So there was no doubt they would be watching him even more closely now; possibly even following him. He had to be very careful.
By the time they walked into Rowdy’s kitchen Kate had sufficiently calmed herself and set about making coffee. She flicked the jug’s switch. ‘Do you want one?’
Rex nodded, sitting down at the kitchen table. He bit the inside of his mouth, a nervous habit he hated, and took a deep breath to keep himself calm.
‘Kate, you told me the cops had been here to speak to you, but I think you failed to mention a few things. What the hell happened? They asked me about a striped bag and told me someone jumped out the window while they were talking to you.’ He threw out his hands. ‘What the fuck?’
Kate opened her mouth to speak then, glancing at Rex’s angry face, shut it again. She turned her back on him, took two cups from a cupboard and scooped coffee into each one.
‘Are you going to answer me?’
The jug screamed and bellowed steam. Kate reached for it and poured boiling water into the mugs.
‘Sandy freaked out when she heard the cops,’ she finally said, without meeting his gaze.
She stirred the coffee viciously, so much so that some of the liquid sloshed onto the bench top. Rex watched her reach for a cloth and swipe at the spillage angrily. She turned and faced him, leaning back against the kitchen counter.
‘Sandy knows your girlfriend, the cop – Alexandra Rogers. Though she says her name’s Lexie,’ Kate told him through gritted teeth.
It seemed she had trouble even saying the detective’s name. He decided not to bite at her deliberate taunt.
‘I told her to hide in the bedroom. She would have been fine. They weren’t going to look through the house. I wouldn’t have let them, but she got scared when she heard her – Rogers’s – voice. Sandy said she knew her and didn’t want to have to explain things to her, why she was staying here.’
Kate pushed his coffee across the counter towards him. Rex reached for it.
‘Well, that’s just fucking great,’ he said, sarcastically. ‘We’re trying to do her a favour so Daddy doesn’t discover she’s fucking the enemy and now she’s brought attention on us. The pigs are suspicious of us, you know that. We’ve got nothing to hide, but because she jumped out the bloody window, they think we must be up to something.’
Kate shrugged. ‘Who cares? They can’t prove nothing. We’ve done nothing wrong.’
Rex wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand.
‘I know that but I don’t need the fucking grief of the cops sniffing around, you know?’
Just thinking about Sandy’s stupidity caused another wave of anger to rock through him. He shook his head and tried to rein in his temper.
‘Rowdy will kill her if she’s gone out to score drugs. Then again it would serve him right. Maybe that’s what he needs, to see his girlfriend totally out of it again. It might knock some sense into him; remind him what he got himself into.’ He shook his head in disgust. ‘Once a druggie, always a druggie.’
Kate glared at him. ‘You sound like a fucking cop yourself. Like you’ve never made mistakes?’
Rex glared back at her but changed the subject. He had to be careful not to channel his frustration at Kate.
‘Have you seen Sandy since she pissed off? How do you know she knows the girl cop?’
Rex was careful not to say her name so he didn’t enrage Kate further.
‘I rang her mobile,’ Kate told him. ‘Sandy said she was really sorry for causing trouble. She didn’t even know the cops had found out, and when I told her she got real upset. She said she’d stay away for a while until things cooled down.’
‘Good,’ Rex mumbled. ‘How did your statement go with the police?’
Kate sat down and handed him his coffee. Rex wished for something stronger but he had to keep his wits about him.
‘Who’s the Grub?’ Kate asked.
Rex’s head snapped up so fast he almost gave himself whiplash. ‘What? What did you say?’
Kate regarded him curiously. ‘The cop asked me in the interview if I knew anyone called “Grub”.’
So they were going to ask everyone about the Grub. Not that it mattered. No one would know what they were talking about.
‘Do you remember Bluey saying anything after he was shot? You were there, did he tell you anything? Did he say anything?’ Rex spoke urgently, willing Kate to remember.
