‘All right, we’ve got to hurry before Alan is released on bail.’
Dr Airhardt and Tyler walk out of the Duke of York Hotel as Mr Pluck enters the dark corner and sees the note from Tyler. After he reads it he is worried.
‘Oh dear.’
CHAPTER 14
A
t the police station, Tyler, with his sports bag, and Dr Airhardt arrives at the main reception.
Airhardt asks the policeman on the front desk, ‘Hello, do you know where the interview room is?’
‘Up there,’ he replies, pointing upstairs.
‘Thank you,’ Dr Airhardt says as he and Tyler walk to the interview room.
‘Should we go in and see Alan?’ asks Tyler.
‘No,’ says Dr Airhardt. ‘I think we should sit down and watch.’
Tyler sits down on the chair. Then, Inspector Mack Young and Detective Sergeant Nick Baxter – who is wearing plain clothes – arrive.
‘Hello, gentlemen.’
‘Hello, Inspector,’ says both Tyler and Dr Airhardt.
‘I would like to introduce Detective Sergeant Nick Baxter,’ says Mack.
‘Hello, Detective Sergeant,’ says both Tyler and Dr Airhardt.
Tyler guesses the new detective is in his forties. He is very tall with short dark hair and an angular jaw.
‘Hello, gentlemen. Did you know what I meant about you guys looking for clues?’
‘Yes we did. I started looking for clues and Airhardt helped me.’
‘Oh really?’ says Nick. ‘Are you a private investigator?’
‘Mmmm, sort of,’ says Tyler.
‘Right, why don’t you watch the interview while Nick and I ask questions to Alan?’ Mack asks. ‘We’ll talk to you a bit later.’
Mack and Nick enter the interview room and shut the door. Dr Airhardt asks Tyler, ‘Are you going to feel okay when Alan comes?’
‘Yes, just ignore him,’ says Tyler as he closes his eyes and put his head in his hands.
Alan arrives, escorted by Constable Troy Williamson, and when he sees Tyler and Dr Airhardt’s heads in their hands he frowns and says to them, ‘Are you going to look at me?’
‘Shut up and keep going!’ says Troy.
‘Get stuffed!’ says Alan, as the two men walk to the interview room door. Constable Troy Williamson and Alan enter the interview room. Inside, Alan sees a single light bulb, a table and three chairs. Mack and Nick are already seated as Troy asks Alan, ‘Will you sit down please?’
Mack takes a deep breath.
‘Hello, Alan.’
Alan stick his finger up at Mack.
‘Up yours.’
‘How are you today?’ asks Mack.
‘Bloody terrible,’ replies Alan.
‘So, should we have a talk?’
‘All right, talk to me.’
‘Three days ago, you were at the bar of the Duke of York hotel. What did you do at this bar?’
‘Well, I had just finished working at a mechanic’s place and arrived at the Duke of York hotel to have a drink and, of course, a pub meal.’
‘And what did you do when you threatened Mr Brown when after he arrived for work?’
‘Oh, he just arrived, and he was dressed up as a private dick. I saw him arrive at the bar and said to him, “Hey, mate, what are you wearing?” and he said to me “Mind your own business, you busybody mongrel. It’s a secret,” so I called him a “stupid little bastard”!’
‘Did you abuse him?’
‘Yes!’
‘What type of abuse?’
‘Verbal.’
‘The next day, you’re in the same pub again and this time, you’re threatening Dr Airhardt and his two assistants. Is that true?’
‘Yes, that is correct.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I felt like a bigot.’
‘Did you verbally abuse Airhardt?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did you think Airhardt was pretending to be a private investigator just like Tyler?’
‘Yes. If you’re going to lock me up at Woomera Detention Centre for the rest of my life, you guys are pigs!’
Nick frown, and threatens to punch Alan. ‘Why you …!’
Mack turns around, stops Nick and says to him, ‘Hey, that’s enough, Nick!’
‘All right, that’s it, fine! If you wanna to do this stupid job, do it yourself!’ Nick stands up from his chair, walks out, and slams the door shut behind him.
Alan asks Mack, ‘Are you going to talk to me?’
‘Look, why don’t I release you on bail and then you may go. But you will be back and appearing in court for charges of threatening behaviour in a month or two, okay?’ says Mack.
