Читать книгу Savage Skies - Graham Guy - Страница 14
ОглавлениеChapter 4
Senior Sergeant Ken McLoughlin was sipping coffee as he waited for a meeting with Victorian Police Commissioner Jack Rowland. He had arrived early for his 8:30am appointment. It wasn’t something he’d planned. It had simply turned out that way. But he knew he got an exceptionally good run into Melbourne with the traffic lights that morning. He parked his unmarked V8 in the police compound and made his way up to Jack Rowland’s office. His boss’s PA wasn’t due in till 8:30, so he decided to help himself in the Police Commissioner’s kitchen. He remembered the coffee granules were in the fridge and it wasn’t long before the percolator was bubbling. He checked his watch and made himself comfortable in one of two high-backed and studded leather chairs.
Jack Rowland walked in not long after, grumpy as hell. “Sorry to fuck up your holiday, Mac. It’s just that those pricks from Sydney…”
“Don’t worry about it. It had a happy ending.”
“Yeah.” Jack Rowland replied, not really listening.
Moments later, his PA walked through the door and put her boss’s coffee on his desk. When she left the room Jack Rowland said, “You did a bloody fine job up there, old son. Anyhow, what now? You want to meet the new bloke or get the new XR8 and try your luck?”
McLoughlin shrugged his shoulders.
“No problem. Tony will be here in a moment. I’ve already read him the riot act. But it’s your call. I was only one vote in the appointment, but if he fucks up, tell me while he’s still alive. Not when he’s dead. Deal?”
“Deal.”
Jack Rowland pushed a folder across his desk to McLoughlin “Have a squiz at that.”
McLoughlin glanced at it. “New South Wales?”
“Yeah they let us know about the bad ones…and this one’s a bad one.”
McLoughlin flicked open the folder and read the first few lines detailing name, address, age and occupation No family or known relatives. Partial severance of both breasts. Vagina and internal organs severely mutilated. Weapon: double edged knife. Witnesses suggest assailant’s name could be Packa or Jacka or something similar. McLoughlin closed the folder.
“Dead or alive?”
“Alive. Just,” Jack Rowland told him.
“Some bloody gems around, aren’t there?”
Jack Rowland’s intercom buzzed. “Mr Delarosa’s here, sir,” said his PA.
“Send him in.”
“Yes, sir.”
As the door opened, Commissioner Jack Rowland walked over to greet his Senior Sergeant’s new partner. “Tony,” he called, thrusting out his hand, “meet Senior Sergeant Ken McLoughlin.”
The two shook hands in a professional manner and Jack Rowland told the new man to pull up a chair.
“So,” he began, “as Sammy Davis Junior once sang in a song, ‘This is the moment.’ You get a car park all right?”
“Yes, sir, in the compound.”
It was a very nervous response from Tony Delarosa. He looked over at McLoughlin. “I’m really sorry about Dave Bourke…”
“Yeah OK,” McLoughlin acknowledged. “So tell me? Mildura. You been up there yet?”
“Got back last night…”
“What do you think of the place?”
“It’s a bit hard to say at the moment. I’ve just been driving around looking for a place to live.”
“You find one?”
“Well, yes I have. Ten minutes from the station. Ground floor unit in a block of five. New paint. New carpet. Looks nice. Garage. Backyard. Small, but it’s big enough. I can have it in two weeks.”
“You got family?” McLoughlin asked him.
Senior Constable Delarosa smiled lightly and nodded. “I have a very large family. Lots of aunties and uncles. I think you blokes would say something like, ‘Yeah, typical bloody wog, ask one to dinner and half of Italy turns up.’”
McLoughlin grinned and rose to his feet. “OK, Senior Constable Tony Delarosa, formerly from the Hawthorn police station and now of Mildura. I’m about to take my leave. I’ll be gone for about six weeks. I’ll call you a few days out and meet up with you in Mildura. OK?”
“Yes, of course.”
Jack Rowland rose from behind his desk and held out his hand to the Senior Constable. “Good luck, Tony. I’m sure things are going to work out just fine.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Delarosa shook McLoughlin’s hand. “Sergeant.”
