The weight on my arm slackened and she made a gurgling noise. I opened my eyes slightly, blinking rapidly to dispel any mud, and looked at her. She was slumped in the mud, laughing so hard that tears were making clear little rivers through the mud on her face.
‘You look awful,’ she managed to choke out, pointing at my face.
I looked at her in amazement, so shocked by her laughter that I forgot to be angry, and then I started to laugh as well. We were totally covered in mud. There wasn’t a square centimetre which hadn’t been coated.
‘You look like a giant dog turd,’ I said, throwing more mud at her.
‘You look like a ginormous cow pat.’ She hurled a wad back and it smacked into my chest.
‘Oh no.’ I brushed ineffectively at the lump. ‘You got mud on my shirt.’
She laughed again as she clambered to her feet pulling me up with her. ‘Look at the state of us.’
‘What is Rick going to think?’ I said as we started to run again.
‘I didn’t think you’d mind Rick seeing you all dirty.’
I snorted. ‘He’s gay.’
‘Rick?’
‘Yeah. Total shame.’
‘No he’s not.’
‘Andy, the head of the Police Dog Squad, told me. And he should know because he’s his friend.’
‘Andy’s a shit stirrer,’ she said as we climbed over a pile of wood.
‘But he talks about his boyfriend Sam all the time.’
She started laughing, and we had to slow down so she could run and laugh at the same time.
‘What’s so funny,’ I finally demanded.
‘Sam is short for Samantha,’ she said between giggles.
Well I’ll be damned , so he wasn’t gay.
‘I wish I had known you thought he was gay,’ she said.
‘Why?’
‘I would have gotten a kick out of it.’
The silence caused by the animosity behind her words hung over us like a heavy fog as we ran to the balance log.
We were half way across, her going backwards, when I finally summoned the guts to ask the question. ‘Why would you have gotten a kick out of it?’
She glanced down into my eyes and said, ‘I’m not sure.’ We wavered on the log for a few seconds before she broke eye contact and started moving backwards again.
The silence between us was different now as we dodged and weaved through the course. Initially it had been cold and distant. A silence born of two people ignoring each other, but we couldn’t do that anymore. Something had broken, and not in a bad way, and now the silence was loaded with tension.
We were traversing the zigzag ropes when she said, ‘I’m sorry.’
I was so shocked I hooked my foot on a rope and would have fallen if not for her support. ‘Sorry for the leaky pen?’
‘Yes.’
‘The men’s underwear?’
‘Especially sorry about that.’
‘The spiders?’
‘The what?’
‘The huge hairy spiders you put in my room.’
She shuddered. ‘I didn’t put any spiders in your room.’
Huh . Maybe they did travel in packs.
We ran up a hill and could see the last obstacle looming in the distance. ‘Oh no,’ I said.
‘A rock climbing wall,’ Nastacia confirmed.
I could see Susie and her partner part way up the wall. As we watched Susie slipped, dragging Liam off with her. Poor Susie, even without the handcuffs she would have had trouble climbing it. I could see Liam gesturing and then she pulled herself up onto his chest and wrapped her legs around him. She clung on like a back-to-front, one-armed koala while he clambered awkwardly up to the top and then disappeared from view.
‘We are so not doing it like that,’ Nastacia said.
‘Afraid I’d drop you?’
She snorted. ‘I know you’d drop me.’
We fell off the wall twice before we made it to the top; partly because our hands were slippery from the mud and partly because we had trouble finding handgrips big enough for us both to hang onto. Coming down was as scary as going up and we slipped with a metre to go, tumbling to the earth.
‘I hope we don’t lose points for the dismount,’ I said.
‘Why didn’t you tell?’ Nastacia asked, her gaze drilling into me.
‘Tell what?’
‘On me. That day.’
‘Ooohh. That day.’ I pulled her arm in the direction we had to go and started running again. The finish line was only a few hundred metres away. ‘Why would I?’
‘You could have had me kicked out of the Academy.’
