Finding his feet, he scrambled out of the house. What now? His immediate thought, the smart thinking was to go back, tell Nee what he had found, pack everyone up and get out of there. But what had he found? Who had he found? Maybe he should be certain before he alarmed her and Dylan. So he darted across to the tin shack opposite and waited to see who – if anyone – would return.
39 Emmaline
They gave her Oily and ZZ. Both more than competent detectives. Oily was in fact Olly Treeston and got the nickname from his excess hair gel. ZZ was so called because DI Moore forgot his real name, Zhao Zheng, at a briefing once. ZZ was easier and it had stuck.
The discovery of Lorcan’s body had launched the case to Number One priority. She and Oily were to work it on the ground supported by the local cops, while ZZ would cover the Perth side, deskbound since the motorcycle accident two years ago that paralysed him.
Oily had brought with him information. Or a lack of information. An investigation into the machines found down the mine had yielded nothing, the serial numbers scrubbed, making identification of the dealer impossible.
Forensics had more to report. The body had been confirmed as Lorcan Maguire’s. But as well as Lorcan’s blood being on his shirt there was also what they described as a significant amount of another type. Matching Dylan’s according to his medical records. They were now working on the assumption that the boy had been there but was now missing, probably injured.
A search for the shell casings was under way but nothing had been found yet, the sand being swept carefully, layer after layer.
What had been noted was a faint pair of parallel grooves in the sand leading over the hill of the crest that the wind had not quite obscured. There was no chance of determining a tread pattern in the soft sand but the width of the tyres had been estimated. Belonging to a Utility Vehicle or a 4x4. Emmaline had sent Oily, Barker and Anand back to hunt for the origin of the tracks. If the vehicle had driven over dirt or even some gibber plains, there was a chance they might find a tyre imprint that could be sampled and matched.
What was determined was that the grooves didn’t proceed any further onwards after Lorcan’s body. This seemed to disavow the theory that Lorcan had been moved after the incident. The offending vehicle had therefore turned and veered back onto the track leading towards the main highway. Entirely through sand. Either a lucky decision or an expert driver. The tracks didn’t return to Kallayee, as if it had no business there. Whoever was in the truck had killed Lorcan Maguire and left. Job done. They were also key suspects in the disappearance of Dylan and Naiyana Maguire.
Emmaline’s focus was now on finding them.
40 Emmaline
Emmaline gathered her team together back in Kallayee. The hunt for viable origin tracks before the dunes had been a washout and any chance of finding them on the tarmac out of town or nearer Hurton had been wiped out by the sheer volume of traffic over the last few days, polluting the scene without even knowing.
It was time to consider their options. The Forensics team had erected a temporary phone signal booster so mobile phone technology reached Kallayee for the first time. To celebrate this momentous occasion, she got ZZ on the line for a conference.
Oily though was up first. Emmaline knew he would have studied the case thoroughly. He was a fastidious character, his mind tasked with challenges his body could no longer cope with, middle age making him ever more rotund by the day, his athletic youth long behind him. The only endurance events he undertook now were with the all-you-can-eat breakfast buffets in the cafe across the street from HQ.
‘Are we thinking that someone from INK Tech – namely Nikos Iannis – got his revenge for the stolen data?’
Emmaline watched Barker glance at Rispoli and Anand, confusion etched on his face. She had already picked him out as a clocker. Nine to five, family before profession. Not that she held it against him. But she expected him to stay up to speed.
‘So a professional hit?’ asked Zhao, over the phone. He had been in the same academy class as Emmaline, a First Gen Aussie, his family proud of him becoming an officer. They had spent time and hard-earned money educating him, a new life for the family. In many ways similar to her. The motorcycle accident had hit them hard. Even more than for Zhao himself.
‘I would read it that way,’ said Oily. ‘Maybe they found out that he was selling the information.’
‘Or desperate to stop him before he had the chance.’