“See you soon.”
After Delarosa left, Jack Rowland looked at McLoughlin. “Well?”
McLoughlin shrugged. “Suck it and see, I guess.”
“OK. Let’s have a look at this brand new schmicked up load of bullshit down in the shed.”
McLoughlin never tired of the smell of a brand new car. And this one was indeed very, very new. One of only two produced specifically by the Ford Motor Company at the request of the Victorian Police Department, it was a purpose-built XR8 with light armour plate fixed to the floor and to the inside of the doors. The back window, windscreen and door windows had been fitted with bullet-proof glass and the suspension had been upgraded and re-enforced to cope with the extra weight. The interior of the vehicle was all leather, mahogany and deep pile carpet and under the bonnet a highly ‘tweaked’ V8 engine offering close to three hundred brake horse power.
McLoughlin loved it. What he particularly enjoyed was being handed the keys to the vehicle by Geoff Polites, the President of the Ford Motor Company in Australia. From the moment Ford received a proposal to develop the two XR8s, Polites had been present at every meeting with police chiefs, heads of government departments and defence officials to make sure everything, down to the smallest detail had been taken care of. It was also in his interest to do so, because if the vehicles were a success, police departments across Australia had indicated their intentions to place orders for similar cars.
McLoughlin was also fascinated with the advanced communications technology that had been installed. A GPS navigation system, voice guidance in seeking a destination, VHF and UHF transmitters and a satellite telephone. In the centre console, full telephone, fax, email and internet facilities became operational purely by attaching his mobile phone and pressing the ON button.
As he wound his way out of Melbourne, he pulled into a parking bay and used his mobile phone. He found Kazumi’s number and dialled it. The phone had hardly rung when it was picked up.
“Oh, Sergeant Ken, I wait for you to call. You say maybe two days. Is everything all right?” she asked exuberantly.
“Kazumi, my deepest and most humble apologies. I was on my way when I got a call and had to make a detour.”
“That OK. But I worry something happen maybe. Has something happened? You not coming now?”
McLoughlin distinctly detected the disappointment in her tone. He smiled. “No. Everything is wonderful. I have a few weeks off and I’ll be there this afternoon.”
“Oh, Sergeant Ken you here today? Kazumi called enthusiastically.
“About four or five hours.”
“Sergeant Ken, that is wonderful. Everybody. They be very happy to see you, but they not here now. Miss Katie, she in Naracoorte. Mr Gabe. It shearing time.”
“Don’t worry about the others, Kazumi,” he interrupted her. “What about you?”
“Me?”
“I need to know if you’ll be happy to see me because I’m really coming down to see you. The others? Sure! I love ‘em to death. But I’m coming to see you.”
Silence fell on the line and McLoughlin heard the tiniest of sniffles. “You hurry, Sergeant Ken, I think I better put some wood on the fire. I hang up now!” she gushed.
McLoughlin heard the phone cut off. What the hell? he thought.
He leaned down, found the blue light, put it on the roof and hit the siren. He was already on the freeway out of Melbourne so he dropped his foot.
“Jeeesus!” he yelled in total exhilaration.
The massive XR8 launched itself down the bitumen. He had never driven anything like it. McLoughlin was a boy all over again with a brand new toy. His mouth was salivating at the vehicle’s firmness, its road holding and its capacity to corner. But what really took his breath away was the vehicle’s braking. He remembered Polites telling him about it, but until he’d experienced it for himself, he had had no idea.
“Three-channel, anti-lock ABS,” Geoff Polites had told him. “Touch the pedal and you’ll swear someone has whacked a couple of bag hooks onto the seat of your pants and pulled you up.”
McLoughlin touched the brakes. “Awesome! Just totally awesome!” he exuded.
* * *
Kazumi was beside herself. Out of the window she spied Katie’s car pulling up the driveway with Emma and Natasha after their shopping spree. Kazumi ran outside towards her. Katie had hardly brought her car to a standstill when Kazumi was at her door.
