Beyond The Blue

Getting up the next morning, Connor is laying there naked in bed with his ass on show as I enjoy the view right now of his lightly furry ass that is on show as he stays there snoring. I love the hair on his body but his smooth ass was one of the most amazing things about him.

Having a shower, I’m standing there just reflecting on things at the moment trying not to disturb Connor as I get dressed and head downstairs to get breakfast. Sitting there my phone buzzes and Dad’s name comes up which surprises me at this time of the morning.

Me: “Hey Dad, what’s up for you to ring me at this time of the morning?” I ask as Dad never calls without a reason especially not before the afternoon hours of the day.

Dad: “Morning Trent, have you heard the news yet?” 

Me: “What news?”

I ask as there isn’t really anything to do with the family that I don’t know about yet which means that this has to be work-related.

Dad: “Oh, I got an email come through late last night that the first court appearance is today for Joe and the group”

Me: “Should we have heard something about it because Connor hasn’t mentioned anything to me unless he’s been hiding it?”

Dad: “Probably not at this stage, but sometimes the lawyers will give advanced notice to the witnesses to know them of what’s going on, especially with Connor”

Me: “Ah right, is there anything we need to do right now because there is going to be a lot of coverage right?”

Dad: “Yeah, the best thing will be just to keep an eye on him and keep his mind busy because there’s a lot of focus on this”

Me: “So what actually happens with Connor? Does he have to just give all his evidence at once or will he need to do it again and again”

Dad: “Don’t know, it’ll all depend on the judge and the lawyers on what they agree to and the process which could be absolutely anything”

Me: “Ah ok then, well just keep me updated and I’ll let Connor know what’s going on” 

I hang up with Dad not sure whether I should be telling him all the details or not but I just let it slide for a little while as Connor is still up in bed asleep when I go to work. Driving to work, I’m still not sure what to do and I can’t talk to anyone about it because it’s such a unique situation and I’m sort of damned if I talk to someone about it and tell Connor and then damned if I don’t.

Pulling up at work, I’m early as I head up to see Ange just to get the advice I need about the situation and about what’s happening because I know she will probably be a bit more honest about things rather than Dad taking the by-the-book approach. I knock on the door as she calls to come in and I head in there.

“Morning Trent, I’ve only got a few minutes because I’m supposed to be in a Regional Taskforce meeting with the Minister for Police at 9:30,” she says as she’s scrambling around trying to get her stuff ready in a sea of chaos. “I just wanted to get your advice on something that was all but it can wait”.

Ange stops me “I know this is about dealing with Connor today because your Dad rang me telling me that it was the first court appearances today,” she says as I’m not surprised he rang her as well. “I don’t know what advice I can give you that he didn’t but you know Connor better than anyone and from what I’ve gotten to know is that there isn’t a situation that perturbs him too much ok?” she says as I nod.

“Yeah, but he’s in a good place right now and with the gym project just starting I don’t want to break his enthusiasm,” I say as Ange looks at me. “Trent, Connor has an ambition that is unrivalled in the world, he’s always on the go and this whole situation isn’t going to push him down, it’s going to make him want to prove to the world that it hasn’t defeated him and that they aren’t winning,” she says as I nod before she has to head out and I head downstairs.

Sitting down in the garden, I’m surprised when the doors open and Branko comes out as I look at my watch “You’re actually early?” I say laughing as he rolls his eyes. “Why does everybody keep saying that with such surprise,” he says as I shake my head and in the two days he’s always been cutting it fine.

“Because you’ve got here like 10 minutes before you needed to be in the briefing room both shifts,” I say as he laughs and nods. “Yeah ok, not my fault I got lost” I roll my eyes as he says that and know that he just doesn’t work well with a set schedule.

Branko comes and sits next to me “So what are we doing today?” he asks as I shrug not sure what’s happening. “Don’t know, there’s a strong chance that you could be with someone else today so you’re going to have to control yourself a lot more than you are with me” I say to him as he nods although I feel for whoever is going to get him.

“Yeah I will,” he says almost like I’m talking to Logan about behaving at home “Remember, I’m tolerant and some of us are cool, but if you get stuck with someone that’s not then they could make it a long shift for you,” I say almost knowing what is going to happen.

