A wise man once said to me,
If you heart don't break it won't be free.
Well I'm as free as a bird,
Flying out over,
Flying out over the sea. – This mountain, Kasey Chambers.
LIFE FOR RENT CHAPTER 6: WISHFUL THINKINGWEDNESDAY 1905 HRS
CHRYSLER MOTEL – SYDNEY HARBOUR
ROOM 457Michael Brumby gulped down the last mouthful of his third scotch. He placed the glass on the table with a loud 'clunk' and lowered his gaze to his left hand curled in his lap.
"I didn't kill Megan O'Neil." He said heavily, lifting his blood shot eyes to Mac, who was sitting the closest to him. "I wouldn't have killed her. I adored her - she was a good friend of mine. I just can't believe that everything points to me." He took a deep breath. "I had no motive to kill her."
Across the room, Harm lifted himself from his chair, and made his way towards where Mic and Mac were sitting.
"If you didn't kill her Mic, who did?" He asked quietly, pushing Mic for an answer.
Mic turned to Harm.
"I don't know, Rabb!" He yelled heatedly, letting the scotch take hold of his thinking. "For the past month, that's all I've been able to think about, and I'm not coming any closer to an answer! She had no enemies – none that I knew of anyway. Everyone in her unit seemed to adore her; the men admired her and the woman followed her examples." He rubbed his eyes, taking a moment to pause and regain his composure.
"How well did you know the Major?" Mac asked, changing the direction of the argument.
Mic sighed and folded both hands into his lap.
"Very well. I'd been on joint exercises and community liaisons with her. We'd become really good friends – she was someone that I had first met on my posting to Callahan and we'd hit it off almost instantly. She'd been through some heavy things – both before and after her posting to the Callahan base."
"Heavy things?" Mac confirmed. "What exactly is meant by that?"
"She'd been involved with a senior member of her original unit. That had caused and uproar and she was shifted to a new unit far away from the guy she'd become involved with. They were engaged when I first met them – the three of us had all been posted to Callahan at the same time." Mic replied dully, as if it was as exciting as watching paint dry.
Despite this, Mac had other ideas. She rose from her seat and began pacing the room.
"What happened between her and this other officer?" Mac asked as she continued to pace back and forth. "Her file said nothing about a husband or partner."
Mic grimaced – a sigh that Harm and Mac instantly took in.
"Well the 'file' is technically wrong." He replied bitterly. "Megan married the officer – Lieutenant Colonel Adam Williams, but that was short lived. They broke up after about 4 months." He grimaced again. "Williams served her the divorce papers the day of her murder."
Harm nodded grimly and raised a suspicious brow.
"Williams? Could he have murdered O'Neil? What do you know about him exactly?" Harm said, firing questions as they sprung to mind.
Mic shook his head dully.
"No such luck to pin it on him. Lieutenant Colonel Adam Williams was 300 kilometres from Callahan at the time of her murder. He'd been out there 2 weeks prior to her death and stayed out there for a week following. He was on a training exercise with 45 other officers. All can vouch for him for those three weeks."
Harm sighed, turning to Mac who was still pacing- listening to Mic's words.
"Can't hurt to ask him a few questions. Maybe he knows something about the Major's personal life that we don't." Mac stopped suddenly, crossing her arms across her chest and turning directly to Mic. "To be blunt, what were you doing exactly in the Major's motel room?"
"I'd befriended the Major ever since the posting. She rung me, the night of the murder, and she asked me to join her for a drink. She was really distressed over the phone and since Jennifer was working late, I decided to leave her a note and go and have a drink with her. We talked for a good couple of hours, about failed relationships-" he looked faintly at Mac, " and about her failed marriage." Mic sighed heavily. "At around 2300 hours, I left Megan's room and had a quick drink at the bar on my way out. I then drove home. It took me about 20 minutes to get from her motel to home. When I got home, I locked up and when straight to bed. Jennifer was already asleep and she looked like she had been for some time." He glanced around at Mac and Harm again. "And that was that. I woke up the next morning to a phone call from the police. The publican had found Megan's room door open and her dead at 0500 hours the next morning. I was the last one seen there – meaning I was the first suspect."
Mac took a deep breath and rubbed her eyes casually. She didn't know what to make of Mic's situation. Sensing a heavy silence, Mic finished pouring his drink and returned to his chair.
