Silent Fear (19 page)

‘What is it?’ Ella moved in close. The skin on Fowler’s neck had been sliced and peeled back to the sides, and she could see the dark red tissue and whitish fat layers under the skin, an assortment of tubes that she guessed were veins and arteries, and at the back the white gleam of the bone of the vertebrae.

‘See here,’ the doctor said. ‘As I said, the X-ray showed no vertebral fracture, but sometimes there are injuries done to other structures. See this bulging here between the bones? This small blood clot? It indicates an injury done to the man’s spinal cord rather than to the bones. It’s the kind of thing you might find in a sporting injury, caused by twisting or wrenching of the neck.’

‘Can you tell when it happened?’ Ella asked.

‘Right around the time of death. If it’d happened earlier, there would’ve been more bleeding.’

‘Around the time the bystanders got hold of him then.’ Ella felt the tingling in her spine increase.

‘Can we be sure it was them though?’ Murray said. ‘Are there other possible causes?’

The doctor said, ‘There’s a slight chance that when he collapsed his head could have struck the ground with sufficient impact to cause it, but if that was the case I would expect to see signs of injury to his face, and there are none.’

‘One of the paramedics said the female bystander had his head bent way back,’ Ella said. ‘Could that cause this?’

‘Hyperextension of the neck.’ The doctor nodded. ‘If she did it with enough force, certainly.’

Ella stared into the open neck, at the bulge of greyish-white cord protruding between the bones. ‘She was making sure he’d die.’

‘Or she was grossly incompetent,’ the doctor said.

‘Incompetence generally equals timidity.’ Ella’s excitement grew. ‘A timid person would never yank someone’s head about like this.’

‘She could’ve done it out of fear,’ Murray said. ‘Not realised her own strength, that sort of thing.’

Ella faced the doctor. ‘Could he live with that injury?’

‘Perhaps,’ the doctor said. ‘But more than likely he wouldn’t be able to breathe on his own.’

‘See,’ Ella said to Murray. ‘Add it up for yourself. They happen to be walking by. They had fake IDs. She causes damage that, if he’d survived the shooting, would’ve killed him anyway – he’s lying there unable to breathe and she’s making sure her mouth-to-mouth doesn’t help. She was practically packing him up for the morgue.’

‘He was already dying from the bullet,’ Murray said.

‘But she didn’t know that for sure,’ Ella said.

‘Anyway,’ the doctor said, ‘whether this was the result of malice or incompetence, the cause of death is still likely to be catastrophic brain injury from the projectile. It’d be hard to pin the woman to anything in order to charge her.’

‘But if we find her,’ Ella said, ‘we find the trail to the shooter.’

FIFTEEN

C
ontrol had told them to head towards the city for coverage. Holly sat in the passenger seat with her arms folded, trying to clear her mind and think, trying to make herself believe what Lacey said: that Kyle would not be able to prove that she’d never worked in pathology at Royal Melbourne, that her job and her life with Norris were safe.

‘Seventeen,’ Control called. ‘What’s your location?’

‘Seventeen’s on Parramatta Road in Strathfield,’ she answered.

‘Thanks, Seventeen. Head to Tennyson Road in Mortlake for a child off a pushbike, query fractured wrist.’

‘Seventeen’s on the case.’ Holly hung up the microphone and refolded her arms.

Kyle hit the lights and siren and swung left through the red into Concord Road, then glanced over at her.

She readied herself.
Strong inside, blank outside.

‘You know that I know,’ he said.

‘I know that you know what?’

He grinned. ‘You
know
that I know.’

‘Let’s see now,’ she said. ‘What do I know? I know that you’re rude and have no compassion. I know that you’re a crap driver. I know you’re shit at cannulation. That about cover it?’

He kept smiling but she saw his grip on the wheel tighten. ‘Not quite.’

‘Okay then, let me think,’ she said. ‘I know Joel Holden thinks you’re an idiot.’

A small voice told her to shut the hell up, that antagonising him would only make things worse, but she hated being on the defensive.

