Nowhere to Run
Chapter 5 of 10
by Vanessa
[nemesis@graffiti.net]
6 August - 5 September 1999
Water Police HQ
The station could be so peaceful sometimes, Helen thought. Now was one of those times -- Mick and Jack were still on their way back from interviewing the ferry passengers, and Tayler and Gavin also had yet to return. Rachel had returned, but she and Frank had headed straight for the detectives' office without saying anything to anyone. Helen would have given anything to be a fly on that wall, but characteristically respected their privacy.
A man entered the building and approached the front desk. He was medium height and build, with short brown hair, pale blue eyes, and a charming smile. "Hello," he flashed her the smile. "I'd like to report a stolen car."
"Ah, right. If I can just get the details from you, then I'll have a detective take your statement," Helen said, then grabbed the nearest constable. "Can you fetch Detective Goldstein for me, thanks?" The constable obliged, disappearing immediately, and Helen returned her attention to the man.
"So, Mr.... Mister?"
"Dawson," he supplied. "Joe Dawson."
"Right. What kind of car is it, Mr Dawson?"
"Honda Civic, new model. Dark green."
"Nice," Helen commented.
"Obviously someone thought so," Joe replied.
"Helen, whatcha got for me?" Rachel asked, announcing her presence as she skipped down the stairs two at a time.
"Senior Detective Goldstein, this is Mr Dawson. He's had his car stolen and would very much like to see it returned. Can you help him?"
"I certainly hope so," Rachel agreed, taking the form Helen had begun filling in. As she passed by, her friend questioned her in a tone deliberately too low for anyone else to hear.
"Where's your partner?"
"Huh?" Rachel frowned. Did she mean Jack or Frank?
Helen didn't bother to answer. The fact that Goldstein had needed the question clarified said enough. "You take good care of Mr Dawson now."
"Don't I always treat the customers well?" Rachel countered rhetorically, before leading Mr Dawson away to a private interview room.
A few minutes later, as Helen might have predicted, Frank re- emerged from the upstairs offices. A kidnapping he could get involved in, but a stolen car was -- in his opinion, at least -- an insult to his intelligence and experience as a detective.
"Frank, is your leave really so dull that you want to spend it back at work?" she quizzed.
"Hey, it's not my fault. I just came in to talk to Hawker, but I got distracted by you, and Dave, and Woodsie... then Rachel dragged me off--"
"Forced you completely against your will, I'll bet."
"She did, yeah. Then I finally got back here again, and we were just going over some case details--"
"Which you actually had no right to be informed of," Helen interjected.
"Hey, I'm still a detective!"
"Ah... So you are coming back?" She knew she'd trapped him, but she also knew Frank. Sometimes he needed it.
Frank sighed. "I -- I honestly don't know, Helen. I mean, I don't know what else I'd do now, but it doesn't seem right to just come back here again, somehow. Maybe I'll go to another squad."
"Which one?" Helen asked, humouring him though she didn't believe he'd transfer -- he'd quit first. Frank was a water rat, and even pressure from his family of wharfies hadn't been able to change that. He'd stuck with it for so long now, against so many odds, she knew he wouldn't give up now.
"Not sure -- but there's heaps, you know? Homicide, Rape Squad, Gaming and Vice, VIP Security, even... Mick was from VIP, right? Endless possibilities, Helen!"
"Yeah, I mean, you could even go to a regional CID..."
"Exactly!" Frank agreed heartily.
Now he really didn't mean it, she was certain. "Frank, just talk to her," Helen sighed.
Frank rubbed his hands over his face wearily. "I can't," he admitted. "I just can't... I mean, after all I've put her through, over the years... anything I said to her would be completely unfair." Seeing Helen raise an eyebrow at him, he added, "But we're going out for drinks tonight."
"You two? Going out drinking? I find that hard to believe," said Helen sarcastically.
"Amazing but true, hey?" Frank agreed lightly. "Anyway, I'd better clear out and let you get back to doing your job."
