‘What on Earth?’ Ron said.
Sandy was still sitting, her blonde hair hung around her face in long wet strands. Her male friend sat next to her, one arm wrapped around her. Bob still knelt on the street, sopping wet but he had a firm grip on the handcuffs.
‘Which one’s the overdose?’ Steve asked me.
‘That one.’ I pointed at Sandy. ‘She may have vomited a little.’
‘You don’t say.’ Steve picked his way carefully through the puddles to get to her. ‘It’s the fourth one we’ve been to tonight.’
‘Really. Do you normally do that many overdoses?’
‘Didn’t used to,’ he said. ‘But over the last couple of weeks, yeah. The numbers have definitely gone up. He grasped Sandy’s arm and pulled her up. ‘You’re lucky love,’ he said. ‘Not all of them are making it. Come on, let’s get you into the ambulance so we can have a look at you.’
I watched as he supported her to the ambulance. Her friend gave me a wide-eyed look as he scampered after them.
‘Bob,’ I said.
‘Yes.’
‘Are the car keys in your pocket?’
‘Yep.’
I sighed. ‘Any chance we didn’t just kill them?’ I had hosed him down pretty thoroughly.
‘Oh.’
I took hold of the handcuffs while he fought with the wet material of his pants to retrieve the keys. He pulled them out and pointed them at the car as he pushed the button. Nothing happened.
I sighed again. ‘Come on.’ I pivoted Matty so that he was facing The Station. ‘Looks like we’re walking.’
Bob walked up to the open door on the ambulance. ‘You need us?’
Steve stuck his head out. ‘Nah. Going to run these two down to the hospital so they can keep them under observation.’ He leaned closer to Bob and sniffed. ‘Oh man.’ He waved his hand in front of his nose. ‘You got to go clean up. You smell of puke.’
‘Funny that.’ Bob walked the walk of a man who’s just been puked on, thrown up himself a couple of times and then been liberally doused in water. He shivered as he trudged towards me, the wet material of his pants making it hard for him to move.
‘Get going.’ I pushed Matty ahead of me.
‘I want to see my lawyer.’
‘Yeah, yeah,’ I said. ‘As soon as we get back to The Station and search you.’
The words ‘search you’ gave him a new lease of life and he fought against my grip on the cuffs.
‘Stop it.’ I shook him.
But he didn’t, and I spent the two hundred metre walk to The Station wrestling him into the direction I wanted him to go.
Bob was no help as he sloshed along beside me, letting out the occasional distressed mewing sound.
I was panting by the time we got to the top of the stairs, so when Matty let his knees collapse, he dragged me down with him.
‘So help me,’ I hissed as I climbed to my feet, ‘I will drag you down those.’
‘You wouldn’t dare. That would be assault.’
‘The judge would have a hard time deciding,’ I said. ‘Technically this is you resisting arrest. Bob,’ I looked back at my partner. ‘Can you please take out your gun and shoot Matty in the knee. We’ll tell them he tried to attack you.’
Bob gave me a have-you-lost-your-mind look.
‘Oh fine,’ I said. ‘Well, if you won’t shoot him, you’re going to have to help me carry him.’
Bob took the arms and I took the legs and together we man-handled Matty down the stairs.
Lester, the evening clerk, opened the door as we got to the bottom. ‘If I had a swear jar,’ he said, ‘you two would be in so much trouble.’
‘Thanks man,’ Bob said. ‘My shout for donuts.’
‘Interview room three is free.’
I nodded at him as I shifted my position on Matty’s feet. He was giving the occasional buck, and my grip was slipping.
‘Oh hey,’ Lester called out. ‘Bob. There’s someone here to see you.’
He nodded past us and we both turned to look at the reception room. Sasha sat in the corner chair, her mouth making an ‘O’ of surprise as she looked up from the outdated magazine she held.
Bob blushed and immediately lost his grip on Matty.
The man still had some fight left in him. He kicked out with all his might and my hands slipped off his sneakers. I flew backwards into Lester, taking him to the ground with me.
‘Sorry,’ I yelled as I jumped up. If we let Matty get to his feet we were going to have a game of catch on our hands.
