Detained

He exploded out of his chair again. “You did not say that.”

“Oh, keep your hair on.”

“Where did you put him?”

“Sit down, Will. I put him back where he came from.”

Will sat. “Fuck me.”

Max gave a pack-a-day smoker’s cough. “There is also the case of concealing a crime, fraud, and theft.”

“Yes. Though whether you could make that stick against two underage kids is a moot point.” Peter slapped another folder on the table. “Evidence of financial restitution to federal government and state authorities. And the deed showing the gift of parkland at lot thirty-three Henry Court to Tara Council. In other words, gentlemen, a sixteen and a fourteen year old boy borrowed money to live on in an unorthodox fashion, and paid it back with interest.

“Of course, there is also the issue of the pre-emptive claim of the inheritance from Donald Vessy, my grandfather. And you might want to do something with tampering with the dead and burial on unauthorised land.” Pete put both arms out across the table, wrists together. “What can I say? It’s me you want, not Will.”

49. Detained

“Faced with what is right, to leave it undone shows a lack of courage.” — Confucius

“Officer, I believe you’re holding Will Parker?”

Darcy didn’t believe it, she knew it. And judging from the amount of media hanging around outside, so did every news gatherer in the city. The only reason they’d let her waltz through the front doors was because she claimed to have evidence on the Vessy drowning to present to police. Now she faced the duty sergeant who was a whole lot more savvy than the baby cop on guard door patrol had been.

The sergeant looked at her over steel rim glasses. “That would be the media wanting to know. How did you get in here?”

“I know you’re holding him.”

“’Course you do, love. You helped put him here.” He dropped his eyes back to the computer screen in front of him.

“What you don’t know is I’m also a member of his legal team.” An utterly hopeless bluff, but it was all she had.

“Do you think we’re here for your entertainment? Hmm?” The sergeant looked up. “Do you think we have time for this rot? There are bad guys to catch. You can leave under your own steam, Ms Campbell, or if you’d like to make a headline out of it, I can have you politely escorted out.”

“He’s not one of the bad guys.”

The sergeant leant forward conspiratorially. “Let you in on a secret. We don’t think so either. We’re holding him for questioning for a few hours to check some details out and then he’s all yours, fresh for the next news broadcast.”

“So I can see him.”

“No, you cannot see him. And there is no point batting your eyelashes at me.”

Darcy laughed. “I was practicing. I want to bat them at him.” But only after she’d whopped him one, and he understood if he ever did anything like that again, he’d have to worry about being around her, and any single body of still water for the rest of his life. And it wasn’t too soon to tell him that.

“I bet all the girls do.”

“You’re not going to let me in are you?”

“Perceptive.”

A voice behind her said, “And neither am I. You and Will are my best chance for an early grave, possibly under a tree somewhere, near a creek.”

She spun around. “Peter!” She’d called Shanghai and left a message, and his mobile and got voicemail, never thinking he’d be in Sydney. “He’s a deceiving, rotten, duplicitous bastard. He tricked me into doing this.”

“That would be my brother you’re talking about.”

“That would be the man I love. How much trouble is he in now?”

Peter reached over her with a hand out to the duty sergeant, his business card. “Sergeant, I’m legal counsel for Will Parker. I’ve been with detectives Zarova and Deeves. I’d like to go back in to see Will now.”