Echoes Of The Past

By TJ Hamilton

Blue lights in the red dust...

Echo Springs on the edge of the outback – a town where everyone knows your name, and your business. But the wholesome country living and welcoming community aren't what they used to be. Echo Springs has a dark underbelly, and it is seeping ever outward.

Born on the wrong side of the tracks to a family well–known for all the wrong reasons, Leila Mayne's childhood was marked with suspicion and derision from the people of Echo Springs. But her heart has always belonged to this town, so after graduating from the academy, she returns sporting a shiny new badge and the desire to be an agent of change. But change isn't easy, and Echo Springs isn't ready to accept a Mayne on the right side of the law. Everyone except her childhood sweetheart, the man she ran away from and has spent her time trying to forget.

Hayden is as big and beautiful and supportive as ever. But he has secrets, dark secrets. Secrets that could destroy the integrity and fresh start Leila has worked so hard for. When it comes to a battle between her heart and her badge, Leila knows that there can be no winners, and she will lose everything.

Echo Springs, book 3

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Australia
• Release date: Sep 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781489269256

TJ Hamilton

TJ Hamilton is a crime expert, writing professionally for varying platforms of media and entertainment. As a former police officer for the New South Wales Police Force with a BA in Criminology, TJ has carved a solid understanding of the macabre over the past fifteen years. TJ's passion for storytelling developed after leaving the police force where she used her knowledge to create stories of mystery and intrigue. She has won the coveted Scarlet Stiletto Award for the Sisters In Crime and was shortlisted for Endemol-Shine's ROAR: Smart For A Girl initiative to develop women writers for screen. TJ's work has been published in various news mastheads, including News Corp's Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph. TJ now works in script development for television, providing story consultation with production companies such as Playmaker, CJZ and  Hardy White. Visit her website at: www.tj-hamilton.com

Book preview

Chapter One

According to the laws of attraction, Leila Mayne knew she should have never been a police officer at all; a cleaner or kitchenhand was all she should have aspired to. Despite all the obstacles she had overcome since coming back to Echo Springs, she would always be reminded of where she came from, and today was going to be one of those days.

‘Mayne?’ the man asked while eyeing off her light-blue name badge. ‘You’re not related to Ned Mayne are you?’

‘Yep … he’s my dad,’ Leila replied without lifting her eyes from the traffic fine she was writing out—but she could imagine his reaction. She’d seen this scene play out many times since returning to her home town of Echo Springs, this time as a sworn officer of the law.

His voice was familiar. Probably from one of the many parties her parents held as a kid. ‘Now Mr Coleman … I’ve only fined you for failing to stop at a stop sign.’ Using the end of her pen, she pointed to the rear of the ute. ‘I need you to get that left brake light fixed within the next twenty-four hours or else you’ll receive a defect notice for that too. You have twenty-eight days to pay this fine, or fill out the details on the back if you want to contest the matter in court.’ Leila delivered her rehearsed speech while tearing the man’s copy of the fine from the book before folding it in half to hand over to him. ‘Have a nice day, and drive safe.’

He gave her an empty smile and his three missing teeth on the left formed a black hole through the scruffy grey of his beard. His well-worn Ford ute was laden with concreting gear, which Leila knew was sitting well past the safety distance at the back but she chose to let that one slide altogether to satisfy her own need to prove she was not a total asshole.

As she walked back to her patrol car, she heard Mr Coleman call out from his window. ‘Great! This is all the town needs, a Mayne with a badge!’

The old off-white ute kicked back into life with a low moan and squeaked as if in pain when he drove away from Leila. She’d known it was coming. The comment—they always had to remind her of where she came from. But it was her choice to come home after finishing her training at the Police Academy in the spring, and this was the kind of response she was prepared for. Head held high, she got back to the comfort of her air-conditioned Mitsubishi Lancer. It was the glariest police car within the fleet and all the cops hated it so she was always the one to be stuck with it. It was mainly hated because it wasn’t a four-wheel drive, but also because its blue-and-white chequered pattern took up the entire side panels, making it stick out like a sore thumb around town. But Leila knew she was going to have to do more than drive the gaudiest police car to get the respect of her fellow officers from the Echo Springs police station, so the hit to her pride was mild. She was alone on the streets for the first half of her shift, a rare luxury. As the lowest-ranking officer of the station, Leila was hardly ever left alone, but with Constable Sam Chalmers out of action today with a busted knee from a local cricket match, she’d finally been given the all-clear to go out for a few hours on her own.

