The Family Cleaner, page 12
He smoked a reefer, ate a pizza, and drank a six-pack of beer before sleeping soundly. He didn’t wake up until a cleaner banged on the door the next morning.
He drove back to Rockhampton and listened to the news reporting the overnight shooting.
“What has been described as an execution-style shooting occurred in Windsor Park last night. Police are refusing to offer anything in the way of information, but the nature of the shooting suggested it could be drug-related.”
For David, the possible drug-related comment was a delicious bonus.
He returned to Melbourne via Perth, and thanked Pav and Tony for their help, handing them two packs of one-hundred-dollar notes.
He checked his phones for messages, one from Monahan caught his attention.
Call ASAP
He dialled. “Hey, Monahan, what’s up?”
“You asked me to follow up with the cops about that raid. It took a bit to convince them that you were my client, but I got there in the end. The good news is they found nothing. I’ve asked for your laptop back pronto, but don’t go offering that level of easy access again. You never know what they might find.”
“I don’t do anything on that laptop on purpose, and I knew they’d find nothing in the house.”
“I get that, but all you did was pique their interest by being so willing to hand it over. It’s not your job to make things any easier for them, so in future give them nothing unless you pass it by me, okay?”
“Okay, so where are we?”
“To be honest, I don’t know how they got that warrant based on what I’ve seen. You haven’t been charged. There’s nothing to connect you to the disappearances. Something isn’t kosher. But that’s done, too late to focus on that.”
“You know that a copper up in Benders accessed my psych files?”
“No, how?”
“Long story, but his girlfriend was my psych when I was a kid.”
“That’ll be handy to know if this thing goes anywhere.”
“Why would it go anywhere?”
“Just saying if it did, and they relied on anything in those files, it would get kicked out.”
“Can I call you later about another issue?”
Ten minutes later, David called Monahan from a burner phone.
“I have a mil I need to sort out.”
“A mil? I can, but next time don’t wait till it’s that much. The bigger the number the harder it is. I’ll be in touch in a couple of days.”
David considered the risk involved in assembling one million in cash from his various hiding places. He decided that considering the close attention of Prosser and the local police, the risk was too high. He called Pav.
“Pav, can you get away from the station for a few days, fly over here, and do another job for me?”
“Missus and Bert might bitch, but I do.”
“I’ll cover all your costs when you get here.”
David collected Pav from Tullamarine Airport and drove him back to a Geelong motel.
“Sorry, Pav, I’d have you stay at my place but I need to make sure you and I aren’t seen together after this. I’m not sure if the police are tracking me, and I don’t want them to connect us.”
He explained what he needed done, and made sure Pav understood the risks and what to be wary of.
“David, you up to no good? Maybe a little druggie business? Where this cash from?”
“The less you know the better, but let’s just say I have a money tree that is going gangbusters.”
The big man smiled, not something he did often, and ruffled David’s hair. “You naughty boy.”
As David was heading back up to Geelong three days later to change over to the four-wheel drive and head to the plantation, Pav called to say the job was completed, and that he would be heading back west.
“How would like to move over here, Pav? You and I could set up in business. Are you sick of Helen and Bert yet?”
“Sick of missus and Bert day one.”
“Go settle things with them and tell me when you can get back.”
“Okay, David, talk soon.”
He relaxed a little with the thought of working with Pav then checked his rear-view mirror and saw the police unit two cars back. He’d noticed they were tailing him, it might be just random, but enough to be a red flag. He needed to take this pressure off. He leaned across and rubbed Frank’s ears, then changed course and headed back to Fairhaven. The plantation would have to wait till he was clear.
“Looks like we’re getting a new partner, Frankie.”
Bendigo Police Station, 18th May 2018
Johnson walked into Brownsill’s office, placed his laptop on the desk, flipped it around and collapsed into a chair.
Brownsill slipped his glasses off and looked at the screen.
He read, then re-read the email.
“This is seriously getting weird,” Brownsill said.
“Ya think?”
Police Video Conference, 23rd May 2018
Brownsill opened the video call.
“Hello, everyone. I am DS Brownsill from Bendigo. DS Prosser from Geelong suggested we have a call since we all seem to be missing Chisholm family members or have an interest in the broader family. On the call, we have DS Smyth from Rockhampton, DS Jacobsen from the ACT, DS Prosser from Geelong, and with me, Detective Johnson. Smyth, could you lead us off since you seem to have the most recent news? But before you do, would you just swivel around a bit? We can’t see you ’cause of the light behind you.”
Smyth looked over his shoulder and chuckled. “You mean the sunshine? You southerners probably don’t recognise it. That better? Okay, I am DS Roger Smyth from Rockhampton CID, my patch includes Blackwater. Jake Chisholm is a mineworker from Blackwater and has been reported missing by his girlfriend. He was last seen meeting a stranger in a car park outside his local watering hole. We don’t know who he met, and the guys he was drinking with have no clue as to his identity. The girlfriend said he was mid-twenties to thirty and big. Not immensely helpful in a coalmining town where most of the men look the same. That said, she didn’t think he was from around the district. The mystery man discharged two rounds from a silenced handgun to scare Jake’s girlfriend off. Jake hasn’t called or been seen since. No sign of his vehicle, and his phone is off.”
