'Put this in your computer,' I said. 'Mute the volume and let it play.'

'What the f.u.c.k is this? Kiddie p.o.r.n? I don't wanna see that s.h.i.t.'

'Just play it. It's not p.o.r.n, but it is something you need to explain.'

Guardedly, Novak slid the disk into the PC and soon the inside of the 7-Eleven appeared on the screen. We both watched in silence as a series of customers walked in and out of the store. I watched Novak's eyes as they dropped to the clock in the corner of the screen.

'You told me you purchased cigarettes at around midnight the night Dallas Boyd was killed,' I said.

'Like I told you, I was manning the soup kitchen. I always give smokes to the clients. Stops the need for begging. You know how many homeless people get bashed for trying to b.u.m a smoke?'

'I don't care about the smokes, Will. I care about all the lies I keep uncovering. When I first spoke to you, you told me you hadn't seen or spoken to Dallas for a couple of days, right?'

'That's right. We had lunch and spent the time planning a way to get his sister out of the flat. What's the problem with that?'

I nodded to the screen. 'Just watch.'

We turned back to the PC as a grainy image of Novak appeared on the screen. The clock counter read 12.17 a.m.

'There!' Novak said, watching himself approach the counter. 'Just after midnight. Exactly like I told you.'

He went to eject the disk but I told him to let it play.

'Will, I want you to explain something to me.'

'What's there to explain? I bought the b.l.o.o.d.y smokes and left.'

'No, you didn't. So rewind it, and let it play again. This time with the sound up.'

Tiny beads of sweat dotted Novak's forehead. Finally he clicked the sound icon and turned the volume up. The small speakers on his desk vibrated with distortion as the disk played again.

'Happy now?'

As Novak approached the counter on screen, Dallas Boyd's mobile phone started ringing through the speakers. Novak could be seen removing the phone from his pocket to cancel the call. But it wasn't fast enough. I watched his face pale now as the tune to 'Hi Ho Silver' sounded through the office. It was loud and high-pitched. The kids outside seemed to look towards the window and for a second I wondered if they could hear it ringing.

'This is a call charge record for Dallas Boyd's phone from the night he died,' I said, placing the CCR on the desk. 'It tells me that Sparks tried to call Dallas at exactly 12.17 a.m. The call was cancelled, but it still showed up on this report because Sparks left a message through the phone company's missed call service.'

Running my finger down the list, I pointed out the recurring number I knew belonged to Novak and which confirmed he'd lied to me about the last time he'd spoken to Dallas Boyd.

'Sparks and Dallas were supposed to meet at midnight to exchange the laptop, but Dallas never showed up because he was dead by then,' I continued. 'The killer took his phone, most likely because he was worried about us checking it and linking him to these three calls.'

When Novak didn't respond, I leant forward and said, 'That's Dallas Boyd's phone right there on the screen. I can tell because of the ringtone. "Hi Ho Silver".'

Novak got out of his chair and moved away from his desk until he was against the window. His eyes darted about the room and I knew it was true. As he backed along the window to the east wall, his arm disappeared behind a filing cabinet. By the time I realised what was happening and went to draw my own weapon, it was too late. When his arm came back in sight, he was pointing a handgun directly at me.

35.

'DON'T MAKE THIS ANY WORSE than it has to be,' I said. 'We don't want it to turn into a situ' than it has to be,' I said. 'We don't want it to turn into a situ'

'Just shut up!' Novak snapped. 'There is no "we" here. We're not a team. We're not the same, never have been. You're a cop and I'm a social worker, get it?'

'You're wrong, Will. We are are the same. We've got different angles, but we work the same streets. We both want the same things.' the same. We've got different angles, but we work the same streets. We both want the same things.'

'Oh, get your hand off it. Cheap psychology tricks won't work on me,' he sneered, the gun waving fiercely, his eyes wild with emotion.

My instinct was to bolt through the door behind me and draw my weapon, but I didn't want to frighten him with any sudden moves. Over his shoulder, I saw Tammy and Fletch still outside under the tree looking in our direction. I hoped they could see what was going on.

'Put your gun on the floor and kick it over to me,' he ordered. 'Then empty your pockets. Get everything out!'

I put my gun on the floor and kicked it over.

'Now give me your second gun,' he said, scooping up the Colt and stuffing it into his waist. 'Your spare, give it to me.'

'I don't have a second gun.'

'Bulls.h.i.t! You're lying. You're a cop. You always lie.' Novak braced one trembling hand with the other then crossed the room and locked the office door. 'Get down on your knees and put your hands behind your head.'

I had a sudden terrible image of the gun going off and the bullet tearing again into my shoulder, just as it had done over twelve months ago.

'You can't get away with this, Will,' I said. 'There are kids outside. The receptionist knows I'm in here.'

'I don't care! Just get on your knees, now!'

I sank to the floor, hands shaking.

'Let's talk about this, Will. It doesn't have to end like this.'

'Stop using my first name! We're no longer on a first-name basis.'

