The Unbroken Line

by Alex Hammond

  ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry you lost a friend.’

  Miller sighed and took his hands away from his eyes. Straightening up, he poured two glasses of water.

  ‘What were you doing in Port Douglas?’

  ‘How’s Eva?’

  ‘Gone. In New York.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘She says I’m drawn to conflict and that I’m convinced I don’t deserve to be happy. She says I’m obsessed with being a martyr.’

  ‘She’s right about that last part.’

  Will scowled at him.

  ‘What? Come on, Will. I don’t know anyone who relishes suffering quite like you. I’m being honest here, as your friend. She might be right, too, about your being drawn to conflict.’

  ‘Answer the question. What were you doing in Port Douglas?’ Will asked, as he gripped the table and lowered himself into the chair.

  ‘Weekend trip.’

  ‘By yourself?’

  ‘No, with Eloise. She’s missing, Will.’

  ‘Missing?’

  Miller slumped into the opposite chair and rubbed his face with both hands. His suit was crumpled, his shirt marked with fingerprint ink. He rolled his neck and let out a long sigh before speaking.

  ‘I booked tickets earlier this week. Thought it might be a nice opportunity to get away.’

  ‘Get away? From what? The long hours in the office?’

  ‘Really? We’re going to do this now?’ Miller’s hands were shaking and his eyes were puffy. He was shouldering the weight of a lot more than the six hours since his arrest.

  ‘Fine. Go on.’

  ‘The flight was the last one out on Friday night. Six-thirty p.m. from Tullamarine. Eloise and I dropped by Mark’s beforehand around five. He was already off his face.’

  ‘At five?’

  ‘He was still up from the night before.’ Miller flicked his eyes up to meet his. ‘Will, I didn’t bring him any cocaine.’

  ‘You were doing bumps with him the other night.’

  ‘That was then. Sure, I occasionally indulge. But I didn’t on Friday.’

  ‘Any witnesses? Apart from Eloise?’

  ‘I don’t know. Maybe. Look, I’m not saying that this doesn’t look bad. It does.’

  ‘But?’

  ‘But I didn’t have anything to do with those drugs. I didn’t supply them to him. I didn’t take any with him.’ Miller sipped from the glass and placed it back on the table. ‘Mark was in his bedroom. High. He tried to get a bit friendly with Eloise but she talked him down. He was really high.’

  ‘And you didn’t leave straight away?’

  ‘If you’re going to be incredulous about every fucked-up part of this story, then we’re going to be here for a very long time. I promised Eloise I’d get some Stilnox. Mark wasn’t answering his phone, so we went over there.’

  ‘How’d you know he’d have any?’

  ‘He has a cornucopia of prescription pills. Do you even know the kind of shit these professional athletes have access to? There’s plenty of stuff they use that’s totally above board.’

  ‘Okay, so when you went there he was high.’

  ‘Buzzing. We got the pills, left in under fifteen minutes and that was that. Next relevant incident was the arrest. It had been a great weekend before that. We were about to catch the plane out of Cairns. I was ready to go, Eloise was showering, her phone kept ringing and ringing. Eventually she emerged from the bathroom and answered it. She looked at me funny and then stepped out onto the balcony.’

  ‘Funny how?’

  ‘Smiling at me as she answered the phone, then turning her back and throwing me furtive glances as soon as she was on it. That kind of funny.’

  ‘Any idea who was on the other end?’

  ‘None.’

  ‘What were your instincts at the time?’

  ‘Boyfriend. Other lover. She’s not exclusive and I don’t really care, but I can see how that would still be an awkward post-coital phone call to have in front of me. So she was on the balcony for a while and we were running out of time to get to Cairns for our flight. So I went out there. Eloise was nowhere. Then there was a knock at the door. I thought it was housekeeping come to hurry us up out of the room. But it wasn’t.’

  ‘It was the cops.’

  ‘Bingo. They arrested me. There was no sign of Eloise. For all I know, she could still be in Port Douglas.’

  ‘Do you think she was warned?’

