Ashes to Ashes

by Campbell, Jamie

  She looked through the spy hole again and the man had moved closer to the door. Jasmine took a step back; she didn’t know what to do. The doorknob rattled, he was trying to get in, she screamed in her head. She snuck over to her mobile phone and picked it up, unsure who to call. She didn’t want to call the police, what was she going to say, ‘there is a man at my door?’ Jasmine knew the Avalon Police Department, unless you cried bloody murder they would not come out of their snug office.

  She walked back to the door and risked looking through the spy hole again; he was gone. She then let out the breath that she hadn’t realised she was holding in. The kitchen window faced out onto the street below. She tiptoed over to it and cautiously looked down into the street. There was a dark blue car parked over the road, the tall man was striding towards it. Without hesitating, she flipped open her phone and took a picture of him getting into his car. She wasn’t quick enough to get a picture of the licence plates but she did catch a glimpse of it. She wrote down what she could remember, IGT 1 something, something.

  She went back to the window just in time to see Caleb pull up in his four-wheel drive jeep. She had never been more relieved to see him. She went to the door and waited for him to reach it. She only unlocked it when she saw that he was standing on the other side.

  “Caleb! I am so glad to see you.”

  “What’s wrong, you look like you’ve seen a ghost?” He ushered her across the lounge and sat down.

  “A guy was just here, he was trying to get in.” She recounted the events that had just taken place and showed him the picture on her mobile phone.

  Caleb shook his head. “I don’t recognise him, have you seen him before?”

  “No, I have no idea who he is. I was almost going to let him in because I thought it was you.”

  “Good thing you didn’t. Are you going to call the police?” He looked her over with genuine concern in his eyes.

  “No, they won’t be able to do anything about it, they’ll just tell me to lock the doors.”

  “If you’re sure.” She nodded, and he continued, figuring it might be better to change the subject and get her mind off it. “Now tell me about this missing mayor of yours.”

  She recounted all she knew about Mayor Reynolds and the reason behind why she was looking for him. Caleb listened intently to every word.

  “...and that’s why I need to find him. He might have some answers about the fire or at least then I can discount him from the investigation.”

  “You sound like an FBI agent,” he teased.

  “Maybe I’ll make a career change after this! Would you like a cup of tea or coffee?”

  “I’d love a coffee, thanks.” He followed her into the kitchen and saw all the pieces of paper on the table. “You have been doing your research, what are all these?” He indicated to the pile of papers.

  “Articles about my parents, from the library. They weren’t exactly the most exciting people on the planet but they made the newspaper a few times.”

  Caleb picked up the top article; it was Jasmine’s birth announcement. He smiled and replaced it on the stack. She handed him his mug and they went back into the lounge room.

  “So how would you try and find a missing person?”

  “I would start by talking to the police. Generally they would have had some leads to go off. Even if Jane Smith thought she spotted him at the shopping centre, they would have the details recorded. The leads might have been dead-ends but it may show a trail towards where he eventually ended up.”

  “Would the police just give that information out to anyone though?”

  “If you knew the right people to ask.” He grinned over his coffee mug.

  She saw the grin and knew it well. “I don’t like the sound of that,” she said.

  * * *

  The next day as the sun was setting over Avalon, Jasmine sat in her car across the road from the police station, not believing what she was about to do. Caleb had told her the night before that she should talk to Constable Vincent “Vinny” Duril. She thought that sounded too easy; she soon found out what the catch was.

  It appeared that Vinny was a bit of a ladies’ man and the younger the lady, the better. So here she was, sitting in her car dressed in the shortest skirt she owned and teamed with her lowest cut top. She had put the top into the back of her wardrobe years ago, deciding it had been a mistake to buy it. Now she was quite grateful for the slutty nature of it.

  She took a deep breath and carefully got out of her car. One wrong move and she would have been very embarrassed. She took a last quick look at herself in her side mirror, hardly recognising her heavily made up face. She teetered on her stiletto heels as she crossed the road.

  “I have an appointment with Constable Duril,” she addressed the man at the counter. He gave her the once over appreciatively, then opened the little swing door attached to the counter and indicated to an office in the corner. She stepped through and gave him a smile over her shoulder. She normally classified herself as a reserved person, but she was working it as much as possible in that outfit.

  The door to Constable Duril’s office was open; he was sitting at his desk with his feet up on the edge. Jasmine supposed he was about late thirties to early forties. Young enough to think he still had a chance with the girls, old enough for the girls to disagree.

  “Well, well, to whom do I owe this pleasure?” He put his feet back on the floor and leaned forward so his arms were resting on the desktop.

  “Jessica Sloane. We spoke on the phone about my missing uncle,” Jasmine extended her arm to shake hands with Vinny before she sat down – carefully crossing her legs.

  “Yes, that’s right, Winston Reynolds’ niece. I’ve got the file right here. He’s been missing a long time, why are you looking for him now?” He smiled at her and Jasmine was sure that she could say anything to him and he would only be thinking about her boobs.

