MORE PIECES
“Well?” Peter asked. “What is it?”
Stephen hesitated and bit his lip in indecision. Then he shook his head. “No, maybe I’d better not. It might turn out to be important and if you don’t know what it is you can’t give it away, even by a slip of the tongue.”
“Oh come on!” Tom cried. “You said you would. We have a right to know.”
Still Stephen shook his head. It was Graham who came to his defence. “No, Steve is right. Better we don’t know. But you are onto something aren’t you Steve?”
Stephen nodded. “I’ve got an idea.”
“Is it about what happened to my grandfather?” Tom asked, his face contorted by intense emotion.
“It might be,” Stephen agreed. “It’s only a bit of a hunch so far, not a theory. We need to do some research, and we need to be careful.”
“Careful?” Peter asked.
Stephen nodded. “I think there might be some risk.”
“But those blokes didn’t harm us,” Graham pointed out. “They didn’t even try to arrest us.”
“No, that is one of the things that I am thinking hard about,” Stephen replied. “I suspect that was because they aren’t sure and don’t want to overplay their hand if they don’t have to.”
“What do you mean?” Peter asked.
“I think someone very important is involved in this and is trying to cover his tracks. But he has to be very careful or it will have the opposite effect.”
Tom snorted. “Oh that’s rubbish!” he cried.
“Is it? Who has the pull to have a road closed off? Or to pay men to guard a plane crash for days while the area is searched? Who can have telephones tapped and has the power to whistle up federal policemen at a moment’s notice?” Stephen asked.
That got them. He could tell by their faces they were thinking hard about that. Peter spoke first. “So who do you think it might be?”
“I’m not sure but my best guess is that Jorgenson fellow who took the papers off us,” Stephen replied.
Graham gasped in astonishment. “Why him?”
“Just a little thing,” Stephen replied. “When we interviewed Major Barnes about the search back in Nineteen Forty One he mentioned that a man named Jorgenson helped them. He said he was a Swede, or a Dane, or something. He was a refugee or migrant. I remember it particularly because Major Barnes said that Jorgenson had the only bulldozer in the Black Mountain area and helped push out a campsite for them, then helped with the search.”
“That’s not much to go on,” Peter said.
Tom now became agitated. “But a bulldozer would be a convenient thing to cover up any ...any nasty evidence,” he said.
Into Stephen’s mind sprang the image of a bulldozer burying a truck with two dead bodies in it. It was the image that had begun to haunt him. He nodded. “That’s what I think.”
Graham looked appalled. He said, “So you think this Jorgenson is the son of that man and is trying to cover up the fact that his father was a German spy?”
Stephen nodded “Possibly. But he’d be a grandson judging by his age.”
“Oh that’s preposterous!” Graham said. “Who would care after all this time what their Grandad did in the war?”
“Do you know what your Grandad did?” Stephen countered, knowing full well that Graham’s Grandfather had been a naval officer, and that Graham was very proud of that.
“Well, yes.. but...,”Graham replied.
“So there are people who might care,” Stephen said.
Peter agreed. “It wouldn’t do anyone’s career much good to have a traitor or spy in his family background.”
Graham looked thoughtful. “Jorgenson would have the contacts to organize things,” he added.
Stephen nodded vigorously. “But he’s not sure and, as I said, I think he has to be careful or people above him will start asking difficult questions,” he said. “So we need to watch what we say and do.”
“Are you thinking of going on with trying to find out what happened?” Tom asked.
Stephen nodded. “Yes.”
“Then I will help you,” Tom said.
“We all will,” Peter said. “So what do we do next?”
“Have breakfast,” Stephen said. “Then get home and cover up this little adventure so that parents don’t interfere while we plan our next move.”
“What do you think that will be?” Graham asked.
“Some research,” Stephen replied. He glanced up at the wall clock, noted that the manager was directing worried and unfriendly looks at them, and bit into his hamburger.
