Jessica Sanchez walked past me as I rose unsteadily on the porch. She unlocked the front door of the house and went inside before I could offer an explanation. Sneak followed her without even looking at me. We gathered in the kitchen, Ada taking her time, wandering over to the huge windows, one taped with paper where the glass had been blown out and swept into a pile on the porch. When I had called Sneak at daybreak, I knew it was a mistake instantly. She was still high now, rolling her tongue across her front teeth beneath her dry lips, her eyes restless, strings of muttered words escaping her that I barely caught in the huge room.
‘Really, really nice house. Expensive. Too expensive for . . . I’m talking millions. Millions and millions. But who knows? Who . . . Who knows something like that? It could be—’
‘What the hell happened to you?’ Jessica asked. She looked exhausted. Her long black hair was out and tangled. I’d expected another snarl of abuse about turning up unannounced on her doorstep only hours after I’d done it the first time, this time with the backup of two other criminals. I looked at Ada and Sneak, and wondered how to begin defending myself.
‘I was attacked in my apartment,’ I said. ‘I escaped and didn’t know where else to go. I called the others just to tell them where I was headed, that I was alive. I didn’t tell them to come here, but—’
‘Blair says you can help find Dayly,’ Ada said. ‘I’m here to find out how.’
There was a blistering silence, broken only by Sneak’s pacing footsteps. Jessica watched Sneak for a while, squinting at her missing earlobe.
‘Jessica,’ I said hesitantly, gesturing to Ada. ‘This is—’
‘I know who Ada Maverick is,’ Jessica snapped.
‘Everybody knows.’ Ada gave an icy smile.
‘Have you guys . . .’ I began.
‘Last time I saw Detective Sanchez, she was part of a squad trying to pin me with possession of some guns,’ Ada said.
‘A shipping container full of guns,’ Jessica corrected.
‘One of my many hobbies is importing and trading rare antiques and domestic fineries,’ Ada explained to me, shrugging innocently. ‘A simple shipping manifest mix-up has left Sanchez here with the unfortunate misapprehension that I’m some kind of international arms dealer.’
‘“Terrorist” might be another word,’ Jessica said.
‘How dramatic.’ Ada rolled her eyes.
‘I guess that’s Dayly’s mom.’ Jessica jutted her chin at Sneak, who was staring out at the pool.
‘Millions and millions,’ Sneak said.
‘She’s not handling things very well right now,’ I said.
‘I can’t help you women.’ Jessica put her hands up. ‘I’m in enough shit right now as it is.’
‘Your cinematic debut not sitting well with the captain?’ Ada asked.
Jessica’s neck flushed with red. ‘Where did you see it?’
‘YouTube.’
‘Wonderful.’
‘What are you guys talking about?’ I asked.
‘Nothing.’ Jessica scratched her neck. ‘Blair, if you’ve been the victim of a home invasion, you should go directly to the police. Your apartment is a crime scene. They’ll send a team out.’
‘I’ve told you why we can’t do that,’ I said, covering my nose and mouth. I was infuriatingly weepy. For fifteen minutes after I’d bolted from my apartment, leaving my attacker inside, I’d hidden in an alleyway crying and hyperventilating in turn, trying and failing to shake myself out of it. When I had gone back to my apartment after a few hours waiting in the dark, I had found the door open, the place empty, and Hugh Jackman’s container on its side in the kitchen, lid off, the creature long gone. The sight of it had thrown me into more tears. I drew a deep breath now and clenched my fists. ‘Look. When I left here yesterday, you hadn’t said no to me. You said you didn’t know what you’d do. I hope that’s because you wouldn’t turn away from the case of a missing girl just because it was brought to you by someone like me.’
Jessica gave a tired sigh, and I saw my opening.
‘Ada and Sneak and I are ex-cons,’ I said. ‘We’re bad people. But we’re trying to do something good here. Dayly needs us.’
The clang of the locking mechanism on the pool fence outside drew all of our attention. We looked out the unbroken kitchen windows and watched Sneak stripping off slowly at the water’s edge. She had more tattoos than I’d imagined, prancing pixies and butterflies around her hips, a set of paw prints on her white, round butt. She walked into the water and pushed off as if she was about to do laps in a public pool, heading for the deep end, her chin above water. She was still muttering to herself. Jessica bumped my shoulder with hers.
‘I want to talk to you alone,’ she said.
I followed her out onto the deck, past the pool, towards the back garden gate. I could see Sasha’s house through the foliage, and gripped the gate that surely gave my son access to Jessica for their little visits. So close to the world I desired, yet impossibly separated from it, the way I had been when there were bars and walls between Jamie and me instead of leaves and lattice. Jessica lit a cigarette and exhaled hard.
‘You didn’t tell me Ada Maverick was involved in this,’ she said.
‘I left that part out,’ I confirmed.
‘Let me make something absolutely clear,’ Jessica said. ‘You need to expend every effort you can from the moment you leave here today detaching Ada from yourself and this case.’
‘What? Why? She’s been very helpful to us.’
‘She can smell money,’ Jessica said. ‘That’s why she’s here.’
‘She gave us five thousand dollars to help our cause,’ I scoffed. Ada was standing on the pool deck, out of earshot, smoking and watching Sneak cutting laps across the smooth surface of the water like a cat watching a fish in a tank.