“Jacobson, anything you want to add?” Brownsill asked.
“Hi, I’m DS Rebecca Jacobsen, Bec. The circumstances around Freddy Chisholm’s disappearance feel a bit like Roger’s. He’s made no contact, vehicle gone, phone off. Someone suggested that he may have been seen talking with a tall, solidly built male at his work, but nothing specific.”
“Thanks, Bec,” Brownsill said. “So now we have three male siblings gone AWOL, plus the parents. As they say, to lose one is bad luck, to lose two is ... well, you know what I mean. I have central command crawling up my back about the people from Bendigo. It’s been fifteen weeks and we have no bodies, no sightings, and no bank accounts being used. All we have is missing people. As this now crosses three borders, I suspect it’s about to be taken out of my hands. Frankly, I don’t blame them, cause if I was up the chain of command, I’d be doing the same. Even if just to get fresh eyes on it.”
“What about the daughter, do we have anything on her? I saw on the news that she’s been contacted,” Jacobsen said.
“No. The locals reached out but she knew nothing and was, according to them, dismissive, didn’t want to engage,” Brownsill said.
“The only other person we have a query about is the estranged nephew, David Carter. He hates the family because of how they treated him as a youngster. DS Prosser is the expert on him. John, want to fill us in?”
“Sure. Carter is strange and surly, at least in my dealings with him. Surly to the point of being aggressive, but he mostly keeps it under control. He has a lifestyle inconsistent with his apparent income. He’s ex-army, toured Afghanistan, and seems to be a loner. He disappears for periods, ostensibly to go camping and surfing but I’m not convinced. Oh, and he is mid-twenties and built like the proverbial brick dunny.”
“Thanks, John. Anything to add, Aaron? He’s been running this thing from the start.”
“He seems to have access to a lot of money. He’s also been receiving psychological support over an extended time.”
Brownsill glared and stifled a remark.
“He said someone had accessed his files. I assume that was you?” Prosser said.
“Let’s not go there,” Brownsill said.
“What are you suggesting?” Smyth asked.
“Nothing, just that there are inconsistencies about him,” Johnson replied.
“Let’s just say he’s difficult, odd, and according to John, dodgy,” Brownsill said.
“Can you pin a timeline to him in terms of where and when he may have had the opportunity?” Smyth asked.
“We can’t line anything up, but we believe he was around the Bendigo area for at least part of the timeframe during which the parents and the eldest sibling disappeared. We finally got him to confirm he was in town seeing his shrink. In terms of the other one, Freddy, he went missing up near Canberra and we can’t confirm where Carter was. We can’t say he was there or not; we just don’t know.”
“And there’s no evidence, blood, nothing at any of the sites?” Smyth asked.
“Nothing.”
“Can I get back to the sister in Sydney?” Jacobsen said. “Has she been put under watch? Considering that all of her family are missing, I know I’d be looking over my shoulder.”
“I spoke with a DS up there this morning, and they’re approaching her about it. I haven’t heard back,” Brownsill said. “Let’s stop here, I think we all have a handle on what we know. I’ve asked Johnson to coordinate all comms on this, and he’s set up a folder on a document server. He’ll send you details you can post material there.”
After the call ended Brownsill looked at Johnson. “You look like you want to belt someone.”
“I didn’t appreciate your implication that things haven’t progressed because I’ve been running this case so far.”
“It’s a simple fact, Aaron. You have been running this thing. End of. And don’t mention that bloody psych file again.”
“Siobhan kicked me out ‘cause of that.”
“And that’s a surprise to you?” Brownsill said.
Chapter 14
Tullamarine Airport, Melbourne, 3rd, June 2018
“How was the flight?” David asked Pav as they drove away from Tullamarine Airport.
“Seat is small. Meal is small.”
“Maybe Pav is too big,” David said.
Pav reached across and punched David gently on the arm.
“Great to have you here, mate. You’re the only thing I miss about the West.”
Pav nodded. “It got very bad after you leave. Boss and missus fight all time, then boss take it out on boys.”
David looked at Pav, a question on his lips.
“He still belts missus,” Pav said.
“After your accident and the blue I had with them about getting you to hospital, I had to leave. I would have ended up doing something I’d regret,” David said.
Pav placed a huge, gnarled hand on David’s arm. “I know it. Boss knows it.”
“I’ve put you up in a motel in Geelong. You can work out something better after you settle in. I figure we drop your stuff and since you didn’t get much to eat on the plane I guess I better feed you. Steak do you?”
After dinner, they retreated to Pav’s room with the best bottle of Cabernet they could get from the nearby bottle shop.
“Better than my bed at station,” Pav said after he tried the bed and checked out the bathroom. “Might stay here.”
“Nah, you can do better than this.”
David wiped the two wine glasses he found and poured the Cabernet.
