Isabella touched her heart. The location of the tree also lives there. It had to be hidden from others. Isabella understood now and smiled—Mum had also met the messenger. But one thing confused Isabella. Why did Madeleine’s mother want to kill her? It wasn’t because she knew where the plant was. It must be something else.
56 – A civilian and military investigation
POLICE STATIONS WEREN’T ALWAYS EASY TO IDENTIFY, particularly in country areas where they normally resembled a residential property. If it wasn’t for the chequered blue and white sign that stood outside this property, Aaron would’ve missed it. The other telltale sign was the large antenna at the rear of the building, slightly obscured by some large pine trees. There was also a flagpole with the flag flying at half-mast, although the flag was more draped than flying as there was no wind.
The investigation had morphed into a combined civilian and military exercise. Although there were differences between the agencies, both were in the business of protecting people. On reading Aaron’s initial report, his case manager got approval to involve the civilian law enforcement arm and also assigned an intelligence analyst. A copy of the report was sent to the appropriate people. His counterpart, hopefully, was in this police station waiting to discuss the investigation with Aaron. It was a practical place to start.
Aaron was directed into a small room. He detected an air of grieving in the building and knew that it would linger for some time.
“Gents, here’s the man from Defence.”
Two men. One seated the other standing leaning over the other, pointing to a location on a map. One seated in police uniform; the other in a dark grey suit. They turned and looked up.
The suited man straightened up and put out his hand. “Aaron Fitzpatrick? I’m Detective Taylor.”
Aaron shook his hand wondering if Detective Taylor was good with repairing clothes. His flippant thoughts relaxed him. “Nice to meet you.”
The chair screeched as the other man moved his chair allowing him to stand.
“This is Officer Casey. He was the first response officer to the car accident.”
Aaron liked Taylor’s sensitivity in making no reference to the officers who died in the accident. Country police stations were often a close-knit family.
“I’m sorry about what’s taken place.” Aaron shook the man’s hand, not wanting to raise the subject but needing to acknowledge the event. He did care.
“Thanks. They were good officers.” Officer Casey turned back towards the papers on the desk and sat down. “This will help us work out what actually happened.”
“What have you discovered so far?” Aaron knew they were best served by putting their energies into solving what happened.
Officer Casey looked at Detective Taylor, who gave him a nod.
“We lost contact with the squad car. As we had its last location, I went to see if there was a problem. It’s a winding road, so I kept alert in case they’d been in an accident. I noticed tyre marks through some build-up of gravel on the side of the road and pulled over. Their vehicle had gone over the edge.”
He pointed to the map. The contour lines were grouped close together in the area he was pointing to. “This is a hilly area serviced by a narrow dirt road with tight bends. Where the vehicle went over is very steep. They were in a standard vehicle. I had the four-wheel drive. I tied rope to the front of my vehicle and climbed down to the crash site.”
Officer Casey paused.
“They were both deceased. They were trapped inside the vehicle. I would say there was little that could have been done to save them. One thing around here is the trees are huge and don’t budge—they do a lot of damage to a vehicle. There was a third occupant but he wasn’t in the vehicle. I conducted a search of the area.”
“That was the prisoner. Lucas Fell,” Detective Taylor said. “He was being escorted back here to the station.”
“Yes,” Aaron said. “Lucas Fell set off some alarms, and he’s why Defence got involved. He’s connected with a technology we’re after. It’s more of a national security thing.”
“Not meaning to be rude, but why are you involved in this . . . the accident? Surely it’s just a police matter that we can solve?”
Aaron understood his boldness. He was grieving, and wanted to do everything possible to fix this up. And the country air always seemed to relax protocol.
“Yes, no problems. We’ve been hearing things as we’ve been trying to track down this piece of technology and connect all the dots. There’s been talk and accusations of killings, murder. We also need to locate a person of interest who we believe has a piece of technology and need your resources to help us find him. We are also concerned that Lucas Fell has gone missing and are wondering what he’s up to.”
Officer Casey nodded slowly.
“Go on, Officer Casey,” Detective Taylor said.
“Yep. Okay. My initial reaction was that the other occupant, this Lucas fellow, may have caused the accident. I traced his tracks after the accident. It appears he wasn’t badly injured, and that’s a miracle, as he climbed up to the road. There were large imprints in the damp soil. He pulled himself up by the roots of the trees.”
“Definitely sounds like he wasn’t too badly injured. He was a fit man too. Prison does that to some—they work hard to keep fit,” Aaron said.
Officer Casey nodded. “It looks like he may have been picked up by another vehicle. I gave way to a vehicle as I was making my way to locate my partners.” He paused. “I had a quick chat with the driver to see if he was aware of any accident. His response was negative. There was a passenger asleep in the car and it now appears that was more than likely our escapee. My onboard recording system would have captured the vehicle’s details. We’ve put a trace out on the vehicle.”
Circumstances could cloud judgement. Maybe the officer hadn’t seen the dispatches out about Fell.
“I should’ve paid more attention to the passenger but I didn’t have a good feeling about my partners and wanted to find them.”
“Understand perfectly,” Aaron said. Casey must be a mind reader. “Are we thinking that the escapee had caused the accident?”
Detective Taylor gave a go-on nod to Officer Casey.
“I’m a bit of a country lad—I’ve spent a lot of time in the bush and I notice things. So I did some more exploring. I noticed an unusual marking on the road, as though someone had used the leaves of a branch to sweep over something. I followed the path of the sweep which took me to the edge of the road. There was a large branch resting up against a boulder a few metres down. It looked out of place. There was no bush litter settled on it—things like dead leaves, creepers. I climbed down to it.” He pointed to the pile on the table and rummaged through and isolated a couple of photographs. “The pictures there show what I discovered.”
Aaron looked down at the table. There were some photos amongst the papers that he hadn’t noticed before. One showed a large cut into the main arm of the branch. A smaller branch which must have broken off as the branch tumbled down had splashes of paint on it.
“All signs that this large branch had been hit by something.”
“Like a vehicle?” Aaron asked.
“I would say so. It was possible they could’ve avoided it. I would say the accident could’ve been helped along with something else, like the driver being blinded by a laser device. Someone’s tried to cover it up. And it wouldn’t have been the escapee unless he was working with someone. But I doubt that as he was in the car when it went over the side. The chances of him surviving such a crash would’ve been slim.”
“So who?” Aaron asked.
