Vanished by James Delargy (free novel 24 TXT) 📕

‘Act as consultants to everyone from mining companies to property developers to government agencies. Using satellite data to image the land.’

‘Sounds…’ She wanted to say boring but couldn’t. She was currently in the midst of a fruitless door-stepping campaign.

‘His family – parents only as he is a bachelor – say he upped sticks and left last November. Didn’t tell anyone where he was going.’

‘Good work, Zhao. Inform the rest of the team.’

Another question materialized.

‘He mentioned “lay-offs” in the clip. That suggests more than one. Find out who else might have been laid off. I doubt he would work the tunnels alone.’

With that she let Zhao go do his thing. They had a name now. And an occupation. But not a reason why. And nothing to suggest a link between Mike Andrews and the Maguire family.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Anand shouting, ‘We got one,’ from across the street.

Anand was right. They did have one. But Jacob Inglot had less information on the matter than Bobby Marley had. He informed them about seeing Naiyana Maguire parked just off the road out of town as he headed west towards the arid patch of dirt he called his farm. Out past the goldfields and just short of Dredger’s Gully. She was alone but obviously waiting for someone. Jacob hadn’t stopped to find out who as he was about to run out of gas and needed to get the twenty kilometres to his place and fill up with the jerry can.

‘How did she seem?’

‘Hard to tell. She kinda turned her face as if she was obscuring her identity, but as I was being tracked by a cloud of dirt the size of Mount Augustus, she might have been protecting herself from the onslaught. Certainly not distressed. She didn’t even attempt to flag me down.’

‘No other vehicles?’

‘Nope. I didn’t pass any either.’

‘And when was this?’

‘Around Christmas.’

‘Date?’

‘No thanks, I’m married,’ grinned Jacob revealing more than a few missing teeth. ‘Twenty-third maybe. Is that helpful?’

Emmaline was considering that. It didn’t confirm who Naiyana Maguire might have been waiting on, if she was indeed waiting on someone. But what was strange was to be west of Hurton, on a road that eventually led to nowhere. An odd place to meet a work colleague who would have to drive all the way from the highway through Hurton and out the other side.

She had just said ‘Thank you’ to Jacob Inglot when HQ called again. Mike Andrews wasn’t the only person let go at that time. A friend of his – confirmed as such by both families – called Stevie Amaranga had been let go too. And he had disappeared around the same time as Mike. Without informing anyone where he was going. Both had simply vanished off the map.

She now had a voice and two names. One had definitely been down the tunnel and Emmaline now suspected the other had been with him. The gold dust residue found by the machines suggested they’d had some success.

‘Any more on why they were let go?’

‘Business downturn. Budget cuts.’

‘It seems to be a theme.’

‘It’s always the arse end of the tapeworm that falls away first when the nutrients dry up,’ said Zhao.

Emmaline laughed. ‘How long have you been cooking that?’

‘A couple of hours. The pair were given two weeks’ notice and a month’s redundancy.’

‘Do you know what exactly they did for Skyline?’

‘Satellite imaging. On the data analysis side.’

‘For any particular region?’

‘Queensland. Surat Basin mostly.’

‘Not the Great Vic then?’

‘Seems not.’

‘So why go there?’

‘Beats me.’

‘Get onto someone at Skyline and get them to check what Mike and Stevie were researching before they left. See if they were scoping out other regions before they were let go.’

The list of suspects was now increasing. Mike Andrews and possibly Stevie Amaranga the latest additions. More avenues leading from the barren desert and trailing off towards the horizon.

60

Naiyana

The tension was unbearable. Peeking outside regularly to check if any of the miners were in town, and if so where. The knowledge of each other’s presence hadn’t dispelled the suspicion. It had made it worse.

Both sides knew that each were there illegally. The government would not look kindly on either of their activities but the worst that could happen to them as a family was that they’d be told to move on. Maybe accompanied by a slap on the wrist or a fine. They would be able to sneak away without too much fuss and before anyone in Perth could react. Ian, Mike and Stevie could be in worse trouble with the law. Minus a permit, they were effectively stealing from the government.

Even Dylan kept asking where the miners were. He wanted to show off his own amateur mining operation. They had become his heroes, his allegiance hanging firmly in the balance. She had warned him not to talk to them. Not that Dylan would listen. After all he had seemed to know about their presence before they did. The people that he claimed to have seen in town, and that both she and Lorcan had scoffed at, had been all too real.

With Lorcan loudly bolting together the box bed he had promised to do two days ago, Naiyana went vlogging. She needed some alone time. Just her, her phone and her thoughts.

It was another day of azure skies, a single fleck of black interrupting the beautiful monotony, the wedge-tailed eagle flying solo on its way home. Following and filming it until it was out of sight, she found herself at the house with the tunnel, staring at it even though she knew she should maintain a business-as-usual approach.

As she continued to film, the miner called Mike appeared from the house, startling her. His first reaction was to cover his face as if exposed, as surprised as she was.

‘Put that away,’ he said, with a clack like snapped bones.

‘It’s pointed upwards.’

‘Put it away,’ he insisted.

61

Mike Andrews

Regular fresh-air breaks had been sold as one of the positives about the family