Into The Fog

Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

The others trudged in close to the designated 6.15pm. With expressions as limp as their soaked hair, Sam knew they’d found no trace of the kids either.

‘Sam and Georgie, how’d you go?’ The sarge was hoarse, from shouting over the storm probably.

‘Not good.’ Sam outlined the hunt through the main building and Georgie added, ‘And I found nothing to say they’d been around or in the glasshouse.’

He nodded, turning to Kat and Josh. Their report took a minute or so longer, but added up to the same thing.

‘Wish I could say otherwise, but no such luck.’ Lunny detailed his search, trailing off at the end.

Georgie filled the gap. ‘Can we give it a bit longer before contacting the parents?’

Lunny chafed the silver stubble on his chin, thinking. After a minute, he said, ‘As soon as we call, more lives will be at risk because I’d imagine Ness and Duane would drive straight up here. And in these conditions,’ he waved towards the windows lashed by rain, ‘they could end up driving off the mountain.’

Sam watched Lunny’s face. It revealed his conflict, then a decision.

‘No, we won’t ring them, not yet.’

She exhaled softly as he added, ‘It’s still early days. The kids could be right under our noses. They might pop out of the woodwork soon with their bellies rumbling.’

Sam exchanged a glance with Georgie, thinking I doubt it. Immediately, she felt guilty – what if Kat read her look? Her shame compounded when she thought of Franklin. She couldn’t have let him down more.

Franklin’s phone pulsed in his pocket. Again. He touched his mobile through his jeans but resisted pulling it out. Boomer was one of Bull’s clones and wouldn’t cut him any slack.

Boomer must’ve noticed something. He half-turned to Franklin and demanded, ‘You got a problem?’

He gave a lazy shrug in answer and the bloke resumed humming flatly and staring through the window.

This shift had stretched into a mind-and-arse-numbing type of tedium, except for the earlier deluge that had limited visibility to a few metres. But that had cleared to a ball-freezing and gloomy evening, while the targets went on doing a whole lot of nothing, with their unmarked Commodore parked smack-bang outside the address. He and Boomer might as well have a flashing neon sign saying Coppers.

Franklin was new to this detective game, but not so green that he hadn’t worked out that the crooks knew they were being watched and somehow that was the whole point.

Might be all about the squeeze. Apply a bit of pressure now, turn up the heat later?

His mind flipped back to his mobile, silently buzzing with an incoming call this time. It stilled and tremored almost immediately with another message.

What the hell was going on? Who was trying to contact him so persistently?

Franklin itched to check his phone but it might have to wait until end of shift.

Georgie noticed Sam check her mobile around every thirty seconds. On about the same cycle, Kat looked at hers too. She narrowed her eyes.

They’ve told Franklin.

Lunny’s voice distracted her. ‘Okay. Here’s what we’ll do. Take five, while I touch base with the local shop…’ He trailed off and lifted his brows. ‘Assuming there is a cop station up here?’

Elke had clearly been eavesdropping because she said from the kitchen doorway, ‘There is a police station in the upper part of Olinda – two…three minutes from here.’

‘Good, good.’ Lunny’s head did a series of small bobs.

The housekeeper waggled a hand. ‘But it is probably empty.’ Her face twisted. ‘It took eleven years to get police back here. They waste all this money on a nutteloos station but hardly anyone is ever there.’

Georgie didn’t know what nutteloos meant, or even if she’d heard it right. Maybe Elke had meant to say nutty – it was obvious that she didn’t approve, especially when she made a shsst sound and walked away, tossing over her shoulder, ‘I will get you the telephone number.’

Lunny thanked her and continued. ‘Let’s hope someone’s rostered on and they’re not tied up with accidents and whatnot. They might send out a car to look for the kids. Putting it in the system will at least speed things up if someone finds the kids and makes contact.’

Someone might’ve found them.

It had crossed Georgie’s mind that they could be lost, but she’d clung to the notion that they were mucking around. Now, the possibility that they were hurt and couldn’t wander back to camp made her queasy.

Someone might’ve found them and taken them to hospital.

She relaxed a little, then imagined the potential injuries the kids might’ve sustained, before having a worse thought.

What if the someone wasn’t a good Samaritan? They might’ve found them—injured or not—and taken them. Period.

She imagined her Grandma Harvey saying Out of the frying pan, into the fire.

‘Gotta take a s***h. Keep your eyes peeled.’

Franklin extracted his phone as his offsider climbed out of the car. His thumb clicked on the first text message from Kat, while Boomer rounded the rear quarter of the sedan.

It said: ‘Call me. Urgent.’

