‘Ready? Two min,’ he said.
Affirmative replies came from six or seven different people. Dave couldn’t tell. Glancing at Jack, he saw his partner was wide-eyed, staring at the screen, pale. Helpless. He walked over to him and put an arm around his shoulders.
‘Trust,’ he muttered quietly.
‘On my command. Three, two, one, go, go, go!’
The doors of the warehouse flew open and the men ran into the large open empty shed.
The men in the office were watching from the commander’s point of view, a video on his helmet. ‘Left, left,’ he puffed as they now followed a narrow passage that ran along the edge of the corrugated iron wall. ‘Down.’
Dave struggled to keep up with the commands as they were whispered into the microphones.
They came to a door that was shut.
‘Jesus,’ Jack said.
The door was flung open.
Dave heard the clink of a stun grenade being thrown and hitting the cement floor.
Loud bangs and a small amount of smoke went up, meant to disorientate whoever was inside.
A male voice yelled and was quickly quietened.
‘Here.’
‘I’ve got one.’
‘Three here. Plus another two.’
‘Get ’em outside.’
Dave couldn’t see what was happening. The commander was facing away from his team, watching their backs while they dragged the people out.
‘Need three ambulances,’ a muffled voice said.
Jack and Dave were glued to the screen. The sound of a gun-shot ripped through the office and there was another round of yelling. Dave couldn’t make out what they were saying.
The smoke began to dispel and then came the call: ‘Clear!’ Dave hadn’t realised he was holding his breath until he dragged in a breath.
‘Four packages safe. Drugged and bound, but safe. Ambulances for checks, thanks.’
Simms turned to Dave and Jack, relief on his face. ‘We’ll get you to the hospital now.’
Chapter 36
‘Mum?’ Melissa dropped her handbag and ran to Essie, who was sitting on the hospital bed.
At the sound of her voice, Essie turned and looked at her daughter. ‘Melissa, darling …’ She got up and held open her arms.
‘Paris?’ Melissa asked.
‘She’s okay. The doctors are with her at the moment. She was drugged, but she’s coming out of it. I have to wait for them to clear me.’
At that moment, a nurse entered. ‘I can take you to her now,’ she said with a smile.
Together the two women followed her to a ward where Paris lay in a bed. Her dark hair was strewn across the pillow and her little face was pale. The monitors around her beeped quietly.
‘She’s fine,’ the nurse said encouragingly. ‘Paris will wake up very soon—she’s a tough little kid.’
‘Thank you,’ Melissa said, as she stared at the daughter she hadn’t seen for five years. ‘Oh, Mum, she’s beautiful.’
‘She looks just like you did when you were her age,’ Essie said as she sat alongside her grandchild and took the small hand in hers.
Paris’s eyes flickered open. ‘Hello, darling girl,’ Essie said, leaning towards her.
‘Granny!’ Her voice was high and frightened.
‘Shh, shh, it’s over now.’
Paris looked towards Melissa, then looked back at her grandmother. ‘Who’s that?’ she whispered.
‘This is someone very special, darling. Do you remember all the photos I showed you of your mum? Well, this is her. This is Melissa, your mother.’
In the next room, Dave held Kim tightly to him. He kissed her forehead over and over. ‘I thought I’d lost you,’ he said quietly.
‘I was so scared, I didn’t know what to think,’ she said. ‘I tried to get them just to take me and to leave the others behind.’
Dave felt his chest constrict. Of course she would have done that, without a second thought.
‘They won’t get away with it. Simms knows who they are. They’ll be on the run now. You’re safe.’
‘The others? Where’s Paris?’
‘Everyone’s okay. Once the drugs wear off, there won’t be any physical consequences.’ He was silent and they looked at each other, both knowing that the psychological trauma would be harder for everyone to get through.
‘Hopefully, Paris is young enough for this not to affect her for the rest of her life. Maybe she’ll forget, in time.’
‘She may well do.’ He looked carefully at Kim. ‘How about you?’
Kim gave a watery smile. ‘Give it time and I’ll be okay. I’ve got you to help me.’