‘They said we couldn’t have people of the opposite sex in our room,’ I pointed out.
‘It didn’t even cross your mind did it?’
‘No.’
We ran for a little longer before she said, ‘That really sucks.’
‘What does?’ The finish line came into view in the distance and we quickened our pace.
‘All this time I’ve hated you because I thought you weren’t good enough, and now it turns out you may be a better person than me.’
‘What’s this ‘may be’ shit?’ I asked as we charged across the finish line.
‘All right so there’s every possibility you are a better person.’
We slowed to a walk and then stopped.
‘That didn’t hurt did it?’ I said, grinning up at her. And then I had a thought. ‘Is that why you backed off? Because you thought I was going to dob?’
‘Yes. And then when you didn’t I asked Uncle Miles to leave you alone.’
‘Uncle Miles?’
‘Also known as Sergeant Moores.’
I glared at her.
She shrugged. ‘I told you I come from a family of policemen.’
‘What the hell were you two doing?’ Rick asked in dismay as he looked us up and down.
We held our wrists out for him to undo the cuffs. ‘Mud wrestling,’ I said, giving him my cutest smile. I was sure the effect was totally ruined by the clumps of dried mud that were starting to flake off, but I didn’t care. I had a lot of lost flirting time to make up for.
Susie came running over and threw her arms around me. ‘We did it,’ she squealed, immediately letting go again. ‘Urghh you’re disgusting.’
‘Oh my God we’ve finished.’ My astounding conversation with Nastacia had driven the importance of the obstacle course from my mind.
‘Liam’s invited us into town to celebrate.’ Susie blushed when she said it. I glanced over at him and saw him staring at Susie, a goofy look on his face. ‘Do you want to go?’
‘Of course,’ I said. Who was I to get in the way of young love?’ ‘Want to come?’ I said to Nastacia.
I’m not sure if Susie or Nastacia was more surprised at my invitation, but I could tell Susie was so happy to be going where Liam was that she probably wouldn’t have minded if I’d told her we had to dance with the devil.
‘You’re inviting me after everything I did to you?’ Nastacia said.
‘I don’t hold grudges.’
‘I’ll need time to shower.’
I laughed. ‘And I was going to go like this?’
‘Can I bring my girlfriend?’
‘Love to meet her.’
‘It’s official,’ she sighed sadly, ‘you are a better person than me.’
5
You Always Remember Your First
‘Home sweet home,’ I said, checking to make sure that the number on the building matched the one on the piece of paper I was holding. It did. I wasn’t happy about it. Everything about this building screamed, ‘Suspicious death’. Of course I may have been overreacting to the ominous feeling exuding from the dank mouldy brickwork. I hoped it was that and not a new psychic ability I’d developed overnight.
Cocoa stirred in the backpack trying to get comfortable and I hurried up the stairs as fast as I could while dragging my huge suitcase. It wouldn’t do to have anybody asking me questions
about my possessed bag. Animals were strictly forbidden and I had lied out of desperation to secure the short term rental.
The outside of the building hadn’t quite prepared me for the flat. Tiny and dark, the walls were stained with water marks and the air thick with a damp stench. Paint flaked and peeled from the ceiling and the carpet was thread worn to the point of being non-existent in places.
‘Pretty,’ I muttered, staring at the holey orange and brown swirl curtains. Oh well, at least it had curtains. The wardrobe was a total disaster, clearly designed for people who believed that one set of clothing was enough. And the bathroom – well the bathroom looked like the recently deserted site of a mould warfare experiment. But there was a lock on the front door and a bed, so for now it was home.
Cocoa didn’t seem too disturbed by the ugly carpet as he snuffled around the room. I put his bed near mine and he jumped into it, turning around a few times to rough it up before settling down.
Tomorrow was my first day ‘on the beat’, and I was trying to ignore the butterflies currently using my stomach as a Grand Prix track. The postings had come out a couple of weeks ago telling me to get my butt to King’s Cross. (Not in those actual words of course.) I’d never been to Sydney before let alone the famous King’s Cross. But I’d heard there were some top designer studios located in the district and even though most of my shopping would be done through windows, it was better than nothing.
