Wasted Lives, a Detective Mike Bridger novel (21 page)

I know how the
juxtaposition of this must confuse you a bit. You cannot really see
the difference between us, violence is violence no matter what the
justification, I can see that now, I have grown up a lot since I
have been inside. I know I have missed a lot in my life because of
the choices I made but I had no choice. It is what it is and I
accept that, but I still think I deserve some sort of comfort and
security. It was society that put me here".

Bridger listened to David's speech; the years in
prison
had not dispelled the arrogance of
the man He still lived in a 'Poor Me' world, holding other people
responsible for his position. He was right; there was no difference
between the man he was listening to and the man sitting in front of
him.

"This is all
really interesting stuff Mr McLaren", he said "but it's not helping
me or my colleagues is it, do you really know what is happening
outside of the walls you live in, the people holding them could be
doing anything that want, the picture shows that they are in a bad
way".

"I trust they
won't be harmed unless needed, even Joseph and his son aren't that
stupid"

Bridger
silently noted the fact that David had mentioned Joseph's son, the
Pad would be a close bet for where the gang were holding Jo and
John. He looked at Joseph across the table; he had not taken his
eyes off him. There was no chance of Bridger relaying the
information to anyone. A feeling of uselessness came over him, how
could he have put himself in this position so easily? David
continued to speak.

"After I
was locked up Joseph ruled the roost, he cut most of the ties with
the hierarchy from up North, playing on the fact it was a long way
to come and fix the problem. He took the Gang in a new direction,
one that I do not entirely agree with and his son is now taking it
even further.

I do not
expect to get out of here and I do not think Joseph will either
despite his bullshit story about being set up. There is no way that
any of your lot will be admitting to any funny business in relation
to his arrest and conviction; he is just pissing in the wind. I
need you to keep Joseph locked up and take out his son as well. I
need you to do it to protect my own son from following me into this
shithole of a life.

You see in the
end we want the same thing, him and me, to protect ourselves and
our offspring, but the truth is that we are just old men who have
wasted a good chunk of our lives in shit-holes as we find ourselves
in now. Prison is a young man's game, we are just two old bulls
still rutting against each other, to arrogant, and pig headed to
realise that our horns have become brittle and weak... Then when I
think about it, we have probably both come to the same conclusion
one way or the other. The difference is in the stakes. It is much
harder to survive in Paremoremo maximum security than the holiday
camp that Mr Kingi is in".

Bridger looked
around the confines of what passed as an interview room at the
Otago Correctional Facility; it was not at all hospitable in the
normal sense of the word. He sensed there was a bit of prison envy
in David's little speech, if there was such a thing.

He looked at
Joseph Kingi who was sitting with his hands behind his head,
looking directly back at Bridger but very oblivious to the other
side of the strange conversation he was currently engaged in. he
looked more relaxed now that Bridger had written and signed the
paper he wanted. He had to use a bit of poetic license in the
detail but it seemed to placate Joseph. It was entirely a work of
fiction and he had no idea how he was supposed to use it. He did
not think Joseph had any clear idea of where this went from here
either. It was the actions of a desperate man not thinking clearly.
McLaren on the other hand was a different kettle of fish. He was
much more dangerous. His reach seemed to be wide and he had nothing
to lose. Between them, they were causing Bridger’s head to ache. So
called brothers in arms, they were willing to sell each other out
in the end to ensure their own comfort and safety.

David's
monologue went on.

"My son, his
name is Martin. He would be about 21 or 22 now; I have lost count
of the years. I have never seen him as anything than a baby. I have
no idea how his life has been going so far, what his experiences
have been. My last image of him was in his cot before I got done. I
never wanted this life for him and I still don't. When I heard
about the current troubles, what Joseph’s son was doing, Martin's
involvement in all of it, I saw it as an opportunity to see to his
welfare, do what a father should.”

Bridger’s mind
made a quick connection and put Martin in the frame with Tama and
Joseph for the robbery slash murder. It made sense; why else would
McLaren be going to all this trouble. He wanted to keep his sons
name out of it. The sound of McLaren’s voice, still talking
obliviously bought Bridger back to the present.

“
Joseph
reached out to me to set this up; he doesn't have the pull, not
really. The only thing he could pull off was kidnapping your
colleagues, and even that was probably a last minute thing, it had
to have fallen into their laps as I don't think they have the
ability to plan something as elaborate as that".

Bridger held
his breath, McLaren did not care either way what happened to John
and Jo. He was trying hard to force back the anger he knew would
burst out any minute and derail any hope for an amicable solution.
McLaren continued, oblivious of Bridger's feelings.

"The
real power still lies with the Northern Chapter; I'm still a big
part of that. A word in the right ear, a wad of money here and
there, they are the things that can get you anything you want.
Knowledge is power; if you know something about someone then it is
up to you how you use that information. I worked that out pretty
quickly early on in my life; it has stood me well all these
years...” David paused for a second and Bridger could hear him
breathing down the phone. "How do you think Joseph ended up where
he is...? I had my man talk with our tame copper; let him know
where to look. We put a couple of things in place for you to find
and then Joseph did not know what had hit him.

Bridger's
thoughts flashed back to Matthews, was he someone's tame copper?
Was Matthews fed the information of where the evidence would be? It
tainted the evidence if found that way as it could never be
verified, especially as it was not there when he had looked the
first time. Joseph's story of being set up was sounding more
plausible.

"What's to
stop me from using what you have just told me?"