What’s the urgency?

He strained and heard urine flow into the gutter, then checked Kat’s next message.

What the hell?

The following one was from Sam and made his head throb. He fumbled the phone and slipped it into his pocket, as Boomer re-entered the car. Outwardly he stayed calm, but his mind kept repeating f**k!

He checked the dash clock. Nearly six hours left in the shift and every minute was going to be torture…and not the mind-numbing type he’d cursed earlier.

Sam tucked away her mobile. Franklin evidently couldn’t respond. Maybe he hadn’t even picked up her messages yet.

She needed to keep busy until Lunny called them back to continue the briefing, so she helped Elke set the dining table for later. Although they hadn’t heard from Willem Agterop, his wife had agreed to feed the Daylesford group whenever the sarge requested it – in Agterop’s absence if necessary.

Sam held up a fine crystal tumbler. Light reflected off the surface with the dazzle of an outsized diamond. ‘Don’t you have kitchen glasses and crockery we can use?’

The housekeeper scoffed. ‘This is the everyday dinnerware.’

‘Wow.’ With a small headshake, Sam aligned the glass as Elke had done on her settings. She tweaked the white china plate with gold rim and wondered how many breakages they’d accrue over the five-day camp.

You kidding? If the kids don’t turn up, the camp’s stuffed.

Her fingers numbed, letting a linen serviette flutter to the table. The camp would have to be cancelled. And that’d be just the beginning.

She shifted to the kitchen, filled a glass from the tap and gulped it down, relieving the cotton-ball feeling in her throat. She heard Lunny say, ‘…and three of the children are currently AWOL.’

Can’t be talking to a parent. He’d word it more sensitively.

She took more water, standing with her back to the sarge as he continued his phone call.

‘Hannah’s twelve, Riley’s seven and Cooper’s five.’

Too young and vulnerable to be on their own.

‘Yes, well, we’ll work through that later. But I’m hoping that you can put a car in the vicinity of Upalong House in Mount Dandenong.’

Sam turned to look at Lunny. He’d obviously reached the local station, but she couldn’t gauge his reception.

‘Yep, with the bluestone fence and wrought-iron gates.’ Lunny nodded, threading the fingers of his free hand into his hair. ‘Ah, that’s not good.’ He listened, then groaned. ‘No, I understand. But once you’ve dealt with that?’ He nodded again and hung up shortly after.

‘That was the officer-in-charge at Olinda.’

Judging by the red spots on his cheeks, things hadn’t gone well.

‘Having a busy night?’ she guessed.

‘You could say that. He’s about to deal with a tree across the road in Kalorama, and the Audi that ploughed into it. He’s working one-up tonight for various reasons and offered to put a call in for any available cars from Belgrave, Monbulk or Boronia.’

Sam stiffened. ‘But he thinks they’ll all be too busy?’

‘Yep. Trees down, roads cut off by flooding, a car down a ditch because of the low cloud, landslides…a house that’s literally slipped down the hill by two metres with a family inside. In his words: “Everything’s urgent, very urgent or critical.” We basically fit into the middle category, bad enough because kids are involved, but not as obviously life-threatening as other emergencies they’re dealing with. So, we’ll have to wait our turn. But this Bernie Willy,’ Lunny pointed to his phone, ‘promised to swing by first chance.’

She sighed. ‘At least help’s coming.’

He added, ‘Even if that can’t be until tomorrow.’

Franklin’s phone vibrated again and after the requisite thirty seconds of silent ringing stilled, then gave a single quiver. Another voice message.

What’s happened now?

He weighed the odds of it being unrelated to the s**t hitting the fan at Mount Dandenong. Lunny and Georgie were with Kat and Sam, and they were the four people most likely to ring him. Harty and Slam knew he was working afternoons and wouldn’t call unless it was urgent.

Only on part-time secondment to the Ballarat crime investigation unit, he wasn’t the lead investigator on any cases here, and his CI boss Bull would contact Boomer over him or call through on the radio. None of his open cases at Daylesford sprang to mind as necessitating a phone call during what civilians would consider after-hours.

Chances this isn’t about the camp: Buckley’s and none.

Yeah, but it could be Pastor Danni or one of the parents looking to chew the fat over the camp, not realising he was on shift. It might be Kat or Sam again, this time with a positive update.

Or it might be any of them with the worst type of news.

‘You and I need to talk.’ Georgie snagged Kat’s elbow, propelling her into the empty study.

‘What?’

‘Out with it.’ Georgie touched her arm lightly. ‘C’mon, Katz.’

