Silent Fear (10 page)

She rang Norris’s mobile with trembling hands, still wearing the gloves. She couldn’t take the chance of pulling them off yet. If Kyle came out and saw the infinity tattoo he would know for sure.

‘Hey,’ Norris answered.

‘I’m at Concord Emergency. Can you come and get me, please?’

‘Last I heard you were on the train.’

‘I’ll explain when you get here. Just please come, now.’

‘What’s up? You sound weird.’

‘Just come,’ she said.

‘Okay, all right,’ he said. ‘Be there in five.’

She called Lacey next but it went to voicemail. ‘I need to talk to you,’ she whispered. ‘This is one fucked-up day.’

She shoved her phone into her bag. First Seth, now Kyle. How could this be?

The doors slid open behind her and she spun around, feeling sick, only to see a nurse stroll out, shaking a cigarette from a packet, and in another moment disappear around the far corner of the building. She felt exposed there on the asphalt, imagining Kyle hurrying his handover so he could come out and confront her. She started walking up the driveway. She needed to get out of there. She could meet Norris on the street.

An ancient white Fairlane crept towards her, the driver’s window creaking down. ‘Excuse me.’

Holly glanced back at the doors but there was no sign of Kyle.
Yet
. ‘Just park anywhere,’ she said distractedly.

The elderly driver’s eyes were watery behind thick glasses, her hands white-knuckled on the wheel. ‘My husband was brought in earlier. Do you know where he is?’

‘Probably in Emergency.’ Holly pointed at the doors. ‘Park along there and go in and ask.’

‘Park where?’

‘Anywhere here.’ Holly’s hands were sweaty inside the gloves and her heart was racing. The longer she stood here, the more time Kyle had to come out. ‘They’ll help you once you go inside.’

‘Is this not just for ambulances?’

‘I’m sure in your case they’ll make an exception.’ Holly smiled and stepped back from the door.

The woman put a shaking hand on the sill. ‘Do you know how my husband is?’

‘You’ll have to ask inside, I’m sorry,’ Holly said.

‘He didn’t look very well this morning.’ The woman lifted her glasses and wiped her eyes with a rumpled tissue.

‘I’m sure he’s doing well now.’ Holly took another step back. ‘Why don’t you go in and see?’

The Emergency Department doors slid open and Kyle came out. Holly’s breath caught in her throat. He looked over, and started walking towards them.

‘And you’re certain I can just park here?’ the old woman said.

Holly backed away, sick at the sight of Kyle’s smile, then heard a car coming along the driveway. Norris in the Mazda, at last.

He pulled up and she wrenched open the door. The air conditioning was icy on her damp skin. Kyle stood by the old lady’s car, the case-sheet folder under his arm, watching Holly.

‘Hey, honey,’ Norris said. ‘What’s with the gloves?’

‘Please just drive.’

From the corner of her eye she saw Kyle raise his left hand as they went past. His left.

She shivered.

SIX

I
t was cool in the office, but the setting sun flooded the windows with orange light and made the place look as dusty and hot as outside. Detectives talked by the coffee machine, then took their cups into the meeting room. Ella gulped water from a bottle as she sank into a chair. She was headachy and tired from the heat, and could feel the grime of the afternoon’s sweat on her skin but a shower was still hours away. Murray flipped through his notebook beside her. She drank more water, then rested her elbows on the table and thought about Darcy Fowler carrying her dad’s present everywhere.

Dennis came in and opened a manila folder on the table. He took out a blow-up of Fowler’s driver’s licence photo and taped it to the whiteboard behind him. Ella saw a restrained smile on the man’s face, as if the RTA staffer had cracked a bad joke before hitting the button. With that and the life in his brown eyes, he looked like a nice guy, so different from both the corpse she’d seen in the hospital room and the bastard Trina had described him to be.

Ella’s phone buzzed in her pocket. She checked the screen but it was a mobile number she didn’t recognise. The last detectives were hurrying through the door so she let it go to voicemail.

