by Fiona Tarr
‘When you’ve finished with the other case, drop back and pick me up if you can. School won’t be finished for hours and I think we should go see if the uniform branch has found anything interesting.’ Liz held the door open and waited for Max to agree.
‘Jack has been accommodating on this one Liz but I wouldn’t push him. He’ll let us know if they find anything.’
Liz took a deep breath and sighed. ‘I’ll make my way home then.’
Max frowned as she slammed the door. He knew that was likely code for ‘I’ll do it myself then’, but he didn’t push it. He watched her walk up the administration office stairs and pulled away from the curb.
Liz opened the foyer door and smiled sweetly at Linda. ‘Hey Linda.’ The woman rolled her eyes as if to say ‘what are you doing here again,’ but managed to plaster on the fake smile all receptionists learn very early in their career, the one that looked kind of like a grimace and a smile all at the same time.
‘Morning Ms Jeffreys. What can we help you with today?’
Oh, the royal we was out today, even better. ‘I have an appointment with the Student Counsellor. I’m sorry I don’t know her name yet.’
‘Ms Fredricks. Her office is in the student lounge. Do you remember the way?’ Oh the sarcasm was oozing. She must have a sixth-sense or something. Her tone was even more condescending than usual. Liz wondered if she’d left her lace g-string in Ned’s office and Linda had found it, the way she was going on.
‘Thanks, I do.’ Liz smiled and walked out the back of the building toward the student lounge. She began to wonder if she really had picked up all her gear. Maybe some of her shopping had dropped out of her bag?
As she walked toward the student lounge, she could hear raised voices but they stopped as she reached the doorway. A few moments passed as Liz made her way to the opening, just as the Chaplain rushed through from within, pushing past her. He looked at her, his expression dark, but he quickly dropped his eyes and shuffled away. ‘Morning Chaplain,’ Liz offered over her shoulder at the retreating back.
A smallish woman, a little taller than Liz, with dark brown hair and brown eyes was sitting behind a desk to the left of the doorway. She looked up as Liz entered, her face slightly flushed. ‘You must be Ms Jeffreys.’
Liz smiled and walked over to the desk. ‘I am, and you are Ms Fredricks I assume?’
‘Yes, please, take a seat.’ Liz pulled out the plastic chair that reminded her of her school days and sat. At least it wasn’t a cushion on the floor.
‘The Principal tells me you have some questions, about Gemma Richardson? It’s terrible that she’s still missing.’
‘Yes, do you know her well?’ Liz tilted her head to the side and the counsellor mirrored the pose. Liz wondered if it was intentional or subconscious, but either way, it made sense for the counsellor to try and make her feel more comfortable. She’d used the technique with new clients hundreds of times.
‘I’ve seen Gemma two or three times since her father moved away. She’s quiet, but I wouldn’t say troubled.’
‘You agree it’s unlikely she ran away then?’
The counsellor measured her words carefully. ‘I couldn’t say conclusively either way.’
‘But you don’t think so?’ Liz pushed for clarity.
‘You must understand I can’t really answer that question without a doubt.’
Liz smiled. ‘That’s okay. I can read between the lines. Any troubles with friends, a boyfriend, anything that might help us track her movements down?’ Liz crossed her legs but leant forward, intent on not missing a word.
‘I don’t think I’m going to be able to shed much light on this Ms Jeffreys.’
‘Anything might help. We now have two missing girls Ms Fredricks, Gemma and a girl called Belinda from Brighton High. Now what are two girls from different schools likely to have in common? A boy or boy troubles maybe? A few of the students I spoke to last week thought Gemma might have an older boyfriend and there have been rumours about Mr Jones.’
‘I’m going to stop you right there.’ The woman put her hand up to emphasise her objection. ‘I’m a counsellor, not a gossip.’ The mirroring stopped. The woman’s shoulders had lifted and her back was straight. She took a deep breath, obviously composing herself. Liz had struck a nerve but with what?
‘Oh. I see.’ Liz’s tone was deliberately knowing and she nodded emphatically for added emphasis.
