by JD Nixon
The Sarge jumped in again. “You can’t see anything in this light.”
“Where is she?”
“She’s over near the door,” the Sarge lied.
I quietly picked up a rock that was currently and painfully wedged underneath my elbow and tossed it towards the door leading to the third shed. It bounced across the floor. Red immediately spun in that direction, shooting off his little gun.
“Where you going, Tessie? Get back here!” he shouted.
I felt around for something else and found a stick. I threw that over in the same direction and it clattered loudly on the concrete.
“Get back here! Or your copper friend will end up with some holes in his head.”
While he yelled at the phantom me, I used the cover of his voice to advance further. It was impossible to see in this darkest corner. He held the advantage of looking out into the dim light, but I wasn’t able to make out much looking into the darkness. My only advantage was the element of surprise.
“Where’s she going?” he demanded of the Sarge.
“She’s worried about the girl. I had to leave her alone to come after you.”
“I have my gun on you, copper. You better not be lying to me.” He took a step out from the corner, tantalisingly close to where I lay. “You’ll make a good hostage. If anyone tries to arrest me again, you’ll get a couple of slugs through your brain. Now get up off the floor and if you’re not quick enough about it, I’ll give you a taste of this gun. Tessie knows how much it hurts.”
He shouldn’t have said that. God knows I had a lot of built up grudges against Red Bycraft and him shooting me a few months ago with his embarrassing pink gun was just one of them.
He stepped towards the Sarge again. I sprang forward, wrapping my arms around his ankles and pulling back with all my force to yank his feet out from under him. He crashed down on his butt, his gun rattling away from him.
The Sarge scrabbled towards us, pinning Red to the ground with his knees on his chest. Though he thrashed around, trying to push the Sarge off and kick out at me, between us we managed to flip him over and pull his arms behind him. I hunted in my pockets for some quick restraints and handed them to the Sarge. He tightened them unmercifully around Red’s wrists.
And just like that, we recaptured Red Bycraft.
“Great work, Tessie,” said the Sarge, high-fiving me.
“Great team work, you mean,” I replied, smiling from ear-to-ear. “You read my mind perfectly.”
“You two are going to pay for this,” spat Red.
The Sarge hauled him to his feet roughly. “Shut up if you know what’s good for you.” He read him his rights in a bored monotone.
“I’m not staying in jail.”
“Mate,” said the Sarge, dragging him towards the door, “you’ll be lucky if they don’t give you the Hannibal Lecter treatment after this little escapade.”
Red twisted around to threaten, “It’s not the end of us, Tessie.”
“Save it for your cellmates. I’m not interested.”
Back in the first shed we found Kieran awkwardly trying to console the still-weeping woman. He looked up with desperate relief when we came through the doorway. The woman saw Red and started screaming and backing up, clinging onto Kieran.
“Hey,” I raced over to her, putting my arms around her and letting her fall on to my shoulder. Neither the Sarge nor Kieran had felt comfortable giving her the one thing she craved – a hug and a sympathetic shoulder to cry on. I patted her back and let her cry it out while we waited for the backup uniforms to arrive. “It’s okay. We’re police officers and we’ve caught him now. What’s your name, sweetheart?”
“Katie,” she sobbed out, her breath catching in her throat. She wasn’t in a good way, one eye puffy and already bruising up, a nasty gash on her forehead, deep grazes on her hands and knees where she’d been dragged, red hand marks on her neck, and a bleeding lip. Her pretty dress was ripped down the front, exposing her breasts. She huddled in the jacket the Sarge had given her, pulling it closer to preserve her modesty, her face streaked with blood, dirt, and tears.
“It’s not over between us, Tessie,” Red warned again, struggling in the Sarge’s arms.
Katie pulled away from me sharply. “Are you Tessie?” she gasped, pain making it uncomfortable for her to talk through her busted lip.
I nodded.
“He told me to tell you that it’s your fault,” she grimaced, whimpering softly.
“He’s wrong,” I said, sliding my arm around her bony, shaking shoulders again. “It’s not your fault and it’s not my fault. It’s one hundred per cent his fault.”
