Dilemma. Jon Cleary

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СКАЧАТЬ the end,’ said the sergeant, not giving up. ‘Just the beginning.’

      ‘That’s how all homicide arrests start,’ said Malone. He was watching that his tongue did not get away from him, but he was angry for Wally Mungle’s sake. ‘Ron Glaze will have plenty of time to argue.’

      ‘Ron Glaze – who’s he?’ said the sergeant, but he knew he had lost the argument.

      ‘Will you want Wally to come down to Sydney?’ asked Gombrich. He was less formal now: he, too, knew he had lost the argument.

      ‘Not for the charging. But for the committal and trial, probably.’ He looked at the three locals: the inspector, the sergeant, the constable at his desk. Wally Mungle stood apart, identified by more than just being in plainclothes. ‘I’ve been in Homicide more years than I care to count. Most murders, I get a certain satisfaction when we clean them up, bring in and convict the buggers responsible. I never get any satisfaction out of a domestic. I’m not going to get any satisfaction out of this one if we nail Ron Glaze. But someone – and it’s us – has to do something for his wife. She’s dead.’

      For a moment nobody spoke; then Gombrich said, ‘Fair enough,’ and Malone knew he had won a point. For Wally Mungle, he hoped.

      Then Roma Gibson and Glaze came in from the interview room. Not knowing the circumstances of her first marriage, but giving her the benefit of the doubt, Malone recognized that Roma Gibson had just had her life shattered for the second time. But there were no tears; or if there were she had left them in the interrogation room. She was no longer aggressive, but she had already built defences.

      ‘I’m coming with you.’

      Malone said nothing, but glanced at Gombrich; the latter picked up the ball, reluctantly. ‘The plane’s full, Roma. There’s a wait-list.’

      She turned to Malone. ‘When will Roger be charged? Where?’

      He was still Roger: she wasn’t giving him up to a dead woman. ‘He’ll be held at Surry Hills police station, in Police Centre, tonight. Then he’ll go before a magistrate tomorrow morning, probably down at Liverpool Street. You know Sydney?’

      ‘Yes.’ She kissed her partner on the cheek, pressed his hand. It was for his benefit, not Malone’s. She loves him, thought the latter. ‘I’ll drive down tonight. We’ll be on our way home tomorrow night.’

      He smiled at her, hugged her, then looked at Malone, who said, ‘I wouldn’t bank on it, Ron.’

       5

      While waiting to go out to the Collamundra airport Malone rang Mount Druitt and asked for Sergeant Backer. But Backer was no longer in the Service; he had joined a private security firm working for the Olympics. ‘It’s Senior Sergeant Hulbert here.’

      Malone explained what he had in mind. ‘You fellers can take over, be there tomorrow morning and take all the credit.’

      ‘Thanks all the same, but we just don’t have the staff. You found him, you take the gold medal. It’s all in the Olympic spirit.’ He was another cop who, like Malone, was not looking forward to the events of 2000. ‘Many thanks.’

      ‘Up you,’ said Malone and hung up.

      Next morning, back in Sydney, Glaze was taken before a magistrate in the Liverpool Street court. Malone went down to the court with Andy Graham, just to tie his own ribbon bow on the case. By the time Glaze came to committal and trial, Andy Graham and someone from under-staffed Mount Druitt could present the evidence. This morning everything was over in a matter of minutes. Glaze’s lawyer, briefed by Trevor Waring by phone, had not had time to prepare much argument.

      After the hearing Malone made a mistake in taking a short cut through to the yard where the unmarked Homicide car was parked. Glaze was waiting in the hallway, accompanied by a court official, before being taken out to the van that would take him out to Long Bay gaol. Roma Gibson was there, her presence apparently tolerated by the court official, a young woman.

      ‘Why did you oppose giving me bail?’ Glaze was as nervous as an NYPD Blue cameraman; his eyes were everywhere, looking for something to focus on. All of a sudden he was falling apart. ‘Jesus, why?’

      ‘Ron, you pissed off once. Give you bail and you’d do it again.’

      ‘Where will he be sent?’ asked Roma Gibson. She was not as distraught as her partner, but one could see the effort she was making to hold herself together. ‘For how long?’

      ‘Long Bay, or maybe Silverwater. I dunno how long. We’ll have the case prepared for the DPP—’

      ‘The who?’

      ‘Director of Public Prosecutions. They’ll fit it into the court schedules. It could take three, four months, probably longer, before the committal, then there’ll be the trial. It’s out of our hands now.’

      ‘Jesus!’ Glaze threw up his manacled hands, looked around for escape.

      ‘You don’t care any more, do you?’ said Roma Gibson.

      ‘Mrs Gibson—’ He drew a long sigh of patience; he had been down this road so many times. ‘Have Trevor Waring get Ron—’

      ‘Roger.’

      ‘Whoever. Have Trevor get him a good barrister. That’s more important than worrying about whether I care or not.’

      ‘What do you do in the meantime?’

      Doesn’t this woman ever let go? But he had seen all this before, too: the thrown net, the drawing in of a cop as a hated relative. ‘I go on to other cases. There are four or five homicides a day in this city – not much compared to other cities overseas. But we’re kept busy.’

      He walked past them out into the yard. The heat hit him at once, the glare blinded him; he took out his dark glasses, which he rarely wore, and put them on. He stood for a moment, getting himself together. He must be getting old; the net was growing tighter. Yet this was an uncomplicated case, at least for the police. He would put it out of his mind till he had to present the papers for the case to the DPP.

      Andy Graham was waiting for him. ‘Get in quick, boss. There’s a girl from Channel 15 wanting to interview you. She says their show put us on to Glaze.’

      ‘Let her talk to him, then. Maybe he’ll sell them his story – they’ll buy anyone with an open mouth.’ He got into the car, slammed the door as he saw the girl, a cameraman and a sound man approaching. ‘Get us outa here! Run over ‘em, if you have to!’

      Graham grinned. ‘Nothing would gimme greater pleasure. But I don’t think we have justifiable homicide, do we?’

      Malone smiled wryly. ‘You’re developing a sour sense of humour, Andy.’

      ‘It helps, doesn’t it?’ He would be a cop all his working life; another twenty-five years stretched ahead of him down the track. ‘I’ve watched you and Russ. No offence.’

Chapter Three

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      Ronald СКАЧАТЬ