Page 13 of The Bait

He was mid-sigh when his call was picked up. “Commander’s office,” a male voice said. Short, clipped. Annoyed. No name, no rank.

August sat up straight in his seat. He introduced himself and then dove straight to the deep end. “We have a new case of some missing tourists, which I believe you may be interested in. But I understand you’re very busy so I’m going to make a very long story short and ask if there’s any information you could impart on a Mr Michael Hill and a Joshua Hill.”

There was only silence.

August forged on. “And I know I’ve been told by ASIO before to cease all investigations in relation to Michael and Joshua Hill, but we’ve had a development in this case, and it’s a suspected triple homicide. It’s going to attract media attention, and?—”

“Detective Shaw, I’m going to stop you right there,” Mr Commander’s Office said. “Did you say you’d been asked by ASIO to cease all investigations?”

“Well, yes. But that was for a different matter. That was before this new case.”

“When? When were you told to cease investigations? And by whom?”

“Christmas morning, actually. December twenty-fifth, last year. It’s why I remember it so specifically. And Ididn’t get a name then,” August said. “Much like I didn’t get yours now.”

Another pause of silence. There may have been a faint clicking of a keyboard or background office noise; it was hard to tell.

Just then, Jake waved his hand to get August’s attention. He was still at his desk, still had his phone pressed to his ear. But he gave a thumbs up.

Then Mr Commander’s Office said, “Detective Shaw, I’m going to need you to tell me everything. Don’t give me the shortened version. Start at the beginning.”

“From when? When they first moved to my town and I knew they weren’t who they said they were? Or when I watched Joshua Hill use a sniper rifle at a gun show like he was Jason freaking Bourne? Because that’s when I tried to find out who he really is, and that’s when ASIO shut me down the last time, and now I’ve got three missing Croatian nationals in my national park.”

The beat of silence stretched out, and his voice was low and cold when he spoke. “Detective, I never shut you down before.”

“What do you mean you never shut me down before? I sat in this very office and took a call from ASIO, citing under the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act that I was to cease all investigations. It was Christmas morning. I have the call log.”

“That order didn’t come from this office.”

“Then who the hell did it come from?”

More silence except for the muted sound of action. Was he walking? “Detective Shaw, I never gave you that order then, but I’m giving it now. You are to cease all investigations on this case, effective immediately. Someone from my office is on their way to you now.”

August blinked. “Uh, I’m sorry, what?”

The line went dead.

Jake came over to August’s desk, grinning, his eyes wide. “I think I found something. Remember the defence boss who got busted for all that espionage shit? Parrish?”

August’s mind was still reeling. “Uh, yeah. But Jake, listen?—”

“Well, there was an agent, a secret ops agent?—”

“Jake, stop,” August said, louder this time. Jake stopped. “We’ve just been shut down. Again.”

“What?”

“ASIO. But get this. ASIO says it wasn’t them who shut us down on this before.”

Jake cocked his head. “Then who was it?”

“I have no idea. ASIO’s on their way here now.”

“Here? Now?”

August nodded. “We need to get everything we have on these missing campers into a job file and make it official. Case numbers logged. I want everything we have put into the system before they get here.”

Jake motioned to Kaycee sitting at her desk. “Deans already did. The case is logged and in the system.”

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