“I don’t even know you, but every time he punched me, he said ‘this is for you, Tessie’. And my name’s Katie.”
I felt like throwing up. “I know, Katie sweetheart. He’s a sick bastard. We’re going to put him in jail where he belongs. Forever.”
“That’s bullshit!” shouted Red. “Tell the bitch the truth, Tessie. Tell her it is all your fault. You know it is.”
“Shut your mouth, Bycraft, or I’ll shut it for you with pleasure,” snarled the Sarge.
Red’s reptilian eyes sized up the freshly weeping Katie. “She’s the one who better keep her mouth shut. You hear me, bitch? I won’t be banged up forever and when I come out I’m going to come looking for you if you say one word against me.”
The Sarge shook him violently. “I told you to shut the fuck up.”
“Yeah? Go on, arsehole. Rough me up. My lawyer’s going to love that.”
“No need for you to do anything, Sarge,” I cautioned. I had an idea and whispered it in Katie’s ear. Her face grew fierce and she nodded repeatedly and heatedly.
“Sarge?” I requested, careful to keep my voice neutral. “Could you restrain Red a little more, please?”
Not sure what was going on, he grabbed Red’s arms, already firmly clasped behind his back.
I nodded to Katie. “Go for it.”
She approached Red, her fear momentarily fleeing, replaced by anger, immense anger at what he’d done to her. Her nostrils flared and she instinctively bared her teeth. She fisted her hand and punched him in the stomach. Hard. He doubled over, groaning. She punched him again. And then she kneed him in the balls. She scratched and slapped his face and pulled his hair. She finished by punching him in the stomach again until vomit spurted from his mouth.
“How dare you touch me? How dare you? How dare you put your filthy pervert hands on me, or any woman? I hate you. I hope you die. I hope you go to jail forever,” she screamed into his face. “You’re a filthy, disgusting piece of dirt that doesn’t deserve to breathe the same air as other humans!”
She spat in his face and slapped it again. He took it all, a cynical smile barely wavering on his lips.
“That’s enough,” demanded the Sarge, throwing me a significant glance. I gently pulled Katie away from him.
“Don’t forget, bitch,” Red said in a low taunting voice when she’d finished. “I’ve sunk my teeth into your soft tits. I’ve had my fingers up your warm, snug pussy. You’ve tasted my cock. You’ll never forget all that. I’ll forever be a part of you, part of your memories.”
“Part of her nightmares,” I seethed, walking over to him. I slapped him hard across the face and then backhanded him. “That’s for kissing me.”
“You loved it though, didn’t you?” he mocked.
“Sarge, take this sack of shit away from here so he can’t talk to Katie or me anymore.”
Red continued to jeer, particularly relishing the distress he caused the young woman. “And when I come back for you, bitch, I’m going to fuck you so hard you won’t be able to walk for a month.”
Katie turned and threw up, unfortunately half of it landing on my jeans.
“Shut your face, Bycraft,” warned the Sarge.
“You won’t get away with letting that bitch do that to me. I’ll tell my lawyer.”
“You don’t have a lawyer,” scorned
the Sarge, dragging him outside, away from us. “You’ll be lucky to be landed with some poor sod of a law graduate who thought it a noble idea to become a duty lawyer, not realising they’d end up defending the indefensible in a dirtbag like you.”
I took Katie by the arm and led her away over to where Kieran stood stock still, his eyes huge.
“You didn’t see or hear anything, Kieran. Got it?” I told him, my voice hard so he knew I wasn’t joking. He nodded fervently. “In fact, you weren’t even here with us tonight. Right?” He swallowed hard and nodded again.
“That’s right,” he whispered. “I wasn’t even here.”
I felt sorry for him. The poor kid had learned more about this sometimes wicked world in one evening than he’d ever forget – or his parents would ever appreciate.
My eyes swivelled towards the battered Katie, wiping tears from her eyes and in the process smearing blood and snot and vomit across her face. She’d learned more about the evil that lurked in some people’s hearts tonight than she’d ever forget too.
