All the Missing Children by Zahid Gamieldien

Author:Zahid Gamieldien [Zahid Gamieldien]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ultimo Press
Published: 2024-05-28T00:00:00+00:00

VIII

Omar cut the engine of the Lexus and listened out for its owner, whom he’d manoeuvred—mouth retaped, wrists and ankles cable-tied—into the boot. All he heard was the birdsong of Jemalong-Cooke National Park. Omar hadn’t dared to walk out of Mick’s house to his Fairlane. But Mick hadn’t made a sound since they’d left his garage; he’d been silent on the highway, even when a uniform cop had signalled for Omar to join a queue for a random breath test. A second uniform cop had sauntered to the window and asked to see his licence. ‘This your vehicle?’ she’d said.

‘Does it not look like my vehicle?’ he’d replied.

She’d glanced sheepishly from his licence to his shaved head. He’d wrung the steering wheel and prayed for Mick’s continued quiet. Then the cop had breathalysed Omar and motioned for him to drive on as if she wished to put the whole interaction behind her.

With the sun just below the horizon, he watched fine drizzle fall from the clouds and settle on the windscreen. Rain had muddied the dirt road before him and blackened the bushfire scars on the macilent trees upslope to his right. He needn’t have worried about Mick making noise in the boot, he realised. While Omar had decided not to involve Sue or Angus, Mick must have calculated that gaining the attention of uniform cops was a low percentage play. Indeed, Mick’s highest percentage play was to try to overpower Omar in the national park, unwitnessed, and do whatever was necessary to cover his tracks.

Either that, or his silence meant he’d asphyxiated on the journey to Jemalong-Cooke.

Omar traced the contours of the knife in one pocket; he felt for his phone in the other. Then he swigged at a bottle of water he’d snatched from Mick’s kitchen and got out of the car and walked towards the rear. He eyed the spot where the golden-brown Mercedes had been parked. The forensics team had wound police tape around the trunks of three trees in an attempt to cordon off the area. But animals or the wind had bitten through the tape, and it lay in the mud like a ribbon sarcastically cut at the opening of a potter’s field.

The police tape to the left of the four-wheel drive had fared better. At the start of the overgrown walking trail, it fluttered in the breeze in the shape of an X. Omar recalled the X of the barricade tape across the doorway of the abandoned Victorian and felt his heart rate spike.

At the back of the four-wheel drive, he pushed a button and eased the boot open. Inside, Mick’s ungainly frame was curled in the foetal position. At first, Omar thought he really was dead. Then Mick groaned and blinked. The fresh strip of duct tape was askew over his mouth, and his neck was stained with blood from the shallow cut Omar had made. His wrists remained cable-tied at the small of his back and his ankles left upon right.

Omar read thirst and fatigue in Mick’s eyes.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.