Blood Tears (18 page)

Walking down it only
reminded me of my guilt about his death, and the fact that we still
didn’t even know who he was.

I would have liked to
discuss that with the Sarge, but all his time was taken with
greeting shopkeepers and townsfolk, receiving each one of their
warm ‘welcome backs’ with a sly glance in my direction.

“
Lavinia at twelve o’clock,” I warned him quietly, feeling him
tense with panic, wondering how he could avoid her. I knew how he
felt – I spent a lot of effort trying to avoid her.

“
Sergeant Maguire,” she purred, her hand clamping on to his
arm, her thumb rubbing up and down on it. “I can’t tell you how
thrilled
I am to see you back here.” He murmured some inane
response. “To celebrate your return, I’d be honoured to give you a
private
reading. I’m getting a very strong sense from you
that your future will involve great romance, and a lot of very
steamy and satisfying sexual experiences.”

“
Oh .
. .” he said faintly. “Sounds . . . um . . . really good.” I
muffled a laugh behind my hand.

She thrust her business
card into his hand.

“
Call
me,” she demanded in a sultry voice, locking eyes with him, before
sashaying away, her muu muu (today emerald green with Celtic
decorations in silver) swaying with the movement of her broad
hips.

“
Lucky you,” I smirked. “All that steamy and satisfying sex to
look forward to.”

“
Shut
up, Fuller.”

“
I
did warn you.”

“
This
is ridiculous. I’ve just ended a long-term relationship. It’s not
the right time for me to start another one.”

“
I’m
pretty sure Lavinia has something other than a relationship in
mind,” I giggled again.

“
Fuller, I’m warning you. It’s not funny.”

“
Yes,
it is. It’s hilarious.”

“
I
told you not to come back!
” shouted an angry voice from the
door to the supermarket, immediately followed by Lola Bycraft
stumbling out.

“
You
can’t fucking stop me from coming in, you fucking fuck,” she
slurred, trying to force her way back in.

Mr Grimmell stood in
the doorway blocking her access. She rained puny fists down on him
in fury.

“
Hey!” I yelled, jogging up to them. “Lola, stop that.” I
appealed to Grimmell. “What’s going on?”

“
This
fuckhead won’t let me do some shopping.”

“
Look
at her. She’s drunk. You can smell the booze on her a mile away. I
told her to sober up before she comes back. I’m not having her
drunk in my store again. She keeps knocking everything over.” He
gave her a death glare. “And knocking everything off.”

“
You
shouldn’t charge so fucking much, should you? You’re a stinkarse
robber.”

“
Look
who’s talking! You’ve got no right to be shoplifting from
me.”

“
All
right,” said the Sarge. “Calm down, everyone.”

“
Fuck
off, copper,” spat Lola.

He gripped her around
one scrawny wrist. “If you want to spend some time in the lockup
this afternoon, say that to me again.”

She laughed in his
face. We both leaned back from the smell of raw spirit on her
breath. “Yeah, you just go ahead and do that, copper. It worked out
so well for piglet last time you were stupid enough to do it.” Her
sneering eyes shifted to me. “But I’d put up with it again just to
see this bitch suffer.”

“
I’m
warning you, Bycraft,” the Sarge hissed. “Get on home,
now.”

“
Make
me.”

He twisted her arm up
behind her, forcing her to squeal in pain, dropping her cigarette
on the footpath. He started marching her up the street in that
hold.

“
Let
go of me, you arsehole,” she grunted, struggling to get away from
him.

“
Do
you want me to frogmarch you all the way home like this?” he asked
her.

“
Fuck
off!”

“
Okay, your choice.” He strongarmed her another hundred
metres.

“
Okay. All right. Let me go.”

He let her go and stood
staring down at her with his hands on his hips. “Get on home now.”
She stood her ground staring up at him, her nostrils flaring with
anger and hatred, rubbing her wrist. “
Now!
” he bellowed.

