Chapter Eleven
As soon as Judith arrived at the station on Friday morning, she was called into Rocky’s office.
Waiting with him was Superintendent Deborah Sawhill.
Judith had seen Sawhill many times. They’d passed each other in corridors, and Judith had attended more than one briefing where Sawhill had been centre stage, but really she only knew the other woman by professional reputation.
Sawhill was widely believed to be stone cold, ruthlessly ambitious, and more than willing to walk over a colleague if it got her to where she wanted to go.
Of course, people talked a lot of shit about senior officers, so that reputation was probably exaggerated.
Probably.
Sawhill looked more like a lawyer than a cop. Her hair was white blonde, her eyes pale blue. She wore light make-up, a slim leather watch, and a suit.
‘Judith? Good to meet you finally. Close the door, would you?’
They stood in an awkward circle of three; Rocky’s small office had them almost on top of each other. Judith would have backed up if she could. There was nowhere she could go. Rocky had given her one meaningful look as she’d entered the room and was now avoiding eye contact.
‘The Alexis Turner case seems to be generating considerable attention,’ Sawhill said.
‘I’m told there’s a lot of online chatter.
There was an article in The Australian this morning, speculating that Robert Walker might be the target of an investigation.
’ Her tone was mild and unthreatening. If Rocky’s unspoken warning hadn’t put Judith on alert, Sawhill’s we’re all mates together vibe certainly did.
Judith raised an eyebrow. ‘Oh? I haven’t seen it. Walker’s mentioned by name?’
‘With a lot of caveats and references to unproven rumours, yes.’ Sawhill’s body language was casual but her eyes were sharp and watchful.
‘Interesting,’ Judith said.
‘You didn’t have anything to do with that?’
‘With what?’
‘The story.’
Someone had to have tipped Sawhill off about the Australian piece. The story wasn’t that big yet, Russo’s second article had been buried deep, nowhere near the front page.
‘No,’ Judith said. ‘Of course not.’ She managed to sound a little offended.
‘Okay. That’s fine.’
‘I can’t say I’m sorry it’s happened. The online chatter is drawing other women out,’ Judith said.
She glanced at Rocky, trying again to read him, unsure how much she should say.
‘I reached out to two women who’d posted on social media about having encounters with Walker.
One of them called me yesterday evening.
I’ve set up a meeting with her for next week.
’ The first message had come in the form of a DM over social media.
It had taken half an hour of messaging back and forth to persuade the woman—Hilary—to speak over the phone.
‘She’ll give evidence?’
‘I didn’t push her on that yet, but from what she describes, Walker uses the same MO every time. Tells them they need to relax, massages the shoulders, then moves on from there.’
Sawhill nodded. ‘The more complainants you can gather, the better. With men like this, there’s always more than one.’
Judith thought about telling Sawhill that Alexis Turner had disappeared, and decided against it. She was still hopeful that she could track the young woman down.
‘I want to be kept in the loop on this case, Detective,’ Sawhill said.
Her eyes were hard. ‘We’ve already had a formal complaint from Walker’s lawyer.
To the effect that you have been too zealous with this investigation.
That your approach borders on harassment. Rocky assures me that’s not the case.’
‘Absolutely not the case, Ma’am.’
Sawhill gave her a measuring look. ‘I haven’t seen any evidence of it myself.
And I’ll back you up, Judith, as long as I am absolutely confident that you are playing the game inside the lines.
But this is going to be a high-profile case.
Everything you do will be subject to scrutiny.
You need to take care. Do you understand me? ’
Judith glanced at Rocky. ‘I do.’
Sawhill gave a tight nod. ‘That’s your first and only warning.’ She left the room. Rocky closed the door behind her.
‘Jesus,’ Judith said. ‘What was that about?’
Rocky gave her a long look. ‘What do you think it’s about?
You think Deborah Sawhill decided that what she really needed to work on, first thing on a Friday morning, was a sexual assault case?
You think she typically shows up at my door and pulls in one of my detectives with no explanation?
Come on, Judith. That had Eddie Fraser’s fingerprints all over it.
He knows you’re buddy-buddy with that journo at The Australian.
He tipped Sawhill off. He’s screwing with you. ’
‘You’re paranoid.’ Judith said almost automatically, to buy herself time to think.
‘Maybe it’s just what she said it is. Vanessa Walker has a profile.
