Focused on the splay of white light from her torch, she flinched when she heard Josh call, ‘Kat!’
Georgie turned. The warm glow of a Gothic-style garden lamp cast enough light for her to see Kat throw her arms wide, then thump a finger against her chest. It was impossible to hear anything of their conversation over the chaos of the storm, and a veil of fog partly obscured them, but Kat then slapped her forehead and Josh held his head in both hands. He spoke and reached for her. She smacked at his hand and waved him off, then stalked ahead of him.
Georgie’s feet had turned to ice blocks while she’d watched. She moved on, considering the emotion and angst passing between the teenagers and wondering if they knew more about the Savage kids’ disappearance. And she wished she’d found a moment to ask Kat why they’d returned to the summerhouse when everyone else ran to the main building.
Sam began her search in Anna and Sara’s bedroom, followed by Hannah and Nicole’s. Unlike the rest of the house, these rooms were small and uncluttered. She checked in the built-in robes and under the beds. Nothing.
The owners’ private suite abutted Hannah and Nicole’s room. Its door was locked.
Sam jogged back to the kitchen. ‘Elke?’
The housekeeper glanced up from the green beans she was trimming. Her gaze held something that she never showed Lunny or Georgie, although Sam had been on the receiving end a few times and she’d seen it aimed at Kat and Josh too. Disrespect or irritation. But why? Because Elke had ten years or more on Sam and plus-some on the other two? Because they were a major imposition?
Too bad.
‘I need access to the owners’ suite please.’
‘That is private –’
Sam used her cut-the-crap cop’s voice. ‘Three children are missing. I need access. Now.’
It took too long for Elke to wipe her hands, shuffle down the hall, select the appropriate key and open the door. Her belly blocked the way.
‘Excuse me.’ Sam gave the baby bulge a pointed look and Elke moved just enough for her to squeeze past.
The ostentatious room floored her momentarily. Ornate ceiling mouldings and full-height pillars made the room’s focal point a super-king bed covered in a shiny gold eiderdown and an enormous array of pillows and cushions. The bed sat on a matching upholstered base, which was nestled into cream plush pile carpet with no vacuum stripes. Pearl white marble surrounded an open fireplace in one corner and matching drapes flowed to the floor. An antique grandfather’s chair and bookshelf completed the over-the-top décor.
Sam got to work. She pulled back the drapes, patted the bedding and peered up the chimney. There was nowhere else in this room for the children to hide. She went through the connecting door into the lavish walk-in-robe and ensuite spa—both bigger than her bedroom at home—and completed an efficient sweep.
She returned to the bedroom and checked again, this time for concealed cavities in the bed frame and pillars. Then she stared at the framed wedding photo above the bedhead.
It was the one personal item on display in the entire house. Considering that Patrick Belfrage appeared roughly the same age in the photo as he did when they’d met today, the couple must’ve only recently married. It seemed strange that his wife had gone overseas alone so rapidly after the wedding. And the oddness didn’t stop there. Sam’s nose crinkled at the groom’s small smile that didn’t reach the eyes behind his semi-frameless glasses. She frowned again at the bored expression on his stunning, if slightly plastic, wife’s face.
People usually select their best wedding photo for an enlarged portrait. If this was the best of the Belfrages’ special day, Sam pitied them and wondered if theirs was a business relationship more than a proper marriage. Proper on the Tesorino measure anyway, where displays of public affection were expected, with her parents as likely as anyone to swat each other’s bums or smooch loudly.
She shook her head, allowed the housekeeper to secure the suite behind her and combed the formal living room adjacent to the bedroom wing. When she’d eliminated that area too, Sam’s anxiety heightened.
She entered the dining room just as Georgie did. Her grim face told Sam she’d had no luck outside. They checked every nook of the bar and around the furniture in strained silence, then moved into the kitchen.
Sam noted an external door. ‘You know what bothers me?’
Georgie’s expression was deadpan, but Sam blushed and in a low voice explained. ‘Besides the kids being missing, weird owners and their staff, I mean.’ She waved at the kitchen door. ‘Every room and every passage seem to have direct access to the grounds.’
