by Clare Kauter
For want of something better to do, I looked up the warehouses on Google Maps. If we were to drive there, it would take us about 20 minutes. That meant we should have been hearing from James fairly soon if they found Gracie there.
Looking at the map, I was reminded of my earlier conversation with James when he’d told me that you could google the location of payphones. The phone booth… I zoomed in on the map, realising that the phone booth was on the complete opposite side of town from the warehouses. That was when I realised what was bothering me. The signal from Reagan’s phone had lead the investigation to the exact opposite side of town from where we’d found all the clues so far – the florist, the payphone, the park, the piglet. I moved from the table and sat down by Arnold, scratching her behind the ears as I thought.
There was more. I found it odd that Reagan had given James – a policeman – not only his phone number but also his real name. It was like he wasn’t even trying to cover his tracks. And all the clues… Once we’d found out about Reagan, everything pointed in his direction. Did he want to get caught?
The warehouses were a good place to hide a kid, no question. Secluded, no houses around, empty, high windows... but I wasn’t convinced. I picked Arnold up and gave her a little scratch under the chin, thinking through the case. It seemed like Cowboy Bill had taken Gracie at least partly to get back at Tim and Ellie. The balloon and the bow gave that impression. The dead body definitely seemed to suggest he was trying to freak us out. But then why take the extra clothes? Was it possible he had taken Gracie out of some sort of twisted love for her? Of course, none of this explained why he’d dumped Ralph’s body on my doorstep.
I stroked Arnold’s back as I thought. Arnold… Was she a clue? If she was then I had no idea what she was trying to tell me. For a lack of better ideas, I decided to Google “pigs Gerongate”, not really expecting much in return. The top news article was about the sale of a local piggery out on Lakers Road. Wait – Lakers? That was where James and I had found Arnold that morning.
It was a story about a bunch of locals protesting the sale of the abattoir to an American company. The protesting was so angry and so persistent that the company who’d bought the farm had shut down within a month of purchasing the place, selling off all the animals. I was guessing Arnold had escaped from one of the trucks that had taken the animals earlier that week.
My phone buzzed. James. I answered immediately.
“What’s happening? Is she there?”
“Charlie...”
“Have you got her?”
James hesitated. “Sweetie…”
“What?”
“I’ve just arrived at the warehouses and… there are fire trucks here. A lot of them. The building’s still on fire. It… it looks like someone torched the place. They’ve managed to control the blaze, but they – they found…”
“Found what?”
I was not coping with all these pauses.
“Charlie, there are burned remains inside. A man’s and… and a little girl’s.”
My stomach churned. Oh god.
“I – I think I need to go,” I said. Go vomit. And cry. And then… Do what? Feel numb?
Adam had received a call at the same time. We both hung up and looked at each other. Adam was good at concealing his emotions, but I could see that he was not OK.
“I’m not very good with, like, grief,” I said. “I’m better at denial.”
Adam nodded. “Denial’s probably the best tactic right now. There’s still a small chance it’s not her anyway, so we shouldn’t start mourning prematurely.”
I took a couple of deep breaths (2, 3, 4…) then a thought occurred to me.
“I have a theory, but it’s super denial-ly.”
Adam shrugged. “Sounds good to me.”
“This morning, James told me that last night someone stole a couple of cadavers.”
Adam raised his eyebrows. “I like this theory so far.”
“One of the bodies belonged to a little girl. And didn’t Billy Bob take a bunch of Gracie’s clothes?”
“Yes.”
“Why do that if you were just going to kill yourself and her and burn the bodies? Also who set the fire if they were both dead? And why did he leave such an obvious trail leading there? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“You’re very good at this denial thing.”
“I have a half baked theory.”
“Let’s bake it.”
“OK. So I think Billy Bob set up this meeting with James entirely so he could lead the investigation off course and fake his and Gracie’s own deaths. At least for a little while.”
“Why?”
“He took her clothes and toys when he took her. I don’t think he wanted to hurt her. The balloon and bow were to freak Ellie out and make this fire suicide thing make more sense. I think he wants to look after her.”
“Right. And the guy he shot and dumped on your doorstep?”
“Maybe he saw something. Look, I’m not saying this guy is mentally stable. I just don’t think he intends to hurt Grace. Although if she does something he doesn’t like...”
“So where are they?”
“The piggery out on Lakers Road. They won’t be there long, though. He must know they’ll figure out the bodies are the missing cadavers. It’s just a diversion to give him time to make a getaway.”
I showed Adam the info I’d found about the piggery and its buyer, a company called Starlion Group. He sat beside me, reading the article over my shoulder.
“Starlion Group?”
“They own a bunch of businesses in America. This is their first purchase in Australia. Since we found Arnold on Lakers Road, I’m guessing she escaped from one of the trucks that took the animals when they sold.”
Adam furrowed his brow.
“Weird that Starlion decided to start trying to conquer the overseas market in Gerongate,” he said. “Hardly the business capital of the world. What kind of businesses does the company own in the US?”
“Casinos, mostly,” I said.
Adam nodded. I didn’t know a whole heap about business, but I was pretty sure there weren’t a lot of people who owned casinos. They weren’t exactly cheap to buy.
