Devolution

‘Okay,’ said Hatsis with an impossibly confident tone of voice, ‘That gives us two leads to chase up.’

Jacobssen spoke for Joshua and Ted, as well as himself when he said to Hatsis, ‘Talk about clutching at bloody straws. How can you call two unknown persons of interest whose whereabouts and appearance are similarly unknown, “two leads”? We have only one first name between them and nothing else.’

Hatsis looked disappointed. ‘Inspector, that’s all we’ve got and if we want to find out what the hell is going on-’

‘And where Veena is,’ added Joshua.

‘And where Veena is, then we have to go on what we’ve got.’

Surprisingly, Jacobssen threw his hands up in resignation. Was he giving up on Veena? Why was he so dismissive of Hatsis? Given the choice between the two cops standing before him now, 3 was ready to lay all his hopes on Hatsis because he was still willing to continue.

‘How do you propose we follow up on these alleged leads?’ asked Jacobssen.

Hatsis turned to Joshua. ‘You said you reckon you missed your contact at Circular Quay because of the girl, Celeste, right?’

Joshua nodded.

‘So what’s happened in the past when you’ve missed an appointment?’

‘It hasn’t happened before.’

‘Do you think they’ll try and contact you again to find out why you didn’t show up?’

‘Wouldn’t they have done that by now? I mean that was over twenty four hours ago.’

‘They might be waiting,’ suggested 3.

‘Waiting for what?’ asked Joshua. ‘If it’s half as important as it seems to be, they would be in a hurry, wouldn’t they? And any interruption to the timetable-and this qualifies as one- would have to be sorted out quickly.’

‘Unless,’ said Jacobssen thankfully rejoining the discussion, ‘you have made them suspicious by not turning up and they are trying to decide what you’re up to.’

‘Like maybe, I’m working for someone else as well, or have been captured?’

‘Right,’ said Hatsis. ‘Or what if they saw you at the Quay and before they could make contact with you, you ran into Celeste, and that has made them suspicious.’

‘I’ve been reliable up till now. Done everything they asked of me and made all my contacts so they won’t write me off straight away, will they?’

‘I’d like to know who the hell “they” are?’ 3 was frustrated by this talking even though he knew they had to throw ideas around in the hope that something clicked, that something made sense. Jacobssen was right, they were desperate.’

Jacobssen answered his question, ‘We won’t know that I suspect until we find Veena.’

‘Right,’ said Hatsis, ‘let’s go find Celeste. You remember her building don’t you Joshua?’

‘I think so. If we go to the Quay and walk back from there I’m sure I can find it.’ A sudden thought struck him. ‘What if that wasn’t Celeste’s place? What if whoever she was working for just let her use the place?’

‘That’s a possibility.’

Jacobssen again. ‘Joshua, why are you so certain that Celeste was not your contact at the Quay?’

Joshua was surprised by the question, and as if he had never considered it before he took a minute to think about it. ‘Because she didn’t give me anything. I mean all the others loaded information onto my carrier disc. We had to be somewhere where nobody could see us and they, that is all the other contacts, removed the disc and, I assume, loaded information on to it-’

‘Or downloaded information from the disc,’ suggested Jacobssen.

Again Joshua was taken aback. ‘Yeah, I never thought of that. Anyway whatever they did, Celeste didn’t.’

‘Before we go, tell us about the meeting with Celeste. The details.’

‘Let’s do it on the way,’ said Hatsis, ‘We’ve wasted enough time already.’

‘Wait,’ said 3, ‘I want to come.’

‘Are you sure you’re up to it?’ asked Joshua.

‘Shit,’ said Hatsis. ‘I’ll get the doctor to clear you first.’ He stepped to the bedside and pressed the call button. ‘Tell us now then Joshua. You said Celeste first said she was the contact but you soon found out that wasn’t the case. How?’

‘Celeste-don’t forget that’s not her real name either- had me bewitched at first so I guess I didn’t question the way it went down. I mean none of the others said more than a dozen words to me so it was a shock to be invited to lunch.’

‘By a beautiful woman,’ added 3.

‘Yeah. I guess I was too overwhelmed by apparent good fortune to be suspicious initially but as we talked and she kept asking questions-all of which I answered as if confiding to my best friend-and kept carefully avoiding answering my questions, it became clear that she was trying to get as much personal information from me as possible. She wanted to determine where and how many contacts I had made since I arrived in Australia.’

‘So you told her that stuff?’ asked Hatsis.

‘I think I did. I don’t remember exactly what I told her. Anyway after I blew the lid on what she was doing, she started answering my questions.’

‘Maybe your words stung her conscience,’ suggested 3 which caused Joshua to give him a curious look. That was a weird thing to say, 3 admitted to himself. Unlike him.

‘Maybe,’ said Joshua, not sure if he agreed or not, ‘but whatever the case, she began to tell me how this organization that she works for, operates.’

‘Names? Places?’ asked Jacobssen.

‘No.’

A nurse entered and Hatsis explained to her that 3 wanted to be released and could she get the doctor to come and have a look at him. She disagreed and strongly suggested that 3 remain in hospital for at least another day. Hatsis then thanked her for her opinion but insisted she get the doctor immediately. Obviously miffed, the nurse spun on her heels, choking on some words as she left the room.

A few minutes later the doctor entered, examined 3, agreed with the nurse and received the same courteous yet forceful insistence from Hatsis. The argument between he and the doctor was longer than the one between he and the nurse but in the end the detective got his way. 3 felt sure that he always got what he wanted, when he wanted it.

