‘Look, I’m dying of fucking curiosity here,’ said Gibbs, ‘but I know I shouldn’t stick my nose in where it doesn’t belong. The important thing is that you make sure ASI understands the victim’s body has been misidentified. Cairns is still out there somewhere.’
As the truck lurched around a corner, Saul saw the cabin itself for the first time. Gibbs parked close to the edge of the wooded slope out front, and they climbed out. Mountains rose beyond the far side of the lake, and the air was startlingly cold as Saul drew it into his lungs. He walked over to the edge of the driveway and peered down through the trees towards the lakeshore, to where he could just make out a wharf and a boarded-up hut.
‘Let’s take a look inside,’ he suggested.
Gibbs led him over to the cabin, and Saul followed him inside, wondering what the hell benefit anyone got from sitting halfway up the side of a mountain with no one to talk to and the nearest bar a half hour’s drive away.
Gibbs closed the door behind them and Saul gazed around. The place seemed comfortable enough, and less primitive than he’d expected. There was even a TriView that responded to his contacts. All in all, it looked quite cosy. There were ashes in the hearth, and the bedroom was visible through a half-open door. The way things were scattered about made it clear that either Jeff Cairns had left in a great hurry or someone had recently turned the place over.
Gibbs waited by the fireplace while Saul stepped through into the bedroom. He glanced under the bed and behind some mementoes gathering dust on a single shelf alongside the window. After that, he proceeded to check out the bathroom and the kitchen.
‘Forensics boys already been over the whole place,’ said Gibbs when Saul rejoined him a few minutes later.
p height='0' width='1em'>‘I guess,’ said Saul, checking the time: almost four. Maybe it was time to give Olivia a call. He made an excuse to Gibbs and stepped out on to the veranda, pulling his jacket close around him as he walked on across the driveway towards the trees.
Olivia answered after just a few seconds. ‘You were more than right,’ he said. ‘I’m at the cabin right now, and they pulled someone out of the lake, but it wasn’t Jeff.’
She made a small sound in the back of her throat, followed by a stifled sob. From background noise, it sounded like she was somewhere in town. After a moment the traffic noise faded, and he guessed she’d found somewhere quieter.
‘Then Jeff’s still alive?’ she asked.
‘Well, all I can say for sure is that you were right about him being in some kind of trouble. I’m still not sure just what kind.’
‘Do you think you can find him?’
‘That depends.’
‘On what?’
He headed closer to the trees. ‘I need you to be absolutely straight with me, Olivia. If you’ve been holding anything back, now’s the time to tell me.’
‘Saul, I swear I haven’t, and I wish I could tell you more. I tried so many times to get him to tell me whatever the hell was bothering him, but he just wouldn’t open up. And if he is still alive, there’s a part of me wants to wring his neck for not being straight with me.’
Saul chuckled. ‘I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes, in that case. Look, from what I can tell, the police have already been over the whole place thoroughly. If there was ever anything here that might tell us where Jeff’s gone, it’s not here any more.’
‘Did you check the tool shed?’ she asked suddenly.
‘Tool shed?’
‘It’s around the back of the cabin, just where the trees start. There’s a safe embedded in the floor.’
Saul glanced back towards the cabin and saw Gibbs peering out of the window towards him. Saul smiled and raised a hand. Gibbs nodded grudgingly, then moved back out of sight.
Saul ran a quick search of the report Gibbs had given him earlier, for any mention of a tool shed, but found nothing. ‘Hang on while I take a look myself,’ he muttered, then headed around behind the cabin, where the trees resumed four or five metres to the rear.
He looked around. ‘I’m here,’ he told her quietly, wary of Gibbs overhearing him. ‘I don’t see anything.’
‘It’s quite well hidden,’ she explained. ‘Look to your left, away from the cabin . . . there’s a boulder and some bushes. See them?’
Saul glanced to his left. ‘I see them.’
Then he spotted the shed, almost out of sight beyond the boulder. It was painted green, so nearly invisible among the tangled undergrowth.
The structure was in a semi-derelict state, leaning slightly to one side, and he pulled the door open only with some difficulty. Various tools hung from hooks, and the disassembled parts of a chainsaw lay scattered on a tarpaulin spread across the floor, so that he had barely enough room to squeeze inside and close the door behind him.
‘What am I looking for?’ he asked next.
‘All I know is that he kept some stuff in a floor-safe there. Maybe there’ll be something there to tell you where he’s gone.’
Saul bent down and quickly moved some of the chainsaw parts aside, then hauled away the tarpaulin to reveal
