The case of the red mankini. . Part 2.

To start at Part 1 click on the link.
http://www.dustydexterpi.com/2011/11/schools-out-forever-short-story-part-1.html

PART 2 

I glimpse a flash of red, the mankini, point. Red races after him, shoulders aside dripping teenagers their arms around each other, hugs, kisses, tears. A girl with wet hair, wet uniform, wet lips wraps her arms around a uniform cop, kisses him. He gently pushes her away, gives her a smile, front of his pale blue shirt now dark with seawater.  

Janet comes to tell me the news. “Dead teacher, gunna call it in, get it up on the web.”

Janet thinks she’s a big-time investigative reporter, since she got her break. She forgets it was my case, me who did all the real work, the dangerous work, all she did was write a story.  

“Red’s chasing down the kid in the mankini, might be a link.”

I point. Red’s on the beach, sand kicking up behind her, charges towards a group of chanting Schoolies. The kid in the mankini sees her, makes a break. He’s young, fast, but Red’s determined. She launches herself, grabs one of the mankini shoulder straps. It pulls back like a rubber band, then snaps, the kid lands on the sand, exposed, hands grip the ripped red lycra around his privates.

She frog marches him across the sand, up the steps to the cops.

The case of the red mankini. Part 1

Horns toot, and toot - insistent, excited tooting.

“Schoolies.”

Of course.

A car, P plate, streamers off the aerial, pulsating with gangsta rap and testosterone. Yo.

A group of girls, uniforms covered in black texta messages, squeal, run, jump, race towards the beach.

Janet. “It’s a rite of passage.”   

“It’s an opportunity to go apeshit.”

“Seriously, it’s a turning point. It’s about letting go of childhood, taking on life’s responsibilities.”

“Janet, it’s about spending a week on the piss, taking party drugs, getting legless and rooting.”

More cars, a traffic jam now. Horns blast in a competition to outdo each other.

Youths scream out the windows of cheap cars they bought by slinging Maccas on afternoon shifts.
“Schoolies!”

Gansgta fists out the windows, thumb and little finger up.

Crime author reviews Dusty Dexter PI

A new PI has hit the e-pages.  Dusty Dexter is a worthy representative of her Generation Y – brash, sexy and reckless, her unshakeable confidence is unimpeded by any training or experience.  First- time novelist Jan Richards has captured her character perfectly.

Dusty’s First Case finds her mixing it with a raft of colourful characters on Queensland’s stunning Sunshine Coast. She’s swept into encounters with various corpses,  lycra-clad cyclists, triathlon competitors, developers, drug-runners  and other sharks – some with fins, others with two legs – all circling around the smell of money. Then the action whizzes across the Pacific to the yachtie scene in Vanuatu. What’s behind these killings?  There’s no risk Dusty won’t take to get a result here. She’s lured by the glamour of becoming a real PI.

The pace is fast and furious, and the writing is entertaining and highly visual. The large cast of characters is occasionally confusing, at least to this reader, and neither Dusty nor author Richards give even a cursory nod to the protocols of law and policing.  But if you’re prepared to suspend your disbelief you’ll find a lot to enjoy on this wild ride with Dusty as she risks her neck – and others’ -  to solve her first case.

Pat Noad

Author of the Australian Annie Bryce Mystery Series

www.bypatnoad.com.au