Why would Sparks want to talk to me? In fact, how did he even know my name?

'Anyway, you've got about five minutes before the van arrives,' Finetti went on.

'Five minutes?' I edged closer to him and kept my voice low. 'We had a deal, mate. I needed him on ice. He's no good to me in the van or back at the station.'

'Hey, we're not babysitting the kid any longer than we have to. Not unless you cut us in.'

Ca.s.sie pushed between us. 'That's fair enough, Ruby. You can't keep us in the dark with this. What's going on?'

'He was mates with Dallas Boyd,' I said.

'No s.h.i.t,' Finetti said. 'We saw that on LEAP. What I don't get is how you two know each other. I mean, you ask me to keep a lookout for this kid, and all the while he's looking for you too.'

'I don't know what he wants with me, but it shouldn't matter,' I said. 'I asked you to find him and keep him on ice. How am I supposed to talk to him back at the station?'

Ca.s.sie waved a radio in front of me. 'You want me to cancel the van, then let us ride the wave with you?'

'No way. I'm in enough s.h.i.t over this already.'

She held up the radio again. 'Now you've got about three minutes.'

'I don't want you to go down for working out of school.'

'Oh, come off it. All we're doing is talking to a local s.c.r.o.t.e. We're not stepping on anyone's toes.'

A helicopter flew over and Ca.s.sie waited for the sound to clear before she asked Finetti to leave us alone. He screwed up his face but gave in and walked over to join Kim and Sparks beneath the tree.

'The stepfather was a no-go zone,' she said curtly. 'Even you should've known that, but this is different. As far as they're concerned, this kid doesn't even exist.'

'No, you don't understand. Everything is different now. There are things even the hommies don't know. Things I haven't told you.'

'So tell me.' Ca.s.sie shook the radio. 'Two minutes. Make a choice.'

I felt anger and annoyance in equal measure. I was painted into a corner. She held the mike to her mouth. 'St Kilda 507 to VKC.'

'Go ahead 507,' said the dispatcher.

Ca.s.sie raised an eyebrow. One last chance. I reached out, grabbed her wrist. 'Okay. You win.'

She told the dispatcher the kid was clean and to cancel the van.

'Now you tell me everything,' she said to me. 'That's the deal.'

I nodded.

'Leave nothing out. I mean it.'

So I told her how I'd confirmed that Boyd had purchased the phone recharge card at around 10 p.m. in the company of his girlfriend. They'd walked down to McDonald's where they'd parted company and Boyd had met with somebody to exchange kiddie p.o.r.n. Whoever this person was, they were critical to the case. If not the killer, at the very least they were the last person to have seen Boyd alive. I finished by explaining my visit to Tammy York and how Will Novak had helped out.

Ca.s.sie stared across to Sparks. 'Rock spiders, huh?'

'That's how it looks, but it doesn't sit well. Everything I've found so far suggests Boyd wanted to help his sister, who was being molested by the stepfather. Why would he get involved with rock spiders when she was a victim?'

'Maybe he just became part of the machine,' she said, shrugging. 'Prey becomes predator. We see it all the time, Rubes.'

'Yeah, I guess.' I still wasn't sure but let it go.

'And you reckon this Sparks kid knows what Dallas was up to before he died?' Ca.s.sie said.

'They were supposed to meet up that night,' I said. 'Sparks left a message on Boyd's voicemail saying he was hanging on to something for him. He sounded pretty freaked out, so he obviously knows something.'

Ca.s.sie slid the mike back on her kit belt. 'Well then, I guess we'd better see what the kid has to say.'

23.

STUART PARKS WAS NO OIL PAINTING. He looked pale and unwell, his shoulders arched over a lean frame. The grubby singlet he was wearing did him no justice either, revealing bony arms, cheap tattoos and a series of abscesses on his wrists. Teenage stubble sprouted on a gaunt face dotted with acne.

'So what gives?' I said. 'My partner says you wanted to talk.'

'Not 'ere. Somewhere else.'

Looking back towards the crowded Esplanade, I didn't think it was a good idea to walk Sparks back to where my car was, so I waved Ca.s.sie over, handed her my keys and asked her to fetch the Falcon from the hostel and meet us at the marina.

'Take Barkly Street. You should get through the traffic.'

'What about them?' she said quietly, nodding towards Finetti and Pendlebury.

'They've done all they need to do.'

She headed over to tell them they could go, leaving me with Sparks, who fidgeted with the handcuffs.

'Bit tight?' I asked.

'What do you reckon?'

'Well, don't worry too much. It's because they're new. They'll stretch out a bit after a while.'

He gave me a death stare. I couldn't help but smile. 'Relax,' I said, checking the cuffs and ratcheting them down a notch. 'It's an old joke. Surprised you haven't heard it before.'

'I have and it's still not funny. Never has been.'

'Yeah, okay. What are you so edgy about?'

'Got me smokes in me pocket,' he said, ignoring my question. 'Reckon ya could get one for me?'

'How do I know you don't have a syringe in there?'

'How do I know you're not gonna do me for the jemmy bar?'

'Why shouldn't I?'

'Because you want what I've got. Bigger than any go-equipped bulls.h.i.t.'

