Chapter 20 #2
‘He came to the counter one time before the time we saw him with Chloe,’ Fry said. ‘Ordered one drink, alone at the bar. Two trips, two drinks. Pays with cash. Never appears on the cameras again.’
‘Anyone in the beer garden remember him?’
‘No.’
‘The girls who served him at the bar?’
‘It was the same girl both times. I’ve taken her statement, but she knows you’ll want to speak with her.’
‘What was Chloe working on?’ I asked. No answer. ‘In your door-knocks, did you come across anyone in town who knew she was coming? Anyone who expected to meet with her?’
‘No.’
‘Where are her laptop and phone?’
‘Both the laptop and the phone lost signal at approximately 11.41 p.m.,’ Dodge read from his phone.
‘Who told you that?’ I asked.
‘I’ve been working with Gail Caplan, trying to get into Chloe’s accounts,’ Dodge said. ‘About fifteen minutes ago, she told me Apple sent her through some information. Not all of it. Not everything we want. But they triangulated the phone and laptop when the signal went out, and gave us a time.’
‘Where were they located when they blinked out?’
‘In Redbelly.’
‘You got nothing more specific than that?’
‘No,’ Dodge said. ‘They were only able to pinpoint the signal using one mobile phone tower and one satellite. So it’s vague. Looks like he turned both devices off as soon as he killed her.’
‘Or she turned them off before she went to sleep,’ Lee suggested.
‘Young people don’t turn things off,’ Fry said.
‘The accounts,’ I asked. ‘When do we get access?’
‘Superintendent Caplan said she’d let both you and I know “the very millisecond” they come in,’ Dodge said. ‘Her words.’
I let a long silence fan out. Lee and Kalowski and Knowles and Fry and Dodge were all looking how I wanted them to look: pissed off, under-appreciated and tired.
‘Motive,’ I said. ‘We don’t have a motive.
That’s a problem. Whoever did this wanted Ms Lutz dead.
Ms Lutz specifically, and no one else. No one more easily available.
Because Ms Lutz was hard to get to. She was in her room.
Okay? You fuckers listening? Chloe Lutz was behind at least two locked doors, and getting to her without being seen going up those external stairs would have taken patience and immaculate timing.
We need to understand why it had to be her. Why the risk was worth the reward.’
No one spoke.
‘Whoever did this,’ I said, ‘they either knew her and wanted her dead, or didn’t know her and wanted her dead.
Whether it’s the first or the second possibility, the attack was deliberately targeted.
So, let’s run down the idea that they didn’t know her.
That this was a chance meeting. Her sitting out in the beer garden like that, working.
It’s a spectacle. You wouldn’t look twice at a young woman working on her laptop while she eats dinner at a pub in Sydney.
But this is a rural pub. Everyone else there last night was having a good time.
And there she is, ignoring everyone, tapping away, in her own little world. ’
‘That’s most likely why the boys noticed her.
’ Dodge nodded. ‘It was an odd sight. And maybe you’re right, maybe it was an upsetting sight.
I can imagine being one of the local labourers from around here: you’ve spent all day hosing out someone’s septic tank or clearing the dead rats out of their horse stables so you can rub a couple of pennies together to buy a beer.
Then you have to sit there while you have that beer watching this cute city kid with her book smarts and her laptop. ’
‘Knowing she’s probably earning five times what you do,’ Fry added. ‘And even when someone’s tried to be friendly to her, she’s brushed him off. Maybe that annoyed someone. Maybe it annoyed Branchy—Mr Branch, I mean.’
‘I’d brush Branchy off.’ Kalowski’s mouth twisted. ‘He gives me the creeps.’
‘What?’ Lee’s voice was high. ‘Ole Branchy? You’re kidding. He’s all right. He played Santa Claus at the Maroota Fair last year.’
‘Case in point.’ Kalowski shuddered.
‘You’re crazy.’
‘No, there’s something there with that guy. Underneath the surface. You can see it in his eyes. Or I can, at least.’
‘You’ve never said anything about it.’
‘Why would I? Nobody believes me.’
‘That’s because we’ve all met your ex.’ Lee smiled. ‘We know that judging character is not your special talent.’
Kalowski rolled her eyes. Knowles folded his arms when he saw my face.
‘Look, we get it, detective. We get what you’re saying about us being familiar with the suspects we have out here, but that’s just how it is.
Stephen Branch is a friendly figure about town.
Well loved. Makes people laugh. He does amazing impressions. ’
‘That’s right.’ Lee grinned.
‘He does a great Dolly Parton.’ Dodge looked at me sheepishly, trying to steer the ship back on course.
‘Some of the local boys, they have domestic violence or male-on-female assaults on their records. Not Branch, as far as I’m aware, but I’ll check.
We can interview them in the morning. Ask for DNA swabs. ’
‘Run that as a rumour, tonight,’ I said.
‘Down at the pub. You four, get down there, among the crowd. Just for an hour. Let it be known that we’re going to swab everyone who was at the pub last night, and that we’ll be door-knocking again and asking for swabs tomorrow morning.
