Fifty Fifty (Detective Harriet Blue #2)(56)

‘So when are most people down at the pub?’

‘Most of the town is there every Saturday night,’ Snale said from the doorway.

We all looked at the calendar on the wall. We had two days to stop a massacre.





Chapter 84


WE CALLED DEZ and asked him to get the word out that people weren’t to congregate in the town. Snale left us for Zac Taby’s parents’ house with a pair of counsellors who had flown in from White Cliffs.

I sat in the passenger seat of Kash’s car and deleted the many text messages from journalists on my phone, some about Last Chance Valley’s deaths, more about Sam. I looked up the EFIT image of the man Caitlyn McBeal was telling the world was my brother’s accomplice. I didn’t know him. I wanted, so desperately, to feel some spark of recognition. I ran my eyes over his long, straight nose and dark eyes, over the shape of his shaved head. Like most EFIT images, I knew this would be a cleaner, slightly dimmed version of the real man. But there was no trigger in my brain. Not even the softest soundings of alarm.

I looked at the time. In four minutes, Sam would have access to the prison phones. Kash was walking towards the car. I had my finger poised over the answer button.

‘ My brother’s going to call me in a minute.’

‘Oh. Do you want –’

‘No, it’s fine. Let’s get rolling.’

The phone rang. Kash shifted uncomfortably in his seat as he started the car.

‘Hi, Sammy,’ I said.

‘This is a reverse charge call from Silverwater Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre, a division of Silverwater Correctional Complex. If you wish to accept the call, press one.’

‘Urgh. I always forget about the automated message,’ I sighed. Kash gave an awkward smile.

‘Harry?’ It was Sam.

‘Hi.’ I could feel myself smiling, despite the heaviness in my heart. ‘Are you OK?’

‘I’m a bit numb, to be honest,’ he said. ‘When they said they had a picture of the guy I was so ready for it to be someone I knew. I mean, it would have to be, right? I was ready to be in an absolute rage. But this guy – I don’t know him. Do you?’

‘No,’ I said. ‘Never seen him before in my life.’

‘This is unbelievable.’ Sam sounded scared. I sounded scared, too. My voice was coming back to me, half a second later, the recording device used by the prison echoing as it taped us. ‘Maybe if they catch him, it can all come to an end.’

‘Whitt and Tox are on it,’ I said. ‘I’m going to wrap up here, and then I’ll be right there with them.’

‘I’d rather you weren’t,’ he said. ‘Harry, he got into my apartment. He can get into yours. What he did to those women. He’s an animal. He’s smart and he’s vicious.’

‘I’m pretty vicious myself, you know.’

Kash smiled beside me as he drove.

‘ I know you are, but I just don’t need anything else to worry about. If I know you’re out there in the desert I can at least pretend you’re safe.’

Sam was always like that when we were kids. Protective. Worrisome. When we were placed in different homes he would sometimes run away from his placement to find me, even if he had to catch the train from one side of the state to the other. Just to see me in person with his own eyes and confirm I was alright. I felt a powerful yearning to be home with him, to be on the hunt for the man in the picture.

I told Sam we were going to catch this guy. One way or another. I’d spend every dollar I had. I would give up my job, my life, my freedom, if that was what it took.

I sent a text message to Tox Barnes, the beginnings of an idea tingling in the back of my mind.

Something to try, I typed. Maybe go round my apartment and turn the lights or TV on. If he broke into Sam’s place, maybe he’ll break into mine. Worth a shot.

Tox didn’t answer. He rarely did. But I knew he would know it was a good trap to set. Whoever this man was, he was obsessed with my brother. Now that Sam was off limits, maybe I could lure him over to me.





Chapter 85


KASH HAD WOKEN me from a thin sleep at sunrise by nudging the edge of my bed with his heavy boot. I’d heard him huffing around at 3 am and it seemed he hadn’t showered. He smelled of sweat.

‘It’s all a set-up,’ he said.

‘I’m going to need coffee if you’re going to be vague,’ I said. A shimmer of hope went through me that he was talking about Sam’s case, but he was holding a laptop, and when he sat down beside me I saw it was full of Qantas ticketing information.

‘Jace Robit’s crew are making a run for it.’ Kash pointed to the screen. ‘An ASIO buddy sent me these after I put in for security checks on Robit and his three mates. In the last six months, all four of them have applied for passports. They’ve each booked a one-way ticket to Ngurah Rai Airport in Denpasar. All leaving on the same day.’

‘When?’

‘Next week.’

‘ They could be going on a bucks’ weekend.’ I rubbed my eyes.

‘John Stieg,’ Kash brought up a mugshot of Jace’s short, thick-bodied friend, ‘he’s closed all his online gaming accounts and cashed in the remaining credit. Frank Scullen’s divided his bank accounts with his wife in half and taken his share out in cash. Damien Ponch sold his truck.’