‘Watch out, there’ll be another,’ Stevie warned.

Sure enough, a joey darted out, bouncing after its mother.

Monty expelled a pent up breath. ‘I’m pulling over,’ he said as he glided the car to a stop on the shoulder of the road. He left the lights on but turned off the ignition, swiping his forehead with the back of his hand.

There wasn’t another car on the road. A recent bushfire had burned the surrounding vegetation into a moonscape and she could smell the acrid dead smoke through the air conditioning vent. Darkness and silence closed in upon them.

Monty’s face appeared green and distorted in the dashboard light, his forehead glistening with sweat. People in relationships reflected each other like mirrors, Stevie decided. Right now Monty’s was a magnifying mirror, sending all her flaws and faults right back to her.

But she was not going to make this about her. She touched his arm. ‘Are you all right?’

‘No, I’ve had a splitting headache all day. It started in my tooth. Is there any Panadol in the glove box?’

‘You need to take some time off and go to the dentist. That tooth’s been bothering you for a while.’ She found a packet jammed between the maps. After popping the pills out of their foil she handed them to him with the water bottle that had been rolling around at her feet.

‘These migraines must be contagious,’ he said, giving her a pointed look before swallowing the pills. When she didn’t reply, he slapped the steering wheel in frustration, the sudden sound making her flinch.

‘I don’t understand you,’ he bellowed, at last losing any semblance of self-control. ‘I saw Mrs Kusak not long after you saw her and she mentioned then that she told Natasha Hayward where her husband was most likely to be hanging out. She told you too, yet you’ve said nothing to me about it. Why are you protecting her? Is it because her parents died tragically and she’s nobly dedicated herself to looking after her retarded brother? Or is it because she’s gay and you figure she needs all the help she can get in a job that’s dominated by a mob of overbearing straight males?’

Stevie struggled to maintain her composure; one of them had to. ‘Forget the stereotypes, okay? Try loyalty, trust and friendship instead. But protecting her? I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘Oh come on, Stevie,’ he slapped his thigh in frustration. ‘Miro Kusak was killed by an automatic pistol that uses point 40 S&W ammunition. I got the bullet and cartridge dispatched to ballistics as soon as I found them. I heard back from them about half an hour ago while I was waiting for you to pick me up.’

Stevie swallowed. ‘So?’

‘So, we happen to have a couple of Glock 22s in the armoury, which could easily match the murder weapon. They were handed in for the weapons amnesty.’ He lapsed into the interrogator’s most effective weapon, silence. It gave the suspect the chance to incriminate herself.

Stevie wouldn’t fall for it. After a lengthy pause she said, ‘I can’t see what you’re getting at.’

‘How about the gun used to kill Miro Kusak was borrowed from the armoury at Central? I called the property sergeant and he had something interesting to tell me. It seems...’ Monty hesitated.

Stevie became aware of an ache in her jaw and forced herself to unclench her teeth. ‘What?’

‘It seems Natasha was hanging around the armoury the other day, chatting to the property sergeant and looking at the confiscated weapons. We have so many in there at the moment, there’s not room enough in the gun cabinets for all of them. When the week’s up, they’re going to be moved to the firearms repository and destroyed.’

‘Get to the point Monty.’

‘The point is, the property sergeant didn’t worry too much about a missing imitation Glock, which was actually a very well crafted water pistol. It was handed in with a bunch of genuine weapons and he didn’t get the chance to check it properly before the guy bolted. He was quite pissed off that someone received tickets for the test with a bloody toy, and he didn’t report it missing because a) he knew he’d be in the shit for it and b) he knew it was harmless.’ Monty paused. ‘But at least he was being straight about it with me.’

Not like me you mean, Stevie thought. Shit, I’ve been sprung. Shit shit shit.

‘So ... have you seen Hayward brandishing a water pistol around the place?’ Monty demanded.

She knew what he was intimating. If Tash had been able to spirit out a water pistol, she could just as well have been able to spirit out the real thing, use it to kill Kusak and then return it to the armoury with no one the wiser.

Stevie avoided a direct answer. ‘I’d have put her on report if she’d been out of order.’

Monty’s face lit up with the headlamps of a passing car. He rubbed his face with his hands and placed them back upon the steering wheel. Under the glow from the dash she noticed the knuckles of his right hand glistening like split cherries.

Monty spoke softly, with no hint of anger. In Monty McGuire this was not a good sign. ‘Robert Mason has filed a complaint at the remand centre, alleging he was intimidated by Tash with a water pistol at the time of his arrest.’ Monty moistened his lips. ‘An incident which you seem to have conveniently brushed under the carpet. I imagine Dolly will want a little chat about it with you. The complaint form was put on my desk by mistake, I’m going to have to hand it over to her.’

Fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck! Inspector Dorothy ‘Dolly’ Veitch was head of the Sex Crimes Division and Stevie’s immediate superior. Stevie opened her mouth to speak but it took a few moments before she could form the words. ‘I have had a word with her about it, everything’s fine now, it was just a momentary lapse on her part.’

‘I’ve ordered tests to be carried out on the confiscated Glocks in the armoury. They should be able to tell us if the guns have been fired recently. I know Natasha has had it rough, she’s been in Sex Crimes for a long time...’

‘I said I’ve spoken to her, fuck it! She assured me it won’t happen again.’

Stevie dug her fingers into each side of the car seat and twisted her head to look at him. ‘How did you hurt your hand—hit someone?’

‘I felt frustrated. I thumped a tree at the scene.’

She clamped her jaw. ‘You’re lying to me, Monty.’ How cool she managed to make her words sound.

He shot her a glare. ‘Yeah, I’ve had a good teacher.’

He said nothing more, turned the key and glided from the shoulder back onto the road. Soon they were close enough to the city to have the benefit of streetlights. She gazed at the ring on her finger where it sparkled under the passing lights like a small crystal of ice.

16

Saturday

EXCERPT FROM CHAT ROOM TRANSCRIPT 150107

BETTYBO: I metta nic boi in book chat called danil He red KE & likd her storeys

HARUM SCARUM: gr8, he has good taste

BETTYBO: hes smart lik u

HARUM SCARUM: no 1s as smart as me roflmao

Stevie dreamed she was in the car with Monty, hurtling down a dark hill, the car brakes had failed. It was a white-knuckle ride; they were gaining speed, struggling to keep the car from careering out of control...

It wasn’t her own scream that jolted her out of the nightmare and it wasn’t Izzy’s either. Stevie struggled with her fuddled mind to put it in context. The scream was high pitched and keening, like an animal in distress. And it was coming from the spare bedroom.

Emma.

She turned the spare room light on to find the girl sitting bolt upright in bed, hair over her face like a yeti, arms crossed at her chest like a corpse.