NINETEEN

Jay gripped his phone tighter. 'Where?' he asked his superior officer.

'He's safe, with me at the Centre. Your call had me worried, and after finding that mess in the interrogation room, I thought I'd do some after-hours checks. I found Captain Primrose with your dad in one of the interrogation rooms. Primrose knocked him out before I could get to him. Don't worry, though, your dad will be fine.'

Jay turned to check if Catherine was listening. She was busy putting her things back into her handbag. Even so, he stepped a little further away and lowered his voice. 'Has he come to?'

'He's still unconscious but breathing OK. Primrose is tied up. That's why I'm calling. You need to get down here right now and explain what is happening.'

'Don't call it in just yet. I'll be there in an hour. Tell Primrose he's going to pay. I want him sweating by the time I get there.'

He hung up and turned to Catherine. 'Put the van in the garage. We're taking your car for a drive.'

She finished bundling her belongings into her handbag, stood up and straightened her jacket. 'A please would be nice.'

'Would it? And I suppose I owe you a big fucking thank you for the graffiti on my wrist?'

Catherine lowered her head and held out a hand. 'Where are the keys?'

'Screwdriver's in the ignition.'

He tried calling Sarah's mobile. It rang out. He tried again. No answer. Shit, he thought. He had only just dropped her off and she should have been answering. She was supposed to cover his back. He didn't have time to wait and decided to try again later. Sarah was big enough to protect herself – he hoped. He had to get to Canungra, where he intended to beat the life out of Primrose.

Catherine reversed the military police van to the end of the driveway. She was walking back to the BMW when Jay stopped her.

'Keys,' he said, holding his good hand forward.

'So you can drive off in my car and leave me here?'

'Give me the keys and bring the van in.' He pointed to the garage.

'If you take off I'll report it to the police.'

'Sure you will. Good law-abiding citizen like yourself.'

She threw the keys at him. He caught them and reversed the BMW down the drive. Catherine parked the van in the garage and joined him. She tugged at the seatbelt; Jay placed his hand over the buckle to stop her.

'Leave yours off,' he said.

'What?'

'Leave the seatbelt off. I figure you're less likely to try anything funny.'

'Are you kidding me?'

'No. One wrong move, I hit the brakes and watch you fly through the windscreen.'

'That's absurd. Why would I do anything?'

'You've got a short memory. Now leave it off or get out.'

Catherine sat back in her seat and crossed her arms. The look on her face reminded Jay of a spoilt child. He hit the accelerator and her hands flew to the edge of her seat. Jay smiled at the small victory.

They drove south through deserted suburban streets. The quickest way to the Gold Coast from the north side of Brisbane was via the Gateway Motorway. The crystal clear night made for a spectacular view of the city lights as they climbed the Gateway Bridge. Jay didn't bother stopping for the toll and drove straight on through the E-Toll lane. Catherine would get the fine.

Catherine tapped her legs and gripped her seat throughout the journey. Jay was pleased; he wanted her nervous and off guard.

Jay figured she wouldn't do anything stupid while he was driving and used the time to go over recent events in his mind before speaking with Catherine. Something nagged at him. He had the DVD, his dad was safe and Primrose was with his boss. It would be easy for Jay to let the authorities sort it out from here. They could probably link Lazarau and Primrose easily enough. He hadn't yet figured out where Catherine Primrose fitted into the equation. Cliffe and Taylor hadn't lied. Or so he hoped. He decided to keep the information about Cliffe and Taylor to himself, for now. It would serve a purpose at a later stage, to be used wisely as a confrontation point. Getting his father back was the priority.

Jay broke the silence as the motorway joined up to the highway leading to the Gold Coast. 'Let's skip the bullshit story you intend to feed me and get to the facts. I'm not in the mood for your rubbish. Speak.'

'I don't intend to feed you a bullshit story. I need your help. He's out of control.'

'Don't get ahead of yourself. Start from the beginning.'

'Met, fell in love, got married, blah, blah, blah.'

'Sounds exciting. Get to the bit where you two started torturing people and I don't mean the torture of having to live with each other.' He caught an evil look coming his way.

'Warren started torturing people. I had to go along with it.'

'Yeah, of course you did.' He wished he could watch her responses to assess their truthfulness through body language analysis. A price he paid for not letting her drive, although that had been a calculated decision. The lack of trust removed that option.

'I'm telling the truth. It started when you were in Afghanistan. When it was decided that you were to be redeployed to Iraq before the ground war.'

'How did you know about that? It's classified.'

'Warren told me. Anyway, as you know Warren has never been on deployment and he wasn't happy that you went ahead of him to Afghanistan. When the preparations commenced for Iraq he was overlooked again because they wanted you. That's when he completely changed. That night he came home and completely wrecked the house. He tied me up and raped me all night. I thought he was going to kill me. When he finally let me go he said if I left him or told anyone about what happened, he would kill me.'

