by Unknown
‘You can trust us,’ Cassie said. ‘We need your help to catch whoever did it.’
He folded his arms and stared out the side window. ‘I never said I’d fuckin’ trust ya. Don’t trust cops. Fuck that.’
‘Must be a reason you asked for me though,’ I said.
He didn’t reply.
‘Dallas was into something, wasn’t he?’ Cassie said. ‘Is that why you asked for Rubens as soon as we arrested you? Because you knew he was looking into it and you knew what Dallas was into?’
Still nothing.
‘What about the message you left on Dallas’s answering machine?’ I asked. ‘You said you had something for him, something he asked you to get. But he didn’t show up, did he?’
Again, silence.
‘This is important, Sparks. I know Dallas was supposed to meet somebody at Luna Park about eleven the night he died, to sell some kiddie porn. I need to know who that person was. Do you know who it was?’
I turned to face the windscreen, hoping to depersonalise the conversation, like going to confession with an unseen priest.
‘Look, if you don’t want to tell us something specific, that’s fine,’ Cassie said. ‘Just tell us about Dallas. Why don’t you start with that? You were mates, did time together, didn’t you?’
‘Were mates,’ Sparks said finally. ‘Least till we landed in Malmsbury after the armed rob. After that we went our separate ways. Dall chased the money, and I fell in love.’
‘You fell in love?’ Cassie said.
‘Yeah, with heroin.’
‘Right, and Dallas wanted money,’ she went on. ‘What do you mean by that?’
‘Exactly what I said. Dall wanted cash. Apart from saving his little sister, it was all he cared about, all he ever spoke about. That’s what happens when you go away: you think about things. Dall thought about money and his little sister. The only difference was, Dall sounded like he had a scam ready for when he got out. He wasn’t a dreamer like all the other shitheads in there.’
A panel van pulled up next to us and two guys with ponytails got out, unloaded kite-surf bags and trekked off towards the beach. It now seemed apparent to me that Dallas Boyd had formed a plan to sell child porn while he was still in jail, but how? Had somebody approached him there? I wanted to open my daybook and scribe but couldn’t risk spooking the kid. We had to keep it informal.
‘What about Derek Jardine?’ I asked. ‘The other guy you did the armed rob with.’
‘Ah shit, there’s a name I haven’t heard in a while. Last I heard he pissed off to Queensland, not long after we all got out. Dall and him were real tight. I was just a ring-in.’
That probably explained the map of Surfers Paradise I’d found in Dallas Boyd’s apartment. Still, Sparks wasn’t making total sense.
‘So if you all went your separate ways after Malmsbury, why the phone message?’ I asked. ‘Didn’t sound like the sort of message you’d leave for a bloke you weren’t mates with any more. What happened?’
‘We weren’t mates,’ he said quickly. ‘I was just doin’ a job for him. Like I said, I was just a ring-in. Was back then, still am now.’
‘What sort of job?’ Cassie prodded.
‘Dunno if I should tell ya that now. Think I’ve made a mistake.’
I heard the shift in tone. Fear. It turned his voice sharp and high-pitched, like a child’s. He grabbed the handle, tried to yank open the door, but the child lock kept it shut. ‘What the fuck, man? Let me out!’
‘It’s all right, Sparks,’ I said. ‘You’re safe here. Just tell us what Dallas asked you to do for him.’
‘I can’t,’ he spluttered. ‘I’m fuckin’ scared, man.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I’m gonna be next. First they got Dall, then Jussie.’
Two tears slid down the boy’s acne-scarred face. He looked pleadingly at Cassie, then at me.
‘Justin Quinn,’ Cassie muttered. ‘The kid in Talbot Reserve last night.’
‘You think the same person did both?’ I asked Sparks. ‘Makes sense,’ he said, wiping snot on his wrist. ‘Both into the same shit.’
‘Sparks, I promise you, no one knows you’re talking to us,’ I said in a calm voice. ‘Ask around about me, everyone’ll vouch that I’m a straight player. I don’t break promises and I don’t bullshit anyone. So if you don’t want to tell me what you and Dall were into, then fine. But I think you know something that’ll help us nail whoever did it. And I think you want to help us, otherwise why would you ask for me?’
