She didn’t see him leave though. Latest news, however, is that I just took a call from a wheelchair-bound resident in a house on Ocean Avenue, who arrived home from hospital today to find our card under her door. She spends most of her time watching the people coming and going in the park, and believes she’s seen Kennedy’s motorbike there often over the last couple of months, and that she’s seen Kennedy meeting a woman in the park.’

A murmur went round the room. Ella jotted a sentence in her notebook and embellished it with a love heart around a question mark. The most common reason for murder was love or lust or whatever you wanted to call it, and the jealousy or anger that resulted when it was thwarted. She wondered how it fitted with Thomas Werner.

‘Furthermore, she believes this woman to be a local. She’s seen her in the park often, with a small brown dog of indeterminate breed. The description she gave of the woman is as follows.’ Strong paused and people bent over their notebooks. ‘Tall, at least as tall as Kennedy, who we know to be a metre seventy-five. Skinny. Cropped dark hair so short it’s almost a crewcut. Usually wears long shorts and shirts with no sleeves.’

‘How does she know it’s Kennedy?’

‘She described him and the bike and his work uniform as well,’ Strong said.

‘She should be put on the payroll,’ someone said.

‘She told me she’s very active in Neighbourhood Watch,’ Strong said with a grin. ‘Unfortunately she was in hospital last Tuesday, so we don’t know if Kennedy was meeting the mystery woman then too.’

‘Any pattern to his earlier visits, was she aware?’

‘She said it was usually a weekday evening, but on all different days.’

Kuiper turned from the whiteboard. ‘Kanowski, how’s Deborah Kennedy coming along?’

‘She’s worse, if anything,’ Detective Rebecca Kanowski said. ‘Her daughter Tess took her to a doctor for sedatives. When I talk to her she’s in a fog, and nothing gets through. Her daughter can’t tell me anything about their financial and legal matters either.’

‘We need that info.’

She nodded. ‘I talked to the doctor this afternoon and he said that by tomorrow he expects her to have stabilised and be able to talk to me.’

Kuiper tapped his watch.

‘I know,’ she said.

‘Okay, tasks,’ Kuiper said. ‘Pilsiger, get onto the hospitals, medical centres, doctors – find out about any men coming in with head wounds that could match the one Werner suffered. Lambert and Hoskins, check out the list of friends that Kristi Yates described. Marconi and Shakespeare, tonight you go talk to Lauren again, then in the morning check out the Crows Nest address Werner listed on his incoming passenger card. The mobile number he wrote down as his contact belongs to a Jules Cartwright of that address. Computer says she’s still there.

‘Hopefully by tomorrow we’ll also have some info from the canvass the local Ds are doing of the street where the blood trail from Lauren’s house ended. Fingers crossed for a witness who saw Werner get into a car and then wrote down the plate. The rest of you continue on with the tasks you’ve already got, and we’ll meet here again tomorrow.’

K
risti stood in the dark, looking out the front window. ‘I can’t see them.’

‘You’re not meant to,’ Lauren said. ‘That’s the whole point.’

‘I would’ve thought the point was to make it obvious that they’re there so he won’t try it again.’

‘They want to catch him.’

‘By dangling you on a hook.’ Kristi snorted. ‘What’s the good of having somebody watch the house and follow you to work, when you then spend the day out and about in a big white truck, vulnerable to everything?’

‘Out and about is the key,’ Lauren said. ‘How can he corner us when we’re mobile like that? What’s he going to do – stalk me in public? Kill me in the middle of the CBD?’

‘Yeah, like nobody ever dies on the street.’

‘Joe’s with me, and I’ve got this tracking device to carry, plus I ring them and they ring me all through the day.’

‘Joe’s a target too,’ Kristi said. ‘We shouldn’t stay here.’

‘With them outside and Joe staying over I think we’re okay.’

‘I don’t just mean tonight. The next few weeks or however long it takes them to find him,’ Kristi said. ‘We should go to Mum and Dad’s.’

‘Dad’s only just home from the clinic. Having us there would be too much too soon.’

‘We’ll stay in a motel in the town then,’ she said.

‘Thomas knows they live in Glen Innes,’ Lauren said. ‘It’d be the first place he’d look.’

Kristi turned to the window again. ‘We’re sitting ducks.’

‘It’s going to be okay.’

‘But what if it isn’t?’ Kristi pressed her hands to her eyes. ‘I keep thinking about Brendan.’

Lauren thought about him a lot too. He’d been living in Narrabeen with his girlfriend, but they’d broken up and he’d moved back to their childhood home in Strathfield for a while. As prone to depression as their father, he’d shifted his stuff into the garage and kept the doors closed and the music loud on his headphones. All through a week of all four of them – Lauren, Kristi, their mother and father – trying to talk to him, he refused to see any of them. And then one day it was too quiet in there, and their father had forced the door while their mother had tried to hold back tears of worry, and they found that it was too late. Lauren remembered laughing with some other paramedics in the driveway of Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, and seeing their area boss approach, looking sombre, and that moment when he touched her arm, and his words sinking in.

