by Polly Carter
Arian then introduced Harriet to Zain, who had politely stood up when she entered the room and also raised an eyebrow at Arian as he so comfortably picked Lyddia up and cradled her on his hip.
“I should probably get going,” Zain said.
“Okay, I’ll give you a lift,” Arian replied. “I’ll be back soon.” But Lyddia pouted and threw her arms around his neck.
“No, you can’t go. I want my prethent and you have to read to Toody.”
“But, sweetcakes, how will poor Zain get home if I don’t give him a lift? He didn’t bring his car.”
“Jethmy can take him,” Lyddia pronounced. “Thee hath a car.”
Zain shrugged awkwardly, looking at a grim-faced Jessamy from under his raised eyebrows.
“Look, I’d be fine with that. A lift to Midland train station would be awesome if you’re going that way, but I don’t know…”
“Fine,” snapped Jessamy, then walked to Lyddia, kissed her on the forehead and spoke gently. “The pint-sized queen knows I am hers to command, don’t you, your majesty?”
Lyddia laughed delightedly. “Yeth. Take that man away and leave Arian here.”
“Yours is to wish; mine is to obey,” Jessamy said with exaggerated courtesy before turning to Harley and giving her a hug. “I have to get going anyhoo. I’m working tonight. I’ll call you. Come on, then,” she said ungraciously to Zain without bothering to look at him.
Harley walked them to the door and watched them leave. She was still chuckling to herself. This was better than Netflix.
Chapter 12
The Kalamunda shopping centre car park was quite full when Harley arrived a few minutes early on Friday morning. She drove around and after not spotting Jessamy anywhere pulled into a parking spot and switched off her engine. Her fingers tapped nervously on the steering wheel as she waited while her eyes scanned the car park and the roads leading into it. It wasn’t so much that she felt there was any inherent danger in their upcoming adventure, it was more that she knew perfectly well if Arian found out what they’d been up to she would be certain to wind up with a very sore bottom. Not that there was any way he would find out unless she or Jess told him. He was safely at work and had no idea what they had planned so the only real worry was that he might quite innocently ask, for instance, ‘so what did you do Friday morning?’ and then her plant protein in the shape of a golden-egg layer would be cooked.
But this was a risk she was absolutely prepared to take. She had Arian back in her life, he still loved her and wanted to marry her, Lyddia loved him and he her, and her mother had completely recovered from the Ross River virus.
The only thing now standing in the way of her happiness was the possibility of her soon being incarcerated in Bandyup women’s prison, and the only reason that was a possibility was because she had been preyed on and exploited by the worst kind of parasite. So Harley had made a pact with herself that not even the threat of an extended session over Arian’s knee would cause her to break: she would do everything she could to out Gary Mellors as the criminal and her as the victim before she found herself behind bars. Her mouth set in grim determination; she was taking him down or dying trying. Well, hopefully, not the last!
She looked around again, but still no sign of Jessamy, just a tiny, grey van that looked like a loaf of bread on wheels pulling into the parking space next to her. As she looked away, a flapping inside the van caught her eye.
“Yo, Harley. Check it out!” she heard Jessamy’s voice call. Grabbing her things, she jumped out of her car and into the van.
“What the heck is this?” she laughed looking at Jessamy’s not inconsiderable self squashed into the driver’s seat.
“A surveillance van disguised as a tradie van, of course. My mate lent it to me. Did you notice the ladder on the roof? What a disguise, hey?”
“I can see the ladder on the roof from in here,” Harley observed drily, “considering it’s actually longer than the van and sticking out both ends with red rags tied to each one.”
“Pshaw.” Jessamy dismissed Harley’s reservations and continued to spruik the van’s many features and benefits. “See it’s got those curtain things on the windows in the back, and beanbags so we can just lie in them all comfy and invisible while we spy through the curtains, and no-one will ever know we’re in here, hey? It’ll just be a tradie van parked in the street. Utter brilliance. Now let’s go find your pernicious candy-man.”
