The Negotiator

by Chris Taylor

  “I won’t get in your way, Andy; I promise!”

  The earnestness on the boy’s face made Andy’s heart catch. He recalled the childhood he’d never had. He couldn’t remember ever feeling unafraid like this youngster. Forcing the memories away, he smiled at Jack.

  “I’m on duty until six in the morning. I’ll go home and grab some shut-eye, throw some gear together and head over to your place sometime after lunch tomorrow. How does that sound?”

  Jack spun around to face his mother. “Are we going to be home tomorrow?”

  She ruffled his hair. “I think so, sweetheart. Now, how about you go and sit in the lounge down the hall and pull out your Zac Power books. I want to speak with Andy for a moment.”

  “Okay.” Jack shot Andy another quick grin and headed toward the door. As soon as he was out of earshot, Cally took a deep breath.

  “Jack’s really pleased to have you moving in with us—we both are. I-I just wanted to remind you I meant what I said about this being a purely platonic relationship. I need a roommate, that’s all.” A blush stained her cheeks, but she held his gaze

  He smiled and shrugged. “Like I told you, your house, your rules.”

  “Thank you.” She cleared her throat. “Talking about rules, I do have a few of those.”

  He bit back a grin and gave an exaggerated eye roll. “I would’ve been disappointed if you didn’t.”

  Her lips twitched. “Okay, first of all, there’s no smoking in the house. If you have to, you’ll go outside—”

  “I don’t smoke. What’s next?”

  “All right, I’m happy to throw a little extra on the stove if I’m cooking dinner, but I’m not going to clean your room or do your laundry or any of those other domestic things. Just because I’m the only woman in the house, doesn’t make me the housecleaner.”

  He replied without hesitation. “No problem. What else?”

  “Well, we only have one television. I’m not sure how much TV you watch, but if you want free reign with the remote control, you’ll have to bring a TV of your own. There’s a spare table in the sleepout where you can set one up.”

  “What about music?”

  “I have an old CD player. The budget hasn’t stretched to an iPod, so there’s no dock, either.”

  “No worries, I can bring that with me. Microwave? I’m pretty big on TV dinners.”

  Her mouth fell open in shock. “TV dinners? How could a man like you survive on TV dinners?”

  “What’s wrong with TV dinners?”

  She shook her head, aghast. “Look at the size of you? A TV dinner isn’t enough to even begin to fill a man like you. And with the long hours you work—”

  She broke off, as if she suddenly realized she sounded way too concerned. She drew in a breath and then continued. “Not that I care, of course. You eat what you like. There is a microwave and the cottage came with a dishwasher. I’d appreciate it if you cleaned up after yourself, whether it’s your breakfast bowl or the plastic TV dinner container. I hate dirty dishes left in the sink.”

  “Me, too. Who’d have thought we’d have so much in common?”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. He held back the grin for as long as he could and then lost the battle. Laughter burst from his lips. Her frown deepened and he did his best to curb his mirth. “I’m sorry,” he said. “It was a joke.”

  She nodded and offered a tiny smile. The effect of it stole his breath. In an effort to distract himself, he latched onto the first thing he thought of.

  “Give me your telephone number, in case I need to call you to tell you I’ll be late getting home for dinner.” He grinned again.

  She rolled her eyes at him in exasperation.

  “Better still, give me your cell number. That way, I’ll be able to reach you whenever I need to.” He grabbed a pen and some paper.

  “Um…actually… I don’t have a cell.”

  Andy frowned in surprise. “What do you mean, you don’t have a cell? Everyone has a cell.”

  Cally shook her head, avoiding his eyes. “Not me.”

  “Don’t tell me you’re one of these people with a problem about them? Worried about the radiation giving you a brain tumor?”

  She stared at him defiantly. “No, Andy, I don’t have a problem with cell phones. My problem is finding the money to pay for it.”

  Heat rushed to his face and he was flooded with remorse. He reached out to her, but she stepped away and walked toward the door that led to the back offices.

