‘I’m fine. Can you check Rachel, please? She doesn’t look right.’
Mia watched as Maggie slowly bent over Rachel. Heard her whisper as she stroked Rachel’s forehead. ‘Rachel, it’s Maggie. You’re safe now. We’ve stopped him from what he has been doing. Such a brave, good girl. Sshhh.’
Mia momentarily glanced towards Peter, a security guard now standing either side of the chair where he remained seated, still wearing an expression of dazed bewilderment.
Wailing sirens suddenly audible in the distance grew closer, reaching screaming pitch by the time tyres squealed to a stop in the ambulance bay and the sirens abruptly ceased. Mia’s tears ran at the sight of Maggie’s tender reassurances. Her heart ached at Rachel’s catatonic state, fearful that, after all her struggles this withdrawal might be the girl’s final, permanent solution.
‘Could you clear the corridor, please,’ Noah’s voice boomed along the passage. ‘Everything is under control. Please move away. Thank you.’ The door opened and he stepped inside, two burly uniformed officers following. Noah promptly closed the door on several recidivist observers craning for a view after blithely ignoring his pleas for Rachel’s privacy.
Mia felt only relief as Noah glanced in her direction before his attention rested on Peter and the two police officers moved to join the security guards at Peter’s side.
‘How is she?’ he murmured, treading softly towards Maggie who continued to stroke Rachel’s forehead and croon reassuringly. Maggie turned and looked up at Noah and shrugged her shoulders. Shook her head.
Still Mia could not bring herself to look at Peter, but she watched as Noah stepped behind him, lifted the tissue box on the bedside cabinet with his pen, slowly examined it and gently placed it down again.
He cast a final glance across the room, before gesturing to Mia to step into the corridor. A nurse scuttled up and sent curious onlookers scurrying as Noah guided Mia to an empty office a few doors further along the corridor. He pulled a chair over for her and softly closed the door. ‘How are you?’ he asked, his piercing blue eyes intently studying her face.
‘I’m okay,’ she said suppressing a shudder as the vision of what she had just witnessed invaded her consciousness of its own accord.
‘Can you briefly tell me what you saw?’ he said.
Mia swallowed. ‘I saw his left hand moving under the sheet between Rachel’s legs. I couldn’t see his right hand until later, but I knew from his right arm that he was masturbating. His breathing made it clear he was masturbating as well. His eyes were closed.’
‘Did he ejaculate?’ Noah asked.
‘No. I lunged at him before he had a chance.’
‘Is it possible he wasn’t masturbating. That he was doing something else?’
Mia shook her head. ‘I don’t know what that would be. I saw him put his penis away afterwards.’
‘Good. I think we’ve got him,’ Noah said.
A soft knock on the door produced a solemn-faced police officer, who nodded respectfully to Mia before telling Noah, ‘We’re taking Mr Hooper to the watch-house. Chris is meeting me there.’
‘Alright. I’ll get statements from Mia and Maggie. Ask Chris to get started with Mr Hooper,’ Noah said.
‘Okey-dokey,’ the officer said, nodding again to Mia before closing the door.
‘Do you want some water or something?’ Noah said with an air of frustrated concern for her.
‘No, thanks.’ Then they heard, ‘Oh my gawd … my gawd,’ in the corridor and Annie Hooper’s frantic screams immediately pulled Noah up from his seat. In two giant steps he had reached the door, which he flung open before tearing along the corridor. Annie’s heartbreakingly maudlin wails, the harried thump of Noah’s steps as he ran to her aid, evoked in Mia the acute sense once again that her blood had suddenly drained from her body. She rushed from the office and into the corridor behind Noah who had joined a small cluster of medicos frantically trying to keep Annie upright as she buckled repeatedly at the knees with each step she tried to take forward. Mia felt she was witnessing the worst of human tragedy when she spotted Tim among the group of helpers, applying all his strength to prevent her from falling to the ground and from rushing into Rachel’s room as tears streamed down his face.
‘Oh, my gawd. Please, Peter … please. What in Mary’s sacred name is going on?’ Annie’s heart-wrenching sobs continued as she found her legs and rushed to Peter who was being firmly guided from Rachel’s room by the police officers. ‘Leave him alone. He hasn’t done anything wrong. Please leave him,’ Annie said, watching in horror as they passed.