Sitting there we are just talking as he looks at me “What’s the matter with you? You’re like Ethan when something is bothering him, you fiddle with your hands” he says as I realise what I’m doing and look at him.

“It’s nothing really, just stuff going on with Connor and the stuff here,” I say not really giving Branko a committed answer and he understands what I mean. “Hope it’s all ok between you two,” he says as I nod “Why don’t you talk to Steph?” he says which I would be but she’s not in today.

Shaking my head “I would but she’s not on today, her son has the dentist this morning and Brad is working” I say as he nods and we get called into the briefing room for the update and today’s assignments.

We get our briefings today and I was right when I said to Branko that things would change because he is put with someone who has the personality of a brick wall while I’m with Henry today and all the size of him. “So what are we doing today cause I got confused about all the instructions?” he says as I’m excited to be working with Henry a lot today.

“Well I’m not exactly sure either but I think with the political visit we’ve just got to be on standby to make sure nothing happens around the exclusion zone and be called in if anything happens there,” I say as I think that is the gist of what is happening with the overseas visit.

Henry nods “Ah gotcha so we just sit and wait to see if anything happens for 8 hours,” he says as I realise how boring it sounds. “Who decides these jobs for the day or is it just random?” his question makes me shrug because I actually have no idea who is the one deciding what we are doing given that others are on the beat and assisting in things.

“Think it’s just who is best suited really, probably thinking that if anything does happen outside the main perimeter then we have the ability and experience to handle it because even though you’re only new as a cop you’ve got the experience through being in the navy” he nods as I say that as I realise this might not be that exciting.

We drive to the command post to get our directives which are essentially just to monitor the roadblock down Elliott Street and ensure that only local residents are let in and out and that nobody tries to adjust the roadblock. Henry and I park the car where we are supposed to and there is honestly nothing happening out here but it’s all part of the job sometimes.

Sitting there quietly, there are calls of robberies, assaults and other incidents coming over the radio and I can tell Henry is getting itchy toes about having to sit here and I know that because I want to be dealing with it as well. “So tell me about your family properly,” I ask Henry as he smiles.

“Well there’s four of us at home, Tash and I have been married for 6 years and we’ve got the twins Felix and Jackson at home which is amazing, they’re nearly 3,” Henry tells me about his family. “What about you? I know you’re engaged to Connor but any kids or anything else?” Henry asks me.

“Nah just happy being the favourite uncle to my nieces and nephews, got four of them which keep me busy although Connor does have a son who lives in Grantham with his mother so there’s that,” I say just realising that once we’re married it would technically make me Chase’s step-dad although it probably wouldn’t be like that.

Sitting in the car for a bit, Henry stretches his legs as I get out of the car as well to join him “So what made you give up being in the Navy to come to be a cop?” I ask curiously about why Henry would want to make the change.

“I was overseas on deployment in the Middle East when the twins were born and they were already close to a year old when I got back and I’d missed so much, that I didn’t really want them to have the upbringing that I had because my Dad was in the Navy as well and growing up we moved all over the place for his postings and was away so often that I didn’t want that for my family,” he says as I nod and can understand that because we did move once for Dad’s postings when we had to move to the bush for a while but that quickly ended when he got a promotion back in the city.

Sitting back in the car my phone rings again as I look at the time and see that it’s 11:30 and think that it is probably Connor but when I look it’s Dad ringing me again which surprises me.

Me: “Hey Dad, everything ok ?”

Dad: “Well yes and no I suppose"

Me: “That doesn’t sound good, what’s going on?”

Dad: “I don’t know who appeared first this morning but heard from a little bird that there was an application to dismiss the charges against the whole group”

Me: “But isn’t it close enough to an open and shut case against them?”

Dad: “Well you’d think so but they are claiming that it’s an agenda against them from certain groups and that they don’t think they can get a fair trial given that it is the people that want them out and blah blah blah”

Me: “That’s bullshit, they did it and the investigation was done well in advance and they all pretty much have blemishes on their records right”

Dad: “Yep, but the judge has said that he is willing to hear their application to dismiss which doesn’t mean anything necessarily but it’s not looking open and shut as we would have liked and it means that they aren’t going to plead guilty either”

I let out a long groan as Henry pokes his head into the car as he hears me on the phone to Dad “Hey you? Oh sorry didn’t realise, I’m just going across to the toilets” he says as Dad keeps talking.

