Chapter 28

The plane flew out of Glasgow with one very perplexed man on board. He had waited patiently the day before for his parcel to arrive from Inverness. His wholesaler had confirmed that it was arriving the previous night and it would be delivered to the safe house the following morning all being well. By nine o’clock that following night, the “all being well” was suddenly not a reality. Ewan McPherson knew things were really awry and planned to leave as soon as he could the next day. His other parcel of cash and belongings had arrived and he spent wisely on a small case that would fit in the overhead lockers so he didn’t have to go through a baggage check in and out anywhere. He secreted some of the cash in the suitcase and in slimline money belts he was to wear. It was a risk, but as the previous day had worn on, he knew staying and waiting for his Inverness biscuit tin was an even bigger risk. Ewan checked his various accounts held in safe havens overseas and felt confident that there was enough there to start a new life, or retire from an old one. He was also confident that if his wholesaler had been caught, the police would find it very difficult to get anything out of him. There would be no plea deals accepted because the wholesaler wasn’t going to see the light of day outside of a prison for many many years. Laws had changed since the old days when you could buy yourself out of trouble. If the wholesaler grassed on anyone, he wouldn’t last long inside and Ewan was sure he knew it too. The man’s only hope was a mistake made by the police; that and a very good barrister.

Ewan landed in Munich just as police raided the safe house. All the wholesaler’s properties had simultaneous raids done as McPherson had decided that the money in the tin was a ransom that had been paid. The important thing was to find Ewan McAllister alive or worst-case scenario, his body, as soon as possible. The wholesaler had quailed at the suggestion that he was involved in the kidnapping and possible murder of McAllister. He said that he was unaware that a kidnapping had taken place and that the last time he had seen McAllister was at a coffee shop where McAllister had asked him to retrieve a tin from Inverness. He tripped himself up when asked about the contents of the tin though that was found in his possession. When McPherson suggested that merely implied that he was the kidnapper, the wholesaler relented and told him of the safe house and that was where McAllister could be found. To curry more favour with the police and avoid any further attempts to tie him to a kidnapping, he also gave up details of his other properties, confident that no evidence was there about the drugs he sold. He needn’t have worried about the evidence because the Inverness group already had enough to convict him for drug crimes. The printers ink colours in his warehouse would see to that along with his delivery vans that had been filmed entering the McAllister warehouse.

McPherson arranged the raid on all the properties in case the man was lying and McAllister was being held elsewhere. He, Sarge, Amelia and Liz followed the armed policing squad into the safe house. It was evident that someone had been there recently. They noted the discarded clothes, the wrappers of new clothing also in the bin and the signs of departure made in haste. Forensics moved in lifting fingerprints and soon established that Ewan McAllister had been there. He was gone and there was nothing to indicate where he had gone. They did find traces of Ewan’s hair and a discarded empty bottle of hair dye in an outside bin. What they couldn’t determine was whether Ewan was on the run on his own as the wholesaler had suggested, or whether the kidnappers had just moved him to another as yet unknown location.

Neither Ewan nor the police realised how close they had come to bumping into each other. Two hours’ lead was all that McAllister had initially, but that would soon increase because the police had no idea where to look. There was a three hour wait between the landing of his Lufthansa flight in Munich and the eight-hour Emirates flight to Dubai. He had upgraded to business class to expedite things and there was less chance of being hassled or his makeup being noticed on the top deck of the A380. He had a two-hour stopover in Dubai before travelling to Singapore by Emirates again. Singapore Airlines would take him to Townsville and Virgin Australia on to Cairns. His idea was to stay in Singapore one night, collect his thoughts, buy a whole new wardrobe and find someone who would repair any of the makeup that may need touching up. The latter action was the biggest risk, but essential because of all of the airports he would enter, he had heard, Australian ones were the most thorough, almost as if Australians had xenophobia. The last thing he wanted was to be discovered and deported, although he laughed to himself, he could always pass himself off as Camden if he had a spray on tan.

The satisfaction of capturing the person who would turn out to be the biggest narcotic importer and drug producer north of the border was tempered somewhat by the likelihood that Ewan McAllister may not be found even if his ransom was to be paid. With all the police activity in Inverness and Glasgow, the kidnapper may have decided to cut his losses and dispose of McAllister's body. Alternatively, if the wholesaler was right and Ewan McAllister was wandering free, then the same activity may well drive him into hiding or make him flee overseas. There were three days until the deadline and they were no closer to locating either of the twins.

Having handed over the drug investigation, the team went back to first principles, one of which was motive. All along, this had been the thing that didn't make sense. If it was a straight-out ransom situation, why would anyone put themselves at risk by kidnapping individuals on the opposite ends of the earth? That took more resources and meant a greater chance for mistakes and discovery. If it was a takeover of an established illegal business, why not just target the Inverness end, because the Cairns part of the business was entirely reliant on the Inverness end? It wasn't a family dispute as there was no other family apart from the twins and both had been kidnapped. The idea that there was a falling out between the two after so many years was laughable. They had a very profitable business and were making money hand over fist, plenty for both of them.

The team shifted their focus back to the events the wholesaler had laid out. There was no need for him to lie. In fact, to clear his name from any suggestion he was involved in the kidnapping, it was probably essential that he tell the truth. Any involvement, especially if Ewan McAllister was found dead, would guarantee a life sentence. All the evidence pointed to the fact that the truth was being told. There was no reason for the kidnappers to cut and dye McAllister's hair and change his image. There were no signs of a struggle in the safe house and McAllister's prints were all over it as if he wasn’t tied up. His were really the only fresh prints too. If a move had to be made, then the place would have been swept clean of any evidence that McAllister was there. All the arguments and logic were pointing to the fact that Ewan somehow had escaped from the kidnappers and had contacted someone to get him a place that he could lay low for a while. He was out there somewhere and probably on the run. 

It was Sarge who asked what was on all their minds, "If you were McAllister, what would you do?"

Amelia was the first to reply, "I'd figure that the original kidnappers were still looking for me so I would get the hell out of Glasgow. Inverness isn't an option obviously because of all the arrests there, we know that too because he was forced to send someone else to get cash out of Inverness on his behalf."

Sarge was about to sarcastically comment that her deductions had narrowed it down substantially, as there were only several thousand other cities Ewan might be in, when he honed in on something Amelia had said; the money. Why had Ewan brought down so much cash from Inverness? He could have gone into hiding anywhere with much much less. He was free. There was no longer a million pounds riding on his head. He then remembered that Ewan and his brother had always been portrayed as being very close. It suddenly dawned on Sarge what Ewan was going to do and where he was heading. "Amelia and Donald, you both look a bit tired and peaky. I think a dose of warm Cairns sunshine will do you wonders," he said, before explaining his logic.