Bob made a grab for the cuffs as Matty rocked up onto his feet. How he did it without hands was beyond me. I would have been flat on my face.
He grinned as he faced off against me, dancing from foot-to-foot. ‘Catch me if you can, bitch.’
The smile left his face as Bob crash tackled him from behind. It was a very un-Bob move, but he pulled it off perfectly.
Matty went down with an, ‘Oomph,’ as Bob landed on him. The force dislodged a small plastic packet from Matty’s pocket. It slid across the room and landed at Sasha’s feet.
‘Don’t touch it,’ I yelled as I raced towards her. The last thing we needed was fingerprint confusion if he claimed it wasn’t his.
‘That’s not mine,’ he yelled.
I shook my head. They were all so freakin’ predictable.
I pulled a glove from my vest and slipped it on before bending to pick up the packet.
A small blue crystal glinted at me from the corner of the plastic bag and blue crystals nestled within.
‘Bingo.’ I held it up for Bob to see. ‘Let’s get him into room three and then I’ll call Central and see what detectives pulled the short straw.’
‘Short straw?’ Sasha asked me.
‘Night duty?’ I smiled at her. ‘We won’t be long.’
Bob’s tackle seemed to have crushed the fight in Matty and he didn’t resist as we put him into the interview room. Sasha was hovering in the hall when we came out and locked the door.
‘You were so brave,’ she gushed. ‘The way you tackled him.’ Her eyes were alight with admiration.
‘Just doing my job.’ Bob’s chest puffed up as his shoulders went back. The affect was slightly ruined by the trickle of blood oozing out of his swelling nose.
She stepped towards him, reaching out to touch his arm. ‘My hero.’ She looked like she was going to kiss him, but then her nose crinkled up and she let out a little choke. ‘Oh, my,’ she gagged as she stepped back. ‘What is that smell?’
Bob lifted his arm to his nose, sniffed his sleeve, and immediately threw up.
‘Arghhh.’ Sasha danced back out of the way.
‘You just had to sniff it, didn’t you?’ I patted Bob on the back.
‘I thought you got it all off.’
‘Evidently not. I mean, there was an awful lot of it.’
His face was red as he hurried down the corridor to the back offices.
‘Why don’t you have a seat?’ I said to Sasha. ‘He needs a shower.’
She held her hand over her nose as she nodded at me.
‘I’ll bring you out a coffee,’ I said. ‘White and one?’
‘Just white.’ She backed up to her seat, sat down and picked up her magazine.
‘Lester?’ I said hopefully.
‘Not a chance,’ he said. ‘You make it, you clean it up.’
I stared at the vomit. It wasn’t really that much. If I made Bob clean it up, Sasha would be sitting there staring at it for the next 30 minutes. And somebody might walk in it. And he might vomit again.
I sighed as I headed for the cleaning cupboard. He owed me big time.
I placed the Careful-Wet-Floor sign next to Bob’s mess. ‘Lester, can you ring Central…’
‘Already done,’ he said. ‘They’ll be here in about 15 minutes.’
‘Two of them?’
‘Yeah. They’ve brought extra detectives in to cover night shifts.’ He shrugged his shoulders at me as if
to say who knew why the powers-to-be did anything.
I thought about that while I documented the evidence.
First the Super wants Billy to ring him. Then Billy disappears, a weird drug starts showing up on the streets and only detectives are allowed to interview the dealers caught with it.
That in itself stank of something much bigger going on. I mean these dealers were the lowest of the low. The bottom of the pecking order. They really wouldn’t know that much.
And now they were bringing extra detectives into the area to help.
I poked at the plastic bag with a gloved finger. It was all connected, I just knew it. This was why Billy had gone. It had something to do with this new drug that was emerging on our streets.
I nodded my head. It all clicked together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Now all I had to do was find the person responsible for bringing it in, and I would find Billy.
I mean, how hard could that be?
6
The Nasty Crow
‘How were your night shifts?’ Martine perched next to me on a bar stool at Dazzle.
‘You wouldn’t believe it even if I told you,’ I said.
