by Tina Clough
The plan is very basic, but there is no reason why it wouldn’t work. Dao, accompanied by Scruff, will conduct a pretend survey about the need for an additional library on behalf of a fictitious community group. She will start at the corner and if someone is at home in the house to the right of Stuart’s, she will keep the occupant busy while I check out his place. I position myself on the corner and try to look as if I’m waiting to be picked up.
Dao knocks on three doors where nobody is home and then she is only three away from Stuart’s. I jog around the block and approach from the other direction. Dao is now having a friendly conversation with an elderly man at the house next door to Stuart’s. She is explaining something, drawing on her clipboard and holding it up for him to look at.
I walk down the side of Stuart’s house to the garden at the back. Clothesline, small shed, citrus trees, flower borders – nothing of interest. Through the windows that open on to the back veranda I can look into a tidy kitchen and an untidy bedroom. Through the clear glass pane in the back door I can look right down a wide passage to the front door at the other end. Rooms on both sides, all doors open.
I head for the street, walk close to the garage wall. The side door has an old-fashioned lock and on impulse I turn the handle; to my surprise it is unlocked. I have a quick look inside, close it and return to the sidewalk. Dao is still talking to the old man, he is telling her something, holding his hands out to indicate size and she is laughing. I walk past and wait in the car until she comes back.
‘Well done! I had plenty of time to look around. There’s a white pick-up truck in the garage. I didn’t get the number plate – I didn’t want to go right in.’
‘Great. Let’s find out about it right away,’ says Dao and pulls out her phone. I wait to hear where this is going to lead.
‘Hi, Benson, it’s me. Dao. Oh, do you? Yes, I’m fine, thanks. Can you look something up for me in that car register you talked about the other day? Yeah, that’s what it was called, the vehicle register. If I give you a name and an address? Oh, great! Have you got a pen?’
She gives him the details and ends the call, beaming. ‘I’m so glad we have Benson!’
‘We don’t,’ I say. ‘You have Benson. He would never do these things for me. And what were you and that old man talking about for so long?’
She bends down and pats Scruff who is on the floor by her feet. ‘He has a little dog, very cute. Scruff liked him. We were talking about those dog houses you have outside, so the dog can get out of the rain. I’ve been looking at them on the Internet – you know, for when we’re out and he’s in the courtyard and it starts raining. He’s only got the table to protect him from the rain. I might buy one for him.’
After Mint’s trial I managed to persuade her to scrap her plan to clean people’s houses to earn money of her own. She was deprived of her mother and much of her childhood; I want her to do whatever makes her happy, which is mostly studying mathematics, playing with Scruff and eating ice cream. Unfortunately, my relentlessly interfering mother thinks Dao is after my money. She became obsessed with the idea shortly after I found Dao in the forest, and she made sure Dao knew about it. Willow thinks her determination to try to run our lives is amusing; I find it infuriating. Dao was determined to prove her wrong, to earn her living and not depend on me. But after a lengthy period of negotiation Dao accepted my offer and now she has a bank account, her first. A set amount of money is transferred to it on the first day of every month. I tell her this is applied communism, the redistribution of wealth. A way of evening out the disparity between me having more money than I need and Dao’s ten years of captivity, abuse and hard work without pay. She pays for her clothes and other bits and pieces; it makes her feel independent and we are both happy. My mother knows nothing about it; her access to our lives is now restricted.
Ten minutes later Dao gets a text from Benson and reads it out: Two cars at the address you gave me. BMW X1, black, reg KRD418 owner Stuart R Browning. Mabel Jean Browning owns a 2003 Toyota Hilux pickup truck, white, reg BPQ190.
‘What? I thought Tama said he never married.’
While I wait for a bus to inch out from a bus stop, I think it over. Perhaps he was married at some stage and Tama never heard of it. And then the names trigger an idea. ‘What did you say her names were?’
Dao looks down at the phone. ‘Mabel Jean. Why?’
‘Just that those are very old-fashioned names. I wonder if he registered the truck in his mother’s name.’
Tama calls just as the garage door is closing behind us. ’Hunter, can you put the phone on speaker? I want to talk to both of you.’ His voice is full of urgency.
‘OK, Dao’s just run upstairs – I’m on my way up now. We only this minute got back from checking out Stuart’s place.’
Once again, we sit again at the table with the phone between us. ‘Go ahead, we’re both here now.’
‘I think he did it once before – took a woman who was under surveillance.’
Gone is the calm self-possession; his voice is full of anger and emotion. I can hardly believe what I hear. Dao’s face is frozen in shock. ‘Oh no! How did you find out?’
‘I only heard about this other woman today. Rob and I went out for coffee and he said something sarcastic about Stuart liking luscious dark-haired women, but never managing to find one who liked him back.’
I can hear traffic noises in the background and someone laughing. ‘Where are you?’
