St Kilda Blues by Geoffrey McGeachin Read Free Book Online

tell you where we are at the moment, fill in some of the detail. I’ve got copies of the statements from the girl’s old man, the housekeeper and the driver.’
    â€˜I’d rather hear what they have to say first, if you don’t mind, and afterwards we can crosscheck against what you’ve got.’
    â€˜Sounds fair enough, I suppose. Why did we stop then?’
    Honeysuckle Drive was quiet, still, the nature strips neat, freshly-mown.
Was Sunday grass-cutting day out this way too? If you had money to live in an area like this did you push your own Victa mower?
Every house had a high wall or a thick, tall hedge to shield it from view, keep it private, keep its secrets. Berlin was sick of secrets.
    â€˜Anything else you need to tell me, Bob, anything I might want to know before we get much further into this? Anything I should be worried about, maybe?’
    â€˜Like what?’
    Berlin ran through the list in his head. There were always so many rumours, so many stories, so much gossip. Cops could be like a bunch of old women that way. There were the tales about Bob Roberts and his young girlfriends, of course, tales that were accepted as just the way things went, even admired and envied. There were other stories as well, starting six months or so back and less admirable. Stories concerning envelopes collected and bad company, both in and out of the force, and favours done and people who should know better sometimes looking the other way.
    â€˜Like exactly who’s behind this investigation. Our little sideshow, I mean, you and me, not Tony Selden’s investigation. I guess what I’m asking myself is, exactly what am I doing here?’
    â€˜C’mon, Charlie, we both know you’re a bloody sight better at this kind of thing than most of the blokes who are actually doing it right now. But like I said you don’t have any friends because you don’t play the game so you always get yourself pushed out of the way.’
    Berlin nodded, acknowledging the truth in the statement,
    â€˜Someone fucked up, and big. Having a series of young girls go missing and no one noticing or seeing a pattern, apart from you. And then no bugger really giving a damn until this Scheiner kid disappears and the premier gets involved. But the way the system works is that one man’s fuck-up is another man’s golden opportunity.’
    Jesus Christ, were there really people who thought like that, who saw stolen children, missing kids as a pathway to promotion, to a higher rank?
Berlin knew the answer to that even before he had the thought.
    â€˜So what’s the golden opportunity here?’
    â€˜Look, it’s no secret there are changes coming, and probably right at the top. There’ll be a state election sometime early next year so every­one is trying to set themselves up to look good. Toss in this inquiry into possible corruption and it makes for interesting times. Did you know that’s apparently a Chinese curse? “May you live in interesting times.”’
    â€˜Something the child bride taught you?’ Berlin regretted the comment the moment it was out of his mouth. ‘Sorry, I’ll try to stop doing that.’
    Roberts acknowledged the apology with a nod. ‘There are certain people who seem to think I might have a promising future in the police force. People who look at that sort of thing longer term.’
    Did these people look at Roberts as a good copper who caught the crims, or as someone who was reliable and flexible and who knew how the system worked and how the real game was played?
    â€˜You mean people with enough pull at the top to organise a parallel investigation?’
    â€˜People like that, yes, and I suppose a parallel investigation is what we’re doing. And since I’m the one who brought you in on this, for appearances’ sake I should probably look like I’m in charge of what we do. Officially you’re still with