‘But what about Naiyana and Dylan Maguire?’ asked Emmaline.
‘Use them to try and get the location of the information?’ offered Oily. The lack of conviction in his voice betrayed a lack of conviction in his own theory.
‘Why not take Lorcan then? What would lead them to believe that she had the info?’
Her questions were met with blank stares. It was time to slide down another path.
‘We do know that Naiyana had her own problems. With the companies she was protesting against.’
‘So are you thinking that someone in…’ started Rispoli, before tailing off.
‘Brightside Foods,’ said Anand, the most junior member of the team and itching to get involved.
‘Brightside Foods… did the same thing? Tried to get revenge on Naiyana for almost collapsing the company? But we’re still left with the same questions.’
‘Yes,’ said Emmaline. ‘When, where and why.’
‘Plus, it would be a major risk exacting revenge in such a high profile way.’
They all agreed on that. But it couldn’t be ruled out. Yet.
‘We also have the MP, Chester Grant,’ said Emmaline.
‘That populist SOB,’ said Barker, ‘would flog his granny for a few cents.’
‘He was closely tied to Brightside Foods,’ said Emmaline.
‘He was shilling for them,’ added Barker, forthright.
‘He’s lobbied on their behalf on a number of occasions,’ said Zhao, clarifying Barker’s slur.
‘So the discovery of Lorcan’s body and disappearance of Naiyana and Dylan might be troubling for him,’ said Oily.
‘They were possible votes after all,’ said Rispoli.
‘Not likely after what had happened though,’ said Emmaline.
‘Then there would be no harm in seeking revenge, would there?’ noted Rispoli.
Another avenue that couldn’t be ruled out. The investigation was turning into something much like the desert out here. Heated, faceless and containing any number of tracks and paths to get lost down.
41 Naiyana
She met Leona in Wisbech. It was the next sizeable town along from Hurton, heading south towards Kalgoorlie. She had always been close to Leona, their children around the same age, inviting constant comparison of progress that leads to knowing each other, that leads to friendship. A kind of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon friendship. But Leona hadn’t brought Giulia along with her today given the distance and given that this was in the books as a ‘client’ visit in Kalgoorlie.
Wisbech had been chosen for safety. A sort of halfway house concession between not meeting former colleagues as Lorcan had wanted, and revealing their actual location. She had even called Leona from a payphone to be certain.
It was a mutually beneficial meeting. She intended to pump Leona for information on the latest situation. Leona would do the same. But Naiyana was confident she was smarter.
Sitting in a quiet corner of the almost empty café, she waited for Leona to arrive and watched Dylan in the play park across the street. He was sprinting around the rubberized surface, scrambling up ladders and across rope bridges, bouncing and spinning and jumping, full of the joys of life. She willed it to last. When he got older, those moments would become fewer. But not entirely gone. There were always chances to play. You just had to know where to look.
‘Nee!’
Leona was skittering across the cafe, her arms outstretched. Using some kind of innate sonar she managed to avoid the other tables, her narrow hips and elongated frame assisti
ng with the skilful manoeuvring.
‘Lee!’
There was a hug. Naiyana’s face pressed into her shoulder, a warmth in the hug. Old friends meeting.
‘How are you? How’s life outside the big city?’
‘Perth’s not that big,’ said Naiyana, more to dampen her own inner pining than the truth.
‘Compared to everywhere I passed on the way here it is.’
Leona threw her head back and laughed. She always got a kick out of her own jokes, as if she herself was surprised that she had managed to come up with something so witty.
Leona glanced around. ‘This town looks okay though. Better in real life than it does in your vlogs.’
Naiyana’s smile became wry. ‘If only I lived somewhere as metropolitan as this.’
‘I thought the place in your vlogs looked emptier.’
Naiyana stopped the chit-chat. It was time for serious business.
‘Is the heat still bad?’
‘It is summer after all,’ said Leona, accompanied by the thrown-back head and unrestrained guffaw.
