Into the Fog

by Sandi Wallace

  Before they disconnected, he asked, ‘Any guesses on Hannah/Rikki’s password?’

  Slam had dried up on possibilities, although fortunately he knew tricks on resetting the system when it blocked him after too many tries. Franklin didn’t want to know how he’d acquired that skill.

  Kat was quiet for ages.

  ‘You still there?’

  ‘Yeah, I’m thinking, Dad.’

  He chuckled.

  ‘Buddy, with a capital B, the and symbol, Dad, capital D?’

  Franklin relayed it to Slam. He gave a thumbs-down, looking buggered.

  ‘Who’s Buddy?’

  ‘Hanny’s staffie.’

  Franklin was impressed. He’d forgotten about the dog.

  ‘Try the same with twelve in digits at the end,’ she suggested. ‘Because Hannah’s twelve, right?’

  ‘Good theory.’

  He passed the combo on to Slam and nearly dropped the phone when his mate jumped up and danced around the muster room.

  ‘We’re in.’

  He’d only just finished up with Kat, when another call came through.

  Sam barely greeted him before blurting out, ‘Boss, we found Riley and Coops.’

  She summarised.

  After initial elation, he groaned. ‘And Hanny?’

  ‘No sign of her, and the boys are still pretty out of it so they can’t tell us much. Gordana’s had a meltdown and they’re taking her to hospital.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘For a psych evaluation.’

  Franklin swore. ‘Already setting up a defence, is she?’

  ‘I actually think she’s a complete fruit loop. She said something just before the cavalry arrived. Apparently, she thought she could heal the boys better than any hospital. She’s a white witch. Can you believe it? That’s why she was at Doongalla. To do her daily worship of Mother Nature!’

  She snorted. ‘You know she thought the boys had been dumped in the park? Well, get this: she saw a strong resemblance between her and the boys and decided to be their mother – to keep them.’

  ‘What the fuck? Like stray kittens?’

  They ended the call and Franklin hung his head in his hands. It was bloody fantastic that the little boys had been located, but Hannah’s separation from her brothers made her situation seem grimmer.

  He straightened and rose, pacing the room as he told his mates the latest, hearing the desperation in his voice. ‘We need to push.’

  He knew they were all working to capacity, but that wasn’t good enough.

  Franklin tasked each of them and rang Gunner, updated her and said, ‘Need another favour.’

  ‘Ready and waiting.’

  ‘Can you follow up the groupie –’

  She cut him off. ‘That made and withdrew her complaint against Dickson. And find out if your Ealding is a muso. And if the band is still together.’

  He shook his head. She’d nailed it.

  ‘And then, suss out if they’re doing gigs. And where.’

  He chuckled, feeling slightly redundant.

  ‘On it, Water Boy. If these bastards have the girl, I want their arses too.’

  Chapter 49

  Hannah

  The van had driven off. Hannah breathed shallowly, holding herself really tight, straining for the sounds she didn’t want to hear: the van returning or one of them inside the house.

  She couldn’t judge how long she waited like that in the darkness. Although she’d heard two doors slam, she wasn’t convinced they’d both left. She’d wait a bit longer.

  She listened hard and heard the dog’s toenails tapping on timber boards. It farted, then flopped down. Those sounds were loud in the house. It was the quietest she remembered the place being. No voices, music, telly, snoring.

  Hannah thought it was too soon to make a move, so she lay still and went on brainstorming.

  Her door was locked. She’d heard one of them turn a key and wiggle the handle to test it. Didn’t matter anyway – the dog was on the other side of the door.

  She’d spent a lot of time wondering what she’d do depending on where they left the dog, scared of it mauling her. It was good that the dog was inside – it’d still be locked up if she managed to get out.

  Some way other than through that door.

  From what Hannah had seen of the window, the glass would be easy to break, but the boards on the outside looked thick and strong. She’d gotten pretty skinny over the past few days, so it wasn’t like she had heaps of weight to throw around. It’d probably hurt a lot and might not work.

