added, ‘If ESD get a hold of all that, it’s strike number three for you.’
‘What do you want, Ben?’ I asked calmly.
‘Tell me what else you know.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘You know exactly what I mean,’ he said, his face the colour of ripe beetroot, two veins protruding from his neck. ‘What kind of fucking idiot do you think I am? Either give me what else you’ve got on this, or I make a call to ESD and tell them about you gallivanting all over the joint while you’re supposed to be at home on the couch.
‘I have a witness,’ I said, accepting defeat.
‘What?’
‘Well, sort of,’ I started, then explained my contact with Stuart Parks and how he’d pointed me in the direction of Kirzek before the Homicide Squad had officially identified him as a suspect. I also told him about the disk and the pornography of both Dallas Boyd and Justin Quinn, the boy who’d been murdered the previous night, and how Sparks had stolen the laptop from Kirzek’s house in Elwood.
When I was done, Eckles sat wide-eyed and silent. I could almost see the political cogs in his brain turning.
‘Kirzek murdered that kid last night, as well as Boyd?’ he said.
‘I think so.’
‘So where’s the laptop?’
‘In transit,’ I lied. ‘There’s a request for the Computer Crime Squad to check it out as we speak.’
‘Not good enough. This is a murder investigation, McCauley. It needs to be with Homicide. I want you to call Computer Crime and have them contact Stello ASAP. Is that clear?’
‘Fine.’
‘I’ve given you too much slack, McCauley. That’s your problem. You’re like a dog off a lead, pissing all over the place. Now it’s time to put you on a choker-chain. Make the call to Computer Crime, then stay the hell away from this case.’
I was about to respond when the SOG sergeant opened the door, now dressed in a black jumpsuit, Kevlar helmet in his hands.
‘Sorry, sir,’ he said to Eckles. ‘Thought you’d want to know. Somebody called Crime Stoppers and made an ID on Kirzek. Said he’d just seen him. We’ve got an address.’
Eckles raised his eyebrows. ‘Where?’
‘Apartment in South Yarra. We’re ready to crash and bash. You wanna roll?’
‘Sure.’ Eckles followed the sergeant out then turned back to me. ‘Don’t fuck this up, McCauley. You get that laptop to Homicide and piss off home.’
29
I MADE NO EFFORT WITH my information report for the Homicide Squad, indicating only that the laptop had allegedly belonged to Gervas Kirzek and had been seized from a local crook. After burning a copy of the disk for my own reference, I attached the original to the report, but didn’t state that there were images of Dallas Boyd or Justin Quinn on it. It wouldn’t make any difference to the homicide investigation anyway. Stello would still require Computer Crime experts to run through it, and this wouldn’t be a priority. Not when SOG was about to arrest the prime suspect.
After printing and proofing the report, I taped it to the laptop and sealed it all in a courier’s box. My connection to the case was over and I felt flat and dejected. At the same time I felt shallow for being so self-centred.
‘Hey, Ruby,’ Cassie called from the mess room. ‘Check this out. Our guy’s on the TV.’
An ABC news anchor stood outside the St Kilda Road police complex describing how detectives hunting a man over a series of murders in the St Kilda area were about to bring in a suspect for questioning.
‘A series?’ Cassie said. ‘He kills two people and all of a sudden he’s a serial killer.’
‘Two that we know of,’ I muttered as a picture of Kirzek appeared on the screen. It was the same photo that had been released to Crime Stoppers. Beneath it was the label ‘Mr Fatty’.
‘I was right,’ Cassie said. ‘They are adding him to the Three Misters.’
‘Mr Fatty.’ I snorted. ‘Who the hell gave them that?’
‘A witness,’ Cassie said.
‘What witness?’
‘Apparently a hooker told Homicide she saw an overweight man running away from Talbot Reserve after Justin Quinn was killed. She obviously leaked it to the media. Probably copped a quid for it too.’
I shook my head in disgust. A media title gave killers clout and status, and often impeded the investigation. It annoyed me that Dallas Boyd’s actual murder hadn’t received any media coverage, yet a flock of journalists and cameramen were camped outside headquarters waiting for his killer’s arrival. Kirzek was a celebrity now. No doubt somebody would get