This is the 57th Instalment in the series dealing with the career and life of Murder Squad Detective Joseph Lind.
In this episode he finds himself flying solo before he becomes the mentor and partner of two Grade Three Detectives Simone Bartholomew and Douglas Chalmers.
His long-term partner Detective Shelley Anne Shields becomes pregnant again. In an effort to minimise the chance of losing this baby, she decides to take the hard decision of leaving the Police Force for the duration, hoping that such a radical move will help in her going full term.
Detective Lind finds himself saddled with the two Grade Three Detectives who have transferred from other areas of the Force, hoping to become successful Murder Dees. This situation shows once again, that it is not as easy as some assume in becoming a successful Dee on the floor of the Murder Squad.
Detective Lind once again thinks that any person wanting to shift into his realm requires a tutelage for a number of weeks in the Police Academy in Goulburn dealing with what makes a successful move to the ‘hard side’ of life.
You can easily kill a person with one lunge of a large knife.
What then causes a frenzied attack with a knife on a person where the number of wounds cannot be fully assessed?
Is it a blood lust?
An instance where the Perpetrator cannot stop himself?
A payback mentality where each lunge of the knife accounts for countless previous indiscretions against the Perp ...
... or is it just pure, unadulterated anger controlling the act?
Excerpt:
It was a warm day, promising to get even hotter in the afternoon. The glare as I exited the Hospital made me squint, a bad habit since I was a young lad. I quickly dropped my sunglasses down off my forehead to cover my eyes.
From an early age I have always had a problem with glary bloody days. As a thirteen-year-old doing the paper run after School, usually finishing as the sun dipped, I would end up with a blinding head-ache and watery eyes. My face almost in some type of frozen state from continuously squinting. Those were the days when it was uncool to wear sunglasses unless you were a Beatnik or a Uni Student trying to look cool.
Me as that usual geek teenager, wearing sunglasses was not approved of but frowned upon in that particular social standing in the inner western suburbs of Sydney. The usual comment about my sexuality deterred me further from wearing sunglasses. It was not cool to publicise your predilection for the same sex even if it was untrue. Back then it was a capital crime and wearing sunglasses the litmus test for ungodly behaviour!
My own discomfort my punishment for such stupidity. My mother shaking her head at the absurdity of teenagers wanting to fit in and trying various paths looking for the one that suited us. She forgetting perhaps, her journey as a young teenager…maybe no; whose to know.
It truly was stupid actually, as it was seen as cool to wear the bloody things in the middle of the night some five years later! How fads can hurt a guy…the mate and I used to walk up Taylors Square around seven-thirty/eight at night wearing sunglasses. Not knowing we had entered that part of the City known as the gay ‘hangout’ area…us branding ourselves unconsciously as two gay guys with Beatle haircuts gone to bush…all we thought we were doing was being cool going to Beatle Village for a ‘grouse’ or ‘mickey mouse’ night out picking up chicks!
What a couple of stupid drongos! So filled with our version of coolness, we failed to see how stupid it really was!
I was somewhat relieved after speaking to Shelley’s Doctor. It looked as though Shelley was going to be released sometime in the next day or two. She a terrible Patient who just wanted to go home. I reckon the Nursing staff would sigh a sigh of relief when they could see the back of her. I didn’t blame her, as her lot for the next twenty-odd weeks was to remain horizontal as much as possible…she’d be crawling up walls by the fortieth week!
This pregnancy hadn’t been planned and she and her life live-in partner Brin Schofield had been making enquiries as to adoption and foster children as the preferred alternative. At the time it was a case of an easy-as conception. It was obvious the two could make babies very easily…it was carrying them to full term that was the problem. The woman in Child Protection who was my girl Danni’s Case Manager was helping as much as she could to untie knots and clear the way for a quicker adoption process…that was now on hold. Hopefully, her expertise would not be required…but…Shells would prefer to be home in any case and there was enough room and more left over for her mother to be at her beck and call twenty-four-seven. Shells was going to try her hardest to go full term…even if it meant seven months in bed! Arrangements were made for the local Birthing Sister to pop in twice a week to see how she was doing.
Because of this, I had lost another perfect partner to similar events as that of my first long-term partner Marge Hendricks who ended up having triplets. That I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, but I must admit both Marge and her life-partner revelled in the challenge. As far as successful partners were concerned, I was more than apprehensive about finding another to slot in with my ‘funny’ ways, as many described my eccentricities. To have Marge Hendricks for so many years then to find Shelley Anne Shields of similar traits was a Godsend…a sheer stroke of luck.
To expect a third long term professional partner of the same ilk was asking for way too much.
Until then, I was flying solo with the occasional Detective accompanying me to test the waters…and for me to determine whether he or she would make a reasonable if not exceptional Murder Dee. I reckon it was going to be a slow old process for someone to dovetail into my way of doing things and I was comfortable in flying solo for the duration until that suitable candidate dropped into my lap. Though my wishes looked as though they were a losing brand. Getting three from three was long odds even for me!