‘Okay,’ Dennis said. ‘Victim is Paul David Fowler, twenty-nine years old. At approximately eleven forty-five today he was crouched down, tying his shoe, in Beaman Park in Earlwood with friends who said he suddenly collapsed. Two bystanders diagnosed cardiac arrest and commenced CPR. An ambulance was called and arrived on scene at eleven fifty-five. In the course of their treatment they found an apparent bullet wound to the back of his neck. He was transported to RPA and declared dead there at thirteen-oh-four.’

He paused. Nobody spoke.

Ella looked around at the bent heads, the pens going hard in notebooks. She lived for this moment: the thrill of the chase as a case began. She felt for Darcy and Trina but she so loved her job.

‘The body’s going to Glebe morgue and the post-mortem’s scheduled for eleven tomorrow morning. The hospital X-rayed Fowler’s head and located a projectile in his frontal lobe, here.’ Dennis tapped his right forehead. ‘Projectile does not look in good condition.’

Ella scribbled a note of her own. You couldn’t expect the bullet to be in great shape, but it meant matching it to a particular weapon was going to be hard if not impossible.

Her phone buzzed again. Same number. She left it for voicemail again, though she noticed the caller hadn’t left a message last time.

Dennis taped a blown-up map of the park next to the photo. ‘Marconi?’

She put her phone on her chair and went to the map. ‘Fowler was standing approximately here.’ She marked an X on the spot. ‘From the description of the way he was facing and how he fell, it’s likely the shot was fired from an area to the south of the park, here.’ She circled it. ‘In that area there’s a number of trees, a car park and a children’s playground, and as you can see the park runs for some distance beside the river. Regos of the vehicles in the car park were taken down.’

She looked at Murray, and he said, ‘Four belonged to the friends who were with Fowler, the fifth to a woman visiting a house across the street.’

‘Ground search located no useful evidence,’ Ella went on, ‘as the soil’s so dry that footprints don’t mark, and if the weapon ejected a shell the shooter picked it up. A person on foot would have a number of options in leaving that location, the streets to the south being one of them.’ She indicated where they opened off the parkland. ‘Over the bridge into the golf course is another possibility, and one of Fowler’s friends thinks he saw a man cross the bridge and drop something long into the water on the way, around here.’ She put a dot on the footbridge over the river. ‘We also have a report of a small hatchback-type car with a noisy exhaust leaving the golf course car park at high speed around that time, and have taken samples from a scraping of paint that the car left on the club’s gate.’ Another X on the map. ‘A similar-looking and -sounding car was seen on Monday night on the other side of the river, here.’ She drew a circle on the street outside Mary Hyde’s house. ‘The witness says it looked like the occupant was taking photos of the park, then they appeared to take a picture of her too.’

Scribble, scribble went the pens.

‘Paul Fowler moved out of his home in Belfield six and a half weeks ago.’ She told them how Trina already knew Fowler was dead before they arrived, and how she seemed somewhat upset but also still angry about him leaving. ‘She and his friends who were in the park all say they have no idea about who might be angry at Fowler or want to hurt him.’

‘Wifey got a boyfriend?’ a detective asked.

He was new in the building. Ella had seen him around in the last couple of weeks but hadn’t spoken to him. He wore a navy suit with a crisp white shirt and navy and gold striped tie, and looked fresh and cool.
Desk specialist
, Ella thought.

She said, ‘As you can imagine, she was shocked and upset. We’ll be talking to her again tomorrow.’

‘So you don’t know,’ the detective said. ‘Primo suspect right there, if she does.’

Pointing out the obvious was classic new-detective behaviour.

‘In my experience a little consideration and understanding towards the family at this time goes a long way,’ Ella said.

The detective shrugged and looked at his notebook. Ella eyed the white parting in his light brown combed-down hair and felt the beginnings of dislike.

‘Fowler has no criminal record,’ she said. ‘He recently left his job at Carpet Planet in Summer Hill, but we’re not sure why yet, or whether he was sacked or quit.’

