A Dark Secret

By Arfer Apple

A Dark Secret is a heartwarming tale of a police inspector with a broken marriage who received suspension from work. She was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to have a double mastectomy. On the day she left the hospital, she was handed her divorce papers. During her recovery, her husband was shot dead. She would now like to return to work, but only on her terms. This is the story of her fight back with dignity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: May 23, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664105737

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Copyright © 2021 by Arfer Apple.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,

recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the

product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance

to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and

such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 05/19/2021

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CONTENTS

Chapter 1 The Return

Chapter 2 The New Beginning

Chapter 3 Raisin Otto Caused the Fracture!

Chapter 4 The Jung Family

Chapter 5 The Man in the Red Suit

Chapter 6 It Was the Wrong Time and the Wrong Place

Chapter 7 The Net

Chapter 8 The Giant Puzzle

About the Author

This book is

dedicated to all

the people of the world who have

survived cancer,

to continue to live their

lives once again.

CHAPTER ONE

The Return

I did hope that my return to work would

just be a simple exercise.

Still I could never really forgive

those who had betrayed me

with a dark secret.

Today was not the best day to go back to the police complex, for a meeting about my future. I had almost finished my packing of the last of my belongings, for my removal to my new home. This house where I was standing now had been my only home since my childhood. I arrived at the police complex, and it had been almost a year since I had set foot inside this building. A lot of water had flowed under the bridge, and most of the water was dirty. I took the sky lift in reception to the top floor. I then headed for the office of the so-called New Broom. A Richard Packman was still acting in the position of police commissioner. After one year in this position, he still had no confirmation for the position full time. I sat in the outer office with a female who looked pea-brained with her fake nails and over-the-top eyelashes. I did notice that she was wearing more make-up on her face than you would find icing on a cake. She was trying to look busy in front of me, but I was not that easily fooled. I heard a mumble on the intercom and then I was pointed to the door of the office of the New Broom. He was so much taller than I could remember; he used to have the nickname Streaky Bacon. A very limp handshake I received from him before he just pointed to a chair. I did find that the conversation was very one-sided. I could see on his desk that he had received my terms and conditions that I was demanding from the police federation. There was no mention from Richard Packman about my police suspension from work that still hung over me and, in fact, stopped my application for sick leave and entitlement from going ahead. My mind was drifting over the events of the past ten months that I had named ‘the lost year of my life’. I did feel at this moment in time that this so-called New Broom had lost some of his bristles. I was only interested in whether he was going to agree to my terms of the agreement for compensation that I was seeking. The expression on his face and his body language told me the truth. I was up against the so-called Boys Club, and there was not one female in this police complex that had held a rank above inspector. The so-called union, which had a big influence on this decision, was controlled by the so-called Boys Club. For the outside world, everything within the police force was equal, but it was a very different story on the inside.

I did remember that Richard Packman was a mumbler in conversation, and I had to really listen very carefully just in case he did mention something to me of value, which would help me achieve my goal.

‘Now the position of chief inspector could go in your favour and you could choose your own team, with maybe some of those girls who stayed close to you during your treatment and during your recovery,’ Richard told me, looking very smug with himself. He did sit back and then leant forward to raise his left cheek. I did imagine that he was passing wind, but in fact he was reaching for a pen which he tried to hand to me.

‘So just sign on the dotted line, please, Jonei, and you will be back in the police force.’

Richard told me, showing me a sense of humour that clearly was one-sided. He had a fake smile, just like a venomous snake just before he was about to bite you. I picked up the new deal and read it right down to the dotted line. I then had to compose myself for the next moment in the life of Richard Packman. There was no mention of any compensation on this piece of paper. It was not fit to be used as toilet paper. I had to chuckle to myself.

‘Is this it, is this the so-called new deal that you are offering to me, Richard Packman, acting police commissioner?’ I asked him.

I was now at the point where if I had a baseball bat, I would aim it firmly at the side of the head of Richard Packman. I had to try and compose myself and count to ten.

‘Listen, Jonei, you will not get a better deal than this, and you will be the highest-ranking female in this police complex. You should be proud you are in fact making history,’ Richard told me.

I stood up and Richard offered me the pen once again and pointed to the dotted line. It was like pouring petrol on a fire that had ignited me even more.