  “I’d better get moving. I haven’t even started cleaning yet and the time’s getting away.”

  “Cally, come back. I didn’t mean to offend you. I’m an idiot. I didn’t think. I’m sorry.”

  She stopped and turned to face him. “Just in case you missed it on the poster, the rent’s three hundred a week. You’ll also pay a third of the bills—food, telephone and electricity. I think that’s fair.” Her eyes challenged him to disagree.

  “I’ll pay half.”

  “That’s not necessary. I’ve done the sums. If you pay a third, it’ll be enough for us to get by. I don’t want to feel obligated to you in any way.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m offering to pay half. Just take it and be grateful and let’s leave it at that, okay?”

  “But—” she protested.

  “Put the extra money toward something Jack wants, then. If you can’t take it for yourself, take it for your son.”

  Cally sighed in annoyance, her expression clearly irritated. He could almost hear her silent curse. He tried to keep the satisfaction off his face. He knew damn well she wouldn’t be able to refuse it now. It’s what he’d been counting on. She didn’t disappoint.

  “Half it is.”

  They both turned at a loud noise in the corridor. Tom and a couple of other officers appeared in the doorway of the tea room, with looks of varying curiosity and concern on their faces. The noise grew louder and the door to the squad room swung open, spilling Nikki into the room.

  Andy frowned in consternation, shocked at Nikki’s appearance. Her head swung wildly from side to side, as if she were searching for someone. When her gaze locked on his, she cried out in triumph and staggered across the room toward him.

  Andy shot a panicked look in Cally’s direction. She stood unmoving not far from him, as if her feet had been glued to the spot. Her eyes were wide and clouded with confusion. Nikki continued to advance upon him and by now he could see her eyes were red and bloodshot.

  She came up close beside him and he was grateful when Cally stepped away. He could only imagine what she was thinking, but he didn’t have time to explain.

  Nikki looked back and forth between them. She smelled of alcohol and her body reeked of revenge. He tried to shepherd her away from his desk, and away from Cally, in particular, but his ex-girlfriend resisted his attempts and pushed back hard against him.

  “Don’t touch me, you fucked-up jerk!” she spat, inches from his face. “Why didn’t you tell me before? You had a few problems to work through, you told me. You needed to do it alone. You never said—”

  “Nikki, please, let’s not do this here,” he begged and tried not to breathe in her fumes. “Let me take you home.” He took her by the arm in an attempt to move her toward the door, but she wrenched her arm out of his grasp.

  “I’m not going anywhere! I haven’t finished with you, yet. Why didn’t you tell me about your fucked-up family? I’d have never wasted my time on you, had I known. I can’t believe I wanted you to father my child. That kind of sickness is probably hereditary. You’re probably as fucked up as he was.”

  Andy froze, well aware she was referring to his father. How had she found out? What had he said? He’d been so careful not to give anything away. He’d been concealing it for nearly twenty years. Unless he could get her out of there before she said anything else, his life would be in ruins. Panic began to set in and he looked around in desperation for a solution.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he spi
ed Tom approaching from the tea room. He held out a consoling hand in Nikki’s direction and slowly closed the distance.

  “Nikki, is it?” Tom asked, his tone low and even. “Why don’t you come with me? I’d like to find out what this is about. You’re obviously mad at Andy. Don’t worry, Andy makes lots of people mad. It’s just the way he is.”

  Andy listened to Tom’s banter and hoped Cally couldn’t hear what he said. No longer certain where she was in the room, he could only hope she’d left. Tom had gone into action and was saying whatever it took to get Nikki to move away. He was grateful for his partner’s intervention, but prayed that if Cally was close and listening, she’d understand.

  Having Nikki confront him like this was a nightmare he couldn’t have envisaged. She’d been upset when he’d broken it off with her, but he never imagined she’d become so…unhinged. It was frightening how little he’d really known her. They’d been together for over a year and he hadn’t had a clue she could be like this.

