by JD Nixon
Chad Bycraft was going to pay for wrecking my Land Rover.
“Shit!” I heard the Sarge say. “Tess, I’m going kick your arse if you don’t get back here now.”
I stormed up the stairs, pushing Bycrafts aside as I did. Chad had disappeared inside the house, so I barged in after him.
“Get out of my house, you fucking bitch,” screeched Lola. “You’ve got no right to invade like that. Fuck off out of there. That’s private property.”
I ignored her, following the sound of panicked retreat down the hallway, dodging the discarded toys and shoes, insensitive to the sounds of small children crying, and the squalid and malodorous surroundings.
I made it through the door to the kitchen in time to spot Chad rushing out the back door.
“Chad Bycraft, you little shit, get back here. You’re going to pay for smashing my 4WD.”
“Fuck you, piglet,” he called over his shoulder, sprinting off towards the bushland behind Lola’s house.
I sped up, well knowing that if I let him escape into that, I’d lose him. The Bycrafts had innumerable escape routes and boltholes scattered throughout the low-lying bush and the mountains known only to them, and passed on from generation to generation.
But though I wasn’t too shabby as a runner, he was younger and faster. At the edge of the bushland, he stopped and turned, an insufferably cocky look on his face.
“Don’t know why you’re so upset, piglet. Your 4WD was a bucket of shit to drive. But I s’pose it suits a bucket of shit like you.”
And with that, he ran off into the bushes, and though I blundered around in there for a good five minutes afterwards, I lost his trail.
When I emerged, hot, sweaty and even more furious, the Sarge stood with his hands on his hips, a thunderous expression on his face.
“When I tell you to stop doing something, I expect you to stop doing it,” he roared at me.
I flapped a dismissive hand in his direction, not interested in talking to him.
Not pleased by that, he marched over to me, grabbed me roughly by the upper arm, and frogmarched me around the side of the house to the front. A swarm of Bycrafts surrounded the patrol car, trying everything they knew about car theft to open the door and free Rosie, who the Sarge had locked in the back seat.
“Oi! Get away from that car!” he bellowed, freeing my arm and pulling out his baton.
I pulled out mine too, and after a few judicious whacks, the Bycrafts took the hint and retreated, some a little more wounded than when the day had started. But then, hey, so was I.
“Get in the car,” the Sarge ordered through gritted teeth.
Silently, I slid into the passenger seat and waited until he’d buckled up and sped off with an unnecessary screech of tyres.
“What the hell was that about?” he demanded angrily.
I sneaked a glimpse at his profile. It was as hard as a sheer granite mountain, and just about as approachable. “I just wanted to have a little chat with Chad about what happened to my Land Rover.”
“Bullshit. What were you planning on doing to him?”
“I don’t know,” I confessed. “Teach him a lesson about respecting other people’s property.”
“How? By kicking or belting the crap out of him?”
“I don’t know. Maybe both.”
“I hope you think that something like that is worth losing your career over.”
I stayed mute, knowing that anything I said would only inflame him further.
At the station, I helped him transport a still resistant Rosie from the patrol car to one of the cells in the lockup. He uncuffed her and shoved her inside, slamming and locking the door on her.
She pummelled her fists on the bars. “Let me out of here. I haven’t fucking done anything wrong.”
“There’s only the little matter of you assaulting Senior Constable Fuller.”
“So what? The dumb bitch was in my way. What else was I supposed to do?”
“Don’t refer to Senior Constable Fuller in that way,” warned the Sarge.
“This is what I think of your precious piglet,” she snarled, launching a gob of spit in my direction. I had to jump out of the way to avoid it landing on my pants.
“Right,” said the Sarge with determination. “For that little stunt, you can sit here for a few hours before we’ll bother interviewing you. See if that improves your level of civility.”
“Fuck you, copper.”
“Enjoy the solitude,” he snarled, drawing me down the stairs and back to the station, both of us trying to block out her further obscenities. Sparring with her had helped him swiftly get over his anger with me, and for the first time in my life, I had something for which to thank Rosie Bycraft. “She’s a right charmer, isn’t she?”
“Do you fancy her?” I dared to try out a smile on him.
He pulled a face. “I’d sooner date a death adder.”
“Probably have the same result for you.”
“Look, Tess, I’m going to have leave you for a short time to have a shower and change. This egg’s starting to set on my back, and I can’t stand the smell of it.”
“I know. It’s foul.”
He smiled. “I see what you did there.”
I smiled at him again. “I was going to say something about the smell, but I’m too polite.”
“You? That would be a first. Did you get hit by much?”
“Nah. Luckily they’re lousy aims. Dodged a dirty nappy though.”
“That’s disgusting. I think they’re sub-human.”
“I don’t think they’re human at all.”
“Let me check your head. It was quite a whack she gave you.”
“Can you check it after your shower? You smell really bad.”
He tweaked my nose. “And here I was thinking you never notice the effort I go to for you. I want to make sure you’re okay before I head off. I don’t want to come back to find you unconscious, or running around in circles clucking, or something even worse.”
“I’ll live,” I giggled.
