DETECTIVE Inspector Graham ‘Chook’ Fowler was filling his car with petrol at a service station when the Royal Commission investigators swooped. But Chook was used to having anti-corruption officers breathing down his neck and kept his hand calmly on the nozzle. For once, his confidence was misplaced although it would take a while for the bad news to sink in. Until then, somehow he had always survived. None of the seventeen disciplinary charges brought against him by police Internal Affairs while he was head of detectives at Kings Cross had been able to land a punch on the 51-year-old police veteran. And each escape, narrow or not, added to his belief in his own invincibility and the solidarity of the ‘big blue gang’. Honest police might detest corrupt ones but would rarely expose them, even if they wanted to. Lagging bent colleagues wasn’t good for your nerves, your health or your career. That’s why he was so sure of himself. That’s why he knocked back the deal the officers offered him to ‘roll over’ and work undercover for the Royal Commission to expose other corrupt police.