That ended the discussion for the time. They ate quickly and were back in the car by 0730. As they drove back to Cairns Stephen outlined their next moves and worried about what to say to his mother to explain his torn clothes and appearance. To his surprise he found he was too keyed up to feel exhausted.
It was 0745 when Peter dropped him and Tom off at home. As he expected his mother made a big fuss and looked very worried.
“Oh Stephen dear! What happened to you?”
“I fell in some mud,” he replied, trying to grin as he did. “And we ran into a bit of scrub thicker than we expected.”
Stephen’s father raised one eyebrow. “Tom seems to have survived much better,” he observed.
“He was at the back,” Stephen replied.
To his relief Tom nodded. Tom’s mother said, “I’ve been very worried Tom dear. Now hurry up and have a bath and change. I’ve decided we are going home today and need to pack.”
That was good news to Stephen but Tom was appalled. “But Mum! I don’t want to go yet. We...we... we might be able to find out what happened to Grandad.”
His mother shook her head. “I doubt it. Not after all these years. Now be sensible and go and have a shower.”
“But Mum!” Tom cried. Stephen felt a surge of pity for him and knew that he would feel the same way.
But Tom’s mother was adamant. “We’ve been here longer than we should have been anyway. You children have missed nearly two weeks of school and it’s time we got home.”
This time Nancy and Sally joined in, pleading to stay a bit longer, both giving Stephen ‘hinting’ glances as they did.
“No!” their mother snapped. “We are booked on the five pm flight and that is that. Besides, we have been a burden on the Bell’s for long enough.”
“Oh not at all,” Stephen’s mother insisted. “We’ve loved having you.”
So the argument went on while Stephen and then Tom were put through the bath and breakfast. All the while Stephen’s mind was busy, despite his physical weariness. After dressing he asked his mother if he had to go to school.
His mother shook her head. “Not if you don’t feel up to it dear. You look very tired,” she replied
But Stephen had no desire to spend the day at home on his own. ‘Those men might come to get me,’ he thought anxiously. “I’d like to stay home but I don’t want to be the cause of you having to take a day off work,” he replied.
At that Mrs Downey said, “Oh Stephen that will be alright. We are staying here for most of the day to pack.”
At that Stephen decided he would stay, even though he guessed that Tom would take very opportunity to pump him about his theory.
Nancy then asked, “Are you going to come and see us off at the airport?”
“Of course we are!” Stephen’s mother replied. “I will come and pick Stephen up after school. Then we can all go.”
It was arranged that the Downeys would spend the day shopping and packing. During all this Tom sulked around looking miserable. That made Stephen feel a twinge of sympathy. ‘Poor bugger!’ he thought. He knew that if the situation was reversed he would feel the same way.
As soon as this was agreed Stephen announced his intention to have a rest. He went to his room and lay down. Only then did he begin to properly relax. Lying in his own familiar bed helped him. To begin with he had to consciously make his tense muscles ease up. As he lay there his mind raced, turning over and over his thoughts on the situation. He closed his eyes and tried to sleep but the background noise of his parents and the Downeys talking and moving about kept intruding. With a sigh of frustration Stephen rolled to face the wall and kept his eyes tight shut.
He heard his mother come in to say goodbye as she left for work but pretended he was asleep. That worked. Soon he actually was asleep. He stayed that way till well after midday, waking with a washed-out feeling at 1:30pm.
As he sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes Stephen remembered the chase and experienced a surge of anxiety. Everything was so quiet. ‘Am I alone?’ he wondered. Feeling very tired and stiff he slowly got up and padded through the house. To his relief he found Tom asleep on the sofa. After washing his face and going to the toilet Stephen went to the kitchen and made himself some ham sandwiches for lunch.
While he was sitting eating these Tom woke up and joined him. Tom looked very troubled. “I don’t want to go home,” he said. “I think we are close to finding out something important.”
“We might be,” Stephen agreed. He didn’t want to talk about it. ‘It will only give Tom false hopes,’ he thought.
But Tom insisted. “Please tell me Steve. I have a right to know.”
