Vanished by James Delargy (free novel 24 TXT) 📕

dingoes and having to wash in a basin. She was one step away from becoming certifiable.

Her thinking edged towards the miners. Mike and Stevie. Both friends and both shot. Possibly at separate times. Then again possibly not. Ian could easily have killed both in the tunnel to carry on mining alone. But why drag them out and fake the crash? Or had he killed them and taken on Lorcan Maguire as his partner until something else went wrong?

They had worked the mine for at least three weeks. Three weeks trapped in the same confined space trying to avoid the Maguire family. Add to that the possibility that their gold return was dwindling. Her strong suspicion was that Ian had been fleecing Mike and Stevie and they had found out. After a confrontation Ian shot them. But the sound carried. The family heard. They tried to bolt but were hunted down.

But that still left Dylan and Naiyana. Did he not have the heart to shoot them? Was he swayed by her beauty? Or were their bodies still out there to be found?

She may have been taken along with Dylan. A contract put on her or her husband’s head by Nikos Iannis or Chester Grant. Maybe the guy in the suit in the wrong place for an interview. Or the salesman who had come to Hurton. Used as cover to ask questions.

Emmaline rested her head against the thin lining of the seat, the plastic edge putting pressure on her skull, forcing her to stay alert. With all possibilities under careful consideration, she believed that the bodies in the truck would turn out to be Mike Andrews and Stevie Amaranga. In fact, she would stake her house on it. But given that this was currently a second-hand caravan with nicotine stains on the roof and a toilet door that didn’t shut properly, she wasn’t staking a lot.

Confirmation arrived in the early afternoon. The benefits of overtime and a now nationwide news story bearing fruit, everyone under pressure to produce results. The bodies in the truck had been identified.

Mike Andrews and Stevie Amaranga.

Emmaline called her team back to Kallayee. They convened outside the caravan, their lunches interrupted.

‘Not a pleasant way to go,’ said Barker, sipping coffee that Rispoli had brought back. He had dodged pulling sentry duty keeping the press back. Anand hadn’t been so lucky. The disadvantage of being the junior member.

‘No,’ said Emmaline, ‘but we’re still not sure exactly how they did go.’

‘Or why,’ added Rispoli.

‘What we do know is that of the six people in town, three are still missing, Naiyana Maguire, Dylan Maguire and Ian Kinch.’

‘That I do have information on,’ said Oily, making his way over from the huge Comms truck that had been added to their team, driven from Perth and now beached on the sand.

‘We have confirmation that Ian Kinch left Queensland at the same time as Mike Andrews and Stevie Amaranga. We even have photos of them together on the website for Deluxe. A nightclub in Brisbane.’

The high-quality photos showed Mike and Stevie, faces awash in drunken pleasure, some random girl wrapped around Stevie’s slender waist. The only person who didn’t look pleased was Ian, trying to hide his face from the lens but failing.

‘He doesn’t look happy,’ said Barker.

‘No,’ said Oily. ‘Given we found no pictures of the three together on Mike’s or Stevie’s social media outlets, this seems to have fallen outside the scope of his control.’

She looked closer. ‘This is from the first of November. Anything more recent?’

Oily shook his head.

‘Which suggests he is either dead himself, or he’s gone to ground,’ said Emmaline. ‘And the only reason to go into hiding is…?’

‘Because he committed a crime,’ said Rispoli.

‘And he did. Mining without permits,’ said Barker.

‘True,’ said Emmaline. ‘But, if the murdered bodies of your mining partners and someone you were alone in a town with showed up, and you were innocent, you’d hand yourself in to clear your name.’

‘So we think Ian Kinch killed these three people and then took Naiyana and Dylan?’ said Rispoli.

‘Or he took them hostage, before murdering them,’ said Barker.

Emmaline added another twist to this supposition. ‘Or, best-case scenario, he took them hostage and is keeping them alive somewhere.’

There was absolute silence at this being the best-case scenario. That a triple murderer still had two hostages alive after eleven days on the run.

Emmaline grasped for positivity. ‘There’s nothing in Ian Kinch’s record that suggests he’s willing or capable of killing someone. Let alone four or five people.’

‘Unless things went awry,’ said Oily. ‘Whatever their original plan was it veered drastically when the Maguires arrived.’

‘Maybe he just took her for some fun,’ said Barker, raising an eyebrow. ‘She’s an attractive woman.’

That brought another hushed silence. Another scenario nobody wished to contemplate. But it gave Emmaline time to think.

‘We’re supposing that Ian Kinch would hand himself in if he was innocent,’ said Emmaline. ‘But what if you’d been threatened yourself, say by an associate with a criminal past like Nikos Iannis? Or by someone in power. Like Chester Grant.’

‘The MP?’ said Rispoli.

Emmaline nodded.

‘How’s he involved?’

Emmaline told them everything.

96

Mike Andrews

He despised being herded back to work like a dumb sheep. Using his penknife to work the dirt from underneath his fingernails helped ease his anger towards Lorcan. There was a wife and son – and Ian – to consider. He would see what Ian had come back with before contemplating a further move, though short of shackling and muzzling Lorcan Maguire he didn’t know what would appease him.

‘So what did you get?’ asked Mike.

Ian paced to the far end of the room.

‘She promised—’

‘Promised! She can’t deliver. Only handcuffs, a gag and a deep pit will stop that mutt!’

‘It’ll work,’ said Ian. ‘I know it.’

Mike enjoyed having Ian on the defensive. It was good to bark the orders rather than take them for once. At Skyline they shut up and did what they were told. And still got the boot.

‘We’ve an agreement,’ continued Ian. ‘A few bucks