  “It’s my mother, she’s sick and needs a kidney transplant. The doctors said that usually a sibling is a perfect match. It’s a long shot but we need to try.” She tried her best to do a little girl lost face and subtly pushed her chest out a little more.

  “Of course, you poor thing. What would you like me to tell you?”

  “Where he is?” she giggled and he opened the file. She knew she had reeled him in and he was just dangling on the line.

  “The truth is; we never really had any good leads on him. He seemed to just disappear into thin air.”

  Jasmine started to cry, “But my mother’s life depends on it. We have to find him!” Vinny pulled out a box of tissues and placed them on the desk. He had reacted exactly as she had hoped, by placing the box as close to himself as possible. He didn’t care about the tears; he wanted to have a better look. She reached forward across the desk for the tissue box, making sure she just about fell out of her top. She sniffled a “thank you.”

  He waited until she had composed herself. “I promise I will do everything I can to help.”

  “Thank you, I knew you would. You’re such a good policeman; I’ve heard stories about you.” With this last comment he looked a little amazed for a second while he tried to think of why people would be talking about him. To date, his biggest achievement was holding the county record for most speeding fines issued in one day.

  “All good I hope.” He smiled a sleazy smile.

  “Of course, you’re a hero around town. I was wondering... so that I don’t take up too much of your precious time – you must be so busy solving major crimes – would it be too much trouble to have a copy of the file? Then I can read through it myself and come back to ask you some questions.”

  Constable Duril thought through the request for a minute. He knew it was not protocol to give files to ordinary citizens; they belonged to the police department and should always remain in their custody.

  From what he remembered of the Policeman’s Code, he didn’t recall them saying that he couldn’t give a copy of a file to a citizen. After all,
what could it hurt? It was only a missing person’s file and she looked harmless enough. He doubted whether she could do basic maths let alone find fault with the investigation.

  “Of course you can. I’ll go make a copy now.” He pushed his chair back and left the office. Ten minutes later he was back with a big yellow envelope filled with the copies. She got up and gave him a hug before thanking him profusely.

  She left the police station doing her best impersonation of a streetwalker and promised to return as soon as she thought of some questions to ask Vinny.

  Back in her car, she put the keys in the ignition and pulled out onto the road. She sung along to the CD in the car stereo and felt as if she’d just worked out how to win the lottery. She had never known just how easy it was to get a man to do something for her. The most she could get her last boyfriend to do was to show up on time, even then, it was a fifty-fifty chance he actually would.

  She didn’t go straight home, instead she turned her car in the direction of an area of town she hardly dared to venture into – the ‘Haves’ territory. Avalon Heights was on the Eastern side of town to ensure all the houses had a pleasant view of the ocean.

  She pulled up outside of 163 Maytree Way and knocked on the door. She felt like a cheap hooker, standing there waiting for the door to open. Neighbours peeking out of their windows would have thought she was a cheap hooker, just by the look of her. It seemed like an eternity before the door opened.

  “Wow, have you just been to see Vinny?” Caleb opened the door and his reaction was very genuine. He was definitely not used to seeing Jasmine dressed that way. He secretly liked every bit of it. He opened the door wider so that she could step inside.

  “Yeah, Vinny is now my best friend.” She stepped inside and felt very self-conscious of her appearance. She raised the folder out in front of her for Caleb to see. “He even gave me a present.” Caleb took the file off her and started flicking through it.

  “You got a copy of the police file?” he asked incredulously. “How did you manage that?”

  “Just asked for it; it wasn’t hard.” She smiled, happy that Caleb was so impressed with her result.

  They walked through the living and formal dining room until they reached the back family room where Caleb was working before Jasmine had arrived. His laptop was open on the coffee table, the television on in the background.

  Caleb’s house was a large two-storey brick home, with bay windows and a perfect lawn. It looked like a storybook house that you would expect only the snobby members of society to live in. He had lived there alone until about a year ago when he invited his best mate to share with him when he was sick of living with his parents. Now it served as the ultimate bachelor pad for the two of them.

  They sat down on the lounge suite and spread out the file. It contained several photos of Mayor Reynolds. Some included his smiling family which looked like it was a formal photo shoot. There was the petrol station attendant’s witness statement, similar to the account in the Scott O’Hara article. There was a statement from Gladys Reynolds stating the last time she had seen her husband was that morning when she had kissed him goodbye and he had gone off to work for the day.

  A few of Mayor Reynolds’ friends had made statements, mostly about his character. They all denied knowing where he was. The police were obviously going down the track that he had made himself disappear. Maybe he had just cracked and gave up everything on his own accord. His friends didn’t quite agree with this theory, all agreeing he would never leave his wife and daughter like that.

  The staff members of the city council were questioned about his movements that day. His temporary assistant seemed to think he was acting a ‘bit strangely’. Apparently he had shut himself away in his office for most of the day and wouldn’t take any phone calls or visitors. She had only been working there for a few days so she couldn’t say if it was his normal behaviour.

  The police had definitely been comprehensive in their investigation. There was hardly anyone they hadn’t spoken to and not one lead they hadn’t followed to its dead end. Being such a high profile case they had made sure that all the T’s were crossed and the I’s were dotted.