  Miller shrugged. ‘Dunno. A lot of it is dodgy. We were staying in a stilt bungalow in the jungle. From the balcony to the forest floor, it would have been an eight-foot drop. Not massive, but not one you’d take unless you felt compelled to. She was wearing only a bathrobe.’

  ‘I agree, that’s suspicious. But it’s a distraction from the real issue.’

  ‘Ain’t that the truth.’

  ‘I’ve gotten word that they’re looking at a charge of negligent manslaughter.’

  ‘That’s what Vincent just told me.’

  ‘How’s your case law on this?’

  ‘For drug deaths? Not great. You?’

  ‘I was in the office researching before I got here. Still need to check recent decisions in other states but straight manslaughter has been found where the accused administered drugs to the deceased.’

  ‘Well, that didn’t happen.’

  ‘Negligent manslaughter has been found in instances where the drugs were supplied by the accused and the accused did not take reasonable action to render aid when it was clear that the deceased had overdosed.’

  ‘Well, they’re not going to find that either. So why have they arrested me?’

  Will ran his finger along the rim of the glass. ‘Actually, Chris, they might.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘It all depends on Mark’s time of death and any witnesses they might have who can put you in that club taking drugs with him. It’s spurious but they might argue that you were his supplier.’

  ‘Even if I gave him some coke, he’s an adult – a fully informed, reasonable adult. Also, if we follow through that scenario, why is the duty of care mine?’

  ‘Gross negligence would override all that: “What was the whole of your conduct at the time of the event?”’

  ‘They’ll need to show an unbroken line of causation.’

  ‘That they will.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘I don’t know. Are you certain there’s no cocaine in your apartment?’

  ‘Absolutely. My relationship with illegal drugs is only occasional and recreational.’ Miller’s stern expression remained the same, but his eyes narrowed to a sharp intensity. He remained like this until Will nodded his acknowledgement.

  ‘So we’re going to have to see what they’ve got.’ Will flicked the glass, making it ring. ‘As you said, they wouldn’t have brought you in here without believing that they could make something stick. What I’d like to know is how they found you so quickly, and why they didn’t just wait until you got back to Melbourne to arrest you.’

  Miller shook his head as he folded his fingers under his nose. ‘I only had tickets back to Sydney. We were going to spend the night there, have dinner in the Rocks and then catch whatever flight was available Monday afternoon.’

  Will felt heat suddenly rise within him. He thrust a finger in Miller’s direction. ‘Fuck, I’m your partner, Chris. Perhaps you should let me know when you’re planning on taking leave?’

  Miller pulled his hands away from his face and slapped both palms down on the table in front of him. ‘I would think that, being your partner, I don’t have to get permission from you for anything.’

  ‘The firm is floundering. Before we’re even off the ground.’

  Miller pushed back from the table and shot up. ‘I thought we were going to leave this alone, until later?’

  ‘When, later? You’re barely in the office. When you are it’s late at night and you’re digging around in historical records that have nothing to do with any of your current briefs.�
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  Miller stormed down the line of chairs tucked under the table. He stopped just as suddenly and turned to face Will, pointing a finger back at him.

  ‘Do you think this is what I want to be doing with my Sunday night? My fucking week? Do you think I want to be arrested? Remember, I’m the one who did all the work setting up the firm when you were still recovering from your revenge kick. I didn’t even blink during those first two weeks when you had to work shorter days because of your injuries. You could do the same for me here.’

  Miller’s face was red through the forced restraint of knowing a dozen police were on the other side of the wall.

  Something was up. It would explain why Miller was digging through the past. But now was not the time to expose him. Will needed to work with him in order to get him to open up.

  Will raised his hands again. ‘You’re right. So, what now?’

  Miller shrugged. ‘I guess first I convince the cops to release me.’

  Will raised an eyebrow. ‘You know they’ll probably want to hold you for a few nights before taking you to that out-of-court hearing.’

  ‘That’s for chumps. I know the law and they know that I know it. Just let me take care of that part. You can do all the rest.’

  ‘Chris, they’ll never agree to it.’

  ‘Just watch,’ Miller said, smiling. ‘Let’s get them in. I want to be out of here a-sap.’

