The Gilded Madonna Garrick Jones (ebook reader online .txt) 📖

extremely unlikely. There’ve been plenty of couples, one who kidnaps, the other who tortures and murders the men or women they’ve taken. But like this? Children disappearing and then killings out in the open, sexually motivated and violent? It just doesn’t make sense. I still think the murderer wanted to start killing again, although, after three years of non-activity, I’ve still no idea why. Then he saw the Bishop children’s abduction was unsolved, knew I’d probably get involved in the murder case again because it was mine originally. Or maybe he didn’t even know I wasn’t a cop anymore and decided to get me out of the way, side-tracked and ineffectual, chasing after spirits, mediums, and wild geese?”

“Maybe, Smith. But I’m still inclined to think there’s something personal in it now your card has been found in the pocket of the latest victim. It’s like you told me your friend Harry Jones said, the killer’s taunting you.”

“That’s the least favourite of my ‘druthers’, Dioli. But there’s some merit in what he said.”

“So this plan of yours, you said you wanted to pass by me?”

“It’s your case, Detective Sergeant, but I discussed it briefly with D.I. Fox, who’ll be your new boss in a few weeks, and he said it was up to you. He also said he’d back you one hundred percent if you think what I have to say is a good idea.”

“Okay, shoot.”

“We need to get all the public conveniences in the Waverley and Randwick areas shut down after sundown for a fortnight. Post up notices saying they’re under repair or renovation or something. Maybe even get something in the local papers as a public announcement. The killer’s due to strike again, and if he murders around New Year, we won’t be prepared. We need another week.”

“To do what?”

“To assemble a task force of undercover men who don’t look like cops, to act as lures.”

“That’s blasted dangerous, Smith.”

“Yes, I know. But, if we get the council to open maybe two lavatories at the end of a fourteen-day period, we only need one or two decoys at each one, and a half-a-dozen cops hiding nearby. Now we’ve got a sketch of the killer, we just need some signal from whoever it is he lures into the toilet, so we can pounce before he strikes.”

“There’s something more though you’re not saying. I can hear it in your voice.”

“Here’s where it gets a bit awkward. The witness told me the killer likes to inspect the goods first, so …”

Dioli grinned. It was something I didn’t expect. “So, somehow we have to get a few of Sydney’s finest to allow some pervert to play with their dicks in the dark?”

His grin was infectious. I began to chuckle. “We could offer them danger money.”

Our mutual amusement turned into laughter.

“Who’s going to hold auditions?” he managed to say, before we both ended up almost helpless with laughter. It was stupendously inappropriate, but all cops shared the same black sense of humour.

“All right,” he said, once he’d calmed, wiping his eyes. “Once I get out we can talk it through in detail. It’s not a bad idea, but I’d have to run it past the chief super first.”

“Of course. As for the men we’d use for entrapment, I was going to suggest a better idea than using serving police officers—a few of my ex-army buddies. Men who are trained in self-defence and hand-to-hand combat. There’s no point exposing untrained members of the police force to personal danger. The blokes I’m thinking of can look after themselves in any situation. Your men would be in charge of each scene, of course.”

“Under those circumstances, I think bringing in some outsiders would be prudent.”

“I don’t want any kudos,” I said, as I noticed he’d begun to look a little uncomfortable. The more I got to know him, the easier he was becoming to read. He didn’t like not being in control. “This can be your idea when you pass it up the line. I’m just the consultant, remember, this isn’t my case—it’s yours.”

“Dr. Samson said I could go home on Saturday. How does Saturday afternoon suit you to get together to work out some details?”

“Sorry, I’ll be away over the new year, and before you say anything, that’s not the reason I think the toilets should be closed then. It’s nothing to do with me being around or not being around. It’s to make the murderer more desperate, more liable to take chances and make mistakes when we do re-open them. He’ll have missed his regular ‘fix’ and his need to kill and to have sex will be stronger than his caution. I’ll be back on the second of January. Perhaps we could meet late morning?”

“All right. But as I’m laid up here for another day or two, who will contact the council and make arrangements for the toilets to be closed?”

“Your new D.I. of course.”

“What’s he like? Fox, I mean.”

“Brendan? Once of the nicest but toughest blokes you’ll be lucky to ever know. We go way back. Most men of a similar age who served during the war and who live in the same area or work in the same types of employment get to know each other. He worked as a translator for us in North Africa.”

“A translator?”

“Yes, his parents are Egyptian, so he speaks not only Arabic but Berber and French too.”

“You?”

“Me? Italian, because of my time in the camps, a smattering of other European languages that I learned while I was there—”

“Camps? You were a …?”

“Prisoner of war, yes, Mark. Three years. Italians first and then Germans.”

“I had no idea.”

“I thought you did your homework on me?”

“Well, only as far as your policing goes. Was it …?”

“Look, let’s just say I’ve seen your injuries, I know how you came to get them, and I suffered just as bad, sometimes worse, nearly every day of those three years. I can understand you might not want to feel we have something in common, other than policing,