The Recovery Assignment Page 5

  ‘Sure am.’ Charlotte ignored the vibes concerning the temporary nature of her appointment that were coming from the other side of the room. ‘I love this job.’

  The fact that Charlotte had placed a small picture in a heart-shaped frame on her desk made it inevitable that one of her visitors would mention Jamie.

  ‘I’m sorry I never made it to the funeral.’

  ‘It’s OK. It was a long way for you and it’s a long time ago now.’

  ‘I was really sorry to hear about it. Did you get my letter?’

  ‘Yes, I did. Thanks.’

  ‘You guys were so perfect for each other.’

  ‘Yeah.’ The vibes coming from Hawk were different now. And he had turned his head just far enough to demonstrate the fact that he was eavesdropping.

  Charlotte said nothing more. There was no way they were going to cover any personal ground until they had sorted out some professional boundaries. Especially any related to her gender. The assessing glances her body was receiving from male officers, including Owen Hawkins, were far more unwelcome than Hawk found her paramedic qualifications to be. And he’d had his chance to air his resentment. Charlotte was waiting for her turn.

  It came, in the final minutes of her first day on the job, when she was about to pack up and go home. Other staff members were also heading home and one poked his head into the office.

  ‘Hey, Hawk. Fancy a beer after work?’

  ‘I’m on call tonight, Murphy. Another night would be great.’

  ‘You’re always on call, mate.’

  ‘I’ll get some time off for good behaviour soon. My new colleague and I will be sharing the on-call duties as soon as she’s settled in a bit.’

  Murphy’s eyes widened as Charlotte turned. He grinned at Hawk and lowered his voice. ‘This is your new colleague? You lucky, lucky guy.’

  ‘That remains to be seen,’ Hawk responded just as quietly. Then he spoke more loudly. ‘Charlotte, this is Greg Murphy, one of our detectives.’

  ‘Hi, Greg.’ Charlotte gave him only the briefest smile. So Hawk was waiting to see if he’d get ‘lucky’ was he? He should learn to lower his voice more effectively.

  ‘Would you like to come out for a beer?’ Murphy was still grinning. Or was it leering? ‘I would consider it rude not to welcome a new colleague with a celebratory drink.’

  ‘No, thanks.’ Charlotte didn’t bother expanding on her decision. She fitted the folder of local scene protocols into her shoulder-bag. She had every intention of reading them thoroughly before arriving at work in the morning.

  ‘I need to finish this,’ Hawk was telling Murphy. ‘Catch you later?’

  ‘Sure.’ Murphy wasn’t offended by the brush-off. He leaned a little further through the doorway. ‘I’m surprised you’re getting any work done, mate,’ he said cheerfully. ‘Just as well Charlotte’s not blonde, eh?’

  Instead of following Murphy out of the office, Charlotte closed the door and turned back to face Hawk.

  ‘What was that about?’

  He looked up at the new interruption with a weary expression. ‘What?’

  ‘Why is it just as well I’m not blonde?’

  Hawk shrugged. ‘I have no idea. Maybe Murphy has a thing about blondes.’

  Charlotte gave him a long-suffering look. She wasn’t about to let him think he could get away with treating her like an idiot. And she certainly wasn’t about to let him think that sexual harassment was tolerable. Either the blatant kind that Greg Murphy displayed or the subtle inferences Hawk had been providing.

  ‘Murphy must be an extremely shallow person, then. I hope that any blonde unfortunate enough to have him hitting on her finds out sooner rather than later.’

  ‘I wouldn’t worry about it. You’re safe.’

  ‘By virtue of not being blonde?’ Charlotte’s words dripped acid. ‘Listen, Owen, I want to get something straight here, and I may as well do it on my first day. I’m not about to tolerate getting hit on by anyone I work with. Feel free to pass it on.’

  ‘I’m sure word will get around fast enough.’

  ‘I’m hardly breaking new ground.’ Charlotte shook her head. ‘I’m far from the first woman to join the police force. Why am I getting the impression that I’ve stepped into some boys’ only club?’

  ‘You’re the first woman to join the SCS. Here, anyway.’