“So an abattoir in Australia is quite a departure from their usual business strategy.”
I nodded. “It has to be Reagan, right?”
Adam shrugged. “Looks that way.”
“Weird that he called his company ‘Starlion’. I would have expected something more patriotic. ‘Baldeagle-McCheeseburger’ or something.”
“‘Starlion’ does sound a little like a psychedelic rock band,” Adam agreed. He took out his phone. “I’m going to see if I can get anyone from Baxter & Co. to follow us out there.”
I blinked. And apparently missed something. “Wait, what?”
He was already heading for the door. “Gracie has to be at the abattoir on Lakers. You and I need to get there ASAP. The others can follow us.”
“What about Arnold?”
“If she managed to look after herself in the wild before you found her, she can handle a couple of hours alone in a mansion.”
I gave Arnold a quick kiss goodbye and hurried after Adam as he made his calls, joining him in the car. He hung up as he started the engine.
“How’d it go?”
“It’s going to be a while before anyone’s free. We’ve got a lot of people out on our security accounts. Apparently every thief in the city decided tonight was the night for B & E, so we’re on our own for now.”
I nodded, lost in my own thoughts as we turned out onto the road.
“What is it?” Adam asked.
“What?”
“You’re never silent this long. Well, unless you’re thinking about McKenzie. Ah,” he said. “Guess I just solved that mystery.”
I sighed. “Should I call him?”
“No, you should definitely wait until he calls you and offers backup. Asking for it might come across as needy.”
I rolled my eyes. Of course I should call him. But what if he wasn’t on our side? Don’t trust the cops, Toph had written in the letter he left for me. Now McKenzie was one. Could I trust him? I shook my head. I was being dumb. Even if James was helping Harcourt in looking for my brother, he would never be involved in kidnapping a child. I couldn’t be that poor a judge of character.
Could I?
Chapter Twenty
Taking McKenzie’s spare phone out of my pocket, I dialled his number. No answer. Time to leave an answering machine message.
“Well hi there, Squirt! I don’t know why I just called you Squirt. Don’t think too much about it. I don’t want you reading anything into that. It wasn’t a Freudian slip or anything. Fuck I hate answering machines.”
Adam glanced at me out the corner of his eye, definitely concerned.
“Anyway,” I continued, “just wanted to give you a heads up that we’re headed to the closed piggery near where we rescued Arnold. We think Reagan owns the company that bought it so we thought it was worth checking out just in case those charred corpses in the warehouse turn out to be your missing cadavers. It’s just me and Adam heading there now, but if you don’t hear from me soon, could you maybe send some backup in case Reagan shoots my face off? I don’t really want him to shoot me in the face. With a gun. Of course, because what else would I be talking about? Anyway, backup would be delightful. Um, anyway, I hope I don’t die tonight but if I do, sorry about the lack of tickling lips. Um, OK bye!”
The thought of McKenzie listening to that hot mess of a message actually made me shudder.
“Succinct,” said Adam.
“Shut up.”
He was quiet for a while after that, focusing on the road and, presumably, formulating a plan.
“So…” I said. “What’s the plan, boss?”
Adam raised his eyebrows. “‘Boss’?”
I shrugged. “I figure it pays to suck up to you when we’re about to go after a crazy man and you’re the only one here to help me. Also you were being nice to me again and I was hoping to get myself unfired.”
He looked a little amused at that. “The plan is to park by the road and walk up to the abattoir. We’ll look around and see what we find.”
“And if we find Grace?”
“We rescue her,” he said simply.
“Are we just ignoring the fact that her dad shot someone’s face off earlier?”
“Yes.”
Right. OK, cool. Not panicking. Everything was OK. Breathe in for four.
“Do you have, like, a gun or something?” I asked.
Adam frowned at me.
“No,” he said. “You know they’re illegal, right?”
I sighed. “Yeah, I was just hoping. You seem like the kind of person who would know how to handle a pistol.”
“Whereas you seem like the kind of person who would accidentally shoot yourself if you handled a pistol.”
“Oh ha ha,” I replied, although deep down I knew he was right. “So you don’t have any sort of weapon in the car?”
“Exactly what sort of person do you think I am?”
“Golf clubs? Baseball bat? Not even a tyre iron?” I asked. “We can’t just go in empty-handed. We should have grabbed the kitchen knives from McKenzie’s before we left.”
He was silent for a second. “I really worry about you sometimes.”
“Only sometimes?”
He shrugged. “I guess I don’t spend as much of my spare time thinking about you as you’d like.”
“I don’t think about you either,” I snapped. Wow, well done Charlie. Very cool. Not defensive at all.
Adam raised his eyebrows. “Right.”
“Anyway, I just think that for someone so smart you didn’t plan this very well. I’d have thought a doctor-slash-lawyer would have been better at thinking under pressure.”
His jaw tightened. I was annoying him – as per usual.
“I don’t do weapons.”
“At all?”
