That detail has never been made public’
‘I heard the child’s mother talking about it in the shop this afternoon.’
Curse the woman, Ellen thought. ‘We need to know Sasha’s movements at the time of the abduction.’
Mrs Cooper’s eyes twinkled. ‘You make Sasha sound as if she’s a suspect.’
Ellen gave her a lop-sided grin. ‘My report-writing language infects my regular speech sometimes.’
Mrs Cooper smiled. ‘I was an English teacher,’ she said cryptically. ‘Now, let’s see. I feed Sasha sometimes. Bacon rind. It’s too tough for my teeth.’
‘Yes.’
‘So I probably saw her that day, but I can’t be sure. Ask me something that happened forty years ago and I’ll remember every detail.’
Ellen said carefully, ‘Did Sasha have a history of jumping into people’s cars?’
‘Oh, yes, indeed she did! Sometimes she’d appear just as I was about to drive to the shops. She’d leap in and immediately go to sleep in the back. I always leave the window part-way down for her, whilst shopping. If it’s too hot, I make her get out of the car.’
To halt the flood, Ellen said, ‘How did other people hereabouts treat her?’
Mrs Cooper smiled at the ‘hereabouts’. ‘We all know her. Most try to discourage her. I suppose I should, too.’
‘What if someone didn’t realise that she’d jumped in?’
‘Then they’d drive all over the Peninsula with her, maybe even to Queensland with the holiday luggage.’
‘But people know where she lives. They’d bring her back eventually.’
‘Of course.’
Scobie spoke for the first time. ‘Can you recall any instances of people letting Sasha out of their cars?’
‘Recently?’
‘Yes.’
‘There was a white car,’ said Mrs Cooper after some thought. ‘I think it was white. I think it was recently.’
‘Could it have been a van?’
‘You know, it was a van. I saw Sasha jump out.’
‘Did you see or know the driver?’
‘Oh, I wasn’t looking at the driver,’ Mrs Cooper said.
Van Alphen reappeared for the evening briefing, offering an explanation but no apology. ‘I’ve been running down some leads,’ he said, his voice and body giving nothing away.
It was contemptuous, and pissed Ellen off. ‘I’m trying to coordinate an inquiry here, Van, and you’re supposed to remain in the station and trawl through records.’
Van Alphen shrugged.
Ellen sighed. It was fruitless. She changed the subject, told them more about the dog. ‘I just got a call from the lab: the blood on Sasha’s collar is human, not animal. It will be some time before we have the DNA result.’
‘Human?’ said Kellock sharply. He threw down his pen. ‘Even if it is, there’s no way of determining how it got there. Meanwhile the procedures of that lab don’t exactly inspire confidence.’
‘Back to time-honoured methods, eh, Kel?’ Ellen said.
Kellock looked fed up. ‘Always been good enough for me.’ He pushed back his chair, gathered his files. ‘Have to go. I’m giving a talk at a retirement home this evening.’
Ellen was reminded again that a police station had a community role, a welfare role. Officers like Kellock went to schools, hospitals and other institutions, giving talks and assistance. It was something she hadn’t done for many years and she felt chastened.
‘Thanks, Kel.’
Kellock left and the briefing continued. Everyone was tired, dispirited, and finally Ellen dismissed them. But as they filed out, van Alphen took Ellen aside. He looked sly and satisfied. ‘You need a decent witness, Ellen.’
Ellen didn’t bother to reply. She was pissed off with him.
‘Well,’ he murmured, ‘I’ve found you one.’
‘Who?’ she demanded. ‘What kind of witness? Witness to what?’
‘Keep your voice down,’ he said hoarsely. ‘A street kid called Billy DaCosta.’
‘What’s his story?’
‘Abused by several men over a period of three years, from when he was eight until puberty, when he no longer interested them. It happened at a house here on the Peninsula, but he’s not sure where.’
Ellen straightened her back, feeling her old keenness returning. She looked fully at van Alphen, who was giving her his most cryptic half smile.
‘Several men. Like who?’
‘Clode and Duyker, among others.’
‘Jesus Christ, Van. When were you intending to tell me this?’
‘I’m telling you now.’
‘This kid identified them? How?’
‘Photos,’ van Alphen said. Suddenly he stiffened, and called, ‘Everything all right, Constable?’
John Tankard had been hovering in the corridor. He came in, looking embarrassed. ‘Sarge.’
‘Haven’t you got work to do?’
‘Sarge.’
Tankard turned back toward the door, looking stung. Ellen called after him: ‘John, you’ve been a great help to this investigation.’ She paused. ‘I’m confident we’ll see some results tomorrow.’
‘Thanks, Sarge.’
When the room was clear again, van Alphen said, ‘Is he our media leak, do you think?’
Ellen cocked her head. ‘You’ve been wondering about that, too?’
‘Sure.’
‘It can wait,’ Ellen said. ‘What we need to do now is get this kid of yours to make a formal ID. Can you bring him in first thing in the morning?’
‘No problem.’
‘Meanwhile I’d better tell Kellock about him.’
Van Alphen grabbed her upper arm, his fingers like manacles, but his voice was mild and apologetic: ‘Not yet, Ellen, okay?’
‘Why ever not?’
‘Look, Kellock and I go back a long way, but he’s the senior officer in this station, and the eyes and ears of the superintendent. If you tell him I’ve found a witness, he’ll be obliged to pass the information on, and I can’t afford for the super or the shooting board to learn that I’ve been out in the field instead of desk bound.’
Ellen wasn’t convinced by the argument, but said, ‘Suit yourself.’
42
It was odd having a kid around the place again. Kees van Alphen decided he liked it. His wife and teenage daughter long gone, living up in Melbourne now, he’d spent too many years living alone in this soulless house. Sure, a teenage boy is not the same thing as a teenage girl, especially if he sells his body for a living, but certain factors remained constant-the noisiness, the irreverence, the untidiness. Van Alphen decided that he’d been too obsessed with silence, solitariness and order. Billy DaCosta was doing him good, especially with investigators sniffing around the Nick Jarrett shooting. It could be months before they reported back to the commissioner, and he didn’t know if Scobie Sutton would withstand the pressure.
‘You can’t keep me here forever,’ Billy said.