“Miss Katie. Oh Miss Katie. Sergeant Ken. He here today. Soon!” she gushed.
“I would never have guessed,” she answered knowingly. “You go on inside,” Katie told the girls. “I’m going down to the shed to talk to your father.”
As Katie got near the platform where the bales of wool are loaded onto trucks for transportation, she heard the familiar call, “DUCKS ON THE POND!” It was a warning from the Expert, the shearing shed foreman, that a woman was approaching and for those present to curb their language. Gabe had once told her it was the standardised call for shearing sheds throughout the land. Katie smiled to herself.
“Got a visitor, have we?” Gabe laughed.
Katie opened her arms. “Weeeell! So he’s finally coming?”
“What do you think?” Gabe put in.
“Should be fun.”
“Won’t be too much fun if the bastard pisses off with her.”
Katie looked at her husband. “We can’t expect to keep her forever, dear. But I reckon no matter what happens, however it turns out, she’ll convince him to come back here.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Gabe said, running his fingers through his hair.
“You know he asked me if we had a passport.”
“So where’s he want to go?” Katie raised her eyebrows.
“Don’t know, dear, but I think you better brace yourself. We might have to get on an aeroplane.”
“Yeah! Pig’s arse!” Gabe responded.
Katie put her hand to her husband’s face and giggled. “You will,” she told him. “I’m not too worried about you.”
Gabe knew Katie was right. He just liked to make a bit of noise about it. “You really reckon those two buggers might live here?” he asked.
“You told him once you’d like to build a house for him. If my gut instinct is correct, I’d suggest you start giving the matter a bit of serious thought.”
Gabe shot a glance at his wife. “Really?”
“Trust me. I’m a woman, I know about these things.” Katie smiled as she left his side to return to the house.
* * *
For Kazumi, the next few hours seemed like a week. Finally McLoughlin’s XR8 entered the driveway. Kazumi wanted to race out and meet him. But a sudden rash of shyness overcame her. So it was with much hesitancy she approached his vehicle. Katie and the others watched from inside.
McLoughlin had brought his car to a halt, climbed out and was leaning back against the driver’s side door. He watched Kazumi approach. Slowly she walked towards him, her head bowed, and her eyes too afraid to look up. McLoughlin knew he’d have to make light of the moment.
“Oh hello! I think I’m a little lost. I’m trying to find a Miss Katie’s Place and a little sheila by the name of Kazumi…?”
Kazumi stopped dead in her stride. By now she was only a few metres away.
“Do I get a smile?” he asked softly.
Kazumi’s eyes finally lifted. Tears flowed down her cheeks. “Sergeant Ken…” she tried to begin.
“Come here.” McLoughlin beckoned, opening his arms.
Kazumi lunged forward, throwing her arms around him. “Oh Sergeant Ken, you come like you say,” she cried.
McLoughlin held her in the embrace until he felt her settle a little. Then he held her at arm’s length.
“Hi,” He smiled.
But Kazumi was still too overcome to speak. Finally, “Sergeant Ken, Miss Katie. She say…”
McLoughlin put his hand across her lips. “It’s OK. I’ve already checked with your Miss Katie. She said we could spend some time together.”
Kazumi’s face lit up. “She say that?”
McLoughlin moved his hands to cup her face. “She say that.”
Gabe suddenly burst through the front door. “That’s enough of all that!” he bellowed. “Jesus Christ! Look who’s here!” He grabbed McLoughlin in a bear hug then shook his hand vigorously. “Get a bit way-laid old son?”
McLoughlin tilted his head to the side and gave a slight shrug of one shoulder in a movement that meant, par for the course. “Boss called me into the office in Melbourne,” he said. “Anyway. How the hell are you?” he beamed. “Katie?” Turning from Gabe to give his wife a hug. “And the little scrubbers?” he laughed, reaching out to the children. Over the tops of their heads, he could see Mrs Cropp. She held out her hand to him.
“Lovely to see you again. I only hope you brought some soap and water to wash this boy’s mouth out. I do declare!”