  Jasmine flicked through all the documents. It appeared that the only person who wasn’t questioned was the daughter, Felicity Reynolds. She was twenty years old at the time, definitely old enough to be able to handle a few police questions. There was no mention of her at all. Why would the police have been so thorough with everyone else, yet not even question his own daughter? She ran this by Caleb.

  “Sometimes they don’t like to question the kids. Figure they wouldn’t know anything and best not to upset them. Or the parents won’t allow it,” he offered.

  “Hmm, maybe. It seems strange though, I remember the fire department asked me questions after the fire and I was only eleven.”

  “Yeah, but you weren’t the mayor’s precious daughter. Imagine if they had questioned her, she got upset, and when they eventually found Daddy dearest he was pissed at them for it.”

  “Good point.”

  They went back to the reports but it was the same thing on every page. No one besides the petrol attendant had seen or heard anything.

  They did eventually find the mayor’s car in Tilbruk, but there was nothing except some loose change and his mobile phone in it. ‘It would have been handy if he’d left a goodbye note,’ Jasmine thought to herself.

  “Hey, have a read of this.” Caleb handed her the page he was reading. It was a detective’s report, written just as they were closing the case with the excuse that there was no suspected mischief and nothing more could be done.

  In the very last paragraph was a comment made by the chief detective of the case. It looked like he suspected Mayor Reynolds had hired a boat in Tilbruk and left town that way. Not by train or bus like the rest had thought.

  “Boat? He thought Mayor Reynolds had just sailed off into the sunset?”

  “Makes sense when you think about it. What better way to disappear than to just leave the shore?”

  “I read that he loved fishing, so he would have known his way around a boat. Even if he had the boat waiting for him, for when he arrived after dark, he would probably have known enough to be able to navigate his way right out of there.”

  “So he had the boat waiting for him, he left town and then maybe just stayed out at sea for a few days until the dust had settled, then headed along the coast until he found his destination.”

  Jasmine took up the story. “Where he then casually abandoned the boat and started his new life. From there he could have gone anywhere and no one would have known who he was. He may even have had time to change his appearance.”

  “I bet if we find out where the boat docked then we will be able to pick up his trail.” Caleb closed the missing persons file as if it had been solved. “Care for a drive up to Tilbruk?”

  * * *

  Jasmine cut work early on the Wednesday, producing a doctor’s appointment card. ‘Women’s problems’ she had explained to Adam as he was signing the consent form. He couldn’t have signed fast enough.

  She met up with Caleb at his house and climbed into the passenger side of his yellow jeep. It made a change from her small hatchback that simply got her from A to B. From her viewpoint, she could see every other car on the road and felt like the pope in the pope-mobile.

  Tilbruk was an hour’s drive from Avalon. Most of that was highway, so it wasn’t exactly a leisurely drive. The surrounding trees and foliage whizzed by the windows and the only sound she could hear apart from the radio were other cars. There was also the occasional impatient horn that sounded in the background.

  It was mid-afternoon by the time they finally arrived. Their first port of call was the marina. Tilbruk was only a small town, so they only had the one. Not a particularly good place to disappear from if you didn’t want to get noticed. However, if Winston Reynolds had used this as his escape plan, it had obviously worked. ‘Until now’, Jasmine thought.


  The marina had only two boat hire companies. One was a fishing charter, the other more of a holiday boat hire. They tried the fishing charter company first. It was positioned closest to the road and Jasmine guessed there was probably about half a dozen boats tied up at their docks. All bearing the name ‘Tilbruk’s Gone Fishin’ with a picture of a winking fish. Atop all the boats were the fishing pole holders, all standing to attention and waiting for duty. Caleb opened the loose screen door and they went inside the store.

  They were sighted immediately by the shop assistant; Jasmine figured he was probably the owner. He wore stubbies and a polo shirt and his face was tanned a dark brown from the sun.

  “G’day, what can I do for you?” He waved and walked towards them, wiping his hands on a dark rag. Up close, he smelt like old fish or fuel, Jasmine couldn’t decide which.

  Jasmine daringly offered him her hand to shake. “Hi, we’re looking for our lost uncle who’s been missing for a while. We think that he may have come this way and hired a boat.”

  “A missing uncle? Gee, that’s bad luck for you. How long’s he been missing?”

  “About thirteen years now. Have you been in business here for that long?”

  “Longer, much longer. I don’t know if I can remember back that far though, some days I can’t even remember what I had for breakfast.” He grinned and gave a short laugh. “We were computerised back then though, if I can work it out then I’ll have a look for you, if you don’t mind waiting for a bit. My daughter does all the books. What’s his name?”

  “Winston Reynolds. The date he went missing was the 17th July 1994, so he would have hired a boat the same day or the next.”

  The owner motioned towards a few seats so that Caleb and Jasmine could rest while they waited. They took his offer and sat down. He disappeared into the back, to what presumably was a small office.

  “If he does confirm Mayor Reynolds hired a boat, what do you think should be our next step?” Jasmine asked quietly.