‘He came to have dinner with Mum while I went to kickboxing class,’ she said. ‘He does it once a week or so.’
Kickboxing
, Ella thought.
‘And have you spoken to or seen him since?’ Murray said.
‘No.’
‘We went to talk to him at work yesterday and he ran away,’ Murray said. ‘Any idea where he might’ve gone?’
‘I’m not his keeper,’ Tessa said.
‘I bet you worry about him anyway.’
Tessa shrugged. ‘He’s a grown man. He can worry about himself.’
‘Would your mum be concerned?’ Murray said.
‘He’s not the most dutiful son,’ Tessa said. ‘Anyway, he’s probably just gone away for a couple of days. No biggie.’
‘Without telling his boss?’ Ella asked.
Tessa shrugged again.
‘Have you tried to call him today?’
‘Once or twice,’ Tessa said. ‘I’m sure he’ll get back to me.’
‘I just hope he can,’ Ella said. ‘I hope that he’s not injured or anything.’
Tessa eyed her.
Ella leaned closer. ‘We know about his dealing, and we know about his cop mate.’
Tessa’s pupils widened with alarm in the split second before she shook her head. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘We have him on CCTV in the act,’ Ella said. ‘We have a witness who’ll testify to buying from him. We want to give him the chance to tell us his side, to help himself. But we’re also worried that whoever he’s tangled up with might want to change the situation. Do you understand what I mean?’
Tessa said nothing, but she looked pale.
‘So,’ Ella said. ‘How about you let us in and we have a quiet chat?’
Tessa bit a fingernail. Trucks rumbled past on the road and Ella smelled exhaust fumes and mulched trees.
Tessa said, ‘Will you promise not to charge him if I tell you everything?’
‘It doesn’t work like that,’ Ella said. ‘We can explain to the magistrate and the prosecutor how much you helped, but Robbie would have to tell what he knows too. It also depends on what he’s actually done.’
And what you’ve done.
‘At this point, though, it’s by far your best option. Otherwise, Robbie will be charged with everything we’ve got, and once that happens you won’t be able to help him at all.’
Tessa was silent for a moment, then unlatched the door.
The house was run-down and dingy inside. There was a faint smell like old ladies or nursing home, which made sense to Ella when she thought of Tessa’s sick and unseen mother. Tessa went across the living room and closed the door that led into a short hallway, then came back to the kitchen table. She pushed aside unfolded washing and motioned for Ella and Murray to sit.
‘She’s sleeping,’ she said in a low voice.
Ella matched Tessa’s tone and volume. ‘What do you know about what Robbie’s been doing?’
‘I don’t know any details.’
‘Whatever you do know then.’
Murray opened his notebook on the table. Tessa looked uneasy, as if reconsidering. But also almost relieved.
Okay
, Ella thought.
We’re in the house, let her tell it her way. At least she’s telling it.
‘How did it all start?’
‘How far back do you want me to go?’
Once people got rolling they rarely stopped.
‘As far back as you like,’ Ella said.
*
Tessa and Robbie’s dad left when she was seven and he was three. She didn’t remember much about him – mostly a smell, a mix of cigarette smoke and damp leather jacket. They didn’t know where he’d gone, and when they asked their mother she said never to ask again. So they made up stories to each other: he was saving animals from bushfires, adventuring on the seas, flying a stunt plane to rescue people stranded at the poles. Tessa had wondered about trying to find him, but over the years she’d come to understand that it was unlikely he’d welcome her contact, seeing how he’d left them and hadn’t bothered to keep in touch. So it was just the three of them; and with Lily working long hours, Tessa looked after Robbie. They were sidekicks, pals. And she liked being needed.
Lily had started drinking more over the years, but it wasn’t until last year, when she’d hurt her back at work and been bedbound for six weeks, that things really fell apart. Tessa’s lease on her flat was up, and she’d spent so much time at the house helping out, staying over when the pain was bad and Lily couldn’t even get up to take more tablets, that she thought she might as well move in. Just until Lily was up and about again. Eight months later she was still here, and nothing was any better, nor did there seem to be any possibility of that on the horizon.
And then the thing had happened with Robbie. Tessa had been in Castro’s on yet another double date with Alicia and John and some dull friend of theirs. Alicia and John had got up to dance, but the dull friend didn’t dance so they’d been sitting there in the last throes of a piss-poor conversation, with Tessa making plans to leave, when Alicia had rushed up.
‘Come quick.’