***

Growing up in the housing-commission area of Echo Springs and having a surname like Mayne meant life was going to throw its challenges at Leila. Her dad, Ned, was known around town for being violent and drunk, usually at the same time. She held onto the times when he was sober, usually the week he came home from a stint in prison with a positive attitude about starting life in a new direction. That was, until a mate came past to celebrate his release, and then the cycle started again.

‘Echo Sixteen,’ Leila said into the car’s radio piece.

‘Go ahead Echo Sixteen,’ came the amplified sound of a voice through the speakers.

She recognised the voice of Ben Fields, the only cop she felt completely comfortable around. He was coming onto shift that afternoon. Luck had shone light on her day.

‘Are there any outstanding jobs?’

Pinching between her eyes, she braced for the response and hoped the news was positive.

‘No outstanding jobs, Echo Sixteen.’

Hearing the news she was hoping for, a smile threatened to spread across her face but she bit it back and maintained her composure before talking into the radio again.

‘Copy that. I’ll head to the Terrance residence for a welfare check on Brayden.’

‘Copy, Echo Sixteen,’ Ben replied.

Her grin exploded.

***

Leila drove to the outskirts of town, where the green grass noticeably decreased and red dirt battled to take over anywhere it could. Both metaphorically and physically, the surrounding environment in this part of town had a harder edge. But to her, this was home.

She pulled into the driveway of Brayden Terrance’s house, three hundred metres away from the house where she had grown up.

On his fourteenth birthday, Brayden Terrance had been standing in court for the fourth time in a year, this time for stealing a motorbike. The local magistrate, Bruce Northcott, ordered that he take part in the new youth justice initiative or face being transferred into the Northern Territory juvenile justice system. All the kids in town were terrified of being transferred out of New South Wales and into the notoriously harsh system in the north of Australia, so the threat was taken seriously. Leila had offered to be Brayden’s support officer—given her family’s history with his, she thought it might help—and despite many discussions surrounding the need for her ‘transparency’ and ‘ethical practice’, the boss of Echo Springs Police finally agreed to it. With Brayden’s oldest brother, Jayden, already serving a lengthy sentence, this was a combined effort to prevent the same thing happening again.

‘Echo Sixteen, going off at fifteen Ricardo Street,’ she said into the radio before hooking it back up.

‘Copy, Echo Sixteen.’

The house was white fibro with brown trim, and sat about a foot off the ground; typical for the area. Leila adjusted the uncomfortable vest crammed with her arms and appointments, and gave three hard knocks on the closed front door. The thud of footsteps came from inside, the gait too wide to be Brayden’s. The smile threatened again, but she pushed the emotion aside to remain professional.

The door burst open with enough force to start the country’s next cyclone and six-foot-and-four-inches of brawn stood in front of her; a frown furrowing his forehead with deep lines.

‘I knew it was you with that stupid police knock,’ he grunted.

Leila rolled her eyes. The frown slowly dissipated from the giant and a smile seeped into its place.

‘Come here, Lah Lah,’ he said, throwing his arms around her, pulling her through the doorway.

She chuckled and hugged him back. ‘Do you have to call me that?’

She wished Hayden Terrance, her lifelong friend, ex-boyfriend and now worst nightmare, would take her a little more seriously while she was in uniform, but she’d missed his big arms so much. He’d almost doubled in size since she left for the academy four years earlier. They were only eight months apart in age, but suddenly he seemed years older.

‘I had to come home and see this for myself.’ Holding her out in front of him, he eyed her up and down. ‘I would’ve thought you’d look a bit bigger with all this shit hanging off you, but you’re still a little runt. You do look a little taller though, I have to admit.’

Words struggled to make an appearance, but looking into the green eyes of her childhood sweetheart was something she wanted to savour, so she didn’t mind the moment’s disability.

Her eyes scanned the muscles on his arms and she squeezed them with a laugh. ‘Are you on the gear or something? Your arms are like cannons.’

Hayden looked down at them and smiled. Raising an eyebrow, he teased, ‘Like the gun show, hey? Nah, I don’t need to touch that shit. It’s just called going to the gym and becoming a man.’ He tensed a bicep. ‘Plus, my dad was a big guy too, remember?’

