Jill answered her phone. It was Katrina Andrel, the piranha.
‘I was hoping we could meet for coffee. I’m in Chatswood and…’
‘Look, if this is about Senior Constable Calloway, I’m really not interested in talking to you.’
Jill considered hanging up when the reporter cut in.
‘Robbie was a friend of mine. He told me about you, the kind of person you are and I think it would be helpful if we could talk.’
‘You knew Robbie?’ Katrina Andrel had a reputation for being someone who went to great lengths for a story. Could she trust this woman? Was she playing her and if so, what was her angle? Was this a way to get her to talk?
Jill rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands. Was it possible Katrina Andrel actually knew why Robbie might have taken his own life?
It was close enough to knock-off time to slip out without being noticed. Jill grabbed her coat and slung her bag over her shoulder. If Rimis ever found out she was talking to the reporter, he’d skin her alive.
The sky was a dirty dove-grey when Jill walked out on to Archer Street. She tightened her scarf around her neck and tucked her hands into her coat pockets. The temperature was dropping fast and it was getting dark. It was only days away from the winter solstice.
The café where she had arranged to meet Katrina Andrel was empty, apart from a group of schoolboys sitting at a table in the front section. Jill sidestepped their school backpacks and ordered a pot of lemongrass and ginger tea. She found a table facing the street, sat with her back to the wall and waited for Katrina Andrel to arrive. She sipped her tea, checked her phone.
When the chair opposite her scraped on the polished concrete floor Jill looked up. Katrina Andrel was standing in front of her dressed in a simple poppy-red coat over a pair of denim jeans.
Jill got to her feet and extended her hand. ‘Detective Jill Brennan.’
‘Katrina Andrel.’
The waitress arrived and Katrina ordered a pot of Darjeeling. The pause gave Jill a chance to assess the woman sitting across from her. Her face betrayed nothing. Men would find her attractive, even with the heavy make-up and the bleached blonde hair.
Jill took a sip of tea and put her cup down on the saucer. She got straight to the point. ‘Can I ask how you got my name and how you knew I had been in a relationship with Robbie Calloway?’
Katrina gathered her coat around her and crossed her arms lightly against her chest. ‘Let’s just say a little bird.’
Jill rolled her eyes. A little bird called Constable Patullo, no doubt. He was practically panting at the sight of Andrel.
‘I saw you at the scene. I asked around and I was given your name. I recognised it immediately. Robbie told me about you, about your relationship.’ She paused. ‘And it wasn’t hard to find you; it was just a matter of making a phone call.’ She leaned forward. ‘Look Jill, before we go any further you should know how much Robbie thought of you.’
Jill knew how Robbie felt about her and she didn’t need this woman to tell her. Jill kept her face impassive and waited for Andrel to fill the silence.
Andrel shrugged off her coat. ‘I suppose I should start at the beginning. I didn’t know Robbie that well, but even so, when I turned up last Friday night at Callan Park to cover the story it was a shock when I found out it was Robbie.’
Jill pulled out her notebook from her shoulder bag and Katrina shifted in her seat.
‘You don’t mind if I take notes do you? I’ve got a shocking memory.’
‘I thought we might have this conversation off the record.’ Katrina curled her lip to one side and went to grab her coat.
Jill put her notebook away and Katrina relaxed. ‘How did you and Robbie meet?’ Jill asked. ‘Strangely enough, I met him at Callan Park.’
When Katrina’s tea arrived she added two sachets of sugar to her cup and stirred. The movement was slow and methodical. She seemed uncertain, shy almost. This was a different Katrina to the one she saw last Friday night and Jill wondered what she was playing at.
Katrina looked up. ‘A group of protesters staged a sit-in at the Wellness Centre at Callan Park back in February. They were meeting the Minister of Planning over the state government’s decision to allow buildings earmarked for mental health services to be given over to other entities. I was sent there to report on the protest. There was a large police presence. It wasn’t just the local area command, other commands had been called in to make sure things didn’t get out of hand.’
Katrina placed the teaspoon on the saucer and sipped her tea. ‘Robbie spoke to the camera crew and to me. Told us to tread lightly because tempers were running hot. We talked for a while, he flirted with me, I gave him my card and a few days later he phoned and invited me out. We had a lot in common. We weren’t lovers or anything, we were just friends, but I had hoped we might…’ Katrina riffled through her purse and pulled out a tissue, dabbing at her eyes with it. ‘He told me his sister has mental health issues. Perhaps that would explain his attraction to Callan Park.’
Robbie had never told Jill about Fin’s mental state, but maybe he wanted to keep it to himself. People were like icebergs. Nobody really knew what lay beneath the surface of another person’s life, what parts of them they chose to keep hidden from public view. Before Jill had gone to see Fin, she had no idea she was mentally ill. Fin must have functioned well enough, because Robbie had mentioned she had some sort of a job in sales.
‘Did you know Robbie had moved from his Collaroy apartment?’ Jill asked.
‘No, I didn’t.’ Andrel’s eyes fixed on Jill. ‘I wonder why he didn’t tell me. Why he chose not to.’
Jill let Katrina Andrel sit with the news a bit and then said, ‘So, tell me, when was the last time you saw him?’
‘The Tuesday before he died. We met for drinks. He was agitated and when I asked him about it he said things were happening in his life, personal things, and that they were intruding on his work. He’d asked his boss for time off, but he wouldn’t give it to him — they were short staffed and had a blow-out of their case load.’
Jill frowned. ‘What sort of things? Did he say?’
‘That’s just it, Jill. He never told me. I can call you Jill, can’t I? Or should I call you Detective?’
Jill resisted pointing out that Andrel had already called her Jill a couple of times. She forced a smile. ‘No, Jill’s fine. Did he ever mention any cases he was working on?’
‘Sometimes, but not until they were reported in the news. He was very careful about what he said to me and I was careful not to compromise his position as a police officer.’
Sounded like Robbie.
Katrina leaned forward. ‘There’s something not quite right, don’t you think? You can sense it too, I can tell. You wouldn’t be asking me quite so many questions if you thought Robbie had simply killed himself.’
Jill wasn’t about to confide in a journalist who she’d just met and besides, she knew Katrina Andrel’s reputation for hunting down a story. ‘What were your impressions of Robbie during the time you knew him? You must be very good at summing people up. Journalists have a way of getting people to talk.’ Perhaps Katrina could shed some light on Robbie’s more recent past, a chunk of his life that was elusive to Jill.
‘I wouldn’t say he was unhappy. Robbie lived for his work and on the surface he was always cheerful, always the joker. And as you’d know, he never had a bad word to say about anybody.’ She stared into her cup, looked up. ‘Deep down, I think Robbie was a man who was carrying a burden. I thought it might have been his sister. He told me she was drinking heavily. He tried to get her to go to AA or see a counsellor, but she refused.’ Katrina toyed with the handle of her cup. ‘But I could be wrong; it could have been something else entirely. But whatever was troubling him, he didn’t want to share it with anybody.’
Silence.
‘A secret you mean?’
‘Yes, a secret.’