Jus in Bello (Chapter 5)

After going to High School in Sydney, Alex Burdett had applied successfully to the Queens land Police Service. Her mom didn’t particularly fawn over the idea of having her daughter being separated from her, but Alex didn’t mind it though, it was great to get away from home for once. For the next two years she went through the Police Recruit Operational Vocational Education (PROVE) program stationed in Sydney. She moved out of the house and bought herself an apartment as close to the Police HQ as possible.1

It was a problem to get enlisted for the program though. Most students would spring to enrol in University for a degree in Criminology, Justice administration or Political Sciences. Unfortunately, life has a tendency to hand out lemons, but lucky –or is it skill- enough, she knew just how to make grape juice appear instead. Nobody knew how, but she did.2

Through the years she had worked on weekends and afternoons she had saved more than enough money to pay for the PROVE program and boarding while studying, but she knew that saving up for a full degree in anything other than that would eventually tire out her personal fund and only steer her off course. She hated the thought of being dependent on anyone, even on family for funds, so she spent her savings wisely.3

The overall selection process was a pain. Most of the other applicants there was at least four years her senior (which meant they had more “Life Experience”) and studied approved and recommended Tertiary subjects. The Beep test was fun though. Red flag markers were placed twenty meters apart. The running track was paved around the sports field near the Police Headquarters. The “lap” was a little less than two-and-a-half kilometres long and was timed. Alex had finished a minute and half before the time limit, well above the required minimum.4

After the shuttle run came the Cognitive Test. The test was written and timed also. It was designed to test a recruit’s mental ability, but it actually just bored her. Linear sequencing, spatial awareness, abstract reasoning and the odd “If the letters ‘RIPAS’ are rearranged, do they form the name of an animal, city or country?”-type of questions. The panel interview was probably the easiest of all. They had asked her a few questions about her background, education and goals in life. Soon enough she was approved for the Police Recruitments program and started training.5

On the first day of the program a tall lanky man stood in front of the group of new police cadets. The forty-something man had introduced himself as Chief Sergeant Joseph Bacon. Understandably, seven of the cadets burst out laughing. And just as understandably the Chief Sergeant had made them run ten times around the sports field and whenever anyone of those seven fell behind he shot them with his ever-so-handy paintball gun. Needless to say “The Bacon Sergeant” was subsequently given proper respect. Joseph not only held six feet in height, but he also an affinity towards guns and firepower in general. After the run he had given them a demonstration of his skill by taking them to the target range. He subsequently proceeded to show them “How to take out targets” by diving and rolling, ducking behind posts and nailing each target dead centre. No wonder he was the Chief Sergeant. He ended his flourish of gun crazy-skill by adding, “Firearms are for defensive purposes only”.6

For little over a year the program stretched. Policing and detail work was handled almost as if in school, days consisted of classes, PE sessions, breaks and minor duties. It was a breeze for her to work through; she’d been through much worse. It was fun though to see how poorly some cadets handled stress and responsibility. Compared to Dewi’s training, this was nothing. She would stay up late at night just to read up on procedures, law or anything she could find that could help her out. Apparently, degrees in Science, Law or Forensics didn’t guarantee effectiveness or efficiency. By the end of the first semester she had caught up on all the subjects her classmates had been ahead of her and the Superintendent made note of it to the Chief Sergeant. There was justice in the world.7

The successful cadets were assigned to a unit and stationed at their posts. Four units, each with six recruits, had made it through the curing process. Unit One was headed by Ekatrina Koontz; Unit Two by Bill Forester; Unit Three by Pippin Phillipa and Unit Four by Linus Fritsch. Most of the recruits who made it through the program stayed on, except for one of Bill Forester’s newest police cadets: Paul Jansen. Paul made it through the program all right, but when it came to actual policing, the guy had a nervous breakdown during a stakeout on their first week. Jansen had said he’ll return, but he never said when, and soon enough, Forester took in a new victim- um, member.8