‘You can stick your pen and your piece of paper right up your ass, because I am not interested in this deal, so I will see you in court, Richard Packman. You do not understand that all I want is compensation for the loss of wages over the past ten months, nothing more and nothing less, just what I am entitled to,’ I shouted at Richard.

He did have the expression on his face of ‘Oh dear, I think I have shit my pants.’

I stood up and stormed out of the office and past the painted lady and down the corridor towards the lift that would take me back downstairs to reality. I had to press the lift button twice before it was heading in my direction.

‘Now you only have to press the button once, you know,’ a voice told me from behind.

I turned around to find my first sweetheart since I left school standing in front of me.

‘Seann Muir,’ I said

‘Well, beautiful Jonei Mitcham, gee, you look great today. How about a drink sometime later?’ asked Seann.

‘Well, Seann, of all people I should meet in a rent-a-suit with polished shoes and cheap aftershave. It is great to see you once again, it must be around eighteen months since we last met,’ I told Seann.

‘You always had a good memory, Jonei, and a way with words,’ Seann replied.

We got out of the lift, and Seann asked me out again for a drink sometime. I told him to call me in about ten years’ time; until then, I would just take a rain check. I walked out of the building, with the eyes of Seann watching me from behind. I headed for the taxi rank and sat down. I could still see Seann watching me from the reception in the police complex. I did find it funny that Seann did not mention one word about my health and family. It was not important really, but it did leave a bad taste in my mouth. I was glad to get home and get these high heels off my feet and replace them with the ever faithful sandal’s that I had worn for the past year. I just sat down with a cold beer and I heard a knock at the door. It was the Salvos, who had come to pick up the boxes that I had packed for them. Inside the boxes were old toys, china and cutlery from my kitchen, and all those clothes that I no longer wore mainly because my taste had changed. Yesterday with the visit of my two daughters Emma and Kate, who did not ask once how my health was and even if I was coping with moving out of my childhood house. It was then that David, my son, arrived, coming over to give me a hand. David had stuck beside me since my separation from my ex-husband Bob, also a police inspector in the drug squad. I pointed to the bed, the table and chairs, the fridge for the Salvos to take tomorrow with a much larger truck.

I would be left with the television and two suitcases, nothing else. I put on a jazz CD on my DVD attached to my television. My old faithful stereo I gave to David for his new flat above his work as the assistant manager at the Scary Cow Pub in town, well over a year ago now.

David also took a lot of my CDs that I no longer played because again my taste had changed. I had ‘matured’, David told me, but he did like my taste in music.

We used to have an Irish wolfhound dog, but during my recovery, Charlie the dog was too much for me to handle. So, David found a new home for him with one of his female staff who had two young sons. Charlie had settled in very well, I was to learn later.

I had a toasted tuna sandwich with the last of my bread, followed by the last of my hazelnut ice cream.

I then sat down, and I must have dozed off for a while. I awoke to see a news flash that Richard Packman had resigned his position as acting police commissioner. I screamed out at the top of my voice, ‘Acting was the word.’

I headed for my bed. If the truth was really known, I was still in recovery, and the pills I was taking always put me to sleep very easily.

I awoke and switched on the television to hear the monsoon showers crashing down on my window. I went to the window and noticed the gutters overflowing with rain, and the road was starting to flood once again, just like when I was a child; nothing does really change, no matter what some people do tell you.

I went back to bed, and I was woken with a cup of coffee from my son David.

David had to break the bad news to me that my parents were coming over to see the house for the last time inside. David went on to say that his grandfather had phoned him at 6 a.m. with his grandmother in the background, telling his grandfather what to say to David.

I thought that this was a bad start to my very busy day moving to my new flat down by the wharf. I imagined my mother stomping around with that Zimmer frame that she did not need really to walk with. It would be the ongoing verbal banter with my father I did not think I could cope with all that today.

I had a shower and got dressed, and I sat looking at the clock on the wall.

With a screech of brakes, my father had driven over my front lawn right up to the front step so my mother would have not far to walk.

I noticed the wheel marks across the front lawn my father had left driving his car there after all the rain last night.

It was an exhibition, watching my mother get out of the car then try to manage the three steps up to the front door.

I did notice and I did expect my mother to carry her Zimmer frame in her right hand while she used her left hand to help her up the three steps to the front door. My mother did not ask me once about my health. I was told that they were only here to look inside the house for one last time; they were not here to see me.

I had no tea or cakes ready for them on the table when they arrived, which did bring another point from my acid-tongued mother, I was reminded of.