“
Murderer!” she shouted back at him. “You’re both murderers.
You better believe you’re going to fucking pay for my Denny.
Especially you, piglet.”

“
Get
lost, Bycraft. Before I lose my temper.”

Sullenly, resentfully,
she turned around and staggered off home. We both watched her until
she turned into Jarrah Street where the dump she called home was
located.

“
She’s getting worse,” I said to the Sarge in a low voice.
“From what Jake says, Denny’s death has hit her hard.”

“
I
didn’t think she cared about him.”

“
Of
course she didn’t,” I scorned. “She never had any time for him. She
thought he was stupid, as did his whole family.”
As did most of
us in town
, I thought guiltily.

“
Maybe,” said the Sarge thoughtfully. “But sometimes sudden
death can strike people in unexpected ways. To me, she didn’t seem
like she was grandstanding for attention just then. Has she lost
any of her other kids?”

“
Nope. They’re all still alive and kicking.” Then I muttered
under my breath, “Unfortunately.”

“
Does
she normally drink during the day?”

“
No,
not that I’ve seen before. To be honest, I’ve never really known
her to be much of a drinker. A smoker, definitely. But not so much
a drinker.”

“
That’s a sure sign of distress. Maybe Denny’s death has hit
her hard.”

“
I’m
not cutting her any slack, Sarge. So don’t bother asking me to,” I
declared heatedly. “Whatever she dishes out to me, I’m going to
give it back to her double, grieving mother or not. God knows that
family has caused me enough grief over the years.”

“
Settle down. I never asked you to roll over for her. I’m just
trying to get into her headspace. She’s a dangerous person in this
town because they’re all so protective of her. If she’s going to go
off the rails, it could mean a world of trouble for us.”

I nodded to show that I
agreed with him. I appreciated his cautiousness and him trying to
anticipate problems, especially as we had such limited resources,
and the whole situation was so very personal between the Bycrafts
and me.

The rest of the
afternoon was taken up with more chatting with the shopkeepers and
townsfolk. When the primary school let out for the day, the kids
swarmed through the gates to hang around us, Abe’s little girl,
Toni, clutching my hand. The expression on Gretel’s face suggested
she would have liked to clutch the Sarge’s hand too – or any other
body part she could reach – but was forced to maintain a modicum of
propriety in front of her young charges.

While the school kids
were familiar with me from my regular safety talks, the young girls
loving nothing more than hanging off my arms, the children were a
bit in awe of the Sarge. Being so tall and big, he cut an imposing
figure for many adults, so he must have seemed like an
authoritative giant to the children.

I think Gretel was
about to invite him back to her place for a ‘coffee’, when he
glanced at his watch.

“
Back
to the station, Tess. I have some paperwork to read through that
Baz left me,” he ordered. Leaving a crestfallen Gretel behind, we
returned to the patrol car.

“
I
hope that paperwork Baz left isn’t about me,” I said, flinging my
cap on to my desk, dislodging a minor avalanche of papers to the
floor.

“
Please clean your desk,” he asked with the tempered patience
a parent shows a recalcitrant teen. “It would make me extremely
happy if it was done before you left today.”

Grumbling and bitching
the entire time, I sorted out a small pile of important paperwork,
and shredded the rest with only a perfunctory initial
assessment.

“
Don’t you ever read any of those memos?”

“
Nope. Why would I? It’s your job to keep me up-to-date with
what I need to know. And if you don’t let me know, the Super sure
will.” I looked at my virtually clean desk with satisfaction.
“That’s done, so I’m off. See you tomorrow.”

Dad and I shared a
quiet meal, and watched a bit of mindless TV together. I retired to
bed early, thrilled with the prospect of a solid eight hours sleep
for once.

I should have known
better.

*****

At about two-thirty, my
mobile rang, startling me out of my sleep with the immediacy of
someone whose slumber is frequently and often suddenly
interrupted.

