Flood country

by Robert Maddison

  ‘Yeah, I suppose so, but it seems so pointless now. Greedy people not willing to work within the system, no matter how flawed it is, and it comes to this—a senseless loss of life.’

  Pip walked over and stood behind Jack. She placed her hands on his shoulders, gently, and then started to rub the nape of his neck.

  ‘That’s nice,’ he whispered.

  ‘I think maybe you need to put this all out of your mind for a while, Mr Miller,’ said Pip; leaning down, kissing his neck gently, and then nuzzling his earlobe.

  ‘Did you have some way in mind?’ Jack asked, feigning innocence.

  ‘Yes, but it will mean we have to turn the barbeque off for a while,’ she said.

  ‘Let me take care of that,’ he said springing to his feet.

  They laughed and then embraced, kissing long and passionately as the moon emerged from behind some scattered clouds over the river. An owl began to call in the distance, again. Pip’s dogs, sleeping nearby as the hot day had begun to cool, stirred a little and then resumed their slumber.

  As they walked inside, arm in arm, Jack said, ‘Is your old air-force uniform still an option?’

  Pip laughed, ‘Maybe.’

  Chapter 85

  Georgia and her taxi-driving friend—Jimmy Kwan—parked a few hundred metres down the street from Ange, Richard and Jen’s place. It was one o’clock in the morning on a weeknight so the streets of inner-city Carlton were quiet.

  ‘Tell me again why we’re doing this?’ whispered Jimmy.

  ‘Vinnie’s pissed off with these guys for outsmarting him—this is his way of telling them so. It’s a bloke thing,’ she replied tersely. ‘Come on and bring the tin of petrol—it’s in that shopping bag in case someone comes along.’

  They walked casually along the street until reaching the driveway of the house and then took a sharp right-hand turn and disappeared down the pathway beside the house to the backyard.

  In an unmarked police car about two hundred metres down the street sat a sergeant friend of Luke’s, Harry Hildenberger. ‘You were right, Luke,’ he said quietly into the phone. ‘We’ve just had a couple show up and disappear behind their house. They’ll be getting a big surprise—right about now. I’ll call you back once we have a bit more info on our visitors,’ he said as he eased himself quietly out of the car.

  Right on cue, Hildenberger saw lights suddenly illuminate the rear of the house and could hear the voices of his team yelling ‘get down on the ground, now.’ He smiled, thinking—you clever bastard, Luke.

  In custody, back at the police station, Georgia and Jimmy refused to say anything. All the police could get were their IDs, which they’d found in the taxi.

  Harry called Luke again, even though it was now 3 am. ‘Sorry to wake you, mate. I figure you stuffed up my beauty sleep so I can return the favour.’

  ‘Yeah, thanks buddy,’ replied Luke, yawning. ‘What’d you get?’

  ‘Male and female lugging a tin of petrol so it seems a bonfire was on their mind, although they’re saying they ran out of petrol and were just borrowing some from the garden shed. Seemed like quick thinking really—except the taxi they came in runs on LPG. Gave us a laugh, I can tell you. These two could be related to dumb and dumber.’

  Luke laughed along with him. ‘Who are they? Anything that helps us?’ queried Luke.

  ‘Not yet. She’s the leader. The guy driving the taxi—a Jimmy Kwan—is the meat. His taxi rego confirms that—lots of assault charges and works part-time as a bouncer at some sleazy St Kilda establishments. She’s Georgia Vardos, of Greek heritage, and has some pretty tough friends going on her rap sheet. Has done a bit of time for shoplifting—one assault charge and a minor drug thing. She’s refusing to say who ordered the job—surprise, surprise.’

  ‘What’s your next move?’ said Luke.

  ‘We’ll keep them here until tomorrow on the attempted arson thing. Unless I can get more on them they’ll get bail around midday, is my guess. I need to get the kid to look at some photos for us to see if she picks them as her abductors and then maybe view a line-up to confirm it. How do I get in contact with her parents?’