I did offer some black coffee and some peanut brittle biscuits. My mother commented that the peanuts from the biscuits would get stuck to her teeth. My father reacted by telling her to take out her false teeth and just suck on the biscuit like she did at home or even dunk the biscuit into her black coffee. With this exchange of words between them, my father quickly changed the subject and told my son David that the back bedroom was where he used to have his giant toy railway set. I told David not to get involved with my father about his precious railway set.

The subject changed then, about how much I sold this house for. When I told my mother it was almost a million dollars, I was at once reminded that I had only paid them two hundred thousand dollars for the house twenty-four years ago. It was just after I got married because I had fallen pregnant with my son David. I was then reminded that I should have been on the contraception pill. She did not stop there, telling me she could never understand why I would ever want three children in total anyway. I reminded her that she had one child, and that was me. The reply was that I was also an accident, because she already had one child in the family; that was my father, who still played with a toy train set, even to this very day, she mumbled to me. I mentioned that I was going to pay them back the money that they had lent me over the past year, for the recovery over the last ten months. I also told them I was going to give them fifty thousand dollars each as an early Christmas present. Another verbal exchange from my mother told me that it was only September and nobody in her family had ever given Christmas presents in September ever before. My father told me he was going to buy one of those bent televisions that he had seen advertised on the television. David corrected his grandfather by telling him it was a curved screen, which ignited another argument between my parents.

‘If he does want one of those curved screen televisions, he can have it in his bloody train set room,’ my mother shouted at my father

‘Oh, that will be just fine by me,’ my father replied. I heard a knock on the door, and it was the Salvos, who had come to remove the bigger furniture.

This started another argument with me about the table and chairs that they had given to me as a wedding present. If the real truth was known, that table and the chairs were far too big to fit into their new home. I reminded them that I did discuss with them about the fridge and furniture, after all. I reminded my mother that her comment was they do not want any of my old junk in their nice new modern house. I then realised that I had just about enough conversation with my parents and told them it was time for them to go, mainly because in a short while there would be no furniture to sit on in the house when the men from the Salvos had removed the furniture in the next half-hour. I stood with a television and two suitcases after the Salvos left. I had a tear in my eye, and David understood and did comfort me before we headed out to a van that he had borrowed for the day from a work friend to help me move: We headed for my new home, a flat down in a complex overlooking the sea. I had my new flat painted a light blue, white woodwork in every room, and a new white stone bench in my kitchen. The light-blue-and-white colour contrast was supposed to represent my new life. Within the hour, my new bed and new settee and chairs had arrived, with my new fifty-inch curved television fixed to the wall. I was happy. My old television was placed on the wall in my bedroom. After everything was placed in the right position, we headed for the shops for new electrical appliances for the kitchen and some new crockery and cutlery. I was lucky that the flat did come with a brand-new fridge in the kitchen.

I had to go and lie down after David left for work. I had too much excitement for me all in one day. I had slept through the night with the sea breeze coming through my window.

I got up had a breakfast of toast and milky tea when I heard the intercom go on my flat door. It was Deborah my long-time work friend and Seann Muir, of all people. They had come to take me on a pub crawl and out to lunch, laughed Seann.

Seann ate the last of the famous peanut brittle biscuits. I had to go and take a shower and get dressed and then we could paint the town red. Seann did offer to come and wash my back in the shower; that brought verbal abuse from Deborah, who told Seann we were not here to enlighten his sex life. With a nice slow-pace walk into town we eventually arrived at the Scary Cow Pub, where my son David was assistant manager. David was pleased to see me again. The Scary Cow Pub was a place that I had not been to in just over a year since David was promoted to assistant manager. I did notice a news flash on one of the many televisions in the bar that Billy Bonnin, an old and trusted friend, had taken up the position of the new commissioner of police.

I did not comment, except I wanted to know why Seann was on the top floor of the police complex last time we met.

‘Oh, he is in administration now, Jonei. Well, it’s not really police work but more a bloody Boys Club where the top floor spent most of their time between the police club and playing bloody golf,’ Deborah shouted aloud then laughed. I thought then that we should make a move to another pub and continue our adventure. I said goodbye to David behind the bar and we headed across the road to the Purple Peach Pub, once a gay venue, now an upmarket yuppie pub for all those who could afford the price of a drink in here.

I did remember that this place used to be also a drug haven that my ex-husband Bob used to tell me the place was a real thorn in his side.

