The next day was a bit more tolerable. She didn't see Barron until she was just about to knock off. Seated in her office, she worked hard on a report for her new boss, outlining her achievements in the country for the Victoria Police's files. As she was finishing up the telephone on her desk rang loudly and she rushed to turn down the volume on the side. She stared at it alarmed, and realized it was the first call she had received in her new position.

It was Jonesy. She smiled. Her smile only widened when he told her he'd secured a position at Homicide too. She knew he'd wanted it and she had encouraged him to go for it.

"Really Jonesy?" She was genuinely happy for him and could hear the elation in his voice.

"I'm heading down on Friday night," he replied, sounding excited. "Starting Monday!"

Thank God, Amy thought to herself. Someone she knew. Someone she could trust. Someone who wouldn't think she was being paranoid.

"But Amy?" he suddenly sounded embarrassed.

"Yeah?" she replied.

"I can't move in til Monday…" he sounded apprehensive. "Can I crash on your couch until then?" He seemed embarrassed to have to ask.

Amy shook her head, chuckling at his embarrassment. "Of course you can loser."

By Thursday Amy was hanging out for Evan to arrive – he felt like a slice of normalcy at last, and she longed for that in this scary job. After she had hung up with Evan, Ned had poked his head into her office and invited her out to the Latin Quarter again, and even though she didn't seem to have as much affection for the place as the other cops here did, she said yes anyway, and they sat in a quiet corner again, devouring a whole bottle of wine between them.

It felt good to have a free flowing conversation with Ned and she wondered why she seemed to so easily say yes whenever he offered her some company after work or a lift home. Over their wine glasses they stared at each other for a moment and she realized why. With his warm smile and eyes that danced whenever he spoke, he wasn't like the other guys she had met in the Melbourne office since she'd arrived. Most of them were hard noised, cursing chain smokers who drank too much and seemed to know a lot of people, good and bad. But Ned wasn't like that, and she admired the way he stood apart from the rest of the group. She decided it couldn't hurt to get to know him.

"So how long have you been here Ned?" she began, running her finger around the rim of her glass.

He thought for a moment before answering, as if thinking back and counting the days. "About three years," he answered, nodding as the figure came to him. "I transferred from uniform in St Kilda."

"Oh right," she replied, taking another sip of her wine. She couldn't keep her mouth shut now that she'd started. "Was Barron here when you first came?" she whispered, leaning in closer.

"Barron?" he asked, suddenly not as forthcoming. He fiddled with his glass mercilessly and avoided eye contact with her for several unnerving moments. He just shrugged, looking uncomfortable. Finally he looked up and stared her straight in the eye. "Don't get too close to Barron ok Amy?" he seemed so intent on protecting her and she wondered if this was advice worth really remembering.

She just nodded in reply, getting his drift immediately. "I got the feeling I shouldn't," she whispered, cautious that no one else but Ned could hear her. She frowned across the table at him. "I think I saw him take a bribe the other day."

At this admission Amy had expected him to gasp, or frown, or fall off his chair, or something, but Ned didn't even flinch. "Of course you did," he assured her. "Barron Lloyd has taken more bribes than you've had hot dinners Amy." He looked at her like she had just told him the sky was purple.

Amy was aghast, and immediately embarrassed that she was so out of the loop that she hadn't expected such a practice when she had begun at Homicide. Of course they were crooked, she reasoned. This was the city. But she didn't expect to be working among the corrupt elite. Was Roger Rogerson hiding around the next corner too? Amy just nodded her head at Ned, stunned that she was working in such an environment. "You're not corrupt are you?" she asked, still whispering across the table to him. She knew it was a stupid question as soon as it left her mouth – even if he was would he tell her? Would anybody? Anyone smart enough would always protest their innocence, and coppers could be pretty darn smart.

Ned looked offended and she immediately regretted what she had asked, but suddenly she had got that feeling back again that she had had the night she had seen Barron and the girlfriend in the hallway. Wielding no control over it, the questions kept popping back into her head. She questioned everything she saw, and everything she said to others for fear of what they might do with her information. She questioned every decision she made and every word others said. It made work invade normal life, instead of just being a job. She sighed. What had she got herself into?

Ned got over being offended quickly, understanding that Amy was new and didn't know any better. He could tell, just by the stunned look that shadowed her face, that she was embarrassed though at being so misinformed, and took it upon himself to change that.

"You need to know that Barron doesn't do things the way you country bumpkins do Amy," he smiled kindly at her as he mocked her teasingly. "Most of the coppers here don't." When Amy just nodded and leaned forward to hear more, he continued.

"The cops around here…" he began. "They'll do anything for a pinch. Anything. In some ways it's almost admirable," he shrugged, as if trying to justify their corrupt ways in his mind. "But then people get cocky, or on their bad side, or just plain unlucky, and things get heavy." He shook his head violently. "You don't wanna be around for that."

"Tell me about the people who pay him off," Amy whispered, eager for the juicy part of the story.

"There's not just one or two - it's like half a dozen," Ned explained. "He makes quite a lot of money from it you know. I mean, in the eighties it would be less than a hundred a week. But now…" he shook his head and gave a small smile, and Amy wondered if Ned had ever been tempted. "…now it's more like a couple of hundred a week."

"And it's to get rid of briefs, weapons, charges, stuff like that?" Amy asked.

"Yeah," Ned nodded, and Amy felt relieved that she knew at least something. "Gotta make sure it doesn't get to court. I've seen reports disappear before my very eyes."

"And you never…?" she had to ask again, just to be sure.

"Amy, my first station was St Kilda for Christ's sake. I saw what it was like there. I just want to help people. I'm not in it for myself." Amy nodded, satisfied at last. He didn't have to say it, she just knew. He wasn't bent.