Color of Blood(60)

“We figure, Officer White—it’s just a guess, mind you—that you don’t know who the blood-sucking informers are working for your side. We could do all kinds of nasty things to you, and you still couldn’t give us the names of those vermin because we don’t think you know who they are.”

Judy’s breathing grew shallow as she braced for the punch line that would explain why she had been drugged, tied up, and blindfolded.

“So we have a better idea, which I think you’ll find much more appealing. Are you following me, Officer White?”

Judy moved her head in the slightest nod, but in truth her mind was vacillating wildly between raw physical fear and planning for some way out of this mess.

“This may come as a bit of surprise to you, Officer White, but we already have one source inside the AFP in WA, as well as several in the AFP back east—and let’s not forget the Crime Commission. You know, Canberra should pay their federal coppers a better wage. We’d stop having to pay them so much bloody cash on the side. Then again, we’d lose our leverage, wouldn’t we?”

More laughter.

“Everybody wants money, money, money,” the voice said. “Thank God for greed, or we’d be nowhere, let me tell you. So, let me stop babbling and announce Phase Two: wouldn’t it be better to work together and not at cross purposes?”

The adrenaline made her bound body twitch with small, involuntary jerks. Her breathing was loud as she inhaled air through her nostrils.

“Pull back the tape on her mouth,” the voice commanded.

A pair of thick fingers dug into the end of the tape and pulled it, slowly freeing her mouth. She hungrily took in several large gulps of air.

“That better?” the voice asked.

“Yes.” Her own voice was now eerily distorted as well.

“So let’s get to the point. You’d agree that we frightened the bloody hell out of your dad and mum. After he got the note, you did what you were supposed to do, right? You took it to your boss, and there was a big meeting among the crack AFP unit, and even detectives from the WA Police and Crime Commission, right? And a f*cking PowerPoint presentation! Bloody good show with all that rubbish about the Golden Triangle.”

More laughter.

How in the hell did he know what went on inside the AFP? Judy wondered. What does he mean about more informers?

“Now, you may have gathered we know a lot about you folks at the AFP, but we don’t know enough of what goes on there. We’d like you to join our enterprise by feeding us information that you think we’d find useful. We planted the note on your father’s car to scare the shit out of your family. We knew you’d go crying like a little puppy to your AFP mates about your poor, poor family. And we knew there would be a big meeting, and then all we had to do was grab you and show you we know what happens inside the AFP here in WA. Yes?”

Judy lay there furiously processing this information.

“Please say, ‘yes,’” the voice commanded.

“Yes.”

“So this is how it’s going to work: You’ll be contacted on your work email account from someone called Mandy, and Mandy will tell you how to communicate with us. Mandy may change things up a bit, but just do what she says. Don’t try to trace her emails; we have clever ways of spoofing them so that you’ll never find Mandy. That’s simple enough, isn’t it, Officer White? And of course we’ll pay you handsomely for your troubles. I don’t have to tell you that you shouldn’t be rash with your extra income, do I? Please don’t draw attention to your newfound wealth: bad form and all that.

“And of course you won’t tell anyone at AFP about our arrangement because, as you can tell, we already have someone inside there. And the moment we hear that you’ve leaked this plan, well, there will be consequences, which we’ll explain in a moment.”

Who the hell is the snitch inside AFP? she thought. They can’t believe I’m just going to flip like this? My God, they’re complete idiots.

“Now, you can ask yourself why we need more than one helper inside the AFP in WA, and the answer is the same reason you folks have more than one helper—redundancy! If we lose one of our helpers, we’ll have another. And neither of you know who the other is. Isn’t this a brilliant plan! Neither will give up the goods because they’ll be found out by the other one. Don’t know why it took us so f*cking long to figure out we need to act like coppers!”

More laughter.

“Well, as you can imagine, we didn’t expect you to accept our invitation without some reservations. And we’re not going to these extraordinary steps for the pure fun of it, mind you. I was looking for a bold step to get the situation under control. Put the tape back on her,” the cartoonish voice commanded.

Judy felt it being reapplied and pressed down on her chin and cheeks to tighten the seal. She guessed, from the feel of it, that they had affixed a large strip of gauze into the center of a piece of duct tape. She felt a tinge of claustrophobia again as the tape was reapplied.

“Officer White, do you know what this device is?” the voice said.

She felt something heavy, metallic, and cold placed against her cheek, and convulsed slightly.

“It’s a bolt cutter,” the voice said, “a right big one. It’s used to cut very hard cylinders of steel, like a padlock, for instance.”