by Drew Lindsay
Joy Mackay wasn’t happy at all. She carefully examined the public notice boards in every shopping centre at Port Douglas and couldn’t find one single police notice relating to her missing husband. The ones which had been prominently displayed in the Marina Mirage shopping centre and particularly at the Quicksilver wharf, were now gone. Inspector Tanner had promised to keep the photos up. He had broken his promise.
Joy found another recent photo of Winston and using her ancient computer, made up a large A4 missing persons notice in colour. She printed off 100 copies and began to stick them up all over the town. This time she included her own telephone number on the notice rather than the number for the Police Department.
A few days later an unmarked police vehicle moved slowly up the driveway to Joy’s house. Inspector Tanner got out. Joy moved onto the deck and waved. ‘Hi Roy. Want something cool to drink?’
‘No thanks Joy. I came about the notices.’
‘What about them?’
‘Been some complaints. You’ll have to take them down.’
‘Like hell I will. Who complained?’
‘Doesn’t matter. They have to come down.’
‘There are missing dog and cat notices up all over the bloody place Roy. No-one takes them down unless the pet is found.’
‘This is different Joy.’
‘So if Winston was a German Shepherd, I could leave them up?’
‘You’re making this difficult.’
‘I’m not taking them down.’
‘Then I’ll have to authorise them to be taken down and you’ll probably get a bill for the work.’
Joy laughed. ‘There is no way on God’s sweet earth I’d be paying that bill Roy. Rather go to gaol.’
Inspector Tanner mopped his brow with a handkerchief and walked back to his car. He turned to say something further, changed his mind, climbed into the air conditioned vehicle and drove away. Joy watched him until the car was lost from sight behind the coconut palm grove.
In anticipation of Inspector Tanner’s advice, Joy printed up a further 100 missing person notices and took them into Port Douglas the following Friday evening. She found all her first lot of notices removed. She patiently replaced them with fresh ones.
As she walked back to her ancient Holden in the Marina Mirage parking lot the same brown Lincoln sedan she had seen before, pulled up beside her and the front passenger window moved half way down. ‘Mrs. Mackay?’
Joy was startled. ‘Yes. Who are you?’
‘Doesn’t matter who I am Mrs. Mackay.’ Joy found it difficult to clearly see the male in the passenger seat as twilight was firmly established and the car park lighting was poor. ‘There have been complaints about your notices. I’d suggest you not put any more up.’
‘How dare you!’ Joy was furious. ‘Who do you think you are?’
‘You like living up at Rocky Point in that nice big house Mrs. Mackay? I’m sure you wouldn’t want to see that lovely place burnt down.’
Joy was speechless. She was being threatened by a total stranger. The tinted window wound up and the Lincoln moved swiftly away.
‘I don’t have to put up with this,’ said Joy to herself and she walked quickly back in the direction of the Police Station.
‘I’d like to see Inspector Tanner if he’s still around,’ said Joy to the Station Sergeant.
‘Just a mo.’ The Sergeant picked up his phone and made a call. ‘He’ll be right down madam.’
Joy waited impatiently for several minutes. Roy Tanner opened the security door at the end of the charge counter and beckoned her through. In his office he indicated a chair and Joy sat down.
‘I’ve been threatened about those posters,’ she said indigently. ‘They threatened to burn my house down if I keep putting them up.’
Inspector Tanner sat behind his desk. ‘Who threatened you?’
‘I don’t know. Two blokes in a big brown Lincoln. They’ve been watching me.’ Joy opened her bag and pulled out a small strip of paper. ‘I wrote their number plate down on the back of my hand a while ago and transferred it to this bit of paper.’ She pushed it across the desk to Inspector Tanner.
‘Well I did tell you that there were complaints about the notices. You shouldn’t have started putting up more.’
‘How did you know I did?’
‘I can see everything from up here.’
‘Then you could have seen these ratbags in the Lincoln just now.’
‘No, didn’t see that.’
‘And what about threatening to burn down my home? That’s getting a bit serious don’t you think. I want you to speak to them about that and give them a stern warning.’
‘Any witnesses?’
‘To what?’
‘The alleged threats.’
‘Alleged threats! What do you think I’m doing here?’
‘OK Joy. I’ll check out the number plate and see what we can do.’
‘You’ll let me know?’
‘Yes, soon.’
Joy stood, walked out of the room and retraced the now familiar passage to the front door of the Police Station and across the road to the Marina Mirage parking lot. She looked for the Lincoln but it was gone.
“****”
Chapter Fifteen