‘Yes, I’m going to be a broken and poor man,’ says Alan, ‘but now, I’m just a loser!’ He stands up from his chair, walks quickly to Troy and takes the gun out of Troy’s holster.
‘Hey, hey, hey, stop!’ shouts Troy as Alan punches him and Troy collapses on the floor.
Alan then runs to the one-way mirror as Mack stands up and shout to Alan, ‘Drop your weapon!’
Alan points the gun at Mack
‘Look, just stay away from me or I’ll blow your head off!’
He then stops, frowns, turns around, sees Tyler and Dr Airhardt’s heads in their hands behind a window, turns back, and shouts loudly, ‘How could this happen to me?’
Alan puts the gun in his mouth as Mack shouts loudly, ‘No!’
Alan pulls the trigger of the gun and shoots himself. Blood come out of his head and hits the mirror. He collapses on the floor dead.
Outside the interview room, Tyler and Dr Airhardt’s heads come up in shock.
‘What was that?’
‘My goodness, it’s a shooting!’ says Dr Airhardt.
Mack opens the door, walks to Tyler and Dr Airhardt and says to them, ‘Bad news gentlemen, Alan’s dead.’
‘What?’
‘What’s he done?’
‘He’s gone crazy and killed himself! I was trying to stop him as I thought he was going to shoot me first,’ says Mack.
‘Yes that’s bad,’ says Dr Airhardt.
Tyler stands up, pick up his sports bag from the floor, opens his sports bag and takes the coat and give it to Mack.
‘Here, take this coat to the forensic team.’
Mack looks at the coat.
‘All right, I’ll do it.’
‘Good,’ says Tyler. ‘I’ve got to do something for my fiancée, but I’ll see you soon.’
Troy, after recovering from his king hit comes out of the interview room and says to Mack, ‘What should we do now, Inspector?’
‘I’ve got to investigate the coat because now we’ve got the coat,’
says Mack as he walks to the forensic room.
Dr Airhardt says to Troy, ‘Umm … bye,’ as he walks out and leaves Troy standing there thinking the police interview with Alan has turned into a tragedy.
At Tyler’s apartment block, Tyler is putting his things away until he hears a knock on the door. ‘Come in.’
The door opens and it’s Peter.
‘G’day Tyler.’
‘Hi Peter.’
‘How’s it going? I heard the news about a suicide at the police station on the radio in my car.’
‘Yes there was.’
‘Are you shocked?’
‘Um, a little bit,’ says Tyler. ‘Look, I’ve got to go and meet Angelique down the street because I’ve got things to do before the results arrive.’
‘Have you asked her to marry you?’
‘Yes.’
‘What did she say?’
‘She said yes, but I wonder how many dancers get married and have kids.’
‘Well, I guess as they get older and finish dancing, lots of them will have kids.’
‘I have an idea, Peter. The St John’s Wort that I’m going to take every day should be helpful.’
‘Are you going to take drugs?’
‘No, idiot! This is how
to stop my post-traumatic stress disorder.’
‘Oh, I’m sorry! I was worried about you doing drugs but St John’s Wort is okay.’
Tyler walks to the table and pick up his list of jobs.
‘I’m going now, Peter, I’ll see you soon.’
‘Okay, hoo roo. Hey, Tyler …?’
‘What?’
‘Are you going to have an engagement party?’
‘Nah, just a quiet dinner for two and a quiet dance. Not like the movie Nine-And-A-Half Weeks that’s for sure.’
‘What does Angelique want? Are you going to ask her?’
‘I’ll think about it,’ says Tyler as he open the door and leaves. Peter walks to the kitchen to get a Stanley knife to open the box of St John’s Wort.
At the police station, the coat is on the table. Mack and Professor Jerry Bowie are both looking at the coat and thinking.
‘I don’t believe the coat has finally been rescued,’ the Professor says.
‘Yes it has,’ says Mack, ‘but someone left it when they went home.’
‘My word, I’ll check the coat to see what’s inside. Is there anything else to do, Inspector?’
‘I’ve got to go and do a press conference about the suicide of Alan so keep going because you’ll have enough time to check the results.’