‘Might be linked to that then,’ the new detective said.

Ella ignored him. ‘The friend he was living with, Seth Garland, says he’d had no visitors lately, and there’d been no sign that anything was amiss.’

‘Gay?’ the new detective asked.

‘I’m sorry?’

‘Is Garland gay? Making a move on Fowler? Got rejected and arranged the hit?’

‘Garland was with Fowler when it happened,’ Ella said.

‘Perfect alibi,’ the new detective said. ‘So is he?’

‘It didn’t come up in our interview,’ Ella said.

‘He’s very neat,’ Murray said.

‘That’s just stereotyping,’ Ella said.

‘So you don’t know,’ the new detective said.

‘Sexuality is not in my first line of questioning.’ Ella looked at Dennis. ‘The neatness thing is a stark contrast to the way Fowler lives, at least as far as we could see in Garland’s flat. That’s it.’

She went back to her seat. Her phone vibrated a third time as she picked it up and it struck her that the caller might be Trina Fowler. Until they knew exactly why Fowler had been murdered they couldn’t be sure that Trina and Darcy were safe. Without being certain that it was her, however, Ella couldn’t interrupt the meeting. Under the table she opened the missed calls log, then waited with her thumb over the call button.

Dennis handed out laminated cards with the mobile number of each detective on the team. Ella tucked hers in her pocket. As soon as she’d made this call she’d put each one into her phone.

‘Canvass is a top priority for now,’ Dennis said. ‘Pilsiger, Brooks, Eliopoulos, Martin and Gerard, take some uniforms and go south alongside the park to the houses there and then further out into the streets. Day like today, anyone walking let alone hurrying is likely to stick in a person’s mind. Kemsley, Johnson, Bennett and Gawande, get uniforms and do the same across the river near the golf course. All of you also ask about a small, noisy dark-coloured car. Hayes, get onto the RTA about traffic cameras in the area, red-light runners, all that sort of thing. Get word out to the media as well, and start on the requests for the records for Fowler’s landline and mobile.’

Heads nodded around the table.

‘Marconi, Shakespeare, you’re on Fowler,’ Dennis said. ‘The reason why he quit his job, the reason he and his wife broke up, what was going on.’ He looked at the photo on the board. ‘This guy’s life changed recently and now he’s dead. The reasons are out there.’

Detectives got to their feet. Ella pressed the call button, then jammed the phone to her ear.

*

‘Where were you?’ Holly said.

‘I fell asleep,’ Norris said. ‘I didn’t hear it ring.’

‘I rang on both.’

‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘What’s the problem? You didn’t make it to the station anyway.’

Holly folded her arms around her backpack. The gloves lay ripped and damp on the floor and her hands were sticky with drying sweat and talc. They drove the rest of the way home in silence, then as Norris pulled into the driveway he said, ‘You know you can talk to me, right?’

Holly got out without answering.

‘I can tell something’s bothering you,’ he said.

‘I just want to get in the pool and cool down.’ She walked away and into the house.

He followed her upstairs. ‘You sounded weird on the phone and you seem even weirder now. How come you’re home early? Are you sick?’

She pulled her T-shirt off and dropped it on the laundry pile. If today had involved only Seth she would’ve been able to push down her feelings and fears and Norris would’ve remained oblivious. Meeting Kyle again had fucked all that up, though, and when Norris got like this he didn’t give up. She had to tell him something. ‘We went to a cardiac arrest that turned out to be a shooting death. My brother was there.’ The lesser evil.

‘The brother you haven’t seen in ten years?’

‘Twelve.’ She kicked off her boots.

‘Man, how’d you even recognise him?’

She yanked off her socks. ‘He’s unforgettable.’

Norris laughed. She didn’t. He went quiet, then patted the bed beside him. ‘Come and sit down.’

She sat down in her bra and uniform trousers. ‘The dead guy was Seth’s flatmate. He was really upset.’

‘I bet.’

