‘You can bet your arse she’s asking because Eddie’s been spreading the story around.’
‘It isn’t a secret,’ Judith said. ‘People know. They’ve always known.’
‘You can make even old news fresh again if you add a new angle. He’s going to want people to think you’re impulsive. Dangerous. That you can’t be trusted. He wants Luke’s arrest to look like it was all about you losing it, going off on one, so he’s bringing up your ancient history, giving it some spin.’
‘Luke was on meth, Rocky.’
‘I know that. Right now, that’s what’s saving you.’
‘It’s not going away. Those tests are on the record.’
‘I know.’
‘So? What exactly is Eddie going to do? Fire me? On the basis of something that happened when I was fifteen years old? Something that has always been known? Give me a break.’
Rocky shook his head. ‘I’m just telling you, Sawhill coming down here, checking up on you, it isn’t just good case management.’
‘Okay. Fine. I hear you.’ She was working hard to seem unconcerned, but the barrage of warnings was beginning to have an effect. Judith felt a growing tension at the base of her stomach, across her shoulders, in the tightness of her neck. She resented it. Hated the feeling that she was a under a microscope and there was nothing she could do about it.
‘This case, this sexual assault case, is there something I should know?’
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘You told me, the morning you met your complainant, that you had your own reasons for taking the case.’
‘Yes.’
‘And now you’re tipping off journalists.’
‘Yeah.’
Rocky went quiet. He was waiting. Judith raised her eyes to meet his.
‘Ten years ago a girl came to me with a complaint about Walker. Her story was essentially the same—Walker had assaulted her in a consultation. I wasn’t able to help her.’
‘And this is your chance to make things right.’
‘Yeah.’
Rocky sighed. ‘Okay. I get it. Just take it easy. And promise me you’re going to be careful.’
* * *
Judith went to her desk. She had work to do. First she arranged to get her bike picked up for repair, and a loaner bike dropped off. Then she got a coffee and logged in to her terminal and tried to read through the latest report on the Haddad murder case. ANPR cameras had caught the car the murderer had used as it passed through the EastLink toll gantry at Mitcham. The car had later been found burned out in Ravenhall.
Judith struggled to concentrate, to draw conclusions from what she was reading. It was no good. She was thoroughly distracted. She gave up on the Haddad case, and turned her attention fully to Alexis Turner. She called the technical desk. The call was answered by Claire Holdsworth, an officer Judith had met only once before in person, at drinks celebrating someone’s retirement. She’d spoken to Claire only briefly, as she’d been distracted by Luke Fraser, who’d been holding court in the corner, getting drunk and boasting about all his wonderful achievements.
‘Claire, how are you?’
Claire Holdsworth was originally from Yorkshire. She was in her early twenties, and had an abundance of red curly hair that she hated and that most other women envied. She had a reputation as a very good forensics analyst. The day before, Judith had asked her to run a search on the email address Alexis Turner had used, to try to trace the IP address.
‘I don’t have much for you, I’m afraid. There wasn’t much in the header. Gmail stripped the IP address—they usually do. I’ve got timestamps, not much else. I did run an open source search, and I found nothing, which tells us that maybe this address is very new. It hasn’t been used for anything else in the past. No social media sign-ups, nothing like that.’
‘Okay,’ Judith said. Her suspicion that Alexis Turner wasn’t what she’d seemed was beginning to solidify into certainty. She’d emailed Alexis three times and had received no response. Given what Claire had just said, the chances seemed high that Alexis had created the email address only for the purposes of messaging Judith.
‘I can put in a request to Gmail, ask for account recovery data, last login IP addresses, that kind of thing, but the request will probably take weeks to process.’
‘Yes, go ahead,’ Judith said. She’d wait for the report, but wasn’t confident that Claire would find much.