‘I was thinking that before – this place is a nightmare to check and secure, isn’t it?’
Sam didn’t answer. As she stared at the glazed door, she fought a tide of Catholic doom and gloom.
The kids aren’t here. They’re long gone. But where? Oh God, let them be okay.
Thunder and lightning shook the ground and split the air.
Hannah
Riley squealed and bumped into Hannah as he slipped. She tried to grab him but missed, heard a thump in the darkness and then his voice – small, further away, ‘Ow!’
Her heart thudded. ‘You okay, Riles?’
He didn’t answer. She yelled it louder.
‘Yeah, yeah.’
He sounded close, but she still jumped when he touched her leg.
She hugged him. ‘Sure?’
‘Yeah…but Hanny? Can we stop for a bit?’
She didn’t want to. Something told her they needed to keep moving to stay warm and to try to find their way back. But they had no clue where they were or which way to head, and her little bros were tired.
She might call them ‘The Brats’ sometimes but they were pretty cool, mostly. It could be kind of annoying when they hung around when she wanted to be alone, but at the same time she liked being the big sister and knowing that they looked up to her, especially little Coops.
She found her smallest brother’s hand and held it tight. Shocked by Cooper’s freezing cold skin, she wrapped his other hand in hers too.
If her bros didn’t shadow her and want to be in on everything, they wouldn’t be here now and in massive trouble.
Chapter 4
The others trudged in close to the designated 6.15pm. With expressions as limp as their soaked hair, Sam knew they’d found no trace of the kids either.
‘Sam and Georgie, how’d you go?’ The sarge was hoarse, from shouting over the storm probably.
‘Not good.’ Sam outlined the hunt through the main building and Georgie added, ‘And I found nothing to say they’d been around or in the glasshouse.’
He nodded, turning to Kat and Josh. Their report took a minute or so longer, but added up to the same thing.
‘Wish I could say otherwise, but no such luck.’ Lunny detailed his search, trailing off at the end.
Georgie filled the gap. ‘Can we give it a bit longer before contacting the parents?’
Lunny chafed the silver stubble on his chin, thinking. After a minute, he said, ‘As soon as we call, more lives will be at risk because I’d imagine Ness and Duane would drive straight up here. And in these conditions,’ he waved towards the windows lashed by rain, ‘they could end up driving off the mountain.’
Sam watched Lunny’s face. It revealed his conflict, then a decision.
‘No, we won’t ring them, not yet.’
She exhaled softly as he added, ‘It’s still early days. The kids could be right under our noses. They might pop out of the woodwork soon with their bellies rumbling.’
Sam exchanged a glance with Georgie, thinking I doubt it. Immediately, she felt guilty – what if Kat read her look? Her shame compounded when she thought of Franklin. She couldn’t have let him down more.
Franklin’s phone pulsed in his pocket. Again. He touched his mobile through his jeans but resisted pulling it out. Boomer was one of Bull’s clones and wouldn’t cut him any slack.
Boomer must’ve noticed some
thing. He half-turned to Franklin and demanded, ‘You got a problem?’
He gave a lazy shrug in answer and the bloke resumed humming flatly and staring through the window.
This shift had stretched into a mind-and-arse-numbing type of tedium, except for the earlier deluge that had limited visibility to a few metres. But that had cleared to a ball-freezing and gloomy evening, while the targets went on doing a whole lot of nothing, with their unmarked Commodore parked smack-bang outside the address. He and Boomer might as well have a flashing neon sign saying Coppers.
Franklin was new to this detective game, but not so green that he hadn’t worked out that the crooks knew they were being watched and somehow that was the whole point.
Might be all about the squeeze. Apply a bit of pressure now, turn up the heat later?
His mind flipped back to his mobile, silently buzzing with an incoming call this time. It stilled and tremored almost immediately with another message.
What the hell was going on? Who was trying to contact him so persistently?
Franklin itched to check his phone but it might have to wait until end of shift.
