I shook another cigarette out of the pack I’d swiped from Nigel’s desk. My thoughts were racing.
“You aren’t going to do yourself any favours here, Harry. If you go around shouting in front of the cameras the way you did in that case room just now, you’re going to look like a lunatic.”
“I don’t give a shit what I look like!”
“You should,” the Chief said. “The entire country is going tune in for this on the six o’clock news. People are angry. If they can’t get at Sam, they’re going to want to get at you. Think about it. It’s fucking poetry. The killer’s sister is a short-tempered, frequently violent cop with a mouth like a sailor. Better yet, she’s in Sex Crimes, and has somehow managed to remain completely oblivious to the sexual predator at the family barbecue.”
He took a piece of paper from the breast pocket of his jacket and handed it to me. It was a printout of a flight itinerary. He untucked a slim folder from under his arm and put it in my hands. I opened it and saw it was a case brief, but I couldn’t get my eyes to settle on it for more than a few seconds. I felt sick with fear, uncertainty.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“It’s an Unexplained Death case out on a mining camp in the desert near Kalgoorlie,” the Chief said.
“I’m sex crimes, Pops. Not clean-up crew.”
“I don’t care what you are. You’re going. I pulled some strings with some old mates in Perth. The case itself is bullshit, but the area is so isolated, it’ll make the perfect hideout.”
“I don’t want to go to fucking Kalgoorlie! Are you nuts?”
“You don’t get a choice, Detective. Even if you don’t know what’s best for you right now, I do. I’m giving you a direct order as your superior officer. You don’t go, I’ll have you locked up for interrogative purposes. I’ll tell a judge I want to know if you knew anything about the murders and I’ll throw away the key until this shitstorm is over. You want that?”
I tried to walk away. The Chief grabbed my arm again.
“Look at me,” he said.
I didn’t look.
“There is nothing you can do to help your brother, Blue,” the old man said. “It’s over.”