The Holiday

Chapter 2

Two

Carl sat in his reading chair, soaking up the winter sunlight streaming through the floor-to -ceiling windows of the sitting room of his two bedroom apartment, enjoying a quiet read of the weekend paper with a glass of red.

He put the paper down and let his thoughts drift to wondering how he was going to resolve his Nina problem. She had gotten closer to him than any other woman since the end of his failed marriage. He’d had a series of short relationships to get over Virginia, who had divorced him and married an accountant, someone who kept more respectable hours than a policeman. The last time he’d seen her, a couple of years back, she had presented herself as a happily married woman with three children, and a big house in the eastern suburbs. He let Virginia fade into the background. She wasn’t his problem.

The previous afternoon, Chief Inspector Rankin, commander of the Major Crime Unit, had summoned Carl to his office to discuss, what the chief had referred to as, his ‘Nina problem’. The chief inspector had been supportive. He’d told Carl he was relieved to see that he had settled into a stable relationship, which was a good thing, according to the chief. The chief inspector was a man who believed in stable relationships. He’d been married to Evelyn for thirty years.

The chief had also pointed out to Carl the potential conflict of interest between his professional and personal relationships.

Carl had been a little taken aback. He’d thought that he and Nina had been discrete. However, it seemed the chief had his sources. Carl hoped they didn’t include Harry.

The upshot of the meeting was that, as of Monday, Detective Sergeant Nina Strong would be a member of DI Reid’s team. The chief had wished him well with his relationship with Nina, and added that he thought they suited each other.

When he broke the news to Nina, she requested a week’s leave and went to visit her parents, who had moved onto a small riverside property in the Riverland following her father’s retirement. She wanted time to process being found out. The chief inspector’s intervention meant a lot more people knew about them than they had believed. Their relationship being public knowledge within the force created a whole new dynamic she would have to live with.

Having heard the stories of his exploits in the years after his divorce, Nina wanted to know how committed Carl was to their relationship. She’d already had one bastard of a husband, a lawyer she had discovered screwing his secretary, in their matrimonial bed, after coming home early from an aborted night shift stake out. This time, she wanted someone she could trust, so she’d asked Carl to think about where he wanted the relationship to go.

In her mid-thirties, Nina also wanted to consider having children before it was too late, and she’d asked him if he was prepared for that, and given him until she returned to make up his mind.

Carl hadn’t thought about children since his divorce. What sort of father would he be? Could he be a father? Did he want to be a father? His thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of his mobile phone.

‘DI West.’

‘Sorry to trouble you, Carl. I hope you haven’t had too many reds,’ the voice of Chief Inspector Rankin sounded in his ear.

‘Only the one, so far, Chief.’ If the Chief Inspector was calling him on a Saturday, when he was rostered off, something serious had happened. ‘I guess this isn’t a social call.’

‘Get your travel bag, Carl, and make sure you pack a toothbrush. I’m sending you on a little holiday up the river. Harry should be there to pick you up in about half an hour,’ said the Chief Inspector. ‘We have a body and what looks like a kidnapping.’

That sounded like standard fare to Carl. There had to be more to it than that.

‘Why can’t the local boys handle it?’

‘The body is Kieran Moore.’

‘Oh. And the kidnapping?’

‘Been listening to the radio or watching the TV today, Carl?’

‘No, I’ve been reading the paper.’

‘Yesterday’s news, Carl. We’ve been looking for Kieran’s great grandson since eleven o’clock this morning. Turns out he was with Kieran.’

‘And now he’s not.’

‘Good to see your head is clearing. Give me a call when you’ve spoken to the local boys.’ The Chief Inspector hung up.

Carl pulled the travel bag he kept prepared for these situations out of the closet in the hallway, collected his toiletries from the bathroom, and a suit from the wardrobe in his bedroom. By the time he was ready to leave, Detective Constable Harry Fuller was ringing his doorbell.

Carl settled in for the three hour drive from the city to the Riverland, a narrow zone of agricultural land and townships stretching along the river for three hundred kilometres, devoted to irrigation farming, mostly grapes and fruit trees, and tourism. He knew the place was dotted with riverfront shacks, hamlets, farmhouses and houseboats, because last winter he’d been one of the thousands of tourists attracted by the wild beauty of the region’s national parks and abundant wildlife.

The arid, sparsely populated area outside the irrigation zone was a place he’d had cause to visit in the line of duty on several, less enjoyable, occasions. All sorts of things and people had disappeared into that vast empty space, and its network of roads provided a place for people to meet and transact all sorts of business, unobserved. The Riverland itself was also a place where interested parties grew illicit crops in among the legal ones, far from the prying eyes of the police. The force was thin on the ground outside the city, which was precisely why he and Harry were heading into the interior.

‘Know anything about this Kieran Moore the Chief Inspector was so worked up about, Boss?’