“Just be quiet for once and stand still.”
“Be quick then. I can’t hold my breath for too long.”
I stood in front of him, looking up at him as he probed around the side of my head above my ear. I winced a few times as his fingers ran over the lump that had grown since Rosie hit me.
“A bit of a bump, but I think you’ll live.”
“I already told you that.”
I wasn’t sure what happened next, but at some point he’d stopped probing and we just stood there, facing each other, staring into each other’s eyes. One of his hands rested on my shoulder, the other’s fingers lightly feathering around my bump, careful not to touch it. It was as if the world stopped for a moment, and we were trapped, lost in a reverie with each other.
“Tessie,” he breathed, his voice lower and huskier than normal.
“You could bring me some fucking water, at least,” shrieked Rosie in her unpleasant voice, breaking the spell.
The Sarge shook his head slightly as if to wake himself from a dream. I hastily stepped away from him, feeling awkward. We looked everywhere except at each other.
“I better be off,” he said. “Take her some water, will you?”
“Yep.”
“I won’t be long.”
“Okay. No worries.”
“Lock the doors after you’ve taken her the water.”
“Will do,” I promised as he left out the back.
I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and headed to the cell, passing it through the bars. Rosie snatched it from me, opened it and greedily glugged from it.
“You’re welcome,” I said sweetly.
“Fuck you, piglet,” she spat out, wiping her mouth on her forearm.
“You have a nice day too.”
I’d just spun around to return to the station, when the almost full water bottle hit me square between my shoulders. I stopped for a moment, reining in my temper.
/> “You just lost your water privileges, you stupid cow.”
“Fuck you.”
I picked up the bottle and continued towards the station, not prepared to engage in any more ‘conversation’ with her. I locked the doors and settled down to commence writing all the reports beginning to pile up on my to-do list.
A pounding on the front door had me on my feet, hand near my gun as I approached the counter. I stood behind the closed door.
“Who is it?” I asked.
“It’s me.”
I unlocked the door and opened it.
“Jakey! What a lovely surprise. I didn’t expect to see you until tonight.”
He thrust his way through the doorway forcing me back. His face was set with a level of anger I’d never seen on him before.
“What’s the matter, honey-boy?”
He grasped my arm by the wrist, squeezing it tightly. He moved his face down close to mine until we were almost nose-to-nose. I could smell alcohol on his breath.
“Let Rosie out now.”
Chapter 24
“Jakey, you’ve been drinking,” I said, crinkling my nose in disapproval.
“So?” he said, his tone aggressive.
“Let go of me,” I demanded, trying to free my wrist. “You’re hurting me.”
“Did you hear me, Tessie? Let Rosie out now.”
“Not a chance. That’s not possible, and you know it. She’s in custody. Why are you even asking?”
“Do you know what you’re doing to my family? Do you even care what you’re doing to my family?”
“No. Why should I? I couldn’t give a shit about your family.”
“I’m part of my family. If you don’t give a shit about them, then you don’t give a shit about me.”
“That’s not true, and you know it. You’re not like anyone in your family.”
He shook my wrist again, and I tried to yank it free of his grip. It was the first time Jake had ever shown any physical force towards me, and I’d be damned if I was going to let him get away with it.
“I turned up at Mum’s place just now to find Rick black and blue, and Mum collapsed in tears.”
I snorted in derision. “Lola in tears? Don’t make me laugh. She wouldn’t know how to cry.”
“Why do you always have to be such a bitch towards her? She’s trying to plan a fucking funeral, and you’ve just arrested her daughter, the one person she’s been leaning on the most for support. Mum’s not coping so well with Denny’s death. I told you that. She needs Rosie. Don’t you have any compassion?”
“No, I don’t. Not towards her, and not towards anyone else in your family. When have any of them shown me the slightest sliver of compassion in my life?”
We glared at each other. His nostrils flared with anger and his amber eyes, usually so soft and loving, were coldly furious.
“You don’t understand how hard Denny’s death has been for my family,” he asserted in a low angry voice.
I snorted again, but this time with disbelieving laughter. “I don’t understand? You honestly think I don’t understand how hard it is to lose someone close to me?”
“And that’s why you of all fucking people should realise how much Mum needs her children around her. Especially Rosie.” He shook my arm again, and started forcing me backwards towards the open hatch of the counter. “So get in there, get the key, and get Rosie the fuck out of that cage.”
“No, I’m not going to. Why don’t you just leave now, Jake? You’ve obviously been drinking, and you’re going to regret this in the morning.”
“The only thing I’m regretting right now is ever hooking up with you in the first place.”
That was like a slap on the face to me. “Jakey, you don’t mean that.”
“Why don’t I? For three years I’ve put up with you slagging off my family and being hostile towards them.”
“Me being hostile towards them? You’re joking, aren’t you?”
“You never even tried to give them a chance.” He pushed me up against the counter and pressed his body on mine so that the battered hardwood cut into my back. “I’ve bent over backwards to be friendly with your dad and your friends. I’ve taken their shit and I’ve smiled the whole time. You never even made one tiny little shitty effort to be friendly to mine. And now we’re going through a family tragedy, you seem determined to persecute us, and ruin Denny’s funeral.”