Alexandra had been placed in: Unit Three. The unit she belonged to consisted of cadets: Julie Matthews; Sam Green; Mystel Loire, Andrew Pieters and Devon Birch. Group Three was by handled by Sergeant Pippin Phillipa. The team was in charge of the north-eastern Sydney district, having to report out and around the area to any and all calls made from that area. Most calls were usual threats, suspicious behaviour or just a punished-by-jail prank, but they also had their share of more serious calls.9

When the year-and-a-half program wrapped up, she was turning twenty and she was already accepted into the Service and given the rank of Constable. Alex was still the probie or “probation constable” of the team since she was the youngest, but it was clear enough to see that she was already eagerly working with the other Constables, filing paperwork, running odd jobs for Sergeants or just being called to do mundane errands for ranking officers. Fieldwork was limited to patrol, minor disturbances, routine safety checking and “watchdog duty”.10

“Officer Burdett,” Sergeant Phillipa stood in front of Alex, peering down at her.11

“Finished the paperwork yet?” Phillipa said and cocked an eyebrow. She had to suppress the urge to roll her eyes, “Maybe” she said, handing him a stack of files. He started to flip through them, pausing at the sentences paragraphing incidents or crimes and what the nature said committed crimes were. “That is a lot of detail… opinion or fact?” he asked as he pointed to a specific part of the sentence.12

Victim beaten by cricket bat, but did not engage the attacker in a struggle.13

“Which part?”14

“Cricket bat… and how you could tell she didn’t fight back”15

“The bruises on her ribs were shallow, evenly spread and broad. A golf bat would leave a small bruise-round… but that only depends on which type of club you’d use. A putting club could be square-ish with a gradual worsening of bruising depending on the slant of the club.. a normal club would leave a level bruise with minor wide bruising surrounding it and most likely a very broken rib in both cases… Baseball bat would leave a very round and centred blow, so the bruising would be large, deep and would leave more than a few ribs at broken-at least…. A cricket bat-” her explanation was interrupted by him raising a hand to silence her. “-the crime lab is two blocks down the road if you want to join the CSI-team. But yes, I came to the same conclusion. She didn’t have any marks on her wrists or defensive wounds, so she either saw it coming or she knew the person. Good eye” he said, nodding as he finished. “I try” she said and couldn’t help a smile creeping to the corner of her lips.16

Pippin snapped his fingers, calling the rest of his team to attention. “Miss. Effron’s attacker used a cricket bat. So, we’re looking for someone with experience with cricket, a rookie or a civilian who practices cricket. Birch, Loire, you’re with me, we’ll be patrolling the Royal Botanical Gardens. Matthews, Green, Pieters and Burdett: you’ll be at the Hyde Park and The Domain. Don’t split up. This is just a spotting patrol, no rushing in and arresting. Any questions?” Pippin instructed.17

Julie, who had just found out her favourite way of sitting is propping her legs over the backrest and laying down on the chair, stuck her hand up in the air like a preschooler. The rest of the team couldn’t help but gag as they quietened their laughter. “What is it, Matthews?” the Sergeant asked as he clipped his glock into his belt holster. “I have a question,” she said. Julie Matthews had graduated Social Politics, Criminal Law and underwent boot camp –although that was a family prompted thing- but her personality, it seemed, had stunted somewhere between primary school and high school. “No kidding.” Pippin replied.18

Silence.19

“Are you waiting for an invitation, Officer Matthews?”20

“No… ”21

“Then spit it out!”22

“Just because the attack happened near the Art Gallery… it doesn’t mean that the guy would stick around… it could have just been a coincidence… the area around the Domain and Hyde park, even the gardens, they’re all just potential sites. Most likely it’s just a feud of some sort that just happened to take place there” she said. Well, at least her mind was still fully functional. “It’s S.O.P. There’s a snowball’s chance in hell that the perp is still there, but we still have to check the area and be on the look out for suspects” Pippin clarified. “Heheh… Pip was totally going to say ‘lurking’ there” Sam said with a smirk. “Or stalking…” Mystel added. “Or even being followed by-” Devon started.23