‘You sure do, honey. I’ll do everything you need me to.’
‘I know.’ She leaned into him harder and Dave pressed his lips to her forehead again. They stayed like that for a long time.
Jack held Zara as if he would never let her go. He couldn’t speak, just tried to show how much she meant to him, by holding her close.
‘Well, that’s the most exciting story I’ve ever been involved in,’ Zara said, trying to make light of what had just happened. She rubbed the bruised skin on her elbow where she had been dragged from the car.
‘Not one I ever want you to be involved in again,’ Jack whispered.
Zara shuddered. ‘No. Me neither,’ she said quietly.
‘What did they do to you?’
‘Honestly? I don’t remember much once we were taken out of the van. Just that they put hoods over our heads and marched us into where you found us. I’m not sure what they gave us, but whatever it was made me really sleepy. I don’t remember anything until the cops came crashing through the doors.’
‘Weren’t you frightened?’
Zara turned to face him. ‘Frightened? More than you could imagine.’ She paused. ‘I’m sorry, Jack. Sorry for everything. When they kidnapped us all I could think about was seeing you again. I was so scared that I wasn’t ever going to be able to tell you I love you.’ She stopped and tried to swallow the lump in her throat. ‘And I do, you know. I love you.’
Jack smoothed her hair back from her forehead and kissed her. ‘I love you,’ he said.
Two days later, after everyone had been released from hospital, Jack and Dave watched Melissa, Essie and Paris play on the lawn through the windows of the safe house.
‘This is part of the job that gives me so much satisfaction,’ Dave whispered to Jack. ‘Changing people’s lives for the better.’
‘The best part,’ Jack agreed.
Essie looked up and saw them standing there. She said something to Paris, pointing at the window, then came inside. As she walked towards them her arms were outstretched, and Dave could see tears on her cheeks.
‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘Thank you for believing in me.’
Jack and Dave nodded, because neither of them had words.
Essie’s mobile phone rang and she went to answer it, smiling.
‘Zara, how nice …’ She broke off and listened. ‘I’ll have to ask. Hold on.’ Taking the phone away from her ear, she said to Dave, ‘Zara needs to come here. She’s got urgent news.’
Dave held his hand out for the phone.
‘What’s up?’ Listening, he glanced at Melissa, then at Essie. ‘Okay, get the copper at the front gate to let you in. I’ll authorise it.’
He gave the phone back to Essie and went to the front door to open it.
Jack followed. ‘What’s going on?’ He glanced back at the happy family and kept his voice low.
‘Your girlfriend is a dog with a bone, that’s what.’ But there was a smile in Dave’s voice as he said it.
Jack looked at him. ‘I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing.’
‘In this case, I think it’s good. Here she is. Hi, Zara,’ he said as she appeared, walking up the driveway.
‘Hi, Dave.’ She looked over at Jack. ‘Hey, you.’
Jack leaned forward and kissed her. ‘I’ve missed you.’
<
br /> ‘Me too. But I’m not finished work yet. Hold on to your hat because you’re going to love this story. Can I come in?’
Dave and Jack stood back to let her enter and Zara went to Essie. ‘It’s lovely to see you so happy. Hello, Melissa.’
Everyone was inside now. Melissa had Paris on her lap and the child gave a squeal of delight when she saw Zara. She slipped down and ran to her.
‘This is my mum,’ Paris said, jumping up and down. ‘I’ve only seen photos of her before!’
‘How wonderful you get to see her in real life!’ Zara said. ‘Can we all sit down?’
Essie looked at her. ‘What’s going on?’
‘Come on, over here,’ Zara pointed to the chairs at the kitchen table. ‘We can all fit around here as this is going to take some time.’ She took a breath as they all sat, and Jack watched as she looked over at him. He wished he knew what she was about to say.
‘Essie, when this all started, and you wouldn’t talk to me, I started researching you. I was trying to find information on Melissa so I could track her down and find out what was going on with the drugs.’
‘What are drugs?’ Paris asked.
Essie turned to her. ‘Darling, this is an adult conversation. Can you please go into your room and I’ll call you when you can come out.’