‘It felt so strange to see him after so long.’ She put her head on his shoulder. None of this was lies. It had been strange – and absolutely awful too. ‘I think I’d imagined he’d be dead by now.’

‘Harsh.’

‘You weren’t there, you didn’t see how he drank.’ And the rest. But Norris didn’t know about that and never would. She slid her arms around him and hugged him tight. ‘Kiss me. Make me forget about it.’

‘Honey, it’s natural that you feel all shaken up.’ He leaned back to look into her eyes. ‘Where’s he living?’

‘I don’t know,’ she lied. ‘It was a hectic scene. We didn’t get to talk about stuff like that.’

‘But you’ll see him again?’

‘I have no way of contacting him,’ she said. Another lie. It was all in her notebook, there in the pocket of her uniform shirt in her bag. ‘But we never really got on well anyway, so I can’t see that he’d want to be in touch now. We’ve managed fine without each other for twelve years.’ She leaned close. ‘Kiss me.’

‘I can’t imagine life without my brothers. Maybe you should give it a chance.’

‘Not all families are happy like yours.’

‘Ours.’ Now he did kiss her, once, lightly. ‘You belong now too.’

He had a big thing about families and no idea how different others could be. Holly squeezed him tightly. ‘Let’s talk about something else.’

‘Maybe we should try to find him,’ he said.

She stood up, fighting the desire to run. ‘Feel like a swim?’

‘Honey.’ He reached for her hand. ‘Family’s important.’

Her phone rang and she grabbed it out of her bag. Lacey.

‘Listen and say nothing,’ Lacey said. ‘I don’t have much time. I’m in the bathroom. If I stop talking you know someone’s come in.’

‘What?’

‘Shh. Wait.’

Holly waited.

‘False alarm,’ Lacey said. ‘Now listen. The proverbial has hit the proverbial. When they ask you, you know nothing.’

‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’

‘They’ve started an investigation,’ Lacey said. ‘One of the things they’re poking around in is the overtime rostering.’

‘I don’t get what you’re –’

‘They’re looking at how we dole it out,’ Lacey hissed. ‘Somebody complained and now they’re looking, so when they ask you, you know nothing.’

‘I really have no idea what you’re on about.’

‘Listen! I give you lots of overtime, right?’

‘Yeah, because there’re so many shifts to be filled,’ Holly said.

There was silence.

Holly felt sick. ‘Did someone come in or am I wrong about the shifts?’

‘Both,’ Lacey whispered.

Holly put a hand over her eyes.

Norris said, ‘You okay?’

She didn’t answer, listening to Lacey breathing fast on the other end while someone closed and locked a toilet door, urinated loudly, flushed, unlocked the door, washed their hands and left.

‘How bad is it?’ Holly asked.

‘You know how they are about corruption in government departments these days.’

‘Can they prove anything?’

‘It doesn’t make a pretty spreadsheet.’

Holly imagined her name printing out, over and over. ‘You call other people too though, right? You try other people sometimes?’

‘I have your roster in my diary,’ Lacey said. ‘When you’re off I ring you first. All they have to do is look at the phone records.’

Holly shook her head.
I never asked you to do this.
She couldn’t say it aloud though. She and Lacey had been tight since day dot in their Level One class nine years ago.

‘What’ll happen to you?’ she said.

There was the sound of another door opening. ‘I gotta go,’ Lacey whispered. ‘Just tell them you know nothing.’ The call dropped out.

Holly said ‘Bye’ to the dead line, then pressed the end button. She’d wanted to talk about seeing Seth and Kyle, but even if Lacey had had time to listen, she couldn’t do it here with Norris looking at her.

‘Everything okay?’ he asked.

‘Lacey’s being investigated for rorting overtime. She’s been sending it all my direction.’

‘That’s not good.’

‘I know. I feel terrible for her.’

He rubbed his chin. ‘Does that mean you won’t get any more shifts?’

‘She could lose her job!’

‘Yeah, and that’s awful,’ he said. ‘I just wanted to be sure that you’re okay. Will you get in trouble?’