“But it might all be for nothing. I don’t want to get your hopes up and then see you disappointed,” Stephen explained.
“Oh fair go Steve! This will gnaw at me for ever if I don’t know. I will keep on wondering what it is that you know,” Tom said.
Stephen had to accept that. He said, “I don’t really know any more than we have already discussed. I am trying to sort out the puzzle into the right order that’s all. But we don’t have all the pieces so the picture is very fuzzy.”
They talked about what they did know and went over Stephen’s theory. Tom listened intently and made comments from time to time. But it did not get them any further. At last Stephen shrugged. “As I said,” he added, “We don’t have enough pieces to complete the puzzle.”
The Downeys arrived home soon after so the conversation ended. A very dejected Tom got up to help with the packing. This process was continually interrupted by Nancy and Sally coming to talk to Stephen. Neither wanted to leave and both made it obvious that they liked Stephen, and that they were very jealous of each other. In other circumstances Stephen sensed he would have found this enjoyable, even amusing, but now it made him sad.
At 3:30 pm his parents arrived home and the process of loading the cars began. Tom became quite agitated and made a last attempt to persuade his parents to leave him. “Please Mum!” he cried.
“Don’t be silly!” Mrs Downey snapped back. “You haven’t got any solid information at all. Besides, you can always come back some other time when you are older.”
Tom glanced at Stephen, his anxious desire plain to see. But the boys had not told the adults of their theories so all Tom could do was shake his head in frustration. He was near to tears by the time they climbed into the cars.
Ten minutes later they were at the airport. Stephen helped carry their luggage in, a stony faced Tom beside him. The adults concentrated their attention on helping Mrs Hopkins. The old lady looked very tired. Seeing her thanking his parents for their help gave Stephen a real twinge of regret. ‘To come all that way in hope and to be disappointed,’ he thought sadly.
Mrs Hopkins thanked Stephen as well, making him feel very self-conscious. Then Sally insisted on a goodbye kiss. That really embarrassed him. The sight of the jealous indignation on Nancy’s face helped, but she also demanded a kiss.
Having freed himself from the girls Stephen helped carry the luggage over to the booking counter. As he did he noticed a TV crew go hurrying by. He only gave them a mildly curious glance till he saw another crew from a rival station hurry after them, then several other people. A crowd began to form near one of the entrances from the arrival lounge. Several uniformed police and airport security personnel moved to hold back the crowd.
Stephen’s father gestured towards the arrival door. “I wonder who is arriving?” he asked as they all stared at the growing crowd.
Stephen’s mother shrugged. “Some movie star maybe?” she suggested.
“Oooh!” Nancy cried. “A movie star! Can we watch?”
“I didn’t say it was,” Stephen’s mother replied.
Stephen’s father turned to an airline employee standing nearby. “Who are those people waiting to see?” he asked.
“The Minister of Defence,” the man replied.
“Who?” Sally asked.
“Some politician,” Tom told her. At that she turned her nose up and sniffed.
Stephen also lost interest and devoted his time to eyeing the pretty girls. There was then a flurry of activity at the entrance and the camera flashes began to flicker. Stephen caught a glimpse of the politician. He recognized him at once, one of those people who was always on the news.
“They say he will be the next Prime Minister,” Stephen heard his father say to Mrs Downey.
Stephen was about to look away when he suddenly experienced such a shock he felt as though he had touched a live wire. The politician was being shepherded through the crowd by his ‘minders’; the usual collection of aides and plain clothes security men. Walking behind the Minister, speaking into a hand held radio, was Jorgenson.
Stephen stared hard, unsure if it really was the same man. Identification was made much harder because the crowd blocked most of the view. Just for a fleeting second Stephen got a clear view and then he was sure. He grabbed Tom’s arm and pointed. “Jorgenson, there, behind the politician.”
Tom had never seen Jorgenson and stared hard. “You are sure?”
