by John Bishop
lookout had been painted recently. From the indicator boards, the team identified major landmarks and found them on the maps provided by Kenny. St Mark’s Church was visible; Banabrook Historic Homestead wasn’t, but the direction and distance to it were indicated. At the foot of the hill below the lookout, open parkland stretched to the fringes of the Arajinna township. They could see the entire length of the broad main street. It was early afternoon and about twenty vehicles were angle parked. There was a small amount of pedestrian activity. Eamon pointed to a marked police car towards the far end on the left hand side and said, ‘I can’t see a sign but that must be where our station is. The school is around the corner to the right, on the far side.’
‘The Arajinna Odeon,’ Ziggy remarked, pointing to a large building half way along the street. ‘I wonder what’s on.’
‘Yeah, well keep wondering, you won’t be seeing anything.’
‘Oh, come on Sarge!’
‘And stop calling me Sarge, even when there’s nobody to hear.’
Megan leafed through a folder of papers. ‘Kenny’s notes suggest quite a bit of brass has been spent on refurbishing. You can see the Criterion has had a paint job. I love the wrought iron lace around the verandah.’
‘I haven’t got back to the brief yet,’ Eamon admitted.
Ziggy, grinned. ‘You’ll find it’s another case of “good work Kenny”. Funny little feller, eh? Not your average young copper, that’s for sure. Reckons he graduated from university, then decided he wanted to become a detective, so he started over as a police rookie.’
Eamon had telephoned ahead to book three rooms on the first floor of the Criterion, using a recently established cover as surveyors working for the State Lands Department. All of them were able to use a theodolite and a dumpy level, and the trappings of the trade strapped to the roof rack or poking from the tray of the ute, made it possible to park their vehicles almost anywhere without raising much interest. This was the third cover story Justin Brody had invented for his unit, two previous covers having been abandoned after being mentioned in news reports of high-profile drug busts. Only a few senior police officers and the head of the lands department knew the current set-up. If anybody had reason to check, the equipment and stationery the team carried bore authentic departmental markings including a reference number that brought them up on the lands department records with the notation: Special Projects Team. Refer Chief Surveyor.
Like real surveyors, they carried the most expensive equipment into the hotel to reduce the probability of theft. This also served to announce them and their occupation to desk staff and casual observers.
‘Meet down here in half an hour,’ Eamon said. ‘We need to go survey some stuff.’
An hour later, they parked the station wagon beside St Mark’s. Ziggy took a tripod from the roof. Eamon took a wooden case from the back, extracted the theodolite and screwed it onto the tripod. With the instrument in full view in the car park, the team wandered around the grounds, talking and pointing. Then, leaving Megan to make a show of reading plans and hunting for marker pegs, Eamon and Ziggy went into the church where Max was waiting for them.
After inspecting the church, Eamon and Ziggy conferred before telling Max they thought Ziggy should sleep on a stretcher in the transept on the side opposite the vestry. This would, in Ziggy’s terms, “spread their ears across the width of the church”—increasing the probability of early detection of an intruder.
Max said, ‘There’s a toilet and wash facilities off the vestry. The only shower is in the main toilet block in the corner of the car park.’
‘We’ll manage,’ Ziggy said.
‘I think your idea of holing up here is good,’ Eamon said. ‘Even at this time of day it’s quiet. The bird noises are intermittent. It would be hard to cross the gravel without being heard. Being a city boy I notice how far sound travels out here. If you stand still you can hear each individual car on the highway.’
‘Lucky it’s not cicada season,’ Max said. ‘Although, even they go quiet at night. Of course the building talks and the livestock bumps.’
‘What?’
‘Long story. I’ll brief Ziggy later.’
‘I’ve checked the locks,’ Ziggy said. ‘Impressive! I’ll be careful not to drop one of those keys on my foot. The only bigger ones I’ve seen are at the Synagogue. And we’re really into security there. We’ll take these out of the keyholes, after locking up, so no bastard can manipulate them from outside. You can do the same inside the vestry. But put the key close to the door; and remember where it is—you don’t want to be searching for it if there’s a fire.’
‘I hadn’t thought of that,’ Max said.