‘I’m outside – said I forgot to get something for lunch. I don’t have proof, but it can’t be coincidence. It was just before I started here. He had a crush on someone they were monitoring, an immigrant, an Afghani woman in her twenties. He used to refer to her as “the gorgeous Rana”. She disappeared without a trace and after a year her case was archived as a suspended investigation. I asked Rob if they ever discovered where she went, and he said it was assumed she had found out she was under surveillance and left the country on a false passport. I didn’t ask too many questions, but from what Rob said it sounds just like his fixation on Hope. Don’t forget that Rob doesn’t know about the abduction recording I found on the back-up. He still thinks Hope’s case was discontinued because there was no reason to suspect her of anything.’
‘Is there any way of finding out more?’
‘I’m going to search the archived material and find images of Rana and any other details that could be useful. And when I print all the other stuff and steal the abduction video I’ll include whatever I find on her. I’ll do it very soon – I just want to be sure there’s nothing else I can achieve here before I burn the bridges behind me.’
We sit down with coffee and sandwiches; try to decide what we should do now. Our options are limited, our discussion overlaid by worries about Tama. He is risking more than anyone and there is nothing we can do to help him. He is a crucial part of the search for Hope, and it frustrates me that no physical effort or courage on my part will make any difference to the outcome for him.
‘He knows that once he does this, he might be sacked or arrested or something. Hunter, what will happen to him?’ I shake my head; I don’t know.
And then suddenly, Dao has an idea. ‘I know! We could put trackers on Stuart’s cars – then we can find out where he goes. Or do you think we should break into his house first and check she’s not locked up in there?’
‘Of course, trackers!’ I should have thought of that myself.
I describe what I saw through the back door at Stuart’s place. ‘If she’s in the house, she is either in a wardrobe or dead, because every single door was open to that passage. I can’t imagine he would dare leave her there, when he’s out all day. I wonder where he goes in the evenings, if he has a flat somewhere.’
Dao is already reaching for her laptop. ‘I’ll do a search on trackers and find a good one.’
My phone pings. A text message from Tama: Found photo, she looked just like H but younger. OK to come over after work?
I’ll leave early and beat the rush-hour traffic.
I tell him we will be here.
A couple of hours later Benson calls Dao and she puts the call on speaker again. ‘I only have a few minutes. My day’s gone mad,’ he says. ‘I didn’t have time to tell you when we talked earlier on. But you’ll be interested to hear that the bait got taken. The tracker guy came for a visit last night, followed me home.’
‘Did you arrest him?’ Dao sits up straighter, eyes gleaming at the thought that we might have got him.
‘No, he wasn’t doing anything I could arrest him for. I drove home and went into the house. He must have parked down the street and walked up, but he didn’t expect me to come out again right away. I’d left my phone in the car by mistake. He was right up my driveway staring at the car. Probably couldn’t believe he was tracking the wrong car. When I appeared, he did a double-take and ran off. But I got a pretty good look at him, definitely the same guy you had on your video clip. That Wild West sheriff moustache is pretty distinctive.’
‘Do you think it was John?’
‘I don’t know. I never saw John in the flesh. Just that old photo of him and your drawing, Dao, from a couple of years ago, but he didn’t have a moustache then. It could be him. I’ll keep you informed.’
I sit there absently watching Scruff, who seems to be asleep sitting up, leaning against Dao’s legs while she researches trackers online. Does the tracker guy realise that Benson is a cop? Maybe we shouldn’t have moved the tracker. He might be alarmed now and pull back, and then we won’t be able to get him. I have just realised how much I want to get my hands on him, particularly if he is John.
How can I trick him into a situation where I can confront him? I should get the original tracker back from Benson and put it on my car again. I would have to leave Dao at home when I go out, if I do that. I don’t want her exposed to that rat. But the main thing is to get him arrested, to remove what Dao feels is a threat to her safety. I no longer think he is a threat to her. Instead of trying to get close enough to harm her, he has tried to get a look into the garage and followed me around to see where I go. Maybe he thinks I have a lock-up somewhere or a hired storage unit. I now believe that he is only interested in the getting hold of the drugs and making money. Perhaps he doesn’t understand that the only evidence the police have against him is Dao’s eyewitness statement; that on Dao’s word alone he could end up in jail for years.
Dao opens the balcony sliding doors and the late afternoon light falls slanting into the living area where we sit with Tama. Through the balcony’s glass barrier, I see Scruff in the courtyard staring at the neighbour’s black cat, who sits on the courtyard wall, casually licking its front paw. The normality of it is a stark contrast to what we are involved in.
‘Stuart is taking a fortnight’s leave from Monday,’ says Tama. ‘Tomorrow is his last day at work. I only found out this morning. I’ll grab all the material on Monday morning and get it to you. It’s a perfect opportunity, because Rob is taking Monday off to get a long weekend. I can start first thing on Monday and just work away until I have it all. With Rob away there is nobody around who will know what I’m doing. I’ll take screenshots of everything first in case my plan doesn’t work – which is to email the abduction video and the rest to my private address.’
‘But didn’t you say you couldn’t do that? Some safety thing in your system that prevents things being shared illegally?’