‘Don’t panic, Annie,’ Peter said, barely glancing her way. ‘They’ve made a mistake. I’ll be home soon.’
‘Don’t count on it,’ Mia heard Tim say under his breath, immediately sensing from his expression that this was no shock to him — that to Tim, the sight of his father being led away by the police brought nothing but blissful relief.
‘You can see Rachel later,’ Noah said to Annie as he and the medicos continued to restrain her attempts at pushing her way towards the bed on which Rachel remained prostrate and still not properly conscious. ‘When you are calmer,’ he added, looking Annie solemnly in the eye. ‘In the meantime, I want you and Tim to come with me.’ The medicos dispersed, muttering, as Tim helped a bewildered and dazed Annie to follow Noah towards the office he and Mia had just vacated. Mia ran ahead of them to retrieve her bag from the room. ‘Can you wait?’ Noah said to her as Tim and Annie stumbled into the office. ‘I need to take a formal statement from you and Maggie.’
Clutching her bag over her shoulder, Mia wandered slowly to Rachel’s room. Her work with so many children who were battling unbelievably tragic challenges had made her reasonably immune to human crises, but for some reason the one playing out around her now tugged at her as though it were her own. She watched Maggie’s continued efforts to sooth Rachel, a nurse creeping around her, working calmly and silently, the only sounds being the muffled noises of everyday life outside the room and the sudden rip as the nurse tore the cuff open after measuring Rachel’s blood pressure. The nurse glanced at the monitor at Rachel’s side, made notes on her chart, which she slipped onto the end of the bed, and crept from the room.
Maggie looked up at Mia. Shook her head. ‘Rachel isn’t ready to say anything yet,’ she said, gently smoothing the teen’s hair back from her damp forehead. ‘But she knows that this is not her fault,’ she added as though for Rachel’s benefit. ‘Mia and I are going now, Rachel,’ she said leaning closer. ‘Your mum and Tim will be in to see you soon.’ Rachel glanced blankly at Maggie before her eyes slid to the left again.
‘Noah wants us to hang about,’ Mia told Maggie in the corridor. ‘To give our statements.’
The terse expression claiming Maggie’s lightly freckled face worried Mia. ‘That’s fine,’ she said, her heels clicking busily along the tiles, ‘but I need a coffee. He can ring me in my office when he’s ready. I’m not hanging around,’ she added over her shoulder.
‘It’s not Noah’s fault this has happened,’ Mia called to Maggie’s back, immediately turning towards the sound of the office door opening and the sight of Tim and Annie stepping out.
‘Maggie, come back. Noah’s free now,’ Mia called, running to catch her.
As Maggie and Noah disappeared into the office, Mia walked towards Tim, who gave her a perfunctory smile from where he stood in the corridor his hands deep in the pockets of his checked lumberjacket. ‘Where’s your mother,’ she said, immediately concerned.
‘She had to go to the toilet. She’s only been gone a minute. I’ll wait for her here,’ he answered.
‘How are you?’ she said.
He shrugged nonchalantly — almost without feeling.
‘You knew didn’t you, Tim? She said softly.
Tim studied her face. She sensed he was grappling with what he should or should not be telling her.
He nodded and leaned up against the wall. ‘Noah said you caught h
im at it as well,’ he said.
Mia sighed. Suppressed the invasively spontaneous vision yet again. ‘It’s something I would never want to see again. But I think it’s the best thing that could have happened for Rachel.’ She frowned and put her head to the side. ‘What do you mean, as well. Did you see him?’
‘Yeah.’ Tim scratched the back of his head. ‘Yeah. Rach was beside herself thinking what it would do to Mum if we said anything … you know the shame and embarrassment for the whole family. No matter what I said she wouldn’t believe it was his fault only. It was all totally fucked — I mean crazy — sorry. Anyway, it turns out I did stuff-all to protect her. I thought my size would give me the upper hand.’
Mia watched the little boy, still evident in this tall, athletic young man. ‘It must have been an overwhelming responsibility for you, Tim — protecting your little sister, I mean.’
