PRIORS
By Stuart Jackson
Copyright 2013 Stuart Jackson,
All rights reserved.
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-2023-3
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
This is for Loretta
who has always believed.
THE INCIDENT – Part 1
Day 1 - Melbourne
Barron fought to control his breathing.
The door in front of him was closed, daring him to enter.
He strained to gauge the sound of running feet behind him, getting closer.
“Wait for ...”
Almost to him. Time it right, he thought,
Sharp cracks of splintering wood as he slammed his foot against the door and it crashed open.
“... the Commander ...”
But Wallace’s voice was drowned out in the ensuing noise, as he followed Barron into the room, eyes darting to and fro. Barron yelled “Clear!” and said something else, but Wallace never heard it. He saw what was on the floor and turned and starting throwing up.
Detective Inspector David Barron surveyed the scene himself. He was a big man, looking even bigger in the gear that he wore. A dark blue cloth cap, pulled down tight on his head, a black flak jacket over a black sweatshirt, dark blue jeans, the legs tucked into bulky black socks, black heavy boots.
He was the best part of two metres tall - sandy coloured hair which showed signs of thinning and which he brushed forward as a defence to thinking about it as a problem. He would never call himself vain, but he was conscious of how he looked. Piercing blue eyes that still caught the attention of women and a clean-shaven face, olive complexion. He didn’t carry any excess weight and, although he didn’t feel it, to many he looked fit. Now he was sweating, and a bead of perspiration ran down his left temple. He wiped at it, somewhat annoyed, feeling the cool metal of his revolver touch his skin as he did so.
He reached out with his foot and touched the side of the body at his feet. He was naked, half curled in a ball, one arm covering his face. Barron put pressure on his body with the toe of his boot, knowing that it made no difference, that the naked man was dead. The action helped him keep his control - and helped him avoid throwing up, like Wallace.
The naked man’s other arm, his right arm, was outstretched and his hand rested on the thigh of the woman who was also naked.
The woman was dead.
No need to check - she was dead.
Her face was unrecognisable, a mass of bloody pulp and bone and hair, blown away by the force of the shot from the shotgun. Somehow a few teeth had managed to stay in what was left of her jaw. An ear hung by a thin shred of skin. Her neck was red with blood and her hair was soaking in a pool of it that surrounded her head.
Her body, below her navel, looked much the same, the result of what appeared to be another blast from the shotgun. The centre of the blast was her groin. Skin had been ripped from her thighs, and above the pubic area there was a bloody mixture of soft skin and internal organs.
It was obscene.
There was blood everywhere.
More Federal Policemen were in the room now, hovering, checking other rooms. Barron’s commander was standing in the doorway, his face ashen.
Barron thought Wallace had finished being sick and he called him over.
“Coming,” came the faint reply.
Barron heard him move up behind him, felt him at his right arm and turned to tell him to call the forensic group in and saw the white face. Wallace looked into Barron’s eyes and then down at the bodies on the floor of the apartment and moaned and threw up again, turning in time to avoid covering Barron with his vomit, dropping to his knees.
Barron allowed himself a grim smile. He had to admit that the scene was pretty terrible. In fact he couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen a body as badly mutilated as this. Or as fresh.
The blood was still flowing. On the floor, surrounding the woman’s body, it had that sluggish shimmer about it, a black-red colour that caught the highlights of the room’s lighting in the deeper pools. Anyone with Barron could tell that this had just happened. They had timed their arrival immaculately - or, if you looked at it a different way, it had been wrong side of slow. Five minutes earlier and none of this may have happened.
The noise of the others had softened. Maybe a full minute since he’d kicked the door in. Timing was everything.
The blood had run across the highly polished timber floor and soaked into the carpet on which the man half lay. The blood had gathered around his head.
“On your feet!” he yelled, half turning the naked man’s body with this boot and, to his surprise, the naked man stirred. His heart jumped and he looked around. No one had stopped.
He’d imagined it, he thought, looking at the body again. Shock. Did strange things with the mind.
Malone came to his side, and laid his hand on Barron’s gun arm.
“You won’t need that, mate. Come on out, leave it to the squad.”
Barry Malone was older than Barron, a man who had seen many things, and who had a vast wealth of stories - about everything. He was greying and he had put on weight and, shorter, next to Barron, he looked unfit. Barron was glad that Malone was part of the back-up squad; he would survey the scene and report with a seasoned mind. As a consequence it could be wrapped up quickly.
Barron made his gun safe, tucked it back into the holster.
Malone lowered his own gun, made it safe and tucked it into the waistband of his trousers. Like Barron, Malone was dressed in jeans and boots, a long sleeved blue shirt and a black bulletproof vest. Pinned to the vest, over his heart, was the same identification that simply said AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL POLICE.
He gingerly stepped forward, as if he didn’t know where the blood was and didn’t want to stand in it.
Wallace moaned and tried to get to his feet. It was enough to bring Barron out of his reverie.
“Take him out, Barry, before he covers the evidence.”
The shotgun