‘The thing to keep in mind, Harry, is that the Chief and Kieran Moore go back a long way. I’m fairly sure that Kieran Moore was the Chief’s first big conviction, about thirty years ago, before I joined the force.’

‘So why is his death such a big deal?’

‘I guess we’ll find out in due course. What I do know is that the Chief and Kieran Moore came to some sort of understanding while Kieran was doing his time. The Chief used to visit him in prison. I know they had meetings over the years after Kieran had done his time. In fact, the Chief introduced me to Kieran in a pub not long after I made sergeant. Big bloke, arms covered in tattoos. Intimidating, even though he was probably in his fifties at the time.’

‘What was he done for?’

‘Something to do with drugs. He’d be well into his seventies by now, so I guess he would have lost some of the intimidating physique. Let me have a look at the file.’

Harry concentrated on driving through the afternoon traffic, while Carl logged onto the on-board computer to see what information they had been provided with to introduce them to the case. Not much as it turned out.

‘A conviction for dealing, the heavy stuff, back in the eighties. The leader of a local ring, and a Hells Angel to boot. Only the one conviction.’ Carl scrolled through several screens. ‘Going by his date of birth, he would have turned seventy-five this year.’

‘Old enough to be well and truly retired. Wonder what he’s been up to recently.’

‘No details on that in here. Do you know anything about his great grandson being missing? Must admit I hadn’t heard anything about it until the Chief mentioned it. Too busy with yesterday’s news.’

Harry smiled, as he recalled Nina telling him how Carl got his weekend relaxation - with his head in a newspaper and a red in his hand.

‘I heard the media briefing on the midday news. The boy’s name is Toby, a ten-year old. Was gone when his mother woke up this morning. The Chief told me it wasn’t until a couple of hours after he was reported missing that someone in the family realised he was probably with Kieran.’

Carl located the report on the computer and read the details, including the note stating that the boy’s parents were separated.

‘Tough being a kid these days, Harry. You ever thought about having any?’

‘Haven’t got to that part yet. Still working on finding someone willing to play the game.’

‘Don’t rush it, Harry. Being a policeman’s wife is a big ask.’

‘So my mother keeps reminding me. I think she’s looking forward to the day my dad retires.’

‘Your father’s got it easy. Nice, cushy desk job down in the dungeon supervising all those girls in the call centre. Regular shift. What’s your mother got to complain about?’

‘I think my mum remembers the days when he was with the highway patrol, away for days, when I was a kid.’

‘That why you became a detective, Harry?’

‘Not really. I’m not into car chases or sitting around with radar guns. Too boring, if you ask me. I became a detective because I like to find out how things happen, and why people do them.’

‘Yes. All that patrol work is not much fun. A lot more routine than some of the cases we get to work on.’

Winter days consume their daylight quota quickly. Harry was obliged to turn on the headlights an hour before they reached their destination.

Riverland Police Station had been a regional headquarters before the last restructure had seen its status downgraded. The Commissioner’s new design for the region had moved the headquarters two hundred kilometres down river, to where the crime statistics told him he needed the resources.

Inspector Bill Norris, the officer in charge of Riverland, wasn’t happy that Major Crime’s Chief Inspector Rankin had seen fit to interfere in his investigation. He didn’t score many murders but that didn’t mean he lacked the resources or the skills required to solve one.

Carl and Harry entered the station and introduced themselves to the duty constable. He informed them that Inspector Norris was still at the crime scene with Forensics, who had arrived earlier in the afternoon. Carl called Bill Norris and arranged to meet with him later in the evening, as he couldn’t see any point in blundering around in the dark and getting in the way of Forensics’ examination of the crime scene. There would be plenty of opportunities to look at the crime scene in broad daylight.

‘We’re staying at the Resort Hotel. We’ll go and check-in and get something to eat while we’re waiting for Inspector Norris.’

‘Okay, Inspector. I’ll tell the inspector where to find you when he gets back.’

Carl and Harry drove the short distance from the police station to the Resort Hotel. It took around ten minutes to complete the check-in process and locate their rooms. They were in the dining room, eating dinner, when Inspector Norris entered looking for them.

‘Hello, Carl. Been a while,’ said Inspector Norris, extending his hand.

Carl stood and shook hands with him.

Carl did the introductions. ‘Inspector Norris, Detective Harry Fuller, my right-hand man.’

Harry stood and shook hands with the inspector.

‘Why don’t you join us, Bill? You look like you’ve had a long day,’ said Carl.

As Inspector Norris took his seat, the waitress arrived with the chicken schnitzel and salad he had ordered on the way in.

They exchanged small talk about the weather, the state of the world and the recent federal elections while they ate, and waited for the tables around them to empty as people moved off to their Saturday night activities.

‘What’s so important about this one that Rankin thinks I need help from you, Carl?’ Inspector Norris asked while they contemplated the dessert menu.