‘She and Bob got vomited on.’ Nick took a peanut from the packet Bruce had handed us, tossed it into the air and caught it in his mouth.
‘A lot more happened than just that,’ I said. On the second night we had found some more of the strange blue drugs.
‘Yeah, but that was the funny part.’ Nick tossed another peanut into the air and snapped at it with his teeth. ‘And then Bob threw up in front of his new girlfriend.’ He said the word girlfriend in a sing-song voice like a first grader might.
‘He did not.’ Martine leaned in closer with a smile on her face.
‘And then Chanel had to threaten to shoot him to get him to go back out and face his girlfriend.’
‘I did not.’ I paused. ‘Okay, so maybe I did.’ He’d deserved it. While he’d showered, I’d entered the evidence, grabbed the spare patrol car keys and retrieved the car, cleaned up the vomit, made Sasha a coffee, and then spent ten minutes listening to him moaning about how Sasha wouldn’t want to have anything to do with him again.
‘And did she?’ Martine asked.
‘Yeah. Of course. She’s as smitten as he is. She even offered to help clean up his vomit.’
Nick made a gagging noise.
‘Oh, it’s so nice that Bob has someone to look out for him now.’ Martine had met Bob a couple of times.
‘Enough about me,’ I said. ‘What’s been going on in your life? Anything new?’
‘Well,’ she clapped her hands together. ‘Now that you ask me, there is.’
‘Oh, is Albie coming to visit?’
Nick mimed putting his finger down his throat and then hanging himself behind Martine’s back.
‘No.’ She pouted. ‘Not yet. We’re thinking about meeting up in Melbourne next month.’
‘Oh that’s great.’ Martine and Albie hadn’t actually seen each other since Hamilton Island. It had all been long distance phone calls and Skypes.
‘That’s not my news though,’ she said. ‘Well, I have two pieces actually.’
Bruce slid to a stop next to us on the other side of the bar. ‘More cocktails?’
I pointed to my empty glass.
‘Did you want to try one,’ Bruce said to Nick.
‘Nah. I’ll stick to the beer if that’s all right with you. Spirits are like rocket fuel to me.’
Bruce picked up a shaker and poured a mix of spirits in with some coconut milk. ‘Has Martine told you that she’s convinced Sally Sparkles to perform here next weekend?’ he said as he shook it.
‘Oh, Bruce.’ Martine slapped her hand down on the bar. ‘I was just getting to it.’
‘Oops.’ He picked up my empty glass and poured the contents into it. Then he winked and trotted off to the other end of the bar.
‘So…Sally?’ I said. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to meet this woman or not.
‘Yes, she’s going to do her Whitney Houston repertoire,’ she gushed. ‘You have to be here, she’s amazing.’
‘Wouldn’t miss it for the world. Would we?’ I smiled sweetly at Nick.
‘Yeah, whatever.’ He flicked another peanut into the air.
He’d been less than keen to visit a Drag Bar, only coming in the end because we were going looking for Billy later.
‘But that’s not the big news.’ Martine clapped her hands together. ‘Sally got Martyn a new account.’
‘But, he owns the biggest accounting firm in Sydney,’ I said. ‘Why does he need new accounts?’
‘It’s an international account. And she wants him to handle all of the accounts in each country. It’s a massive international deal.’
‘When you say she? You mean, Sally?’
‘No, it’s Christina Wong.’ She said it like it should mean something to me. ‘You know, the Nappy Queen.’
‘Nappy Queen.’ Nick let out a bark of laughter. ‘There’s a Nappy Queen?’ He threw another peanut up while he continued to laugh.
This peanut came back down into his mouth like the others had, but where his tongue had fielded the others to his teeth, this time it was preoccupied with his laughter. The nut bypassed his mouth entirely and lodged deep in his throat.
The teasing amused expression vanished, leaving only shock in its place. He let out a gurgle while he clutched at his throat.
‘Cough it up,’ I ordered.
His eyes bulged and his fingers scrabbled at his mouth.
‘Nick. Cough. Come on. You need to cough.’
He made a sick wheezing noise as his face turned red.
‘Help.’ Martine jumped up, knocking over her bar stool. ‘Help,’ she screamed.
