Missing: The Body of Evidence (22 page)

Teaming up with her dad had left Nancy
bemused. On the drive over to her apartment, she thought about her relationship
with her dad, and wondered if she had exaggerated bad memories from her
childhood, which drowned out any shared tender moments, thereby tainting her
perception of him. Maybe, she thought, this was the reason she had nothing but
bad recollections and they had spilled over into her adult life. There was no
doubt about it, she considered him an ogre and at times, he had scared the hell
out of her. Dark thoughts of the defining split with her dad surfaced. When she
had given him the news of her acceptance into the police training academy, she
thought he would have been delighted that all his mentoring had paid off and
all the pain put to some good. Instead, he withdrew into a dark mood. All she
got was the cold shoulder and he stopped talking to her, save for a few grunts.
Goodness knows what he had against the police force.

Two weeks later, she moved into her own
rented apartment. One cup, one saucer and one plate; in fact she only had one
of everything, including a sleeping bag for a bed and no furnishings. The hurt
and tears that flowed on her first night alone in the world still haunted and
screwed up her insides to this day. The only comfort she took from being cast
out of the nest was that it left her with the determination to make something
of herself and to prove she needed no one for support, especially a man.

Nancy shrugged her shoulders. From the
moistness in her eyes, a single tear ran down her cheek, onto her lip and she
wiped it away with her tongue. A thought grabbed her attention that events had
conspired to deny her the only chance she had ever had at ending her solitary
existence. The new life she hoped to have shared with Kyle now seemed
impossible. At first, her throat clammed up as she fought her emotions, but
then the tears streamed and she eased off the gas pedal.

Through the hazy mist in her eyes, the
orange glow of a street light formed an iris that emitted shards of light. She
checked the rear-view mirror, and saw there were no vehicles following. Her
dad’s instructions were clear, and from experience, she knew not to go against
his orders. She was to drive to her apartment and he would follow five minutes
later. Once at her apartment she was to wait inside her hallway and to leave
the door unlocked. It all seemed on the melodramatic side, but she thought it
best to humour him, especially as he had found the tracking device. All the
same, left to her thoughts, a sense of dread descended as to what he had in
mind once they arrived at her apartment.

Turning into the cul-de-sac, she parked and
turned off the ignition. Nancy took a tissue from her purse and dried her eyes.
Slipping out of her seat, she locked the car door and walked slowly to the
entrance. Her eyes darted in all directions, but her head remained facing
directly ahead. She hit the timer-light switch at the entrance, took off her
shoes and tiptoed up the stairway. Strangely, she felt relaxed; no heart
pounding and no cold shivers. But then, this was her fortress and once inside
she thought the world could go to hell. Turning the key in her lock, the door
creaked open and she turned on the light, closing the door behind her without
engaging the bolt. Taking the gun and ammo from her purse, she clipped the
rounds into position and waited.

In the ten minutes that she lingered in the
hallway, time slowed down and it felt as though he would never arrive. Nancy
wondered if the expedition to her apartment was some sort of last fling for her
dad, to make him appear to be somebody in the eyes of the world. As an
ex-marine and now a lowly security guard, she had the idea that his actions
were not out of some paternal instinct to rescue a daughter in distress; rather
it was a means of making himself important and for him to try and capture one
last buzz of a mission. The urge to check her answer phone to see if either
Kyle, or his mom had phoned, tore away at her insides, but a vision of her dad
growling instructions at her, kept her will power in check. Her neck craned,
ever listening. Footsteps on the stairway made their way to her door and
stopped. Her dad’s voice whispered.

‘It’s me.’

She tucked her gun into her trousers belt.
The door opened, her dad held his fingers to his lips and then ran his finger
and thumb across them in the manner of a zipper closing. Nancy wanted to laugh,
but held back and followed him along the hallway and into the living room. The
games they played when she was young hung in her mind. In those days, she latched
onto every instruction fearing her life depended on following his words to the
letter, but any respect she may have held for him was long gone, leaving only
disappointment.

He closed the curtains, switched on the
television and then turned on the light in the living room. At his side, he
held an aluminium case, not unlike the one CSI Tracy used. She stood and
watched, amused, as he unclasped the fasteners of the case and took out what
looked like a baton. His eyes inspected the ceiling and walls, before he
disappeared into the other rooms.

On returning to the room, he flicked a
switch on the side of the baton grip and started to waft it around the
furnishings. Standing in front of the painting of the Pine Mountain landscape,
he ran the baton over the surface. A red neon light glowed and flashed on the
shaft in his hands. First, he placed his finger on his lips, and then planted
two fingers pointing to his eyes and then directed both fingers at her. With a
hand signal, he beckoned her to join him. Nancy’s jaw dropped open when he
lifted the picture away from the wall and he took a picture of the discovery on
his cell phone. There was a cream button object with a wire tail, not unlike
the tracker device.
Listening device?
The pit of her gut twisted at the
thought that her privacy had been violated. He held up four fingers and pointed
to the device. She assumed he had found four of the bugs. Her legs weakened and
she flopped down with a thump on the sofa. Gently, he placed the frame against
the wall and then walked to the kitchen.

