“Where was that?”
“At home. Her place.”
“That’s interesting. Alex told me that when she asked you about it you’d found her at the school one night. Unconscious.”
Michelle froze. Alex had told the truth based on what Michelle told her. Michelle had tried to cover for her, but ended up digging her own grave. The look on Solomon’s face told her the same. It was strange. The look was one of disappointment.
“Michelle, I really hope you know what you’re doing. Once you go down a path like this, you’ll never get off it.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Trying to get your story straight. Now look, I don’t know if you’re trying to hide the truth from me or Alex. But if you know more than you’re telling me, and I suspect you do, not only will Alex go to prison but so will you.”
A knock on the door stopped the interview.
“Sol, boss wants to see you. Urgent.”
Solomon moved the chair out and stood up. “Please think about this before I get back. Alex is currently in a holding cell. I’d really hate for you to end up there too.”
Michelle was left alone to ponder his words and how the hell she could possibly get both Alex and herself out of this.
*
Solomon walked into the Superintendent’s office. “What’s up?”
“I was gonna ask you the same question. I see this on my desk.” He gestured to the resignation letter. “But I see you in an interview room on a case that’s not yours.”
“Look, that,” Solomon said, “was because I didn’t think you’d be in today. I wanted to talk to you about it. See what my options were. The interview is another matter.”
“Yes, it is. And it’s got nothing to do with you.”
“I know I jumped the queue…”
“Jumped it? You ignored it just before smashing it. Since when do you think it’s appropriate to just declare a case yours? You didn’t even bother to wait and find out who the case belonged to, or even ask for your assignments. Just waltzed in, deciding you’d take it. What part of that idea seemed good to you?”
“Look, I’ve been following this woman for over a year. Her name keeps popping up in and around these mysterious disappearances and deaths. Now I don’t think she’s doing it but-”
“You’ve told us about this before, Solomon. This is why I wanted you away from this. You showed Rosey all your information months ago and nothing came of it. None of your hunches have amounted to anything.”
“Because he took me off the case! Yet again. What do you think the resignation was for? How the hell am I supposed to be a good cop when the rug keeps getting swept out from under me?”
“Solomon, don’t blame circumstances because you’ve let your standards slip. You’ve been put on four cases in the last year and you’ve completely blown them off to chase shadows and been told to stop. If that counts as pulling the rug out from under you, call it whatever you want.”
“What?”
“You’re so busy thinking everything has a hidden meaning, there’s a conspiracy around every corner, that you’re missing what’s right in front of you. Case in point, right now! We had over half a dozen colleagues killed in that Randwick riot. We need our experienced cops helping out the transfers from Matraville. You saw the department email. You’ve seen the crime rate around here and we’ve had no sunlight for how long now? Our front windows have three bullet holes in them from over two weeks ago and they still have them, because we can’t get any glass repairers to come out here. People are either too afraid to go outside or are leaving the city in droves. Good people. The bad ones are not only staying but gathering in numbers. Things are going to hell, and we are the only ones with the responsibility to help. The only ones who can. We need all hands on deck. You wanna think up conspiracy theories? You know where the door is. You wanna resign? Go right ahead. You want to stick around? You stick to the script and leave this Hensley case alone. Is that clear?”
“Perfectly,” Solomon said. “Sign it.”
“You’re willing to throw it all away? For what?”
“I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do. I know something isn’t right here, and I’m not going to help myself or my family by sticking around. You’ll be doing both of us a favour.”
Solomon made sure the signature was written as he stormed out to the parking lot. He needed to cool off before he did something he would really regret.
*
Michelle snapped her eyes up as the room plunged into darkness, a second later a light in the corner flashed the yellowy orange of emergency lighting. A power outage to most people, but Michelle knew different in her gut. Something was wrong. She shot to her feet as screams reached her ears throughout the building. Gunshots rang out before suddenly running silent.
Michelle tried the door but to no avail. She instinctively reached for her pistol only to find she had left it in her car. It wasn’t the smartest idea to bring a loaded weapon into a station when brought in for questioning on an attempted murder case.
She jumped as the door shuddered. Someone was on the other side, attempting to open it. No, break it down. It wasn’t a cop, as they would call out before. But she wouldn’t just wait here to be picked off. Whatever was going on outside, she wouldn’t die wondering. The door thundered again and the hinges disjointed. One more hit and it would come free. Michelle grabbed the chair she