‘What do you know about the victim, apart from his name?’

‘Not much.’

‘What about the missing boy? Any sign of him?’

‘A backpack, full of clothes, with his name on it under the seat of the old man’s van. And if that’s not enough, the old man’s girlfriend has disappeared as well. No luck with the dogs either.’

Harry was volunteered to place the dessert and coffee orders.

‘How smart’s your right-hand man, Carl? Is he a good apprentice?’

‘One of the better ones I’ve had in a while. He actually thinks for himself.’

‘What’s your team like?’

‘Decimated. I lost most of the good ones in the reshuffle.’

Harry came back to the table. He was followed by a waitress with their desserts and coffees. They waited for her to serve.

‘I suspect the chief thinks this is not a local crime, and the boy is a complication that might not end well. That’s why we’re here, Bill,’ said Carl.

‘How do you want to play it?’

‘I was going to suggest that your people focus on finding the boy. You have the local knowledge and contacts. Harry and I will work with Forensics on the murder. What do you think? It’s your kingdom.’

‘Might have been a kingdom once, Carl. I think it’s more of a duchy these days,’ said Inspector Norris with a wry smile. ‘Anyway, that sounds like a plan. I have a meeting scheduled with the Forensics people at eight in the morning. Guess you had better be at that. There’s not much point wandering around in the dark looking for the boy. We’ll have to wait for first light for that. In fact, my sergeant is organising a search party for first thing in the morning in case he’s gone to ground locally, if you want to join in.’

‘We’d only get in the way, Bill. Besides, if the dogs couldn’t pick up his trail, he probably didn’t leave the scene on foot.’

‘You’re probably right, but we need to cover all bases, just in case.’

‘Who’s the girlfriend you mentioned?’

‘Sally Arthur. She has a shack on the river about three kilometres out of town. Seems our Mr Moore stayed with her whenever he was in these parts. The body was found in the yard outside her place. She’s in her mid-fifties, so maybe girlfriend isn’t the right word.’

‘What makes you think she has disappeared as well? Maybe she just isn’t home.’

‘Her car is still there.’

‘Does she own a boat, Inspector?’

‘That’s something we have to find out, Harry. We know she doesn’t have a registered boat but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have a boat.’

‘Any near neighbours?’

‘Her shack is in a group of three but the other two are holiday homes. It was one of the other shack owners coming up for the weekend that found the body.’ Inspector Norris stood up from the table. ‘It’s been a long day. I need some sleep. I’ll see you boys in the morning.’

‘Okay, Bill. We’ll see you at eight.’

They watched in silence as Inspector Norris made his way out of the dining room.

‘What do you think, Boss?’

‘Just as well you like a puzzle, Harry.’

‘Just off the top of my head, I’d say we have a few possibilities around the disappearance of the boy. The woman and the boy could be hiding. If the woman has access to a boat, say a canoe or a row boat, she and the boy could have escaped on the river. That sort of boat doesn’t make any noise. Or maybe the woman had a role in both the murder and the kidnapping. Or maybe the boy didn’t arrive with Kieran. He could have left the boy someplace between here and the city. And I haven’t started on the murder yet.’

‘Might be best to leave that until after tomorrow’s meeting with Forensics.’

‘Yes, we don’t want my wild speculations to distort our thinking.’ Harry laughed.

‘I’m calling it a night. I’ll see you in the morning for breakfast.’

When Carl got to his room he noticed there was a text message on his phone from Nina, telling him that she was thinking of him. He dialled her number.

‘Where are you?’ she asked, when she answered the call.

‘I’m in the Riverland Resort Hotel.’

‘If you miss me that much you could have come and stayed here. I’m only half an hour upriver from there.’

‘I miss you but that’s not why I’m here.’

‘I thought Inspector Norris was handling the case. In fact, I saw him talking about it on the TV. I didn’t see you.’

‘The victim has a long history that involves our chief inspector.’

‘What about the boy?’

‘I’ll know more about that in the morning. If he doesn’t turn up, I’ll have to make him my priority. The locals are conducting a ground search in the morning.’

‘That might not suit Rankin.’

‘The media will crucify him, if he makes solving the murder of a veteran Hells Angel the number one priority. Besides, solving one will probably solve the other, unless Harry is right about the old man dropping the boy off somewhere on the way here.’

‘Better keep that in mind, sweetheart. Harry’s hunches have been right before.’

‘Anyway, I just wanted to hear your voice before I go to sleep. I love you.’

‘I love you too, Carl. Have a good sleep. Call me if you need to talk anything over. Better still, come and see me. My parents are dying to meet you.’

‘I’ll call you tomorrow once I have a better picture of what’s going on. Sweet dreams.’

Carl ended the call. He wished he was with her and not here in a hotel, with Harry in the next room.