Vanished by James Delargy (free novel 24 TXT) 📕

‘No, it’s been moved recently. Look at the marks in the dust.’ Underneath the low-heeled legs of the cupboard were marks indicating lateral movement, the fading brown of the wood underneath exposed. ‘Help me,’ she said as she dragged the cupboard to the side following the path of the marks. It revealed a hole in the floor, neatly cut into the wood and rounded at the edges.

Using her phone to cast a light she made out a set of roughly hewn steps. It reminded her of basements she had read about in newspapers. Ones where the products of incestuous relationships were kept. Or kidnap victims.

‘Call Barker and Anand. We’re going down.’

25

Emmaline

Progress was as slow down here as it was up top. They first had to make sure that the buttresses planted along the tunnel were sound. Emmaline comforted herself that they had been standing for maybe a hundred years, so she and Rispoli would have been mightily unlucky to have them fall on their heads at precisely this moment. But anyway, each was checked as they moved along.

The question had been floated as to whether to bring in a specialist team, but consensus was that getting in specialist miners or cavers would take too long. Besides, there might be nothing down here but lost hopes from a century ago.

That theory was revised somewhat by the discovery of the supplies. Cans of soda, bags of crisps and snacks that most definitely did not exist a century ago. Including a number of Chunky Peanut Butter KitKats. Someone had been down here. Recently.

Emmaline, with Rispoli following, increased her pace, calling out the names of the family but getting nothing but an empty echo in return. There was a chance that they had stumbled upon the tunnel and decided to go for a stupid and reckless adventure. But that didn’t account for the fact that the cupboard had been replaced over the entrance.

From behind her, Rispoli called out again. His heavy voice bounced straight back at them. They had reached a dead end, but a dead end littered with empty chocolate bar wrappers, metal detectors and a pair of ear-defenders. And something else. Two machines that although ingrained with soot and dust, were very much modern in design. One looked like a red bin with a short conveyor belt underneath it; the other some sort of grinding machine with wheels and a hammer. Both were attached to a small generator. It was a processing line of some sort. The bin was full of small rocks.

‘What do you think?’ he asked.

‘Looks like a mining operation. Small scale. Load the rocks to crush them and then feed the material into this bin using the looped hose to wash and recycle the water.’

‘Looking for gold?’

‘Probably given the area we’re in.’

‘There can’t be much.’

‘Enough to warrant trying. Enough to warrant leaving the machines behind.’

‘Unless they’re planning to come back,’ said Rispoli.

‘If they do they are in for a surprise,’ said Emmaline. ‘Get Forensics in here. Check the equipment, check the rubbish left behind. Let’s find out who these people were.’

‘What if it was the family?’

‘It means we still have the same question to answer. What happened to them?’

26

Lorcan

He slept in the ute all night. It gave him space to breathe. That was the irony of Kallayee. All this space but still he found it claustrophobic. He was trapped in his own head, his past misdeeds holding him hostage.

Naiyana was ignoring him too. She’d cooked breakfast for herself and Dylan only. If this was her chosen method of punishing him he was happy with that. No shouting, no screaming. Especially given his simmering hangover. He had always found silence the easiest punishment. For a short while anyway. Let the storm pass. Besides, if she continued not to talk to him he could always do something worse that would make her scream at him. You don’t stay together for eight years and not know what triggers the other person’s fuse. A skill learned by all humans from an early age. Where are the boundaries? What can I get away with before my parents – or spouse – are forced to intervene?

She didn’t even have a go at him for not getting to work immediately. A weird feeling of tranquillity hung over everything this morning. As if he went away for one night and she had been turned into a zombie.

At least Dylan wasn’t ignoring him. So after lugging the cement and bricks into place to start work on repairing the gable wall, he took a break with his son, learning how his mining operation worked. The digger filled the truck, which left for town for the gold and diamonds to be removed before returning, the hole getting slowly deeper and deeper, the lorries trailing dirt out by the tonne. It was amazing what the boy had picked up from television and books, his mind like a sponge.

‘It’s a big-time operation, son, isn’t it?’

‘Very big. And it will get bigger once you buy me more trucks.’

Lorcan smiled. ‘For that you need to help Dad.’

So he bribed Dylan to help mix the cement, shovelling in the sand as he turned it over and over, instructing his son to add water when necessary. It was hard but gratifying work, the cement making a satisfying wet slop as it fell onto the sheeting.

He glanced in the kitchen window. Nee was busy at the table still ignoring him. The edge of a large plaster sneaked out from underneath the shoulder of her top.

‘Dylan? Did something happen yesterday? To Mum?’

The boy was easing water into the hole in the centre of the wet cement creating a muddy lake. He stopped and looked away. A telltale sign of guilt.

‘What is it, Dylan?’

‘We had a fight. Mum was doing her video and I wanted to be in it but she said no and so I ran off.’

‘Where?’

‘Home. I waited but she didn’t come back for ages. I fell asleep, but