Chapter 13: A Stressful Night

At 6pm Helena received a call from Fred asking if the fair lass is available for dinner at Luna Rosso, 7pm this time his his treat. Helena agreed, feeling that Fred was really stressed and needed to talk.

Arriving 15 minutes early Helena contacted the cashier and ordered the food for the two of them and paid $300 in advance for their dinner tonight. Taking a table she ordered a coffee. Some 12 minutes later Fred arrived and stood at the door looking at Helena. Walking up to the table his only words were “Wow!” “Wow!” “Wow!”

“Good evening to you too Fred.” replied a smiling Helena.

Licking his lips, readjusting his eyes, smarting up his shirt, flushed. “I must say you are a great vision for these sorrowful eyes, and you look fantastic.” Lifting her hand he kissed it with passion.

Helena asking with smile and a cheeky grin “Would you like to join me for dinner?”

“Yes young maiden It would be of great pleasure.” Sitting down opposite Helena.

The waiter came over with two coffee’s and mentioned to Helena “Ready to proceed?”

“Yes please.” commented Helena without taking her eyes off Fred.

Fred look at the coffee and started to drink, paused “Well do I order or have have you organised?”

“It’s organised. I felt that you needed some pampering after your weekend of work. We can talk about your weekend later, lets enjoy a nice meal and small talk about my beautiful looks!” said Helena. Fred just smiled but his eyes were angry.

Their first course arrived in 5 minutes and they both consumed the oysters quite quickly.

The next course arrived 10 minutes later and it was double the size of the last time they had a meal here. Fred looked and said “I never finished this!”

Helena said “Just eat what you can but I’ll bet you the bill that I will eat all of mine before you?”

Fred took the challenge “Your on!”

After some 10 minutes eating they both finished their plates, Fred just piping Helena. “Ha ha my bill.”

Helena remarked “We are not finished yet.”

15 minutes later another round of coffee and a plate of 7 different Italian cakes arrived. Helena took one of the smaller cakes whilst Fred took the largest. Fred scoffed 4 cakes whilst Helena had 3 and was finished a few minutes before Fred.

Finishing her coffee, Helena remarked “My Bill.”

Fred looked beaten but took the defeat well. “OK this time. Next time I will organise.”

“OK.” replied Helena, “Ready to go for a walk?”

Helena got up from the table and spoke to the cashier, “Thank you for a brilliant meal and complements to the chef. Keep the change as a tip.” Fred joined her and walked out of the restaurant.

“Hang on, how did you pay for the meal?” queried Fred.

“I prepaid, the tone in your voice, when you called, sounded like you need time out, you are tired, just look after me please. So like a good girl I looked after you.”

Fred reached out pulling Helena in front of her and gave her a passionate kiss, holding her, as if she was the last woman on earth. Helena melted.

Walking towards the beach in front of Helena’s unit, they held hand just like young lovers. Taking off her sandals and Fred removing his sneakers and socks, they walked across the soft sand to the waterline. Turning south towards Coolangatta Helena said “OK, no one can hear us over the sound of the ocean. What the hell happened in Brisbane because personnel do not work weekends at the best of times.”

Fred look at Helena realising the truth in the matter started to talk. “Well I did not actually realise what the day was, but when Ian picked me up, he told me I was not going to personnel but to be part of the interview of one of the major senior staff they had arrested. As I opened the can of worms the Deputy Commissioner (DC) insisted I was present at the interviews. After all I was going to get the credit for breaking the crime ring.

We arrived in Brisbane and when I saw the rank of who was arrested I queried Ian about doing the role. Ian told me to think of Palm Beach station and do the job effectively. Entering the interview room with another Inspector, he introduced me to the Superintendent. He laughed at me saying they are getting a boy to do a mans job nowadays. That put me on a positive footing of getting the evidence to hang the bastard. Basically he started to lie to me about things. I knew when he was lying, don’t ask me how I just knew. I pulled out his records books and started to go through them together with his computer entry logs. I was asking questions as to why the computer records did not match his book records. There were lies everywhere. I started on his meetings with fellow officers finding some 15 names that kept re-occurring including 3 from the Gold Coast to which we were aware of.

After some hours of interview I suggested to the Inspector that we bring in the 15 people for questioning to confirm the story he was telling us. He got worried as 3 of them were from C-N-C. This could prove very embarrassing for the force if the force overview people were also involved. We also need the access records for some of the information that the criminals knew and the records for the missing girls investigation. There must be some reason why they were never followed up.

At that point of time I did not know that the DC was in the window room listening. He immediately ordered the arrest of the 12 people and organised a tactical unit to handle the matter. We already had the 3 in custody but this Superintendent did not know that.

With that the inspector paused the meeting (that was for the tape record) and called me out of the room. We left the prisoner alone with a female officer that they knew despised him. Outside I was taken to the window room, there I saw the DC. All he said was that my request was under action and I hope you never have to interview me. You already have him ready for dismissal. As to whether it would get to court would depends on the government. They might not be able to allow the police to go under the scrutiny of the press or allow the knowledge of how far this can of worms has extended. I’m letting you know this in case you feel we are not doing anything. I can promise you that everyone we catch in this ring will not be working for the force any more. We might not get them on this matter but we will get them somehow. I’m about to go to the Commissioner, with a copy of the tape so far and I have a few recommendations for him. He actually reached out and shook my hand saying keep up the good work and nail the bastard.