Blood Feud (25 page)

He lifted my chin with his hand so I was forced to look at him. “It’s
not
your fault, Tess. No matter what happens.”

“I shouldn’t have let him get to me. He’ll take that as a victory.”

“Any victory he’s feeling will be short-lived. He’ll be back in jail soon enough.”

“It will never be soon enough for me.”

I pulled away, needing to be by myself for a while. I headed for his gym, while he made a few phone calls and spent the rest of the afternoon on his own computer, paying bills and catching up on personal emails. Thankfully, for once none of the townsfolk bothered us with their problems. When it came closer to nightfall, after I’d checked on Dad, I thought I’d better do the right thing and ring the Super again, unsure of what my reception would be.

But when I retrieved my phone from the floor where it still lay and turned it over, the first thing I noticed was the cracked screen.

“Oh no,” I moaned to myself.

The Sarge looked up from a magazine he was reading. “What’s the matter?”

It shamed me to have to show him the broken phone. It was expensive and he’d only bought it for me a few months ago after I’d lost my previous one.

“Tessie . . .”

“Sorry, Sarge. I feel terrible.”

“You have to stop throwing your phone.”

“Sorry.”

“You are someone who can’t ever be without a phone, so it’s important you look after it.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to break it.”

He sighed with strained patience. “Give it to me. Maybe it still works.”

I handed it over and watched as he fiddled with it. For a couple of minutes, it seemed as though it would be fine, albeit with a crack in the screen that ran across in a diagonal jagged line. But then it made a couple of strange beeping noises and the screen went blank. He attempted to revive it, using an increasingly frustrated combination of buttons, but with no luck. It had died. So much for it being a smart phone.

“You’re lucky I kept my last phone,” he said, stalking off to his room to look for it.

“I’m going to use your phone to ring the Super,” I called after him.

“Don’t even think of abusing it,” he shouted over his retreating shoulder.

“Of course I’m not going to,” I said, aggrieved and fighting off a strong urge to peg the phone at his back.

“What do you want, Maguire? I’m busy,” the Super snapped, blowing smoke into the receiver.

“It’s me, ma’am, not the Sarge.”

“I don’t even want to know why you’re using his phone now, so don’t bother telling me. You’ve probably started taking a piss together too.”

“Ma’am.”

“There’s a man who wouldn’t mind flopping out Mr Happy for your personal enjoyment.”

“Stop it, ma’am,” I demanded, irritated.

“Well, if you haven’t rung me to tell me the tragic news that you and Maguire have finally played hide the sausage,
or
that you’ve captured that wild man you have running around,
or
that you’ve recaptured Red Bycraft,
or
that you’re feeling guilty and will join us tonight after all, then why the fuck have you rung me? I’m busy.”

“I thought I’d better check to see if you needed us to do anything at our end to help prepare for tonight.”

“It’s all under control,” she dismissed.

“Do all the officers know what Red looks like?”

“Yep.”

“Really? They’re not going to confuse him with one of his brothers or cousins?”

“Ten centimetre scar down the left side of his neck,” she recited, bored, taking another heavy drag on her cigarette. “Everybody fucking knows, Tessie. I’ll even prove it to you.
Bum?
”

I heard the heavy footsteps of Bum as he approached. “Yes, ma’am?”

“How can we tell that viper, Red Bycraft, from his relatives?”

“Ten centimetre scar down the left side of his neck, ma’am,” I heard Bum say immediately.

“Good man,” the Super said, momentarily proud of him. But that moment proved ephemeral. “What are you doing still hanging around my office? I didn’t ask you in here for a cappuccino and a cosy conversation about your soft cock problems. Fuck off back to work.”

“Yes, ma’am,” and heavy footsteps receded from the other side of the phone.

“Same goes for you,” she snapped into the phone at me. “I’m busy trying to justify to those mini-brained whale-wankers in the city exactly why it’s so fucking important for my officers to have patrol cars. I mean, just fuck me with a cactus, why don’t you? It would be less painful than dealing with those arseclowns all the time. So you and Sergeant Nobody-gets up-my-date-more-than-him can go find something useful to do for once instead of wasting all your time bumping uglies and bothering me.”

“Ma’am, you know very well that we don’t –”

“How about at least pretending you’re trying to apprehend your wild man?”

“Ma’am, we are, but we won’t be searching for him tonight. I’m going out, remember.”

A thoughtful silence. “Right. The tea party.”

“Hen’s party, ma’am.”

“Whatever. Is there going to be a stripper?”

“I don’t think so. I hope not. Lizzie’s not the type.” And frankly, neither was I.

“Probably will be a tea party without a stripper to liven things up. You should have been at my hen’s party. I had a stripper who was more well-hung than the
Mona Lisa
and had an arse tight enough to bounce babies off. I still haven’t told Ronnie how much I tipped him that night but he was worth every cent.”

I laughed, glad that she’d thawed a little. “Well, I was only four. It probably wouldn’t have been a good idea for me to be there.”

More inhaling and exhaling. “Tessie?” Her voice wasn’t sharp, amused or irritated this time, softer emotions showing.

“Yes, ma’am?”

“Make sure you have a good time tonight. If anyone deserves it, you do. So go dance and drink and laugh.”

“I’ll try.”

“And don’t worry about Red Bycraft. At least if he’s here in Wattling Bay, he’s not there in Horsecrap Town waiting in a dark spot for you.”

“That’s true.”

“I’ll ring you the second we’ve recaptured him.”

“Oh God, I hope so. Good luck, ma’am.”

“Put Maguire on.”

I turned to yell for him only to find him standing behind me, listening to my end of the conversation. Silently I handed his phone back to him and in return he handed me an older model phone. While I plugged in the recharger for it, he talked to the Super in a monotone that to me signalled controlled annoyance. She was probably reading him the riot act on keeping me safe tonight, something guaranteed to exasperate the both of us.

