Flashes of blue and red strobed through the darkened canopy.
‘Looks like we’ve found the carnival,’ said Ben, leaning forward.
Zoe’s headlights raked the road. An hour after leaving Melbourne, they were almost at the top of the mountain.
She gripped the wheel a little tighter and continued to scan the road ahead for wildlife.
She and Ben had only been partnered up for two weeks.
Her boss, Detective Inspector Rob Loretti, head of Homicide, broke the news of Ben’s transfer from Armed Crime only half an hour before Ben walked through the door.
Zoe understood why. She’d spent a month or so before that working solo, and she was starting to prefer it that way.
She guessed Ben must have been at least thirty-five, although he puffed himself up with all the bravado of a man in his early twenties. On that first day, he strutted into the squad room in a grey tailored three-piece suit, his dark hair carefully styled. To Zoe, he looked more gangster than cop.
When he spotted Harry curled beside her desk, he pointed at his suit. ‘This doesn’t go with dogs.’
Zoe had stared at him for a long moment. ‘You know that door you came through,’ she said, pointing over his shoulder. ‘It works both ways.’
There were snorts of laughter from the other detectives seated nearby.
It wasn’t a good start.
In the two weeks since, they had worked a domestic homicide—an easy win once Zoe tripped the killer up in his own lies—and formed the secondary team on the fatal stabbing of a teenager on St Kilda foreshore. Routine gathering a haul of witness statements, videos and photos.
In Zoe’s mind, Ben had not yet been tested…
Leave a Reply