  SEVENTEEN

  ‘I must inform you that you are not obliged to say or do anything, but anything you say or do may be given in evidence. Do you understand that?’

  In the silence Will could hear the faint rattle of the fluorescents above them. Those same lights cast the room in pale blue, causing the pallid Gray to live up to his name.

  ‘Yes,’ Miller said.

  ‘I must also inform you of the following rights. You may communicate with or attempt to communicate with a friend or a relative to inform that person of your whereabouts. You may communicate with or attempt to communicate with a legal practitioner. I know Mr Harris is already here, but I have to say it anyway.’

  Will glanced at the floor. The table was bolted in place. Miller tapped the old steel handcuff loop fixed to the table in front of him.

  ‘Now that the formalities are done,’ Miller said, ‘you’re welcome to skip over all your usual patter for the uninitiated. Obviously, Will and I understand what’s required of the police in an interview.’

  ‘Let’s talk then. We’re pursuing a case of negligent manslaughter. Mark Eldon died from renal failure due to cocaine-induced hyperthermia. I have video footage showing Mr Miller leaving Mark Eldon’s apartment at fourteen minutes past five on Friday afternoon. I also have eyewitnesses who say you were seen the previous Tuesday supplying cocaine to Mark Eldon at a large house party in Collingwood.’

  ‘With all due respect,’ Will said, ‘that’s circumstantial. You need to establish that Chris was present when Mark had hyperthermia.’

  ‘We have footage of Mr Miller leaving Mark Eldon’s apartment and getting into a lift. We have footage from another camera of Mr Miller stepping out of that lift and leaving the building.’

  ‘Are you saying that Mark died prior to five-fourteen on Friday afternoon?’ Will asked.

  ‘This is what the forensic pathologist’s report is saying. Yes.’

  Miller stopped tapping at the handcuff loop. ‘He was alive when I left him.’

  ‘Mr Miller. Mr Harris. I’m just working off what has been put in front of me.’ Gray spread his fingers over a closed folder on the table in front of him. ‘And it indicates that Mark Eldon died around five p.m.’

  ‘Around five p.m.? I was on a plane at six-thirty.’

  ‘If the coroner’s office had an approximate time of six-thirty, it would say that instead.’

  ‘Two hours is a very specific timeframe when it comes to forensics,’ said Miller.

  ‘That’s a very quick turnaround. For the report,’ Will said.

  Gray placed his finger on the centre of his glasses and slid them back up the bridge of his nose. ‘It was quick. But, then again, high-profile deaths have a way of jumping the queue. Fact is Eldon’s hyperthermia would have lasted anywhere between twenty and sixty minutes prior to his renal failure. This was not a sudden death. The signs would have been there – vomiting, seizures, unconsciousness; even if he died after five p.m., his body would have been in trauma when you saw him, Mr Miller.’

  ‘We’ll need a complete copy of that report,’ Will said, ‘including toxicology.’

  ‘Of course. It’s all in there.’

  ‘How do you intend to show that I supplied the drugs to Mark? You need an unbroken chain of causation.’

  ‘We’re saying that we have one. We’ll tender that evidence to you well before committal.’

  ‘We plan to contest,’ Will said. ‘In the spirit of transparency, you should know that we’re pleading not guilty.’

  ‘As a similar courtesy, I’m advising you that we’ve applied to a judge for a warrant to search your apartment, Mr Miller.’

  ‘On suspicion of possessing a drug of dependence?’ Miller asked.

  ‘That’s correct.’

  Miller chuckled and shook his head. ‘Who’s pulling the strings here? This evidence is very thin, Gray. You know it. I know it.’

  Gray took out a small cloth from his trouser pocket before removing his glasses and starting to clean them.

  ‘We don’t think so. We expect the judge will be agreeing with us,’ he said.

  ‘Which judge?’ Will asked.

  Miller shook his head. ‘Do you really want to be tainted with this, Gray? Do you want to take shots at a high-profile barrister and fail to score even one hit? It won’t look very good. We’re going to smack this down so hard your teeth will be ringing.’

  ‘Which judge?’ Will asked again.