‘It was bullshit,’ he said screwing up his face and rubbing the back of his neck. ‘Turns out he was still getting to her without me knowing, she was getting much worse instead of better and I was slowly, but surely, turning into a crazed nutcase.’
‘Having the right person on your side — even just one person — can make all the difference, Tim. Don’t underestimate what you did for your sister.’
He slowly rubbed his palms together. Shook his head. ‘I just can’t get out of my mind how it must have felt for her … two men who she desperately needed to love her, who she trusted, and who both betrayed her in the sickest way imaginable. Seriously, how bad would that have felt?’ His anguished eyes bored into hers.
‘Okay, love, I’m ready now,’ Annie said waddling towards them.
‘You look very pale, Annie. Are you having any shortness of breath or dizziness?’ Mia said studying Annie’s face and placing her hand under her elbow.
‘No. I’m fine. I just need to speak to Rachel and then go home. Thank you Dr Sandhurst,’ Annie said, gently removing her arm from Mia’s grasp, her blue eyes shining with tears as she stepped towards Rachel’s room. ‘You were right. I have truly let my daughter down. I feel so …’
Mia blocked her path into Rachel’s room once again. ‘Let me see if she’s awake first. She may need a bit of space,’ she told Annie, desperately worried about the distinct possibility of Rachel refusing to see her distraught mother, if by some miracle she had regained consciousness.
‘Mum,’ Rachel called hysterically through the open door. ‘Mum.’
Mia watched at the door as Annie rushed to Rachel and grabbed her up into a hug with Tim standing by. She eventually left them and wandered down the corridor. Pulled up a chair and sat at a discreet distance from the door behind which Noah was still interviewing Maggie.
Minutes later she jumped like a child caught with her hand in the lolly jar when the door suddenly opened and Noah stepped out, thanking Maggie for her time.
‘I’ll catch you later,’ Maggie said to Mia. ‘I am about to kill someone if I don’t get a coffee soon.’ Her shoes clinked angrily along the tiles as, without smiling or even glancing Mia’s way, she trounced towards the elevators in the opposite direction to Rachel’s room. Perplexed, Mia thought at the very least that Maggie would have checked on Rachel before she left.
‘I’ve never seen Maggie so upset,’ Mia said as Noah approached her and they both watched the psychologist’s dramatic departure.
‘I have. Several times,’ Noah said. ‘Caffeine deprivation, fatigue, concern for her client — who knows what gets to her. Perhaps it’s me,’ he said with a wry smile. ‘Anyway, she’ll get over it soon enough. She always does. Do you mind if we take your statement at the station, please Mia? Yours is key evidence. I need to record it.’
‘What about Tim’s statement? He told me he saw Peter attacking Rachel as well.’
Mike nodded. ‘I have yet to take a formal statement from Tim, which will also be recorded.’
‘What about Rachel,’ Mia added, following Noah into the small office and watching him pack up his notebook and files.
‘From what Maggie tells me, it’s not likely Rachel will be able to give me a statement of any actual incidents. But things may change. We will talk to her eventually.’
That wasn’t what I meant, she thought, glancing back at Rachel’s room as she and Noah made their way towards the elevator. She was sorely tempted to run back and see for herself that Rachel was lucid and comfortable in the presence of Tim and their mother, but she knew she was at that moment surplus to requirements. She knew that for Rachel, her mother and brother were the only people she wanted with her at this moment.
‘Howdy, Noah,’ a woman with dimples, wearing a black fine-knit jumper and corduroy jeans, said when they exited the lift on Noah’s floor of the city police station. ‘Can I see you for a minute,’ she added, her dimples suddenly disappearing.
‘Sure, Chris. I’ll be with you in a sec.’
Noah showed Mia into a small room with four chairs and a long narrow desk. ‘That’s the camera up there,’ he said pointing. ‘We’ll start in a minute, once I’ve seen what my partner Chris wants. Can I get you a coffee or a water or something?’
‘Actually you could bring me both when you come back,’ she said mischievously, suddenly joyful at the thought of a caffeine hit.
He smiled that smile. ‘I’ll be back soon.’
