Back at police headquarters in Angas Street, Gary went straight to his office and dialled the extension of Superintendent Bill McKie.
Gary knew his boss would do the right thing. Bill was an old-fashioned policeman. He’d grown up at Kimba on the Eyre Peninsula. As in all Australian towns, if you didn’t play sport, you didn’t get on. Bill played sport. Bill got on with people. He loved his Aussie rules and played centre halfback for the Kimba Districts Tigers in the 1971 premiership side, when his team whipped the Cowell Cats. It was the highlight of his life.
Bill McKie was noted for his straight talking and what he called a strong ‘bullshit detector’. He wasn’t what Gary would call politically correct. Bill’s pushback on some of the more ludicrous bureaucratic edicts was legendary in the South Australian police force. Like the time when an e-mail was sent out by the head of human resources stipulating the correct temperature for police officers to keep their sandwiches while on duty. Bill dubbed the directive Sandwichgate. Or the time the director of diversity e-mailed the entire SA police force asking for submissions of poetry for International Women’s Day. The brief was that the poems should focus on creating a gender-sensitive workplace environment. The winning prize would be the opportunity to discuss ‘the gender agenda’ with the director of diversity herself over morning tea.
Bill’s expletive-laden cries of disbelief had been heard the length and breadth of the fourteenth floor. His prompt reply-to-all e-mail read, What’s second prize? Dinner with the director of diversity? Bill was formally counselled for that one.
Gary respected him. He knew Bill was loyal and had his back. He only wished Bill had more support himself. Bill had a very challenging personal assistant, and one of the problems with the public service was that underperforming staff couldn’t be moved on easily. If someone tried, there were all sorts of tricks some staff would use to avoid being made accountable. Anita Lung was just such an employee. Gary knew that when he phoned Bill’s office, he would have to interact with Anita, and it was never easy. It was legendary that Anita often mixed up Bill’s appointments, resulting in Bill being double booked or turning up at the wrong venue or on the wrong day.
On this day, however, Gary caught Anita in between her personal calls and managed to get her in a relatively stable mood. Miraculously, the superintendent was in and could see him immediately. Gary jumped at the opportunity and went up to the fourteenth floor. There, he entered Anita’s office, an anteroom to the superintendent’s office. Manila folders were scattered on every surface. The folders were stuffed with papers with handwritten labels crossed out and recycled in no semblance of order. The pile of folders in the in tray spilled over into the out tray. There appeared to be no logical systems.
Gary opened the door to Bill’s office and walked in, but Bill wasn’t alone. He was in conference with two other officers discussing budgets. Gary apologised, saying Anita had said that the superintendent was free.
Bill rolled his eyes and said quietly, ‘This meeting was in my calendar. The officers came past Anita—I’m not sure what she is thinking. She must be confused.’ He got up and poked his head around the door. ‘You must be confused, Anita. Remember my finance meeting? Can you reschedule Gary for fifteen minutes’ time, please?’
Gary returned in the stipulated fifteen minutes. Anita wasn’t at her desk, and so he knocked on the office door.
‘Come in,’ said Bill.
As Gary entered the room, Bill gestured to him to take a seat.
‘Sorry about before,’ said Bill. ‘What’s up?’
‘Well,’ said Gary, ‘it’s about a potential conflict of interest in this latest case. The Leong Chew case.’
‘Bloody gruesome. This one will get you on the front pages and your dial on the TV news.’
Gary explained the case in detail and told the superintendent that, while he couldn’t yet rule out suicide, he was confident that he was dealing with a murder.
‘So what’s the conflict of interest you are grappling with?’
Gary explained his attraction to Rebecca. How he would like to take her out. How he had met her a couple of times when she was going out with Inspector Rodney Storer. Gary said he had been at the dinner last night, the last time Leong Chew had been seen alive by anybody except his murderer.
‘Let me get this straight,’ said the superintendent. ‘You have met Rebecca a couple of times before in a casual capacity. No conflict there. You fancy her. You’d like to take her to bed. Christ, show me a heterosexual male officer in the police force that, put in the same position as you, would think differently. As for last night, you have an alibi—you are not the murderer. You are not conflicted. Therefore, no, I will not take you off the case. Just keep your pants on and put off any romantic involvement with this woman until after the case is solved.’ The superintendent stood up and walked over to the window. ‘And thank God it isn’t a conflict of interest and I don’t have to replace you, because we are drastically understaffed at the moment. Another major crime case this week, and it might be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. I may even have to recall some officers from leave, and you know how I hate doing that.’
Bill took a deep breath and turned to face Gary. He was looking tired. ‘I’d offer you a tea or coffee, but God knows where Anita has got to.’
‘That’s okay, Superintendent. I’ve got to get going. If I’m to stay on this case, I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me.’
‘Then you better get onto it, son,’ said Bill affectionately, returning to his desk.
It was a busy week for Detective Chief Inspector Gary Jarvie. He followed a number of leads. Detective Kym Lee drove to Carrickalinga to check out Jonathan Riddle’s beach shack for any recent signs of Leong but found nothing. Detective White led the investigation into Leong Chew’s financial records and found that Leong was in a great deal of financial trouble and was illegally trading while insolvent.
Leong’s restaurant, Chewie’s, had remained closed since his death, and it was now unlikely to reopen.