“No. Believe it or not, being a doctor and lawyer – as you pointed out – I don’t really like guns. Not only are they illegal, but they kill people. Not really my style. Since I don’t do guns and the bad guys do, I’d prefer to sneak in, get Gracie and leave. No attacking gun-toting crack shot cowboys with kitchen knives.” Now that he’d said that, I felt like a bit of an idiot. “I had the office send me a blueprint of the abattoir. I’ve figured out the most likely spot Grace would be held and how to get in without being seen.”
Nodding, I said, “Right, so you did think about it a little.”
“Like you said, I’m good under pressure.”
I sighed. “You know, when I woke up this morning I thought today was going to be a good day,” I said.
“Me too,” said Adam. “Probably would have been if you hadn’t broken into my apartment.”
I scowled at him. “The circumstances definitely justified my actions.”
“I know,” he said. “It still would have been a better day if you’d left me alone.”
“She was awful.”
“Yeah,” he said wistfully.
“You’re despicable.”
“Jealous?”
“No,” I snapped. “She wasn’t my type at all.”
A smile danced briefly on Adam’s lips at that.
I continued. “I think what we really need to talk about, Adam Backstabber, is the fact that you fired me. As if that was fair!”
“You left work all day and only came back to break into my dad’s office and look up classified information.”
I huffed. “Yes, but it was an emergency!”
“And?”
“And I thought we were friends!”
“Well, look on the bright side – being unemployed will give you more time to spend with James.”
I glared at him. “Firing your friends is not cool, and you can’t justify it by saying I’ll have more free time!”
I definitely caught him rolling his eyes at that, but when I questioned him he denied it.
We sat in silence as we drove on. The abattoir was not far out of town, so we didn’t have long to steel ourselves. I’d attempted a ‘sneak in and rescue’ manoeuvre once before and it had not gone well. Admittedly I’d gone in armed with a pair of shoes and had an accountant and a graphic design intern as my backup, but I honestly didn’t feel that much more prepared this time. Plus last time I’d been faced with a fight, I’d screamed and run away. Not my proudest moment.
“Shouldn’t we wait for someone?” I asked. “It just seems rash to –”
“Who? We don’t have time, and besides, the police aren’t going to listen to us. We don’t even have any evidence that this place belongs to Reagan, let alone that Gracie is there. James might be able to convince them if they confirm it’s not her at the warehouse, but we can’t wait. Reagan’s unstable. We need to act.”
Adam pulled over about a kilometre from the entrance to the abattoir’s driveway.
“This is it,” he said. “Let’s go.”
We got out of the car and I started towards the driveway but Adam stopped me.
“We’re not taking the driveway, Charlie – it’s covered in lights and I imagine they’re keeping an eye on it. They’d spot us instantly.” See? I told you he was smart. “We’re cutting through the paddock of the farm next door and heading in the back way. There should be glassless windows leading to the animal pens that we can climb in through. After that we should be able to make our way through the building by following the slaughter line.”
“Cheery,” I said. “And not at all foreboding.”
“Right now it’s our best bet. If you’re too scared, I can go alone.”
“I’m not scared,” I snapped. “And also I’m not letting you go alone. Don’t be ridiculous. Tonight we die horrible deaths together.”
It was dark outside, but I could still see his smile from the soft light of the moon. “I like that positive attitude.”
&nb
sp; We climbed through the wire fence and trekked across the field, keeping hidden in the long grass. When we neared the shed with the open windows, we stopped and waited, scoping out the area for any potential guards. We didn’t see anyone so we crept as fast as possible to the side of the building. Being the more athletic of the two of us, Adam went first, pulling me up and in after him. I landed on the other side with relative grace, to the extent that Adam gave me a thumbs up.
And then, of course, I tripped.
Adam caught me before I hit the ground and steadied me, shaking his head. The small point in time when he wasn’t disappointed in me had passed. I followed him through the empty pens to a doorway into the main slaughterhouse. It wasn’t locked and it swung open easily. We proceeded cautiously but didn’t hear any voices or gunshots, so we kept going. There was a light filtering in through an open doorway at the other end of the room, so we stuck to the shadows as we made our way towards it.
In the distance, we could hear voices. Adam and I each hid on different sides of the doorframe, flush against the wall, as we listened. There was a man’s voice and although I’d only met him once, I was fairly sure it was Reagan. The other voice was Gracie’s.
“Daddy, when do we get to leave this place? It’s stinky and cold. Why can’t we stay in a hotel?”
“Daddy had some things to do around town today, princess.” Yes, like leaving a blood-soaked hair ribbon in a phone booth and shooting a guy in the face. “We can leave soon, I promise. We just need to make sure no one is following us.”
Wait, what? He didn’t sound crazy right now. He sounded like a loving father. I knew he was capable of horrible things, but it seemed like Gracie had charmed him. It didn’t look like he was just doing this to get at Tim and Ellie. That affection seemed real. Had he taken Gracie because he really wanted to spend time with her? That didn’t make sense, though – when I’d met him he’d thought his daughter was four or five. That seemed like something an adoring father should know. Then again, he’d never had much to do with her, so maybe it was hard to keep track.
“OK, daddy.”
“I’ll buy you a big present to make it up to you, princess. Whatever you like.”
