Violent Exposure (35 page)

‘So what are we thinking?’ Steve Mitchell said. ‘Oberon went there with Emil? Why?’

‘And then Connor flipped out?’ Bianca Kent asked.

‘So who did the stabbing and how come only Suzanne was mortally wounded?’ Daniel Farley said.

‘She had to have come into it late,’ Ella said. ‘She was
only wearing boxers. No way she’s opening the door or coming downstairs like that if she knows someone other than Connor is there.’

‘Was Oberon just trying to be helpful?’ Hepburn asked on the phone.

‘I can’t see it,’ Dennis said. ‘We know he called Locke on Maguire’s phone, therefore it was more than likely him using it to talk to Emil. That means he lied to us about when they’d last spoken.’

Ella said, ‘Weasel.’

‘The stabbing was deliberate,’ Lauren Macy said. ‘Who wanted Suzanne dead and why?’

‘It might’ve been punishment for someone else,’ Ella said. ‘Made to watch a loved one die. If Connor is really Robert, and Oberon blames him for the fire, maybe he’s getting his revenge.’

‘But where does Emil fit in?’

‘Oberon might’ve gone off the deep end all those years ago,’ Dennis said.
‘Screws might never have tightened back up.’

They were silent for a moment, then Ella said, ‘So where is Connor now?’

‘Dead or being tortured?’ Lauren Macy said.

Ella looked over at the house, silent in the afternoon sunshine. ‘We need the warrant.’

Daniel Farley stared down the street. ‘But he could be anywhere in the city.’

‘Tasks,’ Dennis said. ‘Steve and Bianca, go talk to Gus Bielecki,
find out if he did tell Oberon about Emil’s plan, how well he knows Oberon, and if he has any clue about friends or places he goes. Daniel and Laurel, you head back to the hospital and talk to Jesse Locke about the same stuff. David and Michael, you do the neighbours then sit on the house. Pete, mate,’ he said to the phone, ‘find everything you can on this guy. And Ella, let’s you and me go see
our mate Angie again.’

*

Connor’s hands screamed at him to stop but his life hung on the meagre tail of tape he held between his first and second fingers. He peeled it back, slowly, carefully, his forearm cramping with the effort. His wrist was numb and his hand was sticky with blood, but he concentrated hard, picturing the tail turning into a long, unwinding strip that would lead to his freedom.

It felt looser. He sped up, thinking his effort at twisting his wrists had actually worked, and knowing that the whisperer could come back any second, then the tail came off in his fingers.

No.

He felt it. One end. The other end. The strip he’d worked so hard for was about ten centimetres long. He was no closer to freedom than before.

‘No!’

He strained desperately against the tape around his
torso and legs. He couldn’t believe it would end like this, with him completely vulnerable and useless, sitting there waiting until the whisperer came back to stab or shoot or strangle him. He’d somehow thought all along that he would escape, that he’d free himself and be able to get away or at least fight back.

But I couldn’t do it for Suzanne, so why should I be allowed to do it for myself?

It was payback really.

He had just one option left.

Admit what he’d done and ask for mercy.

His chance was slight, because John had been nurturing this hate for almost twenty years, but it was still a chance, and a chance was hope.

Wasn’t it?

*

Angie looked like she was going to faint just as Miranda Page had done. ‘You’re saying what?’

Miranda Page.
The name set a bell clanging in Ella’s
mind and she grabbed Dennis’s sleeve. ‘What did Miranda tell you about John?’

He frowned.

‘I can’t believe this.’ Angie slumped back into her chair and fanned her face with a folder. ‘How can you think one of my staff would actually kill one of my boys and someone else as well?’

Dennis shook his head at Ella. ‘I can’t remember.’

‘There was something.’ She tried to think.

Angie was shaking
her head too. ‘This is preposterous.’

‘What do you know about John Oberon’s background?’ Dennis said.

‘Well, he has a degree in social work –’

‘More of the personal angle to start with.’

She huffed. ‘He had a hard time, lost some of his family in tragic circumstances, I’m not sure exactly what though, he didn’t talk about it but we all knew something had happened, you know? He told me once
he’d suffered with depression and even addiction for a while –’

‘Addiction,’ Ella said. ‘Hard drugs? Injecting?’

‘I believe so,’ Angie said. ‘He hit rock-bottom, as people do, and decided to turn it all around. Got healthy, got fit, went to university, really believes in his work. You can see it in his eyes when he tells the kids that anyone can straighten their life out if they want it badly
enough.’

