Judith blinked. ‘I’m sorry. I can’t answer that question.’
‘Because this is the station closest to the university. This is where they would have come, if they needed help.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘You can’t tell me. Yeah. You said. So we’ll have to wait and see. If I go public, then we’ll see what happens. I bet other women come forward.’
‘The best thing you can do right now is let me do my job.’
‘As long as you do it.’
‘Is there something you want to ask me before I stop the tape? Do you have any questions for me?’
‘Are you going to questionhimtoday?’
‘Yes, of course.’
‘Of course you will. So that’s just fine then. You’ll do your job and he’ll go down for what he did and everything will be okay.’
Chapter Two
When Judith left the interview room with Alexis Turner in tow, she found her boss waiting outside. Detective Senior Sergeant Rocky Jansen was sitting on one of the benches that lined the hall, his arms resting on his thighs, his head down. He was wearing what she’d come to think of as the Jansen uniform—a blue shirt, navy jeans and a brown jacket. He was already frowning as she came out of the room, and the frown deepened when he saw her face.
‘Give me a minute,’ Judith said to him. She walked Alexis to the door that led to the waiting room, passed her security card over the lock and held the door open to allow Alexis to pass through. ‘I’ll call you. As soon as I have anything I can share.’
Alexis might have nodded. It was hard to tell, as her hood was still up. Judith let the door swing shut. She turned back into the corridor, took a seat beside Rocky, stretched out her legs and rolled her shoulders. The movement sent a jolt of pain through her ribs.
‘Look at your fucking face,’ Rocky said.
‘You should see the other guy.’
Rocky Jansen was a thirty-five-year veteran of Victoria Police. He’d been Judith’s direct boss for five years, but had known her since she was fifteen. Other than Katy, who was Judith’s closest friend, he was probably the person who knew her best in the world. He also had the kind of connections that meant he heard rumours almost before they started. It didn’t surprise Judith that he’d already heard what she’d done the night before. If anything, she was surprised that it had taken him this long to find her.
‘Jude, what were you thinking?’
‘I’m not sure what else you expected me to do. Luke broke that kid’s arm.’
‘Damien Collins is running scared. He’s telling everyone who’ll listen that you overrode him. That he tried to talk you down but you insisted on dragging Luke to the custody suite, that you insisted on the drug test. Damien says he tried to talk you out of it.’
Luke Fraser and Damien Collins were constables. Beat cops. But to some, Luke Fraser was much more than that. To some Luke was a hero. A twenty-nine-year-old former AFL player. A mercurial talent whose career had been tragically cut short when his knee blew out in the 2019 Grand Final, in front of a crowd of a hundred thousand at the MCG. Luke had a failed surgery and a failed comeback under his belt before he finally walked away from the sport he loved and dedicated himself to Victoria Police, just like his dad, Assistant Commissioner Eddie Fraser, had before him.
That’s if you believed the hype.
If you were a little better informed, you knew Luke Fraser as a spoiled, macho, arsehole misogynist with a cocaine habit and a history of domestic violence, the son of an adoring father and a mother who had learned over the years that her only safe path through life was to keep her head down and her mouth shut. Luke’s knee had healed well enough, but his team had been glad to see the back of him. He’d been pushed out the door and offered a quiet exit after an incident where he’d taken two rookies to a strip joint and introduced them to his supplier. His AFL career over, his dad had stepped in with a smooth path into the police force. Luke had brought with him his own ideas about what it took to police the streets of Melbourne, which mostly seemed to involve screwing with his colleagues, building cosy relationships with drug dealers and using excessive force on anyone small enough not to present a threat.
Judith fished in her pocket and found a packet of gum. She offered one to Rocky, who shook his head. She put one in her mouth and started to chew, regretting it almost immediately. Chewing gum helped with the nicotine cravings. It didn’t help with the pain in her cheek.
‘So, tell me Damo has it wrong.’
She shook her head. ‘That’s more or less what happened.’
‘Judith...’
‘Rocky.’ She gave him a sideways glance, half-mocking, half-affectionate. ‘What are they going to do? That prick was on meth. On the job, and off his head. He was halfway to killing that boy. Luke is six foot four and a hundred kilos of mostly muscle. The kid was maybe sixty soaking wet.’
‘What did he do? The suspect?’
‘Thekidwas out with his friends. He got drunk and he stopped to take a leak against the side of a building. That’s it. Damo and Luke were on foot patrol. They give him a warning, kid gives Luke some shit. A minute later he’s on the ground with a broken arm and Luke’s thick arm wrapped around his neck.’