She walked the perimeter of the tiny space, stopped to examine the glass panel in the wall, wondering if people watched her every move from behind, judged her actions. Instantly and acutely she became aware of how Rachel must have felt during her interview with Maggie. She placed her face hard against the mirrored surface, opened her mouth as wide as it would go and immediately felt better. Then quickly rubbed her sleeve over the marks she had left. Exhaustion finally closing in on her, she flopped down into one of the seats at the faux timber desk marked with countless greasy fingerprints and listened to the muffled voices, buzzing phones and general human activity outside, along with the groaning city traffic beyond.
The door suddenly opened and Noah entered carrying a cardboard tray from the coffee shop with two brown paper containers of real coffee and small plastic bottles of sparking water.
‘Thanks, Mia,’ Noah said an hour later, after declaring the interview closed. ‘This must have been quite some day for you.’
She watched him pack his notebook and numerous loose papers into a file. ‘It’s actually been sort of bittersweet. I don’t ever want to see anything like that again. But I am elated we have finally discovered why Rachel has been so troubled,’ she said.
‘How about a quick bite to eat?’ Noah said, straightening the papers in his file without looking up.
She studied the top of his head, his dark brown hair just starting to thin on top, imagined his broad shoulders without his shirt, his large hands. ‘With you?’ she said, suddenly aware she sounded like a moronic schoolgirl.
‘Yes,’ he answered with a quizzical smile. ‘If you can wait a moment.’
Noah stepped aside and held open the timber and glass door of a quaint pub near his station for Mia to pass through, which she did while trying to ignore his closeness, the fading fragrance of his aftershave.
They selected a booth in a quiet corner. ‘I don’t know how you do your job,’ she said, looking up at him, clumsily sliding into the leather bench seat behind a chunky timber table.
‘With difficulty some days. And with love on others,’ he said dropping heavily into the seat facing her. ‘I’ve found that if I am cerebral about my work I enjoy it more and I’m better at it. It’s a game of minds, not a game of hearts. And for me this has been one hell of a great day.’ He rubbed his hands together and smiled. ‘Do you want a drink?’ He glanced around for a waiter, finally rising from his seat when he could not spot one.
She watched his broad back as he ordered their drinks at the bar, seemingly unaware that every woman in the room had watched him pass.
‘Aren’t you still on leave?’ he said, placing their drinks down a few mi
nutes later.
She could not suppress her smile as the chilled Pinot Gris soothed her mouth and slipped down her throat. ‘Yes. I’m driving back to the coast tonight.’
‘Isn’t that just a tad too much dedication to the job?’ he said with a teasing smile.
‘Yes, I should be more cerebral,’ she countered with a mocking smile. ‘When do you finish your shift?’
‘I was on my way home when I got Maggie’s call. I immediately turned around. No way was I going to miss out on nabbing that bastard. He’s in detention, by the way, but rigidly denying every allegation.’
Mia’s jaw dropped. ‘Are you serious? How can he deny anything when Tim and I both saw him in the act?’
‘He’s a paedophile, Mia. They are not known for facing up to their responsibility. Anyway, enough about work,’ he said beckoning a tiny-waisted waitress sporting an extraordinarily long ponytail.
‘Maggie told me about your husband and what you’re going through at the moment. I’m sorry,’ he said once they had placed their orders and the waitress had moved on.
Mia shrugged. ‘Work keeps me busy. I have great friends and a wonderfully supportive son. And I’m now spending more time at our — at my — little place on the beach. It may sound like an eye-wateringly boring life, but I’m relatively happy. Things could be a lot worse,’ she said.
‘Try being a sex crimes detective if you want boring,’ he said draining his beer.
‘Do you do anything outside of work?’ she asked, acutely aware of his wedding band flashing in the dim light.
‘Promise you won’t laugh,’ he said smirking.
‘I promise,’ she smiled, holding up three fingers.
‘I like bike riding,’ he said.
She laughed. ‘You mean two-wheeler bikes, like push-bikes?’
‘We call them road bikes,’ he said, lifting one eyebrow.
‘What colour lycra do you wear?’ she joked.
‘Teal and gold,’ he said watching the waitress place their meals down.
She laughed louder. ‘And do you have a penchant for lattes?’
‘They are definitely my most favourite drink.’ His smile caused her a moment of awkward silence.
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