Danger Down Under: Another Vince Hamilton Investigation

by Patrick Slaney

  'I will report they are missing, but I will do nothing more until tomorrow. There could be one hundred reasons why they are not here, and the least of these is a kidnapping. If they have not turned up by tomorrow morning, please get in touch with me again. I will give you one of my cards. She gave a business card to Paul; they then got into their police car and departed.

  'That was a total waste of time,' Tony said.

  'I can't believe her attitude,' I said. 'Something needs to be done while the trail is hot and not tomorrow when it will have gone cold.'

  'Why don't you come up to my place and we can decide what to do. I need a drink to calm me down after that experience with the police.'

  Paul drove his vehicle, and we followed in Tony's Ute.

  Chapter 8

  While Paul was getting us a beer I recalled a conversation that I had with Stuart at his Birthday party. Once Paul was sitting down I got their attention.

  'Guys, I have just remembered something that Stuart told me at the party just after Clive Newsome had left in his bright red Ute. Stuart informed me that Clive had been acting very strangely and had been wandering around his property sticking his nose into areas where he didn't need to be.'

  'Do you think that Clive could be behind their disappearance?' Paul asked.

  'I have no idea. Stuart did say that Clive had even gone out the top gate into the wood. Coincidentally that is where we found the tyre marks and traces of a scuffle.'

  'But why on earth would an Englishman, who is supposedly over here for the Grand Prix, be interested in Stuart and his family,' Tony commented. 'It seems a bit far-fetched.'

  'What is extraordinary, in this modern digital world, is for a family to vanish into thin air without anybody observing the incident,' Paul commented.

  'I can't believe that this has anything to do with Clive Newsome,' I said. 'I think that it is nothing more than a massive coincidence that Clive was here yesterday, albeit acting very suspiciously, and Stuart plus his family vanished sometime over the last day.'

  'I don't know Vince, it is all very strange, and I don't have a good feeling about the situation,' Paul said.

  'We need to decide what we are going to do now,' Tony suggested.

  'Where does Stuart work?' I asked. 'That might be a good place to start.'

  'He is a flying instructor at Essendon Flying Services at Tullamarine,' Paul replied. 'We could phone them.'

  Paul got and up and went to look for a phone directory. He was able to locate the company’s phone number and made a call. All he got was the answering machine as it was now quite late.

  'We should have phoned them earlier, there is nobody there.' Paul sounded totally frustrated.

  'What do you suggest that we do now Vince?' Tony asked.

  'The only lead we have to go on is that Clive acted suspiciously when he was here for the party. Let's focus our attention on him until we have definitely proved that he wasn't involved.'

  'But, he is flying back to the UK tonight so he will already be at the airport, and we won't be able to talk to him,' Tony protested.

  'Paul interrupted us; 'Listen, guys, you two can sort out the Clive Newsome involvement, and you don't need me as I don't know him. I am going to drive to the Essendon Flying School, where Stuart works and see if I can find somebody to talk to. I'll try and get an out of hour's number if I don't find anybody. You can use my house here. If you have to go out, leave the key under the pot plant that is just outside the gate.'

  'May we use your land-line, Paul?' I asked.

  'Yes, just make yourself at home. If you go off somewhere leave me a note, so I know where you have gone.'

  'We will telephone you on your mobile if we decide to go anywhere,' I said.

  Paul left to travel to Tullamarine and the flying school. Tony and I continued to talk over the situation and the options open to us.

  'Let's find out whether Clive Newsome has checked out of the Hilton Hotel,' I suggested. I reckoned that there was a possibility that he wasn't returning to the UK as he had stated that he would.

  I telephoned the Hotel and asked to speak to Clive Newsome. The receptionist told me that Mr Newsome had indeed checked out.

  'That puts the kibosh on that idea,' Tony said.

  'Not necessarily; if he is involved in the kidnapping, he could be somewhere else in the Melbourne area.’

  ‘Have you any idea where that might be?’

  ‘No, and the only other piece of information we have is that Clive was driving that very distinctive bright red, double cab, Holden Ute.,' I said. 'That should be easy to spot and Melbourne isn't that big a place.'

  'Great idea Vince. I will contact all my engineers and give them the spec of the Ute and ask them to keep an eye out for it. They travel all over Melbourne on a daily basis so they just may come across it.'

  'You could perhaps do the same with your friends,' I suggested. 'The more people that are looking for it, the better.'

  'Let's go to my office, so I can get all the telephone numbers that I need.'

  We both brightened up as we now had a plan, and we felt that at least we were doing something.

  I phoned Paul to let him know what we were doing. He said that once he had finished at the Essendon Flying School, he would join us at Tony's office.

  On our way to his premises, we stopped at a Chinese Take-Away and bought three meals. We were starting to feel ravenous. Tony also phoned Sally to let her know where we were, what our immediate plans were and that we wouldn't be back until much later.

  At his office, Tony got out all the relevant telephone numbers and contacted all his engineers. Two of them didn't answer their phones, so he left them a message. He told them all to keep a sharp look-out for the Ute and to get hold of him immediately if they spotted it. He emphasised that they should report any possible sightings even if they were doubtful it was the Ute that we were looking for. He didn't tell them the reason for his request.