  ‘I’m here to do a job. The fact that I’m female has nothing to do with it.’

  ‘You’re new. Everyone has to prove themselves. Respect is something that’s earned.’

  ‘That cuts both ways.’ Charlotte’s tone was intended to be a warning. ‘And I’m not going to have any respect for a colleague who assumes I’m more interested in having sex than doing my job.’

  ‘At least we have something in common, then.’ The hint of a smile made Charlotte realise it was the first she had received. In fact, had she even seen him smile at anyone else during the course of today?

  ‘And that is?’

  ‘Not letting personal relationships interfere with a career.’

  ‘So you’ll stop looking at me as if I’m parading around in my underwear, then?’

  Hawk’s jaw dropped. ‘I haven’t been!’

  ‘Yes, you have,’ Charlotte contradicted. ‘And so has every other male I’ve met so far today. I’m getting assessed and that assessment is being based purely on what I look like.’

  ‘You’re not exactly what any of us expected, you know.’

  ‘You mean I’m not short, fat and ugly? Hell bent on a tough career in the police force because I’m too much of a dog to catch myself a husband?’

  Hawk’s laughter was as astonishing as the way his amusement changed his face. Charlotte had been wondering if she’d even seen him smile and now she had elicited a bark of rich sound and a smile that made him look like a stranger all over again. The fierce lines of his face hadn’t changed but any hint of arrogance or aggression had evaporated, at least for the moment. In fact, the gleam in those dark blue eyes confirmed that Charlotte had hit the nail squarely on the head and that her perception was both unexpected and quite admirable.

  ‘Don’t worry.’ The faintly embarrassed undertone to Hawk’s voice as he turned back to his computer gave away the fact that he had shared the general expectation of what she would be like. ‘I can’t guarantee you won’t be hit on,’ he continued. ‘But I can assure you it won’t be by me. I’ve never slept with a partner and I don’t intend to start now.’

  ‘Your partners have always been men.’

  ‘So?’ Hawk turned to face Charlotte again and she held his gaze. A gaze that might just hold the tiniest amount of respect for the way she had confronted this issue.

  He also seemed to be telling her that he wasn’t going to let the fact that she was female make any difference to their professional relationship. She smiled slowly.

  ‘I think we understand each other…Hawk.’ The use of his nickname was only a shade tentative.

  ‘I’m sure we do…Charlie.’ Hawk’s smile acknowledged the new space they were entering.

  As colleagues.

  CHAPTER THREE

  ‘YOU bastard!’

  Charlotte’s head turned sharply at the raw anger in the statement from the rapidly approaching stranger.

  ‘There’s a dead woman in that car and it’s your fault!’

  ‘I didn’t even see her!’

  ‘You shouldn’t be allowed on the road. You’re a useless, incompetent—’

  ‘Excuse me.’ Charlotte turned her body and stepped sideways into the path of the stranger. ‘Who are you?’

  ‘I work in those offices.’ The man jerked an arm in the direction of a building over the road. ‘I saw the whole thing.’

  ‘Then we’ll certainly take your statement,’ Charlotte told him calmly. ‘If you go and wait beside that police car over there, I’ll—’

  ‘He just turned this bloody great truck in front of her. She didn’t stand a chance. Look at her, you mor
on!’

  Unfortunately, it was still possible to see the mangled body in the driver’s seat of the small hatchback. The fire officers were trying to position a tarpaulin as a shield prior to cutting the woman’s body free from the wreck, but it was proving difficult. Wellington wasn’t known as the ‘windy city’ for nothing.

  ‘She was probably on her way to pick her kids up from school.’ The witness was clearly becoming even more upset at the closer view he was now getting of the disastrous aftermath of the accident, but his reaction paled in comparison to the man he was confronting. The driver of the truck involved was shaking visibly beneath the blanket an ambulance officer had draped over his shoulders. Now he had tears coursing down his face.

  ‘I’ve got kids myself,’ he said brokenly. ‘Oh…God! What have I done?’