  Luckily, she’d had another idea.

  Harty commented loudly, ‘Hanny as Rikki has liked heaps of RIP tribute and missing kids’ pages.’

  Franklin felt a chill up his neck. He wondered if that fitted within the realm of normal teenage stuff. He’d muddled through most of being a dad via trial and error, with help from his friends. This was out of his league.

  So he called in another favour from another friend and three minutes later, the throaty sound of her vintage Suzuki GT750 as it throttled down before entering the cop shop driveway announced her arrival.

  Franklin met Danni on the stairs. She clapped him into a bear hug, her leather jacket creaking between their chests.

  ‘How you holding up, Frankie?’

  ‘Had better days.’

  They shared a wry smile and moved to the muster room where Maeve, Slam, Harty, and some other coppers milled. The room was overcrowded and funky with foot odour, food smells and lingering cigarette smoke.

  ‘You all know Danni from the Community Church? She wears two hats there.’

  Franklin received nods from most, but noticed confused expressions on a few faces. The rotation of bodies through the station that night had been constant, so he’d forgotten that half the group was out of the loop. He brought everyone up to speed. Reaching the concerning pages Hannah had liked, he explained that he hoped Danni could shed light on them.

  She nodded. ‘I’m not a psychiatrist or psychologist. I’m a pastor and an IT nerd. Give me a computer and I can find data, information and,’ she waved vaguely, ‘stuff. I have a lot of boring-sounding skills, except to nerds like me. And I’m pretty good with people.’

  Franklin smiled at her understatement.

  ‘I don’t claim to be any sort of expert on human brains and behaviours. Right?’

  Nods from all round.

  ‘That said, girls Hannah’s age are often fixated on certain things: bodies, sex, males or females depending on their sexual tendencies.’

  She hesitated.

  Nobody spoke and Danni went on. ‘Then there’s rebellion – against rules, authority, adults in general and especially against parents. That’s how it goes, isn’t it?’

  Her grin earned chuckles from the parents in the room.

  ‘And mortality.’ Her palm lift indicated that it was a fact of life. But although every person was dying from the moment they were born, the soft sadness around her eyes admitted that some losses were still difficult, even for a pastor.

  ‘Death.’ Slam put it bluntly.

  ‘Yes, death. What I’m saying is, in my experience it’s not uncommon for twelve-to-fourteen-year-olds to collect information on or follow sites that relate to those themes, or to run away. At Hannah’s age, many runaways are simply kids acting up, making their families sweat, to manipulate them. They don’t intend to stay away.’

  ‘There are plenty of exceptions,’ Franklin said.

  Danni waggled her head. ‘I know that.’

  He nodded.

  ‘I’ve been in IT and clerical work for years. But I’d say it’s mostly through my work with the youth group at Church that I’ve realised that when kids, especially young teens, follow RIP, missing kid, I-hate-my-mum, and I-want-to-blow-up-the-world stuff on social media, it doesn’t necessarily mean they want to die, go permanently missing, really hate their parents or want to hurt anyone, including themselves.’

  Franklin nodded again. Ka
t pushed the boundaries on occasion, especially working the deprived one-parent angle, but he knew she didn’t mean most of what she said when she lashed out. She was after his reaction or another reason to arc up.

  Danni tapped the end of her nose. ‘It could be that Hannah has been gathering info on how to stage a runaway and how other kids have gone about scaring the living crap out of their parents.’

  She indicated to Harty that she wanted his seat, hit a few keys on his computer, waited, then faced back to the group. ‘We should be more concerned about who Hannah’s interacted with and what their intentions are.’

  Franklin watched Danni’s face pinch.

  She added, ‘There are monsters out there desperate to prey on kids like Hannah: low self-esteem, estranged or strained relationship with parents, confused about identity and image. Although Hannah has a good network of friends here, she could still be a very lonely girl and easy to manipulate with attention, affection or apparent love…’

  And one of those trolls is named Ealding, going by the name Wylder.