“What if he doesn’t show this week?” Harley asked.
“Then we come back next week,” Jessamy answered firmly. “But five will get you ten he will.”
Twenty or so minutes later, the two women were parked opposite a strip of shops. One of them, long since abandoned for commercial use, now housed a drop-in and resource centre. It was particularly aimed at unemployed people and helping them find work, but anyone wanting to use a computer or looking for information or help on an issue was free to drop in.
“Right,” Jessamy said as she turned the engine off. “Into the back. I’ll take first watch.” She clambered over into the back and settled in the beanbag closest to the window, took out her binoculars and scanned up and down the street. “Nothing to report so far,” she told Harley. “I think it’s time for coffee and doughnuts.”
“Doughnuts?”
“Of course, doughnuts. Have you ever seen a stakeout without coffee and doughnuts? Nope. Me neither.” She pulled a shopping bag closer and took out a plastic container. Opening it, she offered Harley one and then took the other for herself. “Don’t worry. I’ve got more. I wasn’t sure how long we’d be here, so I made sure to bring plenty to keep us going.”
Harley was looking at hers but hadn’t thus far taken a bite.
“But Jess,” she said.
“Aha. Gotcha,” Jessamy said with a laugh. “Yup. They’re vegan doughnuts. And they are yum, so two, four, six, eight, bog in, don’t wait.” And she took a big bite of hers. “So, what do you think?” she asked Harley who had now also sampled hers.
“That’s a damn fine doughnut, Jessamy,” Harley drawled with as best a swagger as she could manage while sprawled in a beanbag in the cramped back of a tiny van.
“And we’ve got coffee, too,” Jessamy told her smugly, taking a Thermos flask and a cup out of her bag and pouring Harley a coffee in the cup and then herself one in the lid of the flask.
“Is this a stakeout or a party?” Harley asked with a grin. “You’ve really got all bases covered, haven’t you?”
“I have. I figure every good private detective should know how to conduct a first-class stakeout.” Jessamy swallowed the last of her doughnut and washed it down with the rest of her coffee, then turned her full attention back to the view through the window.
“So, how’s things with you and Arian?” she asked. “You full steam ahead for the wedding?”
“The form’s lodged and Arian’s booked a time at the registry office, so I guess so. I’m still not sure I’m going to go ahead with it though. But don’t tell him I said that. Apart from that he’s been really busy with something. He hasn’t said what. My court case, hopefully, and getting me off. He came around a couple of times briefly, but as much to see Lyddia and read to Toody as to see me.”
“So you guys doing the mattress mambo then? Must be a bit hard at your place with the gracious Mrs. B and the angel of perfection watching.”
“We’ve had our moments.” Harley blushed thinking about the aftermath of the dinner date. “And I stayed at his place last week don’t forget. I already know I was crazy when I let him go. No way I was going to be near a bed alone with him and not have that hunk and his junk all over me.”
Jessamy winked lewdly. “You take next watch. Here swap beanbags,” she said wriggling out of hers and making way for Harley. Once Harley was out of hers too, Jessamy made herself comfortable in that one. “From what you said, I’m guessing nothing will happen for a little while, and I got almost no sleep last night. I did a gig at the stadium. So I’m goin
g to have a kip now so I’m fully alert when old mate gutter-crawler turns up. Here’s the binoculars. Wake me if anything happens.”
“Okay, but first–a Zain update.”
“Update? What update? No update, no downdate, no date of any description in that corner of the forest. I drove him to Midland station last weekend when we left your place as you know. We didn’t speak on the way, like I already told you, and I haven’t heard from him since. Which is not surprising because he doesn’t have my phone number. He wouldn’t have got it even if he’d asked for it, but as it happens he didn’t ask, and I certainly wasn’t offering. Now, goodnight.”
“Well, that’s a shame,” Harley replied. “I thought that ‘corner of the forest’ you’re talking about was going to burn to the ground on Saturday from the heat between you two.”
“Pfft,” Jessamy dismissed her, closing her eyes. “I’m sleeping.”
