Chapter 15
WAR IS DANGEROUS, AND dangerously loud.
Aaron was now back in Brisbane city and office-bound. The Bushmaster troop carrier’s unique design and armour plating had saved them. They were evacuated by helicopter to the Tarin Kowt military hospital—a hospital that Australian Army engineers helped rebuild, and staffed by nurses and midwives trained with Australian aid. Aaron always emphasised these things when he spoke to people—he believed there was purpose behind it all, and what he had seen confirmed that.
Aaron had recovered from his injuries from the IED blast but was left with slight hearing damage, which limited his military options and prevented him completing his tour of duty. He struggled with not being able to go back to Afghanistan. He desperately wanted to remain in active service, to remain a soldier, to honour his dad and his brother Jack, and to serve his country.
Mackenzie and Lucas were always at the forefront of his mind. He had caught up with Mackenzie a few times and he was feeling more confident as days went past that maybe his threat to Lucas had a lasting effect. He’d asked Mackenzie about the minister guy and his drivers. Mackenzie hadn’t seen them at church, although she did stress that she went to a ‘younger’ service than his mum’s. That Friday night service Aaron had attended, the one where they’d seen Jill and the minister, was a special event.
Paul and Mackenzie were still going strong. That was another reason why he would have loved to have gone back to Afghanistan. Out of sight, out of mind. Maybe he should have moved interstate—he quite liked Townsville.
He followed up news articles to see if vanishings were still happening, but there was nothing. He came across a general article on suicides. One of the stories included a government minister losing his son to suicide. Although no names were mentioned, Aaron believed it was the man he had helped that day at the intersection, after the incident with the girl. Maybe that incident was the cause of his death.
His army training and experience had taught him a lot about post-traumatic stress disorder, and he knew it contributed to a large number of suicides. On his return from Afghanistan, he had to make a few visits to a psychiatric practice to make sure he was okay. Aaron constantly checked his thoughts. He was lucky. Although his war experience wasn’t overly pleasant, he hadn’t experienced excessively frightening or distressing events as some had.
He was challenged. The doctors told him that he had just been through a traumatic event in Afghanistan. It was a battle, but Aaron convinced them he was okay. The event had minimal impact on Aaron, even though the same event could have caused severe distress in another individual. Aaron decided it was the wiring in his head; he had inherited solid coping skills from his parents. He was thankful for the good wiring job.
He caught up with the detective that was investigating Dad’s death. He was apologetic: not much progress had been made. The investigator’s report on the fire gave no leads. It looked like it could have been an accident. They were unable to trace the white van, but they would keep Aaron posted if anything else cropped up. Aaron felt bad when he got off the phone. Maybe he should have passed on the information he had.
Aaron thought of Lucas. He told the image of Lucas that he was coming to get him.
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The M on Mary had 43 levels of apartments. Aaron’s was a mid-level apartment. It was a good-sized one-bedroom apartment, purchased with Dad’s life insurance payout when Aaron returned from Afghanistan. The marketing spin for the apartment included words like style, elegance, opulently finished. To Aaron it was a simple investment that allowed him to live close to work and enjoy the city life.
Aaron had a late start this morning. He sat in his small study dressed in uniform camouflage trousers and brown t-shirt, reviewing some documents that he needed for a meeting this afternoon.
Although it was a cool morning, he had his balcony doors open. There seemed to be an abnormal number of sirens and sounds of emergency vehicles this morning. He got up from his chair and headed towards the living room balcony, grabbing a shirt that draped the back of a chair on the way. It was a bit chilly so he put his camouflaged shirt on.
Where was the sun? He looked up and saw a large thick cloud moving across to conceal it. He then looked in the direction of the sounds. It was the same direction as his route to work, near Central railway station. It looked like a huge ruckus going on. A train accident? He was leaving for work soon and would check out what had happened then.
Out in the streets, as usual people stared at his General Duty Dress uniform. They stared at you more in Brisbane than Townsville—curiosity, as there were few army personnel based in the city. He was getting closer to the ruckus. Some crowd barriers had already been put in place and it looked like more were needed. It was that intersection again, where he’d seen the accident. Was the intersection cursed?
It looked like a scene from a Hollywood action movie. Traffic was stopped behind several police cars, their red and blue lights bouncing of the glass of the surrounding buildings, search and rescue vehicles, news wagons with their satellite dishes extended, and people everywhere.
Aaron watched crowd barriers being moved to let an emergency vehicle through. Emergency staff disembarked from the vehicle and started to assist with getting the crowds under control. What was going on? Another vehicle came through with ‘Gracie Rentals’ painted on the side, carrying a load of rent-a-barriers. It looked like a big event.
Aaron noticed a lady and a police officer on their own, away from the crowd. The lady turned and pointed towards the intersection, and he recognised her. It was Kathy, Mackenzie’s mum. Something was wrong. He walked towards them.
“Excuse me, officer.”
The officer turned.
“I know this lady—”
“Is that you, Aaron?” Kathy looked up. “Oh, Aaron, please help us.”
“What’s happened, Kathy?”
The officer replied, “We’re not sure, a few people have gone missing and we’re trying—
“They’ve vanished, Aaron, Mackenzie and Paul. Both vanished.”
The officer continued, “Maybe six or seven, maybe more have gone missing . . . could I leave this lady with you? I need to get back and help with managing the incident.”
“Sure.”
Aaron took Kathy’s arm and led her over to an area where they could sit down, a low concrete wall supporting a garden bed. Aaron looked around the street. It was eerie with no traffic. Some people were rushing to the barriers closest to the incident but being discouraged and directed away by police and emergency service workers.
“I’m sorry, Kathy. I’ve just got here so I've no idea what’s happened.”
“I can tell you . . . based on what I’ve heard from others, Mackenzie and Paul cross this street every work day. But this morning they vanished . . . just vanished.”
Aaron frowned. “What do you mean, ‘just vanished’?”
“That’s it, Aaron, they just vanished, like they fell through a hole or something. But there are no holes.”
Aaron had a bad feeling about this. “Why do you think Mackenzie was one of them?”
“I was meeting her for a quick coffee. She didn’t turn up. I tried her phone, and Paul’s. I went down to where she works. She hasn’t turned up for work and they haven’t heard from her. I prefer not to think the worst, Aaron, but I believe both her and Paul have vanished.”
“Maybe their train was delayed?”
Kathy shook her head. “No. She would have phoned, or Paul would have.”
“Kathy, I’m sure there’s something there . . . maybe recent heavy rain has caused some erosion under the road, you know, a sinkhole.”
“Maybe . . . but I was over at the site, there are no obvious holes. I don’t mean to be rude Aaron, but it’s real . . . she has vanished.”
Kathy’s name was called. They turned to see her husband, James.
James hugged Kathy and gave Aaron a nod.
“Hi, James.”
Aaron looked at Mackenzie’s parents, holding each other and staring in the direction of the incident site. It was in some ways good that they were both in the city this morning. A large media contingent now assembled around the site, with a lot of pushing and shoving going on.
“James, I’ll have to get Kathy to explain what’s going on because I need to get to work. I may be able to find out some info at work. I’ll give you a call if I discover anything. I’m sure there’s an explanation coming.”
“Thanks, Aaron.”
Aaron headed towards work. He could use some resources there to investigate further. He looked back at the intersection. It was the same intersection where the girl was hit by the car. A coincidence? Or were some places tagged for bad things?
He had a gut feeling that Lucas was involved and he had reneged on his promise.
Lucas had underestimated Aaron’s feelings for Mackenzie.
Chapter 16