‘I can’t lose you too,’ Kristi said.

‘You’re not going to.’

‘Then don’t go to work. Stay home, stay where the police can watch over us. We’ll have them come inside. He won’t try anything if they’re in the house.’

‘If I’d stood up six months ago and told the truth we wouldn’t be in this position now,’ Lauren said gently. ‘I deserve to take some risk.’

‘No, you don’t. You made a mistake, that’s all. You don’t deserve anything, and even if you did, what happened today was enough.’

She was rambling. Lauren tried to keep her voice reasonable. ‘They’ll probably find the leak and get him that way. He’ll be locked up before we know it and everything will go back to normal.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me about Blake, about Thomas being in the alley?’

‘Don’t feel left out. I didn’t tell anyone.’

‘Don’t joke.’ Kristi sat on the windowsill. ‘Felise asked me who Thomas was. She must’ve overheard us. I told her he was nobody.’

‘Good.’

‘We’ll have to deal with it one day.’

‘But not today.’

Down the hall, Joe growled and chased Felise. She screeched in mock fear, then his mobile rang. ‘Hang on a second, Flea,’ he said.

‘Chase me!’

Lauren went into the hall to catch her. ‘Give Joe a minute.’

‘No, I’m not at home,’ Joe said into his phone. He mouthed
Claire
at Lauren. ‘I’m at Lauren’s.’

Felise struggled in her grasp. ‘I want Joe to chase me!’

‘Just a second,’ Lauren said.

‘Somebody broke in this afternoon,’ Joe said. ‘I came to help clean up and we had dinner and then they asked me to stay the night. It’s scary after – Yes, her sister and niece are here too. I’m sleeping in her niece’s room.’

Felise flailed and kicked.

Joe said, ‘No, I’ll go straight to work. I’ve got a spare uniform at the station.’ He listened. ‘Okay. Love you too. Bye.’

Lauren let Felise go. ‘Is she okay?’

‘She’s at work.’ He put the phone in his pocket as Felise grabbed him around the legs. ‘She wanted to meet for breakfast.’

‘You don’t have to stay.’

‘I’m staying, then I’m driving us both to work,’ Joe said, picking Felise up. ‘That’s that.’

‘You’re so bossy.’

‘Hey, somebody needs to keep you in check.’

‘Yes, but are you qualified?’

He smiled at her over Felise’s head. ‘Like you wouldn’t believe.’

She felt her heart swell.

Ella got home at eight that night to find a letter bearing the official police crest in her letterbox.

She hurried into her house, locked the door and pressed her back against it. She’d forgotten about the shooting report since the case began, but this was it, she was sure. The envelope felt flimsy – nothing long then. Probably just one page. She fitted her thumbnail into the corner of the flap then paused, imagining what it would feel like to read the decision she so desperately wanted.

It wasn’t merely the fact that her wait would be over. Though she was certain she’d done the right thing – what was she going to do, stand there and watch the kidnapper shoot a defenceless victim? – doubt still niggled. It was because of the seriousness of her actions, she thought. If she’d hit somebody with OC spray, or knocked them off their feet in a struggle, or even broken their arm during an arrest, that was one thing. Here, she’d actually taken somebody’s life. To see the service acknowledge that she’d done precisely what was necessary would remove that doubt from her mind, lift that weight from her shoulders.

If they said otherwise, however, if they found that she wasn’t justified in the shooting, then she had not only disciplinary problems to face but could see herself bowed down by guilt forever.

The envelope was going soft from the sweat on her palms.
I can always appeal.
In the meantime though, she’d be out of Homicide. Taken off her big case.

She gritted her teeth and tore the flap open.

Officer Marconi,
it began.
Re: the investigation into Case 40762.

Ella held her breath.

Due to a backlog of cases and a temporary staffing shortage, a decision on your case has been delayed for approximately twelve weeks.

We apologise for any inconvenience.

Ella stared across the room.
They apologise!
Here she’d been, standing on the brink for what felt like forever, looking forward to a resolution, and now she was going to have to wait three more months?

She read the letter again, then picked up the phone.

Dennis Orchard answered on the first ring. ‘I’ve been expecting your call.’

‘I can’t believe this,’ Ella said.

‘Don’t sound so worried.’

‘But what’s it mean?’

‘All it means is what it says.’ There was a rustle of paper as he handled his own letter. ‘There’s a backlog, a staff problem, they’re busy.’

‘How come they didn’t let us know before now?’

‘There’s no deadline on these things,’ he said.

‘Well, I reckon there’s more to this than meets the eye,’ she said. ‘Maybe they’ve got some new evidence, something new to nail me with.’

