Fifty Fifty (Detective Harriet Blue #2)(32)

Whitt closed his notebook. Sighed.

‘You’ve got to find him,’ Linny said. ‘Before he does it again.’





Chapter 43


THE DAY WAS filled with interviews. Zac Taby had said that there were four other Last Chance Valley kids who sat in on the explosives lesson with the visiting student teacher two years earlier. Of those four, one, Brandon Skinner, had died of a drug overdose the year before, home alone and experimenting with meth. The remaining three were called to Snale’s place, two of them with parents in tow. Snale and I sat them down on the couch and picked their brains. Had they participated in the spate of firecracker mischief that had ensued after the ill-fated lesson? Did they know anyone who had? How did they feel about the town and its people? How did their friends feel? Did they know anyone who owned a bright red backpack? The answers to our questions, from all of the kids, were a consistent no. These were the bored, hopeless rug rats of Last Chance. They got up to trouble. It was what kids did out here. None of them were going to admit anything.

Townspeople came to the door to drop helpful hints to Snale and me about locals they thought were responsible for the bombing. Most of the tips were about Zac Taby. There were a couple of mentions of a man named Jed Chatt who lived outside town, Zac’s ‘scary old man’.

Whitt started texting me at midday on a new number. I didn’t ask why.

The account you set up for Sam is empty. I visited. He’s nervous.

I eased air through my teeth. I’d known, as soon as my brother was arrested, that this was going to be an expensive time in both our lives. With his permission, I’d sold almost all of Sam’s possessions immediately after his arrest, and taken charge of his bank account. I’d sold my apartment, my car, and some collectibles of my own, and unlocked some term deposits of my personal savings. Within a week of his arrest, the spending started. I put some money into Sam’s commissary account at the remand centre so he could buy snacks and sundries, toothpaste and the like. Then, like clockwork, the threats on his life began. I started feeding protection money into his account, as slowly as I could manage, just enough to keep his enemies satisfied. I knew they’d want more in time. But all I had to do was keep Sam alive until the end of his trial. I’d take out a loan if I had to. Get a second and third job. Whatever it took.

I’ll deposit some more now, I told Whitt. You and Tox OK?

There was a lengthy pause. I’m not sure we’re the most suited of partners. He’s an unsettling person with an unsettling reputation, and I worry about his actual plans for the killer if we find him.

I smiled at that. Tox was, indeed, unsettling. Whitt had likely heard by now the rumour on the police force that Tox had murdered a mother and her son when he was a kid. I was one of few people who knew the real truth – but I wouldn’t divulge Tox’s secret behind his back.

I texted Whitt, tried to stem his curiosity.

Five days and I’ll be home. Tox is good people. Trust me. You’re safe with him.

He smells like a wet dog, Whitt replied.





Chapter 44


I BORROWED SNALE’S car and took a drive out into the desert to clear my head while she and Kash worked on the package of gold from Olivia Campbell’s house. When I had left Snale’s place the two were dissecting it, weighing the gold and using lifting tape to secure any prints from the wrapping. Kash was rambling about how the difficulty of tracing precious metals made them perfect funding for terrorism.

I understood Kash’s way of looking at the world. I knew officers who had worked in Sex Crimes so long they let it divide their minds clean in half, so that all men became potential predators and all women their potential prey. To stay away from men was to be, by definition, safe.

I’d called Tenacity on the hands-free without asking myself why. I guess I was curious to see if it was indeed the Tenacity whose case I’d solved years earlier.

When she picked up, she sounded like she was clattering around the house, moving pots and pans.

‘Oh my God, Harry,’ she laughed. ‘What a surprise.’

‘ Just checking in on my tenacious friend,’ I said. ‘How’s things?’

A little guilt rippled through me as she sighed and started complaining about how her mother couldn’t find a job, her brother was getting sued, she couldn’t keep her house clean. She told me she’d been doing great in counselling, though. I didn’t know how to get around to the topic of Kash, or even if I should. I’d decided that it was totally inappropriate of me to even think of talking to her about him.

‘I’m in the middle of a divorce, though,’ she said.

‘Oh dear.’

‘I’ve been with Elliot sixteen years,’ she said. ‘We were high school sweethearts.’

I made an awkward noise. Tenacity paused.

‘What?’

‘I think I might be on a case with him.’

‘Who? Elliot?’ The clattering in the background of the call stopped. ‘Elliot Kash? Jesus!’ She gave a humourless laugh. ‘Small world.’

‘I feel very ashamed,’ I said. ‘I heard him say your name, and I thought –’

‘You thought, “How many fucking Tenacitys could there possibly be in the world?” I get it all the time. Let me guess, you want me to drag him home and out of your hair.’