  ‘I’m not sure they’ll be too keen until we wrap up this whole thing here,’ said Luke. ‘I’ll talk to Jack, her father, in the morning. I suppose they may go for it since it would break this whole thing wide open if we can get these two for the kidnapping and find out who ordered both jobs. I’ll call you in the morning. And thanks, Harry, appreciate you acting on my gut instinct.’

  Chapter 86

  As they were having breakfast Luke called and asked if Jack could come to the police station. Jack borrowed Pip’s ‘custard can’ to get there as she was out with Jimmy doing some feral goat culling.

  As Luke ushered Jack into an interview room his mobile rang—he saw it was from Benny and excused himself to Jack.

  ‘Yeah, Benny, what you got?’ asked Luke.

  ‘That rego number on the black Land Rover—registered to, wait for it, Primus Investments.’

  ‘That’s no surprise. Looks like we might just have to knock on his tinted window and ask why he’s following us. Thanks, mate, appreciate the info,’ said Luke.

  ‘Oh, and Luke, still no hits on that APB for the ute. I’ll let you know the instant we find them,’ said Benny.

  Refocussing on what he had to discuss with Jack, Luke opened the conversation with, ‘I’ve got some good news for you. Last night we intercepted two people who were about to torch Ange’s place in Melbourne. They’re now in custody.’

  Jack smiled broadly. ‘Wow, that is good news. How did you manage that?’

  ‘I had a hunch that after you’d been seen back here they might try to go after your family again, or at least try to find out where they’d gone by breaking into the house. As it turned out they were just going to burn it. I’d guess that was meant to be payback on you—so you’d better watch your back, my friend.’

  Jack was taken aback by this revelation. ‘Ok, I see what you mean. That was smart on your part to have the place being watched—thanks. Ange will be very grateful.’

  ‘We suspect the two we have in custody may have been involved with abducting Jennifer. I’m assuming that because they took her in broad daylight on a busy street and they probably weren’t wearing disguises, or had their faces covered. Is there any way we can get her to try to pick them out of some photos?’

  Jack momentarily re-lived the horror of that phone call telling him they had taken Jennifer. ‘I promised her mother I’d keep them safe until this was all resolved—I’m not sure she’d be willing to come.’

  ‘It could blow the case wide open, if she would do it,’ encouraged Luke.

  Jack contemplated this. He could see the importance of this but also thought he knew how Ange would react to the suggestion—not well!

  ‘Is there any way we could get Jen to look at these photos without revealing where they’re hiding out?’ said Jack.

  Luke reflected on this idea himself. ‘I suppose so. We could email a whole series of photos to them, assuming they have computer access there. Do they?’ asked Luke.

  ‘I saw them pack a laptop, so I expect so.’

  Luke said, ‘Web mail access would be very hard to track; even for our boy Sammie, I’d suggest. I can check with him if you like?’

  ‘Yes, let’s do that and if it looks safe I’ll call Ange.’

  At that moment Mark called Luke to tell him Sammie had found some information he should come to see. He and Jack headed straight for the Water Resources building.

  Chapter 87

  Arriving at Water Resources, and after being given visitor passes by the ever-efficient Barbara, Luke and Jack found Sammie with Mark in the meeting room they’d now made into their temporary office.

  Before starting to discuss what Sammie had found, Luke explained the situation they had in Melbourne with Georgia and her offsider and Jack’s idea for allowing Jen to help identify them by remote.

  Sammie said, ‘Web
mail is very hard to track since it logs you into a local network that then accesses your emails via your own website, or that of your service provider. You’d have to have very sophisticated equipment to find out where someone was accessing their Web mail, so I’d think it’s safe.’

  Reassured by this, Jack went to call Ange. ‘Hey, how’s it going?’ he enquired tentatively.

  ‘Just great, Jack. This is such a beautiful area and despite the river being really low with the drought we’ve been having a great time—I’m not sure we’ll want to come home. What about you? Does this call mean you good guys have won?’ she asked.

  ‘Not quite, although we are closing in on them I think,’ said Jack.

  ‘So, why the call?’ she asked quizzically.

