Challis - 01 - Dragon Man (9 page)

I cant stay long. We had a woman
abducted three nights ago and I have to supervise another line search.

She tugged gently on the fingers of
his burnt hand. I wont keep you. Just a quick coffee and you can be on your
way.

But in the kitchen she found herself
shaking violently and she let a cup fall to the floor. A woman abducted?

He clasped her upper arms. Are you
all right?

Stressed out, cant you tell?

Look, come and sit down.

He cleared the newspaper off the
sofa and sat with her. Their knees touched. An abduction, she said. I just
know theyre out there, waiting to get me.

Clara, this has nothing to do with
your mailbox getting burnt.

It feels like it does!

Hush, hush.

He was huge and enveloping. They
were very warm against each other, heat coming through the thin cotton, and,
where her bare forearm touched his, a kind of current was passing. Her voice
was muffled against his uniform. Van, I really need something to chill me out.

She wasnt surprised that he
misunderstood her. He began to stroke her, thinking that was what she wanted.
Still, the stroking felt nice in itself. The other could wait, and would come
sooner rather than later if she could soften him up over the next couple of
days.

She was stroking him now, the soft
skin inside his elbow. She reached up and pulled his head down to hers. The
kiss started slowly, no more than a nibble, but Clara was surprised to find
herself enjoying it. The line between calculation and need grew blurred.

Afterwards, drowsy and half-naked on
the Moroccan floor rug, he said, God, I needed that.

Been a while?

I dont mean that. I mean the worlds
such a shitty place you forget whats good about it.

Christ, he wasnt going to fall in
love with her, was he? So Im a good fuck, she said, to keep things in
perspective for him.

He was mortified. No! Well, yes,
but in a nice way.

She laughed. Only teasing. She
rolled on to her hip and lay with her cheek on the hard slab of bone and muscle
that was his chest. Will I see you again?

She heard the rumble in his chest
wall. I could come again tomorrow.

Or I could come to your place.

He rolled away and pulled on his
underpants and trousers. Christ, no, dont do that.

Why? Ashamed of me?

Its better if I come here, thats
all. Its quiet here. Tucked away. Nobody to see me come and go.

It was as if everything was decided.

* * * *

It
was stuffy in the Displan room. Ellen Destry pinched an electric fan from the
sick bay and placed it on her desk, letting the air wash over her as she opened
Scobie Suttons file of convicted sex offenders now living on the Peninsula.
Twenty-two names. After a further search, she discounted eight: they were
serving prison sentences. Of the remaining fourteen, five had moved interstate,
two had committed suicide, and three had convictions for paedophilia. She made
a printout of all the names, in case some had finished their prison sentences
or moved back into the area, and printed out full criminal-file copies of the
remaining four men. One, in particular, caught her eye: Lance Arthur Ledwich, born
1955, convicted in 1991 on five counts of procuring sexual penetration by fraud
and three counts of rape. Released in 1995. Apparently hed placed ads in a
Geelong newspaper calling for young women to audition for a film. A producer of
wedding videos by trade, hed auditioned the women at his studio in Newtown,
where his cameras, lights and props had provided the necessary verisimilitude.
Hed asked each woman to undress and change into a gym tunic for the part of a
schoolgirl whod been sexually awakened after a rape. Hed managed to deceive
five women into having sex with him and had raped another three. One woman also
alleged that hed punched and squeezed her windpipe when she refused to have
sex with him, but this charge was later withdrawn.

Violent, devious. Was he working the
highway now?

The phone rang. It was the new
constable. Could someone in CIB be present at an interview of a burglary
suspect? Ellen pushed Ledwichs file to one side and went downstairs.

* * * *

The
time 2.30 p.m. on Wednesday, 20 December. Present in the room are the accused,
Daniel Holsinger, Detective Sergeant Ellen Destry, and myself, Constable Pam
Murphy. Now, Danny, this interview is being recorded. You say you waive your
right to have your lawyer present?

Danny gave a whinnying laugh. Her?
She puts words in my mouth. Last time, she let me talk my way into a month in
jail.

Sergeant Destry stirred. Danny, shes
not on our Christmas card list, but if she hadnt intervened that time youd
have got six months.

Pam waited. The sergeant sat back
again, indicating with a nod that it was her arrest, she should run the
interview. Returning the nod, she said, Danny, lets start with the backpack.

He bristled. Its mine.

Its also Italian and worth a lot
of money.

So?

Sergeant Destry cut in, So Id have
thought a vinyl gym bag was more your style, and Pam wanted to shoot her.
Danny flushed, looked hurt and angry at the put-down, and now she would have to
work hard to bring him around again. After the arrest, as theyd waited for a
divisional van to collect them, shed developed a kind of rapport with him.
There was nothing vicious or bad about him, just a lack of grey matter.

Danny was pouting. What would you
know, you bitch?

Danny, thats enough, Pam said. Now,
a lovely bag like that, werent you worried youd get grease on it?

Never been out of work since I left
school, Danny said, still angry. You think I cant afford to spend money on
nice things?

Lets leave the bag. What were
most interested in is what you had
inside
the bag.

My own gear.

Hardly. Pam picked up a page from
a file. Items found in suspects backpack: one ladies wristwatch, Citizen;
one camera, Nikon; one Visa card in the name of Anne M. Francis; forty-five
dollars in cash; a Peninsula Library Service card, also in the name of Anne
Francis; amethyst earrings set in gold.

My girlfriend.

I dont think so, Danny. Mrs
Francis is seventy if shes a day.

