Chapter 32
Bane’s tremors still hadn’t eased. They wouldn’t until she was far away from danger, probably at about the time that the nausea kicked in. He would prefer the nausea. Having Lainie at any sort of risk was just too hard. He’d spent three years replaying that hideous scene in the cave over and over in his mind, trying to work out what he could have done differently, and had realised early on that he should never have let her get that close to danger in the first place. What good was a premonition of a threat if he didn’t act on it? She might never forgive him for this betrayal, but it was far better than the alternative. He was just thankful that she hadn’t remembered how to resist people yet or he and the sergeant would never have been able to get away with bullying her into leaving. As it was, he knew the policeman was pushing his professional boundaries by allowing her to think she had no choice in the matter.
Dallmin sat cross-legged on the floor in the corner of the room, watching him. He seemed impatient but was deferring to his judgement on how best to proceed. A female officer had come in shortly after Lainie had left and advised them that an operation was underway to ‘extract the hostage’. They must have been ready to move as soon as the sergeant had given them the go-ahead. She had been given no instructions regarding them so they were free to go if they wished. As if they would leave until there was news.
Another excruciating hour passed before the door finally opened again, and two male officers entered. The slim female officer came in last, catching his eye and shaking her head slightly. Another tremor rocked him.
One of the men shook his hand, but didn’t quite know what to do with Dallmin who was still on the floor. ‘Mr Millard, Mr … Dallmin, my name is Detective Senior Constable Damian Franklin. I have news regarding this morning’s operation.’
Placing a file on the table, the heavy-set man sat down across from him.
‘Unfortunately they were unsuccessful. The perpetrator and victim had left by the time the team arrived.’
No! He had trusted them. They were trained for these sorts of situations. For God’s sake, even he was trained for them. Why couldn’t they do their bloody job properly? He clenched his jaw as the detective pulled a couple of photos from the file and slid them across. They showed a dingy looking suburban lounge room, bare of all furniture except for a small table and two chairs. One of the chairs had shreds of duct tape still stuck to its arms. There was a hole in the floor in front of the chair, the carpet a shredded mess around it.
‘Yes, someone shot the floor at her feet. We’re guessing it was some sort of hunting rifle,’ the detective confirmed. ‘Probably trying to scare her into talking. There’s no evidence of blood.’
Bane felt bile rising in his throat. Oh, Tessa, how did we let this happen to you again?
The detective closed the folder. ‘It’s likely that the abductor was aware that the call would be traced, which was not entirely unexpected. We just didn’t make it there quickly enough, I’m sorry.’
Because they had been waiting for Loxwood’s advice to proceed. What had taken him so long?
The man studied Bane’s face as if testing his reaction. ‘Perhaps if we had at least known they were in Melbourne we could have been ready sooner. How did you know to come down here?’
Detective Franklin sat up a bit straighter. ‘Mr Millard, I need you to be aware that you could be charged with a criminal offence if you continue to refuse to disclose relevant information to us. How did you know where they were?’
It was so difficult to remain composed when his heart and soul were screaming for violent action. Lainie was pulling at him so hard he felt as if he would be yanked straight out of his chair if he let go of his emotions for even a second. The farther away she got the worse it was getting and he didn’t know if that was because the bond was punishing him for the distance, or if it meant she was getting closer to danger. His head hurt.
Another tremor passed through his body as he leant forward to answer. ‘I can’t tell you. Trust me, if I could say anything at all that would help you to find Tess, I would tell you in an instant. Please say that you have some sort of a lead as to where they might have gone. What have you found so far? I grew up in Nalong so I know most of the community. If it was a local that took her, I might know something that could help. I’ll do anything you ask.’
His sincerity seemed to pacify the man a fraction, but silence reigned for a long minute before the detective finally nodded.
‘It was likely that the attacker had been watching the Gracewood’s farmhouse for at least a couple of days. Lily mentioned a gate had been left open recently?’
‘Yeah. Some stock got out. It happens sometimes, we didn’t think much of it.’