  To his relief, Nikki didn’t resist Tom’s attempts to lead her away. Within a few moments, she’d left the way she’d come, Tom right there beside her. Andy breathed out a heavy sigh and swung around, looking for Cally. He found her on the far side of the room, her eyes wide, her face pale.

  With a curse, he strode toward her, needing to reassure her what had happened wasn’t his fault. She stared at him and he cursed again at the shock and fear in her eyes.

  “Cally, I’m sorry. I didn’t know that was going to happen. I—”

  “Who is she?”

  He glanced away, knowing he had to come clean. “Nikki Simons. My ex-girlfriend.” He watched her assimilate the news and realized it didn’t come as a surprise. She’d probably heard every word Nikki had said. He stifled a groan of despair.

  Just when he’d been breaking through Cally’s defenses, Nikki had to pull a stunt like this. And what was she trying to prove? He was hardly going to take her back. And what was that crap about fathering her a child? He hadn’t even asked her to share his house, let alone share his life.

  He moved closer and lowered his voice. “I’m sorry, Cally. You shouldn’t have had to witness that.”

  “How long were you together?” she asked tonelessly.

  “A little over a year. I broke it off with her a week ago.” He shrugged a little desperately. “I thought she was okay; I thought she understood. I tried to let her down gently. I tried to take the blame. I told her it was my fault things didn’t work out—”

  “She seems to have remembered that part,” Cally broke in dryly.

  Andy shook his head. “Please, Cally. She’s drunk and she’s upset. She’s talking utter nonsense. I don’t—”

  “Did you want to have a baby with her?”

  He frowned in bewilderment. “No! Of course not! We hadn’t even talked about it! She’s crazy! I don’t know what she’s talking about. Please, you need to believe me. Please.”

  Cally stared at him in silence. The seconds dragged on forever. It seemed like a lifetime had passed when her face finally relaxed and she nodded.

  “I believe you,” she whispered and Andy collapsed against the wall in relief. He reached for her hand and squeezed it. “Thank you,” he said. “You have no idea how much it means to me.”

  Cally nodded and then frowned again. “Have you told her you’re moving in with me?”

  “No, I haven’t spoken to her since last Friday night. She works at a station way out in Penrith, where I used to work. I didn’t expect to ever see her again.”

  Cally’s eyes widened in shock. “She’s a police officer?”

  “Yes,” Andy replied, his voice grim. “Scary, isn’t it?”

  * * *

  It was much later in the night when Tom broached the subject of Nikki with Andy. He’d returned shortly after seeing her out, but had waited a few hours into their shift before making mention of it again. Cally was long gone and for that, Andy was grateful. He couldn’t imagine what she’d thought, listening to Nikki’s drunken rant and he was glad she hadn’t retracted her offer to have him move in with her.

  After their earlier excitement, Tom and Andy’s evening had been largely uneventful. They’d been rostered on because it was Sydney’s annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras festival. The parade wasn’t scheduled until the next night, but the city’s population had already swelled in anticipation.

  The organizers of the event were expecting upwards of three hundred thousand people to watch the parade from the streets, with more than ten thousand of them marching. At the end of the parade, many of the revelers found their way over the Harbour Bridge and arrived in North Sydney, pumped and ready to party. It was then that the trouble could start.

  But so far, the extra police presence had been unwarranted. They hadn’t received a single call. It would be a different story the night of the parade, but for now, Andy was grateful for the quiet.

  “So, what’s the story with Nikki?” Tom asked casually, when their colleagues left for a coffee break, leaving them alone in the squad room.

  Andy closed his eyes briefly and gathered his thoughts. Providing Tom with an explanation after what he’d done to diffuse the situation was the least that he could do.

  “Until last Friday night, she was my girlfriend. We dated for just over a year. She’s a copper out at Penrith. I was stationed there before I applied for this transfer.”

  “I take it she took the breakup pretty hard.”

  Andy shook his head, still at a loss to reconcile Nikki’s behavior with the woman he’d known intimately for more than twelve months.