‘It’s none of the students’ business what Mr Jones does or doesn’t do in his private time.’ And there it was. Faculty member number one or maybe two.
‘I totally agree. One’s private life should be exactly that, but when there is a Police investigation going on, we are all exposed I’m afraid. Do you know Mr Jones well?’
‘I don’t feel comfortable talking about other staff members.’
‘I understand.’ Liz smiled and rose to leave. ‘He’s only been here since term one – how long have you been seeing each other?’
The counsellor stared at Liz. Her mouth opened and closed, but the words weren’t coming out. She blushed and lowered her eyes, but Liz just waved casually.
‘I truly hope Mr Jones has nothing to do with this. He seems like a nice guy but if he is and you’re, you know, covering something up, well that could make you an accessory.’ Liz was still standing but she pulled out a business card from her pocket and handed it to the counsellor across her desk.
The woman took the card on auto-pilot. ‘If you hear anything, or think of something, please, call me.’ She turned and left.
She considered going back to torment Linda, but decided to skirt the administration building and head around the front. She booked a taxi on her phone and waited. Mr Jones seemed to be at the centre of something at the school, but was it Gemma’s disappearance and if it was, how was Belinda connected to all of it?
She’d debrief with Max tonight after he followed the music teacher when school finished. Maybe something would pop with his private life.
The taxi pulled up moments later and Liz jumped in the back. She gave the address of the burger bar Mrs Richardson had mentioned and pulled her mobile out of her backpack again, quickly shooting a text through to Jack.
Heading to the burger bar, are you there?
The phone rang a few seconds later and she smiled. ‘The uniforms have finished the search, nothing.’
‘That’s bloody annoying. Obviously, no luck tracking the phone’s GPS then? It must be well and truly flat by now.’
‘Spot on. We are trying the local rugby field and a few parks now. I’ll let you know if we turn anything up. Max said you might rock up at the search site.’
‘Traitor. I’ll have words with him later.’
‘How’s he doing? He seems... different.’
‘What, tidy, punctual?’
‘Yeah.’
‘I think he’s trying to impress me. It will wear off, don’t worry. We’ll have the real Max back soon.’
Jack laughed. ‘That’s not exactly what I meant, but I do miss the old Max. Although, the new one is pretty sharp.’
‘I know, clean shaven, I think he might even have lost a few kilos.’
There was silence, even the background noise that would usually drift over the phone was gone. Was Jack holding his hand over the receiver?
‘Don’t break his heart Liz.’
She was taken aback a moment. There was no doubt Max was putting on a good show, but she hadn’t really put it down to him trying to woo her, but was he? Or was he just shaping up now he knew he had a daughter?
‘Funny. He said the same about you.’ Silence again. ‘I’m heading home to catch up on emails. Call me if you find anything.’ She hung up without waiting for a reply. She needed some girl time and Connie was her girl. All the testosterone was starting to get to her. Even Jenny had more of it than a woman was entitled to. She even drank beer with the boys.
‘Change of plan,’ she told the taxi driver. ‘Take me to the museum on North Terrac
e thanks. I’ll walk from there.’ The driver smiled. His short ride had turned into a decent fare and there were always loads of customers waiting for a ride on North Terrace.
‘You got it.’
16
‘You are playing with fire you know!’ Jenny offered her free advice but Jack wasn’t in the mood. That didn’t stop her. ‘Were you fishing to see if she and Max had hooked back up, or were you really worried about Grumpy Pants?’
Jack gave her a look that made further conversation unlikely. ‘Let’s see how the uniforms are going?’ Jack opened the driver’s door and jumped in.
‘You want to talk about it?’ Jenny persisted.
‘You know I never thought I’d say this, but Max and his repressed feelings were so much better than this.’
Jenny zipped her lips with her fingers. ‘Okay, I can take a hint.’
‘That’s not a hint detective. It’s pretty much an order.’ Jenny stared at her partner a moment suddenly realising that Liz was really a touchy subject for the usually cool, calm detective.