‘Some of the bastards we might be dealing with wouldn’t be above torching a church for a quick buck.’
‘You fill me with confidence.’
‘Best to be prepared, mate. Believe me.’
Max paused and looked around the church. ‘So what do we do if we hear something suspicious?’
Eamon said, ‘We’ve brought two-way radio for you and Ziggy. It’s faster than using mobiles to make short-range contact, and you two have to be on the same page. We’ve brought unused pre-paid mobiles as back up. They’re pre-programmed with numbers for me and Megan. You carrying a mobile?’
Max nodded.
‘Keep it on, and use it for any personal calls. If a hit man comes looking, we want him to find you; that’s already been agreed. I see you have a vehicle parked out the front. Good idea. I’m happy for your presence to be advertised. But it’s best if people don’t know we’re here. Ziggy will keep out of the way when any legitimate visitors come to see you. He’ll take you through the communications drill and work with you on how you should respond to various possibilities when you’re the only two here. The main thing though is, unless there really is a fire, you stay locked in the vestry at night no matter what happens out in the church.’
‘What if I think Ziggy’s in danger.’
‘It’s covered by the salary, mate,’ Ziggy grinned. ‘Better one of us alive than both dead.’
‘Great!’
‘Fact!’
‘I thought working in pairs was standard practice.’
‘So it is, mate, so it is! We’ll be working as a pair, but on either side of a locked door.’
‘Okay’, Eamon said. ‘What else do we need to talk about?’ He looked around the nave. ‘If Ziggy’s stretcher and things are out here, they’ll have to be put away during the day in case you have visitors. And he’ll need a place to hide if it’s someone who hasn’t been told what’s going on.’
Max thought for a moment. ‘I’ll show you a place I think will be ideal.’ He led them outside. Against one wall of the church, there was a flat-roofed brick structure. With a key from a ring attached to his belt, he unlocked the padlock and opened the door to reveal a nearly empty tool shed. ‘This was originally the gravediggers’ shed. We hire a contractor with a small backhoe if we need a grave dug these days, so this space is rarely used except for storage. We can dust off the bench as a place to sit. I’ll give Ziggy the key and he can use it whenever he needs to.’
‘Perfect,’ Ziggy said.
As they wandered back into the church, Eamon said, ‘Who knows you’re here, and who else is likely to turn up?’
‘Justin asked us to adopt a need to know approach, but he agreed to a couple of exceptions. Trudy, the school principal, and Celestine—the teacher who’s covering for me—are the only ones we’ve told everything. Celestine will come and go with work for me to mark. Ginny, the nurse who was there when Magro died, is secure as they come. She wasn’t a witness to what he said but we thought she should be briefed. Emily and Tony Blake were told early on. I think Justin was disappointed we’d done that, but I wasn’t going to keep this a secret from family. Apart from a service at 11am on Sunday, the only regular visitors are the members of the vestry committee. The committee usually meets on Tuesday at 5pm. We rescheduled this week because of Magro’s acc
ident. We met here yesterday—before I unpacked my gear.’
‘What have you told them about being here so much?’
‘There are some old registers in the safe. Births, Deaths, Marriages, Christenings, Confirmations. They’ve been used as source documents for a history of the district. I’ve been saying for ages I must find time to do a final systematic search. It provided a legitimate reason for my allocating a swag of time to attack the project now. I told the committee I’d do the job here to avoid carting the old books home and risking damage. It’s the same story we’ve told staff at the school and at Banabrook. Compiling the history is a school project, so it all sounded good.’
‘So what you’ve told them is a nearly truthful lie.’ Ziggy said. ‘Good move. The fewer big porkies we have to remember, the better.’
‘Okay,’ Eamon said. ‘Now we need to get supplies for you two out of the wagon. It’s probably wise not to be observed doing that. The door opening onto the graveyard looks the least likely to be in view if there’s anyone watching. I’m going to use the theodolite to have a gander at things a bit further afield. Megan can hold some markers for me. Ziggy will bring the wagon around the back. Good luck mate.’ He shook Max’s hand.
‘Thanks.’
‘I’ll give you twenty minutes Zig. Then Megan and I will fetch the wagon and go brief Constable Gerado.’
‘He’s a good young