“Definite,” Stephen nodded. He saw Jorgenson turn to look in his direction and experienced a wave of alarm. ‘I don’t want him to see me!’ he thought, but wasn’t sure why.
Then he stiffened. One of the men in suits following Jorgenson was one of the two plain-clothes Federal Policemen who had chased them that morning. An intense feeling of suspicions welled up in Stephen, without any foundation in fact to support it.
Then the politician and his entourage were gone, ushered quickly through the throng to waiting cars. Stephen turned to his father. “Dad, who was that man?”
“Edward Potts, the Defence Minister,” his father answered.
Stephen did not pay much attention to the details of politics but he was well enough educated to understand how important the Defence Minister was. “Leader of the Rural Revival party isn’t he?” he asked.
“That’s right,” his father replied. “He is the number three man in the government after the Deputy Prime Minister. But many people think he is going to be moved up soon. It is likely he will be the next Prime Minister.”
Stephen stood and stared after the group, deep in thought Tom glanced frequently at him, waiting till the adults were out of sight. “What is it Steve? Did you pick up another clue?”
“Maybe,” Stephen replied. “But it doesn’t make much sense. I need to check a few things out.” Moving at the back of his mind was the suspicion that Jorgenson was the leader of a spy ring that had wormed its way in to be close enough to guard the Defence Minister.
“That would give them access to all sorts of secrets,” he suggested to Tom.
“But why?” Tom asked. “Germany has been our ally for more than half a century hasn’t she?”
“He,” Stephen replied. “Deutschland is der Fatherland isn’t it?” He shook his head in bewilderment, his earlier theories about Jorgenson trying to protect himself or his family now gone.
Tom asked, “But why would any European country want to spy on a place as remote as Australia?”
“We are America’s ally. Maybe American secrets leak out of us second-hand,” Stephen suggested. It was all he could think of. From his knowledge of recent history there was nothing since the re-unification of Germany and the collapse of the Soviet Union back in the 1990s to suggest why any German should be interested in Australia’s defence secrets.
“But it must be something like that,” he muttered.
Tom had caught Stephen’s mood. He turned to his mother. “Mum, please can I stay for another week? Please Mum! It is really important to me.”
Mrs Downey looked surprised. “Of course not! You must get back to school. Don’t be silly!”
“School! Oh Mum! If I don’t try my hardest to find out what happened to your Grandad it is going to eat me up inside for ever! I have to try! Please Mum!”
Stephen listened with growing sympathy but wished he hadn’t hinted he had some new piece of information as he really hadn’t.
The argument went on, with Tom becoming more and more agitated. “If I go back I will just run away and come back here,” Tom threatened.
He was so obviously in earnest that finally his mother stopped arguing and listened, her face an anxious mask. “But you can’t stay here on your own, and we can’t ask the Bells to look after you,” she said.
Tom turned to Stephen’s parents and pleaded. That did it. Stephen’s father looked very thoughtful. “A few more days won’t be a problem,” he said.
Mrs Downey tried one last battle. “But your ticket is paid for. We can’t afford another,” she pointed out.
“Ask if we can cancel it and get our money back,” Tom suggested. “Please Mum! Please!”
That did it. The ticket was able to be refunded, mainly because the flight was fully booked and there was man who wanted to urgently get to Melbourne to see his sick wife. As soon as that was agreed Tom grinned and cried at the same time. Mrs Downey still wasn’t reconciled to the unusual step but Mrs Hopkins now joined in on Tom’s side.
“Tom is right,” she said. “If he doesn’t try his hardest it will become an obsession and nag at him for the rest of his life, like it did to me. Let him stay May. He will be alright. I will pay for his board.”
“Oh there won’t be any payment,” Stephen’s mother insisted. “Tom is no trouble.”
So it was a very unhappy Mrs Downey and very disgruntled girls who boarded the plane with Mrs Hopkins. Tom stood and waved them off, trembling with emotion and with tears running down his cheeks. ‘What a bloody sook!’ Stephen thought. He now felt quite guilty as he had no new clue to add. ‘In fact I’m more puzzled than ever,’ he thought gloomily.
