Chapter 61

I’D SLEPT WELL.The first night, it had been sheer physical exhaustion. Every limb had hurt. After I’d been checked over at the hospital, I’d gone home and crashed on my bed face first and slept until the next afternoon.

A couple of nights later I’d followed Matthew Demper and Alex Loris to a bar in Paddington and waited all night while the Kings Cross police officers got themselves nice and tipsy playing pool and betting on the horses. When they returned to their car, I’d given them a few seconds to remember me as the detective they’d made jump out of a police van with her hands cuffed behind her back. When their memory was jogged, I’d broken Demper’s nose and given Loris a sound kick to the nuts. I slept even better after that.

I was all ready to take my place on the Georges River task force. It was the perfect moment, and I’d make sure Pops knew that. Nigel had called a press conference with the national media, telling them he had some big announcement with regard to the case. I walked into the station, planning to tell him that he could announce that he was adding me to the task force while he was at it. How could they refuse me now? The newspapers were lauding me as a national hero. For once in my career I was in a position to make demands. And I was going to demand a spot on the hunt for that killer.

I strode across the bullpen on the way to Pops’s office, knowing Nigel would be in there being briefed about the press conference. I veered off my path slightly when I saw Tox standing by the coffee machine, half his face swathed in bandages, scratching at the bottom of a jar of coffee with a spoon. I marched up and slapped his arm.

“I’m about to burst in and put myself on the Georges River task force,” I said. “Did you hear there’s going to be some kind of announcement?”

Tox looked at me. His characteristic blankness had lifted slightly. There was a look in his eyes that was almost concern.

“You haven’t met with the Chief yet? Does he know you’re here?”

“No,” I said. “What’s wrong? Is it the announcement? Do you know what it is?”

Tox looked over my shoulder. The Chief was heading toward me, fast. The way he put his hand gently on my shoulder sent my stomach plunging. This was a man who’d broken my tooth in the boxing ring. He didn’t touch me that way. No one did.

“I need to see you,” Pops said. “Could you give me a few minutes, and then come sit down? We need to talk.”

“In your office?”

“No,” he said. “In the interrogation room.”