“Here’s the deal, Pav. As you guessed, I have a very healthy business supplying grass to a large part of the south coast and up through Bendigo and Ballarat. I’ve also branched out into coke, and it’s starting to kick. It’s too big for me to handle alone, and with the cops all around, I need you to take on some of the transport and crop management duties. For that, you get fifteen per cent of the take. Also, the four-wheel drive I picked you up in is yours.”
“Too much, David.”
“You don’t know how hard I’m going to work you,” David said as he refilled their glasses.
Over the next three months, David and Pav increased production and expanded distribution. Cash was becoming more of an issue, and Monahan was busy securing assets to invest the clean cash in and collecting his twenty per cent.
David was regularly contacted by the police. He was convinced it was to keep pressure on him, as there was no progress being reported on the disappearances.
As they processed and packed the latest crop, David asked Pav, “How are you finding it over here?”
“Good, okay.”
“I’m sorry we can’t spend time together other than this but it’s best we aren’t seen together.”
“All good David. I see. Have good times with my people in Melbourne. Many Croatian families. All good. All good.” He replied and smiled.
They worked without speaking for a while then Pav said, “David, these people policija talk about on TV, is this you?”
David thought about the question; he trusted his friend, but that was a no-go area.
“Pav, the people missing made my childhood hell. I told you about them years ago. All but my cousin Jess have vanished. That’s all I know.”
“Okay, David, just ask. Not my business, I understand. How long missing?”
“Well, my uncle and aunt and Kevin were ... eight months ago, I think. Freddy sometime later, and Jake went missing around May. I am surprised the cops haven’t offered a reward for information by now. It’s been a long time.”
“Long time for no answer,” Pav said.
Bendigo Police Station, Monday 18th, September 2018
“For those interstate people on the call, I am Inspector Steven Kleinberg. I’ve been tasked with taking the lead on the Chisholm case from the Victorian end of things. That said, it has been agreed with your commands that Vicpol will be the pivot on this. It’s now September, and the first of these people went missing in January. It’s high time we made some progress. We need these investigations to come up with some results.”
Kleinberg was tall, almost stiff, when he stood, which matched his manner. He had close-cropped grey hair and piercing blue eyes. His black Victoria Police senior command uniform added to the no-nonsense impression he liked to make.
“DS Brownsill tells me you all know each other, so we’ll skip straight to summaries. I’ve read the files so I know the background. It looks to me that for all your time and effort we don’t have much. I’ve asked for a full review of the files, with fresh eyes. To that end, I’ve had two DSs in Melbourne go over everything to see what’s been missed.”
“That’s assuming something was missed,” Brownsill said.
Kleinberg ignored the interjection and pressed on. “I believe that the review team have turned up a few holes in the investigation process and has noted a couple of items to follow up.”
“With respect, sir, while I am sure we all accept the need for the review, there has been a lot of valuable material gathered by our teams,” Brownsill said.
Kleinberg glared at Brownsill and continued, “We haven’t pinned David Carter down sufficiently on his whereabouts during each of the three events. There seems some doubt about the answers he has given. Consequently, I have asked that he be reinterviewed to pin him down. He claims that he was on a camping and surfing trip at the time of the Canberra incident and claims to have been on a trip to Perth and points south at the time of the Rockhampton incident. But it’s a grey area.”
“We do know he was in Bendigo when the aunt and uncle disappeared,” Brownsill added.
“True, but we haven’t placed him anywhere near the farm,” Kleinberg said.
“Who said they disappeared from the farm?” Prosser said.
“As I said we have way too many gaps,” Kleinberg said.
Brownsill settled back in his chair and said no more.
“I asked the army to provide us with some background on David Carter’s service record. He was brought up on a charge by an officer that lead, in part, to his discharge from the Army. That officer was recently murdered in Brisbane. Does anyone care to guess when this happened?” Kleinberg said.
Murmuring from the various video conference locations ended when Smyth chipped in.
“Sorry to steal your thunder, Inspector, but I know the officer running that investigation. We have established that the officer, Lieutenant Brown, was shot and killed around the same time that Jake Chisholm went missing.”
“Exactly, so we have Jake Chisholm missing in Blackwater and this lieutenant dead in Brisbane within the same time window. Too much of a coincidence for me. The fact that we have a body for one of those events and not for the other is interesting but not necessarily instructive. DS Brownsill, what else have you got for us?” Kleinberg said.
“The Qantas crew and the Avis desk people remember seeing David in Perth because he made a bit of a fuss when dealing with them. But nothing after he left the Avis counter and no CCTV. There were bookings in his name at various locations and his credit card was used to pay for things, but nothing much more than that. We have the locals checking on all of those.”
“And the earlier trip up the southeast coast?” Kleinberg said.
“We have some CCTV which confirms it was him, but there’s a three-day blank spot around the time Freddy disappeared.”
“This gets more interesting by the minute,” Kleinberg said. “Do we have any more from Canberra?”
“Sir, we have very little,” Jacobsen said. “We’ve had cadaver dogs going over Freddy’s place and the surrounding area, and we’re still looking for his vehicle.”
