I'm really sorry this has taken so long to write but with a new lockdown I've been able to put some serious work into this next part. I actually had an entirely different ending mapped out but it seems as if my two main characters had other ideas and went out and I just followed on behind. However, that being said, there will be a fourth part and maybe more, and for the first time in awhile I have no idea how this turns out.
Author's note: Warbie is a shortened version of Warburton, a small town to the east of Melbourne, best known for its relaxed atmosphere, starry eyed tree huggers, loggers and for good measure, Seventh Day Adventists.
The DPP is the Department of Public Prosecutions.
Anna parked her car in front of the house and looked up in the rear view mirror as Sergeant Angie Dickson got out of the car. She'd been taken back to collect her car and told to drive back to Coldstream whilst the two detectives followed her at a discreet distance. She stared at the police tapes on the door and then swallowed as she thought of her encounter with Steele.
How was I supposed to know he was bent?
She opened the door and looked down at the gravel driveway.
Because you're not from that world, only Ellen could have noticed the clues.
Angie and her partner, Senior Detective Tom Harris moved into her point of view. Harris opened the boot to retrieve something and she was temporarily distracted by the sight of his arse. He had a cute one but then she recalled the wedding ring on his finger and switched instead to Angie. In her prior meetings she'd noticed that she was a similar age to Gitti but she hadn't paid much attention to her looks but that was because she was being officially interviewed. Today however, she was feeling a little more relaxed and she noted that Angie's fair hair hung loosely about her. Normally she tied it up into a bun or a ponytail. She was dressed casually in a short-sleeved cream blouse tucked into black jeans, which accentuated her figure a little more than the business suits she'd worn.
Anna felt a slight twinge, almost as if she was standing outside her body, watching herself watching Angie. The older woman was studying the front of the house with a look of intense concentration and Anna's eyes fell to her breasts and then her crotch, noticing the creasing where her legs met her hips. Almost as if sensing her attention, Angie met her gaze and smiled crookedly.
"When you're ready we'll go inside."
"Of course," Anna came to herself with a start and unlocked the flywire door and main door, the smells that greeted her nostrils were vaguely familiar. She couldn't name them, but they had been present when the forensics team were dusting the place for prints and running tests.
"Okay," Angie followed her inside, "it's five o'clock and you said seven thirty?"
"Uh huh."
"So that gives us a slight window. We've obviously missed something in the last search because there's no way he would have been sent out here."
"What do you mean missed something?"
"We suspect he's holding out on us. We've got him on possession of unregistered guns and a small quantity of cocaine. The DPP might even throw the drug charges out because it's a small amount, and the firearms charges might even see a non custodial sentence depending on his circumstances and the fact it's a first offence," she tucked her shirt in at the back.
"And Steele isn't on this case, he's in another division altogether so he's got no business poking around this particular crime scene and as I mentioned earlier, he's got connections to McNally, they were partners when McNally was still on the force."
"He seemed so genuine," she swallowed as she looked away from Angie, "it was only Ellen who suspected there was something going on."
"She's from a different world than you," Angie took off her jacket, "she's naturally suspicious of the police anyway, and she knows enough about police procedures to know that we don't work alone. You probably only see cops working alone on the telly," she draped the jacket over the back of the couch and took the phone out of the pocket.
"In real life we're trained to put people at ease, it's par for the course."
"I understand," Anna nodded and stared at the couch, "and you're right, I only see cops on telly, even the real ones are just answering questions or making statements."
"I don't like watching cop shows, my kids on the other hand," she slipped the phone into her back pocket, "are obsessed with them."
"You have kids?" Anna blushed as the words slipped out.
"Two, Aiden is eight and Julie is six, they're at their father's joint for the weekend."
Anna opened her mouth to say something else as she glanced at her hands. There was no wedding ring and then Angie spoke again.
"All right, here's where we stand right now. We suspect there's more to this but we can't prove it," she stepped back, "a search can be conducted on several levels, depending on the seriousness of the charges. We really just conducted a basic search but we didn't knock holes in walls, because if we don't find what we're looking for then it jumps up to bite us on the arse."
Anna looked past her as Angie continued.
"Speaking of knocking holes in walls. Has your husband or a contractor done any renovations to the house in the last couple of years? I noticed that some of the roof tiles in the front have been replaced recently."
"We had a leak about here," she looked up at the ceiling, "some of the roof tiles were cracked and two years ago we had a climate control system installed."
"We noticed that the last time we were here," she replied, "anything else?"
"Um, there was the back verandah," she frowned, "and a new kitchen, about six months ago."
"Okay, let's start with the kitchen, our people checked the back verandah."
"What do you want me to do?"
"Just sit on the couch and try to think of anything unusual that might have happened in the last year or so, a sudden emergency that entailed repairing, contractors working around the place. It might seem like nothing but you've no idea how many times something that seems like nothing turns out to be the key that unlocks an entire case."
Anna nodded and sat on the couch whilst Tom went back out to the car. He returned a few minutes later with a toolbox and headed straight into the kitchen whilst Angie inspected the rest of the house. Anna sat there for the next half an hour listening to Tom taking back panels out of kitchen cupboards and Angie knocking on walls. At some point she even went up into the ceiling cavity and Anna looked up as she heard the creak of footsteps on the joists. Eventually however she stepped into the kitchen, half expecting to find it dismantled but Tom was putting a panel back.
"Find anything?"
"Nope, just insulation and a few washers and screws."
"I'm still thinking," she leaned against the bench.
"If it's any help," he glanced up, "try to empty your mind, go and do something else and it might just pop into your mind."
"Good theory," she smirked, "but I'm afraid all I can think of is emptying my bladder."
"So, go do it, we're not expecting you to suddenly remember something, this is what we do for a job every day."
As Anna stepped into the toilet she heard Angie coming back down the ladder, but it was whilst she flushed the toilet some three minutes later that she recalled an incident from six months ago. Anna stared at the cistern and recalled the time he'd had the lid off to adjust the flushing mechanism. She touched the cistern again. She'd come into the toilet to answer a call of nature only to find Ritchie fiddling with the flushing mechanism. He'd asked her to wait outside while he finished but since then he'd developed an obsession with it, constantly lifting the lid to check it.
Why? Didn't he fix it? Or was there another reason?
She turned to the door and a moment later turned the handle.
It's probably nothing but even so.