Dad: “Are you at work? Why are you talking to me then?”

Me: “Well yeah, but we’re on side street roadblock patrol for the visit of the Chinese Premier and you know how tight security has to be”

Dad: “Don’t remind me of doing that, so who was that voice? That the famous Branko?”

Me: “Nah, he’s with someone else today, that’s Henry one of the other new recruits who seems pretty cool and everything… How did you know about Branko?”

Dad: “Everybody knows about him because he was the wild child of the academy, never did anything illegal or wrong, but was just the one everyone got warned about and Ange was telling me about him the other day at lunch. Also meant to ask, how did Connor take the news this morning?”

Me: “He doesn’t know… well at least I didn’t tell him because when I left he was still asleep and I didn’t want to disturb him”

Dad: “Ok then, well I better let you work and not have personal phone calls during your shift”

Me: “Well is it personal? Given that I’m speaking to the chief of the PIU and a Superintendent?”

Dad: “Goodbye Trent”

I get off the phone with Dad as Henry gets back in the car with two sausage rolls with sauce and a bottle of water each. “I was hungry as well and thought you might want something,” he says as I smile and take a much-needed bite.

“Was everything alright then? Sounded like a pretty serious conversation then” he says to me as I nod not sure about how much I’m allowed to share about it but I know that I need to. “Yeah, some of the guys involved in the robbery and shooting are facing court today so Dad was just filling me in with what he knew so far so I could let Connor know” Henry nods and appreciates the limits that I can talk about things as I still don’t know whether I should tell Connor.

“Hey, do you mind waiting here if I call Connor for a minute to fill him in at all?” I ask as Henry nods telling me it’s fine, especially since we’re not going to be moving for a while.

Connor: “Hey sexy, you were gone early this morning”

Me: “Actually I was running late, you were just so exhausted after last night’s little bit of fun”

Connor: “Ok yeah that’s true, so is everything going alright today?”

Me: “Yes and no, I mean today is absolutely boring as bat shit but there’s something that I need to tell you about”

Connor: “Your tone of voice has me worried Trent, what’s going on?”

Me: “Did Dad or anybody ring you or talk to you this morning or the past few days about Joe and the whole process there”

Connor: “Nah, haven’t heard a thing about it why has something happened?”

Me: “Dad rang me this morning and just then to tell me that they all had their first court appearances today and well the Judge is going to hear their arguments to dismiss the case”

Connor: “WTF? But they were caught red-handed literally in the bank”

Me: “I know, Dad told me the Judge agreeing to hear their dismissal application likely means that they are going to plead not guilty and will mean a whole trial”

Connor: “Fucking scum, they couldn’t just admit what they did was wrong and let me guess they’ll turn it round and make themselves the victims claiming their conservative views were punished” 

I stand there silent as Connor picks up on my silence instantly knowing that is what their argument is for the dismissal and why they shouldn’t have to face the music like everybody wants them to.

Connor: “Oh my god, they’re playing the victims aren’t they? I mean they fucking murdered Jamie and shot at me and stopped me from doing the job that I loved to do and chances are I can’t ever go back to it at the level I wanted”

Me: “Calm down, I know and we all know what happened and everything, but we just need to let the system work because we have the best team on it you know with Dad, Reid and the amazing prosecutions team… and anyway they can’t get out of the armed robbery charges at the very least and they are minimum 12-year sentences”

Connor: “Yeah I know Trent, I just don’t know what I’d do if they were back out on the streets for anything you know”

Me: “Just remember with the best working on it, they won’t be out on the streets for a very long time ok?”

Connor: “Alright, well I’ll talk to you tonight unless anything changes this afternoon ok?”

I hang up from talking to Connor and sit in the car with Henry eating our Sausage roll as nobody wants to go down the normally busy side street. “Everything ok? I assume that has to do with the court and what happened to Connor? Not that I’m meaning to pry”

“Yeah, just had to fill him in on what Dad told me and check in on him if he had heard anything because for as much as he tells me he is ok, some days are tougher than others because he misses working as a cop and seeing everyone daily especially Jamie” Henry nods along with me understanding.