‘So we have two missing girls, still with no connection other than a social media presence.’ Detective Williams decided to make it all business again. ‘What do they have in common? If they are in trouble, where did our sicko come by them?’
Jack shrugged, ‘Not school. No after school classes we know of. I’ve got the techs going through the videos from the burger bar and there is an ATM across the road I’ve requested files from.’
‘When will we get those?’
‘Tomorrow. We’ll organise a time to go through them.’
‘Any word on the teacher from the interstate Police?’
‘I need to check my email. We’ll call in at headquarters after we see the search area.’
‘Cool.’
Jack did up his seat belt and started the car. A few minutes down Brighton Road they pulled into the Rugby grounds. Three Police cars and a forensic unit were on scene. Jack pulled up and got out.
A uniformed officer walked over. ‘This area is restricted.’ Jack flashed his badge and the officer moved aside.
‘Who’s in charge? Why are forensics here?’
Penny moved out from behind the truck, a bag in each hand. ‘Jack. I just got here.’
‘They were supposed to call me if they found anything.’
Penny smiled. ‘I think you’re next on the speed dial detective but they found a mobile phone and some clothing. They thought I might be more important. Sorry.’ She smiled and Jack’s expression softened.
‘Fair call. Can we follow along?’ Jack looked at Jenny who nodded enthusiastically.
‘Sure. It’s a bit weird without Max.’ Penny looked at Jenny and grinned. ‘No offence.’
‘None taken. I hear I have big shoes to fill.’ She thumbed toward Jack and Penny giggled.
‘They’ve been together for twelve years. Like brothers. You know how it is.’
Jenny nodded. ‘Yep, as if it wasn’t already a boys’ club, now it’s a brotherhood.’
‘I heard that.’ Jack called over his shoulder as he walked toward the Police tape marking the search area.
‘Present company excluded of course.’
‘Of course.’ Penny agreed.
‘Can I carry one of those for you?’ Jenny offered.
‘Nope. Well practised and it’s my weight lifting routine. Saves me at least twenty sets when I get to the gym and I like it balanced. One bag just throws me off.’
‘Oh, we should definitely get to the gym together,’ Jenny grinned. ‘I could do with a spotter I can trust.’
‘That sounds...’
‘When you are finished ladies.’ They had reached the scene and Jack was already standing with his arms crossed over his chest, his foot tapping impatiently.
‘We were just...’
‘Making social arrangements. Got it. Finish it later. Two missing girls. Focus.’
‘Is he always like this?’ Jenny asked as Penny put down her bags and put on her gloves.
‘He was with Max, so think yourself lucky. He must like you.’
‘He is standing right here!’ Jack’s eyebrows were high on his forehead. ‘Anytime now Penny.’
‘You do your job detective. I’ll do mine. Don’t you have to interview the officer who found these or something, anything?’
‘I’ll do it.’ Jenny offered as Penny rolled her eyes. ‘Sorry, I think I might have triggered the mood,’ she spoke into Penny’s ear as she walked past.
‘Great!’ Penny sighed.
‘Talk me through it as you go Penny,’ Jack asked. ‘This is getting time sensitive so I’d rather not wait entirely for the report.’
‘DNA, blood, fluids, will all have to wait on the lab, but I’ll tell you what I can now.’ Penny bent down and picked up the phone. She pressed the on button but nothing happened.
‘Dead.’ She put the phone on a tray she pulled from her bag. From the other bag, Penny grabbed a brush and printing powder. ‘I’ll just check it for prints.’ She gently brushed the face of the phone, then placed a sheet of pre-cut, backed lifting tape over the surface and carefully rubbed it over the phone screen.
She placed the sample in a zip lock bag, tagged it and then repeated the process on the back of the mobile. When finished, she popped it into a plastic zip lock bag, wrote on it with a permanent black marker and placed it, along with the lifting tape samples, into an empty evidence box which was already dated with a case number on it.
‘I’ve got a charger here that might fit it’ Penny laughed. ‘Not your dinosaur of a phone Jack, no way.