Georgie noticed Sam check her mobile around every thirty seconds. On about the same cycle, Kat looked at hers too. She narrowed her eyes.
They’ve told Franklin.
Lunny’s voice distracted her. ‘Okay. Here’s what we’ll do. Take five, while I touch base with the local shop…’ He trailed off and lifted his brows. ‘Assuming there is a cop station up here?’
Elke had clearly been eavesdropping because she said from the kitchen doorway, ‘There is a police station in the upper part of Olinda – two…three minutes from here.’
‘Good, good.’ Lunny’s head did a series of small bobs.
The housekeeper waggled a hand. ‘But it is probably empty.’ Her face twisted. ‘It took eleven years to get police back here. They waste all this money on a nutteloos station but hardly anyone is ever there.’
Georgie didn’t know what nutteloos meant, or even if she’d heard it right. Maybe Elke had meant to say nutty – it was obvious that she didn’t approve, especially when she made a shsst sound and walked away, tossing over her shoulder, ‘I will get you the telephone number.’
Lunny thanked her and continued. ‘Let’s hope someone’s rostered on and they’re not tied up with accidents and whatnot. They might send out a car to look for the kids. Putting it in the system will at least speed things up if someone finds the kids and makes contact.’
Someone might’ve found them.
It had crossed Georgie’s mind that they could be lost, but she’d clung to the notion that they were mucking around. Now, the possibility that they were hurt and couldn’t wander back to camp made her queasy.
Someone might’ve found them and taken them to hospital.
She relaxed a little, then imagined the potential injuries the kids might’ve sustained, before having a worse thought.
What if the someone wasn’t a good Samaritan? They might’ve found them—injured or not—and taken them. Period.
She imagined her Grandma Harvey saying Out of the frying pan, into the fire.
‘Gotta take a slash. Keep your eyes peeled.’
Franklin extracted his phone as his offsider climbed out of the car. His thumb clicked on the first text message from Kat, while Boomer rounded the rear quarter of the sedan.
It said: ‘Call me. Urgent.’
What’s the urgency?
He strained and heard urine flow into the gutter, then checked Kat’s next message.
What the hell?
The following one was from Sam and made his head throb. He fumbled the phone and slipped it into his pocket, as Boomer re-entered the car. Outwardly he stayed calm, but his mind kept repeating Fuck!
He checked the dash clock. Nearly six hours left in the shift and every minute was going to be torture…and not the mind-numbing type he’d cursed earlier.
Sam tucked away her mobile. Franklin evidently couldn’t respond. Maybe he hadn’t even picked up her messages yet.
She needed to keep busy until Lunny called them back to continue the briefing, so she helped Elke set the dining table for later. Although they hadn’t heard from Willem Agterop, his wife had agreed to feed the Daylesford group whenever the sarge requested it – in Agterop’s absence if necessary.
Sam held up a fine crystal tumbler. Light reflected off the surface with the dazzle of an outsized diamond. ‘Don’t you have kitchen glasses and crockery we can use?’
The housekeeper scoffed. ‘This is the everyday dinnerware.’
‘Wow.’ With a small headshake, Sam aligned the glass as Elke had done on her settings. She tweaked the white china plate with gold rim and wondered how many breakages they’d accrue over the five-day camp.
You kidding? If the kids don’t turn up, the camp’s stuffed.
Her fingers numbed, letting a linen serviette flutter to the table. The camp would have to be cancelled. And that’d be just the beginning.
She shifted to the kitchen, filled a glass from the tap and gulped it down, relieving the cotton-ball feeling in her throat. She heard Lunny say, ‘…and three of the children are currently AWOL.’
Can’t be talking to a parent. He’d word it more sensitively.
She took more water, standing with her back to the sarge as he continued his phone call.
‘Hannah’s twelve, Riley’s seven and Cooper’s five.’
Too young and vulnerable to be on their own.
‘Yes, well, we’ll work through that later. But I’m hoping that you can put a car in the vicinity of Upalong House in Mount Dandenong.’
