Red Mist

by Angus McLean

  If it was him, he’d try to double back behind the cops while his mate was getting chewed by the dog. Dan moved up Sophia Place, crossed a front lawn and went up the side driveway of the second house from Panama. Reaching the back yard, he could hear running feet in the next yard over. He ducked back to the footpath, past the third house and ran up the side of the fourth.

  There was a thump as a body hit the fence between the third and fourth houses then the sound of scrambling. Dan saw the driver dart across the back yard, going for the next boundary fence. Dan gave chase, the kid unaware he was there as he leaped up at the fence.

  Dan grabbed him by the back of his shirt and jeans and yanked him backwards, throwing him to the ground.

  ‘Stay down,’ he snarled, ‘you’re under arrest.’

  The guy rolled and started to get up, scrambling to get his feet under him, but he was too slow. Dan gave him a face full of gas and he went down again, grabbing at his face and squealing. Dan put his spray away and dropped a knee onto the kid’s back, pinning him down while he handcuffed his hands behind his back.

  A chubby Polynesian man emerged from the house and watched them from his back step. His white singlet was stained and tucked into his track pants. He slurped from a cup of tea, not saying a word. Dan guessed it wasn’t the first time this had happened in his street.

  A female voice sounded from inside the house behind the man.

  ‘What’s going on?’

  The man glanced over his shoulder as his wife emerged, wiping her hands on a tea towel. ‘Don’t worry, dear,’ he said calmly, ‘it’s just the po-lice.’ He took another slurp of tea.

  The kid was snorting and coughing, but managed to maintain a barrage of abuse despite the river of mucous and tears.

  Dan rolled the kid into a sitting position and helped him up.

  ‘Stop whinging and catch your breath,’ he told him, ‘as soon as we get back to the car I’ll give you some spray that’ll clean that all up.’

  The kid swore again and Dan gave him a firm shake.

  ‘Knock it off, half-wit.’ He hustled his prisoner out to the road, seeing a marked patrol car cruising up the cul-de-sac towards him.

  He recognised an I-car crew from Otahuhu. They pulled up beside him and he handed the prisoner over to them.

  ‘Just transport him to the Hub,’ he said, ‘we’ll come straight down and deal with him. He needs decontaminating first though.’

  ‘All good,’ one of the cops said with a grin, ‘tried to run eh?’

  ‘He did.’ Dan’s moustache twitched. ‘Can’t run from the five-oh’s though.’

  He walked down to Panama and found Joe coming back towards him, a grin on his face and a spring in his step.

  ‘All good?’ Dan asked.

  ‘Mate, he got munched. I don’t think he’ll run from a Police dog again.’

  Dan chuckled. He was happy with the result, but he wasn’t convinced Joe was right. These were car thieves, not rocket scientists. He knew offenders who had been dogged multiple times, and still thought it was worth a crack.

  ‘Right,’ he said, ‘let’s get these clowns sorted out. Then we’ll round up the boys and go back and lock up those other two.’

  Chapter Ten

  It was late afternoon before Molly had a chance to do any more digging.

  Old Russ had gone home sick and it threw all the planning for next week into a tailspin. Jobs had to be rescheduled and clients contacted, some of whom were not happy. Naturally, Ailsa delegated that job to Molly. Renee was ropeable at the guy who’d gone down ill, blaming the situation on him and threatening to sack him.

  One of the factory supervisors pointed out, quite bravely Molly thought, that Old Russ was actually undergoing chemo treatment for cancer and probably should have been on light duties anyway. That did nothing to calm the boss, who continued to rage about before storming outside for a cigarette.

  Molly let it all wash over her and got on with her task. She spent the better part of the afternoon ringing clients and doing her best to placate the angry ones. Renee bustled in at one stage, stinking of smoke with his hair awry, and sounded off loudly to Ailsa while Molly was on the phone.

  She shot him a shut up frown and he looked taken aback, but dutifully lowered his voice. As soon as Molly hung up he broke off his conversation with Ailsa and turned to her.

  ‘Who was that?’ he demanded. ‘Was that Hathcock’s? Have you called them yet? We’re gunna lose them, I know it. They’re gone.’