3 was grateful, Hatsis could have easily sided with the medical professionals and he would have been stuck in his white sheeted bed for another night, but for whatever reason Hatsis decided to put his foot down. Maybe, thought 3, it wasn’t about helping him at all, but about Hatsis wanting to be the boss, and hating people saying no to him. 3 decided that was a good attribute for a policeman.

‘Thanks detective.’

‘I’ll get the shits with you real fast if you become a liability, you hear me?’

‘Yes sir,’ replied 3 with appropriate gravity.

Jacobssen, Hatsis, and Joshua walked down the corridor of the hospital in silence with 3 gliding behind them. They kept their quiet until out of the hospital all together and safe inside Hatsis’ unmarked squad car which he had left in the no parking zone near the ambulance bay.

The short drive down to Circular Quay was a time for them all to go over the details again. Everything known to anyone of them soon became known to all four of them, causing 3 to marvel at the team work, the team spirit, and to have his hopes renewed that they would rescue Veena from wherever she was being held captive.

With his thoughts now directed to the love of his life, 3 began to worry and a swirling discord of panic spun in his stomach. What if she was not okay? What if he never saw her again? No, mustn’t think that way. He chastised himself and tried to be positive. I’m going to tell her how I feel and stop all this pretending to be friends business. If she feels the same way, I have to know and if she doesn’t well…it will be better to find out now than go on with this uncertainty and awkwardness they occasionally felt in each other’s company.

‘Ted?’

‘What?’

‘Are you okay?’ asked Joshua.

‘He’s gone already hasn’t he?’ asked Hatsis. ‘He’s bloody well falling apart already.’

‘No. I’m not. I’m fine. I was just thinking about Veena.’

Joshua slapped 3’s thigh, gripped it and give it a playful shake. ‘She’ll be all right, Ted,’ he said. ‘You know she’s tougher than teak.’

Hatsis interrupted. ‘If you two are finished with your nice touchy feely, warm and fuzzy moment, I’d like an answer to my question.’

‘What was the question?’

‘Ted, I’m gonna have to dump you on the side of the road in a minute.’ When 3 ignored him, Hatsis spoke on. ‘Do you have any idea who may have killed your father?’

Now it was 3’s turn to be blown away by a Hatsis hammer-like question.

‘What? How the hell would I know that and what has that got to do with trying to rescue Veena?’

Jacobssen answered, ‘Seems you’ve fallen through a crack in the information exchange somewhere along the line. It’s my theory and it’s only a theory, that the disc Joshua is carrying contains information-I’m talking names, places, times, dates, the works, on the deaths of both your father and Veena’s.’

‘I don’t get it.’

‘The people who are named as conspirators and co-conspirators on that disc are trying to stop Joshua from reaching his final destination.’

‘Which is where?’

Joshua answered, ‘I don’t know.’

Hatsis pulled the car to a gradual stop at the front of the taxi zone under the Opera House steps.

‘Let me finish,’ said Jacobssen. ‘It seems to me that Celeste was hired by the people who killed your dad to get information from Joshua.’

‘Why can’t they, or you, or anyone just remove the disc and download the information? They had Joshua captured before. Why didn’t they do that?’

Joshua answered, ‘The discs must be coded. So if anyone tries to remove the disc from me without the proper code, not only might I be seriously hurt, even killed, but the disc will probably be unreadable.’

‘So,’ continued Jacobssen, ‘Someone who knows what happened but wants to remain anonymous, put the whole story on an encrypted disc and hired Joshua as a carrier to take the information to someone who they obviously felt they could trust to do something about it.’

Hatsis took over from Jacobssen, ‘These people or this person, may also be involved themselves and it’s possible they are acting on a guilty conscience. They may have specifically chosen Joshua to throw whoever might suspect them of revealing the truth, off the trail. Who would think that Joshua Carpenter from Mumbai would be carrying information relating to the murders of his two best friend’s fathers?’

‘So you think these people who are trying to stop Joshua are holding Veena as bait?’

‘Could be,’ said Hatsis dispassionately. ‘Could be. Come on, let’s go and see if we can find not-her-real-name Celeste.’ Hatsis climbed out of his car and said to 3 as he emerged from the back seat. ‘You didn’t answer my question.’

3 looked him directly in the eye and said, ‘No, I have no idea.’

‘Fair enough,’ said Hatsis as he began to walk away from the car.

‘You gonna leave the car here, are you?’ asked Jacobssen.

‘I leave my car wherever I want to Inspector. Don’t you enjoy such privileges at home?’

‘Seems more like an abuse of position actually.’

‘Whatever.’

’While Hatsis and Jacobssen sparred, Joshua walked beside 3 and said to him, ‘I reckon this is a dead end. We’ve really got to hope that they contact me again and arrange another meeting.’

‘Do you believe all this stuff Jacobssen and Hatsis are telling us?’

‘I guess it kind of makes sense but it sounds so fantastic. Like something you’d see in a movie.’

Despite the seriousness of their predicament, 3 laughed. ‘The kind of billion dollar action blockbuster that the critics pan for having superficial characters and a way out plot with more holes in it than a sieve?’

‘Yeah. Anyway I think we can trust these two guys, and I’m glad because there’s not much else to hold on to at the moment.’

‘What about your faith? I’m starting to find a bit of that myself.’

‘Faith?’ said Joshua as though it was a slightly ridiculous suggestion. ‘Yes, there’s that too.’

Although terribly worried by Joshua’s response, 3 decided not to say anything for the time being. Together they traveled along the foreshore towards the ferry terminal following the odd couple policemen leading the way, they hoped.