by JD Nixon
Riddled with guilt yet again, and with Melissa’s snide comment about me always being in the way between her and the Sarge fresh in my mind, I gladly sprang up to answer the counter bell when it rang. It was Gil and Nathan seeking a statement from me about my encounter with the intruder at Miss G’s house. Pleased that I’d finished my incident report, I invited them out the back, printed it out and handed it to them with a sense of smugness.
Impressed despite themselves, they turned their eyes to the Sarge, eyebrows raised.
“Don’t look at me. Unlike my unusually efficient colleague,” he smiled at me, “I haven’t written mine yet. But Tessie and I were together the entire time in the house early this morning, so her report will tell you what you want to know for now. And I didn’t see the man, so her report is also more important than mine.”
“Okay, email it to us when you’re done with it. We’re going to spend the rest of the day interviewing. Apart from Miss Greville’s neighbours and now Mrs Singh and Mr . . .” He checked his notes. “Mr Whittaker, who else in town might have something to tell us that could be useful?”
I suggested Joanna as she was first to notice something wrong at Miss G’s house. The Sarge recommended they also speak to the town’s shopkeepers as Miss G was a local shopper, not owning a car. They might be able to help pinpoint the last time she was seen alive. When I told them about Bessie and Miss G’s lawyer, Gil and Nathan advised they’d taken possession of Miss G’s phone book and had already commenced enquiries from it. So with nothing further to add, they took their leave of us.
“Good luck recapturing that piece of crud, Red Bycraft,” encouraged Nathan, waving his hand out of the window as they drove away.
“We’re going to need more than good luck,” I muttered to myself.
“A few more resources might have helped,” complained the Sarge, sitting himself down to commence writing his report.
He didn’t say a word for the next thirty minutes. I couldn’t settle to anything, nervous about encountering Red again. It’d been months since I’d had to even think about him, secure in the knowledge he was behind the thick, solid walls of the city’s maximum-security prison. Tense, I paced around the office, back and forth like a caged wild animal.
“Tessie,” snapped the Sarge in irritation. “Sit down, will you? You’re driving me nuts roaming around like that.”
“I can’t stay still. I’m too nervy. I hate this waiting. It’s like one of those old western movies where the town knows the bad guys are coming and there’s nothing they can do to stop them.”
“He’ll be here soon enough. We’ll catch him when he tries to enter town through the roadblock and we’ll arrest him again. Should be a smooth operation.”
I shot him a doubting glance. “Do you really believe that?”
“Yes. I mean, what else am I supposed to tell you? That he’s going to find a way back into town despite our best efforts? That you’re going to have to be on high alert again every second of the day until he’s recaptured? How does that help anything?”
I flopped on my chair. “At least that’s closer to the truth than what you were trying to spin.”
“I’m sorry this has happened, Tessie. But the roadblock idea is the best I could come up with. I really think it has a chance of working.”
“Sarge, what makes anyone think he’ll try to drive into town? There are literally hundreds of entry points into this place. The Bycrafts have escape routes everywhere, most of them overgrown paths that only they know about. It’s hopeless.”
“It’s not like you to give up so easily on beating the Bycrafts.”
“Who said I’m giving up?” I spat fiercely, jumping to my feet again. “I’m just trying to be realistic, unlike some Pollyannas in this room who seem to think that Red Bycraft is going to make it a breeze for us to recapture him.”
“I never said that. Don’t put words in my mouth.”
I snatched up my keys. “I’m going home.”
“You’re not going anywhere.”
“I’ll do what I want to on my day off.”
“Get back here,” he said mildly, well used to me easily firing up by now. “The Super said we had to stick together and I’m taking her seriously. So plant your butt back on your chair until I’m ready to leave.”
I considered disobeying him and leaving, but immediately thought again. He was looking out for me and I told myself I should have the grace to respect that by not making his life any more difficult than it had to be. I dutifully planted my butt.
“Thank you,” he said with exaggerated politeness, returning to his report.
I sat waiting for him for what seemed like forever, but was probably only fifteen minutes or so. When he finished and emailed his report, I almost cheered in joy. Forced patient inaction didn’t really suit me. I wanted to be moving, doing something, anything, to prepare for Red Bycraft.
I’d spent a few minutes ringing Dad to let him know the bad news. We both agreed it was best in these circumstances for him to stay with Adele in her small granny flat, because there he was in town, surrounded by people all the time. We lived five kilometres out of town, with no near neighbours, and I was forever in and out of the house, never knowing when I’d end up on a night call-out or staying at the Sarge’s house. Which I soon discovered was something that very man was talking about as we drove to my house.
“Huh?” I asked, not having paid the least attention to him since we’d left the station.
He sighed patiently and repeated, “I want you to stay at my place tonight.”
“Okay,” I agreed easily.
“Okay?”
“Yes, okay.”
“Just like that? No arguments? No fights? No knife at my belly? No gun at my throat?”
I smiled. “None of those. Although . . .”
“Here it comes. Let me guess. Only if I make you one of my mouth-watering breakfasts the next morning?”
I blew a raspberry. “Mouth-watering? Eye-watering, I would have said. Everyone knows you’re the worst cook in the entire district.”
