Chapter 38

There was a fair amount of joyous celebration that echoed around the CID section of Cairns police station. Sarge invited as many of the uniform officers in as well because they had all played their role in the apprehension of the McAllister brothers, one of whom was in the cells below and the other under armed guard, recovering in the hospital. No risks were being taken with either of them. These were the big fish that made the end users and pushers seem like small fry. All those there in the room hadn’t broken out the champagne as most were still on duty, but the commander of the station had found some money for ‘travellers’ for those finishing their shifts. These travellers were in the form of six packs of beer, a bottle of spirits or for those who didn’t drink, boxes of chocolates. Needless to say, he didn’t police who took what, but anyone who took more than their share would have found excommunication from a church preferable to what would be meted out by their colleagues.

Sarge had ordered from his beloved bakery and there was food aplenty. He sat slightly apart from everyone. Those who knew him well would have said that he had his mind on other matters and they would have been right. His brain was going off on a tangent trying to join a whole heap of dots on a three and even four-dimensional series of planes. Amelia and Donald were being heralded as the good luck charms that had caused the unravelling of a major network that had lay hidden for a long while. Sarge had explained to everyone how the discovery of things in Inverness under Donald’s leadership had started the ball rolling. Donald wouldn’t have a bar of that insisting that it was merely a sign of how police everywhere can work well together even with different backgrounds. Sarge’s voice carried more weight and he said that he had already addressed his side of the story to the media and the written and video media would go down in history and couldn’t be changed.

Indeed, Donald found his celebrations interrupted by no less than the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Force in London. She, as the highest-ranking police officer in the UK, had rung him to congratulate he and Amelia for the successful release of the kidnapped UK citizen and the subsequent arrest of him as the major king pin of a cartel in Scotland. She wanted he and Amelia to bring Ewan McAllister back as soon as extradition procedures were complete, so that McAllister could be paraded in front of the press as a deterrent for other would-be criminals. Donald thought that it probably wouldn’t do her any harm either as her contract was up for renewal. She offered an upgrade for him and Amelia on the way back. Donald asked whether that would be the same as when Sarge had personally paid for an upgrade to bring them to Australia. The commissioner was unaware of the circumstances about that, but quickly made a personal pledge to reimburse Sarge the extra cost he had had to outlay. Donald thought that some bean counter was going to have some very harsh words spoken to him. He did point out however that an upgrade on the way back was not going to work as they had a prisoner with them. The commissioner told him to leave that with her and within ten minutes he had a return call. Some security officials at the British consulate in Brisbane would take charge of the prisoner on the flight home and they would be in Cairns by the following morning. It seemed that the commissioner had friends in very high places indeed and had called in some favours.

Nat looked across at Sarge and saw that his friend appeared troubled by something, but knew that disturbing his train of thought would be counterproductive, so he chatted with others. Sarge had thanked everyone, but had saved his highest praise for Nat who had carried out the command of the Cairns investigation with as Sarge put it, “a surprising amount of intelligence, planning and lateral thinking.” Everyone laughed at the words ‘surprising amount’ but knew that was just Sarge’s flippant tone. They all knew what Sarge was really implying. Nat and Liz did too. The commander at the Cairns police station had watched how Nat had conducted his end of the investigation and had already read the note that Sarge had quickly scribbled out to him which read, “I don’t want to lose him, but Nat really should sit the inspector’s exam; he is more than ready. I couldn’t fault him on any part of the role he was handed at the last minute. What do you think?” The commander had no cause to argue. His concern was that CID would become very top heavy in ranks and that if Nat was successful, he would probably have to leave. He didn’t express that thought however when he took Nat to one side and told him that both he and Sarge thought that being an inspector was probably more suited to his abilities.

Eventually the celebrations died down. Camden McAllister was safely tucked up in hospital and would be for a few more days. He could have been released earlier, but that would have meant that he would also be in the cells pending a committal hearing being organised. Sarge was determined that the two brothers should be kept well apart until Ewan left the country. It wasn’t anything malicious on Sarge’s part, even though he loathed what the two men had done. It was just that they shouldn’t be able to get together to concoct up a joint story that would be told in two separate court houses, half a world apart. The evidence that they were up against was damning but Sarge didn’t want to leave anything to chance. As the CID area was vacated and the team of five worked together to clean up the celebratory mess, word came through via the commander that extradition had been applied for by the UK courts and that Ewan McAllister would face that application in Cairns court in two days’ time.

It was almost a sombre mood in the car when all five of them drove back to a second celebration at Sarge’s. Donald and Amelia would be gone in less than sixty hours if everything went to plan. Nat hadn’t spent much time with either of them, but sensed the growing sense of sadness between the four as he drove. He tapped out a message, totally illegally of course, and the text went to Jess, who was waiting with Sarah and Michelle. It just read, “Tone the party down. I will explain later” So what greeted the team of five when they entered the house was not a fun celebration but more of a formal dinner than a party. How Jess, Michelle and Sarah managed to quickly change their plans was a mystery to Nat; but change it they did. All five of them were asked to sit down at their nominated seats. Amelia and Donald were to be at the heads of the table and Sarah and Michelle acted as waiting staff. Jess prepared the food in the kitchen and it was magnificent, if served up after some slight delay. Nat was stunned as Jess was not known for her culinary expertise. She never let on that special orders for the courses had been phoned through to the restaurant at the casino and delivery took just a little while. That gave Sarah and Michelle the opportunity to encourage everyone to dispatch as much of Sarge’s best quality wine as they could. When the first course was served Jess, Michelle and Sarah sat down at the table. Nat was a bit concerned that Jess had left things bubbling away on the hotplates or in the oven and volunteered to check up on things. Jess gave him a hard death stare while saying sweetly that everything was under control. No-one spotted her checking the phone for the delivery time of the next course.

It was a perfect way to end the long exhausting day. It was well past midnight when everyone was in bed. Michelle and Liz drew the short straw and got the pull-out sofa bed in the lounge room. That was extremely comfortable however, and it was no hardship especially as the loungeroom had the best sunrise view of any room in the house. Sarge had prevailed upon the commander to do his best to ensure that no crimes would be committed overnight and the next day. Whether there was any, Sarge never knew as he never received a call. The commander knew very well how hard everyone worked in his station, even when they were overseas. Nat, Liz and Sarge were overdue time in lieu and he had no trouble letting them take it. There was nothing that he could do however about three noisy kids jumping on very tired people’s beds in the morning. Katie looked very innocent, but Sarah and Sarge knew better. Katie was the leader of the pack and the twins and even young Eloise would do anything she said. Butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth, people assumed, but when she saw an opportunity it sizzled. Of course, Sarge and Sarah blamed each other for passing on the misbehaving gene.