At Georgie’s special nickname, Kat’s shoulders sagged forward. Georgie wanted to see fight in the teen, not fright.

‘You know I think the world of you?’ That received a weak nod. ‘And I would, even if I wasn’t –’ She broke off, groping for the right words. Your dad’s girlfriend sounded naff and seeing your dad was too vague. She came up with, ‘If I wasn’t with your dad.’ Definitely better. ‘So, spill.’

‘Spill what?’ Kat sounded cagey.

Georgie began with an easy question. ‘You contacted your dad, didn’t you?’

‘Yeah, I sent a text.’ Kat turned on pleading eyes. ‘I had to.’

It would’ve been better for Franklin not to hear anything about the missing kids until long after they’d returned and the rest of camp went off without a hitch. But she understood Kat reaching out to her dad.

Kat added, ‘But I didn’t hear back from him.’

‘So we’ve bought some time.’

She squirmed. ‘Not really. I sent another text. And I just tried phoning him and left a voicemail too.’

‘So he knows.’

‘If not, he will soon.’

‘It’s okay, Katz.’ Georgie shrugged. ‘Now, spill the rest.’

‘Don’t know what you mean.’ She avoided her gaze.

Georgie ducked to her level, forcing eye contact. ‘Yes, you do. For starters, how did you and Josh miss seeing Riley and Cooper run back to Hannah? And how did you two miss seeing where the three of them went? While we’re at it, why are you and Josh fighting?’

Kat shrunk into herself further with each question and Georgie wanted to back off. But she couldn’t. She needed the truth, a trait that had in the past caused her—and others—trouble. But it was one of those innate Taurean things that she couldn’t change, not even for Franklin’s daughter.

Eventually Kat muttered, ‘Because it’s my fault.’

Fuck this.

Franklin pulled out his phone, noted the missed call had been from Kat, then retrieved his voicemail.

‘Mind on the job.’ Boomer nudged him.

‘You a dad?’

The bloke glared, then admitted, ‘Yep.’

‘Then cut me some slack and let me pick up a message from my kid.’

Franklin saw him nod as he listened to Kat’s voice. He heard her frantic tone more than her words. He disconnected, mind churning over two things.

The kids are still missing. And Kat blames herself.

‘Look alert.’

Knuckles banged into Franklin’s shoulder. He followed Boomer’s stare through the rain-splotched glass. Two of their targets exited the house and piled into the silver BMW sedan in the driveway. The taillights bloomed, flicked once, then stayed solid as the engine fired.

The other two men remained at the table, necking stubbies, playing cards.

Franklin’s fatigue fell away. ‘Do we split up?’

Boomer put the car in gear. ‘No. Bull said stick with Gus.’ He eased away from the curb.

Franklin frowned at the beamer’s rear end 100 metres in front. He bet tracking it would be as pointless as the rest of their night, but worse: Kat would have to wait. He slipped his mobile into his pocket.

Kat babbled on about it being her fault that the Savage kids were on camp and that they went missing.

It didn’t make much sense, so Georgie said, ‘Breathe.’

Kat’s chest inflated.

‘Good. Now back up. How can it be your fault?’

‘Do you promise not to tell anyone?’ she begged.

Georgie didn’t hesitate. ‘Of course.’

Kat stared at her for a moment. ‘It’s my fault because I should’ve been behind Hannah when we all left the summerhouse, but Josh and I got…um…distracted and that must’ve been when she ran away.’

‘Distracted?’

She covered her face. ‘We kissed.’

Georgie smiled. Whenever she managed to spend time in Daylesford, it usually included a trip to the boxing studio, where she proved to Franklin she didn’t fight like a pansy any more – in fact, she gave him a run for his money. She’d seen loaded glances between Kat and Josh and wondered when one of them would make a move. She hadn’t expected it to happen on camp though.

‘Was it a good first kiss?’

‘You can’t ask me that. How embarrassing.’

‘That good, huh?’ Georgie chuckled.

Kat blushed, giggled. ‘Yeah, it was.’ She dropped her hands. ‘Dad doesn’t know about the kiss and you can’t tell him.’

Georgie nudged her. ‘Okay, if you give me details later.’ She sobered. ‘But listen, you can’t blame yourself…or Josh. Maybe your timing wasn’t ideal, but you didn’t make Hannah go anywhere. It looks like she and her brothers had planned this.’

‘You think?’ Kat screwed her nose.

‘The boys ran back to her. And no one saw them after that. So, yeah, I do.’

Her friend turned one shade healthier, until Georgie said something she wanted to take back immediately, ‘Although, maybe they didn’t plan on the weather or whatever happened next.’