“Does he think the guy might be into terror attack stuff?”
“Could be.”
“That’s not our area, but I know someone who can help. Let me find his details.” Jack did a quick search in the system and found the appropriate command group.
He tapped his screen. “Got the contact here. Gavin Sargent, Counter-Terrorism Investigation Group. I’ll send you his email address.”
Cath sat down at her desk and Jack returned his focus to his computer screen. Dreaded email catch up time.
Jack called the team together for an update at noon. He stood at the front of the room, greeting his team members as they entered. Cath was missing but he needed to get things underway. It was lunchtime, and people were hungry.
“Won’t keep you long.” He opened up his notebook. “Our trip to Noosa generated some leads, and we still believe Wiley is in the area.” Jack looked around the team. “Any news on the items we forwarded?”
One of the young detectives opened the folder in front of him. “We were able to track the vehicle heading out of Noosa using the transport’s department CCTV system. We lost the vehicle at the Sunshine Beach turnoff. Some cameras were out of order due to the earthquake. The vehicle could have taken a number of routes from here. We can’t put too much pressure on for assistance at the moment as their priorities are elsewhere. We will need to start considering using private CCTV systems. So still some work to do.”
“Understand. Thanks, Matt.”
The detective sitting next to Matt spoke. “We’re waiting to receive some location data so we can get the phone number he was using. Then we’ll bring up a call log. This should only be a few hours away.”
“Good stuff, Tracey,” Jack said. “Whoever made that call is going to be a big piece of the jigsaw.”
“We got an updated image of Wiley from the Sunshine Bus service CCTV,” Matt said. “It’s not great quality, but it’s more up-to-date than what we had.”
Cath entered the meeting room, nodded to him, and found a seat. She didn’t look good. She looked harassed.
Matt was doing something with his computer and some images came up on the large screen behind Jack. He turned to look. A frozen image appeared of people on a street.
“You’ll want to look at this. We were able to pick up Wiley on some city CCTV.”
Jack nodded.
A grainy image appeared, of people walking in both directions. A tall thin man stopped, looked in both directions, then entered a well-concealed door between a hotel and a café. Matt stopped the video at that point. It was definitely Wiley.
“We did some snooping around. The door leads into a stairwell, then to a narrow back lane that provides rear access to a number of other buildings. This might be about the secret society you asked us to look into. If it is a secret society, they’d have certain rituals they follow when meeting. We’ll keep our eye on the area and do more research.”
“All good. I think the phone number is the key. Let’s put our energies into that.” Jack nodded at Cath. He needed to check if she was okay. “Let’s call it quits for now. Have lunch and keep up the good work”.
Jack raised his hand, indicating Cath should stay seated, and waited for the others to leave.
“You okay?”
She took a deep breath. “Dad’s been arrested by the feds.”
It took a moment to register that she was referring to the Australian Federal Police. “What? Why?”
“Mum said it was related to national security.”
“It’s the images, Cath. They were obviously classified. He did mention it could be a security breach.”
“I agree. They’ve confiscated his gear. Mum said she overheard them asking if anyone else had seen the images. She said he would feel bad because he lied.”
Could the technology be traced?
Cath read his mind. “They’ll be able to trace the communication between Dad and me. So we may be approached.”
“Maybe not. Someone is bound to leak the images to social media, whether to show the aliens or make it appear to be a hoax.”
“And you, Jack? What do you believe?”
“Me?” He thought for a moment, stood, and walked over to the window overlooking the busy street. “I’m concerned the AFP are now involved. It suggests the images are real. If that’s the case, I don’t know what to think.”
They left the meeting room and Jack made his way back to his desk. His chair looked inviting. He slumped into it just as his phone rang. No rest. It was Erica. The comfort and support of a wife couldn’t be underestimated. He closed his eyes and tried to visualise her.
“Are you okay, Jack?”
“Yes, love.” An ingrained term of endearment. Should he still be calling her that? Yep, he should. “Busy, as usual.”
“I saw photos of that man you’re after.”
“Social media did a good job on getting those images out there.” Why had she called?
“I’m calling to check up on you, but I also wanted to tell you I’ve seen the man in the images.”
He sat up straight and focused on the call. “You’ve seen him? Where?”
“At church. It was a while back. He went to a few new Christian classes. He was a weirdo.”
“Why do you say that?”
