The Princess and the Cop (3 page)
I gave him my best Robert Taylor look. I think. Or was it the other bloke?
Sir Robert and Lady Osbourne looked at the Commissioner and he nodded at them. They walked quickly out of the room and up the big staircase. Sir Robert had his wife firmly by the arm and, I think, was forcing her along. I noted that for future use, if ever I got the chance.
Commissioner Bertram smiled.
‘And now, glamour boy, your subjects have declined to be interviewed. Leave their house and be front and centre, on your usual spot, tomorrow at 9 am.’ Don’t they all love that front and centre bit?
I knew when I was beaten… for the time being. A strategic withdrawal seemed in order. But I said, ‘Why did you let me in if that’s all that was going to happen and you knew it? It doesn’t make sense, sir.’
He replied, ‘I gave you a chance not to come in. You didn’t take it. Leave, Senior Sergeant! Tomorrow. My office.’
I left and drove home to my scungy little flat, put on some Country and Western music, broke out a number of stubbies of beer during the evening, and sat and thought.
As if solving a murder weren’t hard enough, now I had to solve a Police Commissioner. I had a case of interference against him but I think prosecuting it might be beyond even my super powers. Who did I make the official complaint to? The Commissioner? I think not.
5.
You might think that I approached the coming interview with Commissioner Bertram the next morning with some trepidation.
Far from it! I relished these confrontations and appeared at the appointed hour to seek out the spot on the Commissioner’s carpet where I’d so often stood. It was getting worn.
But all was sweetness and light because the Commissioner had two visitors and he genially invited me to meet and greet them.
In order of importance, one was a lovely blonde lady, power-dressed in black and white and carrying a smart brief-case which I’ll bet she didn’t pay for.
Top-level public servant I guessed. Yes, she was. Her name was Gloria Stenlake from the Department of Foreign Affairs.
The other, less important visitor, in my biased view, was a bloke, introduced as His Royal Highness, the Prince David von Pramberg du Mont, the ruler of the European principality of Bassenburg du Mont. He was a handsome man, about 22 or so. A bit flabby, but he was a prince, after all, so I suppose he didn’t answer to anyone and could go ahead and be as flabby as he liked. His handshake was soft.
Bertram was all excited at a) Miss Stenlake’s undoubted beauty and b) the Prince’s undoubted status. I even scored a cup of coffee out of it, and excellent coffee it was too. Commissioner Bertram did himself well.
Soon we got onto why I was there.
The Prince said, ‘I’d like you to locate my sister, the Princess Tessadonna von Pramberg du Mont. Her Royal Highness has been attending a ladies’ academy here in Brisbane out at Bardon. For years she has had a thing about Australia and eventually persuaded me to allow her to come here to attend the Academy.’
‘A week ago, she disappeared from the Academy. At first we thought a kidnapping but she has taken clothes, all carefully selected. She’s a very strong-minded girl and has probably taken it in her head to go and look at the rest of Australia. She’s always been restless under the constraints of royalty. But she is at risk. Tessa and I are fairly wealthy, Sergeant, and if word of her disappearance gets out, she could be in danger. Will you help us, please?’
I looked at the Commissioner.
‘You’re relieved of all other duties, Corrigan, to attend to this very important matter. You will stay on the case until conclusion.’ With a smirk.
So, he’d won! I was out of his hair, possibly for a long while. Good luck to you, poor Lily!
Bertram said, ‘Corrigan is our top officer. He’ll find her.’ Another smirk.
I asked for a photograph. The Princess was a pretty girl with nice brown hair, lovely green eyes and a nicely shaped face. Or were they blue? She wasn’t smiling in the picture and, in fact, had her mouth clenched shut. She was a fairly plump girl. I had two photos, both colour—a close-up and a full shot. Yep. She was plump and perhaps about average height for a woman. No smile.
‘What’s the matter with her teeth?’ I asked.
The Prince said, ‘Very observant. She’s ashamed of them but they really just need a little work. She dislikes dentists.’
‘Don’t we all?’ I said. ‘Does she have any special friends in Australia that she might have gone to?’
‘No. She knows nobody although she is an outgoing girl. She makes friends easily. She’s just your average, jolly, fat girl.’
I thought, you’re pretty average too, prince old chap, to describe your sister like that.
‘Does she have any strong likes---fascinations or obsessions that might give me a lead?’
‘Horses,’ said the Prince. ‘She loves horses.’
I had enough to work with. Next stop the Ladies’ Academy and the Princess’s friends.
But I had more on my agenda, just to upset the Commissioner.
I turned to Miss Stenlake.
‘I’d like to hear your input, Miss Stenlake. I guess you’re not here for the decorative effect that you undoubtedly have.’
Bertram barked, ‘Corrigan! Apologise!’
Miss Gloria Stenlake said, ‘No need, Commissioner. I took that as a compliment. Yes, Sergeant, we have an interest because a prominent international visitor could be in trouble in our country. We want her located and protected. Commissioner, could Mr. Corrigan stay with her, when he locates her, until she can be returned to safe custody?’
‘Goes without saying, Miss Stenlake. Corrigan, note that!’
‘YESSIR,’ I snapped out, startling everyone in the room, but mostly Bertram.
I stood but didn’t salute anyone, although I felt that Gloria deserved some sort of affectionate recognition.
I turned to the Prince and said, ‘I’ll find her, Prince. Have no worries. But I worry about Miss Stenlake’s comment about returning her to custody. Is she of age and a free citizen of your country? If I find her and she doesn’t want to return to your safe custody, so-called, I might just tell you that she’s safe and leave her to her own wishes. Is that understood?’