"I didn't kill her." He repeated, taking a sip of his drink. "I swear I didn't kill her."
"Swearing isn't enough to prove your innocence, Mic." Harm said harshly. "The ways things are, leaves everything pointing to you. All we have right now in your defence is your word – and trust me – that doesn't account for much with a judge." He studied Mic questioningly. "Do you think that Lieutenant Colonel Williams had anything to do with it at all-"
Mic made to speak, but Harm raised his hand – a gesture for Mic to stop.
"I know he didn't have contact with Major O'Neil before her death – but that doesn't mean he didn't get someone else to kill her."
"Harm" Mac cut off tersely. "I think we're getting a bit wild here." She said raising a thin brow. "We don't know much about Lieutenant Colonel Williams – except that he was on a training operation at the time of the Major's death. If he hired someone to kill her-" she looked at Harm disbelieving, "then how exactly did he make contact with him or her?"
Harm frowned and stalked away from Mic and Mac.
"I don't know. I was just thinking out loud – I'm trying to get everything to make sense." he replied wildly, making Mic and Mac exchange an identical glances. "We're in the middle of a case where the only suspect claims that he didn't do it because he adored the woman he has supposedly killed. There isn't much to work with here."
Bitterly, Mic shoved another mouthful of scotch into his mouth. He swished the alcohol around trying to savour the taste and try to stop himself from punching Harmon Rabb in the mouth. He knew he was being irrational and in all honesty it was probably better if he called the conversation a night. Rigidly he pulled himself up out of his chair and once again emptied the scotch glass in a shot.
"If you don't have an objections, I think I'll hit the sack." He said numbly, watching for Rabb's confirmation that his idea of an interrogation was over.
Harm nodded sturdily and rose from his own chair.
"Of course." He said, following Mic towards the door. "Probably for the best if we leave it here for now."
Mic grimaced in reply and opened the door.
"Yeah. 'Night." He said grimly before leaving the room and pulling the door closed in Harm's face.
Harm stood staring at the door for a few seconds before turning and looking at Mac in disbelief.
"What the hell is going on here?"
Mac shrugged heavily and got steadily out of her chair.
"He was in love with her." She said bluntly, gathering Mic's glass from the table and moving towards the bathroom to rinse it in the sink. "He didn't kill her Harm." She called.
Harm followed her to the doorway and leaned himself against the doorframe.
"Come on Mac," he reasoned, watching her. "Just because you love someone, it doesn't mean that you didn't or couldn't kill them. Everyone is capable of murder when it all comes down to it."
Mac shook her head idly. She rinsed the glass, gave it a shake to remove the excess water and then sat it down on the sinks edge.
"I know. I just get this feeling that this is different."
"Feeling?" Harm asked, cocking a brow. "What type of feeling exactly?"
Mac grimaced and pushed past him making her way back into the motel room.
"Call it intuition." She replied smartly, doing a quick sweep of Harm's motel room and removing some of the mess that had accumulated.
"Woman's intuition. Great, let's call your intuition as evidence when we're in court shall we? "The defence calls Colonel Mackenzie's Intuition to the stand." Why didn't I think of that before?" He replied wildly, stalking towards his bed and flopping down on to it. "We've got a great chance in proving Mic innocence with that."
Mac looked at Harm in amazement.
"Will you lighten up?" She replied wearily. "My god, I didn't think that you were actually taking this so seriously. I guess you proved me wrong."
"That'd be a first." He muttered rubbing his eyes. "No one can compete with a woman's intuition."
Mac sighed heavily and rested her hands on her hips.
"This is precisely why it has taken us the better part of seven or eight years to get together." She replied, raising her brow. "Are you quite done yet? I have no idea what's gotten in to you."
Harm sighed letting a large amount of air escape his lips. He closed his eyes trying to relieve the stress of Mic's case.
"Neither do I." He replied. "I'm sorry."
Mac nodded.
"Don't be." She said taking a seat beside him on the bed. "I guess it sounds stupid but I do have an inkling that he wouldn't have done it because he loved her."
"How can you be so sure?" Harm asked meeting her eye. "At the moment there is no one else."
Mac nodded slowly.
"You're right. At the moment there is no one else and yes I know that you still doubt him but Harm, look at it this way. If Mic Brumby was capable of murder he would have killed you or me before Major O'Neil."