People will be talking about this.’ Any number of people could have mentioned the article to Sawhill, and even if Rocky was right, if Eddie Fraser had leaned on Sawhill to put pressure on Judith, what did it matter?
It was just more of the same game. A little reminder to her that he was there.
But she was smarter than the Eddie Frasers of the world.
He was a dinosaur, long past his prime. He couldn’t touch her.
Couldn’t fire her. Couldn’t discipline her. Not if she was careful.
‘This is not about Vanessa Walker!’ Rocky said, raising his voice. With an obvious effort, he lowered it again. ‘I told you. He’ll take your career if he can. Listen to me. Sawhill just asked me about Gerry. She asked about your stepfather.’
Judith froze. The name was an ice cube run between her shoulder blades.
‘What did she say?’
‘She wanted to know what happened. All the little details. How sure I was that you acted in self-defence.’
‘It’s ancient history,’ Judith said. And she’d been a teenager. A juvenile. Her file was sealed. Not that that mattered when you were police. There was always a way.
‘You can bet your arse she’s asking because Eddie’s been spreading the story around.’
‘It isn’t a secret,’ Judith said. ‘People know. They’ve always known.’
‘You can make even old news fresh again if you add a new angle. He’s going to want people to think you’re impulsive.
Dangerous. That you can’t be trusted. He wants Luke’s arrest to look like it was all about you losing it, going off on one, so he’s bringing up your ancient history, giving it some spin. ’
‘Luke was on meth, Rocky.’
‘I know that. Right now, that’s what’s saving you.’
‘It’s not going away. Those tests are on the record.’
‘I know.’
‘So? What exactly is Eddie going to do? Fire me? On the basis of something that happened when I was fifteen years old? Something that has always been known? Give me a break.’
Rocky shook his head. ‘I’m just telling you, Sawhill coming down here, checking up on you, it isn’t just good case management.’
‘Okay. Fine. I hear you.’ She was working hard to seem unconcerned, but the barrage of warnings was beginning to have an effect.
Judith felt a growing tension at the base of her stomach, across her shoulders, in the tightness of her neck.
She resented it. Hated the feeling that she was a under a microscope and there was nothing she could do about it.
‘This case, this sexual assault case, is there something I should know?’
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘You told me, the morning you met your complainant, that you had your own reasons for taking the case.’
‘Yes.’
‘And now you’re tipping off journalists.’
‘Yeah.’
Rocky went quiet. He was waiting. Judith raised her eyes to meet his.
‘Ten years ago a girl came to me with a complaint about Walker. Her story was essentially the same—Walker had assaulted her in a consultation. I wasn’t able to help her.’
‘And this is your chance to make things right.’
‘Yeah.’
Rocky sighed. ‘Okay. I get it. Just take it easy. And promise me you’re going to be careful.’
* * *
Judith went to her desk. She had work to do.
First she arranged to get her bike picked up for repair, and a loaner bike dropped off.
Then she got a coffee and logged in to her terminal and tried to read through the latest report on the Haddad murder case.
ANPR cameras had caught the car the murderer had used as it passed through the EastLink toll gantry at Mitcham.
The car had later been found burned out in Ravenhall.
Judith struggled to concentrate, to draw conclusions from what she was reading.
It was no good. She was thoroughly distracted.
She gave up on the Haddad case, and turned her attention fully to Alexis Turner.
She called the technical desk. The call was answered by Claire Holdsworth, an officer Judith had met only once before in person, at drinks celebrating someone’s retirement.
She’d spoken to Claire only briefly, as she’d been distracted by Luke Fraser, who’d been holding court in the corner, getting drunk and boasting about all his wonderful achievements.
‘Claire, how are you?’
Claire Holdsworth was originally from Yorkshire.
She was in her early twenties, and had an abundance of red curly hair that she hated and that most other women envied.
She had a reputation as a very good forensics analyst. The day before, Judith had asked her to run a search on the email address Alexis Turner had used, to try to trace the IP address.
‘I don’t have much for you, I’m afraid. There wasn’t much in the header.
Gmail stripped the IP address—they usually do.
I’ve got timestamps, not much else. I did run an open source search, and I found nothing, which tells us that maybe this address is very new.
It hasn’t been used for anything else in the past. No social media sign-ups, nothing like that. ’