Susie was staying in Goulburn near her family and our parting had been a sad one. I wasn’t sure I would have made it through those earlier days at the Academy without her. But then again, she didn’t think she would have made it through to the end without me, so I guessed we were even.
Noise from the street below rumbled up through my window; a jumble of music and people talking and cars honking, making it impossible to get to sleep for any period of time. I woke groggy and disgruntled, promising myself, as I staggered into the bathroom, that I would find a new apartment as soon as possible. I closed my eyes as the hot water of the shower streamed over my body, partly to sneak in an extra few minutes sleep but mostly to block out the sight of the mouldy walls. ‘Tonight,’ I said to the tiny cubicle, ‘you, me and a bottle of bleach.’
The shower and the strong cups of coffee I consumed before leaving for work helped get my head back in the game, but they didn’t help with those damned butterflies.
‘How do I look?’ I asked Cocoa. I was feeling like a bit of a phoney in my uniform. He glanced up from his grooming and tilted his head to one side before resuming where he had left off.
‘Yeah you’re right, I need to look taller.’ I pulled my hairstyle out and redid the bun, positioning it near the top of my head. Then I spent several moments admiring the caramel highlights I had finally gotten around to doing.
When I could stall no longer I grabbed my stuff and walked up the road to my new place of work. The police station was smaller than I’d expected. An unobtrusive building, except for the police cars parked out the front. A herd of elephants joined the butterflies in my stomach and for a moment I was worried I might be sick.
I descended the stairs from the street level to the front door and entered. The foyer was bare except for a variety of plastic seats lining the wall, and a nearly dead pot plant in the corner. Someone had left a few tattered magazines lying on one of the chairs.
The wall to the left of the entry had a large cut out area which housed the reception desk and a small office. A small sticker on the desk said, ‘Beware, panic screen installed.’ A friendly looking man in uniform stood behind the desk watching me.
‘Hi,’ I said, showing him my badge.
‘You must be Chanel.’
I noted the three stripes on his shoulder. ‘Yes Sergeant…’
‘Walker,’ he said. ‘But you can call me Dave. I’m the Sergeant in charge of the team you’ve been assigned to so we’ll have plenty of time to get to know each other. For now though Inspector Ramy is waiting to debrief you.’ He pulled a funny face as he said it and then pointed me down the hall to another office.
I knocked nervously on the door and entered on instructions of the gruff, ‘Come in’. I was surprised to see Daniel, one of the other students from my course, already standing in front of the desk. Tall and skinny with dark blonde hair, Daniel was painfully shy. His bottle end glasses only added to his awkwardness by making his eyes appear twice as large as they were. I hadn’t had much to do with him on course and hadn’t realised he had been posted here as well.
‘Ahh Chanel,’ the man I was assuming was Inspector Ramy said, ‘just in time to avoid being late.’ I wasn’t sure if I was being chastised or not. ‘You’ll find your desks in the muster room with operational manuals on them. I want you to spend the next few days reading through them and familiarising yourself with how things are done in this station.’
He looked back at his desk and started leafing through paperwork. We were still standing there when he looked back up a few moments later. ‘Well, what are you waiting for?’ he said.
‘For you to dismiss us,’ I felt like saying. But I didn’t. The last thing I needed was to get on his bad side on my first day. I was sure it would happen eventually. It seemed to be the pattern of my life, through no apparent fault of my own (or none that I could determine), I ended up on the wrong side of authority figures.
Daniel and I filed out of the room and looked around the hall. ‘Left or right?’ I said.
‘Left,’ Daniel replied.
I wasn’t sure if he knew or if it was a good guess but we turned left and sure enough found a large room filled with desks and phones. There were three other police already in the room; one was making coffee while the other two were pulling donuts out of a large box. I got a couple of things out of that. The first was that that there was a Krispy Kreme donut shop nearby and the second was that I was going to have to find a gym.
