Blood Feud (17 page)

I stood up and stalked to the door, pissed off. “I’m out of here,” I told her.

“
Get back to the phone!
” she shouted. “I didn’t say you could go.”

I thought for a second about disobeying her and storming off, but I wasn’t quite that brave. Instead I leaned on the doorway, my arms crossed and face stony.

“Are you still there?” she asked.

“Yes, ma’am,” I said sullenly.

“Well, you took that as well as I expected.”

I didn’t respond.

“Tessie, we’re going to catch him.”

“We better, ma’am. I’m sick of him being in my life.”

“I know,” she sighed. “Go home and check that it’s secure. And don’t go anywhere alone or without being armed. Maguire?”

“Yes, ma’am?”

“You keep your eye on her as much as possible. All your leave’s cancelled until we recapture Bycraft. That means you’re both on-call every weekend and every night. No weekends off until I give you the green light. Got it?”

“Ma’am,” I protested. “You can’t do that! The Sarge has to visit his fiancee. And anyway, I can look after myself.”

“It’s okay, Tessie –” he started to say before the Super butted in.

“Maguire, if you can’t control your carnal urges for a few days, you have two choices – your left hand or your right. Or, and here’s a novel idea for you, why not get your little spoilt princess to visit you instead of you chasing after her all the time like a dickless wonder,” she instructed. “She’s old enough to drive, isn’t she?”

“Of course she is, ma’am,” he replied frostily, his voice dripping with dislike.

“All settled then. Maguire, you’ll be in charge of the blockade and I’ll send a couple of uniforms your way immediately,” she said, growing bored with us, something more interesting claiming her attention.

“Can’t we have more manpower than just two extra uniforms?” queried the Sarge in frustration. “It’s Red Bycraft we’re talking about.”

“No, you fucking can’t. I’m stretched to breaking point here, and you’re already hogging one of my dee teams and forensics,” she barked, completely losing interest in us. “Well, what are you still doing on the line? Fuck off back to work. You have a fugitive to catch and I want him to be your number one priority from now on.”

“I’m sorry, Sarge,” I said as soon as we hung up. “Melissa isn’t going to be happy with this arrangement.”

He shrugged indifferently. “The Super’s right, much as I hate to admit it. If Melissa wants to see me, she can come back here. And if she doesn’t want to do that, then we won’t see each other again until Red Bycraft’s recaptured. However long it takes.”

Riddled with guilt yet again, and with Melissa’s snide comment about me always being in the way between her and the Sarge fresh in my mind, I gladly sprang up to answer the counter bell when it rang. It was Gil and Nathan seeking a statement from me about my encounter with the intruder at Miss G’s house. Pleased that I’d finished my incident report, I invited them out the back, printed it out and handed it to them with a sense of smugness.

Impressed despite themselves, they turned their eyes to the Sarge, eyebrows raised.

“Don’t look at me. Unlike my unusually efficient colleague,” he smiled at me, “I haven’t written mine yet. But Tessie and I were together the entire time in the house early this morning, so her report will tell you what you want to know for now. And I didn’t see the man, so her report is also more important than mine.”

“Okay, email it to us when you’re done with it. We’re going to spend the rest of the day interviewing. Apart from Miss Greville’s neighbours and now Mrs Singh and Mr . . .” He checked his notes. “Mr Whittaker, who else in town might have something to tell us that could be useful?”

I suggested Joanna as she was first to notice something wrong at Miss G’s house. The Sarge recommended they also speak to the town’s shopkeepers as Miss G was a local shopper, not owning a car. They might be able to help pinpoint the last time she was seen alive. When I told them about Bessie and Miss G’s lawyer, Gil and Nathan advised they’d taken possession of Miss G’s phone book and had already commenced enquiries from it. So with nothing further to add, they took their leave of us.

“Good luck recapturing that piece of crud, Red Bycraft,” encouraged Nathan, waving his hand out of the window as they drove away.

“We’re going to need more than good luck,” I muttered to myself.

“A few more resources might have helped,” complained the Sarge, sitting himself down to commence writing his report.

He didn’t say a word for the next thirty minutes. I couldn’t settle to anything, nervous about encountering Red again. It’d been months since I’d had to even think about him, secure in the knowledge he was behind the thick, solid walls of the city’s maximum security prison. Tense, I paced around the office, back and forth like a caged wild animal.

“Tessie,” snapped the Sarge in irritation. “Sit down, will you? You’re driving me nuts roaming around like that.”

“I can’t stay still. I’m too nervy. I hate this waiting. It’s like one of those old western movies where the town knows the bad guys are coming and there’s nothing they can do to stop them.”

“He’ll be here soon enough. We’ll catch him when he tries to enter town through the road-block and we’ll arrest him again. Should be a smooth operation.”

I shot him a doubting glance. “Do you really believe that?”

“Yes. I mean, what else am I supposed to tell you? That he’s going to find a way back into town despite our best efforts? That you’re going to have to be on high alert again every second of the day until he’s recaptured? How does that help anything?”

I flopped on my chair. “At least that’s closer to the truth than what you were trying to spin.”

“I’m sorry this has happened, Tessie. But the road-block idea is the best I could come up with. I really think it has a chance of working.”

“Sarge, what makes anyone think he’ll try to drive into town? There are literally hundreds of entry points into this place. The Bycrafts have escape routes everywhere, most of them overgrown paths that only they know about. It’s hopeless.”

“It’s not like you to give up so easily on beating the Bycrafts.”

“Who said I’m giving up?” I spat fiercely, jumping to my feet again. “I’m just trying to be realistic, unlike some Pollyannas in this room who seem to think that Red Bycraft is going to make it a breeze for us to recapture him.”

