* * *
The following morning started off with a bang. Right in front of him on the drive into work, Jake spotted a flash sports car with personalized plates doing an illegal u-turn in the main street to get a car park ahead of an elderly driver who sat patiently with her indicator flickering. Bloody tourists thinking they can break the law.
He flicked the switch for his flashing lights and pulled up behind the car just as the man got out and slammed the door. He attempted to ignore Jake by hurrying up to the footpath but the seasoned cop was having none of it. He called out, “Stop right there.”
The man feigned ignorance and hurried along the footpath away from him. Jake took off in pursuit, grabbing the sleeve of his leather jacket, and hauled him to a stop. “If you don’t do as I ask, I’ll add evading the law to the ticket and haul you in.”
The man turned his eyes on Jake, slowly letting his gaze go down to the hand holding his sleeve. He gave a shake, thin lips turned into a sneer. “Kindly remove your hand from my person.”
Jake did so, but stood in front of him. “Try moving and I’ll have to cuff you. Doesn’t worry me, but somehow I doubt you’d like the look.”
“I resent this harassment.” He stuck his nose in the air and brushed the sleeve of his jacket.
“And I resent you breaking the law. You crossed a double white line to push into a car park where an elderly person had already indicated she was going.”
“I never saw her.”
“I did. And if that’s all the attention you take while driving, might I suggest you don’t bother, at least not in my town. Now I’m going to book you for an illegal turn over a double white line. Come back to the car and show me your license.”
“I’m meeting friends for coffee. Surely you can let it go this time. I don’t want to be late.” The man sniffed and turned away, not seeming to like the attention passers by were giving him.
“Nope. Not going to happen. I run a decent town where people are civil to each other at the very least. I don’t consider what you did to the other driver fits that bill. You get a ticket, pal.”
By the time Jake had written up the ticket and handed it over, he was half an hour late getting into work. Ryder sat at her desk, a file open in front of her. She never glanced up, engrossed in what she was reading. He threw his keys on his desk and picked up a small pile of messages, going through them before walking out to Ryder’s desk.
“There’s a pattern here.” She lifted her head and looked at him, pain in her eyes.
‘Yeah, I get that. Didn’t want it to be so, but it is. Thing being, we have no leads to go on. Both the missing kids were around the same age, cute as buttons, and went in the blink of an eye. One from the shopping centre, the other out playing at the park with her big sister.”
“Have you put these cases forward to the Paedophile Task Force?”
“Yes, of course.” Jake’s shoulders slumped. He’d hoped she would come up with some other reason why they had gone missing. “We thought it might be linked to a group running out of Sydney, but so far there’s been nothing in chat groups or sites they hang out on according to the the task force. I trawl them every now and then as much as it sickens me, but I don’t recognize any faces and I find it hard to get anyone to interact with me.”
“Mind if I go online and spend some time getting into a pattern, see if I can ease myself in there?”
“Not at all.”
“What about other kids that have gone missing, not from this area I mean?”
“There’s a data base we’re linked to of course.” He sat down on the chair at her desk.
“Maybe I’m not explaining it right. I remember a case I worked on once. We used a map and I graphed it. If it’s a paedophile ring taking these kids, I bet there wouldn’t be that many cases close together, like in the same town. They tend to be over a much larger area so it doesn’t come up as such a red flag with police. If it’s for another reason, you’ll find a much neater pattern.”
“You’ve lost me.” Jake raised and eyebrow and Mick walked over to join them.
“A paedophile will take kids randomly. They see someone they like and go for them. The kids you see on their chat rooms have already been taken, at least the majority of the time.” She wiped a hand across her mouth. “Have you thought of the kids being taken for other reasons?”
“Such as?”
* * *
“Private adoptions, black market babies.” Ryder watched it click over in Jake’s head. It hadn’t occurred to him and she knew the reason why. It rarely happened in this country. Unlike overseas where she’d busted more than one ring of people buying and selling babies and young children. It was every parent’s nightmare, the day they lost a child with no trail to lead to a happy reunion.
She understood the desperation of the childless couple. For years she couldn’t conceive and feared the worst. Gabe had taken it in his stride as he did. When she’d almost given up hope, she became pregnant with Ebony, but Ryder could still remember some of the thoughts that tracked through her mind every once in a while when she failed to fall pregnant.
“I had a look last night online. It takes years for an adoption to go through in this country and the laws on surrogacy are tightening up quicker than you can imagine. Not saying I’m right, but just giving you something else to chew over.” She
