Alex Palmer - Blood Redemption

‘Do you want a lift somewhere?’ Grace asked.

‘Nup.’

Standing in the rain, the girl spread out her arms like a dancer about to spin out of a spotlight. She laughed aloud.

‘See you sometime maybe, Gracie.’

‘Gina … ’

‘What?’

‘Remember you can call me.’

The girl laughed once again and then she was gone, half-walking, half-running along the empty street until she disappeared from sight.

Grace called in to say she was on her way back, and then sat in her car where it was parked off the road in another spot that Gina had found for her. She thought, I won’t see that girl alive again. She sat quietening her breathing, letting her hands lie loose in her lap. You have to draw a line. You have to do that now.

She drove away, unable to follow the girl on the one-way street that channelled her car in the opposite direction. So where was Gina going now? Don’t even think about it, because there’s nothing you can do.

Once Grace had called in for the night, Harrigan collected his things and left. Trevor had already gone, leaving the graveyard shift ticking over ready for the next day. Harrigan left instructions for them to call him as soon as they had an address, an identification, anything at all.

Lucy Hurst’s picture was already appearing on late-night news broadcasts and Internet news services.

He did not go straight home but snatched another half hour and went via Cotswold House. Toby was still out of bed, waiting for him.

As he entered the room, Toby signalled to him with his good hand.

‘Hi, Toby,’ Harrigan said, and looked over his shoulder at a website dedicated to mountain climbing in Peru.

Look dad See how steep it is? Do u know these mountains arereally high Next highest after the Himalayas?

‘No, I didn’t know that,’ he said. ‘How are you?’

I’m ok I guess Wot about u??

‘I’m okay, bit tired maybe. Toby, I’ve got something I’ve got to talk to you about.’

Wot????

Harrigan had sat down.

‘Mate — I shouldn’t be doing this, okay? I’ve got to ask you this.

Are you going to warn her? If I tell you this.’

U know who she is??

‘Yeah.’

Toby turned his wheelchair in a small circle to look at his father.

His good hand rested on the keyboard.

U said u would find her Wots her name?

‘Are you going to warn her?’

She’s not talking 2 me dad I can’t warn her

‘You’re out there looking for her.’

It’s 2 late for u 2 ask me that now anyway dad I can just send heran email Firewall they know who u are be careful

‘Will you?’

Why are u doing this?? Wot do you really want to know dad? WhoI love more? Her or U?

‘No, mate. It’s not like that.’ He hunted for an explanation. ‘This way you know where we are. I don’t know what’s going to happen from now on in. I don’t know what she’s going to do, or even if she’s going to walk away from this.’

Are u going 2 shoot her??? Is that wot u want 2 do??

‘I don’t use guns until I have to. That depends on what she does. If I can avoid it, I will.’

Why shouldn’t I warn her then??? She’s out there Maybe u’re goingto shoot her and if u don’t, u’re going to lock her away She’s neverbeen locked away before That’s going to be horrible 4 her

‘And if I don’t reel her in, Toby? What’s she going to do then? Kill someone else.’

Toby sat tapping his good hand on his desk. Harrigan watched his own gesture reflected back at him.

Sometimes I think she might I don’t know what to do then

‘You don’t take that on, Toby. You call me, I keep doing what I can.’

They sat in silence for a little longer.

Can’t save her Wish I could Who is she??

‘Lucy Hurst, Toby. She’s the Firewall. This is what she looks like.’

Toby manoeuvred the identikit to the centre of his desk with his good hand.

It looks funny

‘Yeah. No one looks human in these pictures.’

I thought she would look a bit like that

‘Why do you say that?’

I dont know It just looks right somehow She’s sort of pretty don’tu think?? I do It’s not a bad face dad She doesn’t look evil

‘It’s going out on every outlet in the city at the moment, Toby. We have to find her soon. Someone is going to tell us where she is.’

When u do will u ask her if she wants 2 talk 2 me? Coz I want 2

talk 2 her

‘If that’s what you want, yes, I will.’

They sat without speaking.

‘Why do you want that, Toby? She told you to go away. Why ask her back?’

We’re connected dad We understand each other I’m going to behere for her

‘You and her?’

Yes her amp; me

How can you be connected to her?

‘Whatever you want, Toby.’

U dont mind???

‘No. It’s whatever you want. Look, I’m going to go now, Toby. I’ve got to get some sleep while I can. I’m going to try and get back to see you but I don’t know when that will be now. You email me if you need anything. Okay?’

Can I keep this??

‘That’s for you. I brought it for you.’

U amp; me are different dad She doesn’t stop us from being who we are She does that to me, Toby, even if you don’t know that.

Even so, when he left Cotswold he felt a lessening of the pressures.

It had to be finished with soon.

When Harrigan arrived home, he found Menzies curled up on the kitchen window ledge, snoring happily, shedding fur with the rise and fall of his rib cage and radiating the indefinable odour of old cat. He decided he would try his luck at sleeping as well and went to bed with some journalist’s much hyped expose of a well-known Sydney racing identity. The book was more entertaining for what it had wrong than any other feature and he could have written a fairly acidic, laugh-a-minute review along those lines if the information had not been so dangerous. Perhaps it did relax him. When, sometime before dawn, he was woken out of a deep sleep by the sound of the telephone, his bedside lamp was still on and the book was lying dropped on the coverlet. His first thought was for Toby; his second was for Lucy Hurst.

‘Harrigan.’

‘It’s Grace here. I’m sorry to wake you up so early.’

She was the last person he was expecting to call him at this or any other hour. He sat up, the book falling to the floor with a light thud.

‘What is it?’ he asked.

‘I’ve just had a call. From someone on the job I’ve never heard of before. They’ve found Gina. And her boyfriend.’ She stopped and seemed to be gathering breath. ‘They’re both dead. They’re in Surry Hills just off Foveaux. I’ve been asked to go down there. But I’ve been asked to go alone and without telling anyone I work with. He said just come by yourself and we’ll work out the rest later. I don’t see why it has to happen like that.’

‘Who is this?’

‘Jerry Freeman. Do you know the name?’

Shit! Harrigan thought.

‘Yes, I do happen to know Jerry. Why did he call you?’

‘Gina had my card in her pocket. He said it made him curious.’

‘Where are you now?’

‘I’m still in my flat.’

‘Give me twenty minutes. I’ll meet you there. Don’t get there before me. Okay?’

‘Yeah, okay. But who is this person?’

‘Ask me that question later, Grace.’

If Freeman was up to his old tricks, then this slotted in under the heading of Murphy’s law at work and the unpleasant odour Harrigan had detected last night had just got a lot nastier. As he showered and dressed, he wondered if his old sparring partner had even bothered to call in the pathologist or the crime scene people. He drove through Birchgrove up to Darling Street in the strange quiet between sleeping and waking. It was still raining, the roads were slippery with oil. He approached the city, the lights of the tower blocks were distant in the darkness of the early morning, slurred with the rain.