  Molly waited for him to take a breath before confirming it had been Hathcock’s. They were a major client but were also very demanding.

  ‘I knew it!’ Renee groaned and shook his head. ‘Damnit! If that useless mongrel Russ hadn’t...’

  ‘Had cancer,’ Molly finished for him. She had seen him on the way out to his car, and he looked like death on legs.

  He scowled and stared at her, trying to figure out whether she was being insubordinate or not. He opened his mouth to retort, but she beat him to it.

  ‘Hathcock’s are fine,’ she said, ‘they know they’re top of our list and will get their order on Tuesday morning, first thing.’

  Renee stared at her. ‘They’re okay with that?’ he queried suspiciously. ‘You’re sure.’

  ‘Well,’ Molly said slowly, ‘I just spoke to Lindsay, and explained the situation. We worked out a plan, and she said “Thanks Molly, that’ll be fine.”’ Molly shrugged. ‘I guess it’s fine.’

  ‘And what was this plan you worked out?’ he demanded.

  ‘That they would get their order on Tuesday morning rather than Monday afternoon.’

  He nodded. Beside him, Ailsa screwed up her nose and squinted. It didn’t lift her in the prettiness stakes.

  ‘That they would get a five percent discount on this order...’ She saw him open his mouth to protest, and cut him off, ‘not the fifteen percent she wanted.’

  He looked surprised, and nodded approvingly.

  ‘And we will cover the courier fee.’

  Renee frowned now, and shook his head.

  ‘No, we’re not paying to courier their order,’ he said firmly, ‘no way. They can sing for that.’ He looked to Ailsa for support, and got a simpering smile in return.

  ‘No problem,’ Molly said smoothly, ‘that’s up to you Renee. Lindsay did say, though, that if we couldn’t fix this for them they would go elsewhere. But I can ring her back if you like...’

  Renee paused, taking stock. Molly imagined she could actually hear the cogs turning as he worked it through in his head. Ailsa couldn’t wait to put her two cents worth in.

  ‘Talk about trying to screw us,’ she piped up, ‘they’ve got a nerve.’

  Renee didn’t reply immediately. The office went silent as he considered his position. Finally he lifted his head and waggled a finger at Molly.

  ‘You did good, girl,’ he said, breaking into a smile, ‘you did good. That could’ve been a big problem for us, but you pulled it back. I can live with that deal.’

  Molly nodded. Ailsa scowled.

  ‘Yep, good deal,’ Renee said. He glanced at Ailsa, his grin getting wider. ‘Nice one, isn’t it? Didn’t she do good?’

  Ailsa gave the simpering smile again. ‘Yes, really good,’ she agreed, ‘we thought it was a good plan.’

  Renee completely missed her blatant attempt to steal the credit, and Molly just shook her head in amazement.

  ‘Ooohh,’ Renee gushed, ‘I could just kiss you right now.’

  He actually started to take a step towards her, and Molly held up a hand to stop him.

  ‘Please don’t,’ she said.

  He clapped his hands instead and gave a loud, barking laugh. He turned to Ailsa again.

  ‘Right,’ he said, ‘let’s go for a smoke.’

  They headed for the door, Ailsa scowling at Molly behind his back. Molly couldn’t resist a self-satisfied smirk. She heard the back door shut behind them, and swivelled back to her computer.

  The mys
tery had been tumbling round in the back of her head while she focussed on other things, and one idea kept floating back to the top.

  She logged into the payroll system, and saw her payslip and leave balance appear. She checked but couldn’t find a search field. Damn. She thought for a moment. There was only one way to do it.

  Ailsa was responsible for the administering the payroll as part of her duties, and Molly knew she had wider access to the system.

  She checked the door. All clear. Peering out the window, she could see Renee and Ailsa out there, puffing away together. She should have a few more minutes. She quickly scooted over to Ailsa’s desk, and gave a silent whoop of delight when she saw the computer hadn’t been locked. Even better, the payroll system was open, minimised at the bottom of the screen.

  Molly gave a mental fist pump as she opened up the window. Sure enough, Ailsa had been working on it. There was a search field where you could enter a name or employee payroll number.

  Molly typed in Smith and hit Enter.

