Vanished by James Delargy (free novel 24 TXT) 📕

The local hospitals were questioned. A team in Queensland HQ had even taken to phoning all the local surgeries and health centres around the state to see if any had admitted or treated Naiyana Maguire, Dylan Maguire or someone fitting their descriptions.

Local gold dealers the same. All enquiries met with the same silence. Leaving the possibility that Ian had run out of merch.

Tuesday flicked over to Wednesday. And Wednesday into Thursday.

Horizons that had been narrowed to concentrate on Queensland were broadened again. Budgets stretched and pledges given that this was the last time.

Calls were made to Darwin for the Top-Enders to make some enquiries. Brisbane and the Gold Coast too were put on alert. Even the Sydneysiders. The net was wide but with too many holes. A needle in a haystack.

Emmaline’s frustrations grew. They had picked up the scent only to have the suspect shake them. The cranked humidity made her temper grow spectacularly short, snapping at the staff in the motel that somehow smelled worse than the caravan she had left behind.

She snapped at officers who weren’t under her command. She missed being in command. She missed pursuing her own lines of enquiry and the freedom that working for the MCS back home provided. Out here she was a bystander watching on as Inspector Liang from Cairns QPS took over. She had no authority here. After driving the case all the way here that seemed wrong. She didn’t enjoy taking a back seat. The views were restricted, the chance to steer remote and the journey only made her frustrated and bored.

With each tick of each minute her doubts solidified. She had made a mistake. Ian Kinch and the Maguires were elsewhere. She had jumped on the logic of Ian returning home as some sort of security blanket but there had been no inkling of his presence.

He had managed to disappear off the grid once. But back then the full force of the law hadn’t been looking for him. Now he had managed to stage another disappearance like he was David fucking Blaine.

It was 13 January now. Two weeks since Naiyana was last spotted alive. Two weeks since Dylan was last heard of. A month since they had entered Kallayee and now, even in this heat and oppressive humidity, the trail was quickly growing cold. Time was rapidly flowing against them and she was powerless.

After another meeting and another lack of positive sightings, she called up Zhao in case Ian had doubled back and ended up in the West. It was another dead end. And Nikos wasn’t talking. Other than to say he had nothing to do with any killings.

After that she contacted Rispoli. This brought another dagger of frustration. How she could have done with him out here to take her mind off things for a while. A distraction was what she needed. His voice. His lips. Again she felt a pang of affection for that sweaty, dank caravan. She didn’t say any of this to him. There was no point. They might meet again. Might even hook up again but right now all she could ask was for him to once again scour Kallayee for any clues. Check the tunnels again, check the house; look for a sign in the clouds, whispers in the air. She recognized what these were. Desperation measures to allow herself to exert some control.

That afternoon brought another visit to Ian’s family, which she tagged along on. As another badge in a line. It was another attempt to cajole them into giving up anything they knew. Their pride regarding Ian was overtly apparent. Petty crime was the family business given the Kinch’s lists of misdemeanours but Ian had broken through as the first nationwide Kinch villain, others merely local celebrities. The neighbours were canvassed again and again claimed not to have heard of Ian King or Ian Kinch even though his photo had been plastered all over the news. The wall of silence was tall and strong.

On leaving Emmaline pulled Inspector Liang aside. During the course of this blunt assault another angle of attack had occurred to her. They had tried relatives, neighbours and friends. But what about enemies? Surely not everyone was celebrating Ian’s newfound fame? Inspector Liang studied her closely, sniffing persistently, something he seemed to do when mulling something over. Despite Emmaline being a drop-in, he had never once discouraged her or suggested she leave this to the QPS, the brush-off she had experienced before in other cases. Even when she outranked whoever was locally in charge. Inspector Liang stopped sniffing. He held his nose. And nodded.

HQ was quick to draw up a list of possibles and it didn’t take long for it to bear fruit. Toby ‘Tubs’ Wilkinson, a small-time local dealer, was happy to spill the beans in return for a petty theft charge being dropped.

After insisting that Ian Kinch was both not in town and a worthless piece of shit like all the other Kinches, Tubs eventually informed them that Ian had a lock-up out in Manoora, a southern suburb.

This was news to the team. A quick check revealed that the lock-up wasn’t rented under Ian’s name or any known alias and had been paid for in cash. The owner didn’t know what was kept in it and didn’t care as long as it wasn’t illegal or flammable. Emmaline watched his face change from blasé to vexed when the police were unable to refute either.

Inspector Liang gave the command for the lock-up to be raided immediately by the Special Emergency Response Team. Emmaline and Oily rode with Liang in the backup truck. He didn’t want either of them caught up in a gunfight. That was something Emmaline could abide by. As long as she was there when they caught Ian. She wanted to experience the satisfaction and thrill of the end of the hunt.

She waited in the third van back, tension mounting alongside the heat in the windowless vehicle. The SERT team readied themselves, weapons checked, masks