‘Who’ve you told?’
‘You’re the first one that’s asked.’
‘Get the body off that table, get it in an icebox. If anyone asks, say you haven’t seen it. You got that?’ Cardilini instructed.
‘What’s your conspiracy theory?’
‘If you don’t know, I’m not going to tell you.’
‘Okay. I can tuck it away somewhere.’
‘I’ll get the photo boys down. I want the skull from every angle. Right. And no one touches the body. No one. I’m holding you responsible.’
*
‘Are you okay to drive?’ Cardilini asked Salt as they reached the car.
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Looked like he was teaching a class,’ Cardilini said.
‘Without a shirt?’ Salt forced a smile.
Cardilini turned in his seat to take in Salt who was staring straight ahead.
‘What about the top of his skull, notice anything?’
‘Apart from it being missing?’ Salt asked with a nervous laugh.
‘Apart from that?’ Cardilini questioned after a pause.
‘No, sir.’
Cardilini watched Salt for a while then turned his attention back to the road. ‘First corpse?’
‘Yes, sir.’
Cardilini nodded. ‘Now we’re going to that school. You ever see a bull ant nest when you poke a stick at it?’
‘No, sir.’
‘Let’s go. And make it quick, this car’s cooking me alive.’
The city buildings slipped away quickly and now single-storey buildings lined the four-lane Great Eastern Highway. Cardilini had his window down, flanks of hot air pushing at his face.
‘Wind your window down, Salt.’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Are you going to say that every time I speak?’
Salt looked perplexed, ‘Yes. Sir?’
Cardilini shook his head. Soft.
Suburban houses lined the street. Low buildings hunkered down against the heat like turtles. Gum trees gathered occasionally in parks trapped by low cyclone wire fences. Cardilini caught a glimpse of a swing, and an emptiness jumped to his throat.
‘When did you finish training, Salt?’ he barked.
‘April.’
‘So you’re not a real copper, yet?’
Salt looked uncomfortable. Cardilini was satisfied with that answer. Soft.
‘Forget everything they taught you if you want to become a real copper.’
‘Sir?’
‘That’s right. They only give you the window-dressing there because you couldn’t manage the real thing.’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘A teacher gets shot, no loss you might say, but we’ve got a job to do. You understand?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘No, you don’t. You’ve got no idea. Best to get that into your head from the start.’
Salt nodded slowly and focused on his driving.
FIVE
Day 2
St Nicholas College
12.03 a.m. Monday, 26th October 1965
*
The boy sat on the limestone steps descending to the hockey field. Darkness surrounded him. He began to feel invisible again; his body shivered, his shoulders and knees began bouncing uncontrollably and his jaw trembled, then he cried. He cried, staring at the lone streetlight at the bottom of the field. He held his eyes wide open, staring at the light as it blurred and ran. He held the scattering, staring vision as if to lose it would mean falling into a darkness from which he couldn’t return. Eventually his eyes began to dry and his shoulders only occasionally shuddered. He was taking great gulps of air as if he’d forgotten how to breathe. This is how it had been every time he left Captain Edmund. Then his penis would stiffen, something that had never happened with Captain Edmund even though Captain Edmund had tried ‘all his tricks’. But then that’s not why the boy went; he knew that, he knew what was going to happen to him. Captain Edmund called him ‘my little girl’, ‘my sweetie little girl’. A weight dropped through his body, leaving him wretched.