by Neil Cossins
It was Saturday so there were only a handful of Detectives coming in and out of the office. Nelson acknowledged their greetings briefly but kept to himself as he didn’t want to end up mindlessly chewing the fat for an hour when he had things to do and places to be.
Paperwork finished, he tidied his desk and packed away his files. He was already in holiday mode and had worn just a pair of board shorts and a t-shirt into the office. His old battered Subaru Liberty wagon waited outside for him, already burdened with clothes, boogie board, fishing rod and camping equipment. His plan was simply to head north toward warmer climes and see as much of his own country as he could squeeze into his month off. It was something he’d always wanted to do but had previously never really had the time, the money or the determination to do.
He sat at his clean desk with all tasks ticked off on his list and pondered the last two weeks. They had affected him more than he wanted to admit. Old memories, long buried, had found their way to the surface again. Finding Kylie Faulkner, seeing what she had become, had reminded him of past mistakes and he knew his actions had stained and disfigured her life in a way that could never be undone. Letting her go free didn’t even rate as a drop in the bucket towards paying her back for what he had done to her.
He had wanted to believe that he’d become a better man over the last fifteen years by making a positive difference in people’s lives through his work, but realised he probably hadn’t changed at all. His momentary indecision or inaction, standing outside the apartment while she faced down Manuel Torres had proven that he was still that same nineteen year old kid standing by the roadside deciding what to do, with his self-interest, like the grey fog that came off the river that morning, clouding his vision between wrong and right. He now felt disgusted in himself that at the time, he had wondered if it would have been better for everyone, especially him, if Manuel Torres had killed Kylie Faulkner in that apartment and sealed him off from his past once and for all. Mistakes and more mistakes.
He sighed aloud and broke himself out of his morose reverie and before anyone could find a reason why he shouldn’t go, he took the stairs to the ground floor, passed through the front doors of HQ and didn’t look back. He thought of the month ahead as he walked away, his mood lightening slightly at the prospect.
In a car parked eighty metres further down the street a pair of green eyes watched him closely in a rear view mirror. They watched him come down the steps and get into his car and drive away.
The End.
FB2 document info
Document ID: 496fc82e-ede4-4d4a-9f4e-7d9dabc99559
Document version: 1
Document creation date: 11.1.2013
Created using: calibre 0.9.13, FictionBook Editor Release 2.6.6 software
Document authors :
Neil Cossins
Lloyd Williams
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