I glanced out the doorway and my eyes met the Sarge’s. And although I knew he wouldn’t have approved of my unorthodox way of providing Katie with some immediate justice, he’d still backed me up. That meant more to me than I could ever express. So while everyone else was learning a lesson about the evil in the world, I’d learned one about loyalty and support.
I smiled at him and he smiled back with understated triumph. We had our man and we had each other as partners. And to me at that moment, they seemed two of the best things I could ever have asked for in my life.
Chapter 31
It seemed like an eon passed before either the patrol car or ambulance turned up. While we impatiently waited, Kieran sank on to a nearby rickety timber bench seat, the remaining part of a disused and long neglected public picnic table. He was paler than normal and sat huddled, hugging himself, a shocked expression on his face.
“Is she going to be okay?” he asked in a small, shaky voice, sad eyes on Katie who sat nearby staring with numb blankness in front of her. I patted his arm.
“I hope so, Kieran, but it’s been a terrible ordeal for her.”
“You said you’d make sure nothing would happen to her,” he accused.
I had nothing to say in response. He was right. I’d failed her badly tonight. We sat in silence until the ambulance arrived, the paramedics providing Katie with some initial first aid before bundling her into the back. I told her we’d see her up at the hospital as soon as we’d finished processing Red.
The ambulance slowly drove off with its traumatised cargo, and it was a while further before the patrol car turned up. When it did, the two overworked and stressed uniforms immediately launched into a long tirade over the riot at the party they’d been ordered to leave to provide us with assistance.
“They’re nothing but savages, mate,” complained the senior constable, a man I didn’t know, to the Sarge as they hustled a protesting Red to the car. “And that’s just the media! The teenage party guests are even worse. It’s like Armageddon over that part of town.”
“It’s even spreading to neighbouring streets,” chimed in his partner, a hugely muscled constable I knew slightly. He pushed down on Red’s head to force him into the back seat. “Get in there.”
“Fuck you.”
“Oh, a smart mouth, huh?” the constable said tiredly. “My favourite type. You know, there really is nobody as witty as a lowlife, two-bit crim who’s just been nabbed.” It took the two of them and the Sarge to get a struggling Red into the car.
The senior constable looked at the Sarge and me. “Righto. Who’s coming to the watch house with us? One of you will have to book him in. We’re not doing it. We’re just here to give you a lift. Our orders are to dump you and get back to the riot immediately.”
“I’ll drive the boy home and you go with them, Tessie,” the Sarge decided without consulting me. “Then I’ll swing by the station to pick you up and we’ll go to the hospital before we head home.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I said, standing up and turning to Kieran. “It was nice to meet you, Kieran. But I seriously want you to forget all about tonight. You have your whole life ahead of you and I’d hate to think it was tainted in any way by what’s happened this evening. Life isn’t always this bad.”
He nodded solemnly, but it was impossible to decipher what he was thinking. He slouched over to the Sarge, his hands thrust deep in his pockets, shoulders slumped. Walking together, they headed back to where the Sarge had parked his car all those hours ago. I watched them leave for a brief moment, the Sarge’s head inclining down towards Kieran, earnestly saying something to the young man. Kieran nodded and looked up at the Sarge and nodded again. The Sarge reached up and patted his back. I hoped he was giving Kieran the same spiel I had about life – Kieran might be more inclined to listen to him than to me.
I convinced the constable to sit in the back with Red while I took the front passenger seat next to the senior constable.
“Afraid of what he’ll do to you?” teased the constable good-naturedly.
“Nope. Afraid of what I might do to him,” I smiled and climbed into the front seat.
“You’re filthy,” noted the senior constable, wrinkling his nose. “And you smell bad.”
“Thanks. Appreciate the feedback,” I said dryly, looking down at myself. It was true. Crawling around the dirty, litter-ridden floor of the boatshed and having Katie throw up on me wasn’t improving my appearance. I wiped my grimy hands on my even grimier jeans to no avail. I needed a shower.
