Chapter 31
I stared in horror at Noah’s phone as it blurted out his INXS ring tone. Bane mounted the kerb so he could answer it.
‘Bane Millard speaking, who is this?’
The voice on the other end was disguised. I tried to concentrate on gaining some sort of insight about him, assuming he was male, but I felt nothing.
‘Just as intense as ever,’ the voice said. ‘You really need to learn to lighten up.’
‘Of course, for now. As if I would actually harm a pregnant woman. What sort of a person do you think I am? All I want are some answers. The secrets you keep are worth a little risk, don’t you think?’
‘For starters I’d like to know why Noah didn’t answer his phone. Put him on. If he tells me the truth I’ll let her go straight away.’
Bane looked at me as he answered. ‘He isn’t here.’
‘Oh, is he too busy to talk to me? I guess I did pick the wrong target. I bet if I’d taken Lainie you would have found us straight away, isn’t that right?’
Damn. He knew way too much. That was going to complicate things. Also, the phone was being tapped by the police. They could hear everything, and we needed to draw the conversation out as long as possible and gain as much information as we could, but it was impossible to speak about Eden, even to tempt the caller to stay on the phone. I was grateful that Bane was somehow managing to skirt around the edges of explaining where Noah was. I just wanted Tess back. We would deal with the consequences later.
Bane stayed remarkably calm, and refused to get drawn in to talking about me. ‘Noah is … out of reach. You can’t get to him. It’s me you’ll have to deal with.’ He was speaking slowly, commanding.
‘Well I would, but you’re a little bit too grumpy for me to talk to. Give me Lainie and I’ll give back Tess. As soon as she tells me everything I want to know, I’ll let her go too. Everyone will be happy.’
Bracing myself against the door, I yelped as the car lurched forward off the kerb again and then spun around.
‘What? No! Bane, where are you going? Turn around!’
‘No. I’m getting you out of here. I’ll find another way.’
‘Please, you can’t! You heard what he said. He’ll let Tessa go if I go to him.’
His eyes flashed me a look of absolute incredulity. ‘And then what? Will you be able to tell him what he wants to know? You heard him, he won’t harm Tessa. You are another matter. Besides, I don’t need to do any deals. You got us close enough. I can manage the rest. He doesn’t know we’re here.’
‘I will come with you,’ Dallmin stated. ‘Lainie doesn’t need to come. We will find Tessa.’
Great. Now the elf was voicing his unwanted opinion. As if he would be any use in this situation. Thinking clearly was hard when Bane’s body language was screaming out his craving to take me out of harm’s way, and it was difficult not to align myself with such a strong plea. But we were so close. How could he turn around now?
‘At least let me wait outside. He has no idea we’re even in Melbourne so it should be safe enough,’ I begged.
His hands tightened on the wheel and I could hear his teeth grinding. ‘Not this time, Lainie. I won’t do this again.’ He put his foot down and we sped away, but I kept pestering him until he pulled into the police station we’d passed earlier.
‘What are we doing here?’ I asked as he practically dragged me out of the car. ‘You couldn’t just have called Sergeant Loxwood, or triple O?’
‘And what, stayed where we were to wait for them to show up? No, Lainie. I needed to get you away from there. As soon as I know you and Dallmin are safe, I can deal with this myself.’
‘Bane, that’s crazy. You can’t go on your own.’
He gave me a grim smile. ‘I have a few more skills now. I’ll be fine.’
I stopped walking and crossed my arms. ‘Is this really what the army has taught you? I thought you were some sort of team leader or something. Surely you wouldn’t ever encourage any of your squad to do something so stupid. Take me with you. I have some skills too, you know.’
‘Lainie, come on. One of your skills is being able to see how much I want something, right? So go ahead. How much do I want to get Tessa back? And how much do I want you to stay out of this?’
His expression softened a little. ‘You aren’t wrong, though. Going in on my own could put Tessa in even more danger. We have resources right here,’ he said, pointing toward the door to the station. ‘Please?’
The word please was hard to ignore.
He ushered me toward the two-storey brick building. ‘Besides, don’t you think the police should be given a full report on what we’ve found out?’
Yes and no. What exactly was he going to tell them? We came to Melbourne on a whim and just happen to think they might be in a derelict house in Epping? We walked through the doors with Dallmin trailing along behind like a lost puppy. I knew how he felt.
‘We have some new information about the abduction of Tessa Ashbree, from Nalong,’ Bane explained to the constable at the front desk. ‘Sergeant Loxwood asked us to contact him if we thought of anything else but I’m not supposed to use this phone to make calls.’
The woman typed a query into her computer, frowning as she caught up on the details of the reported case. She started to chew on her pen while she read, and stopped herself with a jolt. Some habits were tricky to break. ‘What sort of new information?’ she asked.
‘I believe I know where they are.’ He pointed to her notepad but she shook her head.
‘Come with me, please,’ she said, indicating to someone else to take over at the desk. She led us into a small interview room, much more modern than the one in our home town, though equally stark. ‘Wait here while I make some calls. I won’t be long.’
The minute she closed the door, Bane had my aunt’s phone in his hand, dialling. ‘Lily. We’re in Melbourne and Lainie has narrowed down the search. We’ve heard from the evil bastard and he said Tessa’s okay. I’ll send Noah a text to let him know. We’re at the police station now, waiting to find out what they want to do next.’
