24. The clerk who came in from the cold

The site was shadows and hiding places. Piles of earth, heavy equipment, stores and holes.

“You’re quite sure he got away?” Kim asked.

The guards looked dubious in the dim light.

“Okay. If this gets into the papers, it will be only be in the comics.”

“Fair suck,” said one. “There was only the two of us. We couldn’t do a full search.”

“You didn’t think to follow him?”

“He was gone.”

“We were shooting at him,” said the other guard. “He just ran for his life.”

“You didn’t hit him, you didn’t follow him, you didn’t detain him. Now we’ve got a problem.” Kim indicated the skeleton with his torch. “And it’s not just this poor bloke.”

“Our job is to secure the site. We’re not the police to arrest intruders.”

“Didn’t stop you shooting at him like the police. Except you didn’t hit him.”

“Well, what would you bloody do? He was swinging a shovel at us!”

Kim spread his hands in a soothing gesture, keeping them well away from his own weapon. “Sorry. Okay. What’s done is past. Let’s do our jobs. I’ll stay here to secure the scene. You,” he indicated one guard, “go back to the gate. We’ll have reinforcements arriving soon, and they’ll need to be signed in. And you two with the big searchlights, make a patrol around the fence. If you see him, you can shoot the bastard. Or politely ask him to come to the gatehouse while we call the police.”

“So the police will be coming?”

“Not unless we need them. I’m an authorised Commonwealth officer and I’ll take responsibility for determining if any crime has occurred, or if we need police involvement.” Kim flicked his light over the excavation. “This looks like ancient history to me, and I’ll get a forensics investigator in at dawn tomorrow to give an expert opinion.”

Kim watched the guards trudge away. What he really wanted was a shovel. A true cover-up. Problem with a quick fix on a construction site was that another idiot with another shovel or a back-hoe would undoubtedly uncover the bones all over again. Besides, whoever the intruder was, he or she had been busily disinterring them.

The skeleton, or at least the parts he could see, looked old. Fossil rather than fresh. Maybe there was an elderly murderer out there mounting their own cover-up.

Kim fingered his weapon and looked around the site with fresh eyes. No, do the job properly.

His main task was to limit the damage. Restrict the people who knew. Then get the facts. Do some digging. If it was a murder, then the police would have to be involved. Find some cops who could keep their mouths shut as they checked back through missing persons reports from the 1850s or whatever.

He made some phone calls. Briefed CAS. Arranged for site access at dawn. When the two guards returned empty-handed from their patrol, apart from identifying the likely entry point, he got them to remove a tarpaulin from a nearby pile of stores, and together they spread it across the excavation, weighing it down at the corners with planks lifted from a pile of scaffolding materials.

A platoon of replacement guards arrived, drawn in from the standby list, and eventually the site was secured to his satisfaction. Double guard on the excavation, with strict instructions to leave the hazardous material undisturbed. Better there be a rumour of asbestos than a body.

And then, finally, home again.

Zoe was long since offline.

Lee was a huddled shape under layers of bedclothes as Kim carefully replaced his gun and ammunition, stripped off and changed into pyjamas. But she reacted strongly when Kim slid up against her.

“Oooh! You’re cold!”

“And you’re so warm!  You love me, right?”

“Mmmm.” She had to think about that.

And then she rolled over, facing him. “Things I do for you, dear!”

Dear. Oh well, he was doing very well for an icicle.

“Kim?”

“Yes, dear?”

“You weren’t at the office, were you?” She inhaled. “And you’ve been with someone who smokes.”

“Just doing stuff.”

“And you had your gun. Anything I need to know?”

“Nothing you need to know. Just thought it prudent – there was something came up I had to look into, and until I knew the facts, I wanted to make sure I was covered. As it turned out, I didn’t need to defend myself.” Except maybe from trigger-happy security lunks.

“I love you, but you speak a lot of crap sometimes, Kim.”

“Yeah. This is really need to know material. It’s my job.”

“And I’m your partner. If you put your life in danger, don’t you think I’m going to get worried? And don’t you think I hate being lied to?”

Kim held Lee tighter. “I’m not lying to you.”

“Lying beside me, yes. Lying by not telling me things I need to know as your partner?”

Kim paused. Paused too long.

“Kim, how can I ever trust you?”

“There was an incident at a secure location. Shots were fired at an intruder. I was asked to check it out. It’s dark, there was some violence, and the people acted in self-defence. Given the limited details I was given, I thought it best to be armed.”

“And…?”

“And the intruder got away. We didn’t see any blood trail, we couldn’t find anyone on or near the site.”

“And…?”

“And that’s all I can tell you. It’s not the sort of thing we want in the papers. Look, honey, I was never in any danger. Even if I hadn’t taken a gun, I was with armed officers every moment. People trained and alert.”

“But they missed your intruder.”

“They fired to scare him away. We don’t shoot to kill unless there’s an immediate and major threat to life. A terrorist with a bomb. A maniac with a machine-gun.”

“I thought you were just a clerk when we got together.”

“Well, I am. Mostly. I’m not James Bond. As far as I’m concerned, the enemy lives on Pirie Street in Fyshwick, and I’m not allowed to shoot the buggers.”

Lee moved against him. “Hey, are you sure you put your weapon away?”

Copyright © 2009 Peter Mackay