CHAPTER 37
Gary spent many hours wondering how to pierce the veil of secrecy that now surrounded Pringle. Then one evening, while TV channel surfing, he came across a fishing program. Inspiration struck.
Early the next morning, he telephoned the computer hacker, Vincent Drew a.k.a. Lone Wolf.
"Whatchya want?" Drew asked sleepily.
"I'm offering you a supreme challenge."
"What?"
"To find someone in the witness protection program of the NSW Police Force."
"You mean, someone who's got a new identity and new home?"
"Yes."
"Not likely, dude."
"You mean, you're giving up without a fight?"
"No, it's just that some things are im - poss - ible."
"You haven't listened to my plan yet."
"What plan?"
"The guy I'm interested in used to subscribe to a lot of fishing magazines. I want you to hack into their subscription lists and find out who's cancelled their subscriptions during the last month and who's taken out new ones. Can you do that?"
"Probably, though it might take a while. What's his name?"
"Brian Pringle. Call me back."
Two days later, Drew told Gary that Pringle had subscribed to two different fishing magazines. Both subscriptions were cancelled a fortnight ago.
Gary said: "Got a list of new subscribers?"
"Yes, during the last fortnight there were forty new subscribers to those magazines."
"Any of them subscribe to both?"
"Yes, five."
Got their names and addresses?"
"Sure, I'll e-mail them."
When Gary got the list he saw the five new subscribers were scattered all over Australia. He called up Drew and asked him to access Telstra's computer system and find out which subscribers had landlines and when their lines were connected. Drew reported back that two had landlines and both were connected at least a year ago. So it was unlikely one of them was Pringle living under a new name.
That left three new subscribers without landlines. One lived in Sydney, one in Melbourne and one in Cairns. Gary checked out the Sydney address and got a friend to check out the Melbourne address. Pringle wasn't at either.
That left only the subscriber in Cairns. His name was Philip Schmidt and his address was a post office box. Taking a punt, Gary flew up there to have a look around.
He had to wait two days before Philip Schmidt turned up to empty his post office box. Schmidt was Pringle.
On the flight back to Sydney, Gary considered telling the American hitman where Pringle was hiding and letting him whack the bastard. If he did, there would be no blood on his hands, no chance of arrest and he wouldn't have to worry about stuffing up and having the hitman target him.
However, he felt personally responsible for Robyn's death and annoyed that he botched his previous attempt to kill Pringle. He had to avenge her and shoulder whatever burden of guilt came with that.
Not Dead Yet Page 38