My grandmother.

Cut it out, Danny, Pam said. I
caught you leaving the premises by way of a window. I checked with Mrs Francis
and shes never heard of you.

Yeah, and I bet she never heard of
no backpack, neither, because its not hers.

Danny, give yourself a break.

So I done her place over, so what.

Sergeant Destry said, Were you
alone in this, Danny?

What do you mean?

You hang out with Boyd Jolic, am I
right?

Danny looked hunted. Sometimes.

Do you burgle houses with him?

Danny muttered, looking away, No.
Look, its hot in here. Gis a Pepsi?

Pam glanced at Sergeant Destry, who
gave her a tired smile, said, Interview suspended while Sergeant Destry leaves
the room, and went out.

Danny said, Look, miss, cant we do
something here?

Like what?

I know things arent looking real
good for me. What if I had something to give you?

You offering me a bribe, Danny?

Danny waved an arm. No, no, nothing
like that. Well, kind of. I mean, I hear things from time to time, might
interest you.

Theres a lot going on, Danny.
Abductions, murder.

Danny looked shocked. Hey, come on.
Dont know nothing about that.

What, then? You hang out with
people who firebomb mailboxes, Danny? Or heavier people, the kind who pull
aggravated burglaries?

Dont know nothing about no ag
burgs, Danny was muttering as Sergeant Destry entered the room.

The sergeant went very sharp and
still. What ag burgs, Danny?

Pam immediately turned the tape on
again, saying, Sergeant Destry re-enters the room. Interview continues, 2.45
p.m. Danny, if you have information about a crime, now is the time to share it
with us.

Why does it have to be here?

Regulations, Danny.

The door opened and the woman who
entered the room was dressed for power. She wore a costly-looking dress, an
expensive haircut and plenty of gold on her neck, fingers and wrists. She was
about fifty, slim and hard and fast. Youve got no right to interview my
client in my absence. Danny, youre coming with me.

Pam was happy to let Sergeant Destry
take charge. Marion, he waived his right to have a lawyer present.

Ellen, I expected better of you.
Whats he here for?

Suspected burglary.

Who arrested him?

Marion, meet Constable Murphy. Pam,
this is Marion Nunn.

I hope you cautioned him,
Constable.

Hello? Danny said. Im here, in
the room with you all.

Danny, you just let me do the
talking.

And thats where it stalled. Danny
was charged and bailed, and left without revealing anything. Pam was even
obliged, by Marion Nunn, to return the backpack to Danny.

* * * *

Mid-afternoon.
Challis took the call, staring out of the Displan room windows at the carpark. A
body, you say?

Dead. Shes a woman.

Where?

Devil Bend Reservoir. Near the
edge. Theres a track to it.

He glanced automatically at the wall
map. Not so far from where he lived, a Peninsula Water catchment reservoir. Your
name, sir?

Audible breathing, as though in
heavy concentration. Challis was convinced that a second person was there with
the caller.

I dont want to get involved.

For our paperwork, sir.
Sir.
The
caller was a kid, sounded no more than fifteen.

Youre gunna trace this, right?
Well, Im getting off the line before you dob me in.

* * * *

Six

hallis
watched from the perimeter, his shadow long now that the sun was low in the west.
Inside the crime-scene tape they were taking photographs of the body, and of
footprints and tyre tracks. Plaster casts after that, then a sweep with a metal
detector to see if anythinga ring, a weapon, a mans neck chain, a
wristwatchhad been trampled beneath the mud and the muddy grasses and reeds.
Meanwhile, behind Challis, and supervised by Ellen Destry, a line search of ten
constables and cadets had finished tracing the tyre tracks between the body,
which was at the reservoirs edge, and the gravelled surface of the Peninsula
Water access track, and now were tracing footprints, two pairs, that headed
west from the body toward a belt of scraggly gums. Farmland after that. Not so
far away, no more than four kilometres, was Challiss house.

Challis looked across the reservoir.
What a godawful place to die. Blackberry thickets, bracken, stiff, wiry grass,
small, dark, knobbled trees, defeated-looking gums, a stink of primeval gases.
There were waterbirds, but they were mostly silent, and rather than seeming
cool and alive, the body of water sat still and heavy under a layer of algae,
and Challis felt oppressed by the humidity. The mosquitos were out. One landed
on his wrist. He slapped it, saw a smear of blood.

Freya Berg, the pathologist, stood
and waved to him. Hal, you might as well come in now.

Challis climbed over the tape and
approached the body. He should have thought to pack rubber overshoes. He felt
water seep into one sock.

First he tried to read the signs.
The body itself could wait. One vehicle, quite marked tread pattern, two
people on foot. Wearing gumboots?

Looks like it, sir, the forensic
officer said.

Challis followed the footprints with
his eyes. They came around the reservoir, saw the body, walked around it once
or twice, then headed out that way. He pointed toward the distant gums and
farmland.

You want my job, sir? the officer
said.

Challis grinned. You tell me the
rest.

No other tracks. Id say our victim
was thrown out of the rear of the vehicle. See how hes reversed in and gone
out again?

He didnt step out of the vehicle,
on to the ground?

No other tracks, sir, only those
two.

A car? A van?

Probably something with a
rear-opening door, like a station wagon or a hatchback, if it was a car, but
the tyre tracks indicate a heavier vehicle than that. Minivan? Four-wheel
drive? Something with inside access to the rear compartment.

Or a ute, and he swings over into
the tray from the drivers door ledge.

A possibility, sir.