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Lexi sent a private message to the Larry and Joanne profile. Facebook would bury it deep within a requests folder. She figured it would take days for the profile owner to locate the reason for the flashing Messenger icon.
She turned her attention to the photograph again. It distracted her from Garima’s plight. Kelly possessed the legal smarts and the bare effrontery to extricate him from Rojas’ clutches.
Lexi added a grid to the image. She used a pen and paper to mark off every square once she’d checked it. Then she checked each one again. Her finger froze before the laptop screen.
The children crowded together in various states of dishevelment. A building behind cast them into shadow. Most wore swimsuits and shorts. Towels filled the image, strewn across shoulders or bunched beneath arms. The boys hung as a cheery unit, as though alienated from the girls. Their eyes danced with mischief. None of the children wore shoes.
Lexi’s musing about the photographer led to the discovery. The digital revolution hadn’t quite reached the general populace in 1995. Unless Larry and Joanne had cropped the image before posting, it didn’t contain the hallmarks of an early Polaroid or disposable camera. That left one possibility. The film had required developing at a shop. It painted the camera owner as a responsible adult.
Lexi went hunting. Perhaps Samuel Barnard’s missing friend took the photograph. Hence, his interest. Ignoring the children’s smiling faces, Lexi zoomed in closer. She focussed on the building, inspecting each of the windows with care.
A person loomed from the last window on the left. Light flooded them with an ethereal glow. They’d ignored all the rules about good photography and shot the picture straight into the sun. The building shadowed the children, washing them with the bruised filter. But the photographer squinted into the viewfinder on the expensive Pentax camera. Light turned him into a blazing figure in the reflection.
“Oh, wow!” Lexi breathed. She took a screenshot of the close-up image. She opened the file in its own window.
Her phone vibrated, and she jumped. She snatched it from the table, a plea in her voice. “Kelly?” she gasped. “What happened?”
“I just dropped your brother at his vehicle.” A horn filled the connection as Kelly abused another motorist with unrepeatable cuss words. “Learn to drive, you moron!” she added through an open window. A feeble horn pipped in response. Lexi tapped an impatient beat on the table as she waited for Kelly to refocus. In true fashion, Kelly segued from raging to calm in a millisecond. “They don’t have enough to charge him,” she stated. “The detective is methodical, but his sidekick wanted blood.”
Lexi frowned as realisation dawned like a bucket of cold water over her head. “His sidekick?” she asked.
“Our mutual friend,” Kelly replied. Her voice gained a nasty edge. “I’ve dealt with Grunwald many times over the years. He’s fair and doesn’t cut corners. It appears Senior Sergeant Rojas co-opted himself onto the case. Grunwald seemed unhappy with the situation.”
Lexi swallowed. “Co-opted?” Her voice croaked. “He’s a patrol officer, not a detective. How could a uniformed officer get himself assigned to a murder inquiry?”
Kelly tutted. “You understand this city as well as I do, darling. It’s not what you know, but who. One brief word in the right ear is often enough.”
Lexi’s heart quailed. She hadn’t expected Tarant’s fears to reach maturity so fast. “Thank you,” she breathed before Kelly killed the call. It severed another blast of her loud horn at an unsuspecting motorist.
Lexi’s fingers shook as she called Tarant’s number. She didn’t wait for his greeting, launching into her discovery in truncated sentences. “Remember that case last year?” She barrelled on, regardless. “The client suspected his wife of cheating with a colleague. I tracked her to a house on River Road. We couldn’t find the property owner listed anywhere, so you asked your source for help.”
Tarant gulped. “And you took a photo of his wife in bed with a detective superintendent?”
“Through the bedroom window!” Her protest sounded lame. She spent most of her working life skulking through gardens and taking compromising pictures. Too much. Perhaps she needed a change of career.
“So?” Worry couched Tarant’s voice. “What are you trying to say?”
“I’m saying it’s started,” Lexi said. “I’m guessing Rojas kept notes of every identity and registration number he searched for you. He just got himself assigned to a murder investigation. How do you suppose he achieved that overnight?”
Tarant swore. “Lex, I’m finished,” he breathed. “He’ll rip through every case I involved him with. This will ruin my reputation and business.”
They kicked around solutions for a while. Tarant kept meticulous notes on all cases, so they agreed he would single out every instance of Rojas’ involvement.
“What’s the end game?” Tarant asked. Worry laced his voice.
“You know what it is,” Lexi soothed. “We’ll gather the evidence and take it to the police commissioner. Rojas is a dirty cop.”
“He was my brother-in-law. And a mate.” Sadness enveloped Tarant.
Lexi gritted her teeth. She couldn’t summon any sympathy for him, not anymore. She remained silent and eventually, he got the message. The knowledge of her evidence against the corrupt police officer lodged in her throat, but she couldn’t risk confiding in Tarant. The realisation saddened her. Everything seemed to have altered between them in just a few days.
“You’re different.” His words shocked her. As though he’d read her mind, he asked, “What’s changed between us, Lexi?”
She ran her index finger over the keyboard mouse and considered her reply. “I don’t know,” she mused. “If you’d asked me a week ago, I’d have given a different answer. I loved you. I knew Lynn would eventually drop the mask and leave. Maybe that’s why I hung around.”
“And now?” Hope flickered in the tentative whisper.
“I still don’t know.” Lexi pursed her lips. “I have options, I guess. Getting my qualification is a massive step. Not having Lynn tormenting me at work has lifted the black cloud a little, too. I didn’t realise how tense it made me feel, waiting for her to pop through the connecting door like a sarcastic Jack-in-the-box. And I brushed off the hurt it caused when you didn’t believe Rojas attacked me. It humiliated me because I knew the truth. I wish I’d gone to the cops when it happened.”
Her mind shifted to the kind doctor at the emergency clinic. His quiet faith in her released her soul a little more. The world seemed a brighter place. Having at least one impartial person in her corner made her feel invincible. She swallowed and straightened her spine. “Limbo,” she concluded. “I’ve kept my life on hold, waiting for something. In limbo. Directionless.”
“Waiting for me?”
“I thought so.” Lexi cringed. They’d seen each other naked but never spoken with such frank honesty. What a sad indictment of a relationship with no future. She exhaled and delivered a painful blow to Tarant Leon’s fragile ego. “I know you kept me in the wings like a handy backup. You always knew she’d leave again. But I’m not interested in Lynn’s sloppy seconds, thanks. We’ll remain as colleagues, Tarant. That’s all.”
He sighed, a deep, long breath. “I realised I’d made a mistake when I apologised to you in the office the other day. I saw it in your face.”
“Yeah.” Lexi recognised the catalyst for her sudden release. He’d only acknowledged her pain because he sensed they couldn’t progress without it. A means to an end. “Too little, too late,” she breathed. And ended the call.
