Chapter 39

The day of departure was tinged with sadness and for once the Cairns weather had come to the party. It was unseasonably cold even for winter in the tropics. Sarge muttered at the airport that it was almost cold enough to be a Scottish summer as he wrapped himself up in a jacket. Katie had been given the day off school to say her farewells too and Donald and Amelia did the rounds of thanking everybody and hoping that they would soon have some more Australian visitors. Sarge explained that he had already booked some flights for later in the month and made sure that Miss Fields had a free room for their visit. He was hoping that perhaps he could get some fly fishing done while he was over there.

Nat guffawed at the idea, saying that Sarge was the worst fisherman that had ever graced the earth, but Sarge quickly retaliated saying, “The problem is that there is far too much water in the ocean in comparison to the number of fish. Now the ratio is much better in a stream, where you might actually see what you are trying to catch?”

It was clear to all except one person that Sarge had no idea that fly fishing was far more difficult than any deep-water fishing ever could be. Nevertheless, Donald and Amelia were pleased to have them come over and perhaps would make time to show them around northern Scotland, whisky distilleries excluded.

Boarding the same plane, a dejected Ewan McAllister, head bowed so he wouldn’t have to see the eyes of people round him staring at the handcuffs he wore, was flanked by two huge security officials from the British Consulate. It would be very crowded in the three seats at the back of the economy section of the plane. Ewan McAllister would barely be able to move, but perhaps that was the idea. The extradition request, though challenged by Ewan, had been granted very quickly. He was informed that his brother would be leaving the hospital later in the day and had fully recovered. Camden would have his committal hearing within a few days but was more resigned than his brother and had informed his lawyer to plead guilty in the hope that he would receive some leniency in sentencing. Given the age of the brothers, some leniency would be required if they were to not die in gaol. In the UK and Australia, the law dictated that major drug trafficking was akin to murder, which in reality it was. For the McAllisters, based on the number of deaths from the drugs they supplied, mass murder was probably the crime that was closer.

There had been a lot of conjecture about just who the McAllister’s kidnapper was. It had been tossed around a lot between the team the previous two days. Sarge for some unknown reason had been the least vocal and suggested that time might be better spent on ensuring the evidence against the McAllister’s was properly collated so that a watertight case could be mounted. He said that they should deal with the matter in hand and that was making sure that no areas could be exploited by the McAllisters lawyers. It was quite unlike Sarge to shut down conversations but everyone knew that they were tired after the adrenalin rush of the arrests had passed and assumed that Sarge was feeling pretty much the same.

The brothers had been interviewed separately and both had their lawyers present. They gave nothing away at all. The team had expected that Camden might outline what he had experienced and what he knew of his kidnapper, but he remained silent on that subject. The truth was he had taken the kidnapper’s threats very seriously. Gaol offered no sanctuary, in fact from Camden’s perspective, it was really a marshalling area for a sudden and violent death if he spoke out about his captor. He would gain nothing from a deal he might offer. He wouldn’t be put into witness protection, because his crimes were far worse than the kidnappers. If he requested solitary confinement in exchange for divulging details of his kidnap, he would just highlight himself more as a target. There were so many ways to die in prison at the hands of an inmate or a warder whether you were isolated or not. The kidnapper had a million dollars to spend on revenge.

The difficulty that all the police involved were having was not trying to establish whether a crime had been committed by the kidnapping, because one certainly had; but whether the crime in itself was a good thing as it smashed a huge drug organisation. Was it okay to say two wrongs can sometimes make a right? Was it all right to turn a blind eye to one crime because it had very good consequences? The answer was no, especially for the pedantic Sarge. He couldn’t let it go. Because there was no evidence unless the McAllister’s talked, especially Camden, the case was to be left open in the hope that something would turn up. Witness statements at the playground where Camden had eventually been found were very sketchy. A ute had pulled up and someone, probably the driver had set up a worker’s tent over a manhole. There was plenty of discrepancy about the ute though. Some said it was a four-wheel drive, late model, others said that it was an early Ford. The only things that they could agree on was that the ute was white and the driver wore a high-vis vest. That could be almost anyone.

No new information about the kidnapping that took place in Inverness had come through. The major supplier to the McAllisters didn’t even know that there had been a kidnapping. Ewan’s reason for not talking was not from fear of reprisals in gaol, but he, more than his brother, was prepared to exact revenge personally, no matter how long it took. He knew where money was stashed away and would make use of it when he was released, he thought. However, he hadn’t factored in just what sort of sentence he was likely to face if he was convicted. The chances of him using that money, were in all likelihood outweighed by the chances of him dying in prison. He hadn’t asked for legal representation at the extradition hearing after dismissing his initial lawyer. He’d accepted that he would face trial in the UK but had chosen not to listen to what the crimes were likely that he would be charged with and the maximum penalties they attracted. He was already in his sixties, but Ewan had no idea what consecutively and concurrently meant. Given the seriousness of the charges, there was a high likelihood that, if he was found guilty, his sentences would be served consecutively. It seemed probable that his money, like himself would be out of circulation for a long, long time. The only time he had any public time was when he was taken from Heathrow Airport in a van and made to walk with Amelia and Donald up the steps of Scotland Yard where he stood in the background while the exploits of the two Scottish police officers were told to the gathered media by the head of the Met, who was quite pleased with herself as she had stipulated that no politicians should be standing with her. That had rankled a number of them, but, as she pointed out to those who asked why not, the last thing that was needed was any of the media asking about whether any of the same politicians didn’t have unblemished records. If asked she would have to tell the truth and had files to back up her answers.

Things settled back to normal in the CID section of Cairns police station quite quickly, although Sarge seemed to be delegating a lot more cases to Nat and Liz. Both seemed to think that was as a mark of the respect that Sarge now held them in. It was to a great extent, but Sarge was pig headedly still pursuing the kidnapper who had eluded them all. He had a possible line of investigation but it was a long shot. It was based on the glimpse he had of someone in the crowd when the McAllisters were arrested. Until he was sure, until he had plenty of evidence, he would not act, nor would he draw Nat and Liz in on what might be a wild goose chase.

After a while as things changed and he, Sarah, Katie and Eloise took the long flight to the UK for a three-week holiday, all thoughts of the unsolved crime were put on the backburner. There was nothing to be gained and he was determined that his time in the UK, especially up in Scotland, would not be overrun with any work-related issues. He did however call in on Donald and found that the CID section in Inverness had had a major transformation. New young and enthusiastic staff were there and some very high-tech equipment was being used. The latter didn’t do anything for Sarge, but the youth and their vigour was refreshing and had certainly spiced up the investigative arm of the Inverness police, Sarge thought at first glance. Sarah had put her foot down over any further visits to the police station because on so many other holidays in the past, they had somehow managed to be front and centre in criminal investigations. Even Miss Fields had told him that he was not allowed to do any police work this time. Sarge wasn’t sure whether he was more scared of her or Sarah as both were very formidable. The three weeks flew by so quickly and Sarah and Sarge weren’t sure whether much would be remembered by Eloise, but Katie soaked it all up like a sponge. Months after she would recall conversations and activities with incredible detail and accuracy often with much eye-rolling as her father in particular displayed his ignorance and his plethora of lame ‘dad’ jokes.

Over a five months later and within two days of each other, the McAllister twins were sentenced and still refused to pass on any details about their kidnappers. The kidnapping was officially not closed, but no active investigation was being conducted as it was deemed a waste of personnel, time and money. However, in a small office in CID one person was often seen writing and drawing pictures of one particular man in a journal.