‘That’s right, but I’m going to do something totally radical. Might as well, seeing I’ll be toast anyway once this gets out. I’m going to use my administrator status to hack Stuart’s email account and send an email from there to my private address with one file attached. If that gets through to my personal email, I’ll send the rest.’
‘And it will look as if Stuart sent it,’ I say. ‘That will confuse Wellington for a couple of days, I suppose?’
‘Not really. As soon as they notice stuff has been leaked they’ll start searching. I’m only doing it that way because Stuart can send files, which I can’t, and he has no size restrictions. It will be a lot quicker than any other way of doing it. And even if someone notices right away, it will be too late. Once that email has gone they can’t pull it back.’
‘And you’ll give it to us?’ says Dao.
‘Yes. When I have it I’ll forward it to you and you can put it all on a USB stick and pass it on to your sister. I’m sure she knows what to do.’
We’ve got one day to get something into place, before Stuart goes on leave. If Hope is alive and locked up somewhere, this holiday of his might be when something will happen. I have no idea what that something could be, but it can’t be good.
‘Dao has just come up with the idea of putting tracking devices on Stuart’s cars,’ I say, ‘so we can follow him. We had a look at his house today. There’s a white pick-up truck in his garage and he doesn’t lock the side door. It’s an old-fashioned single garage, separate from the house. We’ll get the devices tomorrow. I can do the truck during the day when he’s at work, but we must get the BMW done too before he heads off somewhere.’
‘Get the devices in the morning and set up the app, then meet me outside work and give one of the trackers to me. He’s never driven a white truck to work. I didn’t know he had one until you told me about people seeing him loading that wheelie bin outside Hope’s place. You do that one and I’ll do the BMW. He has a reserved space in the car park under our building. I can do it easily.’
When I go down to see him out, he stops in the doorway. ‘That abduction video is pretty nasty – just thinking of Dao and how she might react.’
‘Thanks for thinking of that. She already read the account Hope wrote for Noah, so she knows how it happened.’
‘OK, but when Hope wrote that story she only knew what happened until she lost consciousness. What happened next was totally repulsive – gross!’
Chapter eighteen
In the morning we go to the JayCar shop in Khyber Pass Road. Every time I go into a tech shop I get served by some spotty-faced young guy who seems to know everything. I put two trackers with their magnetic boxes on the counter and the JayCar attendant, who looks fifteen, assures me that the app for the tracking device is ‘easy as’. He reminds me of the young guy who served me when I bought Dao’s phone, the same absolute confidence in his own abilities.
Dao is pottering around the displays and I catch him looking at her a couple of times. Then he glances from her to me and I see speculation on his face. I’m in a T-shirt and his eyes move from my face to the scars on my arms. I can nearly read his mind: here is a big guy with nasty scars and a tiny Asian-looking girl.
‘We have a super-special offer this week,’ he says. ‘It ends on Sunday. You get a third one free, if you buy two of any items in this range under $60.’
Without waiting for an answer, he comes out from behind the counter and returns with another tracker.
Dao puts a little plastic packet on the counter. ‘Can you buy me this please? I left my EFTPOS card at home.’
‘Sure,’ I say and take it from her. It is a personal alarm that claims to emit a 100 dB scream when you press the button. ‘Do you think you’ll need this?’
She grins. ‘Not when I’m with you, but what if we get separated? You’ll hear it and come and rescue me.’
I hand it to the assistant and turn to Dao. ‘OK, but don’t press that button near Scruff or he’ll die of fright.’
She laughs and the young guy grins and visibly adjusts what he thinks about us. Who would have thought I would ever notice a thing like that?
As we drive towards Mt Eden Dao takes the tracker components out of the bag and studies them. ‘I want to do this,’ she says. ‘You’re too big, people notice you. I bet I can just open that door a tiny bit and slip in before anyone sees me. I’ll tie my hair up, so the guy next door doesn’t recognise me if he looks out the window.’
‘OK. Put it where Stuart won’t see
it. Perhaps under the tray at the back – and check it’s stuck on properly.’
‘And you could distract the old man next door. He’s never seen you, so you could ask him something and keep him busy while I’m in the garage.’
‘Will you be able to lie – and lie really well, if somebody confronts you?’
Dao is nearly incurably truthful and finds it very hard to accept the need even for a social lie. She thinks for a moment. ‘I’ll say I’ve returned uncle Stuart’s something-or-other that I borrowed and he’s at work, so I left it in his garage.’
It makes me laugh. ‘He’d be scared to death if he had you for a niece. And you need to have something with you in case you get stopped before you go into the garage. What have we got?’
We park the car at the other end of Bellevue Road from where we parked last time. Dao twists her hair into a knot at the back and uses a rubber band from the glove box to secure it. I walk around the block and up to the door of Stuart’s neighbour and stand well to one side when I ring the bell. Through the frosted glass I see a man’s shape coming towards the door, just as Dao slips up Stuart’s driveway with my metal water bottle in her hand.
‘Hi,’ I say to the old man who opens the door. ‘Is Gordon at home?’
He looks confused. ‘There’s no Gordon living here – never has been. Are you sure you have the right address?’