“I never said that. Don’t put words in my mouth.”

I snatched up my keys. “I’m going home.”

“You’re not going anywhere.”

“I’ll do what I want to on my day off.”

“Get back here,” he said mildly, well used to me easily firing up by now. “The Super said we had to stick together and I’m taking her seriously. So plant your butt back on your chair until I’m ready to leave.”

I considered disobeying him and leaving, but immediately thought again. He was looking out for me and I told myself I should have the grace to respect that by not making his life any more difficult than it had to be. I dutifully planted my butt.

“Thank you,” he said with exaggerated politeness, returning to his report.

I sat waiting for him for what seemed like forever, but was probably only fifteen minutes or so. When he finished and emailed his report, I almost cheered in joy. Forced patient inaction didn’t really suit me. I wanted to be moving, doing something,
anything
, to prepare for Red Bycraft.

I’d spent a few minutes ringing Dad to let him know the bad news. We both agreed it was best in these circumstances for him to stay with Adele in her small granny flat, because there he was in town, surrounded by people all the time. We lived five kilometres out of town, with no near neighbours and I was forever in and out of the house, never knowing when I’d end up on a night call-out or staying at the Sarge’s house. Which I soon discovered was something that very man was talking about as we drove to my house.

“Huh?” I asked, not having paid the least attention to him since we’d left the station.

He sighed patiently and repeated, “I want you to stay at my place tonight.”

“Okay,” I agreed easily.

“Okay?”

“Yes, okay.”

“Just like that? No arguments? No fights? No knife at my belly? No gun at my throat?”

I smiled. “None of those. Although . . .”

“Here it comes. Let me guess. Only if I make you one of my mouth-watering breakfasts the next morning?”

I blew a raspberry. “Mouth-watering? Eye-watering, I would have said. Everyone knows you’re the worst cook in the entire district.”

“Second worst,” he smiled.

“Very funny. What I was trying to say before a rude person hijacked the conversation was that if we recapture Red Bycraft this afternoon –”

“
When
we recapture Red Bycraft this afternoon.”

“
If
we recapture Red Bycraft this afternoon, I’ll stay at my place.”

He contemplated for a moment. “Fair enough.”

“I don’t want to be a nuisance.”

He shook his head sadly. “Fuller, you’ve been nothing but a nuisance since the day I met you.”

“Aw,” I pouted. “That’s a little harsh. I do have a desperate fugitive after me.”

“And I have a woman with a desperate fugitive after her to somehow keep safe or the Super’s going to use my gonads for putting practice.”

I laughed, leaning back in my seat. “Ouch. You win.”

He reached over to pat my cheek. “I usually do.”

“Not with Melissa.”

As soon as I said it, I wished a million times I could take it back. It was a stupid, stupid, stupid thing to say. The light fled his face, leaving his expression flat and distant.

“Indeed.”

We drove the rest of the way in silence, me mentally contorting myself to kick my own butt for being so thoughtless.

At my house, a quick check confirmed that it remained secure. As a peace offering, I made the Sarge a couple of egg salad sandwiches for lunch. He screwed up his nose when I put them in front of him.

“No tuna?”

I smiled. “I’ve banned tuna from my house.”

“Good. That just leaves more for me.”

“You’re welcome to all of it.” I paced around the kitchen, peering out of every window.

“Aren’t you going to eat anything?”

“No,” I said. “I’m too wound up to eat.”

“I think you should.”

“Couldn’t possibly.”

He munched with thoughtful silence. “I don’t understand why Bycraft would risk his freedom to come back here.”

“I don’t know, but I suppose this place is in their blood. It’s almost as if this town is their sacred ground. The only time they ever leave is when they’re in jail. Even Jakey only managed to stay away for a couple of years when he moved to the city.”

He seemed unconvinced. “I think it’s more to do with you and whatever unfinished business Bycraft imagines he has with you.” He contemplated me, and said hesitantly, “Maybe this time you should finish it for good.”

We traded glances. “What are you saying?”

He took his plate to the sink and started washing it. “You know what I’m saying.”

“Sarge, believe me, if I did something like that, the riot we had yesterday would seem like a peace rally by comparison.”

“Maybe, but it would be a permanent solution to at least one problem in your life.”

“Don’t think I haven’t thought about it over the years.”

“Do you think you could kill someone?”

I considered his question seriously. “I think so. I’d prefer to shoot to wound, but if it came to a life or death situation, Red or me, I would definitely kill him. What about you? Could you?”

“I would to save someone’s life, but I’m pretty sure most people would say that.”

“Especially if it was someone you love in danger,” I said, thinking of Dad.

“Naturally,” he agreed and I wondered if he was thinking of Melissa.

Chapter 12

With my kitchen tidied, we drove to his house where we whiled away time waiting for the two uniforms from Big Town to arrive. I couldn’t sit still for more than a minute, jumping up and prowling around his lounge room.

He looked up from the newspaper he was calmly reading. “Sit down, will you? Worrying about it isn’t going to help.”

I flung myself down on the lounge next to him, but sprang up thirty seconds later to continue my pointless pacing. “How can you be so relaxed?”

“Who said I’m relaxed?”

“Well, you sure look it, sitting there reading the paper. How can you concentrate?”

Just as he opened his mouth to speak, someone knocked loudly on his front door. He stood and cast his eyes my way. “Time to rumble, Tess. Are you up to it?”

“You better believe it, buddy,” I replied, glad that action time had finally arrived. “I want to get my hands on him so badly.”

“I’m sure he’s thinking the same about you,” the Sarge said, opening the door. Two very young cops stood nervously at his threshold.

“Oh, great,” I muttered under my breath, not pleased about the Super’s choice of a constable and a probationary constable as backups for us.