Beyond The Blue

We watch the movie and Logan loses interest in it because he still wants to play with Connor which they end up doing while watching the movie at the same time. I head into the kitchen to make some popcorn which I grabbed on the way home before putting it on the coffee table.

As they keep playing the game on the floor with their fort turned around to face the TV, I sit there on my laptop working on the finances for the gym which is actually in a much better spot than I thought with the money that we had put aside and the fact that Joel is helping us out as well with us putting it under the same branding as the first gym.

I keep scrolling through things and allocating money to projects because Connor admits that the finance side of the project just flies over his head and he admits that he doesn’t have the head for numbers like I do. I keep working on all the finances and the other approvals right now making sure that everything is within the limits because the last thing that I want is any roadblocks or doing anything wrong because when Joel and I opened the first gym, we got into trouble all because we forgot to tick one box and it cost us an extra $5,000 in fees to get it reapproved.

As I’m sitting there, now just looking at Facebook as Logan wants me to come to play with them for a while which I do. Looking at the time, I realise now that it’s getting close to midnight “Alright Loges, bedtime” he looks at me strangely and disappointed.

“Do I have to?” he says as I just nod and look at him. “Yes because what time is bedtime at home on a Saturday?” I say as he sighs. “9:30 or after the Football” he says as I nod my head and even though he tries to argue I have every response for him.

“If you stay up any later, it’ll mean that you’ll sleep in later and then we can’t go out for Breakfast in the morning and you’ll have to just have toast plus Uncle Trent needs some time with Uncle Connor,” I say as he reluctantly heads upstairs and gets into bed.

All three of us head upstairs as I go to have a shower and get into bed as Connor makes sure that Logan is comfortable before he just gets into bed in his pink boxers and curls up next to me. “Was he too much of an issue today?” I ask as Connor shakes his head.

“Nah, the bedtime situation was the only thing tonight but I think it was just being able to be with both of us that he didn’t get today,” he says as I nod my head and feel Connor put his arm around me as we lay there.

“So how was work today?” he asks as it was a pretty decent day considering what could have happened. “Was pretty good, a group of us were attached to the Transport Command so we were pretty much based at Central Terminal for the day, crowd managing and ticket checking” I say not really going into great details on the day in particular about the knife wielder.

Connor yawns teasing me “Sounds boring” he says as I shake my head. “It was far from it, we had the protests in the city so we had to crowd manage and the usual idiots that come down with that and then down at the minimart there was a mental health episode where a guy had pulled a knife on the shop assistant but he was relatively easy to calm down,” I tell him as he nods and he doesn’t have any sort of worry like I thought that he would.

“You don’t seem too worried I had that situation?” I ask as he looks at me and he just shrugs at me. “I mean I always worry about you every shift you have but that’s part of the job, we wouldn’t have become cops if we thought that it was going to be all perfect like a 9-5 office job” he says as I nod knowing that’s true because we know the risks.

We lay there still talking “Yeah actually it was a good day because it was me and Branko with Steph and Charlotte,” I say as Connor nods impressed by the grouping because he never really got to be with anyone that he liked. “That’s not fair… I barely ever got to be with anyone good and now you are always seeming to be with someone” I just smirk and laugh as it was down to Connor being shot that all the unlikeable arseholes left.

“Well it is thanks to you that it happens,” I say as he just laughs. “Oh glad the fact that you could see the positives in me getting shot,” he says as we both laugh and smile about it. “Well, all the arseholes quit or got kicked out so it’s pretty much thanks to you,” I say as he shakes his head laughing.

“So how was Branko out there?” Connor takes as big an interest in Branko’s career trajectory as I have and I don’t know whether he’s genuinely interested in how he’s going or because I’m taking him under my wing or that something else was going on.

“He was really good out there, bold and confident which was really good, he’s apparently been on the wrong end of the criticism in the past few days and thought that he was going to be sent back to the academy for not being a good cop,” I say to Connor who nods and understands the point.

“You know I got threatened with that,” he says to me as I look across at him surprised because he’s always been so calm and good about things. “What do you mean? You’ve only ever been a good cop as far as I’ve known” I say to him as he nods at me.

