Lee Weeks - Kiss and Die

Shit…Mann wanted to throw up. Had he raped Lilly? Had he had underage sex with a child? Had he abandoned every moral fibre in his body? If he had, what else was he guilty of? Did he know himself any more? Did he trust himself?

Mann shrugged. He didn’t know anything any more. Nothing seemed real. Nothing was fitting. ‘Well, we do know now that Michelle has to be innocent. We have to let her go. Unless it was someone working for or with her?’

‘She was in prison. She can’t have snuck back and left the head. It has to be someone else.’

‘I need to talk to her again,’ said Mann. The eagle flew by the window. Mann wanted to reach out and jump on its back.

‘Inspector?’ Michelle looked at Mann as he walked into the interview room. She twisted one hand around another. She bit her lip. She had on a plain blue t-shirt and prison trousers. Her eyes were swollen bloodshot bags. She was trembling from withdrawal. Mann felt sorry for her.

‘Sit down, Michelle.’ Mia and Ng were watching from the monitoring room outside.

‘How are you doing?’

She shrugged. Mann passed her a cigarette.

‘Michelle, another man has been murdered. His name is Peter Thorne. Ring a bell?’

She lit the cigarette and looked up at Mann. She shook her head. ‘I don’t know who you’re talking about.’

‘Can you give us any more information about the woman who you get the drugs for? The woman who gave you Max Kosmos’s wallet in exchange?’

She shook her head and dragged heavily on the cigarette. ‘I told you, Inspector, I never see her. She’s very careful about that. Never gives the instructions with the same person. Sometimes she even sends a guest up and pretends it’s a song request. She’s clever.’

‘You forgot to mention you also get her a drug called Papaverine. Any reason for that?’

‘I forgot that’s all.’

‘Do you know what it does?’

‘Yeah, I looked it up. It makes cocks hard.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me you supplied it?’

‘I didn’t think it was important.’

‘Anything else you want to tell me that may or may not seem important to you?’

She shook her head. She was getting agitated. She scratched at the skin on the inside of her wrist. She drew heavily on her cigarette.

‘You know Victoria Chan well?’

Michelle thought for a moment before answering. ‘I know her as well as everyone does. She’s been coming to the Mansions this last year. She’s been offering us deals to sign up and become part of the refurb project. She’s been a good friend. She wants to help us.’ She blew the smoke out in a disgusted groan. ‘She isn’t like some people who you think are good but turn out to be bad.’ She paused and looked at Mann. ‘Just like you, huh, Inspector? I used to look up to you. Not any more.’ Michelle looked around her. ‘I want someone else in here as well.’

‘There are cameras, Michelle. Everything is recorded.’

‘Even so, I don’t feel safe.’ Michelle looked up at Mann. ‘I talked to Lilly on the phone this morning. She didn’t go home last night. She said she’d stayed with you.’ Michelle stared hard at Mann, giving him the chance to deny it.

Mia’s eyes opened wide. She stared at Mann on the small screen and shook her head, waiting for Mann to deny it.

‘She says she stayed in your apartment last night and you had sex.’

Mann looked up at the camera. Mia stared back at him.

Mia caught up with Mann and Ng in the locker room. ‘I have to suspend you. You’re now officially a suspect, Mann. Don’t go anywhere until it’s all cleared up.’

Mann looked at Mia’s face. She was fuming but she was also devastated. He nodded. He knew she had no choice. He would have done the same thing.

‘She has refused a rape test. She is not pressing charges. She is probably looking for some payout. Christ, Johnny, I don’t know what the hell is going on. Either you have been stitched up better than Kin Tak can sew up a corpse or you are so out of your head you just don’t know what the hell you are doing any more. Which is it? Either way your fucking judgement is seriously impaired. What the fuck were you thinking?’

Mann took a deep breath in through his nose and bowed his head against the locker door. He rocked his head from side to side against the cold metal. ‘I don’t know. I blacked out. I don’t remember anything after leaving the bar. I woke up this morning and she was in my bed. I don’t think we had sex but I don’t know.’

‘Jesus Christ! Yeah, well that doesn’t inspire huge confidence in me. You have lost it, Mann. You have compromised your judgement. You’ve been crossing the line too often recently, Mann. At a time when Victoria Chan is after your blood and stopping at nothing to stitch you up, you seem to be doing everything to give her a helping hand.’

‘You don’t have to suspend me, Mia. I resign.’

‘No. I don’t accept your resignation. I don’t want your badge. Just go home, Mann, stay out of trouble till we sort it out.’

Mann took out his weapons belts from his locker. Ng was watching him.

‘You’re not alone in this, Genghis. Shrimp and I will do everything we can to clear this up fast and then you’ll be back.’

‘I hope so, Ng, I feel like I’ve been nicely sewn up. Mostly by myself. I am no use to you or any one here any more. As Mia said, I’m a liability.’

Ng watched him leave.

Shrimp caught up with him as he took the lift down.

‘Boss, I didn’t get the chance to tell you something about Tammy’s death. It couldn’t have been Mahmud. I checked the autopsy report of the wound that killed her; the knife went in at an angle, right to left across her body. Mahmud is left-handed. He couldn’t have done it. Shall I get him released?’

‘You better check with someone else, Shrimp. I wouldn’t trust my judgement at the moment.’

Mann walked through the turnstile to the exit. He stood in the garden outside Headquarters, his head bowed, he shook his head. He felt defeated.

Michelle was released. Her body ached for ice. Her heart ached for her kids. Rizal looked up when she unlocked the door. She went to kiss him. He looked her up and down, turned away in disgust and threw the rubbish off the sofa so he could sit. Lilly emerged from the bedroom with just her t-shirt and pants on. Michelle’s eyes flicked back and forth between the two. Lilly stared back, brazen. Rizal looked away sheepishly.

‘Where are the twins?’ Michelle started tidying up.

‘The twins have gone to the old woman down the hall.’

Lilly stayed where she was, leant on the doorframe, her midriff showing, her skinny legs were bare.

‘Get dressed.’ Michelle stood, a pile of papers in her hands. ‘And go and see that they’re okay. Take them for an ice cream, Lilly. And while you’re out, go to the Delhi Grill and ask Nina if she can help me out with some groceries. I need to get cooking straight away.’

Lilly screwed up her face and was about to argue but one look at Michelle’s expression told her she should do as she was told. She shrugged, turned and took her time about moving out of view. Michelle watched her. She saw her look over her shoulder at Rizal. He nodded that she should comply with her mother’s request. He looked about for the remote. Michelle reached down the side of the sofa, found it. She held on to it. She searched his eyes for the truth; she found it as he turned to watch Lilly walk past.

‘Don’t hurry. I want a word with Rizal,’ Michelle told Lilly as she left. After she’d gone, Michelle turned the volume of the television up high.