‘He may have seen you, Lainie and Dallmin leave for your trip to Bright. We don’t know. Then on Thursday night Noah received a message, requesting a meeting in town Friday morning with a buyer that never showed. Someone wanted him out of the way. The Facebook profile the message came from was a fake, although we may have found a tenuous link to a drug dealer who is currently serving time in Port Phillip Prison. We’re still looking into the dealer’s other contacts for anyone with a link to Nalong.’
Damn. He’d known something was off earlier in the week. It had felt so good to get away from the farm—to get Lainie away from there.
The detective continued. ‘Once the perpetrator was sure Noah and Lily were gone, he probably drove straight up to the house. If he confronted Tessa with a rifle, she wouldn’t have risked fighting back, which would be why there was no sign of a struggle.’
‘Definitely a man?’ Bane asked. ‘The call was run through a cheap voice-changing app.’
‘Most likely. Someone’s been shaving recently in the bathroom sink of the house you found, and there was a can of men’s deodorant left behind. Samples from the pizza box, beer cans and cigarette butts have been taken for testing but the results won’t be available any time soon, and will depend on having something on record to match them to. Squatters have been evicted from the house numerous times over the last few years, any of whom could have left those items behind. And before you ask, there are a lot of different groups of people who are aware of its … availability, so it will take some time to track him down that way.’
The message was clear. They were not expecting to resolve this quickly, and they blamed him. Nodding slowly, Bane fell back on his training. ‘Any witnesses in regards to the car?’ he asked.
‘Not as yet. Door knocking is still in progress. The car will be our number one lead if we can get anything from the neighbours.’
Bane’s nerves still felt as tight as a kite string in a cyclone, as if he could snap at any moment.
‘Where is Sergeant Loxwood taking Lainie?’
The man looked disconcerted for a second before answering. ‘I don’t know.’
He could feel that they had headed west and stopped about half an hour away, which apparently wasn’t far enough to stop his tremors. Maybe it meant that the kidnapper was still close by. Perhaps he should let Noah come down to Melbourne so he could track them, and that way he could still keep Lainie out of it. Over four hours from Nalong to Melbourne. That would mean at least three hours of violent nausea for Tessa. Was it worth the risk? Probably, if that was the only problem. Unfortunately he was more concerned about what Noah would do when he found her. He would be under direct threat and Bane couldn’t allow that. And Tess would be unable to stop herself from trying to defend him, at any cost. No. Noah needed to remain where he was, even if it meant having the police treat him as a suspect, which they seemed to be heading toward.
Detective Senior Constable Franklin closed the file and clasped his hands together. ‘Mr Millard, let me be blunt with you. I can see you are feeling somewhat … under the weather. If all this has something to do with illicit drug dealing then let me assure you that Theresa Ashbree’s safety is our first and foremost priority. Anything you can do to assist will go a long way to mitigating any consequences you might have to face once this criminal is caught.’
Bane stared in shocked confusion for all of four seconds before giving a rueful laugh. ‘You think I’m on something? No. I’m not. Run any test you like. I don’t do drugs and I never have. Don’t waste your time searching those sorts of leads because it won’t get us anywhere. Drugs have nothing to do with any of this.’ There was only one drug he craved, and he had sent her away. He would not fail her again.
The detective turned his attention to Dallmin, eyeing him dubiously as if mentally running through the list of all the narcotic side-effects he knew. The ancient youth was watching everyone with wide innocent eyes and childlike impatience. A moment of apprehension gripped Bane as he wondered what would happen if they did find a reason to run any tests on Dallmin. What unusual traits would his blood work show up?
The officer looked back at Bane with a resigned sigh. ‘You have a good reputation with your commanding officer. I hope he’s right about your integrity and competence. I won’t waste any more time on that line of questioning. You’re right about us working together, Mr Millard. Maybe you’ll notice some detail that means something to you as a local that we might miss. Is there somewhere Dallmin can stay, or can he drive himself back to Nalong?’
Dallmin shot him a warning look and Bane knew he was not going to be sent away as easily as Lainie had been. Nothing would stop him from searching for Tessa, because for someone who was hundreds of years old, even asking everyone in Melbourne individually might not be too daunting a task.
‘He comes with us. I have a duty of care toward him also,’ Bane stated flatly. The detective raised his eyebrows, but didn’t argue.