“No jail’s going to hold me, Tessie. I’ll bust out and you know what? I’m coming straight for you,” Red threatened from the back.
“Zip it, sunshine,” the constable said, pushing Red back against the seat and restraining him with the seatbelt.
“At least untie my hands. It’s uncomfortable having them behind my back.”
“Tough luck.”
“I’m telling my lawyer about all you arseholes and how you’re breaching my human rights.”
“I’m quivering in my boots. Now shut it or I’ll gag you too and give you something else to complain about.”
As we drove, the senior constable told me more about the riot. Two patrol cars and a paddy wagon had already had bricks thrown at them and their windows smashed. Two uniforms had been taken to hospital, and another two had required first aid after being injured either from assorted projectiles or from wrangling with the intoxicated young crowd.
“Sounds like a nightmare,” I sympathised. And the Sarge and I thought we’d had a rough evening.
“Apparently the Super’s ballistic about the damage bill. She’s going to claim someone’s balls over it. But it’s not like we’re trying to get them to damage the cars. It’s just out of control.”
“She won’t be happy about the negative press either,” I said.
“She’s not happy about anything, particularly having to pull everyone in on duty. Take a word from the wise – you and your guy should scoot back home without a word as soon as you can before she sends you into battle too.”
“He’s not her guy,” Red spoke up. “My brother is her guy.”
“Shut up in the back,” I demanded.
“Really?” asked the senior constable, sizing me up anew. “You go out with this scumbag’s brother?”
“My boyfriend’s nothing like his brother,” I said, a little defensive.
“Yeah, but you just arrested your boyfriend’s brother,” he persisted. “You don’t think that’s odd?”
“There’s a whole family of them and they’re all rotten,” explained the constable.
I spoke up with increasing irritation. “They’re not all rotten.”
“It’s the Bycraft family from Mount Big Town.”
“Hey, I’ve heard of them already and I’ve barely been in town five minutes,” said the senior constable. He eyed me again. “And you go out with one of them?”
I heard the subtex
t in what he was saying: and you sleep with one of them?
“It’s not really your business who I go out with, is it?”
This guy proved to be judgemental. “Yeah, but it’s a bit off, isn’t it? I mean, you’re a cop and you’re going out with someone from a notorious family like that. It’s not a good look for us cops. And you reckon your guy’s a good bloke, but you know what they say – the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
“I’m sorry you don’t approve of my choice of partner,” I began, voice dripping with sarcasm. “But frankly –”
The constable jumped in hastily. “Who’s this one we have here, Tess?” he asked, steering the conversation away from potentially dangerous waters. “I should know, but they all look the same to me.”
I allowed myself to be railroaded before I became really angry with my fellow senior constable. “This one’s the infamous fugitive himself, Red Bycraft.”
“Holy shit! Really? Red Bycraft! And you and Sergeant Maguire recaptured him?”
I turned around to smile sweetly at Red. “Yep. And there’s no doubt he’ll be heading straight back to jail. I’m planning on being at the courthouse waving goodbye as they haul him away.”
“Fuck you, Tessie,” he snarled, launching a gob of spit at me. I dodged, and it landed on the side of my seat, its globby mass sliding down the vinyl.
“Always classy, Red,” I mocked, hunting around the car’s console. “Don’t you guys have any tissues in here?”
“Tissues? No,” answered the senior constable with as much derision in his voice as if I’d asked him if he had an espresso machine in the glove box.
“And that, gentlemen, is a perfect example of the civilising effect of female police officers,” I said smugly, twisting in my seat to watch the constable stretch out Red’s shirt to wipe the spit away.
On that note we arrived at the Big Town watch house. Tonight the ever-delightful Senior Sergeant Daisy Yu held court as duty sergeant for processing the endless stream of miscreants and perverts populating the watch house’s holding cells. Most cooled their heels, waiting for their charges to be processed and to be handed their Magistrates Court appearance dates, before being bailed and released back into an unsuspecting world. A few like Red Bycraft would receive special treatment. They’d spend the night at the watch house, fronting the Magistrates Court in the morning as they posed too much of a risk to be bailed.