Ella frowned.

‘It’s true,’ Angie said.

‘I’m thinking of something else,’ Ella said. Dennis had told her that Miranda had mentioned John in a specific context – but what was it? ‘John and Miranda Page got on well, did they?’

‘I believe so,’ Angie said. ‘I think both he and Gus liked to update her on Emil’s progress.’

‘Any idea what else they may have spoken about?’

Angie shook her
head.

‘Who are John’s friends?’

‘I’d say we are,’ she said, ‘although, to be honest, it’s not like we go to each other’s houses or anything like that.’

‘And outside of here?’

‘He never mentioned any other friends,’ she said.

She started to cry. She obviously knew nothing else helpful. Ella was sure that Miranda, on the other hand, had told them something important.

She turned to Dennis.
‘What
did
Miranda say?’

‘I really don’t remember.’ She stood up. ‘Let’s go.’

Ella drove to Annandale while Dennis fielded phone calls reporting in about the talks with Gus Bielecki and Jesse Locke. ‘Nobody knew much about him,’ he said after he’d hung up.

‘Why doesn’t that surprise me?’

Dennis rang David and Michael but they’d seen no sign of Oberon at his house and got nothing useful from
the neighbours. ‘Usual story,’ he said, closing his phone. ‘A nice man who keeps to himself.’

Ella nodded. ‘Like you said, it’s always the quiet ones.’

It was getting on in the afternoon, and Ella thought about Connor/Robert, maybe dead, maybe alive, out there . . . somewhere.

So many possible locations.

A
t Miranda Page’s house, Ella pressed the bell long and hard. Dennis tried to see in the windows. When there was no answer he went to the side and tried the gate. ‘Locked.’

They each took a neighbour. There was nobody home on Ella’s side, then Dennis came back with the news that the neighbour on his side had seen Miranda go out in her car half an hour ago.

‘He said she’d told him she
needed a few things for dinner – offered to pick up bread and whatever for him too if he needed it – and wasn’t going to be long.’

‘So we wait,’ Ella said. ‘Or do we have a mobile number for her?’

Dennis called Hepburn. While he was talking, Ella’s own phone rang. She saw her parents’ number on the screen.

‘Hi, Mum.’

‘Oh, Ella.’

An icy hand squeezed Ella’s heart. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘Dad’s in
hospital. Can you come?’

‘What happened?’

‘Please, just come.’ Ella hung up, shaking, and told Dennis.

‘Go,’ Dennis said. ‘Steve’s coming past. I’ll be fine. You just go.’

RPA wasn’t far. Ella resisted the temptation to switch on the unmarked’s lights and siren. She tore into the grounds and parked in the police-only bay then hurried into the Emergency Department.

He’s got cancer he’s dying
oh my God he’s dying he might already have died Mum mightn’t have wanted to tell me on the phone I’ll walk in here and take one look at her face and I’ll know oh God please at least let me say goodbye.

The nurse on the desk was friendly and recognised her surname. ‘Follow me.’

He didn’t seem sombre. So far, so good.

Ella followed him through the maze of curtained beds, her hands sweating, her
heart skipping beats, her brain seeming short of oxygen.

‘Here you go.’ He peeked into a cubicle then motioned her in.

‘Thanks,’ she managed to say, then braced herself and walked inside.

Netta was dozing in a chair, Franco was snoring in the bed. Ella stood there for a moment and smiled at them. If they could sleep then everything was fine. She moved to the bedside and stroked the back of
her father’s arm.

He opened his eyes and smiled at her. ‘You’re here.’

‘Where else would I be?’

Netta woke up with a start. ‘Hello, darling, how’s the case?’

‘How’re you?’ Ella said to Franco. ‘What happened?’

‘We were driving to see Adelina and I started to feel funny,’ he said.

‘Scared the life out of me,’ Netta said. ‘He just passed out. His face was all white then grey and purple. I
stopped in the middle of the road. Some nice people came and helped, then an ambulance arrived and brought us here.’

‘I woke up on a stretcher,’ Franco said. ‘Very strange feeling, that.’

‘So what caused it?’

‘They’ve done some blood tests but we haven’t heard,’ Netta said. ‘We’re just waiting.’