‘Seriously, Lee.’
Leona pursed her lips and nodded. ‘We’re still getting threats.’
‘Towards the charity?’
‘And towards you.’ At this Leona looked around the cafe furtively, then back to her. ‘The owners of BS Foods,’ she chortled at the derogatory nickname Naiyana had conceived during their pursuit of the company, ‘have been to HQ looking to contact you.’
‘And?’
‘And what? We haven’t given them an address.’
‘You don’t have one.’
‘True.’
‘Did they say what they wanted?’
‘No, but I guess they are in damage control. They changed the ingredients like we asked. Apparently it tastes like dog food now. Cheap dog food,’ she laughed, head thrown back.
Naiyana wondered what BS wanted with her. She supposed that getting her to endorse the altered product might generate positive publicity for a company that was trying to repair its reputation and sales figures.
‘We also had a protest outside HQ from some of the people who lost their jobs. That was a fun day,’ said Leona. This was accompanied not by a laugh but almost a glare.
‘So you’re saying that the shitstorm is ongoing?’
‘Blowin’ strong.’
Despite the continuing stormy weather front, Naiyana felt a pang at not being back there to do anything about it. She was missing an opportunity to turn something bad into something good. Her main goal in the first place. But also the drive that had led her into this mess in the first place. So fuck BS Foods. The loss of jobs was regrettable but acceptable collateral damage. They were the ones who had tried to force a dangerous product onto the market.
‘Chester Grant has also been in contact,’ said Leona. ‘Well his office has, to be more accurate.’
‘What does the slimy bastard want?’
‘Not sure. Probably the same as BS.’
Naiyana nodded at this. No doubt the weasel was getting a stick up the arse from BS and his now jobless constituents.
‘There might be another reason for our esteemed MP getting in contact,’ said Naiyana, unable to hold it back.
‘What?’ asked Leona, intrigued.
‘I can’t say. Other than it might be to do with BS. BS on top of BS,’ said Naiyana and sniffed a laugh. ‘But on another topic, what do you think of the vlogs?’
‘Outback Motherhood? I love them!’ said Leona. ‘But you need to be more than a voice behind the camera. We should see you.’
Naiyana thought so as well, but that would bring risks. But wasn’t life all about risks? She had taken so many already that she could tolerate another few. As long as no one found out the location of the town, it would be a massive fuck-you to BS Foods and Chester Grant.
42 Emmaline
The afternoon brought with it a report from Tech on Lorcan’s phone. Naiyana’s was still offline and missing.
The date of the final, frantic recording was confirmed. The thirtieth of December at 17:03.
The rest of Lorcan’s movements had been analysed – when his phone had been within range of the mast 14 km north of Hurton anyway. Like most in the area it was a super mast but didn’t quite have the span to reach Kallayee. It never needed to before.
Emmaline ushered Oily and Rispoli into the caravan, a very non-hi-tech base for the investigation. Fittingly it was falling apart like the town itself. Barker and Anand had been sent into Hurton to question the locals as to whether they had heard a gunshot sometime in the afternoon of 30 December. Or last night. And to garner any further information on the family’s movements during their sixteen days in town. That was all. Sixteen days. Emmaline couldn’t help but think that the family seemed to stir up a world of shit wherever they went.
‘So this is what we know. We have Lorcan – and presumably the family – leaving Perth on the twelfth December. An overnight in Kalgoorlie before passing the towers around Kanowna and Menzies and arriving in Hurton on the thirteenth. After then it goes dark until the fifteenth when his phone connected and a matching credit-card charge was made in the local hardware store in Hurton. One call to his parents. Five minutes.’
‘According to them it was nothing urgent,’ said Oily. ‘Confirmation that they had arrived, found a place, were settling in, etc., etc.’
‘Then he was in Hurton again on the sixteenth. More expenditure on materials.’
‘So we can assume that they didn’t quite know what they were getting into,’ said Rispoli.