Connor sits there and starts telling me “It was probably all bullshit but I was a couple of days in and there was a robbery at a shop and I was with one of Keith and Joe’s mates who retired before you got to the station and he wanted to fire at the suspect because he felt that he had a weapon and was about to use it on us and I didn’t believe that he did so I stopped and froze because I thought that he was about to shoot an innocent man, so I quickly changed directions and cut the guy off,” he says as I thought that was a pretty smart thing to do.

“Yeah, so that was fine it got put down to rookie nerves which were fine and it was all while Ange was on leave so Keith was in charge and I was sort of in the good books then,” he says as I nod because they probably thought that they could get a young fresh face into their little group and groom Connor into the next mastermind. “In the next couple of weeks, there was another incident where again I chose not to draw my weapon when they thought that it was an appropriate situation because it was a guy threatening to commit suicide with a knife and they felt it was best to have their weapons drawn and I didn’t,” he says as I nod understanding the situation.

“I got replaced because they didn’t think that it was appropriate for me to be there but thankfully it ended up in a good finish but they then sort of criticised me for not being decisive enough and felt that I needed to go back to the academy,” he says as we keep talking about the situation. “Thankfully, it needed Ange’s sign-off and reading through the reports she didn’t think that my actions were inappropriate and that I had actually done enough good work and my reports were good” he says as I then know everything was good from there for him.

As we lay there Connor brings the topic back to Branko “So what was up with Branko? Who wants him back at the academy so bad?”.

“Alan Marsh” I say as Connor just nods his head understanding why because Alan has a lot of respect around the force even if he is probably too old to be working consistently on the beat. “Of course, Alan said that even after I finished my probationary period he thought I needed some time back at the Academy,” he says as I nod because he’s said the same thing about me.

Laying there with Connor just feels really nice tonight after a stressful day as his hand runs over my chest “You truly are amazing, to do what you did today for me” I say as he kisses me. “Like I’ve told you so many times, family do that for each other and it’s not a case of your family and me, it’s our family” I smile as he says that and we turn off to go to sleep for the night.

The next morning Connor and I wake up early as he checks his phone and sees that it says 8:00 on the display which is probably early for everyone else but late for us as we get up and discover Logan has been up and playing for a while in the bedroom.

“About time” he says as I look down at him and his words right there “Excuse me?” I say as he just looks at me and then goes back to playing. “I’ve been awake for ages waiting for you to come get me ready because if we don’t go to breakfast now, Mummy and Daddy will be waiting before we even get going” he says as Connor laughs heading downstairs to grab some clothes out of the washing machine before he has a shower. Getting ready to go out, it’s hard to work out who is the most excited out of all of us as we get into the car and I hear Connor with Logan both whinging about the car rules as they get all quiet as I get in. “Are you talking about me?” they both shake their heads but have cheeky grins on their faces.

We head to a Café by the bay and order breakfast as we sit there and enjoy it sitting together the feeling of being a family together and for Connor, I think this is even more special for him because he misses out on the father-son time with Chase and that this gives him the opportunity to experience that.

The morning flashes by before Jess texts me that they’ll be around to pick up Logan at about 11 which as I look at my watch is just under an hour away with the time absolutely flying by with us having breakfast and then walking around watching the Sunday morning rowers have their races on the bay.

We head home and before I start to tell Logan to pack his things up, I just decide that I might as well do it because he wants to play with Connor some more before he has to go and even though he’ll be back during the week after school, I just let him do it because he has been such a good kid.

It’s a really strange feeling having him over this week because even though he’s been here with both of us, it’s the first time it’s felt like a true family situation because it was the first time that when I was at work when it was Logan and Connor together it felt like a family. As I think about how good things are, it strikes me that when Connor and I get married, it would mean that technically I’m Chase’s step-dad if it comes to that which though makes me nervous and excited at the same time.

It's not long before Jess and Brody get here to pick up Logan and the disappointment on his face is so noticeable “Is it that bad to be at home?” Brody says as Logan wants to try and take the toys with him which he knows he can’t do.

Reluctantly Logan says that it’s not that bad at home but he just had so much fun with Connor that he doesn’t want it to end at all which is understandable because I hate leaving Connor as well when I have to go to work. “You know that Connor will be here on Tuesday like always when Uncle Trent picks you up,” Jess says as they grab his things and head off home because they have to go via the Supermarket before picking up Mia from Darcy’s.

