‘No, there’s something there with that guy. Underneath the surface. You can see it in his eyes. Or I can, at least.’
‘You’ve never said anything about it.’
‘Why would I? Nobody believes me.’
‘That’s because we’ve all met your ex.’ Lee smiled. ‘We know that judging character is not your special talent.’
Kalowski rolled her eyes. Knowles folded his arms when he saw my face. ‘Look, we get it, detective. We get what you’re saying about us being familiar with the suspects we have out here, but that’s just how it is. Stephen Branch is a friendly figure about town. Well loved. Makes people laugh. He does amazing impressions.’
‘That’s right.’ Lee grinned.
‘He does a great Dolly Parton.’ Dodge looked at me sheepishly, trying to steer the ship back on course. ‘Some of the local boys, they have domestic violence or male-on-female assaults on their records. Not Branch, as far as I’m aware, but I’ll check. We can interview them in the morning. Ask for DNA swabs.’
‘Run that as a rumour, tonight,’ I said. ‘Down at the pub. You four, get down there, among the crowd. Just for an hour. Let it be known that we’re going to swab everyone who was at the pub last night, and that we’ll be door-knocking again and asking for swabs tomorrow morning. That should drum up some panic. Are your out-of-town coppers at the pub yet?’
Dodge nodded, whipping out his phone. ‘I’ve got five officers down there, listening. Two from Cessnock, three from Katoomba.’
‘Make sure they all stay until closing.’ I turned back to the women at the deck rail. ‘Who was on traffic cams?’
‘That would be Senior Sergeant Powder,’ Dodge said. ‘He said he’d bring the list when he arrives back in town.’
‘We need to decide how we’re going to divide the night up,’ Fry said. Knowles glanced achingly at his watch. ‘Who takes first shift and who takes relief.’
‘No, there’ll be no shifts,’ I said. ‘We push on. No one sleeps.’
I looked out across the barbecue area. Five sets of eyes watching me. Cops who hadn’t worked a real murder maybe ever, staringdown a cop who had been dealing with one weekly for the past seven or eight years. ‘Don’t tell me you’re surprised.’
‘Well—’
‘A young woman was just murdered in your town. The sun is about to set and you still don’t have a clue who the fucker is. This is a race, and you’re all behind. You’re fallingfurtherbehind by the second. So, while the killer sleeps tonight, you catch up. Knocking on more doors. Making more phone calls. Walking the scene. You are going to do those interviews, and you are going to take those swabs. But they won’t be tomorrow morning. They’ll be tonight. I’m not blind. I can see you’re tired. Guess what? I don’t give a fuck. A couple of nights of lost sleep is the minimum you owe to Chloe Lutz for letting her get stabbed to death on your turf. So, smash a case of Red Bull. Do a line of coke. I don’t care. The longer we go on without a solid suspect, the harder and faster you need to work.’
The officers all glanced at each other. I stood, and they seemed to get the message that the meeting was over.
‘And stop treating everyone in town like your mate,’ I said. ‘There are no mates here.’
I heard some mutterings in the wheelhouse as the officers left. A dread-heavy laugh. Dodge remained at the boat rail, trying to drag that utility belt up, and with it every ounce of his manhood. He gave the resigned sigh of a man who knows he’s about to get bitten by the snake he’s trying to remove from under a car seat. ‘Okay. Look. Detective, we need to have a little chat.’
‘What is it, Dodge?’ I didn’t take my eyes off the text I was typing to Gail.
‘I can’t have you talking to my staff like that.’
‘Like what? Like I’m pissed? Like I expected more of them than they’ve given me in the past eight hours? Frankly, I’d have expected more from the Scooby-Doo crew than this pack of no-hopers. Apologies for not handing out certificates of appreciation.’
‘You don’t actually mean any of that.’ Dodge was watching me. I put down the phone and looked at him. ‘My team’s performancehas been pretty reasonable, given their limited experience with homicide and the time they’ve had to work on this case. You’re being an A-grade dickhead to them, and to me, because you’re trying to maintain some distance.’
‘It doesn’t seem to be working.’
‘You need to dial itthe fuckdown,’ Dodge snapped. A tingle of excitement entered my brain. I took a step closer to Dodge. I towered a good foot above him, and most men. But the move had no effect. ‘Nobody here wants to get into your business, Detective Inspector Powder. Nobody is trying to be your friend. So you can stop snarling at us. Okay? Because we’re already convinced—well and trulyconvinced—that you’re not worth the trouble.’
‘Is that right?’ I asked. ‘You’ve got me worked out, have you, Dodge?’
‘More or less,’ he said. ‘In my experience, dogs don’t do this much barking unless they’re protecting something. And I’m here to tell you: whatever it is? Nobody’s interested.’
He held my eyes for a while. The growing night howled around us, open and dark and speckled with the first of the evening’s stars. A peacock cried down at the pub, a sound remarkably similar to a call for help. The silence in its wake felt lonely.
Dodge announced he was going to the pub, and I watched him go.
When I got downstairs, Bridie was sitting at her laptop at the little kitchen nook, her back rigid and eyes following me in. There were two coffee cups on the table before her. She pointed to one that was full. I felt like a dog being shown its bowl, went and gulped down a big mouthful before I’d even taken a seat. I was mindful as I eased in beside my daughter not to crack my skull on a row of high cabinets above the portholes, cabinets that I knew in my soul I was going to forget were there and bean myself on at some point. The coffee was good. The previous night spent up doing damage control for being a ‘punch-happy sack of shit’ was catching up with me, along with the heaviness of my responsibilitieshere in Redbelly Crossing. My promise to Larry Lutz that I always got my man.
