Leah Giarratano - Voodoo Doll

Nothing. No answer.

He stood from the bench and finished drying himself, made his way to his locker and reached for his uniform. He'd finished half of his double shift, and had another hour's break before signing back on for the nightshift. Most of his mates were pissed off with the extended hours. Ordinarily, Andrew would have been more than happy – the overtime pay got him closer to his US-Canada skiing holiday. Two years' planning and saving, the trip had been the first thing on his mind every morning until he'd met Chloe Farrell. He smiled at himself in the mirror, straightening his collar, thinking of her.

The smile faltered. He wondered again why she hadn't called. He knew he wanted to see her every day, and he thought she'd felt the same. He'd let Sunday pass, certain each call he received would be from her. He'd never waited for a call from a girl before and he somehow liked the anxious anticipation of having to wait for something he really wanted. By Monday morning, though, he was over the game and ready to concede defeat. He called her. He'd been trying every couple of hours since, and now here he was, Tuesday night. No word.

All of the possible explanations sucked. He couldn't figure out whether it would hurt more that she just didn't care enough to have returned the call, or whether she'd got what she wanted from him for now and didn't need him at the moment. Actually, that would be worse, he thought – that Chloe had deliberately targeted him only to glean some information on the home invasion case.

He took his shoes over to the bench again and sat, leaned his face into his hands and rubbed at his temples. He felt stupid for giving her the little information he had; he'd never done anything like that before. He mentally chewed through their conversations again. All he'd really told her was that there'd been an apparently important anonymous phone call and that the caller had identified someone called Henry. It had just been a tease. Nothing she could actually use – just some-thing to attract her interest, make those eyes light up. She couldn't actually do anything with those details, could she? He'd scanned the news the last couple of days and there was no sign that she'd reported the scraps of information.

Another possibility for Chloe's silence nagged at him and again he pushed it away as ridiculous. Chloe couldn't actually have used that information to try to find Henry herself, could she? I mean, we couldn't even find Nguyen, he reasoned with himself. How would she have had a hope when she didn't know his address or even his surname?

Andrew Montgomery decided he'd sign on early. He grabbed his holster and notebook from his locker and made his way towards the stairs. At the doorway, he suddenly paused and reached into his top pocket.

He chewed at the skin around his thumb and pressed the phone against his ear.

JILL TOOK THE call while dressing for work. 'Tonight?' she said into the phone. 'Why tonight?'

'Your sister's going away on another shoot,' her mother replied. 'As usual, she waited until the last minute to tell us. She's going to Italy this time and thinks it may be one of the last big overseas shoots she does. She thinks they're about to send her out to pasture.' Jill knew Cassie was paranoid about her age: thought she was lucky to still be modelling at thirty.

'Okay, I guess I can come,' said Jill, holding the handset under her chin and trying to towel off at the same time. 'Where are we going?'

'East Ocean in Chinatown.'

'Yum. That's a bit a hike for you guys, isn't it?'

'Actually, it's quite exciting. You'll never believe what your father's done now.'

'What?' asked Jill. Her father wasn't big on spontaneity or surprises.

'He's booked us a suite at the casino. We're going there after dinner.'

'Wow. What's the occasion?' Jill nervously ran through a checklist of anniversary dates and birthdays – nothing she could think of.

'No reason. Can you believe it? Last night I told him about the dinner plans and he said he'd arrange for us to stay in the city.' Frances sounded thrilled.

Jill smiled widely. It was great to see her parents relaxing a little. Even though she'd been only twelve, and traumatised, when she had returned home after the abduction, she had recognised the changes in her parents. There had been times early on when it seemed they went weeks without even speaking to one another. Sitting on her bed now, holding the phone, Jill felt another subtle adjustment in her tension levels, as if another piece of ice had sloughed away from the glacier that had been her heart for so many years. Her family seemed to be healing, finally.

'That's great, Ma. So, who's coming?'

'Tim and Robyn, Avery and Lily.' Jill hadn't seen her brother and his family for a month or so, and she was pleased to hear their names. 'Cassie, of course,' her mum continued, 'and she's bringing her new friend. They've been seeing each other for quite a while, apparently, so that should be interesting.'

After the call, Jill hurriedly finished getting dressed for work. She figured that the pressure on the case would lessen with the news that two of the offenders were dead. Police and community relief would be massive when they announced that one of the deceased was the ringleader – Cutter. Still, she didn't want to be late to the taskforce meeting today. There could be word back from the coroner, more details from the crime scene, or word on whether Joss would have to face formal charges. And there were still two offenders in the wind.

Despite the remaining heavy workload, she wondered whether the taskforce would be dismantled now that Henry Nguyen had been killed. As soon as the 'sexiness' of a murderer was taken out of the equation, media interest and political pressure, in that order, would diminish, and competing workloads from other cases would begin to pull the taskforce apart. She wondered how she felt about that. She had expected to be delighted and relieved; she'd been thinking she would put in for a transfer closer to home, even try to get back to Maroubra, not that that would be easy. On the other hand, she had been enjoying working with Lawrence Last. She wondered whether he would request her help on another case.

And then there was Gabriel. So different to Scotty. Jill wasn't sure exactly how she felt about their partnership coming to an end, but suddenly the morning didn't seem quite so bright.

She gathered up her handbag and briefcase, and left for work.

At just after seven p.m. Jill left the departmental car undercover in a parking station on George Street and walked down to Chinatown. She pulled a ruffled black cardigan over her white shirt as she walked. The evenings were still a little cool, especially in the city. She waited at the lights on Hay Street while other pedestrians walked straight in front of cars, ignoring the horns and expletives of motorists still trying to get home. She shook her head as two giggling girls, both on mobiles, caused a dark Mercedes to slam on the brakes. She hated driving through this intersection.

As she climbed the stairs to the restaurant, the noise from the street gave way to Japanese harp music. She spotted her family sitting at a circular table near the window overlooking the streetlights below. Spicy scents followed her as she walked past a trickling fountain and candlelit tables to reach them.

'Hi everyone,' she said, smiling.

Jill's mum rose to give her a hug and four-year-old Lily leapt from her seat before her mum, Robyn, could stop her.

'You're sitting here, Aunty Jill! Mum, you said she would sit here.'

'Yes, Lily, it's okay, settle down now.'

Jill made her way around the table; her sister, Cassie, stood when she reached her.

'Hey, big sis,' she said, kissing Jill on both cheeks. Cassie's lips were berry-red with wine, her cheeks flushed.