Kate flinched at the hostility in his voice and shot him a concerned look. ‘No. I mean, I don’t know. I can’t remember.’
Her demeanour became defensive. She sipped on her coffee, eyeing him over the mug.
‘What happened when you found Bluey had been shot, when you saw him on the floor?’
Rex watched her bottom lip tremble dangerously.
‘I called triple-0 and ran out the front of the house.’
Kate took another sip and stared at the floor in front of her.
‘Then I ran back inside but there was too much blood . . .’
Tears began to run freely down her cheeks.
‘I waited outside for the cops and ambulance.’
She shook her head as though confused, then cried loudly: ‘I should have stayed with him, but I was too scared.’
It was then that it occurred to Rex why Kate had suddenly become an emotional wreck. She was eaten up with guilt and remorse at her own actions.
‘Bluey must have seen who shot him, Kate. He was shot through the lounge room window. Maybe he glimpsed who shot him just before the shooter pulled the trigger. He must have. He said something to the cops.’
Kate stared at him, her watery eyes becoming the size of saucers.
‘What do you mean?
‘Bluey said something. He was talking code. He was telling the cops who shot him but they wouldn’t know who it was. It was a name only Bluey and I used to describe the gutter rat we’ve had dealings with in the past. He wanted me to know so I could avenge his death.’
‘What . . . who are you talking about? Do you know who shot him? Do you know who the Grub is?’
Kate’s words gushed out like a broken fire hose.
‘Do they think this Grub shot him? Tell me. Tell me.’
Rex could see Kate was working up to hysterics and for some reason this sparked a thought. They had just been at the police station for the best part of two hours. Rowdy was out with some of the boys making arrangements and Sandy was God knew where. The house had been empty long enough for the place to be tapped. His eyes unconsciously swept the small room as paranoia began to take hold.
‘Let’s go outside, Kate.’
He gestured to be quiet and mouthed the word ‘bugged’.
‘It’s too hot in here; I need some fresh air.’
Kate initially pulled a bewildered face and then nodded her head in understanding.
‘It is hot in here.’
Outside in Rowdy’s back yard the sun was bright and the air thick with humidity. Taking Kate by the arm, Rex moved towards the back wall of the house which would act as their sun block. Dusting off an old folding chair he found lying on the ground, he told Kate to sit down. She did so without argument.
Rex sat on a patch of dead grass in front of her, thinking at least here they could talk without fear of being taped or overheard. Rex had never wanted Kate to know about bikie business. He didn’t want her to worry unnecessarily and he’d also figured the less she knew the better. But now he had no choice. She needed to know certain things for her own safety. So there, in the shade cast by Rowdy’s little fibro shack, Rex began to tell Kate about his association with the Grub, their recent confrontation, why he’d been given that name, and how this whole mess had come about.
—
The sound of voices floating in through the bedroom window disturbed Sandy from her blissful slumber. She rolled over, melting into the comfortable folds of Rowdy’s mattress, wrapping the sheet around her like a tangled shroud.
She wis
hed they’d go away. She wanted to remain unconscious. Stay where it was warm, peaceful and safe; where all cravings and corrupt thoughts ceased to exist.
Her stomach rumbled. She ignored it. When was the last time she’d eaten? Then she remembered. Kate had made her eat a cheese sandwich just before the cops came, just before she’d jumped out of the window. That felt like days ago, yet it wasn’t. Sandy groaned internally, curling herself into the foetal position.
Kate had been pissed off when they’d spoken on the phone earlier. Sandy could understand why, but when she’d jumped out the window, she hadn’t intended for the cops to know about it. Her only thought at the time was to escape in case they decided to search the place. And then she’d recognised Lexie’s voice . . . it was too dangerous. She’d had to get out.