  She checked over her shoulder. Still all clear. The phone started ringing but she ignored it.

  Two Smiths appeared on the screen. One was Jeff Smith, a process worker out in the factory. Molly knew him-a skinny little guy with a lisp, drove a beat up old Falcon.

  The second was Alice Smith, an administrator. Molly had never heard of her.

  Alice worked part-time, twenty hours a week, and had joined the company a year and a half ago. She was on the same rate as Ailsa.

  Molly felt her heart pound in her chest. She was definitely onto something now. She quickly hit the print button and fired off a copy of Alice Smith’s latest pay slip.

  She heard the back door open and voices in the hallway. Renee and Ailsa.

  Molly hit the back arrow a couple of times, minimised the window again, and dashed to the printer. The phone was still ringing. She folded the printout and jammed it into her back pocket, scooping up the phone receiver a second before Ailsa appeared.

  Ailsa went to her desk and plonked down, while Molly transferred the call to one of the factory supervisors.

  Moving around her desk again, Molly took her seat and tried to calm her nerves. She couldn’t help sneaking glances over at Ailsa as she pretended to work. She didn’t know exactly what she’d uncovered just now, but she knew it was something.

  And Ailsa was right at the heart of it.

  ***

  The blue steel door swung open and Ace stepped out into the sunshine.

  He shut the door behind him with a heavy thud and headed away from the District Custody Unit towards the blue Commodore in the car park. He had stayed behind to tidy up the two prisoners while the others went back up to Otahuhu.

  He wanted to get going. Being a Friday afternoon the motorway would be jammed, and he had to get home, get packed and hit the road again. He was heading down to Mount Maunganui for the weekend, to catch up with an old mate. Manukau Hub was the last place he wanted to be on a Friday afternoon.

  He was digging out the car keys when he heard a shout behind him.

  ‘Purcell!’

  He stopped and turned. The station cafeteria was upstairs above the cell block. Two Ds were standing on the deck outside, looking over the railing at him.

  Tug and Romana. Ace groaned to himself, waiting as they took the stairs down to join him in the car park.

  ‘Hey, that CHIS of yours,’ Tug called out, by way of greeting, ‘I want him.’

  Ace gazed at him, his eyes shielded by his Oakley blades. Tug mistook his silence for a lack of comprehension.

  ‘Your CHIS with the bully on these cash van jobs,’ he persisted.

  ‘I know who you’re talking about,’ Ace replied.

  ‘I want him.’

  ‘For what?’

  Tug looked at Romana, incredulous. Romana sneered.

  ‘To run him, whaddaya think?’

  Ace was silent again for a long moment. ‘No,’ he said finally.

  ‘It’s not really a question, buddy,’ Romana interjected.

  ‘I know.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘No.’

  Tug huffed and puffed.

  ‘Whaddaya mean, no? You don’t own him, he’s an asset.’

  ‘Well, I mean no.’ Ace looked from one to the other. ‘I tried to share the bully with you before and you weren’t interested. What’s changed?’

  Tug huffed and puffed a bit more. Romana looked away.

  ‘You were barking up the wrong tree, obviously,’ Ace said, filling the silence. ‘And now you’re scrabbling.’

  ‘Pull your head in mate,’ Romana told him, ‘you sound like you been hangin’ round Crowley too long. You’re gettin’ his attitude.’

  Ace shrugged. ‘Whatever,’ he said.

  He started to turn away. Romana stepped forward and put a hand on his shoulder. Ace looked down at the hand then at Romana.

  ‘Take your hand off me,’ he said coolly.

  Romana gave his shoulder a firm squeeze before releasing his grip. He eyeballed Ace.

  ‘Think you’re pretty cool, eh Purcell?’ he purred. ‘We’ll see, boy. We’ll see.’

  ‘When your mummy says it’s okay,’ Ace replied, ‘come out and play.’

  Romana was about to retort when Tug interjected.

  ‘Look,’ he said, ‘there’s no point being a clown. We can get the source taken off you if you’re going to be like that. But if you’re going to make it difficult, then you might just find that things get difficult for you too, y’know what I mean?’

  ‘No,’ Ace grated, getting angry now, ‘how about you stop talking in riddles and just spell it out?’