My impression was that Novak didn't want want to shoot me, but he seemed unhinged, unstable, and I'd end up just as dead whether I was killed intentionally or by accident. to shoot me, but he seemed unhinged, unstable, and I'd end up just as dead whether I was killed intentionally or by accident.

Keeping his gun trained on me, he s.n.a.t.c.hed the DVD out of the tray and fed it into a shredder next to his desk. The machine screamed in protest, but chewed up the DVD nonetheless. He then gathered up the doc.u.ments I'd shown him and fed them into the machine as well.

'Are there copies?' he snarled.

I shook my head.

'I don't believe you!' He pressed the gun hard into the top of my head. 'On the floor, lie forward and put your hands behind your back.'

When I didn't move, he smashed me over the head with the b.u.t.t of the gun. Carpet grazed my face as I fell forward, the pain in my head excruciating. My vision blurred as I struggled to find a way to save myself. Novak paced the office, opening and closing drawers, tossing items around on the desk, muttering to himself. It seemed he was yet to formulate a plan of action, though I suspected he was looking for something to tie me up with. My only hope was to play on his frustration and uncertainty, keep him talking while I figured out a plan of my own.

'You knew about the scam, didn't you?' I said.

No response.

'That's why you called Dallas on the night he died. You knew he had the laptop and was planning to blackmail The Holy Brethren. Did you try and talk him out of it?'

'The Holy Brethren?' he repeated. 'Never heard of them.'

'Sure you haven't. What about all those referrals you get from Back Outside, all that money you get by being in bed with them?'

He located something in a drawer and then slammed it shut.

'I know about the priest, Miles Jorgensen,' I said. 'He used to run Breaking the Wall until it got exposed by the Feds in Operation Locust. So he packed his bags, changed the program name to Back Outside and moved to Melbourne. Tell me, how'd you secure such a sweet funding deal with him? You have the minister in your pocket, maybe a member of The Holy Brethren in the health department?'

Novak gripped my left arm and yanked it back. 'If you try to fight me, I won't shoot you,' he said. 'Instead, I'll tear out every last st.i.tch in your neck. Got it, partner?'

I almost vomited with the pain as he pinched my neck wound hard. I lay limp on the floor, taking long breaths until the nausea pa.s.sed. He took advantage of my helplessness to tie my wrists together with string.

'What happened, Will?' I wheezed. 'Did Dallas tell you he wanted to run a scam on them and you freaked because so much of your funding here depends on them? Did he want your help to do it? Is that why you did it?'

The shredder whined and groaned as Novak filled it with doc.u.ments from a box under his desk. Blinking away sweat, I noticed the box was an old beer carton, the label Amstel Amstel on the side. on the side.

'I have to admit, you're slick,' I said. 'You fooled me; fooled everyone. You knew Dallas was involved in the s.e.x game. I bet he even told you he was selling p.o.r.n for Kirzek. That's why you chose to dump the body at the cafe, isn't it? It was a safeguard in case us cops realised it wasn't an overdose. You knew if we worked out it wasn't an OD, we'd eventually look at the owner of the cafe.'

'That's it, just keep talking,' he said. 'Get it all out. No one else is going to hear it anyway.'

I used my right leg to push a few inches along the carpet until I was able to peer up out of the window. No one was out there. I briefly contemplated screaming for help, but it was too risky. Novak might panic and shoot me or one of the staff. Or we might end up in a full-blown hostage situation. Better to keep him distracted.

'I know how it went down,' I said. 'You rang Dallas on the night to arrange a meeting, didn't you? I'll bet you told him you'd help him, maybe over a beer or two. What he didn't know, of course, was that good old Uncle Will had no intention of helping him and that you'd dosed the beer with GHB. I wouldn't have picked you for a Dutch beer man, though. Amstel, a nice drop. Thought you'd be more the VB type.'

Novak pulled a file from the cabinet, the name 'Jardine' written in the top corner, and fed its contents through the shredder. I gritted my teeth, knowing vital evidence was being destroyed.

'What happened next, Will? After you did the deed, you raced up to the soup kitchen and started work, knowing everyone there would vouch for you and no one would remember exactly what time you arrived. That how it went?'

Novak seemed almost frenzied now. He had both guns tucked down his pants and kept feeding more papers into the machine.

'But that wasn't good enough, was it? No, you wanted a foolproof alibi, so you bought a pack of smokes and got yourself on camera, just in case you needed to prove you were somewhere else at the time of death. Just brilliant, Will. f.u.c.king perfect.'

He ignored me, raced back to his desk and punched a series of commands into his keyboard, no doubt to erase any incriminating electronic doc.u.ments he had stored.

'Don't you think it's ironic? It was the 7-Eleven alibi that nailed you. You hung on to Dallas's phone because you wanted to get rid of it, because you were worried it would come back to haunt you, and guess what ... it has.'

When he started emptying another filing cabinet, I noticed the top b.u.t.tons of his shirt had come loose. Underneath I could see he wore a silver necklace with a tiny silver crucifix attached to it.