Constable Lexie was great. Sandy liked her for many reasons, mostly for saving her life. Over the years Lexie had got her out of more messes than she could remember. If only all cops were like her, she thought wistfully. But even so, Lexie was still a cop. She would ask questions, and then the game would be up. Their secret would be out, which meant her father would eventually find out about her and Rowdy and then she would be at his mercy. Her life would be over. He would threaten or maybe even harm Rowdy and she couldn’t risk that. She simply could not let that happen.
Knowing she wouldn’t be overly popular for bringing the Devils under police notice, Sandy had told Kate it was probably best if she stayed away for a while. Until things cooled off. And she had fully intended to do that. However, as she’d wandered the streets wondering where to go, the urge to call some of her old contacts had become almost overwhelming. The need to score, to escape into oblivion, threatened to consume her and she knew the only way she could stop herself from doing something she would most certainly later regret, especially when Rowdy found out, was to get back to the house in a hurry, out of temptation’s way.
When she’d got back to the house no one had been home. She’d called Rowdy’s mobile but it was turned off. Someone had closed and locked the bedroom window she’d used as her escape route, so she’d used the spare key Rowdy kept hidden under a brick in the back yard to get in.
Sandy had then popped an OxyContin tablet, which she’d found hiding in the back of her wallet – the sedative was just to calm her nerves – and hopped into Rowdy’s bed to get some sleep, thinking she could deal with the backlash of her actions later.
She was pretty certain the cops wouldn’t come back for a while but, just in case Sandy needed to make a hasty exit again, she’d unlocked the bedroom window and opened it slightly. It also allowed a bit of fresh air into the stuffy room. Now she wished she’d left the window closed to block the voices outside.
Voices outside?
Alarm penetrated her drug-induced haze and her eyes shot open. She rolled over and stared at the window as though it might come alive. A sunbeam, filtering in through the gap in the blinds, hit her in the face. She squeezed her eyes shut again and rolled back over to escape the glare.
But the voices outside the window were getting louder. One belonged to Kate. Sandy relaxed a little. It wasn’t the cops. But who was she talking to? Rowdy? Her heart jumped at the thought of him. Would he be angry with her? Surely he would understand why she’d had to run away.
It sounded like Kate was crying again. She was saying she was scared. Sandy struggled to wake up completely but the anaesthetic effects of the tablet kept dragging her under.
‘Why did you call him Grub?’ Kate was asking.
‘Isn’t it obvious?’
There was a bit Sandy missed, then she heard a raspy voice say, ‘The man’s nothing but a Grub. It describes him perfectly.’
Sandy recognised the other voice. It belonged to Rex. She cowered under the sheet hoping he wouldn’t come into Rowdy’s room and discover her here.
‘Bluey and I wanted a name we could call him that no one else would recognise. It was for everyone’s safety.’
‘I don’t understand,’ Kate said.
‘You don’t have to understand.’ Rex’s voice was raised. He sounded frustrated.
‘We have to tell the police. This is getting too dangerous. Someone else is going to get killed and I’m scared it’s going to be you, Rex. He wants you dead. The man is crazy, evil.’
Kate’s voice sounded as though it was about to shatter.
There was a soft sob then Rex’s voice was firm, reassuring.
‘I will deal with it, Kate. Bluey would not want the cops involved. He would want me to handle it. I’m not going to involve the others right now. That could too easily get out of hand and I mightn’t be able to control their anger. If the boys find out who’s behind this, some of them will want instant revenge. That’s when it’ll get ugly. You have to trust me and you have to keep your mouth shut, do you understand?’
Kate started to beg Rex.
‘We can send the cops an anonymous note. They won’t know it’s from us. Oh God. I’m scared for the baby,’ she cried softly, her voice trailing off.
Sandy started to drift off again. She was so tired and it was too hard to follow the conversation. She wished they would go away and talk somewhere else. Her eyes were too heavy to keep open and her head was melting into the pillow.
Then she heard a name she could not ignore and the meaning of everything she had just heard merged together and suddenly made sense. They knew who killed Bluey. And now she did, too.