‘Come on buddy.’ I grabbed Nick and turned him sideways to me, forcing him to lean over. Then I administered the three firm back blows I’d been taught during my first-aid course.
Nick’s arms snaked out, knocking the peanuts and my cocktail glass off the counter. Martine screamed again. I decided three back blows obviously wasn’t enough and started pounding on him.
He collapsed to the ground and rolled over. His face was starting to turn blue.
My Plan A had failed so I adopted Martine’s Plan A. I stood up, looking around wildly as I screamed for help.
’You have to do something.’ Martine grabbed my shoulders and shook me. ‘He’s dying.’
She let go on the last shake and I tripped on her bar stool. I let out a yelp as I fell forwards, throwing my arms out at the last second to break my fall. My right hand came down on the centre of Nick’s sternum.
He let out an, ‘Oooooph,’ as the peanut shot out of him like a bullet. It fired high into the air and disappeared towards the other side of the bar. I really hoped it wasn’t going to take somebody’s eye out.
He gasped in a lungful of air.
‘Oh, Nick.’ I climbed off him and knelt down beside him. ‘Oh, Nick.’ I let out a sob as I hugged him. ‘I thought you were dead.’
He placed an arm around me and patted me on the back while he continued to suck in air. ‘Thanks, Toots,’ he finally wheezed. ‘You did good.’
‘You,’ I shoved his arm. ‘Are not allowed to eat peanuts ever again.’
He struggled into an upright position. ‘Don’t be silly.’ He coughed a couple of times. ‘That hardly ever happens.’
‘Nick.’ Martine sank onto my bar stool and fanned herself with her hands. ‘I think I just lost about ten years off my life.’
Bruce appeared beside me. ‘They said someone was choking. I called an ambulance.’
‘It was Nick,’ I said. ‘He choked on a peanut.’
‘Speaking of peanuts.’ Nick pushed himself upright. ‘Do you have any more?’
‘No,’ Martine and I said in unison.
The crowds parted as a couple of ambulance officers pushed their way towards us.
‘Hey Steve.’ I waved a hand at him.
‘Chanel. We ha
ve to stop meeting like this. That’s two nights this week.’
I smiled and stood up. ‘Here’s your patient.’
‘I don’t need a paramedic.’ Nick struggled to his feet. ‘There’s nothing wrong with me.’
‘He was choking,’ I said.
Steve nodded. ‘Well, we’re here now. How about we go outside and you let us perform a routine exam on you.’
‘But I’m fine.’
‘Nick,’ I said, ‘these nice men came all the way down here to save your life. The least you can do is humour them.’
‘Oh, fine.’ He kicked at the bar stool and then pushed through the watching crowd behind Steve.
‘He’s like a ten year old sometimes,’ Martine said.
I shrugged. ‘Come on.’
‘Martine,’ Bruce called out, ‘Don’t go too far. Show starts in fifteen.’
She waved a hand above her head as she trooped after Nick. I followed her, climbing the stairs two at a time to keep up with her.
I could see Nick standing next to the ambulance. A group of people hovered to the left of the door looking at the show times as if deciding whether or not to go in.
I glanced past them at a car driving down the street. A black Porsche. The man in the front passenger seat was turned, perhaps talking to the person in the seat behind.
It was the rear passenger that caught my gaze and held it like a tracking laser beam.
Billy. It was Billy. I would know his silhouette anywhere. I had spent many hours staring at it while he slept. His perfect lips, his strong nose, his high cheekbones, his dirty-blonde hair.
I clutched at Martine as the car disappeared behind the ambulance.
‘What?’ She looked at me and then followed my gaze.
All I could see was the back corner of his head by the time the car re-emerged from the ambulance.
‘It’s Billy,’ I hissed. ‘In that car.’
Nick had one foot in the ambulance door when I grabbed his shoulder. ‘He’s fine Steve,’ I said as I wrenched him backwards.
‘Huh?’ Nick’s mouth opened like a goldfish.
‘I just saw Billy,’ I whispered.
‘Who are you calling silly?’ He crossed his arms across his chest.
Billy Page 11