  With all his staff informed he then started phoning his extensive list of contacts. Two hours later Paul arrived. I handed him a

  rather cold sweet and sour pork with egg fried rice.

  'Any luck Paul?' I asked him.

  'There was nobody around, but I did get an out-of-hours number. I haven't tried it yet as the battery on my mobile is practically at zero'

  He picked up a phone and dialled the number.

  Success; he got through to somebody. He put the speaker phone on.

  'Hello, is that somebody connected with Essendon Air Services?' Paul asked.

  'Yes, it's Leyton Burns, I am the General Manager of the company.'

  Paul explained why he was calling and that he was trying to find out information about Stuart Smith.

  'Are you a relative of his?' Leyton asked.

  'No, I am his next door neighbour,' Paul explained.

  'I wouldn't typically reveal personal details of one of my staff over the phone but I think the situation demands it, in this case,' Leyton continued. 'Your information makes me even more worried as Stuart didn't turn up for work today which is totally out of character for him. I also couldn't get an answer on his mobile it went straight to message.'

  'I was afraid you were going to say that,' Paul said. 'We are pretty sure that he and his family were abducted last night.'

  'Are you sure? That's terrible,' Leyton added. 'Have you contacted the police?'

  'Yes, we called the police as soon as we were sure that he was missing and not just out at the shops or visiting friends. They were worse than useless and told us to contact them again if they were still missing tomorrow morning.'

  'There is not much we can do now as it is dark,' Leyton continued. 'Can you give me your mobile number so as I can contact you in an emergency. Are you able to come to the Flying School to see me first thing in the morning?'

  Paul looked at us, and we both nodded.

  'We'll be there just after nine when the rush hour traffic has subsided.'

  'See you in the morni
ng then.'

  'Well done Paul that has moved us forward a bit,' I congratulated him on what was a successful conversation.

  'We had better call it a day guys as it looks as if we will be busy tomorrow.' Tony said.

  Paul headed back to Fern Tree Gully while we went the short distance to Tony's home.

  We had a reception committee of the two wives waiting for us when we entered the house. Permission to retire to bed was only given when we had told them the full story of the evening and the probable abduction of Stuart and his family.

  I was getting up just after 7.45am the following morning when Sally knocked on the bedroom door.

  'Vince you need to get ready quickly, Tony is on his way to pick you up.'

  'Did he say where we are going?'

  'No, he said that he would explain everything when he gets here.'

  I dressed quickly and grabbed two cereal bars.

  When Tony arrived, he beeped the horn, and I rushed out and got in his Ute.

  'Where are we going?' I asked him as we set off.

  'I got a call from Paul and he told me that there was a development overnight and Leyton Burns, who you met last night, wants to see us in his office as soon as possible.'

  'Did he say what the development was?'

  'No, just that we needed to get to the flying school urgently.'

  The traffic was quite heavy so even though we didn't have to go far, the journey took around thirty minutes.

  We contacted Paul on his mobile who told us that he would be there in around fifteen minutes. We waited for him in the car park.

  While we were waiting, we noticed that there were quite a lot of police around.

  'Clearly something has happened here overnight,' I said. 'There are a lot of police here and they seem to be on the airport side where the planes are parked.'

  We watched as the police appeared to be searching the ground for something.

  As soon as Paul arrived, we went inside.

  Leyton was standing in the reception area.

  'Come into my office gentlemen.' He led the way into a room with his name on the door plus a large Private sign.

  'One of our planes was stolen overnight,' he continued. 'It was a Beechcraft King Air that we use for long haul work.'

  'Isn't that the type of plane that Stuart flies for you?' Paul asked.

  'That's right, which makes the whole situation take an entirely new direction.'

  There was a knock on the door, and a man entered the room.

  'This is Inspector Johnson of the Airport police.' Leyton introduced him to us.

  'These men Inspector came to see me last night because their friend Stuart Smith was missing. The man they are looking for works for me as a pilot and, in fact, is the pilot of the plane that has been stolen.'

  'Do you think that this man has stolen the plane?' The Inspector asked.

  'Stuart would never take a plane especially as his family are missing?' Paul sounded very affronted that the Inspector would consider such a thing.

  There was another knock on the door and a second policeman came in.

  'Sorry to interrupt you sir but we have just received a message saying that a plane with the call sign of the missing plane was picked up by air traffic control this morning, flying North.'

  'Thank you Sergeant.' The Inspector nodded at the Sergeant acknowledging the information. He then turned back to us.

  'Did you report that Mr Smith was missing when you discovered it yesterday?'

  'Yes we did but we were told to calm down and not do anything until this morning. If the family were still missing, then we were to get back onto the local police.' I explained.

  'Did you get the name of the officer?'

  'Yes; her name is Sergeant Reddin and the officer with her was called Kilosky,' I remembered their names very well as I reckoned they were utterly incompetent.

  Paul rummaged in his shirt pocket. 'I have her business card here.' He gave the card to the Inspector.