CHAPTER 25
The first thing Lexie noticed as she pulled into Rowdy’s street was the absence of Kate’s car, which had earlier been parked across from his house. There were also no motorbikes lining the kerb. And nobody answered the door when she and Josh knocked.
However, they’d almost been fooled into believing the house was empty before. So, to be sure, they looked around. Every window was locked. Blinds were pulled down, leaving no gaps to peer through. Josh rang Rex’s, Kate’s and Rowdy’s mobile phone numbers; not surprisingly, no one answered. There was no ringing inside the house. Lexie listened as he left three separate messages for them to contact him urgently.
Back at the front door, Josh scribbled a note onto the back of a business card, then attached it to the flyscreen by weaving it through the grille.
‘Bet Rowdy never gets this,’ Josh added sarcastically.
‘We will just have to keep coming back then, won’t we? They can’t avoid us forever.’
Josh grunted, ‘You reckon?’
As they made their way back to the car, an incredibly wrinkled old lady edged along the footpath towards them. Bent at the waist and balancing heavily on her walking frame, she managed to wave one hand in the air to get their attention. Josh seemed not to have noticed her and kept on his path towards the car. Lexie speared off to the right and halted in front of her.
The woman stretched herself to her full height and looked up at Lexie with a kind smile. Lexie stared into a pair of ancient eyes that looked as if they’d seen far more than they could ever tell.
‘Can I help you?’ Lexie asked.
‘No, but I might be able to help you.’
The voice that came out of the tiny body amazed her. It was raspy and fierce.
‘Aren’t you just a little too pretty to be a cop? You must have to hit all those randy policemen away with a stick,’ the old woman said, letting out a terrific hoot of laughter.
Lexie was taken aback. How easily this woman had picked her out. Then again, not many people go snooping around bikies’ homes unless they’re cops, or have a death wish. She made a mental note never to jump to instant assumptions about people. This woman’s outer package might seem fragile and worn, but it appeared her skin might be the only soft thing about her. Inside she was as tough as a brick and her brain was thrusting on all cylinders. Lexie glanced at Josh, who was at the car and had just realised she wasn’t behind him. He was now heading back towards her.
‘I just saw some people leave. A pregnant girl and that big, mean-looking bikie,’ the woma
n told her.
Josh came up to stand beside Lexie.
‘Well, hello handsome.’
The woman reached forward and touched Josh’s forearm.
‘I like muscles,’ she said, shooting him a wicked smile. ‘I used to know a lot of the local Jacks; they used to come visit me all the time back in the day, bring me stuff in exchange for a bit of info. I suppose you could say I was like an aunty to some of them.’
Seeing the expression on Lexie’s face, the woman frowned.
‘I didn’t always look like this, you know.’
Lexie tried to mask her surprise as the old woman’s words sunk in. How many times had she heard one of her workmates say, ‘I’m just ducking out to visit a sick aunty’? It had taken her a while, but eventually she’d figured out that ‘Aunty’ was police jargon for mistress or lover.
‘Do you know who lives in this house?’ Lexie asked.
‘Unfortunately I do. He’s a little fella. Calls himself Rowdy; stupid name. He’s always roaring off on that loud bike and having parties to all hours. I live next door in unit six.’
She pointed to the old unit block to the left of the house.
‘He’s always keeping me up with the noise, and people coming and going. I’m too old for this shit, you know? It drives me crazy.’
Josh smiled sympathetically, dazzling the old woman with his dimples.
‘Do you know if Rowdy lives alone?’
The woman thought about this for a minute.
‘As I said, there’s always people comin’ and goin’ but I have seen a girl hanging around, real skinny, with mousey brown hair. Looks like a skank.’
Lexie tried not to laugh. She couldn’t believe the language this old lady used.
‘When I went over there,’ the woman pointed to the front of Rowdy’s house, ‘the other night to tell him to turn the music down, that big guy, the one who just left with the pregnant girl, told me Rowdy wasn’t there, that he was out picking up his girlfriend.’
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