‘Give me a minute.’ Ella stepped out of the cubicle and looked around. She knew one of the senior
nurses here well enough to get a surreptitious heads-up on a diagnosis. She saw two younger nurses in uniform frowning at an IV pump, then past them what seemed like a familiar figure in a white coat.

Callum?

No. Couldn’t be. Last she’d heard he was still an MP, and even if he had come back to medicine, he worked with kids, didn’t he? So he was hardly likely to be here in Emergency.

But people
move around.

They did, it was true. But the man was out of sight now and Ella sure as shit wasn’t going to go bolting after him.

She walked to the nurses’ desk but couldn’t spot her friend. One of the younger ones said, ‘Can I help you?’

‘Just wondering, please, if I could find out what’s wrong with my dad, Franco Marconi?’

The nurse smiled. ‘The doctor will be with you soon.’

Yeah, sure.
Ella knew a brush-off when she heard it. But the place was busy, and the important thing was that he was awake and smiling at her, not still and cooling under a sheet.

She paused before going back into the cubicle and texted Dennis.
Dad’s fine. Anything there?

A minute later the reply arrived.
Good for dad. Miranda not home yet. Mobile rings inside house. Keep you posted.

In the cubicle, she
pulled up a chair and tried to sit still as her father sipped water from a paper cup and smiled at her over the top.

*

Mick’s good mood collapsed when he walked into the station for nightshift and found Aidan polishing the left headlight of a bright red Mini. The dayshift officers, Joe and Lauren Vandermeer, recently married and four months pregnant, stood with their arms around each other watching
him.

Lauren smiled at Mick. ‘Isn’t it a great car?’

‘Brand new,’ Joe said.

Mick came close. ‘On a trainee’s wages too. Nice.’

‘I’m a good saver.’ Aidan leaned over the bonnet and flicked a speck of dust from the paint.

The pressure rose in Mick’s throat. He went inside and grabbed his bag from his locker then climbed into the ambulance and started to check the gear. He could hear Aidan spouting
off about the car’s speed and acceleration, and Joe and Lauren making admiring noises. He tried to talk himself down, pointing out that he’d spent his stolen money that day as well, that Aidan obviously had saved up a lot to get this and the cash he took from Mick was just a top-up. And now there was a paper trail too, so if Aidan slung shit at him he could sling it straight back, but still
his chest grew tighter and he finally leaned out the door.

‘Feel like doing your job?’

Aidan muttered something snarky to Lauren but she didn’t respond. Instead, she tucked her arm through Joe’s and they crossed the floor to Mick’s ambulance. ‘We heard about Sophie,’ she said. ‘That’s pretty good.’

He nodded. ‘Best of all would’ve been if she was home tonight, but Chris is happy.’

The phone
rang and all three of them looked at their watches. One minute past six. They got to go home; Mick got to hit the road with the little turd. He gave an exaggerated sigh and they laughed, but deep inside he dreaded what the night would bring. He felt completely powerless to protect either himself and Jo or Carly, and while working with Aidan had been difficult before, now it would be excruciatingly
tense as well.

How on earth would it end?

*

Ella paced. ‘Where is this doctor?’

‘They’re busy,’ Netta said.

‘If he’s fine, they could tell us and we could take him home and free up this bed.’

‘Of course I’m fine,’ Franco said. ‘I could get up and dance.’

Ella looked out into the ward. ‘I’m going to find someone.’

‘Don’t bother them,’ Netta said. ‘They’ll be along when they’re along.’

‘Sit down again,’ Franco said.

But she couldn’t. Somewhere out there her case was coming to a point without her.

*

They did three jobs on the trot, Aidan surprising Mick with his considerate and even correct treatment of each patient, and now were transferring a stroke patient from RPA to a nursing home in Rozelle.

Aidan came up to the seat behind Mick’s head. ‘I need some more money.’

‘Really?’

‘Can’t quite cover the insurance on the ol’ Min.’

Mick smiled to himself.

‘I’ll pick it up tomorrow.’

‘It’s gone,’ Mick said.

‘What?’

‘Gone.’

Aidan said, ‘I warned you what would happen.’

‘And now I’m warning you,’ Mick said. ‘You think I wouldn’t go down without a fight? I might end up out of a job but so would you. You can kiss goodbye to that car as well, because I’ll say we were in
on it together and there’s your cut parked in the plant room. They can look at the paper trail and see a big chunk of money that came from nowhere.’