The station phone desk and the 0800 Crime Stoppers line had been pretty busy since the public appeal for information. Dunedin’s residents’ abhorrence of the crime’s nature had prompted a number to phone in and report suspicious people and newborns. Not that a newborn could act suspicious – but the presence of a newborn might be.
Detective Constable Sonia Richardson had just returned from following up on one of these calls. Judging by the way she tossed her bag onto her desk, I guessed it hadn’t gone well.
‘Not quite the lead you had hoped for?’
‘Nope.’
I waited for her to continue and realised she was boiling with what looked like rage. I had never seen her get to even a rolling simmer before, so something must have seriously gaffed her axe.
‘Going to tell me what happened.’
‘I might need a moment.’
She plonked down into the chair and proceeded to log into her laptop with a ferocity that had me fearing for the life of the keys.
‘What did the poor computer ever do to you?’ I asked.
She gave me her best brow-furrowed scowl and leaned back in the chair with an exaggerated humph.
‘There are some seriously arseholish people out there.’
‘You’ve only just noticed that?’
‘Oh, I’d noticed alright, but I mean like properly fuckish fuckers.’
My eyebrows almost hit my hairline. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever heard her say the F-word, let alone the F-word squared.
She must have clocked the look on my face, because she promptly apologised.
‘Look, I’ve just spent half an hour talking down a hysterical woman, who had clearly recently given birth, and her horrified husband, trying to reassure them that no we weren’t going to take their baby off them. Some piece of shit had called in and said that they knew they must have murdered the woman and stolen the missing baby because the couple weren’t expecting, and then suddenly, there they were out and about with a baby. Instant family.’
‘That would not have been fun.’
‘Nope. And when I asked her why someone would make a report like that, she reckoned it was probably her ex, who had never accepted that it was over and years later still tried to make her life a living hell.’
‘Surely no one would be that shit,’ I said, knowing full well that, actually, yes, people could be.
‘Well, then you’d be wrong. The caller hadn’t given their name or contact details, and did it anonymously through Crime Stoppers, so there’s no way to trace it back. But I’m going to be paying him a visit later this week for a little chat, because if he was responsible then…’ She unscrewed the lid of her drink bottle with particular vigour.
‘That is some next-level shittiness.’
‘Yup. Just destroy what should be one of the happiest moments in a couple’s life with your own self-serving pettiness. It defies all common decency.’
‘So what could we charge him with?’
‘Besides monumental fuckerism?’
‘Besides that.’
‘Well, his behaviour sounded like it had been the next best thing to stalking.’
‘It could be a starting point – and wasting police time.’
‘Yeah, well we’d better come up with something, because I’m buggered if I’m going to let this one lie. That fucker needs a reality check.’