‘We already know he was selling kiddie porn and you were holding on to something for him,’ Cassie added. ‘We think whatever that was got him killed. Am I close?’
Again Sparks kept quiet. There was nothing else we could say. If he didn’t want to open up, we couldn’t force him, so we just waited. After a long moment, he finally spoke.
‘If I tell ya’s, ya gotta promise to do somethin’ about it,’ he said. ‘Too many times the jacks just sit on their arses and do nothin’.’
‘You have my word we’ll go after this one,’ I said, turning to face him. ‘Whoever knocked Dallas knew what they were doing; same too with what happened last night to Justin. So believe me, we want this bloke to pay.’
‘All right, fuck it. Do ya have a DVD player?’
‘Ah, yes. Why?’
‘Because the kiddie porn’s just the start of it. So take me back to St Kilda. I have to show ya somethin’.’
24
SPARKS DIRECTED US BACK to the squat on Clyde Street, the Falcon jolting over the bluestone roadway as we came alongside the house. I looked for the fat trannie in the red dress but couldn’t see him anywhere. He’d probably found a client.
‘Keep drivin’,’ Sparks said. ‘Park at the end of the street.’
I did as instructed and he ran back to the house, disappeared into the drive. From this angle any view of the squat was blocked by a brand new double-storey townhouse with a ‘For Sale’ sign out the front. I was wondering idly if living next door to drug addicts was part of the real estate agent’s sale pitch when Sparks reappeared with what looked like a black carry case for a laptop. But he wasn’t alone. A brindle-coated dog leapt after him.
‘No way, Sparks. No dogs in the car.’
‘Huh? He’s just a puppy, mate. Six months old.’
‘I don’t care. I’m not having a pit bull in my car. Take it back inside.’
‘He’s not a pit bull. He’s a bull mastiff.’
‘Whatever. Take him back.’
Sparks backed out of the car, put down the laptop case and dug out a DVD in a plastic sleeve.
‘Look, man, you wanna see what I got here or not? This is some bad shit, but I’m not leavin’ my little mate in there with those guys any longer than I have to. Either Hooch comes or I go back inside with him.’
I looked at the dog. He was dirty and underfed, his ribs clearly visible, the back half of his body wobbling, his tail whipping back and forth.
‘All right. Get in, but make sure you hold on to him. I don’t want any dog puke on my seats.’
Sparks hoisted the dog inside, but failed to keep him still and he leapt into the front. Cassie laughed, enticing the dog off me and onto her. Eventually Sparks took control of the animal, settling him on his knee.
‘Where to now?’ I said, frustrated. It was just after six and I was supposed to be meeting Ella in two hours. ‘Why did you ask me if I had a DVD player when you’ve got that laptop? Can’t we just watch it on that?’
Sparks explained that the laptop didn’t belong to him and that he’d tried to use it but there were passwords blocking his access. When Cassie asked how he’d watched the DVD, he said he’d broken into his mum’s house while she was at work and watched it there. It was a plausible enough story.
‘So we need a DVD player,’ said Cassie. ‘Obviously the one in the watch-house mess room is out of the question.’
She was looking at me as she spoke and I wondered whether she
meant the station was off limits for me or for Sparks. For a moment I contemplated suggesting we go to my apartment and watch it on my own telly, but there were lines even I didn’t cross. Having crooks in my house was one of them.
‘I’ve got a laptop,’ Cassie said instead. ‘On my desk. Fully charged too. Drop me off out the front, I’ll run in and get it.’
I took the backstreets and double-parked across the road from the station. Just ahead of us, a group of local junkies gathered around a phone box, probably waiting on a dealer. Sparks slouched in the back seat, muttering about not wanting to be seen.
‘Right, where do you wanna go?’ I asked him when Cassie was back in the car.
‘Go to Anal Park,’ he said. ‘I’ll tell you why when we get there.’
‘Anal Park?’ Cassie repeated.
‘Alma Park,’ I said. ‘It’s a gay beat at night.’