‘Possibly on a number of fronts,’ said Emmaline, thinking about the missing data and the boycotted baby food.
She continued. ‘Then on the nineteenth Lorcan Maguire – and his son – stayed overnight in Kalgoorlie, purchasing more materials there including the DIY furniture still present in the house, returning on the twentieth. On the twenty-first Naiyana Maguire’s card was recorded as being used in Wisbech. In a cafe in the afternoon.’
‘There is expenditure on her card for ice cream with three toppings, suggesting either she has a sweet tooth or Dylan was with her,’ said Oily.
‘Then we have Naiyana’s card back in Hurton on the twenty-second, purchasing groceries and gas. The phone signal puts her back in Hurton again on the twenty-fourth. But there is no spend on the card that day.’
‘So she just visited Hurton?’
‘She doesn’t have to be in town to be in range of the mast,’ noted Rispoli.
That was something for Emmaline to consider. Not all of the movements had to necessarily relate to Hurton. She could have been meeting other people. Or heading to other places.
‘On the twenty-fifth there’s a confirmed visit to Hurton and expenditure on her card.’
‘Then forward to the twenty-seventh when Lorcan’s phone appears in Hurton. Making a call to an unknown number,’ said Rispoli.
‘The bank card was not used though.’
‘Maybe he was scared to max it out. It was borderline by that stage.’
Emmaline nodded in agreement. ‘On the twenty-eighth the phone is picked up in Wisbech. No spend again. So if he wasn’t spending money, my guess is that he was meeting someone.’
‘But we don’t know who?’ said Oily.
‘We don’t,’ admitted Emmaline.
After a pause to digest this, Rispoli continued, ‘On the twenty-ninth there is contact with Naiyana’s phone. Hurton again. Bank card not used.’
‘Finally we come to the thirtieth,’ said Emmaline. The records showed it had been a busy day. For both parents. ‘First of all, Lorcan’s phone is picked up in Wisbech in the morning before falling off radar at eleven twenty-four. Presumably heading back to Kallayee as that was where we found the phone.’
‘With the message,’ added Oily.
‘Yes. So he had driven there in the morning only to spend no money and then return. So the question is – did he spot someone in Wisbech? Maybe the net was closing in? I’d been thin
king that he may have come back from Wisbech to find Naiyana was gone. Like in the message. So he felt that he had to take Dylan away immediately. But he was caught. But –’ Emmaline looked at her colleagues ‘– Naiyana’s phone is picked up in Wisbech on that same afternoon. There’s an active signal from 2:27 to 3:33.’
‘Could he have had both phones?’ asked Oily. ‘He switched one off and the other one on?’
‘But why would he have both?’
‘If Naiyana was in Kallayee, she would have had no need for a phone,’ said Rispoli.
Emmaline nodded. ‘She would also not need one if she was already gone.’
‘Or taken?’
‘When Lorcan was in Wisbech,’ said Oily.
‘So the message on Lorcan’s phone was faked? He already knew that she had gone?’ said Rispoli.
‘It didn’t sound faked.’
‘No, it didn’t,’ admitted Emmaline. ‘We have three options. One, Lorcan Maguire took both phones to Wisbech knowing that his wife was gone. Possibly looking to cover his tracks. Two, he took both phones for an unknown reason and returned to Kallayee to find his wife gone. Or three, he returned to Kallayee and Naiyana then left to go to Wisbech herself.’
She let that sink in before concluding, ‘What we do know is that the thirtieth is the last day either of the phones was in contact with a tower.’
‘So were they both meeting people in Wisbech?’ asked Rispoli.
Oily spoke up. ‘ZZ organized warrants and matched locations with Nikos Iannis’s phone and those of his work colleagues. No correlation, no overlap of location.’
‘Unless they met in Kallayee, of course,’ said Rispoli. ‘By accident or design.’
‘In the dead zone,’ said Emmaline. It had never rung truer.
43 Emmaline
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