for June

28. Needle in a bloody haystack

"Any luck?" Jo careened her neck over Tom's shoulders, her eyes darting across the screens set up as a makeshift surveillance centre in the middle of Chad's lounge.

"It would have helped if he had his phone on him," Tom remarked pointedly, eyeing a fervent June sitting on a chair in the corner, out of their way. Her leg bouncing like a junkie. "She okay?"

"She can't remember anything useful to help Chad." Jo grabbed Tom's arm and pulled him aside. Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Last time Cassie had him, it was in his own house, and the only reason anyone knew he was in trouble was, she sent mum a cryptic threat the night before. Mum did not understand what it was or from whom, but I knew he was having problems breaking off a relationship." Jo's voice rose ever-so-slightly in anger, and she lowered it back down to a hush. "I had dropped in to check on him by chance."

"We're doing our best to find him, Jo," Tom reassured her.

"Find her," she demanded instead. "I think you should look for her. She has a history. Don't you keep track of criminals?"

Tom glanced at his team. They were following leads of traffic cameras after getting a partial plate and general colour and make of the vehicle from the hospital CCTV. So far, they'd tracked three similar vehicles through multiple routes. One had ended up outside a church in Newtown. The second had pulled up into a parking lot at a club north of the city. The third was still being tracked. It had travelled through multiple suburbs and they lost it now and then at blind spots, only to see it turn up on a camera in another intersection. It was a painstaking task, and they weren't even sure it was the one they should look at.

There was also an alert out to all patrols, with the screenshot of Cassie and Chad, taken from the hospital CCTV. The advice was to approach the woman as armed and dangerous. Tom had asked what details he could release about Chad, to ask for the public for help. But Jo wanted to wait till Terry got there. She needed a motherly, authoritative figure present, someone who knew exactly what information about her as a writer could be used, if any.

"What about Cassie's image from the hospital?" Tom inquired at one point. "We could say she was seen forcing an unidentified man at gunpoint, and we're concerned for the man's safety as she has a history of violence. Let me use something, Jo!"

"Haven't you kept tabs on her?" Jo paced. "Let Terry get here. She handles media for Chad."

"Handle what?" Terry's voice boomed behind them as she stood before the front door. She tapped her heels on the outdoor carpet and dropped her umbrella by the side. "What the hell is going on, Jo?" she snapped before spotting Tom lingering behind her. "Detective Ash?"

"Austin," Tom corrected, offering a handshake. "Thank you for coming to assist."

Terry scanned Tom's team and June, sitting nervously in the corner, eyeing the screens. "She's still here?"

Jo nodded. "And Chad's not."

"Yeah, about that, what do you mean he is missing? Why the hell is he missing?"

Jo gave a simple one-word reply. "Cassie."

"Fuck!" Terry turned to Tom, "I knew something like this might happen again when he said he thought he'd seen her."

"Do you know much about this woman?" Tom asked.

"Not much really." Terry shook her head. "She's crazy, thinks Chad's name is really Zachary Eve and believes wholeheartedly she's married to him."

"Anything about her life before she became a problem in Chad's? Anything that could help us?"

"She's an only child from what I can remember, and I think bipolar or schizophrenia or something like that runs in the family. Her defence used to shorten her sentence last time. I only met her a few times when Chad used to invite her to events. She always gave me the creeps. Something unsettling about her. I guess we know what that was now."