Gabe cut in. “Christ, the poor bugger’s only just got here and already she’s started…”
“I see nothing’s changed with you two?” McLoughlin jested.
“Come in, come in,” Katie said warmly.
The policeman put his arm lightly around Kazumi’s shoulders as everyone made their way inside.
* * *
Gabe didn’t return to the shearing shed that afternoon, preferring instead to let the hired help take care of things. Darkness fell before there was any degree of take-up in the conversations. Kazumi was up and down from her seat all during the period checking on the evening meal. Katie proudly showed off her new dress and the girls helped McLoughlin unload his car. Gabe was particularly impressed with the new XR8 and insisted on being given the once-over of what everything was and how it worked.
Kazumi, fully expecting McLoughlin’s arrival, as delayed as it was, had prepared her larder well in advance. She cooked and served a sumptuous meal and by the time everything had been cleared away it was late into the evening. Mrs Cropp had returned to her unit, the children had gone to bed and Katie told Gabe it was time he let McLoughlin and Kazumi have some time together.
The policeman and the housekeeper retired to the lounge room where they sat and talked until the early hours of the morning. The longer they spent together, the feeling of wanting more of each other became very apparent. Not wanting to rush things, McLoughlin rose from his seat, held Kazumi in his arms and kissed her lightly on the forehead.
“You think you can put up with me for a week or two?” he asked.
She didn’t answer. Instead she tightened her grip around his waist.
The next morning after a late breakfast he said to Kazumi, “How would you like to go for a nice long drive in the country?”
Kazumi’s eyes shot to Katie.
“Well, he wasn’t speaking to me,” Katie said, smiling.
“It have to be after lunch. Mr Gabe will want his dinner soon.”
Katie rose to her feet and pointed towards the front door. “Go!” she told her. “I’ll look after lunch.”
“But, Miss Katie…?”
“Shooo.”
Kazumi quickly went inside and Katie said to McLoughlin, “Where do you think you’ll go?”
“Don’t know really. You say.”
“Padthaway’s nice. Go for a drive through the vineyards.”
“OK. Padthaway.” McLoughlin scanned the skies. “Nice day. Should be good.”
“Shall we expect you for tea or are you going to elope with my housekeeper?”
“Hey, hang on, Katie. This is just a drive in the country,” he protested.
Half an hour later, McLoughlin and Kazumi headed off. He looked over at her and took hold of her hand. “Everything all right?” he asked.
“Oh yes, everything very all right,” she responded.
“So tell me about you?” McLoughlin said, squeezing her hand lightly.
“I not very interesting, Sergeant Ken. You are the interesting one. Tell me about you?”
“You first.”
“Oh, Sergeant Ken!”
“Come on! All I know about you is that you’re a fabulous cook and are very, very polite. You got a boyfriend?”
“Oh nooo, Sergeant Ken, ten years ago in Hong Kong, I had a boyfriend, but he drown in a typhoon.”
“A typhoon?”
“Oh yes. Hong Kong get many typhoons. This one very bad. It sweep through Kowloon.”
McLoughlin saw Kazumi’s eyes drop with sadness. “And your boyfriend drowned?”
“Many people drown, Sergeant Ken.”
“Whatever happened?”
“Two hundred people on a ferry in Hong Kong Harbour when typhoon strike. No warning, Sergeant Ken. Just WHOOSH. In it come. No time to even put up the big black ‘T’ flag that serve as a warning typhoon come. David his name, Sergeant Ken. An Englishman. Civil engineer. He on the ferry when it capsize. So lose him. He good man. He take me to nice places. Say he love me. But at the time I not know if I love him. Later I know I did. He wanted to be lovers. I say no. Not till I know I’m sure.”
“Did you know anyone else who lost their lives at the time?”
Kazumi took a tissue from her handbag and wiped her eyes. McLoughlin could see he’d struck a nerve so he pulled the car into the side of the road and leaned over to her.
“Hey, I’m sorry. Gee I had no idea…”
“You could not know,” she told him, reassuringly. “But I lose my two sisters too.”
“Oh, Jesus!” he cussed, wishing he could withdraw the question.