I leant closer to try to hear what my aunt was saying but there were other people talking in the background so it was a bit chaotic. Something about a snobby officer from Horsham wanting Noah to make a statement in person, and fingerprint samples, and that we should provide ours while we were at the station so they could rule them out.
When Bane hung up, I had to ask. ‘What do we do if the police start asking more questions we can’t answer?’
Bane looked at his watch and didn’t reply.
‘Are you certain you want Sergeant Loxwood involved in this any more than necessary? I don’t entirely—’
The door opened and the receptionist came back in with some bottled water, advising us that the sergeant had finished his interview and was coming over to see us. The technicians had listened in on the call to Noah’s phone and they ‘had a few questions’. I bet they did. So did I. Like why were we stuck here when we could be getting Tess away from that madman? I wasn’t exactly powerless, even if I did lack any sort of useful control. I should be at least trying to do something.
Bane studied my sullen expression but didn’t comment. He fiddled with the label on his water bottle, and every few seconds a slight tremor rocked him as if to remind him that I was still in danger. There was nothing I could do to help, so we waited. After a while even Dallmin started to frown at Bane as if he had changed his mind. By then it was too late.
When Sergeant Loxwood arrived twenty minutes later, he got straight down to business. ‘Why didn’t Noah answer the phone?’ was the first thing he asked.
‘The reception on the farm is dodgy. We thought it would be better for him to give the phone to us so we wouldn’t miss any calls.’ It was a pathetic explanation and we all knew it. Except maybe Dallmin.
‘And when did you last see Noah in person?’ He sat down without breaking eye contact with my Guardian.
‘Last night, when we swapped phones.’
Not even a second’s pause before the next question. ‘Why did you come to Melbourne?’
Crunch time. I looked at Bane, curious as to how he would handle it.
‘I can’t answer that,’ he replied honestly, meeting the policeman’s gaze head on. ‘But I know they’re near here. Did you trace the call?’
The policeman looked furious. ‘We did. And you’re right, they’re not far from here. We also know how close you were when the call was made.’
‘I thought it wise not to get any closer,’ Bane said, and they both glanced at me.
The sergeant made a noise that was somewhere between a sigh and a grunt, and then leant back in his chair. ‘There’s a team preparing to go in as we speak. You need to tell us everything you know before we risk those officers, Lance Corporal Millard.’ Apparently he wanted to remind Bane that he expected a certain level of professionalism from him.
My stressed out Guardian struck back with his own vehement tone. ‘What I know is that Lainie is his real target. You heard what he said. I honestly have no idea who this guy is but I won’t play his games. You know where he is now. You have people trained for this, so send them in. I’m more than happy to go with them in whatever capacity you need, so long as you agree to keep Lainie safe with you until this is resolved.’
‘Deal,’ the sergeant said far too quickly. ‘She can come with me now, and I won’t let her out of my sight.’
I rocked back in my seat, thunderstruck. He wouldn’t, would he? Had he thought this through? What if we got separated too far? How would he be able to help Tess if he was sick? He wouldn’t even be able to look after himself! My mind burned for answers that no one gave me, and then I was somehow being led from the room, and Bane was refusing to even look at me. He sat with his right hand in his pocket, fiddling with something, so he didn’t see the expression on my face. He didn’t see how betrayed I felt.
‘Don’t I get any say in this?’ I pleaded with the policeman, tears starting to fall as he shut the door behind us. I couldn’t believe Bane was willingly letting me go. Protecting me was supposed to be his divinely appointed job. Outsourcing was not meant to be part of the deal.
‘There is very clear evidence to suggest that you’re a target. Don’t worry, Ms Gracewood, this will all get resolved soon. Finally.’
I wanted to resist but I couldn’t seem to remember how to go about it.
He made a quick call as he shepherded me down the hall toward the back of the station. ‘Send the team in,’ was his only curt instruction before hanging up and slipping the phone back into his pocket. They weren’t even waiting for Bane. I was relieved, in a miserable sort of way.
‘What happens now? Will you keep Bane and Dallmin here?’
He shook his head, running his fingers through his short spikey hair. ‘We have no reason to keep them. They can do whatever they want. It’s you I want to talk to.’
He gripped my elbow and led me through the sally port where my nose was accosted with the long-forgotten stink of beer, vomit and cigarettes. Did all custody areas smell this bad? Or had this station hosted some of the overflow from the previous night’s footy crowds? Must have been a Collingwood match. As we headed out to the car park, the gusty wind tugged at my hair as if trying to pull me back inside again.
‘Please can we stay fairly close? I … I don’t think I could handle another long car trip right now and I want to be nearby when they bring Tessa back.’
Ignoring me completely, Sergeant Loxwood headed for the farthest of three marked sedans. Unlike the other two, its blue sillitoe tartan was sullied with speckles of Nalong mud.
‘Where are we going, anyway? Aren’t you supposed to be leading this investigation?’ I asked. I didn’t trust this man. He seemed too … relentless.
‘There are better people than me in charge of the investigation now. We’re going somewhere we can talk privately. I need answers from you, Ms Gracewood, and I’m not letting you out of my sight until I get them.’
I craned my neck to look back at the station for as long as possible as we drove away, half expecting to see Bane come running out after me as he changed his mind. But he didn’t come.