Possible, he thought. Not plausible enough though. 'That's a good story, but what's it got to do with torturing me?'

Jay glanced across. Catherine was crying. She made no move to wipe away her tears; obviously she wanted him to see them. He turned his focus back on the road.

Catherine sniffed as if to gain his attention and continued. 'You being picked to stay in the Middle East really got to him. He started drinking heavily and gambled all our money away. We were selling all our stuff just to get by. I wanted to get work but Warren wouldn't let me. He got this idea one day that disgusted me then and still does.'

'I'll bite. What was the idea?'

'No need to be sarcastic.'

'Just hurry up.'

'He forced me to sleep with other men for money. There – you happy now?'

Jay remained silent, pondering what she'd said. If she was lying, she should have been an actor. 'How did it come about?'

'Well, after Warren raped me, he became impotent. No matter what, he couldn't perform. We tried everything. He suggested that if I slept with someone and he watched it might help. I refused and he beat me. The following week he said it again. I couldn't cope with another beating so I did it. That first night a local politician picked me up in a bar and I took him home. Warren watched from a peephole in a cupboard.'

'Does sound like something that sick bastard would do,' Jay said. The story seemed plausible enough so far.

'It didn't help. Warren remained impotent but he had an idea that we could blackmail the politician because he was married. So I did it again, we recorded it, and the blackmail worked.'

'How much?'

'What?' Catherine seemed surprised by the question.

Jay glanced her way again. The tears had disappeared. 'How much did you blackmail him for?'

She looked out her window. 'Ten thousand.'

'Keep going.'

'It was lucrative for a while with a few other colourful personalities on the Gold Coast, but Warren decided to do the same thing to defence people, except this time he wanted secret documents instead of money. It was very successful until the bloke got caught.'

Jay faced her to gauge her reaction. 'Lazarau.'

Catherine looked at him, wide-eyed. 'How did you know?'

Her reaction appeared genuine. 'Go on.'

'Yes, umm ... Lazarau. He was lonely and I felt sorry for him. I think he fell in love with me. Warren videoed us together and used it as leverage because he had a girlfriend at the time. He collected documents for quite a while until he broke up with his girlfriend. He stopped handing over the documents and Warren taught him a lesson.'

'Let me guess. Tortured him for a while, nailed his hand to a table and tattooed him. Like he belonged to Primrose.'

'Yes.'

'Who's Warren selling the documents to?'

'I don't know.'

Jay touched the brakes and she fell toward the dashboard. He stepped on the accelerator before she hit, and she fell back into her seat.

'Are you fucking crazy?' she said. 'You could have killed me.'

'Who's he selling them to?'

'I don't fucking know.'

Jay decided against hitting the brakes again. 'I won't be happy if I find out you're lying.'

'I'm telling the truth. He doesn't tell me.'

'Why go after me, then?' Jay asked.

'Lazarau got sick of being pushed and wanted some money for himself. He got caught. This was an opportunity for Warren to get you because you have access to very sensitive documents. At the same time he saw it as revenge for you going to Iraq instead of him.'

Typical, Jay thought. Primrose had always had 'little man' syndrome. Just couldn't stand anyone being better at something or chosen before him. 'Why didn't he just steal the documents himself?'

'He lost some of his security clearances around the time of the gambling. Someone found out and that's why he's stayed in a teaching role at the Centre for so long.'

'I didn't hear about this.'

'He's an officer. You're not. That's the way it is. He managed to keep it quiet.'

Jay thought it possible, even over something as serious as losing a security clearance. It wasn't unusual for officers to receive preferential treatment over enlisted soldiers when it came to discipline. Always been that way, always would be. 'Why the threats to my father?'

'Warren's off the rails. That's why I need your help. I had no idea about the thing with your father until he said it to you. It came as a shock to me.'

Jay thought it explained Catherine's pale complexion the previous night. 'Where is he now?'

'Who? Your father?'

'Yeah.'

'I honestly don't know. As soon as we left you last night, we went home. Warren got straight into his car and disappeared without saying another word. I haven't seen or heard from him since.'

'Who else knows about this?'

'Nobody. Warren thought Lazarau might have said something, but he said that was taken care of.'

'When did he say that?'

'Maybe last week some time.'

'Anything else I should know?'

'That's all I know. Honestly, Jay.'

Jay knew she had not given the entire story but he had enough information to confront Primrose.

He thought about Sarah and tried several times to call her. He wanted to hear that she was OK. He started to worry when she didn't answer, but the feeling would have to wait, he decided, as he drove into the Canungra army barracks. He had more immediate issues to address.