‘Yes, Inspector.’
Bowie takes the coat and walks to the lab, while Mack walks to his office to get his speech about the suicide for the police press conference.
Outside the jewellery shop in between St Kilda and Almond Street, Angelique, with her tight short black dress and stilettos, is standing waiting for Tyler to come.
She turns around, sees Tyler arrive, smiles and says to him, ‘Hi, Tyler. What’s going on?’
‘Well, Angelique, are you ready to choose an engagement ring?’ asks Tyler with a big smile.
‘Yes please.’
‘Okay, let’s go shopping!’
So he and Angelique enter the jewellery shop. Inside the jewellery shop there were rings, jewels, necklaces, diamonds, watches, gold and other things, so they walk to the diamond ring section. In the showcase, there are lots of diamond rings.
‘So which diamond ring should we choose?’
‘I would like a simple but elegant solitaire diamond ring,’ Angelique says sexily.
Tyler calls the sales assistant of the jewellery shop over.
‘Excuse me, do you have a simple but elegant solitaire diamond ring for my fiancée please?’
The sales assistant pull out the rack and takes a ring out and give it to Tyler. Tyler puts the ring on Angelique’s finger.
‘Is this is the ring you like?’ the sale assistant asks.
‘Yes, I’ll take it.’ replies Tyler Tyler takes out his wallet, finds his credit card and hand it to the sales assistant.
The sales assistant gives Tyler a bag with the ring and wishes them a happy day.
‘That’s wonderful, Tyler,’ says Angelique. ‘What’s next?’
‘We’ll go to Dave’s Restaurant to have a champagne lunch for our engagement celebration!’
‘Good idea,’ says Angelique, and they begin discussing their wedding plans on their way to the restaurant.
CHAPTER 15
A
t Dave’s Restaurant, Tyler and Angelique have eaten their lunch.
Angelique says to Tyler, ‘This is the most beautiful lunch I’ve ever had.’
‘Yes it is,’ says Tyler.
‘The meals were wonderful and thanks for taking me to this restaurant for the third time,’ says Angelique.
‘You’re welcome,’ says Tyler. ‘So let’s start to plan the wedding, shall we?’
‘Oh yes please,’ replies Angelique, so Tyler takes a piece of paper out of his pocket which has got the things to do about the wedding, puts the paper on the table next to a plate and asks Angelique, ‘Can I borrow your pen please?’
‘Yes sure,’ replies Angelique, so she takes her handbag from the floor, and gives her pen to Tyler.
‘Okay, what sort of wedding dress do you want?’ asks Tyler.
‘White,’ replies Angelique.
‘Okay,’ says Tyler. ‘What sort of flowers do we want?’
‘Red roses,’ replies Angelique.
‘All right,’ says Tyler. ‘What type of shoes do you want?’
‘Maybe a glass slipper or ruby slippers but I don’t know which ones are best to wear,’ replies Angelique.
‘Yep,’ says Tyler, so he writes glass slippers or ruby slippers and puts a question mark on a piece of paper and asks, ‘Which venue would you like? A church or a park?’
‘Maybe a church, I think,’ replies Angelique.
‘Which church?’ asks Tyler.
‘Maybe St Peter’s Church in Brighton,’ replies Angelique.
Tyler writes St Peter’s in Brighton on the piece of paper and asks,
‘Any invitations and decorations that you want?’
‘Just normal invitations and of course, some flower decorations,’ replies Angelique.
Tyler write normal invitations and flower decorations on a piece of paper and says, ‘Okay, we can have champagne, wine, beer and soft drinks on the list …’ But he pauses, writes champagne, wine, beer and soft drinks on a piece of paper and asks, ‘Is there a menu you like?’
‘Ooohh, this is the hardest one for us but it’s tricky for me,’ replies Angelique.
‘All right, we’ll leave this one. What sort of dresses for the bridesmaids and flower girl would you want?’ asks Tyler.
‘Maybe purple for one bridesmaid, blue for another bridesmaid and a pink for yet another bridesmaid,’ replies Angelique. ‘Oh, and white dress for the flower girl.’