“Typhoon very strong. It topple many apartments. My two sisters. They upstairs when building collapse on top of them.”
McLoughlin shook his head in dismay. “Good God!”
Kazumi tried to smile. “Long time ago, Sergeant Ken. They say time heal, but I still miss everyone.”
“Yes, I’ll bet you do. And this David man?”
“Nobody as good come along since him, so I not bother.”
“So I have some very big shoes to fill?” McLoughlin asked.
“David. He a good man. But he not make my heart beat like Sergeant Ken.”
McLoughlin looked deeply into her eyes. As he moved his head a little towards her it was all the inducement she needed. Quickly her mouth was upon his and they held together for a very long, lingering kiss. Slowly they drew apart and he told her, “I’m so terribly sorry you have had so much sadness.”
She offered a tiny smile. “Maybe I like Miss Katie. She move on. I try to move on.”
“Yes, she’s a remarkable woman isn’t she?” McLoughlin conceded.
“You think maybe things happen for a reason?” she asked.
“Well, it often gets said doesn’t it?”
“If typhoon not strike, I not meet Mr Paul, Miss Katie’s first man. I only work in this place for one day because of storm damage and Mr Paul, he come in. I cook for him and he tell me he want me to cook for him in Australia. So he bring me to Australia. Then he bring my parents too. They live in Melbourne. Mr Paul. He die. Miss Katie take over club. BOOM. Big fire. Many guns. Mr Gabe, he come. You Sergeant Ken, you come. Now today, I sit here with you.”
“It all does sound very incredible doesn’t it?” he responded, shaking his head. McLoughlin looked around. Where they had pulled over was on the edge of a big reserve. Trees. A small creek. “Would you like to walk for a while?” he asked her.
Kazumi nodded.
McLoughlin held Kazumi’s hand as they wandered off amongst the trees and the bushes. He could see she particularly enjoyed the little creek, so he found an old log and dragged it close to the water’s edge. He bounced it up and down a couple of times to get rid of any ‘nasties’ and sat down next to her.
“I’d like to ask you a question,” he said to her.
Kazumi nodded in reply.
“Are you happy?”
“Oh yes, Sergeant Ken, I happy but empty,” she told him. “Sometimes I feel I flounder about in the uncertainty of my own darkness. I see a word one day. That word is elegy. It is a mournful, musical composition. Sometimes I think my life an elegy. Other days, OK.”
McLoughlin pondered her response, thinking deeply, then, “Is the job OK? I mean are Gabe and Katie good to you?”
“Oh yes, YES, Sergeant Ken. I supposed to be housemaid,” she laughed. “I not housemaid. How can I be housemaid when they say I part of the family. Every birthday they remember. Miss Katie. Sometimes she bring me cup of tea in bed. She tell me anything I want, she pay for over and above what she pay me. Oh Sergeant Ken! That family. There are no words to express my love for them.”
McLoughlin had a gut feeling that was how the young woman would feel. But he enjoyed tremendously hearing it come from her. Again he took her in his arms and kissed her.
“Would you like to go away for a few days?” he put to her, spontaneously.
Kazumi didn’t hesitate. She nodded her head enthusiastically. Concern showed on McLoughlin’s face.
Kazumi looked at him. “You not want me to say yes?” she asked, a puzzled expression following her words.
“Oh, God, yes! Of course I did. But if we go away together, do you want one room or two?”
Kazumi giggled. “Two fires take too much wood,” she told him.
“But don’t you need to be sure?”
“I sure, Sergeant Ken. I sure when I first touch your hand. I think a girl she say, butterflies, they go everywhere.”
McLoughlin laughed. “Well that’s settled. We’ll leave tomorrow.”
“TOMORROW!” She gasped.
“Too soon?”
“Oh not too soon. But Miss Katie…?
McLoughlin put his hands up to her face. “I’ve already checked,” he smiled. “Now. Are we going out through Padthaway?”
“Another day,” she said. “This special moment with special man.”