Paris pouted. ‘But …’
Melissa rose. ‘I’ll go with her.’
Zara shook her head. ‘No, you need to hear this too.’
Paris let out a theatrical sigh. ‘Okay, I’ll goooo.’
They all smiled as she flounced out of the room.
Zara started her story again. ‘You may remember that I said Paris reminded me of someone and I’ve been trying to work out who it was. I couldn’t place it, but faces are what I’m good at, so I kept thinking and researching and watching.’ She kept her tone even. ‘I looked through the school yearbooks and, Melissa, you weren’t in any that I had.’
Melissa shook her head. ‘No, I was never good enough at school to have any of my work published in the magazines. And I always seemed to be sick when the school photos were taken, wasn’t I, Mum?’
‘Yes, you were. They took them in August, if I remember correctly, and you always had a cold that turned into bronchitis. Every year without fail.’
‘That explains that then,’ Zara said.
Everyone was looking at her, waiting.
Essie suddenly seemed uneasy and looked down at the floor.
‘Then Hopper put me on to a bloke who lives in a humpy down on the railway line. Ted, his name is. He gave me some interesting information on you. Said that a long time ago there was talk that you had twins, but everyone only ever saw you with one baby, so people either assumed one had died, or that the rumour was untrue.’
Jack saw Essie move her hands to her throat as if she were stopping herself from speaking.
Melissa’s face showed her confusion. ‘What?’ She looked over at Essie. ‘Twins? That can’t be right. You always told me I was an only child.’
Essie nodded. ‘Yes, I had twins. A boy and a girl.’ Her voice seemed stilted, as if she had to force the words out of her body.
‘But … I don’t understand.’ Melissa regarded Essie curiously. ‘Where are they?’
Essie’s eyes welled up. ‘You’re the twin girl, Melissa. Your brother—’ She let out a little sob. ‘I don’t know where he is. I think he’s dead.’
‘No.’ Melissa blinked a couple of times and put her hand over her mouth. ‘That can’t be right. You would have said something.’
Essie didn’t seem to be able to answer her daughter, breathing deeply before she turned to Zara. ‘How did you find out? Essie wasn’t even my name then.’ She paused. ‘Well, it was, but I never went by it.’
‘First of all, I saw the name on your suitcase. Rose Kelly.’
A ghost of a smile appeared as everyone watched her memories crowd in. ‘Yes, Ian always called me Rose. That wasn’t my name—it’s Essie—but he said I was his Irish rose. I loved that the name made me feel wild and romantic and free. All the things I was craving when I left home.’ Sadness crossed her face. ‘But after he’d gone, I couldn’t bear anyone to call me Rose, so I started correcting everyone. Telling them my name was Essie so I didn’t have to feel so desolate every time someone called me Rosie.’
‘Oh, Essie, I’m so sorry,’ Zara said, sympathy on her face. She waited before starting again in her steady, soothing voice. ‘Then I saw the birth certificates when I was helping get you ready for this move. Two of them. Bridget Melissa and Alroy Ian. Both had the same birthday. And the box of black-and-white photos I found when I was helping Paris pack. You and two babies sitting on the back lawn of your house.’ She waited for Essie to take over.
‘I went to the hospital one night,’ Essie said. She looked over at Melissa. ‘You both were still only tiny—twelve months old. Ian had just come home from working away for a year, shearing. You were sick. Had a fever and I didn’t know what to do, so I took you to the hospital. It was a tricky time. I’d spent the previous two years following him from shed to shed, and part of the lifestyle had been wonderful, exotic—I was seeing things I’d never seen before.’ She paused and looked at them all. ‘And part of it was nothing but hard work. That afternoon, before you’d become sick, I’d told him I wouldn’t go on the road with him anymore. You couldn’t understand what it was like, having never done it. He was a shearer and we were chasing sheds all time. Never staying one place more than three weeks.
‘I had liked the travel to begin with. We had fun. Oh, he was a rascal, your father.’ Her face took on a faraway look. ‘Such a tease. He’d make me laugh even when I was angry. He worked so hard, Ian did. But he played hard too.