The man making the coffee looked up when we walked in. ‘You,’ he said pointing at me, ‘Heads or tails?’
‘Pardon?’
‘Heads or tails?’
‘Heads,’ I said.
‘Congrats. You’re the new coffee girl.’ He put the cups down and walked over to the donut box. I had a feeling that even if I had said tails I would have lost.
‘Hi yourself,’ I said. There were two empty desks with large manuals sitting on them. The one located conveniently near the urn and fridge had my name badge sitting on it which bore out my suspicion about the heads and tails game being fixed. Daniel’s desk was on the other side of the room. Typical.
‘Let me guess,’ I said, looking at the man, ‘it was a two tailed coin.’
He chuckled sheepishly.
‘Fine,’ I said, taking up the cup, ‘but there better be some donuts for me.’
After I had learnt their names – Bob, Nathan and Mark – and made their coffee, nobly resisting the urge to spit in it, I sat down with my donut and started to leaf through the operations manual. It was thick, and I’m talking doorstopper thick. The sort of thing that was guaranteed to put me into a temporary coma.
‘Old Ramy’s got you reading that has he?’ Bob said. He was positioned at the desk closest to me.
I nodded my head. ‘I’m thinking I can carry it around with me as a weapon.’
‘What about your Glock?’
‘My clock?’
‘Your gun. Haven’t you been issued with it yet?’
‘No.’ I mean I knew we were going to have weapons, and we had done the appropriate training on course, but now that the moment was finally here I was more than a little scared. What if I shot someone? I mean I know there was a chance throughout my career that I would be forced to shoot someone in the line of fire. But what if I shot the wrong person? Or more embarrassing, what if I shot myself? If I didn’t kill myself I’d be laughed off the Force.
‘Right, well, we better get that sorted,’ Bob said.
Daniel hadn’t been fitted out either, so Bob put himself in charge of us for the
morning and drove us into town where the weapons and uniforms were held.
‘Have you started the first assignment yet?’ Daniel asked me during the drive.
‘Sure,’ I lied. In truth I had been putting off the moment I started the one year of study I still needed to complete before I could lose the probationary part of my title, Probationary Constable. Never having fully read the course information it had come as quite a shock to me after graduation.
Two hours later I was the proud owner of a Glock 22. I also had handcuffs (I was looking forward to using them), capsicum spray, an expandable baton, a portable radio and a first aid kit.
‘Where on earth do we keep all this stuff?’ I said.
‘Here,’ Bob handed me a belt and then looked me up and down. ‘On second thoughts,’ he said, taking the belt back. He returned a few minutes later with a vest. ‘The circumference of your waist is too small to house everything.’ He pointed at his own expansive girth where his belt easily held all of the required items. ‘This will work better for you and you’ll be more comfortable.’
‘Thanks.’ I spent the next hour back at the station arranging my vest, working out the best way to house the assortment of goodies I’d received in its pockets. Unfortunately after that it was back to the drudgery of reading the manual. I amused myself by playing with my expandable baton in an attempt to stay awake.
‘I like a girl who knows how to handle a baton.’
I looked up from my manual, unsuccessfully trying to close my mouth while I gawked at the speaker. His face was a heavenly mixture of cheekbones, eyelashes and kissable lips. His nose had been broken in the past but the asymmetry managed to add to his looks by injecting a dash of bad boy to his blonde haired, angelic profile. Add to all this a body that, even through the confines of his suit, you could tell spent hours in the gym and an English accent and I had to grip the edge of the table to stop myself jumping it to dry hump his leg.
I wanted to say something witty in reply, but I had been staring at him with my mouth hanging open and if I didn’t say something soon he was going to think I was simple.
‘Hello,’ I said. Great, now he was definitely going to think I was simple.
Donna Joy Usher - Chanel 01 - Cocoa and Chanel Page 6