* * *
After McLoughlin had secured the police vehicle in one of Gabe’s sheds the next morning, he and Kazumi boarded a plane from Mt Gambier to Melbourne. The connection tied in perfectly and after only brief delays, they were on the ground at Brisbane airport. McLoughlin had already arranged a hire car and towards the middle of the afternoon he drove up the entrance of Palazzo Versace, out from Surfers Paradise on Sea World Drive at Main Beach.
With the minimum of fuss their doors were opened and their baggage placed on a trolley and taken into the reception of Australia’s most opulent and luxurious hotel. Built by the family of the late fashion designer Gianni Versace, the $30,000,000 foyer in the complex was highlighted by an enormous antique chandelier that originated from the private home of Gianni. McLoughlin and Kazumi found that just walking into the place was an event in itself.
After checking in, they were taken up to their room. Initially both were overcome by its pure opulence and splendour. Kazumi threw herself into McLoughlin’s arms.
“You have to tell me, Sergeant Ken. Tell me I’m not dreaming!”
McLoughlin looked around the room. “This is the sort of stuff you see on shows like Rich and Famous,” he laughed, still trying to catch his breath. Kazumi felt like she was in fantasyland.
He checked his watch. There were still some daylight hours left. He sat on the end of the bed and held out his hand to her. “Would you like to go out somewhere? Go for a drive?”
She didn’t answer; instead, she dropped down between his knees and looked up at him.
McLoughlin spread his fingers and ran them through Kazumi’s hair, drawing her to him. Kazumi slowly straightened her legs and pushed McLoughlin back onto the bed so she lay directly on top of him, her hand taking a firm hold of him. Their open mouths and searching tongues joined together as one when Kazumi threw off her top and bra and manoeuvred her breast so that it sat entirely upon his lips.
Frantically they tore at each other’s clothing. Again their mouths became one as McLoughlin’s fingers found and entered her. McLoughlin could feel himself beginning to peak, so he slid out from under her and rolled Kazumi onto her back. Ever so gently he began to enter her. Knowing she was only small he sought her reassurance he wasn’t hurting her.
“Oh no, Sergeant Ken, Japanese girl over the moon,” she gushed, “I lift my knees up. You go in…Oh God…right in…Oh God!…YES… YES…YES…more, Sergeant Ken, more.”
McLoughlin reached for the bedhead and drove himself deeply into the woman he loved. In a moment their world became a wheel within a wheel, a circle within a circle, spinning them through the clouds to forever. Finally the moment exploded as the two lovers joyously expired.
McLoughlin had never known such intensity, such totally uninhibited happiness. Spent and exhausted, they lay naked and entwined in each other’s arms across the king sized bed. When he gazed into Kazumi’s eyes, he knew she had just given him her very soul.
* * *
After five days of fine dining, swimming in the warm Pacific Ocean, massages, and making love whenever they could, neither could believe the time could pass so quickly. Soon they were back on an aeroplane winging their way to what Kazumi believed would be Melbourne. But McLoughlin had other plans.
Kazumi looked out the window of the plane. “Sergeant Ken, this not Melbourne. Look! That the Sydney Harbour Bridge.”
“Well I’ll be buggered!” he replied, smiling.
“So that mean we get off in Sydney?”
“Looks that way, doesn’t it?” he said, trying to disguise what he was really up to.
McLoughlin left Kazumi on her own for a few moments while he went to the airlines check-in counter. When he returned he told her there’d be a five-hour wait until the next flight to Melbourne. She looked puzzled.
“Why don’t we pop into town? Would you like to do that?”
“Oh yes! Can go shopping in Sydney?” she asked, her face lighting up.
“Oh we’re going shopping all right,” he told her.
McLoughlin told the taxi driver to take them to Mrs Macquaries Chair off Farm Cove by the Opera House. The taxi driver obliged.
“Wait for us,” he told the cabbie upon arrival. “We might be a few minutes.”
McLoughlin took hold of Kazumi’s hand as they wandered off to get a full view of Sydney Harbour. It was a magnificent day. An ocean liner was making its way into Circular Quay. There were scores of yachts in full sail criss-crossing in all directions. Small boats. Bigger boats. Ferries. McLoughlin sat down with Kazumi on a park bench and put an arm around her shoulder.
