Into the Fog

by Sandi Wallace

  Ando pointed behind him. ‘Our paper bandits were at it in here too.’

  ‘So they were.’

  In fact, they’d been more prolific inside, which still fit with the bandits being the Savage kids, considering the stormy weather a few days ago. Even the limited shelter of a ruptured roof was better than facing the full brunt of a storm. And the damage could have come after the kids had sheltered in the toilet block.

  ‘It’s not much –’ Ando started.

  ‘But it’s something,’ he finished.

  Uncanny how alike we think.

  Georgie jumped when her mobile bleeped. She’d been engrossed in thoughts about the missing teenager from The Basin, with guilty reminders of her meeting with AJ flaring like breaking news on TV.

  She checked her message. ‘Seen doc. Off to local hospy 4 x-ray. K x’

  X-ray?

  Georgie tried phoning Franklin, but he must’ve been in a blackspot or on a call because it went straight to voicemail.

  After leaving a message, she immediately forgot Franklin and Kat and returned to her computer. A photograph of Marzena Betka filled the screen. Tall and slim with dark hair, the girl looked older than thirteen. She was stylish, and clever with clothes and makeup. But Zena’s most outstanding feature was her smile. It shone through her eyes and plumped her cheeks while she dipped her head with a Lady Di-like shyness.

  Georgie’s gut tightened. Zena struck her as a sicko’s fantasy girl.

  She re-read the article, which had Matty’s byline.

  Zena was into gymnastics, sketching, photography, writing and enjoyed school. She wanted to be a photojournalist. She lived in the foothills suburb of Melbourne with her Polish parents and two sisters. Her shepherd cross was also thirteen and she loved him and her budgies deeply.

  As Matty built the story, he wove in tributes from her family, friends and teachers, who shared everything from her roots as a refugee to the bright promise of her future. He showed the breadth of those devastated by her disappearance. Many of these people had nothing in common except for a love for Zena.

  Matty had a gift for bringing his subjects off the page, fleshing them out so that readers connected and cared. His stories sometimes made Georgie cry and she fought against it now.

  Such a tragedy if that shining light were snuffed out, Zena’s gym coach had said.

  Georgie’s heart wrenched. Zena had been gone four months. She was probably dead. But without a body, there was a sliver of hope.

  What connected Zena with Hanny, Riles and Coops? Or maybe just Hannah? It appeared that she’d planned to leave without her brothers, so they could be collateral damage.

  Georgie stared at Zena’s photo and a tear escaped from the corner of her eye.

  Superficially, there were more differences than similarities between Zena and Hanny and the circumstances around their vanishing. But Georgie suspected that the girls were linked somehow. And that one person was behind both disappearances…even if a group was involved, she felt sure one person was at the centre. He’d grown bored of Zena so he took Hanny. How long would it be before he tired of her too and needed a new girl?

  And what does he do to them when he moves on?

  Terror made her heart pound.

  Franklin retrieved messages from Kat and Georgie, quickly texted both, then called in what they’d discovered at the Doongalla site to Manthorp.

  ‘Is that all you got?’

  He grinned at Ando, who was listening on speakerphone.

  ‘No, we took it an extra step. Our ranger man, Kev, made it clear yesterday’ was it only yesterday? ‘that he doesn’t take kindly to people interfering with his patch in the park. I figured he’d be on top of litter in the picnic area and toilet facilities, let alone actual damage.’

  ‘Hang on.’ Manthorp spoke to someone in the background, then addressed Franklin, ‘Can you speed it up?’

  He spoke faster. ‘So we checked with him and he confirmed that the loo paper litter and roof damage couldn’t have been there before Wednesday. He checks every day, sometimes twice in better weather, but he fessed up that he skipped checking the facilities all of Thursday and on Friday morning.’

  Manthorp clucked her tongue in mock disgust.

  ‘Apparently, his elderly mum’s been very ill this week. She refused to go to hospital because she’s worried she’ll be shipped off to a nursing home. So, he’s been all but living with her since Wednesday arvo, just periodically returning to Doongalla.’