He flushed. ‘You can’t know that.’

She smiled at him. ‘Really?’

The driver of an old white Mercedes hit the brakes in front of them and Kyle had to stomp hard on his own. ‘Fucking moron!’

The driver hesitated and braked again. Holly could see him looking at them in the rear-view, then Kyle drove right up on his tail and blasted the horn.

‘Yeah, that’ll help,’ Holly said.

‘Where’d you get your licence, fool?’ Kyle shouted at the windscreen.

‘Just go around,’ Holly said.

‘The rules say he’s supposed to pull to the left. Dickhead!’

‘So you’re going to force him off the road to teach him? Nice one,’ Holly said. ‘Just go around!’

The driver braked again and dithered to the left a little. Kyle swung out on the right and roared past him with a final blare of the horn. ‘Fuckwit!’

Holly felt a headache coming on, a tight band across her forehead. She opened the case-sheet folder and turned to a new page.
What a day this is shaping up to be.

Kyle took the next right and doglegged into Mortlake. His face was red and tight. ‘You put the pathology job on your application?’

‘You work for HR now?’ She put down the folder and pulled on fresh gloves.
He can’t find out, and he can’t prove it.
‘A transfer might be an idea, actually. As a paramedic you’re shite.’

He went redder, and turned into Tennyson Road.

She saw a group of people waving in the gutter and picked up the mike. ‘Seventeen’s on scene.’

‘Thanks, Seventeen,’ Control said.

Kyle pulled up next to the group and Holly went to get out.

‘You better be careful.’ His eyes were mean and flat.

‘Thanks for the warning, but the scene looks perfectly safe to me.’

She got out and grabbed gear from the back and crouched trembling by the crying girl sitting in the gutter.
Focus.
‘Hi, I’m Holly. What’s your name?’

*

Holly managed to do the case without saying a word to Kyle, but she felt his eyes on her as she knelt to apply a splint and icepack then sling to the child’s arm, as she sat in the back of the ambulance and talked to both her and her anxious mother, as she climbed out of the back at RGH before pulling out the stretcher; eyes crawling over her body like cockroaches.

She gave the nurse a handover, helped the girl wriggle one-armed onto the hospital bed, said goodbye to her and her mother, then walked out to the desk to finish the case sheet. Kyle wheeled the stretcher out of the cubicle, then parked it by the wall. She watched from the corner of her eye as he whispered with a young male nurse by the computer.

‘Holly,’ he said. ‘Come here.’

‘I’m busy.’

‘You might want to see this.’

‘I can’t imagine why,’ she said.

‘It’s about your friend from yesterday. The one you locked lips with.’

Now she looked, wanting to say, ‘He didn’t die’, wanting to say nothing at all.

Kyle was serious-faced. The nurse beside him, a pimply-cheeked, black-haired barrel-shape whose nametag said Dane, kept his eyes fixed on the monitor.

Holly hesitated, then walked over.

Kyle pressed his finger to the glass. ‘Little scumbag’s got Hep C.’

Holly searched the screen for a ward location and saw the word ‘discharged’. They’d let him go. He was fine.

‘Better get yourself checked,’ Kyle said.

She looked past him to Dane. ‘Hospital policy lets you share confidential information now, does it?’

He shrugged. ‘It’s Sunday. There’re no bosses around.’

‘It’s for good medical reasons,’ Kyle said. ‘You need to know what you were exposed to. What you need to get tested for.’

That fucking smirk.

‘I’ve been vaccinated.’

‘I’ll bet you have,’ Kyle said.

She stared at him. ‘Like we all have in the job.’

‘Yeah, I know,’ he said. ‘What did you think I meant?’

She turned and walked away.

‘You can get a booster though,’ Dane called.

‘Might be an idea,’ Kyle said, a laugh in his voice. ‘In case your immunity’s been worn down somehow.’

Hot with anger and sick with fear, she signed the case sheet, tore out the hospital copy and left it on the desk, then went outside into the blinding sunlight. She yanked her mobile from her pocket and called Norris.

