Blood Tears (33 page)

But was I?

Chapter
22

After witnessing him
securing the valuables in the station’s small safe, I rang the
hospital to let Annabel know we’d visit her later today.

“
I’m
sorry, Senior Constable,” said a crisp voice on the other end of
the line, after a short delay. “She was discharged early this
morning.”

“
What?” I asked in disbelief. “Where did she go? Did the
social worker arrange some accommodation for her?”

“
I’ll
put you through to the ward. Just a moment.”

I waited impatiently
until another voice came on the line. I explained who I was and
that I wanted to speak to Annabel again.

“
She
was discharged this morning.”

“
I
know that,” I said, a little snippy. “Do you know where she
went?”

“
Home.”

“
Home? What do you mean
home
?”

“
It’s
a pretty common word, Senior Constable,” the voice sniped back at
me, and I wondered if it belonged to that grumpy nurse who’d chased
us from the hospital. “It’s the place where she lives.”

“
She
doesn’t live anywhere,” I said through gritted teeth. “She’s
homeless.”

“
Nonsense. Her father came to collect her this
morning.”

My blood ran cold. “Her
father?”

“
Yes.
You seem to have some trouble comprehending basic English. Her
father.”

“
Did
you see him?”

“
Yes.”

“
Describe him to me.”

“
Sort
of eccentric looking. A certain flare for clothing. I don’t know
what else to say.”

“
How
did she seem when he came to collect her?”

“
She
was upset, of course. She’s been upset ever since you told her
about the father of her child.”

“
Did
he say where they were going?”

“
Home. I just told you! He said he was looking forward to her
returning home with him.”

I hung up on her
without another word. In fury, I kicked my rubbish bin across the
room where it smashed into one of the filing cabinets with a
clatter that had the Sarge on his feet.

“
Tess, what the hell’s the matter?”

“
He’s
got her,” I said, looking around for something else to kick or
punch.

“
Hey,
calm down, right now,” he ordered. “Abusing inanimate objects isn’t
going to make anything better. Tell me, who’s got who?”

I took a couple of deep
breaths, amazed at how quickly his few calm words helped me pull
myself under control. “The hospital staff just told me that Annabel
was discharged this morning into the care of her father.”

“
Merrick.”

“
The
nurse described him to a T.”

Without waiting for a
response from him, I marched to the phone and jabbed in the number
for Mr X.

“
Tessie, I was going to ring you –” he started
amiably.

“
Merrick has Annabel,” I interrupted, not caring if he thought
I was rude. “He just waltzed into the hospital and took her with
him.”

“
No.”

“
Yes!
I left you a message yesterday telling you that
I’d seen him in Wattling Bay. Didn’t you get it?”

“
Yes,
and –”

“
You
were supposed to check on her.”

“
We
did, Tess. We rang –”

“
You
were supposed to keep her safe. You
promised
. I told her
we’d keep her safe from him. And now he’s taken her, and we don’t
know where she and her baby are.”

“
Tess
–”

“
She’s in danger from him. He
abused
her, and now she’s
back under his control. I have a photo of him abusing
her.”

“
Tess
–”

“
It
could be his baby. And he wanted her to get rid of it.

“
Tess
–”

“
That
baby is in danger from him.”

“
Tess
–”

“
I
just can’t believe none of you took me seriously about him. I’m so
angry.”

“
Tess
–”

In a blind fury, I hung
up on him as well, which I knew he’d definitely think was rude.

The Sarge had watched
my exchange closely. “What did he say?”

“
I
don’t know. I didn’t really give him a chance to speak.”

“
I
kind of gathered that from what I heard,” he said dryly, picking up
the phone himself. He commenced a calm conversation with someone
that I assumed was a rattled Mr X.

Not wanting to even
listen to half a conversation in which my manners, lack of
etiquette, and lack of respect for officers senior to me were
discussed, I took myself out to the back verandah. I sat on the
back stairs and willed myself back into calmness. I told myself
that there was nothing I could do for Annabel and I’d just have to
trust in the efficiency and dedication of my colleagues in Big Town
to rescue her from her kidnapper.

“
Tess, there’s nothing you can do about the situation right
now,” said the Sarge from the doorway.

“
I
know,” I said quietly, without turning to look at him. “I was just
telling myself that.”

He came and sat down
next to me, forcing me to shuffle over so he could fit in his big
frame.

“
Mr X
and Zelda did check on Annabel after they received your messages
yesterday. And they had every intention of checking on her again
today, but were caught up in some urgent business that they had to
prioritise. You know yourself what it’s like in this job. Sometimes
you have to drop everything when something more important comes
along.”

“
I
know that. But Annabel is important to me.”

“
They’re going to the hospital now to interview the staff, and
they’ll put out a bulletin about the trio to all police in the
district, not just Big Town. I think you’d have to be fair and
admit that they’re doing everything they can.”

“
After the fact, Sarge. That’s what shits me so much about
this. I couldn’t get them interested in him, even after I saw him
in Big Town. Nobody there ever listens to anything I
say.”

“
I
understand you’re angry about it all. But you’ve done what you can
in this investigation, including recovering those valuables, which
we’ll take to Big Town when we get the chance. Now the best thing
you can do is go back inside and work on your reports until
lunchtime.”

I gave him a reluctant
smile. “You’d say that even if it was the last day on Earth,
wouldn’t you?”

“
Yep,” he smiled back, nudging me with his shoulder. “Off you
go.”

I nudged him back a lot
harder and stood, dusting off the rear of my cargo pants. “Do you
want a cup of tea?”