I nodded. The kid knew the rules. I carefully removed a crumpled pack of cigarettes from his pocket and lit one for him.

'Let's take a walk.'

We headed back through the car park towards the marina. Sparks was moving too quickly. I put a hand on his shoulder to slow him down.

'So, Sparks that's what they call you, isn't it? Can I call you that?'

'Call me whatever ya like when we get to the car.' He held up his hands to take a drag on the smoke. 'Not sayin' nothin' till ya take these off. Make me feel like a leper. Everyone's starin' at me.'

'There's no one around, mate.'

'Yeah, what d'ya call that?' he said, nodding to the left where a family had just arrived back at their car. He was right; they were staring. I stepped in beside him to block their view and guided him up the stairs. We didn't speak again until we reached the marina where Ca.s.sie waited in the Falcon. She stayed in the driver seat while I sat Sparks in the back, removed the handcuffs and engaged the child lock. I got in the front and looked at him through the mirror on the sun visor. He seemed small and vulnerable now, arms wrapped around his bony frame, glancing back and forth like a cornered rat.

'You hungry?' I asked him.

'What?'

'Could murder a burger right now. Are you hungry, Ca.s.s?'

Ca.s.sie shrugged. 'Sure, but not one of those Macca's burgers. I want a real real burger.' burger.'

'Exactly. What about a big fat burger with the lot from Smithy's?'

Smithy's was a fish and chip shop on Beach Road in Brighton. There were hundreds like it across the city, but it was my favourite spot for a burger. I often went there after swimming at the baths when the exercise left me famished and craving fast food.

I used my mobile to call ahead and soon we were in the car park facing the water, munching our burgers and slurping c.o.kes.

'So what did you want to tell me?' I asked after a few bites.

'First off, ya gotta know I ain't no dog, so I'm not gonna lag on no one.'

'No one's asking you to,' I said.

'Right, well, I'm just sayin' I'm no dog, that's all.'

This was normal. n.o.body wanted to admit they were an informant. I took another bite of my burger and waited.

'Everyone's sayin' Dall knocked himself or that it was an accident,' Sparks said after a moment. 'But that's bulls.h.i.t, isn't it?'

'What makes you say that?' Ca.s.sie asked.

'Mate, soon as I saw ya at the hostel I knew it was bulls.h.i.t,' he said, looking at me in the rear-view mirror. 'When I asked Will what ya were doin' sniffin' around about Dall, he said ya was looking into it.'

I figured that was how the kid knew my name. I asked if Will had told him anything else.

'Didn't have to,' Sparks said. 'Jacks don't go sniffin' around for no suicide. Dall didn't knock himself, did he?'

'No, and it wasn't an accident either.'

Sparks rested the burger in his lap and let out a low sigh. 's.h.i.t,' he said. 'I knew it.'

'You can trust us,' Ca.s.sie said. 'We need your help to catch whoever did it.'

He folded his arms and stared out the side window. 'I never said I'd f.u.c.kin' trust ya. Don't trust cops. f.u.c.k that.'

'Must be a reason you asked for me though,' I said.

He didn't reply.

'Dallas was into something, wasn't he?' Ca.s.sie said. 'Is that why you asked for Rubens as soon as we arrested you? Because you knew he was looking into it and you knew what Dallas was into?'

Still nothing.

'What about the message you left on Dallas's answering machine?' I asked. 'You said you had something for him, something he asked you to get. But he didn't show up, did he?'

Again, silence.

'This is important, Sparks. I know Dallas was supposed to meet somebody at Luna Park about eleven the night he died, to sell some kiddie p.o.r.n. I need to know who that person was. Do you know who it was?'

I turned to face the windscreen, hoping to depersonalise the conversation, like going to confession with an unseen priest.

'Look, if you don't want to tell us something specific, that's fine,' Ca.s.sie said. 'Just tell us about Dallas. Why don't you start with that? You were mates, did time together, didn't you?'

'Were mates,' Sparks said finally. 'Least till we landed in Malmsbury after the armed rob. After that we went our separate ways. Dall chased the money, and I fell in love.' mates,' Sparks said finally. 'Least till we landed in Malmsbury after the armed rob. After that we went our separate ways. Dall chased the money, and I fell in love.'

'You fell in love?' Ca.s.sie said.

'Yeah, with heroin.'

'Right, and Dallas wanted money,' she went on. 'What do you mean by that?'

'Exactly what I said. Dall wanted cash. Apart from saving his little sister, it was all he cared about, all he ever spoke about. That's what happens when you go away: you think about things. Dall thought about money and his little sister. The only difference was, Dall sounded like he had a scam ready for when he got out. He wasn't a dreamer like all the other s.h.i.theads in there.'

A panel van pulled up next to us and two guys with ponytails got out, unloaded kite-surf bags and trekked off towards the beach. It now seemed apparent to me that Dallas Boyd had formed a plan to sell child p.o.r.n while he was still in jail, but how? Had somebody approached him there? I wanted to open my daybook and scribe but couldn't risk spooking the kid. We had to keep it informal.

'What about Derek Jardine?' I asked. 'The other guy you did the armed rob with.'