When we crossed into East St Kilda, Sparks instructed me to park just shy of the railway line, opposite a bicycle track that wound through the western section of the park. We followed him to a picnic table adjacent to the bike track, where he let his dog off the lead and set his laptop on the table next to Cassie’s.
‘Got another condition,’ he said. ‘If I give ya what I’ve got, ya gotta go blind for somethin’.’
Cassie rolled her eyes. ‘Depends what you’re talking about. If you mugged somebody, we can’t turn a blind eye to that.’
‘I didn’t roll nobody!’ he said, throwing a stick. The dog ran after it but didn’t see it land and became confused, running in circles. ‘Few days ago I hit a joint just down the road from here. One of them big old joints, like all the Jews live in. It was about two in the arvo during the week, so I figure I’ve got a good chance nobody’s home.’
‘Because you’ve done it before?’ Cassie asked.
Sparks just looked at her.
‘Well?’ she said. ‘Don’t pretend it’s your first time.’
‘I’m not. Who cares anyway? I mean, all those rich mother-fuckers have insurance.’
Cassie went to reply but I cut her off.
‘Come on, Sparks. Give us some credit. We’re not going to arrest you for a pissy little burg. We’ll just add it to the jemmy bar we found you with in the car park today. That’s two points for us.’
‘Yeah, righto. You want this or not?’
‘Go on.’
He threw another stick for his dog. This time the dog found it and began to chew it.
‘Dall asked me to do the burg,’ he said when he came back to the table. ‘I hadn’t spoken to him since we got out. Like I said, we went our separate ways. Anyway, one night last week he finds me on the street, says he’s got a job for me. I told him to get rooted since the last time I accepted a job from him I ended up in the can. But then he showed me the cash. Two large for a shitty burg, mate. Gave me a grand up-front and an address, said all I gotta do was slip in during the day when the rich-prick owner was at work. Said he’d give me the other grand on delivery.’
He shook his head in frustration and sat on the edge of the table.
‘Delivery of the laptop?’ I said, looking at the case in front of me. ‘This is what your voicemail message was about?’
‘Yeah. Sounds simple, right – do a burg and hoist a laptop?’
Cassie and I both nodded.
‘No one pays two large to rip off a laptop unless they’re plannin’ somethin’ with it,’ he said. ‘I knew I wasn’t just doin’ a burg, but an earn like that doesn’t come along every day for a shitman like me, so I took the cash and said I’d do it.’
He paused and we waited for him to go on.
‘Anyway, few days ago I door-knocked the joint and made sure no one was home. When no one answered I went around the back, climbed the veranda and went in through the bathroom window. No alarms upstairs in those joints.’
I nodded at the familiar method of entry. The kid was definitely no rookie.
‘Went in the first room and found the laptop, exactly where Dall said it would be,’ Sparks continued. ‘Then all of a sudden I hear a car pull up out the front. I look out the window and see this Beamer in the bloody driveway. I’m high-tailing it when I see a set of keys on a table. So I swiped the fuckers and hauled arse out the window like a monkey.’
‘Do you think he saw you?’ Cassie asked.
‘Nah, I was gone before he was even in the house.’
‘You get a look at him?’ I said.
‘Mate, all I saw was this set of wheels in the fuckin’ driveway and I was outta there.’
I considered all this as the dog came bounding back over, the stick covered in slobber. He dropped it at our feet and barked. Sparks picked it up, hurled it away and wiped his hands on his shorts.
‘The laptop wasn’t enough for you though, was it?’ I said. ‘You took the car as well.’
‘I got the keys, all right. It was like the lottery, man. All I had to do was go back there and take it. Mate, I just pressed the button and she opened up. Just like that, a fuckin’ gift.’
Cassie and I exchanged glances. The story was a familiar one. Whenever a burglary or break-in occurred, home owners always checked the obvious items like televisions, cash and jewellery. They rarely noticed the spare set of car keys missing. Not until it was too late. A home burglary with the lot.
‘Drove it all the way down to Frankston and back, even went to the beach and pretended I was rich,’ Sparks said. He shot a nervous glance at Cassie. ‘Wouldn’t believe how many chicks actually looked at me when I was in that car.’
‘So where is it now?’
‘Left it on the Esplanade.’
Cassie scoffed.
