Abacus

if Hoskings killed him and brought the head back as a trophy for her?”
    Shaking his head he said, “It still does not add up. Who would take that risk?”
    Randall posed a question. “So is it the case that we believe the head was severed from the body to make identification of the corpse more problematic, or do we believe that the entire body was cut up into segments to make the disposal of the pieces more manageable?” Before anyone could answer, he continued. “Well, if you think it is the latter, so that the body could be more easily disposed of when segmented, well, the Newtown unit may well hold the key. It would be bloody difficult to cart a whole body out of there without being detected, wouldn’t it?” He looked around the room and waited for a response.
    There wa s an extended period of silence while everyone considered what he had just offered. Finally, Georgie G spoke. “Well, I know there is only a remote chance that the Newtown unit holds any evidence at all, but for the sake of being able to exclude it from the investigation, I think we need to look at it.”
    Jesse , with marker in hand, pointed at Michael. “Mick, do we have a current phone number for Cheung’s old unit?”
    Michael reached across the desk and grabbed one of the dozen or so f olders from the sideboard that had slowly been amassed since the start of the investigation. “Sure, I’ll just have a quick look.” Having found the information he needed, he jotted a number on a piece of paper and handed it to Jesse who was now seated by the only phone in the task force office.
    Jesse mad e the call and pushed the hands-free button with his pen, to avoid contact with the germ-ridden receiver. The call was answered by a cheerful young man with a thick Canadian accent. “Hello,” the voice boomed down the phone. “You’ve got Cole, how can I help you?”
    “Cole, my name is Detective James from Ashfield Police, and we are investigating a serious crime at the moment which may have involved the previous tenants at your unit and we need your assistance.”
    “Sure, glad to help where I can.”
    “Listen , Cole, we need to have a look around your unit this afternoon if possible.”
    There was silence. Then a nervous Cole whispered , “This is a joke, right?”
    “No , Cole, it is not,” Jesse said in a serious tone.
    “You are investigating me? But I haven’t done anything wrong, I’m just a student. I only just got here a month ago from Canada.”
    Sensing his alarm, Jesse spoke reassuringly. “No, no, Cole, it has something to do with the previous tenants. I cannot go into it for operational reasons, but we should only need about an hour in there, that’s all.” There was once again a drawn-out silence; it was obvious to all that Cole was not overjoyed at the idea of a team of detectives stomping through his unit. He’d need a sweetener. “Cole, do you like to eat out much?” Jesse asked.
    Cole was silent. Then answered cautiously, “Yes, why?”
    “Well , what is your favourite restaurant then?”
    “There are plenty of good ones around here. I-I-I like Malaysian, probably the Safari in Newtown. I have only been there once but it was pretty good.”
    Sounding mor e like a game show host than a detective, Jesse continued. “Well, Cole, looks like it is your lucky night. To compensate you for the inconvenience, we will give you a hundred bucks to spend as you please. Go to the restaurant, catch a movie, whatever turns you on.”
    “ O-o-okay then, that sounds good.”
    “W e’ll see you at home in about half an hour. Okay?” Jesse said confidently.
    “Al l right, I’ll get ready, see you here.”
    Jesse hung up the phone, got to his feet, and looked at Randall. “Surely he can’t think we are after him. I know we’re good guys and all, but we don’t generally ring up suspects before we do a raid on them, do we?”
    “Well , Jesse, you can be a very intimidating man sometimes,” Leanne joked.
    “That’s not true,” he protested. Randall was taken aback at his serious tone. “I was as nice as pie with him. How else could I have approach it. ‘Listen, Cole, there is a chance a man was shot, his head cut off and dismembered in this very unit in which you sleep. We want to just have a look around for evidence, blood, hair, whatever, pull out your plumbing, knock out a few walls and we will be gone’.”
    Randall was not sure whether Jesse was serious or not.
    “Jesse, how about you, Hobbs and I