Black Mountain (3 page)

‘Does anyone else have a key?' asked Tim.

‘Only Mum.'

‘Perhaps she's been here?'

‘No. I know she wasn't coming down this weekend.'

‘You're sure Jackson doesn't have a key?' he persisted.

Elly shook her head. ‘No, he doesn't.'

‘Do you think he could have come in some way while you've been gone?'

‘I don't see how.'

‘Is anything missing?' Gai asked. ‘That's probably more important.'

Elly took a deep breath as she looked around. ‘Not that I can see.'

‘You'd better report it to the police, anyway,' Gai said.

‘Yes, you probably need to,' Tim agreed, ‘but you need to check first, and if nothing's missing they mightn't take much notice. You check things out while I look at the doors and windows to see if there's any sign of a break in.'

Elly went first to her bedroom and the bathroom, then the kitchen and the spare room, which was always kept ready for when her mother came to Cairns, and although she was certain things had been moved in each room she could find nothing missing.

As she returned to the living room Tim came in to report there was no sign of forced entry anywhere.

Gai frowned. ‘This is very strange. Why would someone come in while you're away and move things? They must have been looking for something. Do you have anything valuable hidden away? What about that jewellery your grandmother left you?'

‘Yes, I have some nice pieces in my jewellery box, you know, gifts and things, as well as some of my grandmother's rings, but nothing terribly valuable. And besides it's still all there. I checked.'

‘Beats me then.' Gai pursed her lips. ‘They must have been looking for
something
. Think, Elly, do you have something, anything that someone else might want?'

Elly's skin prickled as she remembered the one thing she had that was worth stealing.

‘Just a minute.' Moving quickly to an antique cedar
chiffonier
tucked into a corner of the room she opened the doors and pulled out one of the drawers. As she sifted through the papers inside, searching, her stomach clenched.

‘Dad's journal,' she exclaimed. ‘It's missing. Someone's taken it.'

In a stride Tim was beside her. ‘Are you sure?'

‘Positive.'

‘And you're sure it was in here?'

‘Yes.'

‘When did you last see it?'

Elly cast her mind back. She'd been doing some research online about two weeks ago and had taken it out then to compare drawings. She knew she'd put it back when she finished with it. In this drawer. Where she always kept it, under these other papers.

‘About two weeks ago.'

‘So you don't really know when it was taken?'

‘No, not really. But if someone has been in here searching while we've been away—'

‘I'm just thinking what the police will say,' Tim interrupted her.

‘Yes, of course.'

‘If it was your father's work in the journal, then it was valuable, wasn't it?' Gai asked.

‘Potentially, yes. He was working on something before he died that had the potential to be worth a lot of money, and all his notes and drawings were in it.'

‘Would anyone else have known about it? Jackson for instance?'

‘As it so happens,' Elly spoke slowly while she thought, ‘something came up when he was here last, about a week ago, about Dad's work and my research. It seems his mother is also into herbal remedies and aromatherapy, he'd told me that before, and he was very interested in what we're doing. I told him that Dad had found this new plant that showed exciting promise for the skincare industry, and how he'd done experiments with it, and he asked me then if he'd kept it all in his head, said how terrible it would be if it had died with him, and I think I said something about all Dad's work being safe here with me.'

‘But you didn't show it to him, or tell him where it was?'

Elly shook her head. ‘No. Definitely not.'

‘It seems to me,' Gai said slowly, ‘that the first thing you have to do is find out if Jackson has been lying to you. If he has, then you can probably assume he's been here and taken the book.'

Gai's words did nothing to ease the worry gnawing inside Elly. Whether Jackson had taken it or not, the journal was missing. And the implications of that were alarming. But the first thing must be to check out Jackson.

‘It's Sunday night, not much use trying now, but first thing in the morning I'm going to ring Qantas head office.'

‘And you'd better get a locksmith to come around and change your locks,' Tim added. ‘Someone else must have a key.'

‘Will you be all right here by yourself tonight?' Gai asked with a worried frown.

‘Yes, I'll bolt the doors as well as locking them.'

When Tim and Gai left Elly made herself a cup of tea and sat on the couch. As she switched on the television to watch the news she still half expected to hear of an aircraft accident, but there was no such report, and at the end of the news she switched it off and took her bag into the bedroom and unpacked.

As she methodically sorted her things and put them away she thought back over her meetings and outings with Jackson.

What had they talked about?

Their conversations had been wide ranging. He was a good listener and encouraged her to talk about her family and what they did on the mango farm. Certainly when she had told him they grew herbs and plants for cosmetic use as well as mangoes he had been interested, but he'd said it was because of his mother's experiments in a similar field.

When she went to bed it was to toss and turn as she went over the times she had spent with Jackson, and analysed any conversations that included discussions of her father's work. It was with a shock that she realised it had been after she'd made reference to Rob's work being safe here with her that Jackson had been anxious to stay and spend the night with her. Had it been because he wanted to find that work, rather than because he wanted to sleep with her? She squirmed at the thought, but it made her even more determined to find the truth.

Chapter 4

When morning came Elly rose early and made a phone call to Qantas. This time there was no doubt. There was no Jackson Lee employed by Qantas, either as a pilot or in any other capacity.

Her next phone call was to the local police, who promised to send someone around when they could. They seemed more interested in the fact Jackson had been posing as a Qantas pilot than in the matter of a robbery that had taken place sometime in the last two weeks. Her next call was to a locksmith, who made a time to come and replace the locks later that day, and finally she rang her mother.

Beth was shocked at her news, and told Elly she was coming down right away.

‘So who is this Jackson Lee?' she asked as soon as she had greeted her daughter an hour later. ‘How did you meet him?'

‘We met in the library,' Elly explained, and went on to tell her mother the whole story.