“I’m not trying to ruin his funeral. I just wanted to –”
“I should have listened to them. Bycrafts and Fullers don’t belong together. It’s unnatural. It’s wrong. They kept telling me and telling me, but I kept telling them that it was different with us. That we were special.”
“We are special, Jakey. We’ve always been special.”
“No. What we’ve been is wrong. Everything I thought I had with you has been wrong, all this time.”
“No, it hasn’t.”
“Let Rosie out now. Mum needs her.”
“No. I won’t. She hit me on the head with a piece of timber.”
He laughed, a sound with no mirth. “So that’s how it is, is it? Denny’s funeral is less important than a little bump on the head for you?” He slowly shook his head in disgust. “How could I not have seen all along what my family’s been telling me? That you’re a stuck up little bitch who thinks she’s better than any Bycraft, even me. God, I’ve been such an idiot not to see it before now.”
“Jake –”
“A stuck up little bitch who looks down on every Bycraft in town. A stuck up little bitch who’s turned everyone in town against us.”
“Let me go right now, Jake, or you’re going to force me to do something we’ll both be sorry about,” I warned, my hand reaching towards my OC spray. I wasn’t putting up with one more second of this tantrum.
“Get in there, you stuck up little bitch of a Fuller, and let my sister out.”
“And for the last time – no.”
He grabbed me by the front of my uniform and hauled me away from the counter, letting go of my wrist. I pushed him backwards with both hands on his chest, intending to barricade myself behind the counter until he came to his senses.
“You think you’re going to disrupt Denny’s funeral. Well, you’re not,” he snarled. I shrank back, shocked at witnessing a side of Jake that I’d never seen.
I struggled to free myself from his grip on my shirt. “Let go of me.”
“You’re not welcome at Denny’s funeral. You’re not welcome around my family. And you’re especially not welcome in my life anymore.”
“Jakey! Go away and sober up. You don’t mean that.”
“I’ve never meant anything so much before. We’re done.” And with that he violently thrust me away from him so that I stumbled backwards, crashing into the corner between the counter and the wall.
He made a move towards the back office, as if to retrieve the key to the cell, when the Sarge knocked on the back door.
“Tessie, let me in.”
Jake froze, and with frustration all over his face, he turned and strode out of the front door.
The Sarge’s knocks became more frantic. “Tessie, let me in. Tessie. Tessie.”
Numb with shock, I sank to the floor, wedged in the corner, hugging my knees. I heard the sound of Jake’s ute roaring out of the carpark.
The Sarge clumped up the front stairs at double speed. “Tessie?”
He pulled up when he stepped into the reception. He kneeled down next to me, but I barely registered his presence.
“Tessie, what’s happened? Are you okay?”
I looked at him blankly, and I didn’t know what he saw in my eyes and my face, but it was enough to make him slide his arm around my shoulders.
“Was that Jake’s ute I saw driving off?”
“Yes,” I whispered.
“What happened with him, Tessie?” He noticed me cradling my sore wrist. He gently unwrapped my hand from it, his face set as hard as stone. “Did he hurt you? I’ll kill
him if he did.”
“It’s nothing.”
“What did he want?”
“He wanted me to let Rosie out.”
“What?”
“I didn’t do it.”
“I know you didn’t. I know you wouldn’t. I heard her when I came up the back.” His eyes raked my face. “Did he hurt you?”
I touched my chest with my fingers. “Only here,” I whispered.
“What do you mean, Tessie?”
“He said some awful things to me. He was so angry at me.”
“What kind of things did he say?”
“That I was a stuck up bitch who thought I was better than the Bycrafts. That he should never have got together with me. That we were wrong together.”
He leaned back on his haunches. “What? That doesn’t sound like Jake.”
I hung my head. “He dumped me, Sarge. He said I’m not welcome in his life anymore. He said we’re done.”
“I honestly can’t believe what I’m hearing. Was he drunk or something?”
“Yes.”
“Ah, that explains things a bit more.” He put his hand under my chin to raise my head so I had to look at him. “Tessie, he’ll come around to his senses when he’s sober again.”
“I don’t think so. I’ve never seen him like that before. It’s Denny’s death and this funeral. They don’t know how to deal with grief. It’s tearing them all apart.” And then as if I was talking to myself, “It’s torn us apart.”
“I’m not going to lie to you, Tessie. I don’t like Jake and if you really have broken up with him, then I’m glad about that. He was right when he said you were wrong together, but not for the reasons he gave. You deserve much better than a married man who refuses to commit to you and stands by while his family abuses you over and over. You deserve so much more than that in life.”
He stood and held out his hand for me. I lifted miserable eyes to his and saw the genuine concern and warmth on his face. I held out my hand and he grasped it, helping me to my feet.
“Come here,” he said, wrapping his arms around me.
A hug was the perfect thing I needed right then. I leaned against his chest and let him rub my back in consolation. And it took every single scrap of self-control I had not to completely lose it and soak his shirt in tears.