‘I did! Shit, what am I gonna do with a Beamer, man?’ he cried. ‘I’m just a fuckin’ junkie. Give me a video camera and I’ll turn it into cash the same day, but a hundred-thousand-dollar set of wheels – I wouldn’t know where to begin. Shit, check your records. Rich prick probably found it the next day and took it home without even reportin’ it.’
Neither of us were convinced but I decided to push things along. ‘Look, forget the car. Tell me about Thursday night. You were supposed to meet Dallas but he never showed, right?’
‘Too right he never showed. He told me to meet him at midnight outside Luna Park. He was gonna give me the other grand for this bloody thing.’ He nodded at the laptop. ‘I got there on time, waited a whole hour. Even rang his phone about five times but got no answer. First I thought he might’ve just forgotten about it, but Dall wasn’t like that. He was reliable and he wanted the laptop, so I knew something was up. The next morning I left a message on his voicemail, then went to CARS and found out he was dead. After that, I wanted to see what I was holdin’ on to for him, so I tried to turn the bastard on but it’s got a password. I was about to chuck it when I found this disk in the carry case. When I watched it, that’s when I realised I was in trouble.’
He let out a deep breath and seemed to deflate.
‘Hang on,’ I said. ‘If Dallas wanted this laptop so bad, why would he get you to do the burg? Why wouldn’t he do it himself?’
‘All day I’ve been askin’ myself the same question,’ Sparks said. ‘First I figured he was too cool for it, like he wouldn’t wanna get his own hands dirty for a shitty little burg. Ya know, just get old Sparks to do it, the fuckin’ junkie ring-in, like he did with the armed rob. But now when I think about it, I reckon he knew the prick and didn’t wanna risk gettin’ seen. So he asked me to do it.’
It sounded plausible, though I suspected there was more to it. But we were getting to a critical point and I didn’t want to lose him.
‘Who are we talking about? This rich prick you robbed, what’s his name?’
‘Peter Parker.’
I went to write it down, then realised he was bullshitting me. ‘As in Spider-Man?’
‘Or in this case, rock spider man.’
‘Come on, Sparks. We can’t take him down if we don’t know who he is. Give us a name.’
>
‘Look, I don’t know who he is, all right? Even if I did, I said I wasn’t no dog. No names, remember?’
‘Fair enough,’ Cassie said. ‘But you never wanted to know who you were robbing? Surely you asked.’
‘Well, actually I did ask, but Dall said I didn’t need to know. Said the money and the job was all I should worry about. Fuckin’ typical, always keepin’ the details to himself. Tell ya what though, now I’m glad he didn’t tell me.’
Cassie’s nose and forehead were beaded with sweat. I was the same and it wasn’t just the heat. I swiped the sweat away and told Sparks to show us the DVD.
‘Uh-uh, not me,’ he said, standing up and whistling for the dog. ‘This is as far as I’m gonna go. There’s some filthy shit on there. I’ve seen a lot of crud in my time, but nothin’ like that. You wanna look at it, be my guest, but I’m not watchin’ it again. I’ll be over here with Hooch. Call me when ya done.’
He led the dog across the park to a drinking fountain. Cassie moved around and sat next to me. I could feel her shoulder pressed against me and the scent of her perfume reminded me that I needed to call Ella and cancel dinner. It was the last thing I wanted to do but we were barrelling on the wave and we had to keep riding.
‘Sure you want to do this?’ Cassie asked. ‘Maybe we should log it with the techs and get them to do it right. What if we lose a file or something?’
I shook my mind clear and focused on the case.
‘I don’t think so. Not yet. Dallas Boyd was killed because of this laptop. Whatever’s on this disk has something to do with that.’ I turned on Cassie’s laptop. ‘Let’s see what we’ve got.’
When the computer finished booting I slid in the disk but nothing happened.
‘You’re hopeless,’ Cassie teased, nudging me with her shoulder and turning the laptop towards her. ‘Shove over.’
I watched her hands dance over the keyboard. ‘Bingo!’ she said within a minute. ‘I’ve got pictures and movie files.’
I leant over her shoulder as she ran her finger across a list of files on the screen that appeared to be sorted by date.