“Second worst,” he smiled.
“Very funny. What I was trying to say before a rude person hijacked the conversation was that if we recapture Red Bycraft this afternoon –”
“When we recapture Red Bycraft this afternoon.”
“If we recapture Red Bycraft this afternoon, I’ll stay at my place.”
He contemplated for a moment. “Fair enough.”
“I don’t want to be a nuisance.”
He shook his head sadly. “Fuller, you’ve been nothing but a nuisance since the day I met you.”
“Aw,” I pouted. “That’s a little harsh. I do have a desperate fugitive after me.”
“And I have a woman with a desperate fugitive after her to somehow keep safe or the Super’s going to use my gonads for putting practice.”
I laughed, leaning back in my seat. “Ouch. You win.”
He reached over to pat my cheek. “I usually do.”
“Not with Melissa.”
As soon as I said it, I wished a million times I could take it back. It was a stupid, stupid, stupid thing to say. The light fled his face, leaving his expression flat and distant.
“Indeed.”
We drove the rest of the way in silence, me mentally contorting myself to kick my own butt for being so thoughtless.
At my house, a quick check confirmed that it remained secure. As a peace offering, I made the Sarge a couple of egg salad sandwiches for lunch. He screwed up his nose when I put them in front of him.
“No tuna?”
I smiled. “I’ve banned tuna from my house.”
“Good. That just leaves more for me.”
“You’re welcome to all of it.” I paced around the kitchen, peering out of every window.
“Aren’t you going to eat anything?”
“No,” I said. “I’m too wound up to eat.”
“I think you should.”
“Couldn�
�t possibly.”
He munched with thoughtful silence. “I don’t understand why Bycraft would risk his freedom to come back here.”
“I don’t know, but I suppose this place is in their blood. It’s almost as if this town is their sacred ground. The only time they ever leave is when they’re in jail. Even Jakey only managed to stay away for a couple of years when he moved to the city.”
He seemed unconvinced. “I think it’s more to do with you and whatever unfinished business Bycraft imagines he has with you.” He contemplated me, and said hesitantly, “Maybe this time you should finish it for good.”
We traded glances. “What are you saying?”
He took his plate to the sink and started washing it. “You know what I’m saying.”
“Sarge, believe me, if I did something like that, the riot we had yesterday would seem like a peace rally by comparison.”
“Maybe, but it would be a permanent solution to at least one problem in your life.”
“Don’t think I haven’t thought about it over the years.”
“Do you think you could kill someone?”
I considered his question seriously. “I think so. I’d prefer to shoot to wound, but if it came to a life or death situation, Red or me, I would definitely kill him. What about you? Could you?”
“I would to save someone’s life, but I’m pretty sure most people would say that.”
“Especially if it was someone you love in danger,” I said, thinking of Dad.
“Naturally,” he agreed, and I wondered if he was thinking of Melissa.
Chapter 12
With my kitchen tidied, we drove to his house where we whiled away time waiting for the two uniforms from Big Town to arrive. I couldn’t sit still for more than a minute, jumping up and prowling around his lounge room.
He looked up from the newspaper he was calmly reading. “Sit down, will you? Worrying about it isn’t going to help.”
I flung myself down on the lounge next to him, but sprang up thirty seconds later to continue my pointless pacing. “How can you be so relaxed?”
“Who said I’m relaxed?”
“Well, you sure look it, sitting there reading the paper. How can you concentrate?”
Just as he opened his mouth to speak, someone knocked loudly on his front door. He stood and cast his eyes my way. “Time to rumble, Tess. Are you up to it?”
“You better believe it, buddy,” I replied, glad that action time had finally arrived. “I want to get my hands on him so badly.”
“I’m sure he’s thinking the same about you,” the Sarge said, opening the door. Two very young cops stood nervously at his threshold.
“Oh, great,” I muttered under my breath, not pleased about the Super’s choice of a constable and a probationary constable as backups for us.
The Sarge looked them up and down. “Either of you ever done a roadblock before?”
“No, Sarge,” replied the constable, Jarod, while the probie, Ellie, shook her head.
“Okay, here’s how it’s going to work. Tess, you’re the one in most danger, so I want you to stick close to me. We’ll take the north entrance to the town, as that’s the direction Bycraft is likely to come from. You two,” he nodded his head towards our visitors, “can take the south entrance.”
I butted in, passing them printouts of one of Red’s mug shots. “His name’s Redmond Christopher Bycraft. He’s thirty-six years old and about one-eighty centimetres tall with golden hair and yellowy eyes. He has a ten centimetre scar on the left side of his neck.”
“I want you to check the identity of every single person entering town, even if they tell you they’re just passing through,” instructed the Sarge. “Keep a log of times, vehicles and people. Is that clear?” The two young cops nodded. “I have some bollards in the shed. Let’s go get them.”
We trooped around to the back of his house to the old ramshackle building that used to serve as the house’s garage before the more modern carport was added. Inside was a motley collection of broken furniture, superseded equipment, and policing supplies which weren’t often needed. We used the bollards whenever we conducted random breath tests to create a safe area off the highway where we could order cars to pull over.