I was trying to be reassuring, in a way, but I couldn’t shake a feeling that he really couldn’t care less about his sister.
‘Thank you, Sergeant. And it’s Your Royal Highness when you first address me and sir after that.’
I nodded in acknowledgment.
Prick! I bow to no man.
‘And, on this side, it’s Senior Sergeant and then Senior,’ I said. ‘And you didn’t answer my question.’
He was taken aback. Bertram’s deep-set eyes were bulging and he was a little purple in the countenance. I think he was near to a stroke and that would have been a pity. The gorgeous Gloria had her back turned to us all.
His Royal Highness said, ‘We’re twins. Both 21. Yes, she’s of age, but please just find her so I can talk to her. I’m sure she’ll want to be home. I have news for her.’
I nodded and said, ‘Fair enough.’
I escorted the two visitors out of the office to the elevator. I had to see Don, on the same floor, so walked them to the lift door and called up the elevator. It arrived and the Prince stood aside to allow Gloria to enter first, putting his hand on her back as a gesture of guidance and, perhaps, familiarity and even more perhaps, a signal of ownership to me.
At the last split-second, as the doors were closing, she slipped lithely out through the remaining gap, leaving a bewildered Prince David to travel downstairs on his own.
She gave me a card and said, ‘I take it you have a card to exchange, Senior Sergeant and then Senior?’
I gave her one of mine.
‘There are some additional factors in all of this and I think we should discuss them over a drink at my hotel, the Sofitel, say, at six o’clock? And then perhaps dinner, in my suite? I’ll show you how Canberra public servants live. All the contact info’s there.’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
The elevator returned with a startled and worried Prince David inside.
Gloria gave me a beautiful smile as she departed below with him.
****
‘What additional factors?’ I asked.
‘None,’ she said. ‘What are you like at kissing? Good, I would think.’
So I kissed her and I put a long absence from kissing into it.
After we broke she said, ‘Just as I thought. You’ve been without a woman for a long time, haven’t you, Barton? Let me make it up to you.’
‘Where’s His Royal Pain in the Arseness?’
‘He’s not too bad, really. Can’t adjust to Australians. I told him I was with you tonight. I thought he should know.’
We explored each other, and everything that you and I expected, eventually eventuated.
She was a fantastic and tender lover, but perhaps my view of things was coloured by the absence of female companionship for some time.
‘Oh, I can be tough when I have to be, Bart, but not with someone like you. Do you think we might have a future?’
‘I’d like that,’ I said. ‘But I’m a cop and never knowing where I’ll be next!’
‘Worming out of it, Bart?’
‘Not at all. But you’re in Canberra and I’m everywhere. But, sure, if you’re here and available I’d like us to be together, especially if the venue is like this.’
Did I mention that the dinner was excellent?
Came the dawn, she farewelled me at the door, wearing only a silk gown with the front undone. I slid my arms underneath it and pulled her tight against me.
‘Regular reports, Bart, and perhaps I’ll require personal reports, or written ones, presented in person. I have to see you again, darling, and soon. You?’
‘Yep! I’m hooked. Regular reports.’
I left before we were back in bed again. I wanted to be.
6.
As weary as I was, I wanted to clear this assignment as quickly as possible.
Bertram really hadn’t set me a challenge although he thought he had. As soon as I’d showered, reluctantly washing Gloria’s perfume from me, I was in the office arranging to go to the Brisbane Ladies’ Academy in the suburbs to meet the principal and teachers and Princess Tessadonna’s classmates.
I’m using school terms because I don’t know any better but the Academy was more of a finishing school where all the rich girls learned the niceties of life in the upper crust of society. It was a snob school but the staff and the girls I met weren’t snobs, so I might have to withdraw that comment, Your Honour. They were all friendly and helpful and, significantly, concerned for the Princess.
Everyone was forthcoming about her. Everyone liked her. They said she wasn’t snobby at all and certainly didn’t act like a princess. Or like her brother, I thought.
The Principal, Mrs. Downer said, ‘She’s hugely intelligent with a very high IQ. She’s been to University in Europe and has multiple degrees and was about to do the same here. I suspect that Tessa was bored and left to seek other interests. She’s fanatical about Australia and told us that she had to fight big battles to get here.’
One of the girls said, ‘She’s obsessed with being a jillaroo. She called it jackaroo until we corrected her. She really is wonderful—makes mistakes in English and laughs like hell when we correct her. I’d say that girl has never been offended in her life. She loves life and she loves people. I worry about her out there alone. Please find her quickly, Mr. Corrigan?’
‘I will. She won’t have the skills of other people I’ve looked for. Don’t be concerned but I do agree that she needs to be found very soon. Let’s look at her room.’
Tessa hadn’t made her bed during her night flit, a week ago. Her wardrobe door revealed many pictures of various Australian scenes and a magazine article about jillaroo schools in the West. This was my bag. I’d been reared on a cattle station and had been on the Stock Squad in my first stint in the Police Force before going to Crime. I took the article. Tracking the young girl was now going to be easy.
I reassured everyone once again and departed.
At the office, I contacted all the cab companies in Brisbane, seeking information about any who might have picked up a young woman at Bardon in the early hours or night of Tessa’s disappearance. I left it with their despatchers and one soon rang back.
One of their number had picked up a young girl near the academy, early morn, and had taken her to the Transport Centre in the city. He’d helped her buy a ticket to Charleville and had seen her safely on the coach. She was very new to Australia. The cabbie had thought it all unusual enough to report.
You’re a good man, sir, I thought.
Now I had to go to Charleville. I knew all these towns and areas from my days on the Stock Squad. It would be nice to get back into the bush again and away from murders and, yes, from our Commissioner.
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