  Manthorp said, ‘Got three people needing to speak with me…’

  Franklin raced through the rest. ‘He’d been screening his calls and only taking hers, so he missed the ring-around for help in our first search. He’d originally intended to go through the toilets yesterday afternoon or this morning, but once he found out about the missing kids, decided to leave it another day, in case we did a further search. So –’

  ‘The timing fits.’

  ‘It does.’

  ‘Means the original searchers of that area stuffed up. Why didn’t they notice this then?’

  ‘It was outside the scope of where the ranger saw Hannah, so they might not have been as thorough there. And we’re talking about some lumps of loo paper…’

  ‘We are.’ Manthorp went through the chronology – hearing it from her made it sound more credible. Then she said, ‘And the dogs presumably missed the kids’ scents in the toilets because it was flooded out?’

  His ‘Yep’ came slowly, not liking where she headed.

  Ando crowded closer.

  ‘It’s viable, but we have an unfortunate window from Wednesday morning to now, Saturday.’ Manthorp’s voice was flat.

  ‘Hello!’ Jules Manthorp yelled. ‘Progress of sorts.’

  Georgie edged to the doorway, where she could hear better but the detective wouldn’t notice her.

  ‘First, searchers have found something at the Doongalla site in the National Park.’ She outlined the discovery of toilet paper balls in the amenities block.

  Georgie grew excited.

  That’s exactly what Riley and Coops would do. Their attention spans are short. They’re constantly moving, doing something.

  ‘It could have been our kids out there Wednesday night or Thursday morning, but we can’t discount hikers or bikers wandering through since.’

  ‘What’s your gut say, Jules?’ Ty asked.

  ‘It’s a tentative lead.’ A slow smile spread over the detective’s face. ‘But we’ll take it, won’t we?’

  Someone cheered.

  ‘Second, as you all know, the IT department took the communal computer from the Savage–Smith household.’

  This sounded promising.

  ‘It’d been cleaned up by an amateur – we’re assuming Hannah Savage.’ Manthorp waved at the computer-crime cop monitoring the online traffic. ‘You know better than me, but apparently it works something like this: the computer writes files and addresses as the user moves around, producing an imprint on the hard drive. A basic clean-up deletes the index but not the data, leaving some info behind. Have I got that more or less correct?’

  The techie nodded.

  ‘So your colleagues took the computer back to town, plugged it in and scanned it with their you-beaut specialist software. In some cases, this is virtually all it takes to extract a history, correct?’

  The techie’s face screwed into a that’s about right expression.

  ‘Unfortunately –’

  Georgie’s stomach knotted during Manthorp’s small pause.

  ‘Photos and other files have written over the top and just fragments of the earlier files remain.’

  Fragments. Useless then.

  Manthorp quickly added, ‘But the experts’re piecing together as much as they can from these fragments. So far they have visits to fashion pages, Google Earth, along with staffordshire bull terriers and partials of photographs that aren’t stored in the pictures library on the computer. Not much yet, but who knows what they’ll be able to dig u
p eventually…’ She trailed off, then shrugged, looking glum.

  Eventually echoed in Georgie’s mind as the dull headache she’d been ignoring over the past few hours ramped up. She didn’t know how she felt about seeing AJ later, but couldn’t wait to down a stiff drink.

  Chapter 38

  Hannah

  Something banged the bed and jolted Hannah awake. A dog was just centimetres from her – growling, showing all its teeth. She screamed but hardly any sound came out. Her throat burned.

  ‘Down, Donga.’

  The dog snapped its mouth shut and sat staring at Hannah, maybe excited about the next command. It had a strong, burly body, a bit like her old dog Buddy’s, but thicker and bigger and mainly black with tan. She thought it was a rottweiler. And she thought rotties were attack dogs.

  ‘The fuck happened to her face?’

  Hannah turned from the dog to Ealdy. He didn’t do anything to stop her seeing him, unlike Dicko, which made her panic so bad it was hard to breathe.

  He doesn’t care if I see him because he’s not going to let me go.

  Dicko was out of her sight but said, ‘I gave the bitch some water. She spilt it, so I smacked her ’round.’