It’s close enough to 3:00 when we get a radio call “JN 1 to Car JN42” I nod for Henry to take the call just to see how he’s going with radio calls. “JN 792 receiving,” Henry says like a professional although suppose being in the Navy he’s probably taken radio calls before.

“Reports of an incident at 77 Elliott Street, informant is a Mr Galea, as you’re the nearest unit please attend,” the dispatcher says as we move the car down the street. Henry gets out of the car as I find a spot to park the car.

“Whoa… whoa… what’s going on here,” Henry says as there is a big argument going on in the street between two people that is turning nasty and already one of the men has a swollen lip and a bloody nose. “This fucking old… has been coming up to my girlfriend and abusing her about the way she parks her car in our allocated parking space and then harassing me about everything little thing that he doesn’t like,” the guy says as he is getting more and more agitated.

“Sir, what’s your name?” Henry asks as he is trying to defuse the situation as he takes the younger man and I look after the old man who just wants to keep yelling abuse at the others. “Him and his slut have made this neighbourhood an absolute nightmare to live in and when I was trying to have a nap because I’m elderly and my health isn’t the best he wants to play some radio loud as hell so it comes right through my wall,” he says as I try to calm the situation down.

I follow the old man into the house which is an old terrace townhouse not too different to what I live in despite being on the other side of the city and built around the same time. “They come in and out at all hours of the night and there are so many women and men that turn up and the noises that come out of there are revolting,” he says as he pulls out a list of as I can’t get a word in either way with him.

“Mr Galea? Are you alright with your nose and lip?” I ask as he just waves me off “Here is today, 10:07 pm, sexual noises loud as hell, a woman, not his wife or girlfriend there leaving around an hour later. Lunchtime another person turns up this time with a baby, female partner not home” I stop Mr Galea.

“Mr Galea, why don’t you put some ice on your lip and I’ll have a look through the list that you wrote for me because that way I can figure out what happened whilst you calm down and try to relax,” I say as I read through the list and it’s like the most detailed diary of the comings and goings of the street that I’ve ever seen and quickly realise that he is a bit of an old busybody that wants life the good old way rather than modern. “Do you mind if I take this outside and talk to my colleague and your neighbour to get his side of the story because there always seems to be a relevant explanation?” I say as I need to get out of there.

Getting out of the house it’s only a matter of seconds before I’m followed out and it’s all kicking off again “Why haven’t you arrested him yet? Look at what he did to me, he pushed me down those stairs, I’m an old man” he says as I look at Henry and roll my eyes.

“Mr Galea, go back inside the house and I will get a full statement from you very shortly with my colleague Probationary Constable Beaumont,” I say which for some reason gets him more annoyed after I told him that”.

“Is that all I am good for? An 82-year-old pensioner and war veteran that all you can send to me is someone who has only been in the job for a few days” he says as I can understand why the neighbour is snapping at him. “Henry, can you go in and talk to Mr Galea because he might calm down once you tell him you were in the Navy,” I say trying to think on my feet as I head back to the car for some relative peace and quiet for a moment.

Reading through the list and each day seems to be more than a page worth of details about all different things for not just the house next door but the houses across the road as well with every delivery, visitor and even what time the residents come home.

“JN 476 to JN 1” I radio through to see if I can get some more information “Can I get any more information on the history of 77 Elliott Road and the patterns of calls that we have had,” I ask as I quickly find out that the callouts here are a regular occurrence ranging from noise complaints that are simple things such as lawns being mowed to people coming home from work late at night.

As I get the information about things, one of the detectives turns up having first-hand knowledge of the area too well “Hey Trent, heard what was going on here so thought I’d give you a hand” he says as I look and see Mitch Clark walking over who is one of Darcy’s good mates “Oh Hey Mitch, you know this situation too well I’m guessing” he nods as I say that.

“Unfortunately yep, from my uniform days until now I’m still stuck with all this nonsense and don’t get me wrong Alf is a nice enough person but he’s just painful… so what happened today?” Mitch asks as I tell him the story about it apparently getting physical for the first time.