"How very generous of you," Helen commented. "Catch up later?"
"You bet, sweetcheeks," he grinned. She couldn't help but smile either; he was as true to form as ever.
"Then it's a date, pumpkin."
Having all three water police detectives present in their office was a rare circumstance, which usually only lasted long enough to swap information and sort out who was going to follow up what lead. As Rachel filled them in on her side of the investigation, she hoped this time would be no exception -- she was determined to get Jack alone.
"Mrs Wolski was going to fax through the contact details for all of Simone's friends that she could think of, and then there's the Ballet Company --"
Mick interrupted Rachel. "What about the boyfriend?"
It was the perfect opportunity, she saw, so she seized it. "Yes, the boyfriend. Good thought. His name's Cameron, Cameron Pacey, he lives not all that far from the Wolski's and--" she produced a slip of paper from the chaos on her desk, "-- here's the address. How about you go check it out?"
Mick grinned, knowing when he wasn't wanted. His colleagues' attempts at subtlety were never terribly successful, and besides, Tayler had filled him in on the office gossip from the previous year, when Jack had temped at the Water Police. "Sure, I'll do it," he took the note from Goldie. "Behave yourselves."
After he left, an awkward silence settled over the office. Unable to bear the tension, Rachel focused her attention on her desk, trying to sort out the mess that was there.
"Jeez, would you look at this? Frank's here for five minutes and the place is already shot to hell," she commented.
"What, so did you two just go off and investigate the case then? You and Frank?"
Rachel just shook her head, smiling.
"What?" Jack demanded, perturbed.
"I can't believe you're jealous of Frank," she said incredulously.
"Well, either I'm jealous of Frank, or Frank's jealous of me," Jack replied. "Which is it to be?"
"Neither! You're full of it - Frank is not jealous of you. He's just a friend."
"A good friend," Jack said, refusing to surrender his argument.
Rachel sighed. "Yeah, he's a good friend," she agreed. "In fact, he's my best friend -- which means I don't do this to him," stepping over, she kissed Jack. After taking a second to readjust his emotions and register the fact that it seemed she wanted *him* now, Jack kissed her back.
Goldstein pulled away, a mischievous look on her face. "But if you like, you can be my best friend..."
"Nah, nah," Jack answered quickly. "I'm fine if we just kiss and make up."
"Good," she smiled, then picked up a file, intending to sort out its contents. Jack grasped her arm and pulled her back to face him.
"Hey, we haven't made up yet," he complained, drawing her into his arms for another kiss.
"Sorry," she apologised between kisses. "I should have realised."
They were interrupted by the sound of giggles and snickering from outside the office, and sprang apart to see two uniforms disappearing round the corner. "See, I was right Gav!" Tayler's voice claimed, already halfway down the corridor.
"Uh... what do you say we head out to that crime scene, I'll show you where we found that dive gear?" Rachel suggested.
"I think that's probably a good idea...."
and every time I hear those bells
I think I'm done for
and every time they cast their spell
I think I'm done for
nowhere to run
somebody's forgetting somebody
somebody's letting somebody downWater Police HQ
"Ah, Tayler, Sykes, you're back," Helen noted, returning to the front desk to find them there. "Tell me, have I been imagining it, or have you two been avoiding me for the last ten minutes? What happened?"
"It was a false alarm," Tayler told her pleadingly. "No suicide."
"Oh, yeah?" Helen sounded interested.
"Yeah!" Gavin agreed. "You should have seen it -- a bunch of kids trying to pull a prank on us. They had this Barbie doll standing on the edge, moving it with fishing wires... Tayler gave them hell for it."
"Really? Then the incident report should make for rather entertaining reading," Helen said, smiling sweetly at them before disappearing again. Tayler sighed, scowling at her colleague. Sometimes he could be so... brainless.
"What?" Gavin asked, ignorant. "What did I do?"
"We nearly got out of the paperwork."
"Oh," he grinned, indifferent, but Tayler was still annoyed. "Oh, come on, Tayler, you know what Helen's like -- she would have found out anyway, and we still would have been stuck with the paperwork."