Sam, Mystel and Devon starting singing: “Papa-paparazzi!! Baby you’ll be famous-” they all paused when Andrew threw a stapler at Mystel. It missed the redheaded boy but it did knock over several folders behind him, scattering papers everywhere. “Aww! Come on, Andrew. Was that necessary?” Mystel growled as he went to work at collecting the papers.24

“Yes. Because you guys won’t ever shut up, would you?”25

And of course, Devon couldn’t help but answer, “That’s because we don’t need to”26

“That’s because umm -you’re an idiot!”27

“Am not”28

“Are too”29

“Am not”30

“Are too”31

“I feel like I’m running a day-care centre,” Pippin said and rolled his head back in exasperation. “At least we’re getting paid” Alex noted as she tightened the knot of hair band. “Not enough. Devon, stop baiting the man- OW! Hey! What was that for?!” Sam piped, rubbing his arm. “Siding with the enemy” Devon said as he leaned back on his perch on top of his desk. “You know what rhymes with enemy, boys?” Pippin said with false excitement. Everybody just stared a bit bemused by him. “Enemy rhymes with enema, and I’ll give our medical examiner an excuse to inflict it on all of you if you guys don’t wrap this up and get to work” Sergeant Phillipa said sternly. “Three ‘o clock good for you, Andrew?” Devon said as he pointed to his wristwatch. Andrew laughed and waved a hand in the air dismissively, “Sure, boss”. “Matthews, you’re in charge” Pippin said, “We meet back here at two. That gives four hours for patrol. No goofing off”. Julie nodded, motioning to the exit to her team, “Kay”.32

“I wonder how Birch would react if he had to follow orders from a girl” Sam said and chuckled under his breath. “He’d probably throw a fit. No way he’d follow a girl’s orders” Andrew agreed. “Would you guys put a sock in it?” Alex growled as she stepped up her walk to a semi-jog trying to keep up with Julie. “Oh, come on, Alex. His fantasy is a policewoman” Sam said and burst out laughing. “It’s not policewoman, you moron. Just police officer” Alex muttered. “Heheh, yea, he does come off a bit homo, doesn’t he?” Sam replied and kept on laughing. It took them fifteen minutes to walk to Hyde Park and another twenty to patrol the area around the park and cross over to The Domain.33

“Julie?”34

The young sandy blonde didn’t answer.35

“Matthews?”36

She still kept on walking.37

“Matthews!?”38

“Come on, Sam. Would you shut up already?” Andrew growled, “Either you’re hanging out too much with Birch or you’re mutating into him”. Sam narrowed his eyes and slapped him behind the head. Andrew, in turn, punched him on the arm. “Quit. It.” Alex snapped as she turned her head towards the two men. The wind picked up around the three of them and took leaves up into the air. Clouds darkened and the morning yellow gleam started to turn green. Needless to say they stopped. “Thank you” Alex nodded. Slowly it all turned back to normal. The green glow disappeared, the wind died down and the clouds seemed to turn back into that white fluffy bunny-in-the-sky variety. “Shit, Burdett, you have some powers we don’t know about?” Andrew practically yelled after a few minutes. Alex grinned, “Of course I do” she answered back. Sam and Andrew looked at each other but said nothing.39

Julie slowed her brisk bouncy walk down until the other three caught up; “Oh… uh, guys, he’s there” she said and pointed to the side of the Art Museum. “Where?” Alex demanded as she looked over to the area. “Are you sure?” Sam said and took out his radio. Andrew’s hand snapped around Sam’s wrist, “Wait a second,” he said. A small part of the shadows moved. “Oh yeah, totally” Julie said with a grin, taking her baton out of its holster. Alex tilted her head. “Come on!” Sam said and took off running towards the area, grabbing hold of Andrew on the way and dragging him along. Just before Julie made a move Alex stopped her, “Don’t waste your time. It’s just a test. Pippin is making sure we can follow orders” she said and crossed her arms over her chest.40

The two guys in their blues were still running towards that shadow, laughing in anticipation and –in Andrew’s case- radioing in the information. She could practically hear the 10-10-code being yelled through the radio by Andrew.41