“
Did you
like the photograph of your wife? That was my contribution to this
little shindig. Joseph does not even know who took the photo or who
they are. So you see it's not Joseph but me you have to worry
about. She's really quite hot isn't she, your wife. But, she's
nothing on that sexy blonde lawyer who was with her. My man in
Dunedin told me he nearly had to help himself… He is an ugly man
that one, but a useful one. I am sure he would have treated her
real nice. Still there's always time isn't there…"

“
Fuck
you McLaren, you do not get to threaten them, not now, not ever"
Bridger's anger had gotten the better of him; he wanted to reach
down the phone and grab him by the neck. Joseph was watching his
display of anger with an amused look on his face. This only served
to fuel Bridger's rage even further. He stood up and hurled the
phone against the concrete wall, smashing it into two pieces as the
battery separated from the case.

Joseph looked
at Bridger "That was dumb; you shouldn't get so angry Mr
Bridger"

Bridger
stood there breathing heavily, wondering what to do now. Then his
cell phone started ringing. Joseph held it up towards
him.

"Answer it,
and this time don't do anything stupid, it’s the only phone we have
left"

Bridger
took the phone and pressed answer. David's voice showed no trace of
emotion. "Now Mr Bridger, let's conclude our business."

"As you all
know John Mouller and Jo Williamson are missing. We found their
patrol car burnt out near Blackhead quarry around lunchtime. There
was no one on board, thank god...." Brian said, while looking
around the room. The look on everyone’s faces was grave. A response
team had assembled in a hurry and not everyone had made it to the
briefing. There were three members of the Armed Offender Squad
perched on a desk at the rear of the room, all in different states
of readiness. Grant and Becky were sitting at their desks;
Detective Inspector Matthews was sitting up front with Brian.

"Detective
Sergeant Bridger's cell phone is showing an engaged signal, or it
may be switched off, either way we can't get hold of him so I will
be running the response" he continued, while looking at Matthews,
who nodded in agreement.

"I've tried
ringing the officers manning reception at the prison but you know
what they’re like; the prison officer on the desk told me he had no
record of Mike actually signing in. bloody useless lot of good that
does us. He is in the process of checking the various interview
room's for our elusive Sergeant as we speak."

"But it’s fair
to say that the picture his wife described to you had two people
depicted in it?" Matthews queried.

"From what I
recall, yes, but I haven't been able to contact her either to
verify. Gillian Holler is on her way to her place of work to see if
she can find her. The picture was sent by Mike to his wife this
morning so whatever he is doing I would bet it has something to do
with the disappearance".

"Are you sure
he's not just skiving off somewhere and he really did just send a
threatening picture to his wife". Ken Moore asked the question as
the second in charge of the AOS. "Why would he send it to his wife
and not to one of us if it was important? We don't want to be
running off on another of his wild goose chases."

"I know
you and Mike don't get on Ken," Brian said "But it’s too much of a
coincidence that Laura Bridger received that picture at the same
time that Jo and John have gone off radar. There will be a
reasonable explanation as to why he sent it to her, you know the
trouble he had with the new phones we were given, he didn't know
the difference between text and email"

Ken Moore just
nodded his acceptance of Brian's logic. Brian looked at the rest of
the room and continued

"Now it’s my
bet that Mike has either taken the picture himself and so would be
with them and in the same trouble wherever that may be, or he is at
the prison with Joseph Kingi and the picture has come into his
possession some other way".

"If Joseph
senior is involved then Joseph junior is up to his neck in it, I
say we roll the pad now, it’s our best bet to finding John and Jo."
Becky said.

"It's a
gamble, Detective Wright," Matthews said, butting in "If we execute
a warrant at the Pad and they aren't involved then we have wasted a
lot of time and resources, no..., we need to wait for Bridger to
clarify what the picture is about".

Grant's
heckles were up, it sounded like Matthews was going to sit on his
hands while anything could be happening to their colleagues.

"This is all
tied into the robbery shooting and killing of Tama Wilson", Grant
said, anger in his voice "They were going to make enquiries at the
pad this morning, now they have disappeared, it doesn't take a
genius..."

Matthews
glared at Grant "We wait Detective, if Bridger isn't at the prison
then we will re-evaluate then. At least we will have a full
contingent of responders by then" Matthews looked at Ken Moore for
confirmation.

"The boys are
about ten minutes away boss, Sgt Stone is a few minutes behind
them…, he lives further out of town" he replied.

"Good, now,
Detective Johnson you keep on top of the prison, let me know as
soon as you here from Bridger; the rest of you get on to your human
sources and see what the word on the street is, someone may have
heard something."

Matthews
stood up to leave "I'm as worried as you are, but we can't just
rush into these things" he said, sounding more as if he was trying
to convince himself.

He walked out
the door, unaware of the incredulous looks the rest of the team
were giving him.

Matthews’s
attitude left the office in a stunned silence, broken only by a
ringing phone.

Brian picked
up the receiver, the rest of the room held their breath expecting
news. Brian nodded and placed the phone back on its cradle.

"Preliminary
results are in on the DNA sample," he said, looking directly at
Grant and Becky "It's a match for Joseph Kingi junior... We roll
the pad now, screw Matthews"

The rest of
the team were on their feet and moving out of the room before he
had finished speaking.

Brian just
hoped they would be in time to stop whatever was happening to their
colleagues.

He rattled the
front door but it would not budge. A card on the front read 'Closed
for family bereavement'. He looked through the window, the store
was clean and tidy, someone’s pride and joy, someone’s life. There
was no sign of the horror it was host to a few nights before.
Martin looked at the surrounding houses, the place looked different
in the daylight, more civilised.

There was
someone across the road mowing his lawn, he did not even look
across at the store or pay Martin any attention, concentrating on
the grass as he went back and forth in parallel rows.