“You like all this?” he asked her, avoiding what he knew was the inevitable question.
Her response was to hug the top of his leg. “You spoil me terribly, Sergeant Ken. I not be any good when I go back to Miss Katie.”
“How would you react if I asked if you’d like to grow old with me?” he asked, the fear of rejection in his tone.
Kazumi’s eyes shot straight into McLoughlin’s. “You… you say…we should get married?”
McLoughlin nodded slightly, biting on his bottom lip.
“But Sergeant Ken, it’s just been five days…”
“It’s been forever,” he told her.
“Would you stay with me forever?”
“Until there’s no more hills to climb, or a poet can no longer rhyme,” he answered.
Kazumi threw her arms around his neck. “OH YES! YES! Sergeant Ken. One hundred times YES!”
Oblivious to the onlookers who witnessed the moment, McLoughlin took Kazumi in his arms and kissed her for a very long time. Returning to the taxi he told the driver.
“Cartiers in the city, mate.”
Arriving at the front of the luxurious jewellery store, a gloved hand held the door open for them to enter. An hour later Kazumi was walking on air as she left the shop wearing a solitaire blue diamond on a white gold band. McLoughlin checked his watch. He was trying to remain calm though his gut was in turmoil as his emotions ran wild.
“Still a couple of hours before we have to go to the airport…”
But he could tell Kazumi wasn’t listening to him. Instead her eyes were focussed on the blue diamond and a sign that read Hilton Hotel.
“I want you now, Sergeant Ken. Very, very much,” she purred. “You think airport send bags and we stay here tonight?”
McLoughlin didn’t answer her. Instead, he grabbed his mobile phone, rearranged the flight and had their bags sent into the Hilton.
Forty minutes later they lay exhausted in each other’s arms.
* * *
Katie and the girls were waiting at the Mount Gambier airport to greet them. The door to the aircraft had hardly opened when Kazumi ran to greet them, sheer joy and adulation upon her face.
“Miss Katie. MISS KATIE!” she called.
“Well look at you!” she said. Then Katie saw the ring and threw her arms around her. “Kazumi, that’s wonderful. I’m so excited for you.”
McLoughlin joined the group. Katie looked at him. “You can’t believe how happy this makes me,” she said. “Gabe will be rapt.” Katie reached for Kazumi’s hand to get a closer look at the ring. She threw her head back in awe. “Oh, my God! A blue diamond!”
Katie’s girls, Emma and Natasha were all smiles. Emma “oohed” and “aahed” over the ring, but Natasha was simply overjoyed to see that Kazumi was back home.
“So now what?” Katie asked as they headed back to the farm.
“Oh, I’ll stay around for a few days then take Kazumi up to Mildura for a while. Has she got a leave pass?”
Katie grinned. “She’s got a leave pass. So?” Katie continued, “wedding bells? Do I hear wedding bells?”
McLoughlin looked at Kazumi. “I haven’t even told her yet. But yes, in London, in three months.”
Kazumi was in shock. “Sergeant Ken! London?”
McLoughlin nodded. “At the Ritz.”
Katie shook her head in dismay. “My God! The Ritz?”
“Well I did ask you if you had a passport.”
“Yes you did. I didn’t then. But we all certainly do now.”
“You’ve fixed it all up already?”
Katie nodded and said she’d suspected he’d spring something like this.
* * *
McLoughlin stayed at Katie’s Place for another week. Everybody was deliriously happy for the two of them and after many hours of discussion some decisions were made. McLoughlin said he’d give serious consideration to quitting his job upon returning from London and living in a home Gabe and Katie insisted on building for him on the farm. McLoughlin was hesitant about making such a commitment. Gabe and Katie also told him they had promised themselves one day they would do that to show their appreciation to him for what he’d done for them in the past.