A trance descended as she stared at the
picture of the cabin. Recollection of the upturned toilet seat and her
adjusting the picture frame danced through her mind. Try as she may she
couldn’t recall if it was before or after she met Bill at McDonald’s. The left
side of her head throbbed as she continued to gaze at the landscape.

Nancy imagined floating over the scene
at the cabin in the aftermath of the wildfire. It was a night, but the moon
allowed her to see the dark spherical shape of where the fire had destroyed the
trees and brush. The smell of burning pine hung in the air
.
She floated down to the parking area next to the blackened
stone of the chimney stack, where once the cabin stood. She sensed someone
watching her and did a three-sixty.

‘You should have left when I told you.
It’s not safe here, he can find you. Leave now.’

It was the haunting voice of David,
Kelly’s son, but he was nowhere in sight. An arm gripped her shoulder. The
vision wavered. She rubbed her eyes and opened them to a flood of light.

The visions in her over-imaginative dreams
were becoming a worry, but mindful of what the doctor said, she thought it all
part of her deep psyche telling her she needed to get out of her situation and
start life afresh. Her dad stood in front of her, he looked concerned, and held
up four fingers and a thumb.
Five bugs?
He took her by the hand and led
her to the computer desk. She sat at the desk and her dad manoeuvred behind the
computer, handing her a disc. Nancy switched on the computer and placed the
disc in the drive.

A box on the screen appeared inviting her
to press return to start an anti-virus scan. Her dad fidgeted the camera
perched on the top of the screen between his fingers and peeled off a label to
reveal a red neon light and then replaced the label. He shook his head and made
a cut sign with his fingers across his throat. Nancy’s finger hovered over the
return key to start the anti-virus disc and diverted to turn off the computer.
Her dad pointed for her to go to the kitchen and he picked up a pen and a sheet
of paper from the print tray. In the kitchen, he set the sheet of paper down on
the work surface and wrote a message.

‘Five listening devices. Telephone bugged.
Computer hacked. They have control of computer camera. Turn on radio in
bedroom. Get clothes and notebook. Do it quietly. Surveillance van in next
cul-de-sac. We’ll leave by the fire exit.’

Nancy glanced at her dad as they made their
way to the bedroom. He appeared to her as a stranger and she realized just how
little she knew about him. She wondered just what sort of security guard could
pick up all these cloak and dagger skills.

In the bedroom, he closed the blinds and
handed her a black-garbage bag he had picked up from the kitchen. She turned on
the radio and then pointed to her baggage case on the top of the clothes
closet, but he shook his head. Nancy filled the black bag with enough changes
of clothes for a week. A rummage around on the shelves in her closet, and she
picked up her work purse, checking that the notebook was safe inside. Lifting
the blinds at one corner, she picked up her old police officer badge off the
sill. Her dad sat on the corner of the bed, raised his eyebrows and tilted his
head and he watched as she slipped the badge into her jacket pocket.

As an afterthought, Nancy didn’t feel
comfortable carrying her dad’s gun, and reopened the closet door. From the
bottom shelf, she retrieved a shoebox. The pit of her stomach churned at the
lightness of the box and she set it down on the bed. Her eyes darted from her
dad to the box; she opened the lid and removed the shoes and crepe paper. Her
eyes popped with her worst fear realized... the 38-calibre handgun was missing.
Nancy bit her lip, signalled for him to wait. She headed for the kitchen. Nancy
scribbled a note, before returning to the bedroom and handed her dad the note.
He rolled his eyes as he read her note, took the pen and paper and wrote a
message for her.

‘Worry about it after.’

He crumpled the paper and put it in his
pocket.

She turned off the light and radio, and
then they walked quietly to the living room. Her dad walked over to the
computer table and picked up the crystal ornament, presented to her at the
station, inspected it and then set it down. He nodded his head in what she hoped
was approval and took the bag of clothes from her. Nancy walked over to the
sofa and lifted the cushion. A cold wave trickled down to her toes and a red
mist descended. The case file Tracy had given her for the incident with the
professor was missing.

Light from the passing street lamps
intermittently illuminated the inside of the car. Hair whiplashed her face from
the vortex created on the back seat with the driver’s window open to the
elements. The back of her dad’s motionless head, gave the impression this was
just a normal outing, save for his alert eyes repeatedly darting to the
rear-view. A man of few words, he left Nancy alone with tortured thoughts. The
more she tried to put events of the past week into some sort of logical order,
the more scrambled they became. Slouched down on the rear seat, she rummaged
through her purse and felt what she was looking for. She held Tracy’s pen drive
to her lips, kissed it and then replaced it in her purse. Recovering her
notebook, her fingers flicked the pages. Her skin crawled as she found the
notes for the day of the gang bust. The day, time and date flashed on the page
as if lit by a strobe light as they hit a built up area at speed. Images passed
through her mind of her taking a bath the night before she met Bill at
McDonald’s. A raised toilet seat and the vision of her adjusting the slanted
picture frame, honed her memory to the sequence of events.