"Yeah, I know," Tayler admitted grudgingly. Gavin smiled. "You know, I don't think I've ever seen you quite like that before, the way you reacted to those kids. You were so angry." It had taken him by surprise, although he wouldn't tell her that. Tayler was a lot of things, but she was rarely angry.
"Was I, really?" she questioned. She thought about it for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah, maybe I was... I just think that what we do is important, and to have a bunch of kids undermine the seriousness of our job like that... it just got to me."
"It really matters to you, doesn't it? Succeeding as a cop."
"Sure, it's my career. I'm not going to let anything compromise that. You know what it's like," she said, certain that he did. One of his mates had tried to convince him to quit the service, she remembered, and join him in garbage disposal, which had better pay and more flexibility. Tayler had been a bit shocked that Gavin would even consider leaving, but knew that he'd stayed because he thought the job mattered.
"Yeah, I do, but I don't think I'm as determined as you." It wasn't an insult, simply a statement.
"Hm. Maybe I need to get out more," she joked. "Hey, where are we going tonight?"
"Somewhere classy and highly expensive?" Gavin suggested. "It can be your call -- what do you suggest?"
Tayler grinned, her mind already scheming. "Oh, I'll think of something."
you're like a diamond healthy and wealthy
when you're cut through
like the ocean calm and mild
'til you let it all loose
I'm learning a lot about you
learning a lot about yesterday
there's not a lot I can do
if you don't want me too close to youCrime Scene
"So, they go from over there, to here, and stashed the gear... where?" Jack frowned, wandering around the sheds. Nearby the local patrol were doing a doorknock, at the detectives' request, to discern whether anyone had seen anything.
"There was a boat, right..." Rachel walked to the spot and stood on it, pointing downwards with both hands. "Right here, I think."
"Right there?" Jack confirmed. She nodded. "So, he would have had to get her out of the water, stash the stuff, then make his getaway by car. And he'd have to do all that without getting in Tayler's line of sight."
"What, are you thinking he had help? An accomplice?" Rachel considered the plausibility of the idea.
"That, or an obliging hostage."
"Wait -- you think she was in on it? Her mother didn't recognise our bloke from the face fit."
"Yeah, but what do mothers know?"
"Oh, thanks a lot!" Rachel exclaimed.
"Well, no, you know what I mean," Jack said. Goldstein raised an eyebrow at him, daring him to elaborate. "It's just, all mothers, they like to think that their kids are perfect and innocent, so they don't see what's actually going on. This Simone, she could have a dark side that her parents know nothing about."
"Yeah, you always see the best in people, Christey."
"Hey, I'm just saying maybe. Anyway, I didn't say she was in on it -- just that it's possible she knew the kidnapper."
"Or she could have cooperated with him because she was terrified of what he might do to her otherwise," Rachel suggested.
"I wonder why he did it," Jack pondered, shifting the focus of their discussion slightly. "Why go to all that trouble?"
Goldie shrugged. "As you said, he's a sicko... I don't know, maybe he did know her somehow...."
"Oh, I know, I'm not concerned with why he kidnapped her, just why he did it like that. He could have taken her any time, any place. Why from the ferry, why make a getaway by boat only to stage a fake suicide like that?"
She had no idea. "Hey, he's a sicko..."
"You know, you're starting to sound a lot like me," he teased.
"Yeah, I'm actually on drugs, you know? That's what does it to me," she retorted. Jack just nodded, grinning. "Actually, to give you credit which you don't deserve, you did make a good point earlier. He's messing with us, that's all. I mean, hey, maybe they closed down his local hobby club, and this is what he has to resort to to get his jollies."
"His 'jollies'?" Jack questioned, amused.
"You know, we'd do a lot better investigating this thing if you kept your mind focused on the actual case occasionally," she told him. "Forget about why he did it for the moment -- let's think about how."
