Chapter 4
Max sits on his couch, paperwork in hand, with his feet up on the coffee table. Around his feet are files he's brought home, waiting to be read. The massive TV against the wall is on but muted with an episode of ‘The Simpsons’ playing. Every now and then he'll look up to see what's happening - then he'll refocus on the file.
His mind half registers the sound of bare footsteps slapping on the wooden floorboards moving down the hall. Tahlia is quite short compared to Max which formed the basis of most of his jokes when they first started dating. It didn't take long for them to get old and stop but they were funny while they lasted.
Tahlia carries her laptop in and sits gently down next to Max, “Some people leave their work at work.” Tahlia was Max’s first true love when they met during their teenage years. Her dark brown hair contrasts with her naturally pale, and flawless, skin. Her huge brown eyes give her a younger look than her twenty eight years. Max used to tell her she looks exactly like Judy Garland in ‘The Wizard of Oz’. She used to remind him that Garland was about sixteen when she made that movie.
She works from home most days of any given month as a Copywriter putting together product brochures for a large advertising firm. She only goes into the office when necessary because she spends a lot of ‘work time’ writing her own children’s books and working from home allows her the privacy to keep doing that. She’s currently looking for a publisher who will read her work.
Max doesn't look up although she distracted him enough for him to lose his place and stop reading, “So you keep saying. It's important though.”
Tahlia gives a fake smile, “So you keep saying.” Max protests when she places the laptop on top of the file he's reading but she interrupts. “Look.”
On the screen is a news website. The banner headline grabs Max's attention like nothing else in the last week.
'SOUTHSIDE SERIAL KILLER HAUNTING MELBURNIANS' screams at him from the laptop. He reads on and finds details only he and Alan, and maybe Barry, would know. “They quote the Chief Commissioner,” he says out loud but not specifically to Tahlia.
“Yeah I'd thought you'd like to know.” Tahlia isn't overly concerned and has a slight smile.
“How did you know I was working on this?”
“You talk in your sleep and I've mastered reading over your shoulder without you knowing. But you have been going over this stuff for a couple of days, maybe we can go out for dinner tonight?”
“I would honey but we've got a mountain of open cases to look at and...,” Max would have continued if not for Tahlia grabbing her laptop and hopping up with an angry look on her face. “Don't bother,” she says before Max is left with just the sound of her bare feet slapping on the wooden floorboards again as she heads back down the hall.