“
I
thought you’d never ask,” he said, standing himself.

“
You
sergeants are so lazy. You could make one yourself one day, you
know. Even you, with your terrible kitchen skills, could manage
that.”

“
Maybe I like you waiting on me.” I glared at him,
unimpressed, one hand on my hip. He held his hands up in mock
fright. “I know, I know. I’m asking for a thumping.”

“
You
better believe it, buddy.”

But I went and made us
both a cup, grabbing three Tim Tams for myself. I munched on them
while I typed clumsily with one hand.

The Sarge watched me
for a few moments. “It would be faster and easier if you used both
hands to type.”

“
Yeah, but then I couldn’t hold my Tim Tam.”

“
You
probably shouldn’t eat at your desk anyway. I bet your keyboard is
full of crumbs.”

“
Of
course it’s not,” I asserted, showing him by holding it upside down
and shaking. A small blizzard of chocolate flakes descended to my
desk. I looked at him sheepishly. “Well, maybe a couple of
crumbs.”

He shook his head and
returned to his own reports. We worked solidly until lunchtime.

As we sat at his
kitchen table, having finished our sandwiches, my phone rang. I
fished it out of my pocket and answered.

“
Tess
Fuller.”

“
Tess, this Lloyd from Zippy Wheels Mechanics in Wattling Bay.
Your husband rang about a broken down vehicle
yesterday?”

Not so zippy, are
you, Lloyd?
I thought ungraciously to myself, considering it
was yesterday I’d broken down.

“
He’s
not my husband. But otherwise, yes. I had a broken down vehicle on
Wattling Bay Road.”

“
Oh,”
he said, clearly thrown. “Well, your boyfriend or whatever. I’ve
just finished working on your vehicle.”

“
Okay, tell me what’s wrong with it,” I demanded, steeling
myself and already seeing the dollar signs racking up.

“
Where do I start?”

That’s not a very
promising beginning to our transaction
, I thought gloomily. He
confirmed my worst fears by rattling off a number of mechanical
problems I didn’t even understand.

I cut to the chase.
“How much will it cost?”

I was glad I was
sitting down when he told me, because my legs suddenly felt rather
weak. It would probably be cheaper to buy a new vehicle. When he
said the business would send me the bill, I could only articulate a
kind of gurgle in response.

Oh God
, I
thought in desperation.
If I hold off the electricity bill AND
the telephone bill until final demands, and Dad and I didn’t eat
for two weeks, I might just be able to pay part of it.

“
Trouble?” enquired the Sarge.

“
Nope. Everything’s just great,” I lied. “The Land Rover’s
ready to pick up.”

“
Let’s take a spin there now before we get back to work. I
presume the mechanic managed to get it working again?”

“
Yep.”

Perhaps the tenseness
of my body, or the fact that I could barely get a word out between
my clenched teeth alerted him that something was wrong.

“
It
was expensive, huh?”

“
Oh,
yeah.”

I sensed he wanted to
say more, but held his tongue.

I was silent while we
drove, not paying much attention to anything, my mind swirling with
juggling bills and paydays, trying to get the pieces of my
terrifying financial puzzle together.

The Sarge pulled over,
an uncertain expression on his face. “Didn’t you break down round
about here?”

I glanced around.
“Yeah. I remember that clump of trees over there. God only knows I
studied it for ages waiting for you to turn up.”

“
I
came as soon as I could, Tess.”

“
I
know. I’m sorry,” I said, feeling churlish.

I pulled out my phone
and rang the impoundment unit of the Big Town police. I gave the
reception person my vehicle’s make, model and number plate on the
off chance it had been impounded.

Nope.

“
Those buggerdy bastard Bycrafts,” I almost shouted, banging
my fist on the dashboard and wanting to peg my phone into the
nearby field.

“
What’s the matter?”

“
They’ve gone and nicked my Land Rover.”

“
How
do you know?”

“
What
else could have happened to it? Who else would want to steal it but
that bunch of little shits? They’d have loved a bit of revenge
after yesterday’s episode.”

“
But
we left as soon as the mechanic rang. We should have passed them
heading into Little Town on the way. Perhaps the mechanic finished
a while ago and they stole it before he even rang?”

“
No.
He told me he’d just finished working on it when he
rang.”

“
Okay. The only other option is they drove it towards Big
Town.”

He pulled out into the
traffic again.

“
It’s
not even as though they’d get any joy joyriding in that old beast,”
I moaned. “They’re just doing it to spite me.”

“
We
don’t know for sure it was them.”

“
I
do. Oh, how they would have loved stumbling across it. And the keys
were in the bloody glove box.” I covered my eyes with my hand. “I
hope they don’t write it off.”

“
Did
you have any insurance on it?”

“
Yeah, replacement value. We’ll be lucky to get enough back to
buy one tyre of a newer car, especially after I pay that mechanic’s
bill.”

We drove another
fifteen kilometres towards Big Town, my eyes darting back and forth
across the road, trying to scan both sides at the same time.

“
Oh,
no,” I moaned when I spotted it.

Either it had been
deliberately or accidently driven off the side of the road. I
wasn’t going to discount either option until I found out who’d been
driving. It had collided with a tree slightly side on so that the
front right bumper was crumpled, the headlight crushed. The engine
was still running.

We stood and surveyed
the damage for a minute.

“
Will
I call a tow truck?” asked the Sarge.

“
Don’t bother,” I said dully. “At least it’s still running.
I’ll just drive it home.”