  Tug eyed him for a long moment. ‘You’re playing with fire here, son,’ he said. ‘You don’t wanna cross me.’

  He turned and started away. Romana paused, scowling at Ace with his best scary face.

  ‘Another time, Purcell,’ he hissed, ‘you an’ me.’

  ‘Whatever, knucklehead.’

  Ace held his ground and Romana walked away first. Ace turned and made for the car.

  Now more than ever, he wanted to get out of there.

  Chapter Eleven

  ‘What I don’t get,’ Joe said, ‘is why they had to come out in a stolen car, right when they knew we were there? It doesn’t make sense.’

  ‘It doesn’t have to, mate,’ Dan said. ‘They probably figured we would be hanging round the neighbourhood, and if we saw the car go past we’d probably stop it. Better to just distract us and hope the car can slip out unnoticed.’

  ‘Risky though.’ Joe shook his head. ‘There could be an I-car round the corner anyway.’

  ‘Doesn’t matter. They didn’t know that.’

  ‘And why did they have to move it right at that moment?’

  Dan was getting tired of the questions. ‘Like my guy said in his interview, the mum came home and told them to get the car off her property. She didn’t want the heat. So they had to move it, end of.’

  Joe gave an exasperated sigh. He was still struggling. ‘But...instead of waiting ten minutes, they made a play and now four of them are locked up. It’s just stupid.’

  Dan considered him for a long moment. His patience was wearing very thin. He knew that Joe had a pretty strong social worker streak in him, a naivety that most cops didn’t have. But right now, he had better things to do than try to explain the ways of the world to him.

  ‘Forget about it, Joe,’ Dan said, ‘it’s just Chinatown.’

  ‘What? What the hell are you on about?’

  ‘The movie? Nicholson and Dunaway? No?’ Dan frowned at him. ‘Really?’

  ‘Really.’

  Dan sighed. ‘It just means you don’t have to understand it, it’s just the way it is here. You just have to accept it. There doesn’t need to be a reason, it doesn’t have to be your norm.’ He shrugged. ‘It’s just the way it is.’

  His phone bleeped with an incoming text and he grabbed it thankfully. Molly was waiting downstairs to be let in. />
  Thank God, he thought. Saved by the bell.

  ***

  The burn phone buzzed in his pocket as he reached the top of the stairs. Ace dug it out, shouldering through the door as he answered.

  ‘Yeah?’

  ‘Bro, it’s Hoani.’ He sounded excited.

  ‘Are you clear to speak?’

  ‘Eh, yeah, yeah. All goods. Bro, they’re all here now.’

  Ace ducked into the stationary store room, out of earshot of anyone in the office.

  ‘Where are you?’

  ‘My cousin’s place, Tyrel. All those dudes are here now, on the burn.’

  Ace took a breath. Obviously something was happening, but his first priority was Hoani’s safety.

  ‘Where exactly are you mate, and can anyone hear or see you talking?’

  ‘I’m outside bro.’ There was silence for a moment, broken only by a loud sniff. ‘Na, they’re all inside. In the lounge. They’re on the burn, and they got some boxes of Cody’s too.’

  “On the burn” was slang for smoking methamphetamine. Cody’s pre-mixed bourbon and cola was a popular choice in those parts, being both cheap and carrying a high alcohol percentage. It looked like they were settling in for a session.

  ‘Who’s there?’ Ace asked.

  ‘Tyrel and those dudes, I don’t know their names.’ Hoani gave a sniff. ‘You want me to find out?’

  Ace ignored the question for now. ‘How long have they been there mate?’

  ‘Oh, I been here a hour or something, they jus’ come over a while ago. Maybe...I dunno, maybe quarter of a hour?’

  ‘Uh-huh. And have they used nicknames or anything, anyone called one of the others by a name of any sort?’

  Hoani sniffed and thought. ‘One of them’s called Bert, I think. One of the fullas, the main dude, he said “Oh eh Bert,” when that fulla said something.’

  Ace got a quick description-or as good as Hoani could give-of Bert and the other three guys, then got down to business. The risk to any source was always a primary consideration, and right now that risk level was high due to Hoani’s close proximity to offenders who were meth’d up and violent.