  Gray scowled at Miller. He slipped his glasses back on and turned to face Will. ‘Not that I’m required to inform you . . . but eventually the paperwork will make its way to you. It’s Justice Fife.’

  ‘Fife?’

  ‘Superintendent Vincent had the warrant delivered this evening. We’re expecting it will be confirmed tomorrow morning, which is when we’ll make the search.’

  ‘I guess you want my keys, then?’

  ‘We do.’

  ‘Fine.’ Miller smirked. ‘Is that all?’

  ‘It is,’ Gray said, as he switched off the camera at the end of the table. He stood and straightened his tie. It was dark blue with pale green anchors and cut for three decades earlier. ‘As I said, Mr Harris, celebrity deaths do tend to get some weight put behind them.’

  ‘Fair enough.’ Miller clapped his hands together. ‘We can hash over all this down the track. Right now, I want to talk bail,’ he said.

  ‘We’ve set up an out-of-court session. We’d like to head over to St Kilda Road in a couple of days.’

  ‘Come on, Gray. Is that necessary? Why not get Superintendent Vincent to sign off on your own conditions tonight?’

  ‘Our own?’

  ‘Sure. I’m not a flight risk, I think that’s pretty clear. I have a reputation to protect, after all.’

  ‘Mr Miller, we don’t really make these kinds of deals.’

  ‘Sure you do. I can understand it’s been a while since you’ve had to handle the street-level stuff, Gray, but you can’t have forgotten your Bail Act. Hell, you were probably a cop when it was introduced. When was that again, Will?’

  ‘Nineteen seventy-seven.’

  ‘Seventy-seven. There you go. You must remember that one coming in.’

  Gray placed his hands under his chin. ‘What are you suggesting?’

  ‘To make a show of it, you can insist that I turn in my passport and not return to my apartment until you’re satisfied that you’ve finished the search.’

  ‘It’s too big a risk, now that I’ve told you what we intend to look for.’

  ‘Sure. So hold me until you finish forensics.’
r />   Gray scratched his head.

  ‘I’ll have to take it to Vincent.’

  ‘Of course. Let him know that I’m happy to consider any further conditions, should he feel them necessary.’

  Gray stood and opened the door. ‘Oh, and Will,’ he said, ‘give Haigh a call. She wants a word. Business hours, yes? She’ll be at home with her kid now.’

  Will nodded. ‘Of course.’

  As Gray closed the door behind him, Will leant sideways towards Miller. ‘I’m impressed. You actually did it.’

  Miller snapped his grin away, his face striking a more serious expression. ‘Someone on that forensics team is going to plant the same cocaine from Mark’s place in my apartment.’

  Will looked at Miller. He had that same hard stare when he denied supplying the drugs to Eldon.

  ‘That’s crazy.’

  ‘Is it? You said it yourself – this all very circumstantial. They’re moving so fast and yet they don’t have a single shred of solid evidence. Those drugs will be it.’

  ‘Fife wouldn’t sign off on a warrant if he wasn’t sure of its legal merits. He’s an old-school, by-the-numbers stickler.’

  ‘I agree, that bit is strange.’ Miller leant in closer and placed a hand on Will’s shoulder. ‘But what evidence have you seen today that would suggest they have a solid case to work from? You know police. They can’t help but show off how far in the hole they’ve put you. But Gray didn’t do that. He’s keeping it close to his chest.’

  ‘So what do we do?’

  ‘Not much we can do. Whoever drops the drugs is going to be smart about it.’

  Will inhaled. Miller was right. The pieces didn’t fit. But from where he was sitting, those pieces included a lot of Miller’s own story. If Miller really did have drugs in his house, though, he’d be more likely to ask Will to pull them for him.

  Unless he doesn’t trust me.

  If he accepted that his partner was telling the truth about Eldon’s death – his drug use, the timelines, the disappearing dancer – one larger question still remained.

  ‘Why would the cops want to set you up?’

  Miller looked up from under his brow, dark rings framing his light blue eyes.

  ‘Chris, who are you suggesting is behind this?’

  Miller smiled, perhaps at the scope of those forces he suspected of moving against him.