  Chapter 50

  Hannah

  Hannah hadn’t heard the van return and there were no voices – no noises except the dog’s snores and—gross—mice or rats scratching in the ceiling above her.

  It had to be now. She didn’t know how long Ealdy and Dicko would be out, how long it’d take to get away or how far she’d have to go to reach someone who could help.

  If there is anyone around.

  She dropped her legs over the bed and her toes found the floor. She waited for the world to stop spinning. It did. But everything stayed pitch black.

  This is going to be so hard in the dark.

  Hannah pinched her arm to stop her getting sooky. She reminded herself that she’d always been good at memory games and Josh’d said that the boxing drills had sharpened her up. Plus she’d expected this – she knew there was no light bulb in this room and she’d have to work blind. So she’d memorised the layout, just like she’d memorised Haydn’s instructions and the Google Earth map she’d looked at on the computer at home. If the fog and storm the other day hadn’t confused things, she would’ve easily made it to their meeting place behind the shops instead of getting lost.

  Her stomach clenched. If she had made it, it still wouldn’t have been anything like what she’d dreamt about. She’d imagined nicking off for a secret meeting with her brand new boyfriend. They’d hold hands and maybe have their first kiss, although she didn’t know about the tongue bit. They’d be just like Kat and Josh. She’d hoped to make it back to camp without being missed, but if the others clued up to her being gone she’d just say she’d been checking things out and lost track of time.

  It all went wrong with the bad weather and then Riley and Coops tagging along.

  The one good thing about having got lost in the bush was that Haydn—Ealdy—didn’t get his hands on Riley and Cooper.

  OMG, that would’ve been bad.

  She told herself that someone nice found them and they were home with Mum and Duane.

  I wanna be home too.

  Franklin’s phone rang again. It was his ex-cop-come-PI mate, Skinner.

  ‘Just wanted to let you know…nothing so far.’

  Franklin kicked the desk leg. He appreciated the heads-up but only wanted good news.

  His mate added, ‘But I’ll get you something.’ Skinner had a heavy smoker’s rasp at the best of times, but the emotion in his voice made it sound like he was talking around blue metal gravel. ‘It’s just a matter of how soon.’

  Franklin pictured the boys safe and he reflected on the things they had in motion to find Hannah. By the time he and Skinner disconnected, his heart tapped a wild beat.

  It finally feels like we have our ducks lining up and enough people on and off the books working different threads that we’ll get Ealding.

  They were up against the clock though.

  He made a call.

  Gunner answered, jumping straight in with, ‘Mate, I’m due to connect with the girl assaulted by Dickson. I’ll ring you back.’

  The sarge looked as bleak as Sam felt. Strange – they should be on a high with the boys safe. She sighed.

  An odd expression passed over Lunny’s face, then he started singing. ‘Camp Upalong is rocking. We lost three kids when the storm was popping.’

  Sam improvised the next line. ‘We found two with a strange white witch. Not knowing where Hannah is, is a bitch.’

  Franklin’s mobile scuttled across the desk as it vibrated and pealed, Ando’s landline number on-screen. Still not Georgie. Not even after he’d left another message, telling her about Riley and Coops.

  ‘Dad. How’s it going?’

  He answered distractedly, his mind buried in his conversations with Sam, Gunner and Skinner. ‘We’re working hard. Following several leads.’ He scratched his chin, thinking he’d mimicked Police Media, then belatedly read Kat’s undertone – she hadn’t rung to chew the fat.

  ‘There’s been a development?’

  He sensed some of the others around him stop what they were doing and heard castors on chairs roll closer.

  ‘Sort of. Hang on.’ Kat murmured to someone in the background. ‘Sorry, Dad. Ando’s texting Josh in bits when she can. She’s got to make sure Jules doesn’t catch her.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘More sightings and info have come through on Crime Stoppers. They’re vetting them now.’

  ‘Anything significant?’

