Free The Darkest Hour by Katherine Howell

Lauren Yates.’
    The paramedic turned in response to hearing her name, and got up and crossed towards them. The front of her shirt was spotted with blood and smeared with dirt and her short dark hair hung lank and sweaty over her forehead. She looked nervous. ‘Hi.’
    Ella smiled. ‘Detective Ella Marconi, Detective Murray Shakespeare.’
    ‘Lauren Yates.’ They shook hands. Lauren’s palm was sweaty.
    ‘You’re certain this is what he said?’
    ‘Word for word.’
    ‘Did he say how he knew this Werner?’
    ‘When I asked, he said that about not being a good man,’ Lauren said. ‘I asked what that meant and that’s when he said “the things I did”.’
    ‘He didn’t explain any further?’
    Lauren shook her head.
    ‘How was he? Will he make it?’
    The paramedic pulled a face. ‘He’d have to be lucky.’
    ‘Did he know how bad it was, do you think?’
    Lauren nodded. ‘He kept saying he was dying.’
    ‘Did you agree with him?’
    ‘I kind of jollied him along a bit, saying not while you’re in my care, stuff like that,’ Lauren said. ‘I don’t like to say, yeah, mate, you’re cactus. But then once I thought he’d stopped breathing, and I grabbed him, and he opened his eyes and said, “See, you know I’m dying too”.’ She stopped.
    Ella nodded. If Kennedy lived, at least long enough to talk, she’d ask how he and Werner knew each other, why he thought Werner attacked him. They needed this to build the case. But even if he died, she had in her hand a dying declaration, and before her stood a witness savvy enough to write down word for word what the dying man had said. Ella looked Lauren up and down. She held herself confidently. Something of the nervous look remained but Ella put it down to the circumstances.
    She looked at the paper again. ‘What’s this other bit?’
    ‘He asked me to say that to his wife.’
    ‘It’s poetry,’ Murray said. ‘It’s from “The Garden”, by Andrew Marvell.’
    ‘Never heard of him,’ Ella said.
    ‘It’s about a changing love, and especially about passion. “When we have run our passion’s heat, Love hither makes his best retreat. The gods that mortal beauty chase, Still in a tree did end their race –”’
    ‘Yes, okay,’ Ella said. ‘Thanks very much.’
    ‘Excuse me.’ The uniformed officer was behind them. ‘Word just came down that Kennedy died.’
    Lauren let out a little sound. Ella saw that she’d gone pale and was blinking back tears. ‘You okay?’
    Lauren looked at the floor.
    Murray said, ‘I guess it’s tough sometimes, when they go.’
    The paramedic’s emotion made Ella feel bad over the excitement bubbling inside her, but only for a moment. This was her job, and the puzzle lay before her just waiting to be put together. She clutched the dying declaration tightly behind her back. She imagined tracking this Werner down, the solid brief of evidence she’d deliver to the DPP, the eventual conviction. The temporary secondment to Homicide would surely become a permanent posting.
    Lauren would be fine in a moment. When you saw death all the time, you adjusted to another one PDQ.
    She handed Lauren her card. ‘We’ll need to take a proper statement from you tomorrow. What time do you finish?’
    ‘Eight in the morning,’ Lauren said, taking a deep breath. ‘If I don’t get overtime.’
    ‘You’ll be right to make it to our office in Parramatta then?’
    ‘I guess so.’
    ‘Great.’ Ella held up the dressing packet. ‘Thanks so much for this.’
    ‘Yes, thanks,’ Murray put in. ‘It’s gold.’
    Lauren went back to her paperwork. Ella watched her go, thinking that she as a witness together with the dying declaration weren’t gold. They were way more valuable than that.
    ‘Ella,’ Murray was saying.
    ‘Huh?’
    ‘We’ve got a lot to do.’
    She followed him to the door, then glanced back at Lauren at the desk. ‘How good is she going to be on the stand?’
    Murray said, ‘Got to catch the guy