Julie looked over to them, “But he said-” she started but stopped when Alex held up her hand. “It’s a ‘spotting check’?” Alex finished, “That’s why he took Loire and Birch with him. Both of them are worse than Green or Pieters. Both Devon and Mystel think rules are subjective, bendable. Their test would probably be even worse than this one… See?”. Officer Matthews looked back to the guy just in time to see the ‘perpetrator’ beating them with the same rubber cricket bat42

A couple of people in the park were watching with combination of disgust and mild amusement. They were a little torn between wanting to laugh and wanting to help, but they were convinced the former when they heard the squeaking coming from said cricket bat. Cricket bats don’t usually squeak when hitting something.43

. “Ohh… I suppose that’s why we only saw photos of that woman… ” Julie said as she retracted her baton and put it back in its holster. Right now Sam and Andrew were face planted on the grass, still being rather harshly beaten by that bat, probably feeling pretty stupid right around now. “Alright! Alright!! We’re sorry!” they could hear Sam yell. “That thing hurts, hey!!” yep, that was Andrew’s voice.44

“HHHiiii GGGiiiioooo!!!” Julie yelled over the field. The beating stopped and the guy waved back, “Hi! Good to see you two are awake!” Giovanni said back and took off the brown blazer he was wearing. “You’re off until two, enjoy!” Giovanni called over the field and gave another good preventative whack to both boys on the ground. They sorely got up and eventually made it back to Julie and Alex. “Damn, it’s like being hit by Shaun Pollock!!” Sam groaned, rubbing his head. “Who’s that?” Andrew asked as he caressed his bruised behind.45

“Don’t you watch cricket?” Sam said with a grimace. Julie’s mouth hung open, Alex made a how-can-you-not-know-that-face and Sam’s face now grew into a silent reproach. “Not really. Why?” Andrew said innocently. “He’s a South African cricket player?” Alex said, running a hand over her face in exasperation. “Although… he did retire now…” Sam said solemnly. “He’s just obsessed with cricket, Andrew. He’d probably shoot someone and call it a ‘six’ when he actually on-target” Julie added. “I’m not obsessed” Sam retorted indignantly. Andrew made a little ‘o’ with his face, “So that’s what’s all those pictures of those guys on his desktop…” he said with a slight sneer on his face. Everyone except Sam started gagging on their laughter.46

“Ugh, let’s get out of here” Julie said, rolling a strand of hair around her finger. “We need to be back at the station by two” Alex reminded. They all nodded and literally when into all four directions. Alex headed to lower Hyde Park towards the Sandringham Garden. She crossed College Street. Passed the fountain. Had to dodge several Frisbees and soccer balls on the way.47

The open field was covered in grass and had several small shrubberies on the outside lining the garden. The usual forget-me-nots that would grow in those areas couldn’t grow here, too much walking and not enough looking out for those little flowers. A few daisies and dandelions managed to grow though, but then again, those resilient little plants would probably survive just as well as cockroaches. As she headed towards the garden she could feel eyes following her around. Alex looked around but saw nothing. Well, nothing except a couple sitting in the garden and a few kids playing tag in and around the gardens.48

She stood outside the garden and peered in. The inside was overgrown by a canopy of leaves, the ground was covered with flowers and a single path ran through the garden. It was in there that she felt the source of those eyes. “Something wrong, officer?” a young woman asked, looking concerned as she passed Alex. It shocked her that she hadn’t noticed the presence of the woman until now, “Oh! No, I’m fine, thank you” Alex said and turned her attention back to her target. The woman nodded, called her kids together and headed out of the garden. She was probably thinking that any officer wouldn’t be present anywhere unless there was some inherent danger nearby. Paranoia is inevitably contagious amongst people and soon enough almost everyone surrounding the garden had taken their leave.49

