Flipp, full of bravado now she knew that Rocky was alive, spoke again. “I’m his wife. He forced me to marry him. I was only sixteen and I didn’t have any parents living for him to ask consent. My aunt was my only living relative, and she just wasn’t that bothered what happened to me. He kept me like a pet. He abused me. I haven’t committed any crime. I’m innocent of everything except escaping from him. Please believe me.” Her pleas turned to shrieks as Rhodes’s grip on her upper arm, already tight, became agonising.
“She’s a fucking liar,” he said, with a failed attempt at suavity.
“I’m sorry, sir.” The officer in charge frowned. “I really think I need a word with my chief super. Would you give me a moment?”
The sergeant was left to entertain Flipp and Rhodes while further advice was sought. He passed the time making an inventory of Flipp’s few possessions and keeping a close but subtle eye on Rhodes, who seemed about to overboil into a seething vortex of rage.
“Let me go, Pete,” said Flipp. “You can’t get away with this.”
Before Rhodes could answer, another policeman entered the custody suite, dragging a protesting woman by the arm.
“Oh.” Flipp turned around in surprise. “It’s you. Mind out, officer. You might harm her unborn child.”
“Oh, do fuck off,” said Laura loftily before turning back to her captor. “My father will fuck you up, you know. He’s a good friend of Commissioner McRae. I really advise that you let go of me.”
“What’s the charge?” sighed the desk sergeant, envisaging an endless desert of paperwork ahead of him that day.
“Obstructing a police officer in the course of his duties,” the constable snapped. “She made off with my bloody hat. I was standing guard in A&E at Goldsands General.”
“Right. And the bloke you were guarding?”
“Shit.” Laura’s policeman clapped a hand over his mouth, realising his dereliction of duty.
“That’d be me,” said another voice, its owner lurching through the double doors into the suite as if drunk.
“Rocky,” gasped Flipp and Laura ecstatically.
“Oh, what the fuck?” raged Rhodes. “Thank Christ I don’t have to work down here. You’re all bloody clueless.”
The chief super and the officer in charge appeared amidst the confusion to be subjected to a clamour of information. From the hail of conflicting stories, they managed to pick up the very strong possibility that Flipp had been framed for the attacks and was the reluctant, runaway wife of Peter Rhodes, who had come to abduct her back into his clutches.
“Look,” said the chief super, looking long-sufferingly at each person in turn. “You do understand that we have very little to corroborate any of your stories. Mrs. Rhodes, your fingerprints are on the weapon.”
“Call me Flipp,” she said, pouting. “And haven’t you noticed that my wonderful husband has been wearing gloves all this time? He’s a fucking detective. Who better to commit a fit-up? Come on.”
The chief super turned to Rhodes. “You have to admit,” he said, almost apologising, “it does sound fishy. You understand I’ll have to look into this further.”
“You’ve got nothing. Not a shred of evidence. You can’t keep me here.”
“Who gave me this, then?” demanded Rocky, tapping the side of his head. “Flipp’s hardly going to do it, is she? And I’d swear on the Bible that she didn’t have a gun when we went down on to the boat.”
“What’s your word worth?” Rhodes wondered aloud.
“He’s got a point,” Laura added unhelpfully.
The chief super put a hand up to his temple and massaged it. “You might as well all sit down. It’s going to be a long day.”
“He’s lost a lot of blood. He’s very weak. But he has regained consciousness. I’m not sure he’s up to visitors, though.”
The nurse’s voice was low and soothing.
“I’m his fiancée. We only got engaged last week. Please let me see him.”
“Well…all right. But you mustn’t overexcite him. He needs to rest. He’s not out of the woods yet.”
Michelle walked past the police officer guarding the private room and stood in the doorway for a moment, breathing deeply, before entering.
Cordwainer. The biggest, baddest bad guy in town, the man she had loved.