“So most importantly, did you have a good time?” I turn to Connor and ask as he nods. “Yeah of course I did, it was always going to be really fun with Logan and I know Brody and Jess sort of treat him harshly but he really is a good kid and you tell him to do something and he does it” Connor says as I nod and think that he probably gets the best version of Logan but he isn’t a bad kid.

That afternoon is a comedy show because Connor is watching the Footy and even though he knows that the Kings are going to deliver a shitshow of a performance like normal, the levels of bad that he has to sit through are funny watching this normally calm person getting so agitated over something he can’t control.

“Are you fucking kidding me? You have a 3 on 1 overlap and all you need to do is go through the hands and he fucking kicks it straight over the touch judge's head” Connor yells at the TV as I laugh and he looks at me and points. “Don’t you laugh, one day the positions are going to be totally different when this is you?” he says as I laugh even more because it wasn’t that long ago I was.

“It wasn’t that long ago it was us,” I say as Connor’s frustrations when it comes to the footy are hilarious because he is so calm normally. “Why do you keep watching this if you know they are going to frustrate you so much these days,” I ask not about why in general he watches but when they are 24-0 down and it’s not even halftime yet. “Because I’ve got faith that maybe one day they can turn it around and just because they’ve only won three times this season, I’m not giving up hope of a fourth,” he says as I shrug knowing that I used to be the same way with the Panthers during our shit times, especially the season we somehow won games by only leading for the last 30 seconds of a game.

I head upstairs and have a sleep because working nights are the worst because naturally my body clock gets me up at the normal time and in particular this morning too because we had to go out for breakfast and make sure that Logan was up and ready.

Even with Connor yelling at the TV, I manage to get a really good sleep in for a few hours and it’s actually good because I’m not laying there worrying about things at all which makes me feel better when I wake up. Connor is upstairs working in the office/other spare bedroom as I get up “So how bad did it end up?” I ask just assuming like normal that they lost especially where they were.

“33-26” he says as I nod “Well they got it back to seven points that’s good I suppose” I say as Connor looks at me and has a smile on his face. “Our way you idiot, told you that we can win games,” I say with my eyes raised because teams have made comebacks before usually just not the Kings though I suppose though when you play the Chargers you should expect anything.

It’s still too early to get ready for work considering that I don’t start until 8 pm tonight and it’s not even 5 pm yet. “How are you feeling about tomorrow?” Connor asks me which is weird given the fact he is the one who is having the scan and the issues with his chest at the moment after he was shot.

“I won’t lie, it’s scaring me a lot because I don’t know what’s going to happen and usually everything with Harry was always bad news about his tumour growing or how it was impacting his different functions,” I say being honest because I was hoping to never go through that again and I know Connor’s issue won’t be anything like what happened with Harry’s cancer but then the not knowing is what scares me most about this because with Harry we knew it was never going to be good news.

Connor gets up out of the chair and hugs me tightly and although he doesn’t say anything it is a massive calmer for me the hug. I pull away from him “The fact that you’re not worried means everything to me and makes me feel a lot better than I probably would be normally even though it’s stressing me out a lot”.

Heading downstairs, Connor gets something out to cook for dinner which I have with him before I get ready to go to work. I get dressed and Connor hugs me “I’ll text you before I go to bed and then before I leave in the morning because there’s no guarantee that you’ll be home” which is a given that his scan is 8:45 and I finish at 8 am.

That night I’m just hoping that I’m with somebody good and calming but the chances of that on a Sunday night are almost zero but when I get here we are short staffed so Eve is on regular duties rather than being in the station so thankfully I’m with her.

Even though I’m no longer a probationary constable, the training still goes on as she wants to make sure that I’m across all the procedures and codes because there are so many of them and she admits that even she has to occasionally call in for advice on what the right code is because one slip up can make any fines or arrests invalid.

Our shift is taking us around the Parklands, patrolling for any illegal activities which of a day is a family-friendly peaceful area with lots of open space which is fun to walk around, but of a night it turns into the criminal hub for illegal speed racing, drifting and donuts, drug dealing and other less than ideal transactions. The Parklands at night have also been many a place a corrupt politician has seen their careers coming to a crashing halt through a backdoor deal done.

As we drive through, Eve decides that we should get out and have a walk around which sort of bothers me a bit but I can’t really say no and it’s part of my job. Walking around, it’s a rare night without something going on right now which is good as Eve and I talk mostly about work as she continues to test me on things that I enjoy.