‘That cash was an investment,’ Jessica said. ‘Trust me. I know that woman. She doesn’t do things out of the goodness of her heart. If she’s helping you it’s because she thinks it’ll be worth it to her in the long run. You can see where she’s coming from, can’t you? If Dayly’s got herself mixed up with gangs and drugs, that’s money. If there are corrupt cops somehow involved in this, that’s money. If she’s been kidnapped by someone for ransom, that’s money.’
‘You’ve got it wrong,’ I said. ‘She’s helping us because she owes me. I saved a member of her family. A baby. She couldn’t get even with me in prison and she doesn’t like the idea of people knowing that.’
Jessica laughed humourlessly.
‘Yes, okay, she’s a violent lunatic,’ I pressed. ‘But she knows when she needs to pay her dues.’
‘It’s your funeral.’ Jessica shrugged.
‘Are you going to help us or not?’ I asked.
Jessica looked at me. Really searched my eyes. I stood there, not knowing why, not knowing what she could possibly see in me but a killer who had returned to her world only to wreak more havoc, to bring yet more darkness than I had last time. I didn’t want her looking at me, trying to decide if I was worth helping. It was Dayly she needed to think about. Sneak, sitting on the edge of the pool, was staring at the wispy marine layer slowly creeping over the suburb towards the base of the mountains. Jessica threw her cigarette into the lush garden and folded her arms, seeming to have made a decision.
‘Who was this guy who attacked you?’
‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘It was pitch black. For all I know it was Tasik. He already set a parole officer onto me.’
‘That’s a big leap. The guy did what any sane police officer would do – order a check on a parolee who’s acting strange – and then suddenly he’s trying to rape you in your apartment?’
‘I don’t know if rape was the goal.’
‘Might it be someone connected to Sneak? Or Ada? You invite these types into your life, you’re going to get—’
‘You didn’t answer my question,’ I said. ‘Are you going to help us?’
Jessica wouldn’t look at me.
‘I’ll see what they have on your stolen car,’ she said finally. ‘And I’ll check in on Tasik, see why he’s so determined to crawl up your ass. But that’s it.’
It seemed too dangerous to celebrate in any way as I stood there, but inside my chest an explosion was happening, of relief, of excitement. I felt an urge to hug Jessica, then an otherworldly repulsion at the idea, a sudden prickle of fury and hatred at this woman and what she had done to me, the necessity of her in my life both a decade ago and today. Outwardly I stiffened, determined not to do anything to let her know how grateful and confused I felt.
‘What would you recommend we do?’ I asked.
‘I’m curious about this parachuting thing,’ Jessica said. ‘You said the pamphlet was on top of the desk. You didn’t have to dig for it.’
‘Right.’
‘So it’s recent.’
‘I guess so.’
‘Go check that out,’ she said. Sneak was standing naked at the pool fence, her breasts and belly pressed against the glass like flat sugared doughnuts. Jessica turned to me. ‘And try to get your little posse of jailbirds under control.’
I heard rapid, thumping footsteps on grass but didn’t have time to turn before the gate beside me lurched violently as Jamie scaled it from the other side. I looked up to see my son hanging over the top of the leaf-covered lattice, wearing a halo of morning sunshine.
‘Whoa!’ I laughed.
‘Whoa back,’ he said. ‘What are you doing over there?’
I remembered Sneak standing naked at the pool fence, but when I looked back she seemed to have submerged in the water again. Ada was watching Jamie with interest. I expected Jessica to answer my child but the detective was examining her fingernails, leaving me to it.
‘I was just, uh, visiting.’ I gestured weirdly at Jessica. ‘Visiting my, um . . . friend?’
Jessica looked up at me. Her eyes blazed.
‘Are you having a party?’ Jamie asked. ‘Who’s that near the pool?’
‘Shouldn’t you be getting ready for school, kid?’ Jessica asked.
‘Shouldn’t you be out solving crimes?’ The boy wobbled his head, sassy and proud of it. I bit my tongue as I watched the cogs and wheels in his mind working. He pointed at me. ‘Hey, wait a minute. Do you guys know each other from—’
‘Jamie, just—’
‘From jail?’
Neither Jessica nor I spoke.
‘Because you put people in jail,’ Jamie said, pointing at Jessica now. ‘And you used to be—’
‘Knitting class,’ Jessica blurted. Everyone stared at her. ‘We met each other at knitting class. We both knit. Toys. Sweaters. So do they.’ She jerked her thumb at Ada and Sneak. ‘It’s a knitting circle.’ Sneak was at the deep end of the pool, seemingly engaged in a whispered conversation with the filter box.
‘I didn’t know you knit stuff.’ Jamie looked at me, sceptical.
‘I’m not very good,’ I said. I reached up and rubbed his arm. ‘Now go get ready for school, buddy.’
Jamie thumped away like a happy rabbit, up the lawn towards Sasha’s house.
‘I love you!’ I called. He made a vomiting noise in response.
‘He usually says “I love you back,”’ I assured Jessica. She said nothing. ‘Knitting circle, huh?’
‘Fuck you,’ Jessica sneered.
‘I actually can knit,’ Ada chipped in with a smile, waving her cigarette. ‘It’s useful to know a variety of knots and ties. Good life skill.’
A cold shiver ran through me. If Ada had heard our conversation with Jamie clearly enough to comment, perhaps she had heard Jessica warning me to get the dangerous woman off my team. Jessica seemed to be thinking the same thing. She sighed and walked away, into the house.