  ‘Well, they caught two people last night about to set fire to your place.’

  ‘They what?’ she interrupted.

  ‘They were about to set fire to your place,’ he repeated. ‘It’s ok. The police had the place staked out and caught them red handed,’ he rushed to reassure her.

  ‘Thank God for that. Who are they? Do we know?’

  ‘That’s why I’m calling. They think Jen might be able to confirm that these two were involved in her abduction. They want her to identify them, if she can,’ Jack continued.

  Ange, clearly unhappy, said, ‘Hang on, Jack. We agreed that we weren’t coming back until all the bad guys were behind bars. From what you’ve told me there are still a few on the loose—correct?’

  ‘Yes, yes, that’s true. But if we can confirm the involvement of these two we can then put pressure on them to crack this conspiracy wide open. Jen is the key. Before you go on, though, we have an idea that will keep your location secret and Jen could still help identify the culprits,’ said Jack.

  ‘Tell me more,’ said Ange.

  Jack explained how this could happen and Ange confirmed that they had a laptop and, after quickly checking with Richard, that he should have Web mail access. With Jack still on the phone, Ange explained the situation to Richard and he agreed that it sounded like a good solution. Jack got his email address.

  ‘Jack, before you go,’ said Ange. ‘So far Jen has only mentioned a couple of things about that day. She saw a taxi on our way up here and let out a tiny scream and started to cry. She also said something about never talking to any strangers ever again. I’m a bit worried about these photos. If it is the same people, it might unleash it all. Is that a good thing?’

  ‘That had occurred to me too. I’m no psychologist but I’d assume that she has to deal with it at some point. The only question is whether now is the right time. What do you want to do?’ Jack asked.

  ‘I’ll discuss it with Richard. If we have concerns perhaps the police have someone we could speak to in confidence.’

  ‘Ok, I’ll ask the detective here and see what he suggests. I’ll get back to you. And, Ange, thanks again for being so understanding,’ said Jack.

  ‘It’s fine, and by the way; how are things going with your lady friend up there?’

  Jack was stunned. ‘How did you know?’

  ‘We girls have a sixth sense about such things,’ she replied.

  ‘Things are good, thank you,’ he said, smiling.

  ‘I’m pleased for you,’ she said.

  ‘Thanks.’

  Jack went back to speak to Luke who gave him the name of a police therapist he knew and trusted. Luke rang and spoke to her and said to expect a call from Ange. Jack then passed this on to Ange—knowing she would want to have that conversation herself.

  With that in train Jack rejoined the others for the debrief from Sammie.

  Chapter 88

  ‘We’ve only just started, Jack, so I’ll recap for you,’ said Sammie. ‘The short story is that I was able to find the information Mary got from Wellsmore’s USB. It was stored as part of the automatic backup these servers do every few minutes. When I looked at it at first it didn’t seem to help much so we got Mary back in to help us understand what it all meant.’ Mary was sitting there with a huge smile across her face—vindication, it said.

  Continuing, Sammie said, ‘So what we have are all the cases that Wellsmore had quashed, in various ways. These make compelling reading and will keep the investigators busy for quite a while, I’m guessing. While not all the cases involve GrowOz, many do; so they have some serious questions to answer.’

  ‘I’m thinking our friend Robbo is in serious trouble here,’ said Mark, looking toward Luke, who nodded. Jack sat there smiling and hoping he was present when they went to speak to Robbo again.

  ‘What about the email traffic and telephone log. Have you made much progress with that?’ queried Jack.

  ‘I’ve really only started to scratch the surface so far—it’s much quicker once you have email addresses or telephone numbers of interest—which I now do,’ he gloated. ‘Once I dismantled Wellsmore’s email log and focussed on a few players like Robertson, Drummond and the minister’s office it was very disappointing. Experienced operators tend to know to avoid email because it is virtually impossible to erase, especially in government systems. There are a few emails which may relate to this case although the wording is deliberately cryptic.’