  'Thank you; I will follow up with her and ask why she didn't act on the information last night. Could a third party have stolen the plane? The Inspector asked Leyton

  'Unless somebody knew the processes we follow in the company it would be impossible to take one of the planes,' Leyton explained. ‘As well as the keys there are codes that have to be entered into the instrument panel to allow them to be used. The fact that Stuart was involved explains how they took it.'

  'So you are sure that he was involved in the theft of the plane,' the Inspector wanted confirmation.

  'I am ninety-nine percent certain that he was involved,' Leyton replied. 'Alternatively, one of his trainees could also have taken it as they know the codes.'

  'Will you please relate to me everything that has happened since you discovered the family was missing? I want you also to outline any of your suspicions,' the Inspector asked.

  'You had better be the one of us to tell the Inspector what he needs to know Vince as your thought process is more logical than ours.'

  'Just hold on a minute I want to get my assistant to take notes,' the Inspector intervened.

  He went to the door and called out to a colleague to join him and take notes. As soon as they were ready he asked me to proceed.

  Fifteen minutes later I had completed my relating of the events.

  'You included a lot of suppositions in your account,' the Inspector commented.

  'That's all we have to go on I am afraid,' I replied.

  'So far you appear to be spot on, and I am sure that the plane stolen last night was flown by your friend,' the Inspector summarised. 'I also believe that the family was abducted so as they had a hold over the pilot. They are probably keeping them somewhere in Melbourne as insurance against the pilot changing his mind.'

  'You think that they are holding the family as hostages?' I asked.

  'I more than think it, I am certain of it,' the Inspector replied.

  'The first step then must be to find the family,' Paul suggested. 'If we go after Stuart and the plane we will be putting the family in grave danger.'

  'That's correct,' the Inspector concurred. 'I will get the details of the red Ute circulated so as the entire police force of Melbourne is on the lookout. It's a long shot but there is nothing else to work on, and we don't even have the registration number of the Ute.'

  'So I presume that there is no need for me to contact Sergeant Reddin,' Paul asked the Inspector.

  'No, you can safely leave the Sergeant in my hands. I have a few words of my own to say to her about the delay that she caused. Luckily you guys didn't sit on your hands and do nothing, but she wasn't to know that.'

  'What happens now Inspector?' I asked.

  'If you leave me a contact phone number I will get back to you when I have anything to report. Some of my men, plus a forensic unit, will be on the premises here most of the day. I hope that they don't make a nuisance of themselves.'

  'I'll help them in any way that I can,' Leyton said. 'They won't find any trace of the plane out there, but something else may turn up.'

  With that the meeting was over.

  Chapter 9

  'Do you want to come back to my office so as we can discuss what our next course of action should be?' Tony asked us when we got outside.

  'I have to return to Fern Tree Gully as I have some potential clients I have to see,' Paul said. 'Anyway, there is not much that we can do until either the plane or the Ute turns up.'

  'I hope that the red Ute isn't just a figment of our imagination,' I suggested. 'It's a somewhat remote hope that Clive Newsome is involved as we have no concrete proof, and he have handed the red Ute back.'

  'I'll phone you this afternoon on your mobile Paul,' Tony said. 'If something turns up this morning I may call your earlier. I don’t hold out much hope that anything will but let’s hope our luck changes.' It sounded as if Tony was as depressed as I was about the situation.

  'Sorry guys, I really must leave. I'll talk to you later.' Paul
climbed into his Ute and drove off. We weren't far behind him.

  'On second thoughts Vince, I will drop you off at home. You've only got a few days left of your holiday and Daphne will want you to be with her.'

  'I appreciate that Tony and I agree with you that there is very little else we can do at the moment,' I replied. 'We can pick up our discussion this evening when you get home.'

  The change of plan agreed, Tony dropped me off before he returned to his office.

  'Go and sit outside with Daphne,' Sally said to me when I joined her in the kitchen. 'I am brewing up a pot of coffee. Would you like some toast or biscuits with your coffee?'

  'Thanks, Sally; toast would be great if it is not too much trouble.'

  'No trouble at all. I'll be out in a few minutes.'

  I joined Daphne on the veranda.

  'What was all that about this morning?' She asked me.

  'A plane was stolen from the Flying School where Stuart works, and his boss is convinced that only Stuart could have taken it.'

  'What makes him think that?'

  'It is only possible to fly the plane if you have certain secret codes and passwords. The only person, other than Stuart, who could have taken it would have been a student or one his former trainee pilots.'

  'Are the police involved?'

  'Yes, they were buzzing around the place and actively involved. An Inspector Johnson is in charge of the case.'

  'At least with the police involved, you and Tony can opt out and let them get on with it.'

  'I won't be much use to them as we are leaving on Thursday, and nothing is likely to happen before then. It is like looking for a needle in a haystack.'

  'Have you remembered that you promised me that you were giving up your job as a Private Investigator?' Daphne leant towards me looking me straight in the face. 'Don't think that you can slide back into your old role just because Stuart and his family have gone missing.'

  'There should be no need for me to get involved because the police are in total command,' I stressed.

  'Just remember what we agreed Vince?'