“Yes, ma’am . . . Of course I will . . . There’s no need to remind me about that . . . And me more than anybody . . .” He didn’t get to say any more or to even say goodbye as she’d obviously finished speaking with him and immediately rung off. “She sounds quite confident of recapturing Bycraft tonight.”

“Let’s hope so.”

He glanced at his watch. “Shouldn’t you be thinking about getting ready?”

“I suppose.”

“You don’t sound very excited about going out.”

“I’m not. I guess what’s happened lately has killed my enthusiasm for partying.”

“Look, just forget about Bycraft and forget about Miss Greville for one night.”

“It’s not easy to just forget about things like that. I feel as if I should be in Big Town helping out instead of at Liz’s party. I feel frivolous.”

He smiled. “You’re allowed to feel frivolous now and then.”

“I’m not really a frivolous person.”

“No, you’re not, which makes it even more important to allow yourself some frivolity occasionally.”

“If you say so.”

“I do. Now go and get ready.”

I showered, dressed, did my hair and applied my makeup. When I was ready, I came out of my room to the lounge room where he waited patiently for me.

He frowned when he set eyes on me. “Where’s the rest of them?”

“Rest of what?” I asked, puzzled.

“Your clothes.”

I laughed. “You have got to be kidding me! You sound like Dad.”

I’d chosen a pretty emerald green dress that floated around my knees, with spaghetti straps and a neckline that showed off my boobs. It was summery and feminine and I’d probably freeze to death in it, but it was what I wanted to wear tonight. I’d bought it a few months ago when I was feeling richer and hadn’t had a chance to wear it yet. Matched with some very high-heeled sandals, for once I was flashing a bit of flesh.

“I’m not happy about that dress. It’s too revealing.”

“Well, get over it. This is what I’m wearing and I’m not changing. Are you ready to give me a lift?”

“I suppose,” he said reluctantly. “Do you have your knife?”

“Of course I have it! It’s always my first accessory.”

“And your phone.”

I pulled it out of my handbag and waggled it in front of him, smiling openly at his mother hen ways.

He dropped me off at the town’s sole drinking establishment, The Flying Pigs, promising to return soon to check on me, despite my protests.

“Ring me if there’s even the slightest sign of trouble,” he insisted as I stepped out of his car holding the beautiful hand-embroidered sheet set I’d bought Lizzie as a hen’s party present.

“Hopefully all the trouble will be in Big Town tonight.”

“Let’s hope so, but can you still try to stay out of trouble for five minutes, please?”

“I’ll try,” I smiled. “But it is a hen’s party and there will be a group of women drinking champagne. Anything could happen.”

“Oh, brother,” he muttered gloomily, nosing the car away.

I waved after him and turned to walk inside the pub. A faint rustling in the bushes nearby set the hairs on the back of my neck up in warning – a Bycraft nearby. I tensed, spinning my head left then right trying to determine the threat, my knife out of my sheath.

Chapter 17

On glimpsing golden blond hair and a familiar silhouette, I relaxed, sliding my knife back into its sheath.

“Piss off, Denny,” I said mildly, almost conversationally, not in the mood for shouting. Despite this, he thrashed through the vegetation as he blundered away from me, still terrified of being caught. I guess the memory of me whooping his butt in the ninth grade remained fresh. I didn’t attempt to chase after him. He’d only be back again ten minutes later, spying on me again like the eternal pest he was.

I was assaulted by a wall of noise as soon as I opened the door to the pub, blaring music competing with the boisterous voices of the well-oiled clientele. Abe offered three guest rooms upstairs to cater for tourists who came to Little Town to trek around Mount Big or to fish or participate in watersports at Lake Big. I was willing to bet some of my meagre savings that the rooms were all occupied tonight, the warm spring weather usually heralding the beginning of the tourist season. Not to mention that there were more people than normal in the loud and flashy public bar off to the left of the entrance. To the right was the nicer and quieter lounge bar, leading to the pub’s bistro and its one function room.

I veered to the right, heading for the function room, when Foxy Dubois, the town’s good-time girl and devoted admirer of the Sarge, accosted me.

“Tessie Fuller,” she slurred, sagging against me, almost knocking me out with her alcohol-laden breath. She was forty-something with Marilyn Monroe bleached hair and pouty red lips that I couldn’t swear with my hand on my heart hadn’t had some surgical enhancement. Her boobs over-flowed from her tight dark purple dress and she smelt as if she’d dunked herself in a perfume bath before venturing out for the afternoon. It was her usual habit to become sloshed at the bar each Sunday before giving an allegedly impromptu striptease in her living room, fully aware of the numerous male locals peering in her window with lascivious interest. For some of them, it was the highlight of their week. And as she used to be a professional ‘exotic’ dancer, she probably was pretty entertaining.

“Foxy,” I acknowledged, attempting to prop her up while simultaneously rearing back from the alcohol fumes. “Are you okay? Do you need a lift home?”

“I’m great, Officer Tess!” We both nearly tumbled over as she suddenly lurched to the right.

I checked my watch. “Aren’t you a little late for your . . . um . . . usual Sunday appointment?”

“That appointment’s been unexpectedly cancelled.” She leaned towards me even as I virtually bent backwards to get away from her. She whispered confidentially in a loud tone that could have been heard ten metres away. “There’re some real cute men in here tonight.” She giggled attractively. “I might get lucky. That’d make a nice change. It’s been a long while between cool drinks, if you know what I mean.” She jiggled her dextrously plucked eyebrows in an unappealing lewd manner.

“Good luck,” I said, edging away from her.

“Point me to the ladies’ room please, Tessie.” She giggled again. “Forgot my specs. I’m totally blind tonight.”