As she finished the locksmith arrived and changed the locks, followed almost immediately after by a police constable.

He took down the details of the missing journal but, as Elly was unable to say for sure when it had been taken, he told her that, while they would make enquiries concerning Jackson Lee, there was no evidence that he had been the one to steal the book.

‘Are you sure you haven't mislaid it?' he asked her.

‘Quite sure,' Elly replied firmly. ‘It contained valuable research, and I'm absolutely sure I replaced it in the drawer when I finished with it two weeks ago.'

‘Was the drawer locked?'

‘No.'

‘Perhaps it should have been in a safe, if it contained such valuable information.'

‘Well, it wasn't. I had no reason to suspect anyone would steal it,' Elly fumed.

‘And would anyone else but you have known where it was?'

‘Only my mother. But I can tell someone has moved things around, and so someone has obviously searched the flat while I was away over the weekend.'

‘But the book could have been taken any time since you last used it?'

Reluctantly Elly had to agree.

‘Then we'll see what we can do to find the missing article, but we don't have a lot to go on, I'm afraid. And as there is no evidence of forced entry it suggests someone had a key to let themselves in, so there's no breaking and entering.'

With that he closed his notebook, told her they would be in touch when they had something to report, and left.

Beth huffed as he left. ‘Well, he was as helpful as tits on a bull. We'll be extremely lucky to hear anything more from that quarter.'

Elly bit her lip. ‘I'm afraid you're right. I'm sorry, Mum, perhaps I should have kept it in a safer place.'

Beth shook her head. ‘It should have been perfectly safe where it was. It's not your fault. After all, I knew where you were keeping it and I never thought it wasn't safe, so don't blame yourself. The question is, what to do about it?'

Elly took a deep breath. ‘Well, it seems to me that we need to try and track down Jackson, if that is his real name, and see what he has to say for himself.'

‘Do you know where he lives?'

‘No, not really. He told me he has a place in Abbott Street, but we can hardly go knocking on every door in the street, can we?'

Beth frowned. ‘No. I think we're going to need some help with this. It's too important to fluff around with. We need professional help—someone who knows how to go about finding people.'

Elly's brows lifted. ‘You mean like a private eye or something? Are you sure you haven't been watching too much television?'

‘No, of course not, there are people who specialise in this sort of thing. You know, security, tracing missing family members, that sort of thing. As a matter of fact, I think I know just the person. You remember Mitchell Beaumont?'

Elly frowned. ‘Yes, of course, but I thought he was in the police force somewhere down south.'

‘Not any more. I was talking to his mother only last week. He was wounded in a skirmish during a TAB holdup, apparently he was quite a hero, he was decorated for bravery, but it's left him with a bit of a limp and rather than take a desk job he opted out. So he's back here at the moment, and considering setting up on his own.'

‘Oh, I see. Then perhaps we should contact him.'

‘I believe he's staying at home just now.' Beth fished in her bag for her phone. ‘I'll ring and see if I can talk to him.'

Elly listened while Beth explained to Mrs Beaumont that they had need of assistance in tracing a missing person, and hoped Mitchell could help them. When she ended the call she told Elly that Mitchell would be with them by early afternoon.

‘I'm glad we have time for a quiet talk before Mitchell arrives,' Beth said as they sat down with a cup of coffee later in the day. ‘Losing the journal like this really set me thinking on the drive down,' she continued, stirring her coffee. ‘I'm reproaching myself because I've let myself become swallowed up with my grief at losing your father, and it's time I pulled myself out of it. We were all working towards a goal and I've just neglected to carry on. That's not what he would have wanted, and it's not been fair to you.'

Elly felt her heart contract with sympathy. Leaning across she touched her mother on the arm, shaking her head. ‘Oh, Mum, it's been a terrible time, and you haven't had the heart to go on with it. It's understandable.'

‘Well, that's over now. You and I'll get on with it. But somehow we must try to get that book back. It had all his work in it.'

‘Yes, I know. But it's not the end of the world. I've learnt a lot from what he had written down, as well as what we did together, and I've followed up with some more research as well. And I have my own notes. If you really think you're ready to go ahead now, we can continue with his experiments, if we can find where the plant's growing. That's really the main thing now.'

‘Yes, I know. And, of course, he knew exactly where to find it, but we don't.'

‘No, but we know it's somewhere in the Daintree rainforest, and we know what it looks like. And it is quite distinctive.'

‘And whoever has his journal will know too, because of the drawings.'

‘Yes, but we have part of the pressed plant itself at home, which will be much better when it comes to identification.' Elly was silent for a moment, and when she spoke again it was hesitantly, not wanting to worry her mother further. ‘Of course, the worrying thing is the danger of the journal finding its way into the hands of someone who really understands what's in it, and realises its worth, realises what the plant can do for the skin—that it can delay, even reverse, the signs of ageing.'

‘Yes. The fountain of youth Rob called it.'

‘And potentially worth millions.'

Chapter 5

The beauty salon where Elly worked was closed on Mondays, but she knew she would find Janet, the owner, doing her bookwork there as usual on her free day, so she walked around to see her before Mitchell Beaumont was due to arrive. As her mother was now so anxious to go ahead with their plans she was going to give notice to Janet that she would be finishing work as soon as possible. They had become friends while she worked there and she would be sorry to leave her, but she was looking forward to doing what she loved best.

As expected she found Janet busy with her books.

‘Ah well, I'll be sorry to lose you, Elly,' Janet said when she told her she was leaving, ‘but I always knew you wanted to work with your mother again one day. Now the tourist season is over, I'll be able to manage without you, so finish whenever you wish.'

They had always had a good relationship and Elly was grateful for her employer's understanding. ‘Thank you, Janet. Mum hasn't had the heart to do much since losing Dad, but she's ready to get going again now.'