“Not only that,” Gabe added, “Katie and I have had the papers drawn up so that that ten acre paddock across from the wool shed has already been put into your name. Here’s the title deed,” he told him, taking it from an envelope and handing it to him. “You’ve access to the main road up there. We’ll get a bulldozer in and cut a road for you. If you’re not going to London for three months, then we’ll have the place just about up for you by then. And Kazumi? You can still work here if you want to.”
Kazumi and McLoughlin sat in the Caplin kitchen dumbstruck.
“We know you’ve got a little place in Mildura. Keep that. Rent it out. But we’d love to have you here.”
McLoughlin was deep in thought. “Mate, give us six months to think about it. Let’s do the married thing. We’ll go up and live in Mildura for a while then Kazumi and I will come back here one weekend and we’ll talk about it some more.”
“Take all the time you need. We’re not going anywhere… apart from bloody London, apparently. Big thing on your part. We know that. But if you want to do it, just pick up the phone.”
McLoughlin was too overcome to speak further. The generosity being shown towards him was, for the moment, literally turning his stomach into a knot. He left the house and walked outside. Kazumi joined him. A short distance from the house he turned to his intended bride.
“What do you think?”
She buried her head into his chest. “I’m your woman now,” she answered softly. “I go along with what you say.”
“No,” he told her. “This is about us. It’s what you want too…”
“I want what you want, Sergeant Ken. I live anywhere just as long as I can be with you and make you happy. You want my body? You have my body anytime. You want my soul? You have my soul. You want my touch? You have all of my touch…”
“Ssssh,” he told her. “I want you as my best friend. My lover. My soulmate. I want to laugh with you and if need be, cry with you. I want to love you and for you to love me. I don’t even want to piss and know you’re more than five feet away.”
“Sergeant Ken, I be with you forever.”
“What about living here?”
“You say six months. OK, six months we talk again.”
“You want to come back to Mildura with me for a week or two?”
She turned to Katie. “That OK, Miss Katie…?”
“I’ve already talked to her about that. There’s a young woman in town who’ll fill in for you when you’re not here.”
“OK, I go to Mildura.” Then Kazumi’s eyes opened widely as she looked up at him. “And London in three months?”
“London in three months.”
* * *
McLoughlin rang his boss in Mildura, Inspector John Purseley, and the Police Commissioner in Melbourne to tell them he’d be returning from his holidays earlier than expected but would need two weeks off to go to London and get married in three months’ time. Neither had a problem with any of it.
“So we’ll see you back here next Monday week?” Purseley confirmed.
“Indeed.”
Four days later, McLoughlin and Kazumi left Katie’s Place to drive to Mildura. “I have special question, Sergeant Ken,” she said to him a short time after they’d gotten underway. “You never tell me anything about you. I don’t know if you’ve ever been married. Family. You know. Brothers, sisters, parents?”
McLoughlin laughed. “No. No skeletons in the cupboard. My life has been pretty much a ‘come-day, go-day’ sort of existence. No wives. A girlfriend here and there, but nothing too serious. I’ve just been a policeman all my working life. All my friends, well most of them anyway, have been divorced because this job isn’t conducive to happy marriages. The only reason I reckon we can make it is my time is nearly up and you won’t have to be a policeman’s wife for very long. But apart from that, my parents are both gone. My mum died of a stroke when I was forty. And ten years later my father died the same way. I had a brother, no sisters. He was my twin. Harold. Big bugger too. When he walked through a door he darkened the room. He was killed in Vietnam one week after his nineteenth birthday. His number came out of the barrel and mine didn’t. I wanted to join up but my mother said, ‘No Way!’ When we got word Harold had stepped on a mine, Jesus! It damn near killed her. Pop too! All of us, really. Harold and I were really close. Did all the boy-stuff. Chased girls, fooled around with old cars. Probably drank too much beer.” He gave a slight snigger. “Actually, we did drink too much beer. Went fishing mostly. It took a long time to get over that. And you know, I don’t think you ever really do,” he told her, not taking his eyes off the road.
“So you had a typhoon in your life too?” she replied sadly.
McLoughlin forced a smile. “Yes, darling girl…I had a typhoon in my life too.”
