The chaos in Jay’s apartment didn’t clear until a couple of hours before sunrise. Jay had spent most of the night on his recliner, answering questions and drifting in and out of sleep. Ed Ryan had convinced the Police Commissioner that the day’s events had been an unfortunate coincidence. Bill convinced the apartment manager to let him and his driver stay in one of the holiday units while he set up camp to handle his local investigations.
Green hadn’t coped well with almost having shot someone by accident. Jay doubted she would last much longer in the service. Peterson had agreed to keep Jay and Bill in the loop during his investigation of the bus crash and the attempted hold-up.
After dropping Ed at the Gold Coast airport, one of the secret agents drove Jay to his father’s house in Brisbane in the Chevy while the other agent followed in the agency vehicle. They would maintain discreet surveillance from Bill’s house next door.
The first thing Jay did when he arrived was ring the hospital for an update on Brooke. All through the night, she hadn’t left his thoughts. It took a lot of persuading to get information on her condition. Finally, all they would tell Jay was that she was serious but stable. He then rang Bill and asked for his security contacts at the hospital to seek a more detailed update.
By mid-morning, Jay had contacted the military police Captain and she agreed to meet him at his father’s house. Although he could walk, he wanted to keep off his legs to allow the swelling in his knee to subside.
On hearing a car door close, Jay put the icepack aside, got up and peered through the blinds. The military police Captain had almost made it to the front stairs.
The icepack had numbed his knee and Jay wobbled over to the front door. He was immediately taken aback at the stunning beauty that topped the stairs. Wisps of blonde splayed out from under the red beret. Striking hazel eyes offset her tanned complexion and matched a mouth that couldn’t help but smile. Jay was sure the khaki uniform hid an hourglass body.
‘Mr. Ryan.’
Jay couldn’t help but stare until she raised her eyebrows. ‘Umm ... sorry. I was thinking about the last time an MP was here. A couple actually. They tried to kidnap me.’
‘I heard.’ She held out her hand. ‘I’m Toni Griffin.’
Jay took her hand and gave it a gentle shake. ‘Jay Ryan. Nice to meet you, Toni. Come on in.’
Toni turned Jay’s hand over. She noticed the cuts, and looked down at his leg. She held on to his hand while she continued to look him over. ‘What happened?’
Jay withdrew his hand and stepped inside. ‘I’ll tell you all about it later. Take a seat. Coffee?’
‘Thanks. Black with none.’
Shit, Jay thought. Now he had to have it the same. Although he didn’t have sugar, he liked his coffee with plenty of milk. It allowed him to drink it faster and top up with more if needed. His dilemma now was he didn’t want to come off as weak for having milk. He knew it was a stupid notion. Just something he couldn’t get by. He justified it by telling himself it was good for rapport if he shared the same tastes with the person about to give him information. Same tastes in coffee, at least.
He hobbled up the couple of steps to the open kitchen area. Made it to the sink and peered across to Toni. She had removed her beret and was perusing his father’s collection of Jay’s commendations and medals mounted along the living-room walls. Despite Jay’s protests, Ed Ryan refused to take them down.
‘Wow. You certainly have a good collection here.’
‘My dad does. This is his place. I’m just visiting.’
She turned to face Jay. ‘Figured that. You don’t seem like someone who needs to display his achievements.’
‘What makes you say that?’
‘For one, you’re a hard man to track down. I called in a lot of favours just to get your father’s details.’
Jay nodded. ‘Fair call. And?’
‘Pardon?’
‘Well. You said “for one”. Means you have something else to back up that statement.’
She smiled. ‘My cousin spent many a night talking about you. Said you were the best he had ever worked with. They all looked up to you.’
‘Cousin?’
‘Mark Simpson.’
They were both seated with steaming cups of coffee in their hands before Jay replied. ‘Sorry, I failed to make the connection. My father said you knew him, just not how. I’m sorry for your loss.’
‘Thank you.’
‘I have to add though, your cousin was a great interrogator and known to stretch the truth a bit. That was our job. I think he may have stretched it too far if he mentioned that stuff about me.’
She took a sip of the dark coffee and sat back in the lounge. ‘Not just him. Your exploits of last year have certainly made legend status.’
Jay went to say something but Toni cut him off.
‘But I won’t embarrass you anymore.’
He took a sip of coffee, forgetting he didn’t have any milk in it. Too busy looking deep into her eyes. He burnt the roof of his mouth. ‘Shit!’
‘Should have had milk.’
She was good.
‘How is Major Sergeant anyway?’ he asked.
‘Out. Seems he had no chance making it much further up the ranks after you escaped his custody. Went into the private security industry.’
‘Don’t they all?’ Jay retrieved the icepack and placed it back on his knee. ‘So tell me, I know you weren’t looking for me to attend Mark’s funeral; what exactly is it I can do for you?’
She frowned. ‘How do you know we’ve already had the funeral?’
‘He always said he wanted it over and done with real quick with no fanfare. Cremated, right?’
‘Yes, two days ago. And you’re right: I need to ask you about something else.’
Toni took another sip of coffee and continued. ‘Right after Mark’s accident, my uncle asked me to track down his old mates. You guys from his interrogator days. He said it was the pinnacle of his career when you went to Afghanistan together. Made my whole family proud.’
‘Why you?’
‘I’m the only other family member in the military, and being a military police officer, my uncle figured I’d be able to do it at short notice.’
‘Makes sense. And that’s when you found out about McClelland and Davis.’
‘Right. I knew about Bowen and I had no hope of finding you in time because you’d already left the military, but McClelland and Davis were still there, so it wasn’t too hard. And then, of course, I find out they died around the same time as Mark. I don’t believe in coincidences.’
Jay smiled. ‘Neither do I.’
‘I didn’t tell my uncle of my suspicions for obvious reasons.’
Jay nodded.
‘But I offered to clean out some of Mark’s army stuff.’
‘And you found something of interest.’
Toni leaned forward, put her cup down and looked Jay in the eyes. ‘Mark knew someone was coming after him. Coming after all of you.’