"Hang on a tic," Jack said. "Looks like one of the uniforms has got something." He pointed to the constable in question, who was approaching them leading an elderly man. The two detectives jogged over to meet them.
"What've you got for us, Timms?" Rachel asked, quickly glancing at the officer's nametag as they greeted him.
"Detectives, this is Nathan Chase. He lives just down the road, and thinks he might have seen something yesterday. Mr Chase, these are Detectives..."
"Goldstein and Christey," Rachel filled in. "What is it that you saw, Mr Chase? You were down here, were you?"
The old man nodded. "I walk here every day, with Todd -- that's my dog. I'm retired, you see, and I just live down the road... there's not usually much going on around here, so it's a nice peaceful place for a walk."
"But yesterday, it wasn't?"
"Oh, no, there weren't many people around at all, but when I did see one young man... I was coming up towards the sheds, and I saw him close the boot, then he got in and drove away."
"Sir, was this the man you saw?" Jack asked, showing him the face fit.
"That's what he looked like, I think. I didn't see him for very long, only a few seconds, and I didn't think it was anything out of the ordinary then."
"Fair enough. What about the car, did you get a decent look at it -- you know, colour, model?"
"It was dark -- could have been black, perhaps, I'm not entirely sure. But it looked a fairly new car, one of those the really sleek- looking ones, with all the rounded edges."
"Yeah?" Rachel asked. "I don't suppose you saw the license plate at all?"
Mr Chase shook his head regretfully. "Sorry, love," he apologised. "But isn't it possible to track down the car without that? Like they do on 'Blue Heelers'?"
"Ah, yeah, it's possible," Jack replied, while Goldie suppressed a smile. "Just a bit difficult here, 'cause Mount Thomas has a few less people than Sydney, you know. Thanks all the same."
"Yeah, thank you," Rachel echoed, more sincere than her partner. "Constable Timms here will take your details, and if we have any further questions we'll be in touch, all right? Have a nice day."
Goldie nodded politely to Timms as he escorted Mr Chase back down the street. When the old man was sufficiently out of earshot, the two detectives began dissecting his information.
"So, we have a car, reckon it's the one we're looking for?"
"Could be," Jack agreed. "The description is ambiguous enough for it to be the one we're looking for. If anyone ever gives you a full description, it's never the right car, y'know?"
"Yeah, they call that Murphy's Law," Rachel agreed.
"What, Murphy says we'll be given a description which could be applied to half the cars in Sydney, by an old bloke who thinks 'Blue Heelers' is an accurate representation of police work?" Jack snorted.
"You don't like the Heelers?" Rachel asked, sounding amazed.
"Why, do you?"
"Well... yeah -- what's wrong with that? I mean, it's number one, right -- everyone likes it, don't they?" Aware that it would be a bad move to allow him too much time to reply, she continued her argument. "Besides, didn't you know that Victoria Police members have super powers?"
"Really?" Jack replied, doing his best to sound genuinely awed while not laughing. "So we're missing out, we're in the wrong state then."
"Yep, we are," she agreed firmly. "We had a case in Melbourne once, y'know, but 'cause we were from NSW those Victorian coppers blitzed us every time with their super powers. It was incredible, never seen anything like it."
Christey couldn't help it -- he laughed. "Where do you come up with all this crap?"
Rachel sighed. "Oh, I don't know. I guess I've been working with a bunch of loonies for far too long, and it's rubbing off on me..."
"Ah, well you're safe from all that now. You've got me."
"No, I think I'm worse off..."
"Oh yeah, good one," he replied. "Really good. Come on, let's go back to the station. I'm sick of this place."
"Sure," she agreed. "We really did go to Melbourne, though."
"Yeah? And do the Ds there really have super powers?"
"Nah, 'course not, they couldn't tie their shoelaces unaided," she retorted. "But I have super powers -- you remember that."
I have all I want, is that simple enough?
a whole lot more I'm thinking of
every night about six o'clock
birds come back to the pond to talk
they talk to me, birds talk to me
if I go down on my knees
End Chapter 5