The mention of his dad punched a big hole into Leila’s chest, and Hayden bit his top lip in frustration, obviously regretting mentioning him too. Uncle Mick had been a man-mountain and her dad’s best friend. Six years earlier, he’d died in the back of a police truck while being transported to a prison in the city, launching a state inquiry into the way the local police had treated Mick in the moments before his death in custody. Given the profession she’d entered, and the people she now worked with, it was a subject that made everyone uncomfortable.

‘I miss your dad every day,’ she said, finding her voice again. ‘Especially being back here.’

Hayden nodded. ‘Me too, Lah Lah. Anyway, how’s my little brother going? I heard there’s this new thing you’ve got happening for the young ones, and you’re now his support person or something? How long have you been back in town?’

‘Almost twelve months.’ She failed miserably at pretending she wasn’t counting them. The gruelling challenges of the Academy were a picnic compared to facing a town where her family and her colleagues were well acquainted, for all the wrong reasons. Climbing Mount Everest would have been an easier path to take in life. But just like reaching the pinnacle of the mountain, the ease of the descent was in sight; so long as she avoided the occasional avalanche—in the form of her father. ‘I get my first stripe in a couple of weeks so I’ll no longer be on my probation. The boss already lets me go out on my own though and treats me like a striped constable.’

‘You’ve been here that long already? Mum didn’t tell me you were home until last week.’ Leila knew. She’d made Hayden’s mum promise not to tell until she was ready to face him again.

‘Where is Brayden by the way? His curfew starts in half an hour, so he better be home soon.’ Leila glanced around Hayden to see if she could spot a sign of Brayden being home.

Hayden smiled again, but while once she could read all his varying smiles, her separation from him meant she could barely even guess what this one meant.

‘Thank you for trying to help him,’ he said. ‘I don’t want him to turn out like the other boys have in my family.’ He placed his hand on her shoulder, and suddenly became the boy who’d protected her all her life. ‘But you can rest your knickers, he’s just out the back … Mum’s really proud of you, you know.’

She nodded in reply. His words reminded her why joining the police force was the right thing to do. She had to come home and show the other kids how it could be done. This is where she was supposed to be. She’d fought hard to be here, in the town where she belonged. Now that Hayden was back as well, she could almost believe everything would be all right.

Chapter Two

‘Still drink coffee without milk?’ Hayden asked while pouring boiling water into coffee cups.

Leila couldn’t help but stare at the flex of his arms as he poured. She cleared her throat, pondering the crass jokes from all the guys at the station about what her coffee said about her sexual preferences. She was more tolerant of it than she thought she’d ever be. The misogyny, subtle and overt, was ever-present, but in an industry geared towards men she was not about to start a feminist revolution, so she chose to ignore it without biting. There was a lot she’d underestimated about herself since joining the police force.

‘Is there any other way to drink coffee?’ she said finally, letting a smile roam freely on her face.

Hayden snorted and shook his head. Leila caught the dimples that only ever made an appearance when Hayden found something really amusing. Earning them was like wearing a badge of honour. The twenty-five years spent growing up together meant she could read his face like a book, as she was sure he could hers. It was sometimes intrusive, yet there was such familiarity in Hayden’s actions that Leila relaxed more than she had in years.

‘You’ve always been the one to do things differently,’ Hayden joked and sat next to Leila at the square kitchen table. ‘Is it what you imagined it would be—being a cop?’

Raising the cup to her mouth, Leila blew into the steaming coffee. ‘I imagine it’s much like becoming a parent; all the ideas and training won’t even come close to preparing you for the actual reality of it. Nothing can prepare you for being a cop until you experience it for yourself. I mean people avoided me when I was growing up but this is a whole new ball game. Everyone avoids me. It’s like I’ve got leprosy or something. No one trusts me anymore. Do you know how that feels?’ She glanced up into Hayden’s eyes and suddenly regretted feeling so at ease around him. ‘Things are different from this side of life,’ she tried to explain. ‘You start to see the world for what it is. I just wish people would learn to behave themselves so my job would become obsolete. But we both know that’s not going to happen so there has to be the good people in the world to stop the bad.’

‘Not all cops are good people, you know.’