We found a window seat so we could eyeball all the people who passed by. We had some Jack Daniels shooters twice before we continued with our normal drink of beer.

Deborah asked me about my two daughters Kate and Emma when Seann had headed for the little boys’ room. I told her that apart from coming over a couple of days ago to seek out what they wanted to keep before I gave it away to the Salvos, I had not really spoken to them in over a year or even seen them. I knew that were still living in the flat that their father had purchased. I went on to say that I caught them inside my house when I came home early from work one day; they had broken in with the help of a Louise Walsh, the new twenty-two-year-old girlfriend of my ex-husband Bob. Louise was caught by a local police patrol when I phoned for help. I did not lay charges against Emma and Kate, but sweet Louise had in fact turned violent to the police patrol and was placed in a cell; she was later bailed by my ex-husband Bob. I then had a new security mesh installed on all my doors and windows after that incident.

Seann appeared once again, like a lost dog waiting for somebody to take him to the lost dogs’ home. I then explained that I was handed my divorce papers when I left the reception of the hospital, on my way home after my operation.

David, my son, had moved back in, and I was having a nurse come to see me once a day. My mother and father came over to see me with some really crazy questions about what I had done to have this operation. I could then see the nurse was a nervous wreck with my mother and her Zimmer frame pacing up and down on my wooden floor, so I had to ask them kindly to leave. My mother did tell me that she would never set foot again in this house ever again. I asked her to promise me what she had just said, much to the laughter of Deborah and Seann. In a short while, Seann headed to the bar; that made Deborah almost faint with the thought of Seann splashing out the cash like there was no tomorrow. When Seann came back with the three beers he had just purchased, he did tell me that Billy Bonnin had told him that the police federation would pay me all that I was entitled to. It was of course nothing to do with Jonei being a twinkle in the eye of our new fearless leader Billy Bonnin, the new police commissioner.

Seann again went to the toilet, and Deborah asked me how I was really doing. I told her, ‘How would you feel with both your tits cut off?’ I went on to say that I did knock back the fake silicone tits that were on offer. I just wore a padded bra if I wanted to show off my bust because now I was as flat as a pancake. This comment did bring a loud screech of laughter from Deborah. It was my turn to buy the next round of drinks. I was told by carrot top behind the bar, with the porcupine hairstyle, that this would be the last round of drinks that he was going to serve us three, because of the loud noise that we were making with all the laughter. When Seann arrived back from the little boys’ room, I asked him if there had been any progress in the investigation of the shooting of my ex-husband Bob. The answer was no from Seann shaking his head. I told Deborah that the last ten months I had called my lost year, with the suspension and then the operation followed by the divorce, then Bob died a month after I came out of hospital.

Seann did say that Louise Walsh was not a suspect; she was in fact in a nightclub on Mitchell Street, standing right in front of the CCTV camera at the bar around the time that my ex-husband Bob was shot, looking a little drunk. Louise was now back in her home town of Adelaide and had been recently charged with prostitution and stealing a client’s wallet, Seann told me with a smile on his face just before he went to the bar to buy another round of drinks. Seann was never a person who you could talk to in a normal way. Seann was refused the three beers and told to leave by the porcupine behind the bar and the police would be called. This brought Deborah to leave her seat and make a beeline towards the porcupine, where she produced her identification. Seann produced his identification and told the porcupine that he would be having a visit from the licensing inspector and also the drug squad on a regular basis now. I decided that we had better just go back to the Scary Cow Pub and have some lunch there with my son David.

David was very pleased to see us once again a little light-headed, but we were in control of everything we did. We ordered three kangaroo burgers and chips and gravy.

While we were waiting, I informed David that Seann wanted to put a ring on my finger before his father built up the courage to ask me to marry him. Seann decided to call it a day after lunch, but Deborah wanted to paint the town red just like the colour of the trouser suit she was wearing. I decided that I had enough beer for today, so I caught a taxi home. With the nice dry-season breeze coming through my bedroom window, I fell asleep on my bed.

The noisy seagulls woke me up with their fighting over some pieces of bread that my neighbour was feeding them downstairs.

I went for a drink of tap water, and my phone rang I picked it up and all I could hear was heavy breathing and I did recognise the voice at the other end of the phone.

‘Is that you, Billy Bonnin, breathing to me in a sexual way?’ I asked.