We split the bollards between us. The Sarge also hunted down some temporary road signs advising oncoming motorists of a police checkpoint ahead and warning them to prepare to stop. Our backups followed us in their patrol car to the southern end of town where we helped them erect their roadblock. When the Sarge was satisfied with their set up, we drove to the northern end of town and did the same. By the time we finished, it was going on one o’clock, with at least another thirty minutes before Red could feasibly arrive.
After fifteen minutes of waving curious motorists through the bollards, we noticed something odd. Various Bycrafts began to drive back and forth through our roadblock in their family fleet of old clunkers. Sometimes they’d be gone for a while and sometimes for less than a minute, suggesting that they turned around to return to town almost straight away after leaving.
“Something’s up,” noted the Sarge with suspicion, watching Lola and Rosie drive past us for the second time in Rosie’s yellow bomb, sneering grins on their faces.
“For sure,” I agreed.
“I think we’ll start checking cars, even though it’s a bit early.”
“Probably for the best if we do.”
For the next three hours we stopped every vehicle entering the town and checked the occupants and the boot. I carefully kept a log of the time, vehicle, driver and passengers. Fortunately, apart from the constant flow of Bycraft cars, traffic was light and we managed to keep disruptions to a minimum.
“Why are you driving in and out of town?” I asked Rosie on her third pass through the roadblock.
“None of your fucking business, piglet.”
“Watch your mouth,” snapped the Sarge. “Or you’ll find yourself in the lockup for the rest of the night.”
“Sorry, Sergeant Maguire,” she smarmed insincerely, scratching her nose with her extended middle finger.
“Try that on again and you’ll definitely be having a visit to the lockup,” he warned. “Now, get lost. I don’t want to see either of you again today.”
“We can do what we want,” scorned Lola. “You can’t stop us from driving around our own town.”
“You want me to do a safety spot check right now on that shitbox you’re driving? No? Then do as I’ve directed and make yourselves scarce for the rest of the day.”
“Fuck you, arsehole pig,” we both distinctly heard Lola mutter.
“What did you say?” demanded the Sarge.
“Nothing, copper,” she said sullenly, shifting her cold, flat eyes to me. She smiled, a horrible twisted grimace. “Red’s coming for you, piglet. And there’s nothing you can do about it.”
“How do you know he’s coming for me?” I asked. “He’s been in contact with you, hasn’t he?”
“You’re wasting your time with this joke of a roadblock,” she laughed and Rosie joined in. “He’s already here.”
“You’re bluffing.”
She laughed harder. “He’s outsmarted you, not that it’s much of a challenge to outsmart a couple of dumbarse coppers like you two.”
“Shut your face, you old cow.”
“He’s going to hurt you so bad. I’m looking forward to it.”
I leaned into the car and grabbed a fist full of her jumper, pulling her towards me. “Tell me where he is.”
“How the fuck would I know?” she lied.
“How do you know he’s here then?”
“Call it a mother’s instinct,” she laughed. Rosie sniggered. “I feel him close by.”
I shook her roughly. “Where is he?”
“I told you – I don’t fucking know.”
“I’m going to tear your house apart.”
“You think I’ve got him hiding under my fucking bed or something?” she jeered. “There are pieces
of dog shit in this town smarter than you, piglet.”
I let her go, not wanting to waste another second on her. “Piss off, and I don’t want to see you driving through again or we’re going to do your car over.”
“Don’t need to drive through anymore now,” she laughed as Rosie screeched off, burning rubber.
“It’s probably just a ruse to psych you out, Tessie,” the Sarge assured, his hand on my shoulder. “How could he get in? We had roadblocks at both ends of town.”
“I don’t know,” I despaired.
“Let’s pack up and check on the other team.”
We threw the bollards and road sign into the boot and drove to the southern end of town, where our two colleagues continued to industriously check vehicles. The Sarge called off their roadblock and while Ellie waved cars through, we talked to Jarod. He told us they’d experienced the same parade of Bycrafts in and out of town multiple times.
The Sarge rubbed his chin. “But why were they doing it?”
“I don’t know, but if it was to annoy us, then they succeeded in spades,” smiled Jarod.
“No, it wasn’t for the pest factor,” I chipped in. “There must have been a reason for it. I think they were trying to confuse us.” I thought about it for a bit. “One car full of Bycrafts would be instantly noticeable. Right?”
“Correct,” agreed the Sarge.
I followed my line of thought. “But with lots of Bycrafts in lots of cars doing multiple trips, one specific Bycraft would be much less noticeable. Right?”
“Correct again. I think I can see where you’re going with this, Tess. You think that Bycraft waltzed back into town, lost in the crowd of Bycrafts.”
I addressed Jarod. “Let me see the vehicle log you kept.”
He handed it over and I ran my finger down the list of Bycrafts recorded on it, until I reached one name: Jacob Richmond Bycraft. I pulled my phone from my pocket and punched in his number.
“Jakey,” I asked urgently when he answered. “Have you visited Little Town this afternoon?”
“No, babe,” he said, yawning. “I’m doing a double shift today. I’ve been on duty since lunchtime and don’t get off until after midnight. Why do you ask?”