Do No Harm: An Australian Crime Thriller (Detective Tony Packer Book 5) by JT Viner

Author:JT Viner [Viner, JT]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HSB Publishing
Published: 2024-10-07T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Packer and Perry drove back to the freeway and headed north.

Eventually, they turned off the freeway and drove through the side streets until they found themselves in Balga. It was an area of the city with a high concentration of social housing and cheap real estate that bordered industrial areas. The suburb had once been home to working-class families, but was now occupied largely by immigrant communities. There was a high level of unemployment and a high level of crime.

The houses they drove past were old and run down. Fences had collapsed, and in places, windows had been patched up with plywood or simply left broken. Garbage littered gutters and footpaths. The cars parked by the roadside or in driveways were old and looked as though they were barely running.

They drove through back streets until they found a large block of low-rise units. Twenty rusting garage doors lined the lower level, with some wheelie bins lying across the ground in front of some and a broken shopping trolley wedged into the driveway of another. Concrete staircases led up either side of the block, with another in the middle.

Packer stopped the car outside, and he and Perry got out.

A group of men in their late-teens or early-twenties watched them from across the street. They had dark skin and wore T-shirts with the names of rappers printed on them. Several of them held beer bottles.

The group watched Packer and Perry cross the footpath, clearly aware that they were police officers, and openly hostile towards them.

As Packer and Perry entered the front of the block of units, there was the sound of smashing glass, making them look around, quickly.

About half a metre in front of the car was a pool of beer with broken glass lying in it.

Packer looked at the group of men.

One of them grinned at him and some of them laughed.

Packer stood at the fence, eyeing them for a moment. Then he and Perry walked into the yard.

"Friendly place," Perry muttered.

Packer did not reply.

They walked to the staircase on one side of the block of units. In places the concrete was broken, the steel reinforcement showing through. The walls were covered with graffiti, brightly-coloured gang tags covered over with black smears and obscenities.

Packer and Perry climbed three flights of stairs to reach the highest level of the block.

At the top of the stairs, a long balcony ran down the length of the building, with rows of doors along one side.

Packer and Perry walked to the end.

One of the doors had numbers on it reading '39'.

Packer tapped on the door, and he and Perry took a step back.

After a moment, the door was opened a hand width. A chain held the door in place.

A woman looked out through the gap. She was short and thin, her features and olive complexion telling of her Middle-Eastern origins. She was wearing a plain grey hijab and a long, flowing dress.

She looked at them for a moment in silence.

"Farah Youssef?" Perry asked.

The woman nodded.

They held up their identification.

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