‘What Smithy’s trying to tell you,’ Reihana said, ‘is that the DI has a bit of a reputation for being a bully. You probably haven’t been here long enough to notice, but he always likes to have someone to torment. Otto had the pleasure for a short time there, didn’t you, mate?’

‘Unfortunately,’ was the one-word reply.

‘You seem to have been promoted to the position of his favourite punching bag.’

Actually, I had noticed. ‘Oh, bloody terrific.’ Like that made me feel any better. ‘I thought it was because of what happened in Mataura. We didn’t exactly see eye to eye.’

‘So we heard. I’m sure that helped. He doesn’t like to be shown up by anyone and is pretty good at holding a grudge.’ Reihana paused, as if debating whether to say something.

‘Is there something else I should know?’

‘I don’t think he was very pleased about you being fast-tracked into the CIB.’ Again, the considered pause. ‘To be honest, it didn’t go down well with a number of people here, especially some downstairs.’

I felt the full attention of the room on me again. It was true that after what happened at Mataura someone in the hierarchy saw fit to assist my cause and get me into detective training sooner rather than later. I knew full well places were limited and there were those in the uniform branch who had been waiting for years to get the nod. I had expected to have to wait too, so was pleasantly surprised by the speed of it all. It wasn’t a popular decision among the troops though and my presence was barely tolerated by some. A memory jumped to mind of one Chardonnay-fuelled female officer informing everyone at Friday-night drinks that I must have slept with the right people to get there. I had often wondered what some of my colleagues in this room thought about it. Now I knew.

‘I worked damned hard to get in and I pull my weight. I’ve got as much right to be here as anyone else,’ I said, jumping on the defensive. Despite trying to convince myself otherwise, I really cared what people thought of me, and the backward glances and snide comments I sometimes got chipped away at my self-confidence.

‘We know you do, and it’s nothing against you personally. But what I’m saying is, you should tread careful. There are some people around here who would love to see you take a fall. You should watch your back, especially now.’

27

Before I went and did my duty at the circus, there was a small task pressing on my mind. It remained to be seen how my request would go down, but I took a breath and tried anyway.