‘Detective Williams. Put on some gloves and plug this in to your car charger.’ Jack picked up the zip lock bag between his thumb and forefinger and held it in the air while Jenny stopped talking to the Police officer and slipped on a pair of gloves.
‘Don’t let that out of your sight. You understand me? Chain of evidence must be maintained. If this is our missing girl’s phone, we need to make sure it stays in Police custody.’ Penny pointed with her marker pen and Jenny nodded.
‘You think it belongs to our missing girl?’ Jack bent down as Penny picked up the jacket.
‘School insignia, size 8 ladies, I’d say there is a very good chance it is.’
‘Shit.’
‘At least you’ll have something to go on if we can get anything off the phone. I’ll run a trace on this.’ She held the jacket up as she pushed it into a large bag and placed it in the evidence box. ‘Maybe we’ll get some DNA, hers or the other girl, or better still, whoever helped them disappear.’
‘Fingers crossed.’
The forensic scientist carefully walked the scene, her camera flashing at intervals. ‘Anything?’ Jack hovered and Penny rolled her eyes.
‘Nothing is jumping out at me detective. Go check the phone and I’ll call you as soon as anything crops up. Okay?’
‘Okay.’ Jack wandered back to his car.
Jenny was holding the mobile by the sides between her fingers and thumb, being careful not to disturb any evidence. She had a white charger cable plugged into an ancient cigarette usb adapter, but it was working.
‘I just need a few more minutes to get a little charge into it and then I can turn it on.’
‘All good. I’m just glad you have the right charger. Fingers crossed we can get something off this little baby that ties it to our girl and helps in some way.’ Jack leant against the car, his arm on the roof as Jenny sat inside, the door wide open.
A sound chimed from the phone. ‘Yes!’ Jenny punched the air. The screen opened, the picture on the screensaver was of a young girl, laughing as she played with a white-haired poodle looking dog. Jenny held the phone up and Jack nodded.
‘It’s our girl. I’m not sure if I’m happy or sad about that. Can you open it?’
Jenny slid the bar to the right and waited. The screen flickered, but a number pad came up. ‘Damn it.’
‘What?’ Jack leant into the car to see what Jenny had seen. �
�Shit!’ He looked at the keypad and realised Gemma had a lock screen code in play. ‘The techs are going to have to deal with this. I just hope they can crack the code quickly.’
‘I know. We really need to see what this kid was up to.’ Detective Williams returned the phone to the plastic evidence bag and stepped out of the car as Jack stepped back to allow her room.
‘Let’s head back to the office and see if our Melbourne cousins have come up with anything more interesting on our teacher.’
They joined Penny. Jack nodded as she saw Jenny put the phone in the evidence box. ‘It took a charge, so that is a good thing, but the keypad is locked. The techs are going to have to do some magic on it.’
‘Great! Just what we needed. They can be hard to crack into. Best to check with her mum and see if she has any idea what the code might be.’
‘Will do. I might let Liz do that. She’d made a good connection with the mother and we need to break the news gently. Finding the phone and not the girl is going to unsettle the mum even more.’
‘You’re giving her a lot of leg room on this one Jack.’ Jenny’s eyebrows rose in question as they walked back to the car.
‘It was her case first. You know how much it shits a detective to have a case shifted to another department and then be locked out. I don’t want to break her spirit so early in her PI career.’ Jack grinned sheepishly.
‘Break Liz’s spirit? Hah! Never going to happen.’ Jenny jumped in the passenger side door as Jack started the motor.
17
Max had parked his car around the corner from the school and stood below a massive old elm tree that was losing its leaves, the mat of autumn coloured leaves crunching under his feet. The ground was damp and smelled of rotting vegetation as he moved his feet around to avoid the coolness that was penetrating his boots. He spat his nicotine gum on the ground and pulled a packed of cigarettes from inside his long coat pocket.
Smoke drifted on the wind which howled through the perimeter tree line where he waited, hidden while the children all left school. A long line of cars filed through the school pickup zone. Up near the gymnasium, a line of school buses waited, slowly filling before finally making their way in various directions.