  ‘I’ll tell you exactly what you’ve done, you damned—’ The witness shoved Charlotte aside and she stumbled sideways, but he didn’t get as far as the truck driver because another figure slipped smoothly into his path.

  ‘Move,’ Hawk snapped. ‘If you’re not behind that police cordon in ten seconds, I’ll have you arrested, mate.’

  The man blinked, his fury hijacked by a dawning recognition that he no longer had any chance to control this situation. Charlotte was wearing a rather similarly stunned expression. In the two weeks she had been working with Owen Hawkins she had tucked away the impression that she would not want to face his anger. Now she was seeing it for the first time and she could confirm that impression. With bells on.

  Hawk often looked focussed, uncompromising and even fiercely determined, but right now his expression was calmly murderous. The man he was facing outweighed him considerably and was in a charged emotional state that could readily be expressed in physical violence, but Hawk’s expression and tone had been enough to stop him as effectively as a stone wall.

  ‘And don’t…ever…touch a police officer again.’ The words dripped like ice into the sudden silence. ‘Unless you want to be arrested for assault.’

  ‘But…I saw it.’

  ‘Officer Jackson will take your statement. Over there.’

  ‘OK…sure.’ The man turned and almost stumbled in his newfound eagerness to co-operate. Charlotte could sympathise with his bemusement. She was still feeling stunned herself. Not so much by the ease with which Hawk had defused the potentially dangerous situation but by the fact that his anger had been harnessed to protect her.

  She wouldn’t have considered she needed that kind of protection. She should be as annoyed about it as she had been to have doors held open for her or offers to have heavy objects lifted on her behalf. She had been in more than one dodgy situation as both a crash investigator and a paramedic and she had been quite capable of looking after herself. Determined to, in fact. Jamie’s death had bred the determination to cope alone both personally and professionally. The force of that unexpected shove had been alarming, however, and to have that kind of back-up available from a partner was reassuring. Welcome, even.

  The second or two of silence was shattered as the pneumatic cutting gear the fire service needed kicked into action. Another sound also managed to reach the trio of figures that included Charlotte.

  ‘Daddy! Daddy!’

  She hadn’t expected the presence of the small boy who was being lifted from the back of the ambulance parked close by. He looked to be about four years old and was making a beeline for the truck driver.

  ‘Is he OK?’

  An ambulance officer followed in the child’s wake. ‘He’s fine. How are you doing now?’

  ‘I’m fine.’ The truck driver reached down to take his son in his arms but he was struggling for control as he looked up at Hawk.

  ‘I didn’t even see her. The road was clear when I started the turn. I’m sure it was. And then I checked again and there she was…’ He caught a ragged breath. ‘I put my foot down. I thought she had time to stop but that I’d better get out of the way fast just in case. And then I heard it hit and…and…’ Racking sobs broke his speech and he buried his face against his son’s shoulder.

  ‘It’s OK,’ Charlotte found herself saying as she put her hand on his arm. ‘Come and sit down for a minute.’

  It took some time to get a statement from the distraught truck driver, Steve Poulsen. He knew he could lose his job and he had four children to support. It had also been the first time he’d given his son, Ben, the treat of having a day on the road with him, but the relief that his child was unhurt or the worry about losing his livelihood couldn’t begin to mitigate the grief that a life had been lost and that it could have been his fault. Charlotte spent nearly an hour talking to Steve before arranging a squad car to take him home.

  Hawk was marking the scene and taking photographs. Charlotte joined him and they spent another hour working together as the scene was gradually cleared. The ambulance was long gone, not having been needed for Steve or Ben and unable to do anything for the woman in the car. A hearse arrived and left with the victim’s body and then the fire appliances departed. A tow truck took the wrecked car away and the truck was driven away to be impounded for further forensic investigation. By the time Hawk and Charlotte had collected the information they needed, broken glass was being swept from the road and the spectators were finally dispersing, leaving only the SCS and one other police vehicle present. One of the officers from that car approached Hawk.

  ‘Are you guys nearly done?’

  ‘Nearly.’

  ‘There’s a call out to any available vehicles for an armed robbery in town.’ Young Officer Jackson looked eager to get in on the action.

