18. Sam
Sam
I drop the kids at my mum’s place after leaving Eva’s. Mum doesn’t know all the details but she’s the mother of a cop and her radar is buzzing. She promises to watch the kids as long as I need and makes me promise to be careful. If only I’d made Iris make the same promise.
Back at the station, it’s chaos, and I’m supposed to be in charge of it all.
‘Anderson!’ a voice booms from across the room. ‘Your office. Now.’
I follow Inspector Wyatt into my office. I should’ve known he’d be here. He’d have made the trip from the city the moment Brent missed his last check in.
‘Do the team know about Brent?’ he asks.
I try to keep my voice steady. I can’t let him see how panicked, how completely terrified I am right now.
I cannot be taken off this case. ‘Not yet, sir. I was about to call a meeting.’ My heart thunders in my chest. The strength it takes for me not to scream, ‘They have my wife!’ is huge, and part of me wants to just hand responsibility over to him so I can wallow in my fear and stress, but I can’t. I need to find my wife.
He nods. ‘Do it.’
‘Naomi,’ I say, as I approach the reception desk. ‘Page the whole team. Meeting at eight-thirty.’
Naomi nods, typing away at her computer, and five minutes later the large meeting room of the Cobal Gully Police Station is filled with officers—the fresh faces of those who’ve just come on to shift and the tired eyes of those who should’ve finished by now.
I stand up the front of the meeting room, Inspector Wyatt next to me.
I clasp my hands behind my back, gripping them together so tightly my fingernails dig painfully into my skin.
Just get through this meeting. You need these officers to help you find her.
‘Thanks for coming,’ I say. ‘Our operation into the child trafficking ring has been compromised. We’ve lost contact with Brent. ’
There’s a murmur around the room. Some officers swear under their breath, not wanting to believe one of our own may be in danger.
I take a deep breath. I haven’t said the next bit out loud to anyone yet and I’m worried about the consequences. I swallow and as hard as I try, I can’t help the waver in my voice. ‘I also believe they have my wife.’
A strong hand grips my arm. ‘Outside, now,’ the Inspector says and he drags me through the glass doors. ‘What the fuck is going on, Sergeant?’ He lets go of me and when I meet his eyes, he’s furious. ‘How is your wife involved?’
This is the part I don’t want to divulge.
Iris is a passionate woman. She won’t stop until she gets to the bottom of things.
She’s been obsessed with this crime for years and I thought moving us away from Rosewood would help.
When this perfect position came up for me here, it took several months of commuting before I could convince Iris to move, but we finally left Rosewood where all the bad memories were.
I could lead this taskforce and one day tell her that I did it—I found the people behind the child trafficking ring and she could sleep easy.
There were so many evenings when I wanted to tell her what I was working on, that the case was in good hands, but her mental health was improving, and the last thing I wanted was for her to obsess over it again.
Though, my silence and the moving away clearly didn’t stop her obsession or slow down her investigation.
All I manage to say as my voice cracks is, ‘I believe she’s in serious danger.’ I clear my throat. I don’t want to appear like I can’t do my job. I don’t want to be taken off this case, even if there is a clear conflict of interest.
Wyatt shakes his head, cursing under his breath. ‘Right now, we are against the clock, and I need you here. Can you do your job?’
‘Absolutely,’ I say and hope he doesn’t note how unsure I sound. This taskforce is meant to be closing in on a child trafficking organisation but the only thing in the world I care about right now is getting Iris back.
The Inspector nods and we re-enter the meeting room.
‘Sarg,’ Constable Josh Herring says. ‘How is Iris involved?’
Wyatt holds up a hand. ‘That’s not relevant right now. Sarg, tell us what you’ve found out.’
‘I’ve spoken with the wife of Matteas Bishop.
Matteas came up a few times in the investigation but we didn’t look into him based on Brent’s assessment of the situation from the inside.
His wife’s name is Eva and she said a photo was found in her house of a girl who we believe to be Carly Jones.
She went missing six weeks ago on her way home from soccer practise. ’
‘You’re not talking about Matteas and Eva from the kid’s kindy are you, boss?’ Alan asks.
‘One and the same,’ I say, remembering Iris telling me she was suspicious of Alan being friendly with a parent she knew was bad. It’s all coming together and the last thing I want is to have one of my people caught up in it. I’ll look into Alan later.
‘As of right now, we know the location of the warehouse where the children are—or at least where they were up until we lost contact with Brent. We don’t know where Brent and Iris are at this stage.’
The thought of her being at the warehouse is terrifying enough.
But the one thought I desperately try to push away is the one screaming at me that they won’t want witnesses.
They have no use for her and that means she’s disposable.
The idea of it steals the air from my lungs.
I rub at my sternum and blink away the white spots in my vision.
‘The plan is to raid the warehouse tomorrow morning at ten am,’ Inspector Wyatt says.
‘What!’ I turn to him. ‘Why aren’t we going right now? Whose decision is this?’
Wyatt narrows his eyes at me. I’ve questioned my superior but for God’s sake why on earth aren’t we rescuing Iris now?
‘Brent informed us during his last check in breakfast is usually at eight, and then they vacate the premises until lunchtime. There’s one man at the door during that time.’
‘Why wouldn’t you go when the guys are there? We want to catch them, right?’ I ask, already knowing the answer. This plan for a warehouse raid had been written up weeks ago by my own team.
‘Of course, but our priority is the safety of those children. You know this, Sergeant. Go home and get some rest. You all have a big day tomorrow.’