  He wondered what headway they’d made with Haydn Wylder. He couldn’t give them Ealding—which at any rate was little more than suppositions and improperly obtained info—without breaking his promise to Georgie or being ordered to leave it to Manthorp. He wanted to follow it through personally – whether that made him self-important or stupid, he wasn’t sure.

  ‘Nah. Anyway, Crime Scene’s heading to Gordana’s.’ Kat’s voice strained. ‘To look for signs of Hanny.’

  The witch had only talked about bringing the boys back to her place – but that didn’t mean she didn’t take Hannah too.

  Cold rushed through Franklin’s insides. He’d put blinkers on against everything but Ealding. He couldn’t afford to do that.

  He realised Kat was waiting for him to say something reassuring. ‘It’s just procedure, kid. Don’t stress. You should get some sleep.’

  ‘Like that’s going to happen.’ She scoffed, sounding younger when she whispered, ‘I can’t stop thinking about Hanny out there alone, Dad. This’ll be her fourth night…’

  Those words went on repeat in Franklin’s head after they hung up, until he overheard Danni say, ‘What have you been up to, Hannah?’

  Franklin raised a hand to silence the team. Only the police radio filled the sudden lull. ‘What’s going on?’

  She had stripped down to a black T-shirt with her leather biker pants, her jacket draped over the chair back. When she turned to Franklin, he saw her tee was printed with a photo of Queen – Freddie bare-chested and straddling his mic stand, the band doing their thing around him. It’d suit Georgie too.

  ‘She’s no introverted tomboy in her alternate universe.’ Danni swivelled back to the computer and peered near-sightedly, spine humped.

  Harty sat next to her, scribbling on a pad. Everyone else crowded around. Nobody spoke. Slam crammed against Franklin. His nose whistled slightly as he breathed.

  Danni sat back. ‘Shivers. On her wall: “Can’t stop thinking about you. When can I see you?”’

  ‘Who wrote it?’

  ‘Wylder,’ Harty supplied.

  Franklin’s frown hardened. ‘We’ve already connected the two of them and know they were meeting on Wednesday.’

  ‘Patience, Frankie,’ Danni warned him. ‘That was on her page for all her friends to see. She gave it a like,’ she did a thumbs-up, ‘but didn’t reply there. But, they continued in a PM – a private message.’

  He leaned over Danni’s shoulder. ‘How does this messaging thing work?’

&nb
sp; She scrolled inside the message box. ‘We’re looking at the latest one. Going up, we’ll read the convo in reverse chronological order.’

  She moved fast, the words blurred in Franklin’s eyes.

  ‘So they talked about the change of venue…and Wylder gave her directions for their meet. She was supposed to use the trails through the park to come up behind the Olinda shops. He was going to take the bus from Croydon, where he said he lives –’

  Franklin steamed.

  Nice touch – a teen with hot wheels all set for when he gets his licence isn’t too scary. Croydon is boy-next-door stuff too. The arsehole really played her.

  ‘They were to meet behind the Post Office between four and five o’clock, depending on his bus running on time.’

  ‘What else have you found?’ Franklin held himself taut, not sure he wanted to know.

  Danni flapped a hand and a long minute later said, ‘Flipping heck. He’s been wooing her for nearly three months.’

  ‘Wooing?’

  ‘Finding out stuff, flattering her, ingratiating himself into her world, manipulating her very, very gently away from her friends and family, playing the only I understand you boyfriend act.’

  Chapter 51

  Hannah

  Hannah whispered, ‘Time for Plan A,’ and shuffled across the room, waving her hands in front of her to avoid bumping into the walls or the bed in the dark. She moved to where she thought the gungy mirror was. Soon, her fingers touched a corner of it. She let out a tiny cheer, then tugged.

  Nothing happened, not even a wobble. ‘Shit.’

  Hannah traced the outline, found a screw in each corner holding the mirror to the wall. She pulled again, harder this time, but couldn’t rip it off.

  All right, bring on Plan B.