‘Hey,’ he said. ‘Sorry about this morning. I didn’t mean to make you feel bad.’

‘I’m sorry about your owl,’ she said.

‘It was cracked anyway,’ he said. ‘Are you okay? You sound funny.’

‘I’m having a really crappy day.’ She fought to hide the tremble in her voice.

‘Oh, honey. Was it a bad case?’

‘Sort of.’ She swallowed hard. ‘I’ve got a headache too. I’m thinking I might come home.’

‘Um, okay, yeah. That’d be good, actually.’

She knew his voice, recognised unease. ‘What’s going on?’

‘Don’t flip out,’ Norris said. ‘I know you said you didn’t want Seth here, but he came past to meet me, just to say hi, and we got talking, and I said he may as well stay for a bit . . .’

‘He came over anyway and he’s still there now?’ A black wall fell across her avenue of escape.

‘We had a swim,’ Norris said. ‘And we were just talking about lunch. If you come home we could all have a barbie together.’

Holly couldn’t speak. Her spare hand was a tight and trembling fist.

‘He might’ve been different when you were kids, but he seems a nice guy now,’ Norris said. ‘He’s even got some friends he reckons might be interested in Pennington Place.’

‘No,’ Holly said. ‘No fucking way. You do not want to get involved with him.’

‘Baby, it’s Pennington. You know what the commission would be on that? Not to mention the kudos I’d get, selling what everyone else reckons is Sydney’s biggest white elephant.’

‘I’m telling you, if you have any sense at all you’ll stay away.’

‘Sweetheart,’ he said. ‘You don’t know them. You can’t really even know him, it’s been so long.’

‘And you know nothing at all.’ She was so angry that red spots flashed in her vision. ‘Make him leave, then forget everything he told you.’

‘Sweetheart,’ he said again, an edge creeping into his voice. ‘I’m not going to do that.’

‘Then we have nothing to talk about.’ She pressed the end button, then rang Lacey.

‘
Hi, you know who you’ve called, and you know what to do.
’

Holly heard the doors open behind her and the rattle of the stretcher.

‘It’s me,’ she said quickly into the phone. ‘Everything’s fucked. Where are you? Call me back as soon as you can.’

Kyle opened the ambulance’s back door and loaded the stretcher. ‘Ringing someone for support? It’s a bit of a shock, I guess.’

Holly stuffed her phone away and got in the passenger seat without a word.

‘I mean,’ he said, climbing into the back and sitting in the resus chair, close to the back of her head, ‘to know that you’ve been exposed to a potentially fatal disease like that would be really scary.’

She stared at a wardsman pushing an empty wheelchair across the ambulance bay, her nerves tight, her muscles tense.

‘But then I guess you’re used to it.’

You could tell Control you’re sick and just go for a drive instead of going home. Or to a movie. Or anywhere.

‘Aren’t you?’ he said.

But that felt like defeat.

She reached for the microphone. She heard Kyle move on the seat to come closer, smelled his stale breath, felt it in her hair. ‘Seventeen is clear at Concord.’

Kyle said, ‘We know each other, don’t we?’

‘I saw you fuck up a line yesterday, if that’s what you mean.’

‘Do you think that’s what I mean?’

‘I honestly have no clue.’ She pressed the mike button again. ‘Seventeen is clear.’

‘You know very well.’ Kyle’s breath was like a spider web across her cheek. ‘You know, and I know, but I bet nobody else does, do they?’

Her heart thudded in her ears. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’ She raised the mike again. ‘Seventeen.’

‘I hear you, Seventeen. Just stand by,’ Control said.

Kyle said, ‘You might want to think about how badly you want to keep your secret.’

She looked at him. ‘Still no clue.’

‘Consider what it’s worth to you.’ His stare was greedy.

She fixed her eyes hard on his.
Don’t falter now.
‘I’ve got nothing to hide.’

He smiled. ‘We’ll see.’

*

After the post-mortem Ella tossed the unmarked’s keys at Murray so she could phone Dennis herself about the bystanders’ handiwork.

‘The doc said it was the only real possibility,’ she finished.

