Underground

Chapter 12

No one followed me as I made my way home. I had kept an eye on the rear vision mirror, looking for Janet. I assumed she would stay as far away from me as possible. The weaving traffic stole my attention. A near miss with a motorhome sent my pulse racing faster. My phone buzzed in the centre console. The caller would have to wait. I wondered if my mother had been informed of my adventure. Knowing her friend had been involved with Dad's death would devastate her. I wasn't looking forward to that conversation.

I pulled into my driveway and drove slowly up to the house, scanning the property for unwanted guests. I parked the car and did a quick search around the outside of the house. There were no visible signs of an intruder. I unlocked the front door and stepped inside. The only noise was the fridge motor whirring. I grabbed a knife from the kitchen and edged down the hallway, checking every room. Once I was happy that no one was hiding in any cupboards, I grabbed some clean clothes and locked the bathroom door behind me. I sat the knife on the sink.

My phone was buzzing again on my bedside table when I returned to my bedroom. There were missed calls from Sam, Louise, Grant, and Gordon. I called Sam. He answered on the second ring.

"Where are you?" he demanded.

"I'm at home," I said. "I just had a shower."

"Oh. I called you ages ago. You could have called me back." He was in brother mode, not cop mode.

"I'm sorry. I didn't hear it," I replied. "Any news on Janet?"

"No. How could she get away like that?"

"I don't know. We focussed on Nick after I put her down the hole. I can't believe I left the damn ladder down there." I smashed a fist down on the bed.

"She can't have gone far without her car," said Sam.

"Unless she had help," I murmured. The Hawk's scowling face flashed into my mind.

"Like who?" asked Sam.

"There couldn't have only been Somerset and Janet involved in the baby scam. There's got to be others," I insisted, "You need to question Somerset's receptionist. I really don't like her. She's been with him for years."

"We will be talking to her," said Sam. "When are you coming in to give your statement?"

"I just made a sandwich and cup of coffee," I lied. "I'll come in soon."

"I want you to come and stay with me until Janet turns up." I got the feeling from Sam's 'don't argue with me' tone that I was not being given an option.

"Yeah, alright," I mumbled.

"Okay." He sounded surprised at my lack of argument. "If you need me to come and pick you up, let me know."

"I'll be okay," I replied. "See you soon."

I hung up and returned to the kitchen. I made a cup of coffee and unlocked Somerset's phone. I scrolled through the numbers, writing them down with names and other contact details. I wrote down recent missed calls, times and the contacts' names. There were a few text messages, but it seemed the doctor preferred phone calls. Janet's number hadn't appeared recently. There were calls to and from his home phone, perhaps between him and his housekeeper. They were usually short calls, less than a minute, except for one a week ago that lasted five minutes. The Hawk had also called him from the surgery after my visit. That call had lasted almost ten minutes. She had to know something. She would have known Janet for years. Would Janet call her for help? Would she help her, or would she deny everything? I flicked through the apps on his phone and found his home security app. I clicked on the live feeds. There wasn't much action at his house. There was an option to replay the last event for each camera. I tapped on the entrance camera. The last event was the housekeeper leaving the house with a cardboard box. She closed the door behind her and seemed to scope out the front yard and walked out of shot. I wondered what was in that box. I selected the camera inside the door, which was aimed down the hallway. She had come out of the room at the back of the hall. I tapped on the camera that appeared to be in the doctor's study. The housekeeper was dragging pages out of the drawers in the big mahogany desk and then moved to the filing cabinet. She pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and grabbed a key from behind a book in the bookcase beside it and unlocked the cabinet. She proceeded to pull files out of the back of the bottom drawer and shoved them in the box. After rustling through more paperwork, she locked the cabinet, returning the key to its hiding place. She pulled the door to the study shut behind her and moved quickly to the front door. I checked the times on the recordings. It would have been about the time the police arrived up at the Maleny property. Somerset would have been dead. If the documents she had taken had anything to do with the baby scam, someone else must have contacted her to inform her of her employer's demise. My guess was either Janet or The Hawk. How would I ever find out who contacted her? It might not have been by phone. It could have been through a private message if she was on social media. They could have been communicating online to hide their tracks. I doubted it would be with their real names. It could have been anything. My best bet was to go to Brisbane and talk to The Hawk until I found out the housekeeper's name. I wiped the doctor's phone clean to remove any trace of my or the Kaber sisters' fingerprints. It would look suspicious if the police got hold of it, as his fingerprints would not be on it, but I had to take the chance. I turned the phone off and threw it in my daypack, along with Dad's notes, my passport, two sets of clothes, toothbrush and toothpaste, and grabbed my laptop. I locked the house and drove to the police station.