“
Tess
Fuller,” I mumbled, rubbing my eyes with my free hand, and trying
to stop myself from cracking a huge yawn into the phone.

“
Tess, it’s Finn. I need you at my place now,” he said with an
unmistakable urgency.

“
Okay,” I said, but he’d already hung up.

I scrabbled out of bed,
dressing in a hurry, strapping on my knife as well as my utility
belt. I left Dad a short note letting him know where I was, and
urged the old Land Rover to go as fast as it could, my heart
thumping. I hoped there was nothing wrong with the Sarge. If he
needed my help with a call-out, he would normally have picked me up
in the patrol car. I didn’t know what it meant that he couldn’t
come to me.

Lights blazed from his
house. A car was parked in his driveway. I’d seen it before
somewhere, but couldn’t quite place it.

I jogged up his front
stairs. His front door was open so I invited myself in, following
voices to his spare bedroom. The Sarge and two men leaned over a
crying young woman lying on the bed.

“
Teddy. Lee,” I acknowledged curtly, and the two men nodded at
me, equally brusque and tense. “What’s up?”

“
Teddy and Lee found this girl collapsed at the front of their
house a short while ago, so they brought her here,” said the
Sarge.

“
We’d
just returned from a musical at the theatre in Big Town,” Lee
explained, his voice trembling a little.

“
She
was lying half in the gutter and half on the footpath,” said Teddy,
subdued and shocked.

“
We
could only think of bringing her here,” said Lee, twisting his
fingers together. “We didn’t know what else to do.”

I moved closer and
looked her over. She was younger than I’d first thought – no older
than eighteen, much probably younger. She was dirty, her clothes
grimy, her face gaunt. She appeared as though she’d been living
rough for some time. She wore a loose button-up shirt that was far
too big for her, and some old runners. Her jeans were drenched wet
from her pelvis to her knees.

She opened her eyes,
looking around at the men in fear, before latching on to my eyes.
She reached out and grabbed my hand, squeezing it tightly.

“
Please help me,” she whispered. She dropped my hand and held
her stomach, her face screwing up in pain, low moaning forced from
between her lips. “Oh, God. It hurts so much.”

I sat on the edge of
the bed, brushing her hair, damp and clumped from perspiration, off
her forehead.

“
Please help,” she repeated, before doubling over in pain. “I
can pay you.”

With difficulty, she
reached into each jeans pocket and pulled out a ring from one and a
bracelet from the other. I was no jewellery expert, but they looked
genuine and valuable to me. The Sarge took them from the girl, and
placed them on the chest of drawers. We’d worry about them later.
We had more important things to deal with at the moment.

I took her hand.
“Sweetheart, I’m Officer Tess from the local police and –”

“
No!
Not the police,” she sobbed, trying to sit up,
only to hug her stomach, her face twisted. She collapsed back on to
the bed.

“
It’s
okay,” I comforted. “It’s okay. You’re safe here.”

Tears trickled from her
eyes. “Not the police,” she snuffled.

“
We
just want to help you. You’re not in any trouble.”

“
My
baby . . .” she said, before being wracked by excruciating agony
again, her trickle of tears turning into a flood.

“
Baby?” I asked, looking up at the Sarge. “She looks too young
to have a baby.”

“
My
baby . . .” she repeated, cupping her belly with her hands. “It’s
coming.”

There was stunned
silence in the room for a moment.

“
Sweetheart,” I said urgently. “Are you having a
baby?”

“
Yes,” she cried out. “I think it’s coming right
now.”

“
Oh,
shit! Ring the ambulance,” the Sarge ordered Teddy. “We probably
won’t get one in time, but they can talk us through what to do.” He
called him back. “Also ring Dr Fenn at the prison. He should be
able to help. Tess, round up some disposable gloves, towels,
blankets, maybe some sheets to put under her. Anything you think
that might be useful.”

“
Have
you done this before, Sarge?”

“
No.
Have you?”

“
No.”