I looked closely at Meg’s mother. Something crossed her face, a memory perhaps, and not a good one. ‘Can you tell us what happened between Meg and the Forester boy?’

She shook her head. ‘It has nothing to do with this. It’s irrelevant. They’re just kids.’

There was something about her reaction that didn’t feel right. I suspected we would need to look into this further.

CHAPTER 12: SCHOOL CORRIDORS OF SMALL POWERS

CHAPTER 12

SCHOOL CORRIDORS OF SMALL POWERS

A rape kit had been done and Meg’s clothes were bagged and tagged. We returned to the station, where I carried the brown paper bag in from the car and logged it into evidence, then we headed straight to the school to talk to Meg’s friends. It was the last day of the school term so it was a chance to catch them all together.

Once we were walking back to the car, I noticed Wozza looked like he’d taken a knock on this case. I could only imagine that having three daughters of your own would have to make you take the attack of a teenaged girl in the town a little personally. I had things I took personally too. Getting a new partner was about figuring these things out so that a synchronicity developed.

‘Cases like this are tough,’ I said.

‘You can say that again,’ said Wozza with a small shake of his head. He clicked the car unlocked and we both climbed in. Then he changed the subject. ‘Meg’s mum reacted weirdly when she mentioned the Forester kid,’ Wozza said.

‘Forester? Where have I heard that name before?’ My forehead creased. I reached into my back pocket, took out my notebook. ‘Forester. The guy we saw this morning—the one who sprayed the graffiti kid. Reckon it’s his kid?’

‘Curiouser and curiouser,’ said Wozza. ‘The kid who might be Frank Forester’s son went out with Meg Mulligan and …’ ‘You think there could be a connection between Meg’s attack and his shop being targeted?’

‘On one hand, there’s no such thing as coincidence,’ said Wozza, ‘but on the other hand, it’s a small town; everyone’s connected.’

‘Well, how is Jack Barratt connected to all of this?’

‘You think it was Jack?’ asked Wozza. ‘Could he have done this the day after he got out on bail?’

‘I don’t know.’ I shook my head. ‘Could he be stupid enough to use his real name?’

‘I’ve caught a lot of crooks because they’re stupid,’ said Wozza.

I grinned. ‘Me too,’ I said. ‘I was looking for a crook once. We got intel that he was at a shopping mall. I got centre management to put an announcement over the PA asking him to come to the customer service area. Couple of minutes later, there he was. It was like reeling in a fish.’