‘They interviewed everybody who was there,’ Dennis said. ‘It’s not like they’ve found a new witness or some CCTV’s suddenly turned up.’

Ella crumpled the letter into a ball.

‘It’s nothing,’ Dennis went on. ‘They’re busy. You have to forget about it. Think about your case instead.’

That was a point. With the verdict delayed, there was no reason to move her. She could concentrate on Werner. The delay simply made a strong performance even more necessary.

‘How’s it going? You catch him yet?’

‘The trail’s hotting up.’ Her call waiting beeped. ‘I’d better get that.’

‘Could be a development,’ he said. ‘Talk to you tomorrow.’

It was her mother. ‘Hello, sweetie, how are you?’

‘Busy with work, you know.’

‘We thought you must be when you didn’t come for visiting today,’ Netta said. ‘I’m well too. Back to normal. I could run down the halls if they let me.’

‘Mum, don’t even think about it.’

‘Did you ask about your leave?’

‘I can’t, Mum, I’m sorry. The case just got bigger and there’s no way I can get time off.’

‘Bigger how? Why?’

‘I can’t talk about it,’ Ella said. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘I understand.’ Netta sighed. ‘Will you visit tomorrow?’

‘I’ll try, okay?’

Later, in bed, she couldn’t sleep. She thought of Lauren in that big house, the downstairs window barricaded up now, the smell of disinfectant strong in the kitchen where they’d cleaned up the blood. Usually it was best to limit the number of people who knew about their surveillance plans, but she’d asked Lauren’s work colleague Joe to sit in while she ran through it. He was just as involved, after all, plus he’d be the one she’d be staying close to when avoiding being alone at work.

Lauren’s sister hadn’t been happy. This was the problem with such operations. You didn’t have the staff or the money to stick two officers either side of the person until the bad guy was caught. Life had to go on. You sized up the risk; and in this case, there was a strong chance that Werner would turn up injured somewhere, or that he would figure out – or know already, if the mole knew – that surveillance was in place and decide it was too dicey to try another attack. Ella was torn. Another phone call, traced by the tap, or another assault on the house could be their best chance for grabbing him. But she’d seen the look in Lauren’s eyes and knew the woman couldn’t take much more, regardless of the front she was putting up.

The next morning Joe pulled up outside The Rocks station. ‘And there they go.’

The brown unmarked sedan went past slowly, the officer in the passenger seat giving them a nod. Lauren raised a hand in reply. The car drove along George Street, under the bridge and out of sight.

The station doors were down, night shift still out somewhere. Lauren saw Joe looking in all directions as she got stiffly out of the car, one hand at her back.

‘You should’ve called in sick,’ he said.

‘And let you roam the streets on your own? Anyway, I’d go nuts cooped up at home.’

He walked behind her to the door, tested it first, then let her in. He locked the door then made her wait while he searched the station.

‘You’d better relax or you’ll have a stroke,’ she said.

‘Didn’t we decide I’m the boss?’

‘Ha.’ She called Kristi’s mobile. ‘We’re here.’

‘No sign?’ Felise squealed in the background, and Lauren could hear Ziyad chasing her.

‘Not a thing,’ she said. ‘Ziyad’s not going to get much work done with you in his house.’

‘She’ll settle down soon,’ Kristi said. ‘Keep safe. Ring me later.’

The station phone rang and Joe answered. Lauren went to her locker as Joe took the message. The bruises on her head throbbed when she bent for her work bag.

Joe hung up. ‘Vaucluse, a diver, query code four.’

They went for the keys at the same time.

‘I thought you might prefer a break,’ he said. ‘You’ve got a lot on your mind.’

‘It’s my turn.’

‘I might be a specially trained Navy stunt driver, for all you know.’

‘We’re not going to end up in a car chase through the CBD.’ She wiggled her fingers at the keys. ‘Give.’

In the ambulance she turned on the lights and siren and roared out of the station. She belted through the streets of The Rocks, then doglegged east until she hit William Street. Joe was looking in fifty directions at once, including his side mirror.

She said, ‘Where in Vaucluse?’

‘Off Steel Point.’

‘
Off?
’

‘Still in the water, apparently.’

‘They’re just letting him bob about in there?’

‘Caller thought things looked suspicious. He actually asked for the cops, said the guy is dead as, but they thought it best to send us anyway.’

Lauren screeched around a corner.

Joe braced against the door and glanced at the speedo. ‘Guy won’t get any deader before we arrive.’

‘Guy’s not dead till I say he is.’

Joe checked his mirror and didn’t reply.

Most of the traffic was coming against them, which made for some hairy on-the-wrong-side-of-the-road moments as Lauren overtook buses and slow trucks, but was otherwise a relatively easy drive. Joe got out the street directory and guided her into Vaucluse, along a narrow twisting street to a park. Beyond it the green water lay heavy in the harbour. Joe switched the siren off.