Tessa’s first thought was that she’d been saved by some sort of medical emergency. The dull friend couldn’t argue with that.
‘It’s Robbie,’ Alicia had murmured in her ear.
Tessa had leapt to her feet, given the guy some excuse and followed Alicia through the crowd and into the men’s bathroom, where John Morris had Robbie backed into a corner.
‘What the hell’s going on?’ she’d said.
‘It’s cool, everything’s cool,’ Robbie said.
John Morris held out his hand. Three tiny ziplock bags containing small amounts of white powder lay in his palm. ‘Everything’s not cool.’
Tessa glared at Robbie. ‘Really?’
‘There’s no need to freak out,’ Robbie said.
‘Unless that’s sugar, you shut your mouth,’ Tessa said.
Robbie pursed his lips and sniffed. A couple of guys came in then immediately turned around and left.
‘You fucking idiot,’ Tessa said. ‘You realise what this means for your life? Your new job?’
He looked away.
She wanted to slap him. ‘Didn’t I bring you up better than this?’
‘Don’t,’ Robbie said.
‘Don’t say don’t to me,’ she said.
John Morris watched all this with a growing smirk. Alicia hovered as if she didn’t know what to do or say. Tessa fought the urge to scream at Robbie until spit flew.
‘Unbelievable,’ she said.
‘Okay, okay,’ Morris said. ‘Let’s calm down a moment. Let’s talk about this.’
Tessa saw red spots in front of Robbie’s face. ‘You are such a little shit.’
‘Okay,’ Morris said again, then glanced around. ‘Maybe we can sort this out.’
‘John,’ Alicia said.
He looked at her. After a long moment she raised her hands, swung her handbag onto her shoulder and walked out.
‘I would be really grateful if we could,’ Robbie said.
Morris held out his hand as if weighing the bags. ‘Been busy?’
‘Somewhat,’ Robbie said.
‘You work other places too?’
‘Like do I have a job? Oh, you mean like . . . yeah.’ He hesitated.
‘If I’m going to help you, I need to know.’
‘From home sometimes. And people call me. All the usual, I guess.’
Tessa couldn’t believe this was happening.
‘Ever think about getting a partner?’ Morris asked him.
Robbie blinked. ‘Uh. Yeah. That could be good.’
‘Just good?’
‘That’d be great,’ Robbie said.
‘Give me your number.’
Robbie recited his mobile number and Morris entered it into his phone. Then he tucked the bags into Robbie’s shirt pocket. ‘It’s always nice to meet such a smart young businessman. I just hope you don’t lose that focus.’
‘I won’t,’ Robbie said.
‘And what else do you say?’
‘Thank you?’
Morris smiled, squeezed Tessa’s arm briefly, then walked away.
‘Huh,’ Robbie said.
Tessa rounded on him. ‘That’s all you’ve got to say?’
‘What if I add that I’m glad I’m not being hauled to the cop shop?’
‘You’re potentially in more trouble now than you were a minute ago,’ she said. ‘Where do you think this sort of thing leads? What if he wants you to sell more, sell other stuff, do things for him?’
‘You watch too many movies.’ Robbie patted his pocket. ‘It’s all good.’
Now Tessa did slap him, hard, on the arm. ‘You’re an idiot.’
‘No, I’m a smart young businessman, just like the officer said.’
Robbie tipped a pretend cap to her, then headed for the crowd in the club. Tessa followed, but by the time she’d emerged from the corridor he was gone from view. The dull friend was nowhere in sight either. She shoved her way through to the bar and leaned on the top like she had no strength in her legs.
‘Buy you one?’ John Morris was beside her. He waved to the bar staff without waiting for an answer. ‘Alicia left. Doesn’t like my freelance activities.’
‘Is that so,’ Tessa said.
He looked at her. ‘You know I just saved your brother’s skin.’
‘Temporarily.’
The bar girl came over. Tessa asked for white wine. Morris ordered a Corona, then turned back to Tessa. ‘What are you worried about?’
‘You name it,’ she said.
The drinks came and he paid. ‘You’d rather he was in the cells?’
‘I’d rather it was yesterday and none of this had happened.’
‘Yeah, well, tell me when you find that time machine. This was the best possible outcome for everyone.’
‘Until he gets nabbed by someone else and drops your name,’ Tessa said.
‘I doubt he’s that stupid.’
‘It’s more like a cross between foolish and prone to panic.’