  ‘You go,’ Hawk told him. ‘We’ll close the scene here.’

  ‘I’m supposed to go and see the dead woman’s family and break the news.’ Jackson looked far less keen for that unpleasant duty.

  ‘Have you got her details?’

  ‘Yeah.’ A page of his notebook and a driver’s licence were located and Jackson looked hopeful. He ripped the page out as Hawk extended his hand.

  ‘Are you sure? Hey, thanks, Hawk. I owe you one.’

  ‘No problem.’

  Charlotte watched as Jackson flicked on his squad car’s beacons and then started the siren as soon as the car was rolling.

  ‘That was a nice thing to do.’

  ‘Not really.’ Hawk was folding the legs of the theodolite’s tripod. ‘It could be useful for us to talk to her family anyway. I’d like to know what her state of mind was.’

  Charlotte nodded. ‘It’s a bit weird, isn’t it, not having any braking marks further up the hill? Either she just wasn’t looking or the truck did turn directly into her path.’

  Hawk looked from the point the truck had turned across the road into the driveway up to the bend in the road some distance uphill. ‘The speedo’s locked at 70 kph, which is the speed limit here. It could be that there isn’t enough stopping distance from that bend even if the road was clear when he started his turn.’

  It was exactly the kind of information the SCS could establish, report to the appropriate authorities and have a change made that could make the road safer for future drivers.

  ‘We’ll need to do some testing,’ Charlotte said. ‘Skid testing for speed and stopping time and for the truck turning. How long does it take, do you think, to turn a truck that size across half the road width?’

  ‘I’d guess somewhere between five and eight seconds, but it would only be a guess.’

  Charlotte wasn’t so sure about that. Hawk’s ability to calculate time and distances had impressed her considerably over the last two weeks. She relied on her computer programs to supply many of the results from the complicated equations they needed to use in their investigations. Owen Hawkins seemed quite capable of doing most of them in his head, which was irritating. Had Cam been just as clever mathematically? She had no hope of competing with a skill like that.

  She moved to pick up the cones protecting their work space. ‘We’ll need to check out those advertising hoardings o
n the roadside. It could be that they’re obstructing visibility.’ It was another aspect of the scene’s environment that would be easy enough to correct if an influence was proved.

  A few minutes later, Charlotte started the car. ‘Where are we headed?’ she queried.

  ‘Breakwater Bay. It’s a few kilometres up the coast.’

  ‘What information have we got?’

  ‘Her name’s Katrina Jones. Thirty-four years old. Next of kin are listed as her parents—at the same address.’

  ‘I guess her parents might be in their sixties,’ Charlotte said, ‘so it’s quite likely we’ll find someone at home.’ It seemed unusual for someone Katrina’s age to be living at home. Had she been single? Or had she moved home for help in coping as a solo mother? She hoped there were no children involved. Breaking this kind of news was always worse when the victim was a parent of young children.

  Katrina Jones had not been a mother but her parents were devastated at the information Charlotte and Hawk had to impart.

  ‘But she’s such a careful driver. Trina’s never had an accident.’ Her father had slumped into a chair, his face grey.

  His wife was pale. Numbed by the shock, she was desperately trying to avoid facing reality. ‘You must have made a mistake. Maybe someone stole her car.’

  ‘We have her driver’s licence, Mrs Jones. From her handbag.’

  ‘They might have stolen the car and the handbag.’

  ‘No.’ Charlotte had looked at the photo ID on the licence. While the victim’s face had been virtually unrecognisable, there could be no mistake with the distinctively long, blond hair. ‘I’m terribly sorry but there hasn’t been a mistake. Your daughter has died as the result of the crash.’

  She looked from Katrina’s mother to the grey-faced man in the armchair. She hated this part of a police officer’s job. As a paramedic it never seemed quite this awful. At least she would have been seen to have done something to try and help prior to announcing such devastating news. Charlotte swallowed hard. ‘I’m terribly sorry,’ she repeated.

  Katrina’s father had his head bowed. Charlotte could see beads of perspiration appearing where his hairline had receded. She stepped closer.