  Sammie paused for effect. ‘Then I looked more closely at the phone records, looking for patterns of regular callers around the dates of the incidents that Wellsmore had buried. This is where it got interesting. There are four numbers that appear almost without fail around the time of one of these water theft reports. I have access to a database that allows me to identify these callers.’ Everyone was listening intently.

  ‘The first is no surprise, Robertson from GrowOz. The second—also no surprise—Drummond, the head of Water Resources. The third is a mobile number and the account owner is Todd Marchant, an adviser in the Water Minister’s office.’ Several eyebrows in the room rose.

  Sammie continued, clearly enjoying himself. ‘And the one that may be most interesting is another mobile. It’s registered to one Vincent Simpson. I took the liberty of asking my colleagues back in Sydney to pull in a few favours in the police system, no offence Luke but you were busy elsewhere. Mr Simpson, who also goes by the name of Sutcliffe on occasion it seems, is what some people call a standover man and he’s been known to do contract work for a number of large companies—he’s a Mr Fix-it.’

  ‘We found our doer,’ said Luke emphatically. ‘I’ll bet he’s the one driving that black Land Rover. Great work, Sammie.’

  ‘Now what?’ asked Jack.

  ‘I’m thinking I should get back to Sydney to brief our assistant commissioner face-to-face. This could get very big and very political very quickly,’ said Mark.

  ‘I agree,’ said Luke. ‘Given all this I’m not sure there’s much to be gained from going after McMahon—he’s a small player really. As for our mate Robbo, I’m thinking we can round him up later on the theft and related corruption. The priority would seem to be neutralising Vincent Simpson or Sutcliffe, whatever name he’s using at present—he’s the dangerous one.’

  ‘Have to agree, Luke. Sadly though, all we have on him at present is circumstantial. Suspicion that he’s been tailing you, assuming he’s the guy in the Land Rover, and a few phone calls, aren’t enough to put him away,’ said Mark, donning his former lawyer’s hat.

  ‘Then, since we still haven’t located Billy and Marcus, it comes back to whether or not Jen can ID those two in Melbourne and we can get them to confirm Vincent as the one directing the play here,’ said Luke, shifting his eyes to Jack.

  ‘And while we now have enough to go after the Minister, or at least someone in his office, we still don’t know who the puppeteer is in Goodacres. That’s what I have to see my assistant commissioner about,’ said Mark.

  Chapter 89

  Mark was able to catch the midday flight to Sydney and this left Jack and Luke to follow up on the photo identification by Jen. Jack called Ange.

  She answered with ‘G’day, Jack. I’m glad you called. We’ve just spo
ken to that counsellor or therapist person and she was very helpful. She said there are some risks with what’s proposed, given that we’re not close to some big city professionals in her field to have as backup. But she also said that it might just be a good first step for Jen to take in dealing with the undoubted suppressed anxieties she will have, especially if she feels safe and secure away from Melbourne where it all took place. Richard and I have just discussed it and we feel we should do it—we want those people punished.’

  ‘I feel the same. She’s got you two there to monitor her closely and if she shows any signs of losing it—just call it off, ok?’

  ‘Sure, now how do we make this happen?’ asked Ange.

  ‘Well, Luke our detective friend has teed up for the police in Melbourne to email to Richard’s account two PowerPoint presentations—one for the men and one for the women. I’ll hand over to him to explain what you have to do.’

  ‘G’day, Ange, this is Luke. Thank you for agreeing to do this, especially after what’s happened.’

  ‘I’m as nervous as hell Luke I have to confess,’ replied Ange.

  ‘I’ll try to make it easy for you even though this is a bit unorthodox. Each PowerPoint file contains six photos, including the ones of the two they caught at your place last night. You need to sit Jen in front of the laptop and start the PowerPoint show, which is on a self-timer. It will scroll through the faces, pausing on each for about five seconds. You ask her to tell you if she sees anyone she recognises. If she does, let it go through the whole series again to make sure she repeats the same identification. I suggest you start with the women,’ instructed Luke.

  ‘I think I’ve got it. I’ll get Richard to download the emails and then call you back when we’re set to go,’ said Ange.