That should drum up some panic. Are your out-of-town coppers at the pub yet? ’
Dodge nodded, whipping out his phone. ‘I’ve got five officers down there, listening. Two from Cessnock, three from Katoomba.’
‘Make sure they all stay until closing.’ I turned back to the women at the deck rail. ‘Who was on traffic cams?’
‘That would be Senior Sergeant Powder,’ Dodge said. ‘He said he’d bring the list when he arrives back in town.’
‘We need to decide how we’re going to divide the night up,’ Fry said. Knowles glanced achingly at his watch. ‘Who takes first shift and who takes relief.’
‘No, there’ll be no shifts,’ I said. ‘We push on. No one sleeps.’
I looked out across the barbecue area. Five sets of eyes watching me. Cops who hadn’t worked a real murder maybe ever, staring down a cop who had been dealing with one weekly for the past seven or eight years. ‘Don’t tell me you’re surprised.’
‘Well—’
‘A young woman was just murdered in your town. The sun is about to set and you still don’t have a clue who the fucker is.
This is a race, and you’re all behind. You’re falling further behind by the second.
So, while the killer sleeps tonight, you catch up.
Knocking on more doors. Making more phone calls.
Walking the scene. You are going to do those interviews, and you are going to take those swabs.
But they won’t be tomorrow morning. They’ll be tonight.
I’m not blind. I can see you’re tired. Guess what?
I don’t give a fuck. A couple of nights of lost sleep is the minimum you owe to Chloe Lutz for letting her get stabbed to death on your turf.
So, smash a case of Red Bull. Do a line of coke.
I don’t care. The longer we go on without a solid suspect, the harder and faster you need to work. ’
The officers all glanced at each other. I stood, and they seemed to get the message that the meeting was over.
‘And stop treating everyone in town like your mate,’ I said. ‘There are no mates here.’
I heard some mutterings in the wheelhouse as the officers left.
A dread-heavy laugh. Dodge remained at the boat rail, trying to drag that utility belt up, and with it every ounce of his manhood.
He gave the resigned sigh of a man who knows he’s about to get bitten by the snake he’s trying to remove from under a car seat.
‘Okay. Look. Detective, we need to have a little chat.’
‘What is it, Dodge?’ I didn’t take my eyes off the text I was typing to Gail.
‘I can’t have you talking to my staff like that.’
‘Like what? Like I’m pissed? Like I expected more of them than they’ve given me in the past eight hours? Frankly, I’d have expected more from the Scooby-Doo crew than this pack of no-hopers. Apologies for not handing out certificates of appreciation.’
‘You don’t actually mean any of that.’ Dodge was watching me.
I put down the phone and looked at him. ‘My team’s performance has been pretty reasonable, given their limited experience with homicide and the time they’ve had to work on this case.
You’re being an A-grade dickhead to them, and to me, because you’re trying to maintain some distance. ’
‘It doesn’t seem to be working.’
‘You need to dial it the fuck down,’ Dodge snapped.
A tingle of excitement entered my brain.
I took a step closer to Dodge. I towered a good foot above him, and most men.
But the move had no effect. ‘Nobody here wants to get into your business, Detective Inspector Powder. Nobody is trying to be your friend. So you can stop snarling at us. Okay? Because we’re already convinced—well and truly convinced—that you’re not worth the trouble. ’
‘Is that right?’ I asked. ‘You’ve got me worked out, have you, Dodge?’
‘More or less,’ he said. ‘In my experience, dogs don’t do this much barking unless they’re protecting something. And I’m here to tell you: whatever it is? Nobody’s interested.’
He held my eyes for a while. The growing night howled around us, open and dark and speckled with the first of the evening’s stars. A peacock cried down at the pub, a sound remarkably similar to a call for help. The silence in its wake felt lonely.
Dodge announced he was going to the pub, and I watched him go.
When I got downstairs, Bridie was sitting at her laptop at the little kitchen nook, her back rigid and eyes following me in.
There were two coffee cups on the table before her.
She pointed to one that was full. I felt like a dog being shown its bowl, went and gulped down a big mouthful before I’d even taken a seat.
I was mindful as I eased in beside my daughter not to crack my skull on a row of high cabinets above the portholes, cabinets that I knew in my soul I was going to forget were there and bean myself on at some point.
The coffee was good. The previous night spent up doing damage control for being a ‘punch-happy sack of shit’ was catching up with me, along with the heaviness of my responsibilities here in Redbelly Crossing.
My promise to Larry Lutz that I always got my man.
‘What happened with the roo?’ I asked Bridie, resisting the urge to reach over and pull her to me and hold her. ‘Any luck?’
‘It was male.’
‘Oh.’
‘I’ve been here finding out about Chloe.’
‘You got anything good?’
‘Yeah,’ Bridie said. She swivelled her laptop towards me. ‘I think she’d pissed off a serial killer.’