Two Man Station by Lisa Henry

Author:Lisa Henry [Henry, Lisa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Published: 2017-11-29T05:00:00+00:00

It had been a long time since Gio had looked forward to going to work, a long time since he hadn’t had to psych himself up to head in for each shift, but Jason was easy to work with. There were times when they were still a little unsure around one another, a little reserved, but those times were fewer and farther between the more the days stretched out. Even Sandra seemed to be starting to thaw to Gio, once he proved he could get into the station without setting the alarms off, and could actually do his job.

The investigation into Gio’s assault and Kev Lindeman’s arrest was, surprisingly, ticked and flicked. Senior Sergeant Gordon, the DDO from Townsville, had called Gio to tell him as much, but a part of Gio was still waiting for the other shoe to drop, and probably always would be. There were too many people just waiting for him to fail. And even if he never gave them a reason to fire him, they could throw enough shit at him and tie him up in enough investigations that eventually he wouldn’t be able to take it anymore, and he’d quit. And Gio knew that animus directed at him wasn’t only restricted to his former teammates. There was at least one superintendent who had told Gio to his face that if he saw him crossing the road, he wouldn’t brake.

But it got easier and easier with each passing day to put all of that aside, to relegate it to a different point in geography, to a different point in time. Things weren’t like that in Richmond, not with Jason. This was the job as he remembered it at its best. This was someone having his back again.

The pace was so different than what Gio was used to from the Coast—there were no taskings waiting for him, no targeted patrols, no daily briefing from Intel with maps of ever-changing hotspots—but he was growing to almost like it. He knew people now, and not just the town grubs. His small social circle extended beyond Jason and Vicki, to the usual transient population of towns like Richmond: the coppers, the nurses, and the chalkies. It was a younger crowd—a straight crowd as far as Gio could tell—but they were good to get a few drinks in with, either at the nurses’ quarters behind the hospital, or the house two of the teachers shared on Victoria Street. Sometimes there were a few backpackers thrown in the mix. Gio was always careful not to drink more than a beer or two. He was learning, slowly, some of those country-copper sensibilities that Jason had tried to explain in the beginning. These people were his friends, but, even if he wasn’t working, he was never truly off duty.

The rain arrived in October.

The first drops spattered on the roof of the station, and then the deluge hit with a roar. It didn’t relent for hours, and although the worst of the downpour was over by nightfall, it didn’t clear.

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