Walking back to the car, I notice something “Hang on a sec Sarge” I say as I see something just in the distance away from the light. Walking over I know that it’s probably going to be nothing but if it’s someone sleeping rough we have to move them on because the Council is having a big crackdown on people sleeping in the park although they seem happy enough for them to sleep out in their cars or just in someone’s front doorway.

I notice that there is a person laying there “Hey bud, I know it’s a good spot but you can’t stay here tonight” I say as the person doesn’t respond to me as I roll my eyes thinking it this isn’t going to be easy to move him on.

As I get over, the person still doesn’t respond as I poke them and think that they are probably passed out drunk like a lot of the people in the park do or you get people who just had a night out need a nap on their way home. After trying to get their attention, I roll them over and jump back in a massive fright as I quickly realise that they won’t wake up no matter how much we try to get them.

“SARGE GET OVER HERE NOW,” I say as see the person covered in blood with three shots right through their chest and their expensive white shirt. I’ve been lucky so far in what I’ve come across but this is horrifying right now and Eve comes over.

“Oh my god… JN 34 to base, urgent assistance required from the Murder Squad and forensics to the Parklands, near the Bathurst Gates” She radios through as I head back to the car to tape off the area and get all the things that we need. The first time I saw a body was confronting and it doesn’t get any easier tonight but I don’t feel as shaken as I put on the gloves and look for some ID and find a driver's licence.

“David Scully” I read as the name sounds familiar as Eve looks surprised “David Scully? As in the defence attorney?” she says as I look through his wallet. “Yep one and the same,” I say as we are both taken aback by the fact that one of the most high-profile defence attorneys who has defended some of the worst criminals and almost got them off.

The night is going to be an interesting one because it’s a Sunday night so witnesses are going to be few and far between especially in the parklands because there are about 20 entrances because it’s so large and not all the entrances have security camera footage.

Canvasing the area, it looks like it’s a professional job because there are no signs of clues anywhere no footprints, and no blood spatter so it’s either that it was done so perfectly it’s by someone who has done this before or that it didn’t happen here and the body was just dumped.

It’s not the night either of us was expecting that’s for sure and the murder of someone like David Scully is going to create plenty of focus and even as the stickler for the rules, Eve is going to be coming down hard on the fact that we need to make sure that we follow every rule and procedure to ensure we get justice and there are no issues.

Being a Sunday night, the murder detectives aren’t necessarily on call for a case like this so we have to wait what seems to be an eternity and as other units arrive, Eve makes the decision to close a section of the path that seems excessive but it’s the only opportunity to close off and protect any evidence.

Eventually, just after midnight, the two murder detectives arrive and are also taken aback by the fact that it is David Scully that has been shot, as Detective Tony Franklin says “The best friend to gangland criminals outside of the family”.

We talk through what we found and investigate around the park and the parking lot where there wasn’t a single car so that raises the possibility that the body was dumped there but even then for a Sunday night there still should’ve been the odd person around to see anything.

It’s about 2 am before we get a chance to have a break without witnesses there isn’t too much to do for us so Eve decides that a few of the other officers can assist as we head back to the station. “David Scully murdered?” I say as Eve looks across at me nodding.

“Seems an odd one given that he would have the backing of all the biggest families in crime” David Scully seemed to be the lawyer on any of the major cases involving the biggest criminal gangs in the country and it wouldn’t just be in this state.

The formidability of David Scully saw many a criminal walk on the sheer basis of he could put even the best detectives under pressure and Dad had been one of the few that had gotten through unscathed when he was working on a PIU case when he first started there. The case was a simple one where a Detective in the fraud squad was turning a blind eye to some of the dealings of the Alpha One Motorcycle Gang’s business in return for information about their rivals which wasn’t approved.

It very quickly turned into a situation where Dad was almost the one on trial for everything that he had done as a cop and questioned Dad’s integrity for an incident where Dad still a probationary constable only a couple of months into the job had a car accident that left the person in the other car trapped. It was something that Dad had always felt greatly upset about even though he was cleared because he had done nothing wrong.