‘Interesting,’ Dennis said. ‘We’re getting some response on the public hotline about them, so with a bit of luck we’ll find them.’

Luck will have nothing to do with it
, Ella thought. ‘You want us to get onto those leads?’

‘No, keep on to see Trina and check that timing she gave you yesterday,’ Dennis said.

Ella covered the mouthpiece and said, ‘Trina’s place,’ to Murray. ‘Anything on the playground lurker?’ she asked Dennis.

‘We found the dog walker. She said she was in the park at around half past eleven, give or take ten minutes either way – she’s not too sure because she didn’t have a watch and she’d been walking for a while. Her dog’s a Border Collie cross and it was off the leash and ran up to a man standing near the playground. He seemed terrified and she was trying to call her dog back, then had to go closer before it would come to her. She said the man swore at her, but as dogs are meant to be on a leash there she felt it was perhaps deserved. She said he had short brown hair and a long face and was wearing pale blue jeans and a blue T-shirt. He looked to be in his thirties. There was a long black sports bag on the ground next to him.’

‘How long was the bag?’ Ella said.

‘She thought long enough for a cricket bat.’

‘That could be the shooter,’ Ella said. ‘The whole dog thing fits with what was said in the phone intercept. You sure you don’t want us on this?’

‘Nope,’ he said. ‘It’s Trina for you.’

*

They got lunch on the way. Murray drove one-handed, lettuce falling out of his sandwich onto his suit pants. Ella’s phone rang as she was wiping dressing off her hands.

‘Marconi.’

‘Ship-to-shore here,’ her father boomed. ‘Ahoy to you!’

‘Hi, Dad. How’s it going?’

‘All shipshape here on the high seas. Or should that be low seas? We were looking at a map this morning and we’re a long way south of you.’

‘I thought the itinerary had you going ashore today?’

‘We did,’ he said. ‘We went to a winery but we’re back on board now. Your mother’s lying down. Wink, wink. Adelina, of course, is as sober as a judge.’

They were nearing Trina’s place in Belfield. ‘I’m glad you had a good time, but I have to go.’

‘You’re on a case? A good one?’

‘You betcha,’ she said.

‘I better ring that machine of yours and leave another long message so I’ll feel that we had a decent chat. You can listen when you get home. This is ship-to-shore saying ciao.’

‘Bye.’ She pressed the button to end the call and glanced at Murray who was brushing lettuce onto the floor. ‘How’s your dad?’

He looked over warily as if assessing her motive in asking. ‘Better.’

‘Good,’ she said. ‘I’m glad.’ And she really was.

He braked for a red. ‘In fact, he’s starting to get riled that we haven’t caught the doer yet.’

That wasn’t hard for Ella to imagine. ‘It’s surely just a matter of time.’

‘That’s what I tell him.’ Murray slowed to turn into the townhouse estate. ‘Kuiper’s accident shouldn’t have any effect either.’

‘What accident?’

Kirk Kuiper had been their boss in Homicide at one time but had since moved out to Bankstown.

‘Came off his motorbike last night on the way home,’ Murray said. ‘Broke his leg in two places. He’ll be in traction for a month.’

‘Shit.’ Ella looked across the lawn and crowded pool to Trina’s house. The visitor’s space next to it was empty. ‘Who’s his replacement?’

‘Wayne.’

‘Oh,’ she said. Wayne Rhodes was her ex-boyfriend and currently an acting-inspector in the Bankstown Local Area Command. Ella knew Murray knew about their relationship. Cops were professional busybodies and always had a handle on their colleagues’ business. ‘That’s good. He’ll do a good job.’

‘Yeah,’ Murray said. ‘I think so too.’

She glanced at him, but he wasn’t smirking. She smiled briefly and he smiled back.

She unclipped her seatbelt. ‘Let’s do this.’

Three bunches of wilting flowers lay on Trina Fowler’s doorstep. Ella leaned over them to knock on the closed door. No response. Kids splashed and shouted in the pool behind them, and Ella knocked again, harder.