“Mr Galea says that Mr Adams pushed him down the stairs but Mr Adams says that he just closed the door on Mr Galea,” I say as this is quickly turning into a mess that no matter how we deal with things is just going to flare up again. “I’ll come with you to talk to Mr Adams and then we’ll go in with Mr Galea? Who’s with him now?”

I nod “Henry Beaumont, he’s one of the newbies but I thought given Mr Galea was a war veteran and Henry was in the Navy, he might be the right person to talk to and calm him down a bit,” I say as Mitch agrees and we head in.

This all turns out to be just another case of Mr Galea being a busybody, Kyle the neighbour tells us that he was working all morning here in the house which is what he does and the woman was the babysitter who looks after their 3-month-old baby and that the supposed sex noises are just the muffled sound of the baby crying which through poor hearing Mr Galea doesn’t realise.

We have a look at the video doorbell footage which shows that there wasn’t a push at all and it was Mr Galea who was more the aggressor and he got hit by the door closing when Kyle tried to push it closed on him to calm the situation down and that it was Mr Galea doing the swinging with his walking stick.

Heading up to the other place, we walk in and the appearance of Mitch goes down like a lead balloon “Oh you… of course should have known that I’m the bad guy again when he had another one of his sluts over and was disturbing the peace again”. Henry tries to calm him down “Alf, come on now we talked about it that your hearing isn’t the greatest these days and you can’t always hear everything and I know you’ve been frightened since the burglary, but this isn’t the way you want to live right?”

Henry’s calming tone is amazing as Alf shakes his head and looks at Henry now feeling bad for everything that happened today which Mitch tells me is a usual thing for him until the next time it happens. “Look, I know what happened to you was a terrible thing and it’s ok to be vigilant but when you’re hearing noises from the outside, maybe there is always a different story to the worst-case scenario ok? I know that from my boys that if they are upset or I hear something, it’s natural to think something bad happened. But maybe just take a breath at first because they said to me you’re a kind neighbour so maybe focus on that”.

Henry gets up and Alf doesn’t want to take things further as Mitch and I head outside for a few minutes before Henry comes out. “He’ll be on the phone in the next few days about the noise again, it’s a routine pattern and I wanted to help him but by the end of it I think it’s one battle that won’t be won for us”.

Mitch heads off as Henry and I head to the car “That was a really good effort today mate, you were calm and got the situation handled so well” I say as Henry laughs. “Thanks, I wasn’t sure exactly what to do so I treated the situation as if it was a fight between my boys because essentially it’s the same thing because I could tell it was all a misunderstanding although the difference between them getting physical and the boys getting physical is quite different,” he says as we head to the car and to the station to write things up and put in the report.

Finishing up the shift in the station, it ended up being a different day from what we were expecting having started sitting there doing nothing for ages before dealing with the dispute. I get changed and everybody is talking about the court appearance and wanting to talk to me about it as I just want to skip all the chatting about pointless speculation until we know what is going on.

I drive home and Connor is just getting home at the same time “Hey, where did you get to this afternoon?” I ask as he gets out some shopping that he did that I wasn’t expecting him to. “I went down to the shelter for a while to help Tom out and then did some stuff at the gym and went to the park just for some time to myself because I was just missing Jamie this arvo because this weekend was the weekend we were planning to head to the Good Times Festival because we missed last year,” he says as I help him with the bags and then hug him.

“Did you guys have tickets or anything?” I ask as he shakes his head “Nah, they only have a really limited time for ticket buying so we were waiting and then everything happened so that we missed out you know and it wouldn’t have been the same because with all due respect you don’t really get into the same music like him” he says as I laugh which is true because although we mostly listen to the same things, our general taste is different.

“Nah I totally got that and you could’ve gone if you wanted,” I say as Connor shakes his head “Nah, it wouldn’t have been the same without Jamie you know” I nod as I hug him and we sit down. “You doing ok with the rest of the day and what happened?” I ask not wanting to avoid the situation at all because I need to know that Connor is ok with it all.

He just shrugs for a moment then nods “Yeah I’m ok, you know it just hit me for six when you told me that they were trying to dismiss it but then when we talked about everything I knew that the most important thing is that I’ve got people all around me that love me and I’m going to marry the most amazing man I’ve ever met” he says as he kisses me before I start cooking dinner.