Alex’s cellphone vibrated for a second before she answered it, “Burdett” she answered and held it to her ear. “Wow, Alex! You sound so official!” Katie said and laughed. Alexandra sighed, “What is it?” she asked. “Impatient too” Tash added. “Aren’t you two supposed to be in school?” Alex said and put her hand on her hip. A “maybe” and a “yeah” came as a reply by the two of them in unison. “Uh huh… and why are you bothering me then?” Alex said impatiently. “We want to talk to you” Tash said. Alex could practically hear the grin in her sister’s voice. “You two are sneaking out, aren’t you?” Alex finished for them. “Can you blame us? Harry Potter’s showing!” Katie protested. The young woman couldn’t help but feel a smile tugging on her lips. Seemed like some things never changed. “Yeah well, just make sure mom sees you doing some homework when you guys get home” Alex advised. “Teaching us your tricks-of-the-trade?” Katie asked and Tash snorted in the background. “Who else is going to?” Alex said with a shrug and hung up. She never could figure out why they would call her every time they tried something like that. Probably approval.50

Alexandra stuffed her phone in her belt pocket and set her focus back to the task on hand. “You know… that is still technically my phone” a darkly soft voice suddenly came behind her said.51

A knot formed in her throat.52

She could feel somebody standing back to back with her. “I assume they managed to sort out my Internet connection then? Oh, and just so you know, they called Peru and even America while I was gone. Norfolk, if you’re wondering,” he said. Alex gave an embarrassed laugh “They do love to do that” she mused. The weight shifted a bit, “Hey, if you’re not busy later on… would you like to go out?” the man asked. She could hear the smile to his voice.53

Alex took a breath and tried not to smile in excitement, “Who says not seeing someone?” she challenged. “Who says you are?” the guy said back. Alex just shrugged. “Is that a yes?” he asked. “I’m not sure. You should know… my last boyfriend was a vampire” she said, the corners of her rose-coloured lips curving upwards. “Really? Well… you weren’t really asked that time,” the guy countered. “Since when did asking matter?” she said. “It doesn’t” he answered nonchalantly. “And I’m not sure I’m ready to start dating again” she added. The young man wrapped his hand over hers, “Excellent” he said and gave her hand a little encouraging squeeze.54

“It’s good to see you again, Alexandra” Dewi as he leaned his head back a bit, “I’m sorry I was gone for so long”. The young woman closed her eyes as the smile overtook her; “You did take your time” she reminded and laughed. “Hey, just be happy I’m back” he said and sighed with that same longing smile on his lips. “I am” Alex answered sincerely.55

They turned to face each other.56

She had almost caught up in height to him, although she was still slightly shorter. His black hair was a bit longer now, but it was still pretty short. It covered his eyes and framed his face. His brown eyes were still as dark as ever though. He had long black trousers on, a navy silk button-up shirt, black jacket and black shoes. “You’ve grown up” he said happily, pride shining in his eyes. Her blues were perfectly made for her, but then again, it made her look even more intimidating than normal. Her blonde hair had been cut a bit shorter, making it easier to get into style for work, but her sapphire eyes still held the same striking icy-blue hue it had before. She tilted her head, “I can’t stay the same forever” she noted.57

Dewi nodded to himself, “I’m counting on it. Hopefully I won’t either” he said and held out his hand into the sunlight.58

“No! Wait!” she said and made a motion to grab his hand, but nothing happened. The sunlight didn’t affect him anymore. “Sometimes that fried chicken gives us things that we can’t hope to get for ourselves” Dewi said and bit his lip trying to hide his smile. “You are?!” she practically yelled. He took her in a tight embrace and kissed her forehead, “Yeah”. Alexandra laughed and nuzzled her face into his chest. He still smelt of strawberries, mist and cypress wood. It felt good to be near him again. Safe. It felt the same as it had all those years ago.59

“I really missed you” Alex admitted and hugged him a bit tighter. “You’re going to miss me more if I don’t get to breathe soon” he choked out. They both laughed as she moved a bit. “Oh…. I also wanted to tell you something…” he said and buried his face in the crook of her neck. She leaned back and rested her forehead against his, “What is it?” she asked softly. Dewi took a breath and sighed softly before looking at her with that signature grin on his features, “I love you”.