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“Fantastic,” came her snarky reply. Then she headed toward the canvas annex. “I’ll go check the rest of the camp,” he added.
“You do that,” she called over her shoulder.
Steve had told Julie that Sasha would come out and replace her as cook for the last two days of muster, leaving Daniella and Skylar to carry the load back at the lodge. Aaron knew Julie was feeling guilty that she was now adding to everyone’s burdens by leaving the station. Hopefully, she’d come around in the end.
Shaking his head, Aaron tugged the sat phone out of his back pocket. He needed to call Jake and give him the update, make sure the safe house was available and prepped for their arrival. He could walk and talk while he did his perimeter sweep, Aaron decided as he reached up to check the door to the caravan was locked. His go bag and handgun were in there, and it was a force of habit to check it on each boundary inspection. The handle turned, and the door swung open. What the…?
Before he could step inside, the sat phone rang in his hand, startling him so that he almost dropped it. Before answering, he peered inside the caravan. Nothing seemed to be out of place. Had he, or Julie, forgotten to lock the door before they left?
He pressed the answer button on the phone. “Aaron, it’s Jake here,” his boss said without preamble.
Talk about serendipity. “I was just about to call you,” Aaron replied. “We need to get the house in Cairns ready for visitors. Steve wants her under full protection now. I’m bringing her in tonight.”
Jake blew out a loud breath on the other end of the line. “That’s great news. It’s time the family comprehended how much danger that girl is in.” Aaron agreed with his boss, but they both knew clients were often less than cooperative, even when their lives were in danger. Making it so much harder for Aaron to do his job. Some clients consented to do everything necessary to keep themselves and their families safe. They were the easy customers, allowing Jake and his men to protect them in the best way possible. But on the other side of the coin, a reluctant client couldn’t be forced to do anything they didn’t want to. They were paying for protection, but they often didn’t perceive how difficult it was for Shield to maintain that protection in certain circumstances. This was one of those situations.
“That’s good, because I have some info from Lance that makes it even more imperative Julie get to safety,” Jake said.
Aaron stood a little straighter and waited.
“Lance has been doing internet searches on all the guests who’ve stayed at the lodge over the past few weeks, combining that with any details we received from the police, to see if we can come up with anything suspicious.”
“Go on,” Aaron said slowly, as the hair on the back of his neck stood up.
“Lance thinks he might’ve found something that needs more attention. One of the women guests, a Maya Graymann, used to work for a large doctor’s surgery as a receptionist and medical typist. She quit her job when she married her new husband. But get this, the doctor she worked for consulted out to a couple of different family planning clinics, The Marie Stopes Family Planning Clinic being one of them.”
Aaron’s mind suddenly cleared, like a rain-spattered window wiped clean. That was the clinic Julie had attended. “That’s the same couple who went AWOL from the lodge a few days ago.” An image of the nerdy guy, with his much younger Malaysian wife, standing meekly by his side, assaulted his brain.
“Yes, it is,” Jake agreed. “We’ve already handed the info over to your mate Nash in the force, let’s see what they come up with. In the meantime, we’re delving into the details of both Maya and her new husband’s life.”
This might well be the information they were looking for. Aaron felt a stab of adrenaline, fueled by elation surge through him. “Give Lance a big kiss from me,” Aaron said. “I think he might have just cracked this case wide open.”
“Agreed,” Jake said. “I need to go. I just wanted to keep you up to date. I’ll talk to you more when you land in Cairns. Call me tonight.”
“Will do.” Aaron rang off and stared at the phone. Could this be it? Could this be the clue they’d been searching for all along? Maya could be the accomplice, feeding the stalker the information he needed. Which potentially made Chase Graymann the stalker. But how were the couple connected to Travis Mailmann? If Nikolay was right and Mailmann was an alias, then was Graymann his real name? He needed to go tell Julie about this new development.
Something moved in his peripheral vision. But before he could react, he was hit in the chest, and he went down like a sack of potatoes, unable to move or speak, completely immobilized. In his groggy, half-conscious state, he realized he’d been tasered.