Harley wriggled in her beanbag. The back of the van was incredibly cramped and Jessamy, who was in fact already drifting off to sleep, was sprawled out over a good portion of it. Nonetheless, Harley managed to scrunch herself up so she could peep through the curtains using the binoculars to get a good view of the entrance and anyone coming or going. It was possible, albeit unlikely, that Gary had beaten them there and was already inside. In Harley’s experience he never turned up before eleven, and that was still half an hour away. At the time, she had naively believed his story about sleeping in or transport problems or being unwell or… well, she’d believed every excuse he had come up with, and he’d come up with an excuse every week, because she wanted to believe him.
Now, of course, she knew his real reason for going to the drop-in centre at all, and that was to use her as a drug mule. Presumably, if he were doing the same thing again with some poor unsuspecting patsy, there would be no reason for him to turn up any earlier here. Besides, if they’d missed him going in, they’d spot him coming out. Unless there was a car park around the back. That thought hadn’t occurred to her before but, now it had, it seemed almost certain there would be a laneway behind the shops for rear parking and staff entrance.
“Jess,” she shook her friend who grunted but didn’t open her eyes. “Jess. What if he comes out the back?” Harley hissed again in an impressive stage whisper, although she wasn’t sure who else would hear even if she spoke in a normal voice.
“Not now. Sleeping,” Jessamy muttered.
Left with no choice, Harley climbed over into the driver’s seat and started the van. She drove up the road and then took the first turn to the right. Sure enough, she saw the entrance to the lane behind the buildings and turned down, hoping she’d recognise the back of the building they were watching. Peering into each back yard as she drove very slowly past, she almost didn’t see the man walking towards her until she was upon him. Her heart stopped. She would recognise that cocky, bouncing swagger anywhere, and he’d looked straight into the van right at her. She dropped her head, then quickly looked back expecting to see him chasing after her or pulling a gun or… well, something, even if just flipping her the bird, but he was doing nothing other than calmly turning into the car park she was just driving past. Well, that was serendipitous. If he hadn’t been there right then, Harley might not have been able to work out which building was the drop-in centre, but now she knew for sure and she knew Gary Mellors was inside, right now.
It was only a tiny car park behind the building, just room for four cars, and there were four cars in it. Harley had no way of knowing which was the one belonging to the person, no doubt a nice well-meaning young woman like herself, whom Gary had groomed as his next drug mule. She couldn’t even be sure the person’s car was parked out the back. There was nothing else for it. She and Jessamy would have to watch both entrances. She drove the van to the end of the lane and back around onto the main road. She couldn’t get out and walk about; she couldn’t risk being seen. She was glad she’d pulled her hair up under a baseball cap and worn sunglasses and, dressed as she was in a plain T-shirt, it was likely Gary had mistaken her for a bloke. If she got out and started walking about, though, and he saw her, she doubted he would make the same mistake twice.
She pulled up and turned around to the back of the van.
“Jess,” she called out, but Jess was still sleeping soundly. Harley had to climb in the back and shake her hard before she finally flickered her eyes open.
“Wha… wha…” she muttered, taking a moment to get her bearings, then suddenly remembering, she sat bolt upright. “Movement at the station?” she asked. “Has our colt who’s about to regret he was ever born shown his face?”
“Yes,” Harley said excitedly. “He’s in there. Right now. I saw him. He saw me, but he didn’t recognise me. But here’s the thing. He could come out either the front or the back, so I think I should find somewhere to hide out the back and…,”
“Wait, wait, wait.” Jessamy stopped her. “You’re babbling. Start again. Quick, pass the coffee.”
“It suddenly occurred to me there would most likely be a lane down behind the shops,” Harley said, passing Jessamy the Thermos and holding her cup up for a refill too. “So, I drove down there and just about ran over Gary. He didn’t see me, though,” she added quickly as Jessamy looked up so quickly she spilled a little coffee. “Anyway, he went into the back of the centre. There’re four cars parked out there. One of them might be his mule’s, but we can’t know for sure. So, I reckon I should wait around the back and I can let you know if they come out that way.”