Tyler writes purple, blue and pink for three bridesmaids’ dresses and white for the flower girl’s dress and he also writes white slippers for three bridesmaids and a flower girl, followed by a Peter Jackson black suit for me and three groomsmen, black ties for me and them, red roses for the suits and black shoes for me.
‘Anymore?’ asks Angelique.
‘Yes, what type of cars do we want?’ asks Tyler.
‘Limousine,’ replies Angelique.
‘Alright,’ says Tyler so he writes limousine on a piece of paper and says, ‘And done.’ He gives Angelique’s pen back to her, takes a glass of champagne, holds the glass and says to Angelique, ‘Here’s a toast to the wedding.’
Angelique takes a glass of champagne, holds the glass and says, ‘To the wedding.’ They click the glasses and sip the champagne.
Later after Tyler and Angelique have lunch at Dave’s Restaurant, then go for a walk in the park and hold hands. In the evening, they walk in the sands at the beach.
Tyler asks, ‘Are you enjoying this walk, Angelique?’
‘Yes, Tyler, it’s fine and I feel fine,’ replies Angelique.
‘I think we need to sit down and have another light conversation,’ says Tyler.
‘Good idea,’ says Angelique so they walk up to the tree, hop in the shade of the tree and sit down on the grass.
‘Is there anything else I can do for the wedding?’ asks Tyler.
‘Well, we can go shopping for the dresses, flowers, shoes, invitations, decorations, drinks and ties on the weekend but I need somebody to help me,’ replies Angelique.
‘Who?’ asks Tyler.
‘My friends,’ replies Angelique.
‘How many do you have?’ asks Tyler.
‘Three,’ replies Angelique.
‘What’s the names of your three friends?’ asks Tyler.
‘Lucy, Jessica and Mandy,’ replies Angelique.
‘Can you choose one of your friends to become one of the bridesmaids?’ asks Tyler.
‘I don’t know but I want to find out about my family because I don’t know how good my family memories are,’ replies Angelique.
‘Don’t worry, Angelique. Your memories are fine, I have a good memory,’ says Tyler.
‘Do you?’ asks Angelique.
&nbs
p; ‘Yes, I’ve had good times and bad times in my life and my memory of everything is just fine,’ says Tyler.
‘Okay, I understand but I love you, Tyler,’ says Angelique.
‘I love you too, Angelique,’ says Tyler. He put his arms around her waist and pulls her close to him and they have a kiss. After they stopped kissing, Tyler says to Angelique, ‘I think we’ve got to keep walking.’
‘Yeah, good idea,’ says Angelique so they stand up, walk off from the tree and Tyler says to Angelique, ‘Any other activities after walking?’
‘Maybe we’ll check out something in St Kilda,’ replies Angelique.
‘Hmm, all right,’ says Tyler as he and Angelique continue walking around the park.
At the police station, the phone rings and a police desk sergeant enters his desk and picks up the phone. He says, ‘Hello, this is St Kilda Police Station, can I help you?’
‘Hi, I wanna speak to Mack please,’ Dr Airhardt’s voice says.
‘All right,’ says the police desk sergeant and he turns and shouts to Inspector Mack Young, ‘Hey, Inspector! It’s the psychiatrist who’s been in here before.’
‘Alright,’ Mack’s voice says.
A police desk sergeant checks the details’ book and then Inspector Mack Young enters, takes the phone from the police desk sergeant and asks, ‘Hello?’
‘Inspector, it’s me again,’ Dr Airhardt’s voice replies.
‘Oh, hello, Doctor,’ says Mack. ‘How can I help you?’
‘I got a phone call from Alan’s family and they were upset, angry and disappointed about his suicide,’ Dr Airhardt’s voice replies.
‘Go on,’ says Mack.
‘Well, I don’t know who is angry and who is mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.’ Dr Airhardt’s voice replies.
‘Where do they live?’ asks Mack.
‘They live in Balaclava.’ Dr Airhardt’s voice replies.
‘Can you interview his family about his behaviour?’ asks Mack.
‘Yes, I will,’ Dr Airhardt replies. ‘I wonder what type of family he has, whether they would be normal or bigots like Alan. Look, Inspector, I’ll see how I’m going with them because I wonder what current affairs are happening now. I’ll talk to you soon, okay? Goodbye.’
The Mysterious Coat Page 6