  Hannah was confused. He’d been sneakily helping her – with water, bread, the rug and getting to the bucket. Then he’d punched her and she’d been shattered, realising that he wasn’t going to help her get away. Now, he was still hanging back. Maybe he knew that she’d only seen his face for a few seconds and guessed she remembered his expression, not details like nose, eyes and that. Maybe he felt bad for her but that only went so far.

  ‘Why you giving the bitch water?’

  ‘You think she’d have lasted this long without it?’

  Ealdy grunted.

  Dicko added, ‘You wanna have some fun, she has to be alive, huh? And you said you won’t go near her while she looks like death warmed up.’

  Ealdy laughed…and Hannah suspected he was at the point of not caring.

  Sam checked her phone again, but despite having intermittent call coverage it remained silent. They’d been at it for about two hours and she hated feeling cut off. While the searchers would’ve been told if there was a major breakthrough, she was desperate for an update.

  Bernie, Ando and even Ty had been great, sneaking them information they wouldn’t otherwise be privy to. And they couldn’t help good luck if they ‘just happened’ to be in earshot at opportune moments.

  But the guy on Sam’s left was a copper with Search and Rescue, and he’d heard rumblings of the inquiry shifting again, from Manthorp’s unit to a joint taskforce with the Zena Betka investigators. If that happened, and once the grunt work of today’s search was completed, the Daylesford crew would be barred completely or risk a run-in with Ethical Standards.

  While she picked her way through a patch of bright blue forget-me-nots, Sam weighed up everything and concluded that she simply couldn’t back off, regardless of what that might mean for her career, for the job she loved when she didn’t hate it. She wanted in on the covert investigation she knew Franklin would run if pushed to it.

  On the plus side, the increasing protocol and rigmarole meant that there were additional personnel to work through the crank calls and alibi-checks of known offenders.

  But Sam still thought it’d take something lateral to locate Hannah, Riley and Cooper.

  Georgie had been in touch with her housemate, Maz. She was like a bombproof horse – not much fazed her. She was a good sounding board and after talking it through, their progress looked more positive, albeit too bloody slow.

  She owed Bron a call too. But her best friend would sniff out what she didn’t want to talk about: AJ. She didn’t even know what to label what they were doing tonight.

  A drink sounds like a date. A meeting with an old boyfriend doesn’t fit either.

  She dodged that bullet by heading to the kitchen. Although already jangling with caffeine overload, she fixed herself another cuppa and switched to thinking about how she could infiltrate the meeting currently underway between Manthorp, Pickett, Ness and Duane.

  Behind her, Elke gasped.

  Georgie turned and took in the embarrassed look on the housekeeper’s face, trickling liquid forming a small puddle on the tiled floor between her feet.

  Shit. She’s having her baby.

  Franklin and Ando shook hands and she slapped him on the shoulder.

  ‘Be safe, mate.’ Her gaze and tone were serious.

  He appreciated that as an SES rescue officer, she’d seen more gruesome incidents than him, and he gave a nod of thanks. ‘And you.’

  With that, Franklin took off, legs pumping as hard as his heart as he pushed up the steep hill. He skidded on damp undergrowth and passed tree ferns four or five times his almost six-foot frame, and mountain ash wider than the length of his Ninja.

  Thank God I gave up the smokes.

  His chest burned and breaths rasped, but he put on an extra spurt towards the top of the hill. He couldn’t get back to Daylesford soon enough.

  Willem Agterop held his wife’s arm as he led her to the front entrance. He had his ute waiting outside and told Georgie that Elke’s things were packed in it.

  She held Elke’s other hand, wincing at the woman’s strong grip.

  ‘I thought they were practice contractions…not the real thing.’ She moaned. ‘My baby can’t come early.’

  She bent over, groaned and puffed. Agterop rubbed her back and shot a panicky look at Georgie. She checked the stopwatch on her phone and mouthed Six minutes.

  Whether he or Elke liked it or not, this was no trial run.

