Chapter 16 #3
Sherlock padded in behind her, giving a satisfied snuffle as he made a beeline for Hayden and nudged his hand with his nose. Hayden absently scratched behind the dog’s ear, earning a low, approving woof.
‘We found it,’ Molly said, voice fragile and full of disbelief. ‘It was under the floorboard.’
Brianna leant closer as Hayden held up the flash drive, her eyes wide with disbelief. Her voice lifted, breathless with a mix of awe and adrenaline. ‘Oh my god.’ She turned towards Molly, her expression lit with a kind of stunned excitement. ‘This could change everything.’
‘I’m guessing it will, yes,’ Molly replied.
‘Well then, let’s see what’s on it.’ Brianna was already moving to grab her laptop from the kitchen bench.
The three of them gathered around as she plugged it in, the screen lighting the room with a cold blue glow.
Then the file directory blinked to life.
Just one folder. It was labelled Insurance.
Brianna clicked it open and inside were dozens of files, some video, some audio, while others were documents.
Hayden leant in as she scrolled. ‘These are dated,’ he said, pointing. ‘Looks like some go back five, six … damn, seven years.’
Molly’s breath hitched. ‘That one,’ she said, tapping the touchpad. ‘Play that one.’
It was a video. Grainy. From a hidden camera or phone. They watched in stunned silence as the mechanic’s shop appeared onscreen. There was Jack pacing in front of a ute, while Len and Craig stood nearby. Their voices were muffled at first, then clearer.
Len. ‘You owe us again, Jack. We don’t forgive twice.’
Jack. ‘I’ve paid you, twice over. I’m out, whether you like it or not.’
Craig. ‘Jack, I’d think really carefully about that, because out isn’t an option. Not for you.’
Jack’s voice was ragged as he responded. ‘You’re both neck deep in this, so are the others. And all because of her. You think no one’s watching? You think this all stays buried?’
The screen fizzled and cut off.
Hayden muttered, ‘Bloody hell.’
Brianna opened another file, an audio clip this time.
Jack’s voice again, hurried. ‘If anything happens to me, if I go missing, or worse, someone was likely behind it, and someone needs to look here to find out who it was. They need to know who’s pulling the strings.
Not just Len, or even Craig. There’s someone else.
Someone bigger. She’s …’ No name sounded; instead there was an intense static.
Brianna replayed it, but the static remained.
Sherlock let out a low growl, as if echoing the tension.
Hayden stared at the laptop screen with his jaw clenched tight.
Brianna clicked open another document. An expense ledger, peppered with dates, transaction IDs, and names coded with initials.
One entry read simply CD / drop, $4,000, Cane fire.
Another, LD / tune & hush, $1,200. And more, stretching back years.
Enough to make a case – if you knew what you were looking at, and looking for.
‘This ties Craig and Len together financially,’ Brianna said, her voice barely above a whisper. ‘Whatever this is, it’s organised. It’s layered.’
Another video loaded. This one was darker. The resolution was poor, but it showed what looked like a shed interior, somewhere rural.
A man offscreen asked, ‘Are we cleaning this one up the same as the last?’ It sounded like Craig, but they couldn’t be sure.
Another male voice replied, ‘No trace, you got that. Because if he talks, we all go down.’
Molly’s hand flew to her mouth. ‘That voice, I can’t be sure, but I think it was Joe.’
Hayden felt the air squeeze out of his lungs as they sat in stunned silence. Jack had tried to catalogue the network. Not just to protect himself, or Molly, but maybe to bring them down.
Brianna closed the folder. ‘We have to be careful. We can’t just hand this over to the police, not until we know who’s involved and who’s watching, unless …
’ She hesitated, then added, ‘My dad’s a sergeant over in Huntingvale.
He’s straight. Tough. The kind who’d burn his own station down if he found rot inside it. ’
Molly looked up, startled. ‘You never mentioned your dad was a police officer.’
Brianna shrugged. ‘Didn’t seem relevant, until now. If you wanted, I could show him this. Quietly. He wouldn’t involve anyone local unless he was sure it was safe.’
Molly pressed her lips together, visibly torn, and after a long beat, she said, ‘Hayden, your thoughts?’
Hayden exhaled through his nose with his eyes still fixed on the frozen video frame.
‘I think we give it another twenty-four hours. See what shakes loose. This thing, I reckon it’s deeper than we realised.
If Jack was right, and someone’s still watching, we need to tread really careful.
’ He finally looked at Brianna, then Molly.
‘If nothing new surfaces by tomorrow, we take it to your dad, Bri. But only if we’re sure it won’t put him, or anyone else, in the firing line. ’
Brianna nodded slowly. ‘All right. One more day. But we stay sharp.’
Molly murmured, ‘We’re in this now, aren’t we?’
Hayden’s jaw tightened. ‘We always were.’