'You slimy b.a.s.t.a.r.d,' I sneered. 'You're not just in bed with The Holy Brethren. You're one of them.'

'Say what you like, McCauley. It's all just theory. When all's said and done, who do you think they're going to believe me or some fruitcake from Romania, who you guys touted as the next big paedophile? What did you call him again Mr Fatty?' He came around the desk and stood over me. 'I really like that name. Did you you make that one up?' make that one up?'

I ignored the jibe.

'Gervas Kirzek killed Dallas just like he did the others,' Novak went on. 'That's the way it'll play out once I'm done. No one's going to believe you, McCauley. You're just as washed up as Kirzek, only you're too stupid to realise it. I know you're on leave. All I had to do was ring your boss and he just told me. So I knew all along you weren't on the team. Don't you get it, I exploited that. I exploited you you. And you thought I was trying to help. Who do you think gave Kirzek your address?' He squatted down next to me. 'How's the rehab coming along, Ruby? Still swimming every week?'

Anger clouded my thoughts. The son of a b.i.t.c.h had betrayed me.

'I suppose you gave up Sparks as well?' I said. 'Where's the client care in that, Will?'

'The greater good, McCauley. You know how it is. Speaking of which, who do you think gave him Ella?'

'You motherf.u.c.ker!' I roared, a surge of rage bursting through me. Novak looked pleased. This was exactly what he wanted. Somehow I had to ignore the agitation, not let it affect my judgement. Somehow I had to turn the tables.

'You know what I don't get,' I said. 'How you can look yourself in the mirror and pretend you're actually helping these kids.'

'We are helping them.'

'What, by putting them in p.o.r.n movies, getting them to f.u.c.k each other so you sickos can jerk off over it? You're no better than s.c.r.o.t.es like Vincent Rowe. You're just better at hiding what you do.'

'I was was helping them!' Novak said. 'Those kids come in here more f.u.c.ked up than you could ever imagine. They're hooked on all sorts of drugs, living on the streets with absolutely nothing. But we turn their lives around. We buy them clothes, find them a place to live and we have a sixty per cent success rate at getting them off drugs. Jesus, some of them even get jobs or go back to school. Who else does that? n.o.body has a track record like ours.' helping them!' Novak said. 'Those kids come in here more f.u.c.ked up than you could ever imagine. They're hooked on all sorts of drugs, living on the streets with absolutely nothing. But we turn their lives around. We buy them clothes, find them a place to live and we have a sixty per cent success rate at getting them off drugs. Jesus, some of them even get jobs or go back to school. Who else does that? n.o.body has a track record like ours.'

'And after everything you'd worked for, Dallas was going to bring it all down,' I said, finally realising why he'd done it. 'You couldn't let that happen, so you killed him. Just like that, huh?'

Novak pushed my face into the carpet, opening the wound in my neck even further. 'Don't you get it?' he hissed. 'I didn't want want to do it, but I had no choice. Dallas knew I was in business with them. He knew CARS depended on them, but he wanted to bring them down anyway. I tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn't listen. He said either I could jump on board or go down with them.' to do it, but I had no choice. Dallas knew I was in business with them. He knew CARS depended on them, but he wanted to bring them down anyway. I tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn't listen. He said either I could jump on board or go down with them.'

'Them?' I said. 'You mean The Holy Brethren?'

'Yes!' Novak snapped, tearing off his necklace and throwing it across the room. 'When the laptop went missing I told them I'd get it back and talk Dallas out of whatever he had planned. But he wouldn't budge. He wouldn't even tell me who had the b.l.o.o.d.y thing. That's when I knew I I had to do it.' had to do it.'

I looked up gingerly and saw a broken and beaten man.

'Because if you you didn't do it, someone else would've?' I said. didn't do it, someone else would've?' I said.

Novak sniffed and his lower lip trembled. 'They would've sent Gervas Kirzek to do it and he would've cut him up like he did Sparks and Justin Quinn. I couldn't let that happen. I just couldn't.'

'So you made sure he went peacefully?' I prodded.

'Yes! There was no way I was going to let Kirzek near him. He's a f.u.c.king monster.'

'You're all monsters, Will. Dallas trusted you and chose to tell you about the scam, but you betrayed him and killed him anyway. What makes you so b.l.o.o.d.y different?'

Suddenly Novak began to cry. I tried to wriggle my hands free but they were bound tight.

'Because I loved him, you know?' he spluttered. 'I really loved loved him.' him.'

I closed my eyes, wincing at his use of the word.

'I know what you're thinking,' he said, wiping his face. 'But you're wrong. Years ago society didn't accept that a man could love another man. h.o.m.os.e.xuality was shunned as immoral and wrong, but now everyone's starting to accept it. Some day it will be the same for us and you people will see that we're no different. There's nothing wrong with us. Nothing wrong with what we do.'

'Nothing wrong? You can't be serious.'

'I know you don't understand,' he said, leaning over me, 'but let me tell you something. There's nothing more beautiful and pure than to be in love with a child.'