‘I need to know, mate,’ said Con, ignoring Dave. ‘Forensics have proven that all the marijuana came from the same plant strain, as if the common sticker wasn’t enough. If it’s yours, Murphy, I need to know now.’ He leaned forward. ‘If I’m forced to find out another way, it’ll look even worse for you.’
‘Like you haven’t set him up to take the fall either way,’ said Dave scathingly. ‘We are very familiar with the way “justice” works around here.’
‘It’s not my weed, and I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ said Murphy. He put the photo down. Now those eyes were back on Con, sharp with fury. ‘You’ve searched my property, right? While you left me waiting in this room, while my daughter is out there, while a body has already been found, you got a bunch of cops to search my house instead. Even though I’ve had my property searched six times. They never find anything, and you didn’t find anything this time either. So why don’t you go out there and do your job and find my daughter, and get the fuck out of my way!’ He was standing by the end, roaring into Con’s face.
Con slowly stood. He stared back, not blinking, turning his eye trick to full power. He let the silence build.
It took some time, and he grumbled about it, but Murphy eventually sat back down. He even mumbled, ‘Sorry.’
That’s more like it, thought Con.
‘What I want to hear from you, Detective Badenhorst,’ said Dave, ‘is what has happened to those thugs who threw a brick through my client’s window. Have any charges been laid against them? Or is everyone else in this witch-hunt of an investigation above the law?’
‘Murphy, were you sleeping with Cierra Mason?’ said Con.
‘What?’ exploded Murphy, shooting to his feet again.
‘You dare —’ began Dave.
‘Answer the question,’ said Con.
Murphy leaned forward over the table. He was quivering with rage again, his face contorted in disgust. ‘No, I have not slept with Cierra Mason. Nor any other underage girl.’ He tried to spit on the table, but he was in such a state it barely dribbled out. ‘She’s the same age as my daughter, for fuck’s sake!’ He wiped his chin with a sharp movement.
Con leaned back. Murphy’s eyebrows had pulled down, his nose had wrinkled. The ‘disgust face’ was the body’s way of protecting itself – the eyes squinted to shield themselves from damage, the nasal passages closed to protect from dangerous fumes, leaving the lips loose. Murphy’s disgust was real. He was telling the truth.
‘Alright, Murphy,’ said Con, his suspicion draining away. He focused on setting his own body language to something that would put Murphy at ease, relaxing his shoulders, raising his eyebrows. He pitched his voice so it sounded reasonable, and concerned, not accusatory. ‘But whoever supplied your bag to Cierra also supplied it to Georgia.’
‘You’ve never had daughters, have you, detective?’ said Dave suddenly.
Con glanced his way for the first time. ‘Excuse me?’ Even Murphy seemed caught off guard by Dave’s question.
‘Teenage girls share,’ said Dave. ‘If Cierra had a bag of weed in her room, then odds are she gave some to her friends.’
‘I’m well aware of the habits of teenage girls, but we need to know where it came from —’
‘What the hell do marijuana and condoms have to do with their disappearance?’ Dave leaned forward now. ‘Check the rooms of half the girls in this town and you’ll find the same. Out here, you can get marijuana one of two ways – you can grow it yourself, but it’s reasonably priced and way less risky to buy it from the supplier who works at this very station. Not that your lot care one whit about that.’
This station? thought Con, falling silent for a moment.
‘You don’t know that Sergeant Doble is a weed dealer,’ said Murphy flatly. ‘Oh this is just fucking perfect.’
‘I’m not here to talk about anyone else,’ said Con, thrown off balance. ‘We’re talking about you.’
‘How about we talk about you?’ said Dave. ‘I’ve done some research. You did a good job with the Jaguar case in Sydney, no one’s denying that, but in Tasmania the rules are different. And in the meantime, I’ve had an interesting text message come through from Butch. You have sent police to check the property for this supposed crop, haven’t you?’
Con didn’t reply. Truthfully, he hadn’t: he didn’t expect to find anything more than the other searches had, and besides, he didn’t like the stir it would cause. Murphy already attracted a crowd outside the station that wanted to beat him to death, it wouldn’t help to have uniformed officers scouring his property.
‘I’d appreciate it if you kept your phone switched off while in this room, Mr Llewellyn.’
‘Because Butch reported a break-in.’
‘What?’ said Murphy. ‘Is he alright?’
‘Which surely wouldn’t have happened if you’d had your officers there.’ Dave stood up. ‘So you didn’t search it, nor did you think to send officers to guard the house? Considering the mob that’s outside this place?’
‘What mob?’ said Murphy.
‘You’re just as bloody useless as the rest, aren’t you, detective? Let’s go, Murphy. Someone’s broken into your house, and your brother needs you.’
‘You’re sure you have nothing else to tell us, Murphy?’ said Con.
‘Does “fuck you” count?’ said Murphy.
Con made a dismissive gesture, but they were almost to the door when he said, ‘Use the western exit. You don’t want to leave through the front door. Exit code is 9779.’
He heard Murphy hesitate, then the door shut behind him.
Immediately Con was on the phone, calling Gabriella.
‘Hey, how did you go at —’
He didn’t even finish his question before he got an explosive rundown from Gabriella about everything that had happened at the Lenahs’ house. ‘They haven’t tracked down Carl yet – I hope they do, I’ve already got a bruise where he bit me.’
‘And the diary?’ said Con.
‘There’s not a whole lot in there that’s useful to us: just ideas and plans about her museum. I’ve left the diary with Coops, he’s going to scan it and email it to us.’
‘Okay. Do we think Georgia was targeted because of the museum?’
‘It’s possible. I called the mayor, Meredith Phythian, and had a very interesting chat about it all,’ said Gabriella. ‘I’ll tell you in person: we’re nearly at the station.’
‘Good, you can pick me up. We’ll leave Coops in charge of tracking down Carl and we’ll have lunch somewhere. Hopefully things will have calmed down by then – I want to head to the Masons’ and talk to them. I’ll give you the rundown on my chat with Murphy.’
‘I still can’t believe that Kevin dickhead moved the bag he found in Cierra’s room,’ said Gabriella. ‘No way are we getting any prints off that.’
Melinda Tran stepped into the room. Her face was pale. ‘Talk to you in a minute, Gab,’ Con said, hanging up the phone. ‘What is it?’