Free Challis - 05 - Blood Moon by Garry Disher Page A

phone rang, the duty sergeant. Sir,
Superintendent McQuarries here.

    Challis had been expecting this, or
at least a summons to regional headquarters. Send him up.

    He wants you to come down, sir.

    It was petty and needless, meaning
that the super was summoning him and not the other way around. Challis trundled
down the stairs, but backtracked before he reached the bottom, re-entering his
office and grabbing the White Pride e-mail and the photocopied pages of the Roe
Report.

    As expected, the superintendent was
in the ground floor conference room, a dim, quiet enclave that resembled a
boardroom done up on the cheap. What was not expected was that McQuarrie hadnt
come alone. He was standing with Ollie Hindmarsh.

    Inspector, said McQuarrie, a
small, tidy individual who always wore the look of a man whod been adored, but
only by his mother and long ago. He shook Challiss hand, then gestured at the
politician. Im sure you know Mr Hindmarsh.

    Challis nodded, reaching his hand to
the Leader of the Opposition, who turned the shake into a brief contest of
strength and said, In the interests of my electorate, including the school
community and Mr Roes many friends, I thought it important to see at first
hand how the investigations going.

    Challis nodded gravely, intimating
that he didnt believe a word of it. I understand.

    Lachlan Roe is a very fine fellow.
I dont want this swept under the rug.

    Challis regarded Hindmarsh
carefully, wondering how to play it. The man was clearly attaching great
importance to the case, coming all the way down to Waterloo when Parliament was
in session. That was one thing. The other was that hed apparently said jump
to McQuarrie and McQuarrie had jumpedmaybe because Hindmarsh was notoriously
critical of the police and the superintendent wanted to make a good impression.
Would there come a point at which McQuarrie placed his officers ahead of
pleasing a shithead like Hindmarsh?

    Were in the process of following
several leads, Challis said flatly.

    What does that mean, in the
process? The processes of the Victoria Police dont withstand much scrutiny,
in my opinion.

    Challis had sympathy with some of
Hindmarshs publicly expressed criticism of the police. Surely when you chose
to be a police officer you were making a profoundly simple vow to yourself and
the world to be one of the good guys? Challis knew all the argumentsthat most
police officers were honest and hardworking, but a handful were bound to burn
out, err or act dishonestly because they were only human, the work was nasty
enough to turn anyones mind, and like all large organisations the force was
open to nepotism and inefficiencybut he thought there was a limit to how far
you could push that line. He was capable of turning a blind eye, even of
tweaking legalities a little, so long as justice was served and no one got
hurt, but he was beginning to believe that only a kind of cultural rottenness
in the police force explained the growing instances of bullying, cronyism,
sexism, racial thuggery, homophobia and resistance to change. Not to mention
plain old criminal activity. Sure, Ollie Hindmarsh liked to use these instances
to political advantage, but they were real, not beat-ups.

    Not that Challis would ever say any
of this. Wishing McQuarrie were not so gutless, he gazed steadily at Hindmarsh,
fixing on the mans fierce, hooked face.

    It was the face of an outraged but
boozy prophet. Hindmarsh, big and barrelly, fifty years old and a womanising
ex-league footballer and Army veteran, was an anachronism in a world of sleek
lawyers and publicists. Hed been known to fiddle his expense account, assault
reporters and photographers, and harass the young women who worked for him. A
union basher, a hawk in military matters and suspicious of immigrants, he was
the kind of stern father figure that most Australiansdespite their veneer of
cheery individualism and non-complianceyearned for.

    And there were plenty of men like
Hindmarsh around. Challis