Harm chuckled.
"That's real comforting." He sighed. "Should I lock my windows and doors tonight in case he decides that he should have gotten rid of me long ago?"
Mac gave Harm a harsh look. One that settled guilt in his chest. She was right. Mic Brumby wasn't capable of murder. There had to be someone else that they were overlooking. Then it came to him. Jennifer Gallagher.
"Ok so let's say that Mic was in love with Megan O'Neil and didn't murder her. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. All the same, if Mic was in love with O'Neil, why was he engaged and getting ready to marry Jennifer Gallagher?" Harm asked, rolling over to his side and facing Mac.
Beside him, Mac lowered her head sadly. If she was right, she knew exactly why Mic was engaged to Jennifer rather than Megan.
"You know so much better than that Harm." She said softly, meeting his eye. "Things change and sometimes they don't even have to change to turn wrong. Maybe I was jumping to conclusions about Mic and the Major. I mean he didn't exactly reveal that information." She sighed. "I guess that brings us back to square one-"
"Mic's the major suspect." They said together in unison.
Harm rolled back on to his back and glanced around the room. He didn't know what to think. Was Mic guilty? Was he not guilty? Being caught in an impossible case was starting to take toll on him.
"Are you hungry?" He asked, sitting up. "Because I desperately need food of some kind or I'm going to go crazy."
Mac smiled.
"When am I ever not hungry?" She asked, slowing rising from the bed. "I'll just go and get changed and meet you in the corridor in about 10 minutes. How about we go for a walk and see what we can find?"
Harm nodded.
"Sounds good." He replied following her to the door. "But-" he warned, raising a brow. "No steak houses or anything like that."
Mac chuckled.
"Fine flyboy," she replied opening to door. "You choose what's on tonight's menu."
**
WEDNESDAY 2005 HRS
SYDNEY QUAY – SYDNEY HARBOUR"Why do you still believe that he's guilty?" Mac asked, taking a bite out of her kebab.
Walking along the harbour beside her, Harm sighed and took a drink from his water.
"Haven't we talked about Brumby enough for one night?"
Mac rolled her eyes and stopped to fold up the rubbish from her dinner and place it in a nearby bin. Harm walked to the side of the harbour walkway and leaned out on the wooden rail letting the crisp harbour air lap at his face. He had to admit, Sydney was a beautiful city. Mac approached him from the left and settled herself beside him, also letting the harbour take her in.
"If we were on a ferry, this would feel like déjà vu." She mused, pulling her coat tightly around her.
Harm nodded slowly, not taking his eyes of a boat making it way across the harbour.
"Except this time," he said softly, "I wouldn't back away."
Mac smiled.
"Good to know sailor. Good to know."
Harm chuckled quietly and pulled Mac close.
"It should be." He replied. "You know how I've felt about you for a long time."
Mac nodded.
"I know how you've felt about a lot of things. And while we're there – why do you still think that Brumby's guilty?"
Harm cocked an eyebrow.
"You're not going to drop it are you?" He asked doubtfully.
Mac grinned.
"Have I even dropped things easily in the past? No. I'm not. Now answer the question." She laughed.
"I don't think that Brumby is guilty Mac. You know it's my job to believe that he's innocent but things don't fit and there are other things missing. The hearing isn't that far away and we still have a lot of work to do. I feel like we're running out of time and I hate that. I want it worked out now and I want time to figure out what Lieutenant Colonel Adam Williams has to do with everything." He rambled. "I also want a chat to Jennifer Gallagher. Find out about her. Where she works, what she does and what she was doing on the night of Major O'Neil's murder."
Mac blinked, taking in Harm's ramble.
"You think that Jennifer Gallagher has anything to do with this?" She asked seriously.
Harm shrugged.
"I don't know," he said moving away from the sidewalk rail, "but like we said before, it can't help to check everyone out."
Mac nodded and followed Harm as he began the walk back to their motel. She slipped her hand in his and gave it a squeeze.
"You know, I think this case is going to drive you crazy." She said lightly flashing him a grin. "And I've never seen you become so involved with anything that Mic Brumby is involved with."
Harm nodded.
"Brumby doesn't exactly have a choice in this matter." He replied meekly. " And neither do I."
**