The car geared down to the sound of
clicking, and an orange light flashing from the dashboard. An overhead green
traffic light signal told the story they were nearing her dad’s apartment.

‘Stay low, I’m going to park around back.’

Tops of Palm trees silhouetted against the
night sky passed by and the car turned again, before her dad parked the car.

‘Wait here. I’ll go and open the fire door.’

The situation with all the spy stuff was
hard to comprehend. As she waited for him to return, a feeling she was on the
outside looking in on her situation sent an icy blast running through her body.
The rear car door opened and her dad picked up her sack of clothes. Nancy eased
out of the back seat and closed the car door, following her dad through the
fire exit and up the stairway to the apartment.

‘Black, two sugars and make it strong, that
last one was like witch piss.’

He opened the door to her old bedroom with
the garbage bag over his shoulder and she walked on by to the kitchen.

Why take my gun from the shoebox?

Nancy set the coffee mugs down on the table
and sat opposite her dad.

‘That’s some shit you’re in,’ Dad said

‘I guess, but what the hell do I do?’

‘First, stop feeling sorry for yourself and
thinking like a civilian. Get your detective head on. We’ll copy the photos of
the bugs onto a couple of discs. I’ve taken a picture of the surveillance van
but it’s not clear, so I wrote down the registration number.’

‘What then?’

‘I’m guessing you need an attorney.’

‘But I haven’t done anything.’

‘Listen, this is not boy scout stuff. Do as
you’re told. Tomorrow, first thing, report the gun stolen and get a chit of the
report. I doubt internal affairs would steal a gun. Then go to an attorney,
give him a copy of the disc and the chit and explain about the suspension.
Before that, we’ll hire a car, and you need to book into a motel.’

‘Motel?’

‘Whoever is watching you will know about
this address.’

‘CIA?’

‘Could be, but there are private agencies.
They don’t all work for the goodies. Maybe it’s someone you’ve busted, holding
a grudge.’

‘Do I tell Logan?’

‘Not yet.’

‘Where the hell did you pick all this
surveillance stuff from anyway, I thought you guarded buildings? I’ve never
heard of anyone hacking and controlling a computer camera.’

‘Yeah, well, I started out as a security
guard, but I now work for the industrial espionage and personal security
division. Peeping Tom software to take control of computer cameras, as someone
has done with yours, is old hat. The tape over the neon light was the thing
that gave it away.’

‘Why not tell Logan? He was the one that
bought me time by saying Bill couldn’t be contacted.’

‘And why would he do that? Maybe he wanted
to give you enough time and rope to hang yourself. Trust no one, and wait and
see what your attorney says. In the meantime, use a disguise, and only use
payphones.’

‘What do you have against Bill and Logan?’

His penetrating gaze went right through her
and he scowled.

‘No reason. It could be that it would be
better for everyone to think you are still at the apartment, so we can feed
them misinformation until we can figure a way out of the mess.’

We?
‘And how
do I do that?’

‘Park away from the apartment, knock on a neighbour’s
window around back, tell them you’ve lost your key and to let you in through
the fire door. Then use something to block the catch so you can come and go as
you please.’

Thoughts of the,
We
, gave comfort
that she was not alone and maybe the start of rebuilding some sort of
relationship that only twenty-four hours earlier would have been impossible.
Nancy smiled.

‘Thanks for all this, Dad.’

He shuffled awkwardly on his seat and
averted his gaze.

‘It’s what your mom would have expected.
Thank me when you’re in the clear. Time for bed, we need you alert tomorrow to
work out a plan and to start some digging.’

Nancy walked out of the room to her
bedroom.

What Mom would have expected?
The words cut, as if he had sliced the nice fruit decorations from a
cake and devoured them in one bite.

Her bedroom had not changed since the day
she left, fifteen years ago. Trophies for her winning judo and rifle shooting
competitions covered the dresser. Nancy emptied the sack of clothes onto the
bed and opened the closet to put them away. Her judo and fatigues outfits still
hung there. On the top shelf lay a stack of survival books. The memorabilia
reminded her of the life she had walked away from, and hoped never to return
to, in her furthest nightmares. Shoulders sagged and with heavy eyelids, Nancy
collapsed on to the bed. Exhausted mentally and physically, taking a shower
could wait until the morning. She struggled out of her clothes, dumped them on
the floor, and wriggled under the duvet.

Lying there, she knew her dad was right.
She needed to shrug off the emotional day’s events, to become organized, and to
put her future with Kyle on a back burner however much it hurt. Tomorrow would
be about surviving the here and now. Sitting back and doing nothing, leaving
her future in the hands of the authorities, wasn’t in her nature... nor was it
an option. She made an oath... her fight back to clear her name would begin in
the morning.