When Harley finished, Jessamy was silent for a moment as she delved into her bag for another doughnut each. She dunked hers into her coffee, took a bite, chewed it, swallowed it and said, “Okay. Here’s what I think we should do.”
A short time later, both ladies were in place: Jessamy was in the back lane, adamant that Harley had to stay in the van for fear of being recognised, and Harley and the van were back out the front. As soon as either of them spotted their quarry, they would call the other, and hopefully be able to get away quickly enough to follow the car Gary was in. Harley’s heart was fluttering with dread and excitement. At last she felt like she was doing something proactive to help herself instead of quietly and obediently going to her doom. She wasn’t expecting to have to wait long; she knew better than anyone that Gary didn’t like hanging around in the drop-in centres and always had an excuse to not do anything useful while he was there. It was just a pity she hadn’t noticed that for what it was before. She sighed. No good chastising herself for past mistakes. Now was the time to make up for them.
Her phone rang. She started the van’s engine before she’d even answered the phone.
“They’re in a white Hyundai hatch,” she heard Jessamy saying. “Heading towards the service station end of the lane. Come in the other way or they’ll block your entrance.”
Harley could see the service station on the corner behind her, so she planted her foot on the accelerator and the little van rattled and puffed towards the other end of the lane. Just as she turned the corner, she saw the Hyundai appear in her rear vision mirror and turn away from her past the service station, so at least she knew which way they were going. Bouncing and bumping as fast as she dared down the lane, Harley pulled up next to Jessamy who was running in the direction Gary had gone.
“Shove over,” she called out as Harley slammed on the brake and scrambled into the passenger seat. Jessamy jumped in and headed off, doing up her seat belt as she went.
“Do we know which way they went?” she asked.
“Yes, I saw them in the rear vision mirror. They went left down there on the main road.”
“Suhweet,” Jessamy said admiringly. “Well done. What a team, eh? Now let’s hope we can catch them.”
“I don’t know how we’ll know it’s them, though,” Harley said a bit despondently. “There’s so many white Hyundai hatches. How will we know which is the right one?”
Jessamy turned and grinned at her. “Well, my partner in solving crime, f
ortunately it has personalised number plates: CATSCAR. I’m assuming that is the car belonging to Cat, Catherine presumably, and not that she wants people to know she was attacked by her pet.”
Harley laughed, a mixture of mirth and bubbling-over excitement.
“Look, up there. Just getting to that roundabout ahead. Is that their car?”
“It could be. It’s the right make, but I can’t see the number plate yet. Oh thank you, kindly gods of the universe. Look it’s going to have to stop for that bus so we can catch up a bit. Grab the binoculars, if you can reach.”
Harley tried but they were too far away. Fortunately, the white car in front was still stopped at the roundabout. There was silence for a moment as they drew close enough to see the number plate.
“Yes, look,” Harley cried. “It’s them. Quick drop back. Remember Gary saw the van when I drove down the lane. We don’t want them getting suspicious.”
Jessamy slowed down so by the time she got to the roundabout there were three cars between her and the one they were following. A short time later, the car pulled off into a car park outside a supermarket. Careful to keep at a distance, Jessamy drove down the side and into the car park further down, parking behind a big four-wheel drive.
“Look,” cried Harley “he’s getting out and going into the shops. That dirty cu…”
“Cunning piece of left-over garbage, I think is what she was going to say, Pops,” Jessamy interrupted her, looking up at the roof of the van. “Isn’t it?” she added looking at Harley. “Remember Pops. He was a good man. The best.”
“Okay. Sorry, Jess. Sorry, Pops. He really is a piece of work, though, hey?”
“He is without doubt the very definition of a person who will only be improved by his death. However, tempting as that thought is, we are here to keep you out of prison, not get both of us in for longer. Can you see the car?” As she was talking, Jessamy got out and opened the sliding door at the back. She handed Harley the binoculars and camera.