  Georgie was clueless about birthing babies and dreaded Elke having hers here, but her saner side guessed hours of agony were ahead. It wouldn’t help to share that with the Agterops though, so she murmured reassurances until Elke’s breathing slowed and she straightened.

  They shuffled on, but when they reached the foyer Elke said, ‘Please. Wait. I need to speak with Mrs Savage.’

  She waved to the closed door buffering the meeting between the parents and detectives.

  Georgie said, ‘I don’t think –’

  ‘I must.’ Elke’s chin had a determined set.

  Georgie nodded, tapped on the door and entered. ‘Sorry to interrupt…Ness?’

  The detectives and Duane turned, watching silently. Ness rose, confusion pinching her face.

  ‘Elke’s baby is coming. She’d like a word with you, if that’s okay?’ Georgie ran her hands through her hair, anxious. This could be the last straw for Ness.

  Yet she moved to Elke without hesitation and took her hand.

  ‘It’s my time…’

  Ness nodded. Georgie wondered where Elke was going with this. She had been detached for the whole time they’d been here, but now seemed impelled to share something with the other mother.

  What?

  ‘I’m early…it shouldn’t be coming yet, but it is.’ She cradled her belly. ‘A baby is a special gift.’

  ‘Yes –’ Ness faltered.

  ‘I will pray that your children will be home, safe, soon.’

  ‘Thank you.’ Ness kissed Elke’s cheek. It was clearly a great effort to speak but she managed, ‘And I wish for you that everything goes well with your baby.’

  Her eyes shut for a few seconds, then reopened. ‘There is nothing like the love you have for your children and theirs for you. Treasure every minute.’

  Chapter 39

  Hannah

  The pervs had locked her door this time and were talking in the other room and chucking cans around, drinking again probably. Hannah was able to stay awake for longer and think a bit more clearly, although she still felt shit. And she wasn’t sure it was a good thing to be awake more. It just gave her a lot of time to worry about Riles and Coops, wondering if they’d gotten home, and way too much time to feel guilty and stressed about Mum. She’d gotten to thinking maybe it was just as well Mum had Duane – she didn’t have to deal with this a
lone.

  Worse still, time with nothing to do made her go over and over the stupid mistakes she’d made. The mess she’d gotten herself and her bros into. And what was going to happen.

  She heard Ealdy say, ‘The bitch’s too much hard work.’ He sounded whiny. ‘Should just get it over with.’

  Hannah was petrified of being raped, although the constant fear of it made it feel like it’d already happened, in a way. People wouldn’t get that – she probably wouldn’t even try to explain it.

  She went stiff when she heard Dicko say, ‘What happened with the other one?’ and ‘Garn, you can tell me.’

  When Ealdy wouldn’t answer, Dicko got louder, the dog went stupid and then, all cocky, Ealdy said, ‘Alright, dickhead, you wanna know? She was hot-as, but she wouldn’t fuck me, not even when I said I’d send the pics to her oldies and school and put them all over the web. Well, by then I couldn’t keep it in me pants.’

  He whooped and Dicko egged him on.

  ‘So I took her and she kept me amused. Feisty bitch, that one, but. Cool accent and that. Then all of a sudden, she’d do anything for me, told me she loved me and shit – like I’d fall for that. And I got bored. Then that one in there came along and got me all revved up again.’

  Hannah’s heart thumped in her ears, but she noticed it went quiet in the other room.

  After a bit, Dicko said, ‘So what’d you do with the bitch?’

  Ealdy cackled. ‘Well, they say this area’s full of old mineshafts. Not my fault if she fell down one, huh?’

  Lactic acid dragged on Franklin’s muscles and he regretted pushing so hard to get back to Upalong when he had a couple of hours on the Ninja ahead. Jelly legs and a motorbike were a lethal mix.

  He breathed deeply, flushing oxygen through his burning muscles, planning his departure. But the first thing he saw was Georgie, red-faced, in a rush to tell him that the housekeeper’s baby was coming, apparently relieved she didn’t have to deliver it. Then he was caught up with Ness and Duane, who’d finished their latest interview with the local Ds and needed to vent.