Peter Corris - Appeal Denied

She gave me a hard stare. ‘The Northern Crimes Unit is seriously corrupt. Not all of the divisions, not everybody, and not all the time, but there’re people pulling strings, making sure that things run the way they want and taking drastic steps when certain matters come up.’

‘Matters like?’

‘Like murder. Lillian Truscott wasn’t the first journalist to be killed. Do you remember the Rex Robinson case?’

I didn’t, must have been too caught up in my own problems, but Townsend obviously did. ‘Freelance,’ he said. ‘Killed in his car about a year ago. Brakes failed and he went through a railing into the water. Where was that again?’

‘Northbridge. I’m sure he must’ve got on to some of the stuff I’m talking about and was… taken care of.’

‘By a policeman?’ I asked.

She shrugged. ‘Or someone contracted by a policeman and police used to take the investigation precisely nowhere.’

‘That’s a throwback to the old days-the green light and all that stuff.’

Jane nodded. ‘Bit before my time, but if you say so. You need to understand the history of the unit.’

Townsend sat very still. I looked at him and he looked steadily back. ‘This is more than I’ve heard from Jane so far,’ he said.

‘Let’s not start talking about someone present as if they’re not here again,’ I said. ‘You’ve got my attention, Ms Farrow.’

‘Jane, for Christ’s sake. I’m putting my life in your fucking hands, both of you. Let’s pretend we at least know each other.’

Townsend put his arm around her shoulders and she let it stay there. She was very stressed and had done a good job of concealing it, but the facade was cracking.

A man like me, with a battered dial and the hooded, distrustful eyes inherited from my Irish gypsy grandmother, has difficulty looking comforting. I’ve been told I have a voice like Bob Hawke on a good day, so I can’t soothe that way either.

‘I’ll say this,’ I said. ‘I think you’re a very brave woman and I admire bravery. My guess is you want our help- Lee’s and mine-as much as we want yours. Can we start from there?’

Jane drew in a deep breath and drank some of her wine. Townsend did much the same and they exchanged smiles.

‘You fucking charmer, you,’ Townsend said.

I put on the brogue. ‘Irish.’

‘Hardy’s not Irish,’ Jane said.

‘And other things. Can we get a feed here? I’m bloody starving.’

We went next door to a fish restaurant. Suited me. Townsend had grilled sardines and salad and ate like a bird, while Jane Farrow and I ploughed into the barramundi. She seemed to appreciate the extra time it gave her and I wondered if she might change her mind. We shared a bottle of white.

I felt I should get the ball rolling as we cleaned up the chips. ‘Aren’t you worried some of your colleagues might see you in this company, Jane?’

‘No. The high-ups have their designated watering hole, the Lord of the Isles in St Leonards, and the drones have theirs, or they go home to their wives, girlfriends and boyfriends.’

I nodded. ‘Lee, what’s on your mind?’

‘You know me,’ Townsend said. ‘I’ll stick a camera in anyone’s face, put a foot in any doorjamb. But this is different. I’m genuinely worried about what might happen to Jane if… if she puts flesh on the bones of what she’s just told us.’

‘I’m doing it,’ Jane said. ‘I can’t stand it any longer. Let whatever happens happen.’

She told us that the Northern Crimes Unit had been put together from a group of other police outfits and was designed to liaise closely with business, community, political, educational and church organisations to provide a coordinated anti-crime set-up that would be a model for other areas.

‘It was kept hush-hush, but it sounded good and quite a lot of people in the force, good people, were attracted to join it. But it turned out to be bullshit. None of the organisations could get on together. The business people were out for a big buck like always, the God squaddies were getting madder and more right-wing by the minute, the state and private schools were at each other’s throats. The whole thing fell apart. The good people left and the force had to offer accelerated promotion and special conditions to attract people. That’s why I joined-to get on. But a lot of the others who joined saw the opportunities to run profitable sidelines-mainly escort agencies, immigration scams, and supplying drugs to the affluent middle-class workaholics.’

‘How long has this been going on?’ I asked.

‘At its worst, a couple of years.’

Townsend said, ‘How was it kept under wraps?’

‘It’s the lower north shore and the harbour beaches, Lee,’ Jane said. ‘Nothing nasty is supposed to happen here, and a lot of bribery money gets spread around to keep mouths shut.’

We ordered coffee and I had to wonder if Townsend had a tape recorder on him somewhere. It was hard to imagine him letting all this just go out in the ether. As for me, I wished I could have taken notes, because some of the things Jane said chimed with what little I’d gleaned from Lily’s files-immigration fraud, the sex industry. The stuff about drugs to the well-heeled was new, but maybe Lily’d had a code for drugs that I didn’t know.

‘You look sceptical,’ Jane said to me.

‘No, not really. It’s just so big and… amorphous.’

‘Lily must have got wind of it somehow,’ Townsend said. ‘She never hinted…?’

I shook my head. ‘Never, but she was like that. She didn’t talk about her stories until they were nailed down.’

Townsend said, ‘The questions, as far as Cliff’s concerned, correct me if I’m wrong, are-who did she get the information from and who found out about it?’

‘Right,’ I said. ‘And what are the questions for you, Lee?’

‘How to write, broadcast, film, whatever, the story and get it out while protecting Jane.’

The coffee arrived.

I looked at Jane, who was spilling packets of sugar into her cup, stirring, adding more, stirring, until Townsend gently stopped her.

‘Jane?’ he said.

She stopped stirring, took a sip of the coffee and grimaced at the sweetness. ‘I grew up in Mt Druitt,’ she said. ‘We weren’t exactly welfare dependents, but not far from it. I got into the University of Western Sydney and did okay. I was pretty good at everything. Not brilliant, but okay. My mum drummed into me that what you needed was a secure job where you could get on. A police recruitment guy, and a woman, came out to the uni. I applied and got accepted, went to the Academy. There were no fucking HECS fees then at the Academy the way there are now and I knew it’d be a while before I earned enough to have to pay back the uni HECS. I sailed through, did a stint in the country and was told about the openings at the Northern Command.’

She picked up her coffee cup, but I pushed mine across to her and put one packet of sugar in it and stirred. She smiled her thanks, had a drink, and went on.

‘Do you two city types understand that I’d never really been to Sydney at all? You can’t imagine what growing up in the west is like. You know the water’s that way and the mountains are over there, but they don’t seem to have anything to do with you. I’d had a few fleeting visits as a kid-school outing stuff, the Olympics, something forgettable at the Opera House one night. I’d never properly seen the harbour, let alone the northern suburbs and beaches. I was knocked out when I saw how terrific the place was, after where I’d come from. The whole scene got to me, the beauty of it, and I was happy working here. Then I saw what was going on in the unit. I knew that they were- fuck, how to put it? — polluters, with their scams and deals and cover-ups. I just want this beautiful place to be made beautiful again.’