Abacus

the form of a recipe for a delicious chocolate sponge cake, provided by his neighbours, Bill and Bev. Having heard nothing from management, he followed up the next month with another dessert, this time opting for a lovely lemon torte. On the fifth month he finished with a main meal of a delicious lamb shank with a red wine sauce.
    “My word , you are doing some cooking these days,” Bev had commented after handing him the lamb shank recipe. “Have you got a new girlfriend, Bob?” she had asked innocently.
    Smiling at her, he said, “No, Bev, I’ve just decided to get a little more adventurous with my cooking these days, that’s all.”
    Having ru n out of worthy recipes, he finally came clean at the next meeting. Standing up from his chair with arms outstretched on the table he spoke. “Ladies and Gentleman, who thinks these monthly reports are worthwhile?” There was silence in the room. “The reason why I ask you is that I don’t think they are,” he said, looking at the other supervisors and upper management. “They’re not being read, they’re not being acted upon and they are taking up time we can’t afford to waste.” He pulled the recipes out of a manila folder and carefully laid them out in front of him. “To prove a point I have been submitting an array of delicious recipes for my monthly returns. I started on March’s Swiss chocolate sponge cake…which was to die for. Then there was April’s tangy lemon torte with zest, amazing. And finally, who could forget May’s main of delicious lamb shank with basil and red wine sauce. These recipes were all submitted with absolutely no response at all.”
    He looked around the table at some embarrassed faces. Some looked down as they fiddled with their pens, some nervously leant back in their seats with hands behind their heads, and others who looked just plain irritated. He could see Claire from administration seated at the corner of the desk, smiling as she scribbled down the minutes of the meeting.
    Randall’s tone turned serious. “Look, we are tremendously busy, I don’t mind doing my fair share as a supervisor, but please do not ask me to do pointless reports which have no relevance. Now, if you will all excuse me, I have an important interview to conduct.” He pushed his chair in and walked from the room. From that point, his relationship with management was icy, to say the least.
    * * *
    Later that afternoon Randall wearily gathered up his jacket and bag, and then turned off the light to his office. As he walked through the darkened office and past the station area, Georgie G who was using a computer in the radio room stopped him. “Boss, you got a sec?”
    Randall’s head dropped as he froze on the spot. “Yeah, mate, go ahead, but please make it good news.”
    “Well , it is good and bad.”
    “Okay ,” Randall said cautiously.
    “ Mr. Kel Digby, our home invader cum rapist, has come up with a DNA match for another similar offence about a month after our one. He is wanted, and with the strong DNA evidence on this one, he won’t walk.”
    Randall smiled. “Good, good, maybe there is a God.”
    “Bad news is, we can’t find him.”
    Randall took on a greater interest. “Go on, go on,” he urged.
    “We’ve been to his unit, th e neighbours hadn’t seen him. I broke in today and all his gear is there; his clothes, furniture, social security cards. Even his mobile phone was on charge. He has disappeared.”
    A blasé Randall said, “Mate, that is an absolute tragedy.”
    Georgie G crossed his fingers. “If he is dead, it will save me a shitload of paperwork and court time.”
    “ Keep me up to date, will you? I’ve gotta go now.”

CHAPTER 14 - MAULED BAIT

    It was two days since he had set Irish the new assignment and Randall was itching to find out how it was progressing. Walking out of the detectives’ office, he continued through the main police station and into the car park where he knew he would have privacy to make the call.
    “Hi , Detective,” Irish answered sluggishly.
    “Irish, what’s be en happening? Do you have good news?”
    “Su re do, but I’ve been real crook. I almost died, you know.”
    “What do you mean? ” Randall asked, trying to piece together what he meant. He was desperate to find out what had happened, but needed to discuss it in person. “I’ll meet you in twenty minutes, in the park off the Hume Highway. You can tell me about it then. Okay?”
    “ Sure, I’ll see you