‘Then I got pregnant and all that changed. I didn’t want to move around anymore, but he still did.
‘After a chance meeting I moved into the house we live in now and I’ve never left. I always thought he might come back, but he never did.’
‘And he left with your son?’ Zara asked quietly.
‘Ah,’ Essie swallowed a few times and looked down. Her hands were picking at the hem of her cardigan. ‘Well … I never …’ Then she looked up, her face a world of pain. ‘Yes. Yes, he did. I came back from the hospital and Ian was gone. Alroy was gone too. There was a note saying not to worry. They’d be okay and that if I wasn’t going to get back on the road, then he had no choice but to get going with Alroy. “One for you and one for me,” he said.’ Essie’s voice quavered.
Melissa shot up, her eyes wild. ‘What? Is that even legal? How could he do that?’ She stopped and then sat down. ‘Oh my God,’ she said quietly. ‘I’ve got a brother I don’t even remember. How does … how does that even happen? Oh, Mum.’ Melissa reached out to clasp Essie’s hand.
‘I never went to the police. Just got on with life. What could I do? Nothing. I didn’t know where they’d gone,’ Essie said.
‘The police would have helped,’ Jack broke in.
Essie shook her head. ‘No. Ian would have known how to disappear. Headed up to some shed in the back of beyond. He would have been hard to find. Even my friend Evie said not to chase him. She thought looking after a little boy would be too much for Ian and he’d bring him back. But he never did.
‘From then on I made sure no one ever called us Rose or Bridget. I didn’t want any reminders of Ian and our lives together, it was too painful. I never forgot Alroy, and in later years I did try to find him—I used newspapers and searched for his name. It was so distinctive.’ A little sob escaped her. ‘Ian must’ve changed it, or he died, because I’ve never been able to find either of them.’ Frowning, she looked at Zara. ‘What’s this family resemblance you talk about? You’ve only met Melissa twice and never Ian. But you’ve said for some time you thought Paris looks like someone you know.’
Zara nodded and smiled, before getting her phone out and sending a text message. Turning back to the others, she said, ‘Melissa, I knew when I saw you; it
was something about your eyes. I’d seen someone recently with a gold patch under the iris just the way you have. It took me ages to remember who it was.’
A knock sounded, and Essie went pale. ‘No?’
Grinning, Zara got up. ‘Yes. I found him.’
Looking ready to faint, Essie followed Zara to the door.
‘I always kept my door blue, in case he ever came home,’ Essie said, more to herself than anyone else. ‘I thought he might remember.’
Everyone in the room was standing in anticipation.
The door opened, and Jesse Barnett stood there.
‘Oh my God, Alroy, you look just like him!’ Essie flew across the distance between them.
Alroy opened his arms and held her tightly, all the while looking at Melissa in fascination. She had her hand over her mouth, and tears running down her cheeks.
‘Hello, Mum,’ he said in a gruff voice. ‘Been a while. Dad changed my name.’
Epilogue
Courtney passed Zara a wine then filled her plate with the salads set out on the bench.
Tye and Jack were standing at the barbecue talking about the impending footy grand final with Dave and James, while Kim and Zara’s mother Lynda sat chatting at the kitchen table.
‘You good?’ Courtney asked Zara.
She nodded, taking a sip of the wine and looking around contentedly at the people in her house.
‘Tell me about today,’ Courtney said.
Zara’s mind flew back to the counsellor’s office. She and Jack had gone together and he’d waited outside for her appointment to finish. She put her drink down and practised the strategy Helen had given her when she didn’t want to talk about something. A couple of deeper breaths than normal, then organise the words in her mind.
‘It was good. She asked all the normal questions, you know, did I sleep through the night and what did I dream about? I felt like I should be lying on a couch, to begin with, but she made me really comfortable—and I don’t feel like I am going mad—’ Zara paused ‘—which I thought I was. All the dreams and stuff.’
Jack came over and put his hand on her shoulder, dropping a kiss on her head. ‘This is a good thing,’ he said.
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