Challis - 05 - Blood Moon Read Free Page B

to continue
her doorknocking. Cree wandered back, saying, Sorry, sir.

    Constable.

    Challis turned to Sutton. Check if
theres any CCTV coverage from local businesses.

    Boss, Sutton said.

    * * * *

    4

    Ellen
Destry had reached the Waterloo police station, which was on the roundabout at
the head of High Street, with a Caltex service station, a McDonalds and
Waterloo Stockfeed on the other three corners. The building itself was a
low-slung tan brick and glass structure set amongst some bark-shedding gum
trees with access from a little side street. It was a major regional station,
serving Peninsula East, and employed uniformed police, CIU detectives, crime-scene
officers, probationary constables and several civilians: clerks and canteen
staff, and the collators, who gathered, analysed and cross-referenced all
intelligence relating to solved and unsolved crimes and the movements and
associations of known criminals on the Peninsula.

    She parked outside the station and
entered through the foyer, where a middle-aged woman was watching the duty
sergeant witness a statutory declaration. She tapped in her code, entered the
network of offices and corridors behind the reception desk and checked her
pigeonhole: a circular for the end-of-year Police Ball, a reminder that she
owed $12 tea money, and a copy of the November Police Life magazine. Hal
had been on the front cover once, years ago, after hed played a role in the
arrest of the Old Peninsula Highway killer. He hadnt liked the attention. He
liked to slip through life unnoticed.

    The cells, interview rooms, admin
offices and canteen were on the ground floor. Ellen took the stairs to the
upper level, which housed CIU, a couple of briefing rooms, a small gym and a
tearoom. The Crime Investigation Unit was small, with four detectives rostered
on nights, four on days. It never worked out quite like that, of course. There
was always someone away sick, attending a training course or giving evidence in
court. When extra hands were needed they were seconded from other CIU teams,
mainly from Mornington and Rosebud.

    Sitting at her corner desk in the
controlled chaos of the open-plan CIU room, Ellen routinely checked her e-mailsand
began to realise that she felt faintly miffed about being asked to do desk work
today. It was great having Hal back, but shed headed a major inquiry while he
was away, and shed acquitted herself well. She wanted to be out and about, not
stuck behind a desk.

    Still, there was never anything
minor about a sexual assault. Seeing no e-mails from the forensic science
centre, she phoned, identifying herself and the case number. Sexual assault,
she prompted, in Waterloo last Saturday night.

    She heard the tapping of a keyboard
on the end of the line, and eventually the forensic technician said, Semen on
the victims clothes, right? Were backed up here, Sergeant Destry. DNA takes
time.

    Ellen sighed. Just checking, she
said, and hung up.

    She stared at the ceiling battens,
not seeing them. There was nothing unusual about a sexual assault on a Saturday
night; nothing unusual about that anywhere in the world. But the victim in this
case had been a schoolie, shed been assaulted during Schoolies Week, and her
attacker might have been a fellow schoolie.

    Or a toolie. one of the locals who
preyed on the school leavers. Older men, mostly, some with records for theft,
dealing drugs and sexual assault. They were sly and predatory, and seemed to
hate the schoolies for everything they lacked: education, job prospects, money,
youth, good health, a clean record.

    Had toolies been active at last years
Schoolies Week? Waterloo hadnt been the least bit prepared for the event. The
police had had to deal with three drug overdoses, two claims of drink spiking,
the theft of tents, sleeping bags and backpacks, and a vicious mugging that
placed a kid in hospital minus his runners, iPod, mobile phone and wallet. Theyd
made several arrests, for serious assault, drunk and disorderly, drug