‘Yes, you smart bitch Jonei Mitcham, yes, it is I, Billy Bonnin. I would like to catch up with you soon. Name a time, please, my lovely Jonei?’ Billy asked me.

‘How about 9 a.m. tomorrow, Billy, in your office? Will that be OK, Billy?’

‘Whatever—I would like to meet you over a pool table with a few beers, but with what we have to discuss, I do not think that it would be a suitable venue,’ Billy replied.

I noticed that Billy had cut me off on the phone, something that I had forgotten about, his famous trademark of putting down the phone when he had said whatever he wanted to say and never ever waiting for you to reply. Billy could talk non-stop without taking a break until he had finished what he intended to say.

I phoned immediately my good friend James Ho Davies, my legal brief who had stuck his head out for me in the past two years.

‘Do not sign anything, even if you agree to it, without me first looking over the small points first. Now would you like me to come with you, because Billy Bonnin can be a bit of a shifty bugger at the best of times,’ James asked me.

‘No, James, I will just wear some really tight black leather pants and some cowboy boots with a black leather bikie jacket. Billy will think all his Christmases have come at once,’ I replied, trying not to laugh at myself.

I had a good night’s sleep and got up and dressed, ready after a good long shower.

It was eight thirty, and my doorbell rang. It was not my taxi I had ordered but a car that Billy had sent for me. The voice on my intercom told me that my chariot was ready to take me.

I had a bounce in my step when I arrived at the side entrance of the police complex, to a private lift to the top floor. Now this did explain to me after eight years working in this building.

I had never seen one member of the top floor ever use the lift in the main reception area.

I was shown also a back door into Billy Bonnin’s office.

I could almost see Billy’s blood pressure go up when he saw what I was wearing today.

Billy pointed to a chair and then tried to play mother in pouring the tea. I did notice that Billy’s hand was shaking holding the teapot. So, I decided to go up a gear and took off my leather jacket to show my tight black T-shirt. Billy was spilling the tea everywhere except in the cup itself. I took Billy’s hand to steady him, then I helped him place the teapot back on his desk. Billy was almost drooling at the mouth, trying to say something sensible to me; eventually, I was handed the plate of sandwiches. I took a cheese sandwich, and Billy sat down. Stuffing his face like a hamster with a ham sandwich, he also had a ham sandwich in both hands.

Billy started to talk, spraying breadcrumbs all over his desk from his mouth. I was pleased that Billy had learned to multitask, eating and talking at the same time.

Most children learned this at an early age until their mothers reminded them not to talk with their mouths full. I was taught to not even speak during a meal by my mother because she was the only person allowed to talk at the table.

‘Oh yes, before you ask, I am still with the Duchess, and my six boys are all fine. Four are down south in the Melbourne Police Force. One is in prison for drug dealing, and the other one is on the run for planting a pool cue into the side of some poor bugger’s head. Well, I do say that he is not actually on the run, because he is working on a cane farm near Cairn’s which is owned by the duke, shifty Gerald my brother-in-law. The Duchess has told the four boys down in Melbourne to get their asses into gear and go and bring him back to Darwin to face the bloody music. You know the boys and I are the only ones who do what we are told by the Duchess.’

Billy told me that without even trying to catch a breath of fresh air.

Billy then reached over and picked up two chocolate muffins to eat after he had eaten the three ham sandwiches which were perched on his plate. Billy did remind me of a little fat schoolboy with his hands on everything he could hold at once.

I was not surprised that the conversation did not mention me once but instead revolved around the Duchess and Billy’s six sons, which was not unusual when I was talking to Billy.

So, I decided to do what would bring my mother down on me like a tonne of bricks, and that was to talk with my mouthful of Death by Chocolate cake. I could see Billy had done his homework and found out that the Death by Chocolate cake was my number one in my world for comfort food.

I got my second mouthful of the chocolate cake when Billy suddenly jumped up to show me he had not been updating himself at Weight Watchers.

‘Never mind all the bloody chit-chat. Is this the deal signed by James Ho Davies, that half-Chinese with a Welsh father, is he your representative, Jonei?’ Billy asked me.

‘Well, to start with, I am still under suspension and have been ever since that incident with my husband when he won a hundred thousand at the racetrack and while he was collecting his winnings, he spoke to the man who was standing behind him who was being watched by the Antiterrorist Squad. A month later, Bob was back at work, and I was still under suspension. I was feeling the strain. Although we had