Sam turned to look at Lunny. He’d obviously reached the local station, but she couldn’t gauge his reception.
‘Yep, with the bluestone fence and wrought-iron gates.’ Lunny nodded, threading the fingers of his free hand into his hair. ‘Ah, that’s not good.’ He listened, then groaned. ‘No, I understand. But once you’ve dealt with that?’ He nodded again and hung up shortly after.
‘That was the officer-in-charge at Olinda.’
Judging by the red spots on his cheeks, things hadn’t gone well.
‘Having a busy night?’ she guessed.
‘You could say that. He’s about to deal with a tree across the road in Kalorama, and the Audi that ploughed into it. He’s working one-up tonight for various reasons and offered to put a call in for any available cars from Belgrave, Monbulk or Boronia.’
Sam stiffened. ‘But he thinks they’ll all be too busy?’
‘Yep. Trees down, roads cut off by flooding, a car down a ditch because of the low cloud, landslides…a house that’s literally slipped down the hill by two metres with a family inside. In his words: “Everything’s urgent, very urgent or critical.” We basically fit into the middle category, bad enough because kids are involved, but not as obviously life-threatening as other emergencies they’re dealing with. So, we’ll have to wait our turn. But this Bernie Willy,’ Lunny pointed to his phone, ‘promised to swing by first chance.’
She sighed. ‘At least help’s coming.’
He added, ‘Even if that can’t be until tomorrow.’
Franklin’s phone vibrated again and after the requisite thirty seconds of silent ringing stilled, then gave a single quiver. Another voice message.
What’s happened now?
He weighed the odds of it being unrelated to the shit hitting the fan at Mount Dandenong. Lunny and Georgie were with Kat and Sam, and they were the four people most likely to ring him. Harty and Slam knew he was working afternoons and wouldn’t call unless it was urgent.
Only on part-time secondment to Ballarat CIU, he wasn’t the lead investigator on any cases here, and Bull would contact Boomer over him or call through on the radio. None of his open cases at Daylesford sprang to mind as necessitating a phone call during what civilians would consider after-hours.
Chances this isn’t about the camp: Buckley’s and none.
Yeah, but it co
uld be Pastor Danni or one of the parents looking to chew the fat over the camp, not realising he was on shift. It might be Kat or Sam again, this time with a positive update.
Or it might be any of them with the worst type of news.
‘You and I need to talk.’ Georgie snagged Kat’s elbow, propelling her into the empty study.
‘What?’
‘Out with it.’ Georgie touched her arm lightly. ‘C’mon, Katz.’
At Georgie’s special nickname, Kat’s shoulders sagged forward. Georgie wanted to see fight in the teen, not fright.
‘You know I think the world of you?’ That received a weak nod. ‘And I would, even if I wasn’t –’ She broke off, groping for the right words. Your dad’s girlfriend sounded naff and seeing your dad was too vague. She came up with, ‘If I wasn’t with your dad.’ Definitely better. ‘So, spill.’
‘Spill what?’ Kat sounded cagey.
Georgie began with an easy question. ‘You contacted your dad, didn’t you?’
‘Yeah, I sent a text.’ Kat turned on pleading eyes. ‘I had to.’
It would’ve been better for Franklin not to hear anything about the missing kids until long after they’d returned and the rest of camp went off without a hitch. But she understood Kat reaching out to her dad.
Kat added, ‘But I didn’t hear back from him.’
‘So we’ve bought some time.’
She squirmed. ‘Not really. I sent another text. And I just tried phoning him and left a voicemail too.’
‘So he knows.’
‘If not, he will soon.’
‘It’s okay, Katz.’ Georgie shrugged. ‘Now, spill the rest.’
‘Don’t know what you mean.’ She avoided her gaze.
Georgie ducked to her level, forcing eye contact. ‘Yes, you do. For starters, how did you and Josh miss seeing Riley and Cooper run back to Hannah? And how did you two miss seeing where the three of them went? While we’re at it, why are you and Josh fighting?’
Into the Fog Page 3