‘Then I’ll have a chat with him, make sure he knows where we stand.’ Morris tipped up his bottle. ‘But again, you can’t really prefer that he was in the cells.’
Tessa stared out at the dancing crowd. If Morris had arrested Robbie, it might’ve served as a wake-up call. But then Robbie’s job would’ve been at risk, and he didn’t do well being out of work, and knowing him the thought of the easy money of dealing full-time would’ve been too much to resist.
Shit it all.
‘You’d better look after him,’ she said.
Morris inclined his head. ‘I never kick my cash cows.’
‘You have others?’
He drank from the bottle. ‘Sorry about the dud date.’
She shrugged. ‘It’s just another in a long line.’
They were silent for a while. Tessa watched the crowd. Robbie had either left or was lying very low. Morris peeled the label from his beer.
‘So does Alicia know about all those cows?’ she said.
‘She knows some. We don’t discuss it.’
Tessa nodded. ‘I want your mobile number. If Robbie gets himself in it again, I want to be able to call you.’
‘What are you, his manager?’ But he took out his phone. ‘What’s yours?’
She told him. He typed a quick text and sent it. She felt her phone buzz in her bag but didn’t get it out.
‘You’re not going to read it?’ he said.
She pulled it out.
What are you doing later?
‘Alicia know about this too?’ she asked.
‘We have an understanding,’ he said, keeping his eyes on the wall behind the bar, letting his thigh touch hers.
She hadn’t moved away.
*
Ella and Murray listened without comment. Tessa wiped sweat from her forehead and upper lip. The windows rattled in their frames as a truck lumbered past.
‘So John Morris and Robbie are working together to sell drugs,’ Ella said.
Tessa nodded.
‘And Alicia knew about that.’
‘Yes.’
‘And John gave you the impression that Robbie wasn’t the only person who was working for him,’ Murray said.
Tessa nodded again.
Ella said, ‘You have any idea how many, or who they might be?’
‘No.’
‘Did John know that Robbie was dealing to Dave Hibbins?’
‘I didn’t even know that Robbie and Dave knew each other,’ she said, ‘so I doubt it.’
It was another mark against Morris. Alicia Bayliss might’ve found out more than he wanted her to, or he might’ve felt that she’d have no reason to keep his secret once they’d broken up.
Tessa’s mobile rang. She looked at it. ‘It’s him. It’s John.’
‘Answer it,’ Ella said. ‘See what he wants. See if he knows where Robbie is.’
Tessa looked petrified but pressed the button. ‘Hey.’
Ella could just make out the murmur of Morris’s voice. Tessa’s anxious gaze was glued to the table as she listened.
‘I haven’t heard from him,’ she said. ‘I don’t know. He’s not here.’ Listening. ‘I swear to you he isn’t.’
Ella could hear the volume of Morris’s voice climbing.
‘You know what he drives,’ Tessa said. ‘The blue thing. Mitsubishi.’
‘Crap.’ Murray was on his feet.
Ella jumped up and followed him to the front window. Morris’s red Commodore idled across the street, and she could make out his shape behind the wheel. Her and Murray’s unmarked car sat in the driveway, recognisable to another cop in an instant.
Dammit.
Tyres squealed as Morris took off.
Back in the kitchen, Tessa looked stricken. ‘They’re asking about Robbie, that’s all,’ she was saying into the phone. ‘They want to talk to him. He’s missing. No, I don’t know what about. They didn’t say. No. No, I didn’t. How can I tell them anything when I don’t know anything? John, listen.’ She stopped, then looked at the screen. ‘He hung up. He said he knew I was telling you stuff. He was furious.’
‘It’s completely plausible that we’re here about Robbie,’ Ella said. ‘He can’t know for sure that you said anything at all.’
‘He might’ve been watching this whole time. He could’ve seen that you’ve been in here for ages.’
‘He doesn’t know anything,’ Ella said again, hoping she sounded persuasive.
‘He was so angry. What if he hurts Robbie?’
Or you, Ella thought. ‘It’s okay. We’ll find him and pick him up.’
‘Robbie or John?’
‘Both,’ Ella said. ‘Truly, it’ll be okay.’
Tessa didn’t look convinced, and Ella wasn’t surprised. Tricky thing was, she now had to ask about the kickboxing.
‘You said you were out when Robbie was here on Tuesday night, correct?’
Tessa nodded. ‘He got here before I left. We talked about Mum for a bit then I went.’
‘He was gone when you got home?’ Ella asked. ‘He has keys?’