After the plane had taken off the group walked back out to the car. Tom had settled down by then and now looked quite anxious. Stephen didn’t know what to do but he did have an idea. He asked his mother if they could drive to Graham’s.
“Why don’t you just phone him?” his mother asked. She was now obviously annoyed at the turn of events.
Stephen exchanged glances with Tom. ‘I can’t let her know we suspect we are under police surveillance,’ he thought. But no answer came to mind. What did occur to him was the question of whether in fact the Federal Police were still watching him. He looked carefully in all directions while trying to appear as though he wasn’t. No-one caught his attention as appearing to look suspicious. ‘But then they wouldn’t,’ he thought, ‘Not if they are professionals at this.’
How to contact Graham occupied Stephen’s mind all the way home and all he could think of finally was to do as his mother suggested. Once they arrived home he was at least relieved to learn that Tom would be moving out of his room.
“He can have the spare bedroom now,” Stephen’s mother said.
‘Good!’ Stephen thought. ‘Now I can get some privacy.’ Feeling both relieved and anxious Stephen went to the phone and dialled Graham’s number. His brother Alex answered the phone. “He’s down in the Ship Room,” Alex told him.
“Ask him to ring me please,” Stephen replied. He hung up and waited. Five minutes later Graham called.
“What is it?” he asked.
“I don’t want to say. Can you come over to talk?” Stephen replied.
“Sorry, Mum won’t let me,” Graham replied. “She’s kept me home all day. How was school?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t go either,” Stephen replied. He was now fretting over how to talk to Graham. Finally he just said he would see him next day at school.
Feeling quite frustrated Stephen put the phone down and went to sit down. As he did the phone rang again. Tom, who was nearest, picked it up. “Hello, Bell residence,” he answered. Then he shook his head. “No, sorry, I am just a friend visiting,” he said. He looked at Stephen and held out the phone with a grin on his face. “It’s Judy, for you.”
Stephen felt a flush of embarrassment. He went and took the phone. “Hello.”
“Stephen, it’s Judy. How are you? I heard that you and Graham got lost in the bush,” she replied.
“No we didn’t. And don’t tell anyone else that. Graham won’t be very pleased. He prides himself on his navigating,” he snapped.
“Ohhhkay! You don’t have to bite my head off!” Judy replied. “I was just worried. Are you alright? You weren’t at school today.”
“Sorry. I was just a bit tired,” Stephen replied. What he really wanted to know was who had told her the story but just in time he remembered that the phone might be ‘bugged’. So he chatted away about nothing much for ten minutes then said he would see her at school next day.
As he hung up Stephen noted that the TV news had just come on. That gave him an idea. Without asking he went and changed channels to Channel 9, then started the HDD to record it.
Stephen’s father sat up. “Stephen! I was watching that!” he said.
“Sorry Dad. There’s something on this channel I want to see,” Stephen replied. ‘I hope,’ he added under his breath. In that he was lucky. Five minutes later an article came on about the arrival of the Minister of Defence at the Cairns airport that afternoon. Stephen craned forward and stared hard at the picture and was rewarded by a clear shot of Jorgenson. ‘And that bloke at the back is Walters,’ he thought with satisfaction. There was a second scene where the Minister was interviewed about the reasons for his visit and about politics. Stephen wasn’t interested in that but kept scanning the people in the background.
Later he changed channels to Channel 10 and was lucky enough to get a second viewing from a slightly different angle. This time he got a good clear view of one of the two men who had questioned them that morning. Feeling more than satisfied that he had some new clue Stephen stopped the HDD.
‘Now, what does it all mean?’ he wondered. He was sure he had another piece of the puzzle but for the life of him couldn’t work out what it was. Later, when his parents were busy in the kitchen, he copied the reports onto a DVD and then watched them twice with Tom eyeing him quizzically. But no new idea came to mind and Stephen still went to bed puzzled.