The long afternoon was spent intermittently trying to appease Noah’s frantic texts and poring over what little evidence they had. He studied every minor detail in the file that could give a hint about who had taken such malevolent action against Tessa. Nothing useful was revealed. The one officer he had managed to drag any useful information from had assured him that Alex Beckinsale could not possibly be involved. He had been living in a lightly supervised facility for the last three years and had been checked on that very morning. They were making enquiries about his friends and family, in case any of them held a grudge about what had happened to him, but he was estranged from his mother and very few of his old acquaintances ever even visited. In fact the mentally fragile man seemed to have more new friends in his current accommodation than he ever had before his mysterious injury.
Who else could have found out about Eden? Sergeant Loxwood had never instigated an official investigation and he just couldn’t think of who else might have had any clue regarding what had happened that day.
At around four-thirty when Detective Franklin finally popped back in to say there had been no new developments, it was Dallmin who lost patience first. ‘Enough reading and staring. We need Lainie.’ He stood, and signed something that Bane didn’t understand but didn’t really need to.
‘I won’t risk her,’ Bane replied. ‘She’s still in danger. We can find Tessa ourselves.’
‘Every minute Tessa is gone is an outrage that I will not tolerate. Call Lainie on your little phone machine. She can tell you where they are without getting close to danger.’
All signs of the gentle elf-like creature had left his face. Righteous anger had replaced the sanguine dance in his deep brown eyes. All three police officers stared at them, perplexed.
Bane was at a loss. How was he going to explain Dallmin’s choice of phrasing to the police? It was almost a pity that he couldn’t imply that Dallmin was high on something. That might have been easier. Yet even as he struggled to come up with what to say, Bane’s stomach gave a sickening churn. Lainie pulled at him ferociously. What was he supposed to do now? How long would he have before he was incapacitated? It was supposed to be over by now. He hadn’t planned on being away from her for long—just long enough to prevent her from doing something stupid, again. She was getting farther from him, and she was still in excruciating danger. What did that mean?
He took out Lily’s phone and keyed in the number on the business card the sergeant had given him the night before. It went straight to message bank.
Bane smiled as genuinely as he could at the detective, but his mouth felt dry. ‘Can someone please contact Sergeant Loxwood? I need to talk to Lainie. Dallmin believes Lainie and Tess have some sort of ‘psychic connection’ or something. He thinks she can find her.’ He poured as much disdain into the phrase as he could, hoping they would agree to indulge the strange young man.
The detective brushed his thumb over the police emblem on the folder and took a shallow breath before replying. ‘I updated the sergeant when the SOG team gave their report. He suggested it would be best if you not be allowed to speak to Lainie just yet. He has a few questions for her. He will call you when he’s finished.’
Not allowed? Swallowing hard, he could feel his hackles rising even further. It was not a good idea for anyone to try to keep a Guardian from his charge, especially when she was in danger. It was his own fault this time, so he shouldn’t follow his instincts and hurt anyone. Deep breaths. Keeping his hands clasped together on the table in front of him, he tried again.
‘It’s been hours. What sort of questioning is he putting her through?’
Bane bit down on his lip, using the pain to focus and suppress his temper. ‘Perhaps you could speak to her, then? Perhaps she has an idea about where they could be? We’re at a bit of a loss here.’
The man narrowed his eyes in a way that made Bane realise his attempt at a pleasant tone probably wasn’t coming across that well. After a moment, the policeman rose and left the room. It was a tense wait.
When he returned he licked his lips and then shut the door very slowly, not meeting Bane’s eyes when he spoke. ‘They are unavailable at this time. I’ve left a message for Sergeant Loxwood to call me back as soon as possible.’
It was too much. Knocking the chair over, he stood and gestured to Dallmin. Come, he signed to him. It hadn’t been a difficult signal to learn. Striding toward the door, he ignored the startled looks on the faces of the trained professionals he had been relying on.
‘I’m sorry, officers, but it seems I’m not likely to be of any use to you after all. We’ll leave you to do your jobs and stay out of the way. Please call me immediately if there’s anything else I can do to assist.’