David Scully knew how to make even the flimsiest piece of mud stick which is why he was the most in-demand defence attorney and it was well known that he was probably as dodgy as the rest of them. As we get back to the station, I check my phone and see Connor text me good night which puts a smile on my face as Eve tells me to grab something to eat before we have to file our reports and make sure that they are correct.

I type up my report, trying to make sure that everything is correct and every piece of information is accurate now worrying that me walking up to the body is going to upset things for the investigation. I show Eve my report which she says is in perfect detail and that I shouldn’t worry about anything but I did what a policeman should do to investigate the situation and once I knew that it was serious, I secured the scene, got gloves and made sure that I didn’t disturb the scene.

Even though it would be nice for the rest at the station, Eve takes us out on the road again this time just to monitor the early morning traffic as people start to head to work and can quite often still have the after-effects of a big weekend in their systems. We pull over a couple of cars just to do a few checks and with the usual negative comments from people that really shouldn’t be making a big deal considering especially a guy who only just comes under the legal limit.

We pull over around 10 cars this morning and I get the sense that this is Eve testing me as well which I don’t mind because any feedback is good feedback in my eyes considering that it’s all a learning opportunity to become the best cop possible. This morning nets us two minor fines, one for someone driving with their mobile phone in their lap which despite being caught red-handed, they try to argue that they weren’t using it and it fell out of the holder which is an utter load of crap.

The other was for someone doing an illegal turn across the median strip which again shows the dumbness of people doing it right in front of a police car and then trying to argue the reasoning for it.

As our shift gets closer to the end, we get a call out to head to Central as the Murder detectives want to talk to us for a few more minutes just to get some more information from our reports. I look across at Eve “Does this mean we’ve done something wrong?” I ask panicking as she shakes her head at me.

“Not at all, it’s often routine that they like to just go over things to make sure that they have all the information and put a timeline together from the point we discovered things because sometimes reports tend to lack information. We get to Central and head up to Briefing Room C which was the same room where I worked with Dad on Operation Albatross after Connor’s shooting.

“Familiar surroundings,” Eve says as I nod and we walk in, even though it’s called Briefing Room C, it’s quickly become one of the major incident rooms at Central and even for 7 am on a Monday, it’s as busy as it was at any point during the other investigation.

We go through what happened quickly but it’s well past 8 am before we even get back to Central and I don’t get to text Connor until about 8:30 right before his scan.

“Sorry I didn’t get to answer but been a busy night/morning, see you when you get home xx”

I’m just finished getting changed when my phone rings and look down at the ID and see Dad’s name on the display which is odd for this time of the morning.

Me: “Hey Dad”

Dad: “David Scully was killed last night?”

Dad is in Superintendent mode straight away and I should’ve known that it was never ever going to be a social call.

Me: “How did you know so quickly? News has barely broken?”

Dad: “When they are linked to current PIU investigations and our office is the other side of the Murder Squad so we get to hear the information”

Me: ‘What PIU investigation?” as it starts to go through my head about where the connection is

Me: “David Scully is one of the defence attorneys on Connor’s whole thing isn’t he”

Dad: “I can’t say anything but”

Dad trails off as I throw my head back as this is going to throw a completely whole other spanner in the works of how things are going to be going ahead of the whole thing going to trial.

Finally, I get home and flop down on my bed still in my clothes waiting for any sort of response from Connor which doesn’t come and I think that I’m just too tired to even think about it right now.

I lose track of how long I’m asleep for because I’m exhausted but when I do finally wake up, Connor is there laying next to me smiling. “Hey sexy,” he says as I smile and lean in to kiss him.

“How long have you been home?” I ask as he tells me about 2 hours but I was snoring so deeply that he didn’t want to disturb me. “So how bad is everything?” I ask as he hits me for my pessimism thinking that everything is going to be so wrong and that there is a major issue.

Connor pulls this really sad face that gets me upset at first before he just smiles as I whack him “You should know that this situation would get me upset” I say as he nods knowing that he likes to play those tricks on me.

“It’s not perfect, there’s some more damage to the bottom of my lung which was the main worry but on the more detailed scan it’s something that is just going to be there and it shouldn’t affect me too much at all, otherwise I’m in more than perfect health for someone who was shot only a few months ago”.

Connor looks at me “So how was your night? I assume it was busy considering you didn’t reply to any of my texts” he says as I just look at him.

“Oh, you have no idea” I just reply.