  “See, that’s where I’m confused. When I told her it was over, she was a little upset, especially in light of the length of time we’d been together, but I left her outside her building that night with the genuine belief it had gone down really well. I expected her to be disappointed, and she was, but if anyone had asked me, I’d have told them we’d left on good terms.”

  “Not according to her. She called you every name under the sun while I was escorting her out of the building. I remember thinking you must have really done a line on her, to warrant so much anger.”

  Andy looked across at Tom in bewilderment, unable to find the words to explain. He’d been shocked with the Nikki he’d seen earlier. In all the time they’d been together, she’d never once exhibited such irrational behavior. Even now, hours later, he was still flummoxed by what had happened.

  “What did you say to her?” he asked, knowing if anyone could defuse Nikki’s mood, it would be Tom.

  “I agreed with everything she said. I told her you didn’t deserve her; that a pretty girl like her would be snapped up overnight. I told her not to waste any more time or alcohol bemoaning her failed relationship but to put her energies into finding someone new, someone who appreciated what she had to offer.”

  “Gee, thanks, mate,” Andy replied dryly.

  Tom spread his arms wide, his face a picture of innocence. “Hey, everyone knows you never argue with a drunk. What did you want me to do? Besides,” he added, “it worked, didn’t it? She left you and your lady friend in peace.”

  Heat crept up Andy’s neck and he studiously ignored Tom’s curious gaze. Andy was sure no one else had noticed; he’d tried desperately to be discreet. He kept his conversation with Cally to a minimum when the others were around. He had no idea Tom had picked up on his interest. It just went to show he could never be too careful, especially with a cop as observant as Tom Munro around.

  Not that he couldn’t trust Tom with the information, it was just that he wasn’t ready to talk about Cally. It was still early days in their courtship—he hadn’t even moved in with her yet.

  “It’s all right, Andy. I understand. Your secret’s safe with me. I just don’t want you using her as an excuse not to deal with what happened on Tuesday. Losing your first jumper is always a hard blow to take. Whenever you’re ready to talk about what happened with Tucker, I’m here for you, ready to listen. Take my advice and don
’t bottle it up. Your recovery’s always quicker if you deal with it sooner rather than later.”

  The reminder of Wayne Tucker and the way he’d died flashed in bright Technicolor through Andy’s mind. Tom was both right and wrong. Right, in the fact Andy had done his best to forget about it and had almost succeeded at work. It was only in the dark hours of the night when the memory of Tucker’s last moments brought out a cold sweat on his brow and caused his heart to pump hard.

  But Tom was wrong about Andy’s interest in Cally. It had nothing to do with Tucker. He’d been keen on her long before Wayne and his fateful decision, but he couldn’t deny the timing of it sucked and he could see why Tom thought they were connected.

  “How’s Lily?” he asked in a blatant attempt to change the subject.

  Tom stared at him hard for a moment longer and then turned away, leaving Andy feeling relieved.

  “She’s good,” Tom responded and leaned back in his chair until he could stack his boots on his desk. “She’s decided to do further study. She wants to do her masters. She goes to Sydney University three nights a week. The kids and I fend for ourselves while she’s out.”

  Andy thought of Tom and his kids fighting over who was in charge of the kitchen and he grinned. Though Tom pretended it was a burden, he actually loved to cook. He’d shared his secret with Andy one night when Tom invited him over for dinner. Andy had offered to man the barbeque.

  “It’ll be all right, mate. I’ve got everything under control,” Tom had told him. “The steaks have been marinating for hours and the eggplant and peppers are ready. I’ll throw them on the grill right before I pull the steaks off. They don’t need as long as the meat.”

  Andy had been impressed with Tom’s culinary skills and Tom confessed he used cooking as a way to relax, to let the day’s stresses go. It was so far removed from his daily grind, Andy could see how it might work. So far, however, he hadn’t been inspired to try it out for himself. His quip to Cally about microwave dinners hadn’t been said in jest.

  “Tell me, Tom. How long have you been married?” The question fell off his lips, surprising him as much as it did Tom.