Afterlife of Alanna Miller

Part 5

FIVE

"Seriously, what the hell is this, mate?"

Navid swallowed his huge mouthful of pie. "What do you mean?"

"This!" I shook the letter at him. "Is ASIO trying to buy my silence or what?"

Navid took the letter, held it at arm's length and squinted at it. Looked like he needed reading glasses. Was he really getting that old? He passed the paper back to me. "It's not a bad sum for not telling a story you're not going to talk about anyway. I'd take it and book a nice holiday with it if I were single like you. You could spend a month touring in the US or Europe for that, including flights."

"But I can't take a holiday if you need me as a witness in the inquiry. Have they finally set a date yet? It's weird, getting offered money for silence before the hearings. Is this because there'll be press coverage on the inquiry into that bastard Mott? And they want to make sure we won't talk to the press?"

Navid stared at something in the distance. "No, no one's set a date for the inquiry."

"So why now?" I persisted. "Why are they throwing money at me? It's Caitlin they have to worry about, and this is nowhere near as much money as the TV stations or magazines offer. I don't see her agreeing to take ten grand to keep quiet. Not when she can get a hundred times that for an exclusive."

Navid coughed. "I think they'll be offering her a lot more than that. After all, she's the one who almost died."

"So it's not just hush money? It's compensation for damages suffered and...all the other s**t it says in the letter? What about my sister? What about Alanna? Did she get a posthumous payout, too? And a hypocritical letter saying the department deeply regrets her k********g, r**e, t*****e and death, but here's some money to make it feel better? s**t, if Caitlin's letter says that, expect fireworks." My heart ached at just the sound of her name. I'd give anything to see her explode. I'd know she was alive and okay, wherever she was.

He lowered his voice. "If they can find her. There's a rumour in the department that all the documents in her file are gone. Papers, digital, recordings of statements...everything, just gone. And the details of her witness protection arrangements, too, so that means she's disappeared."

I stared at him in shock, silence money forgotten. "You don't know where she is? She could be dead or hurt or God knows what! You have to find her! She'll need to give evidence at the inquiry, too. I mean, she nearly died because of him." And I'd get to see her if she came for the inquiry, even if I had to camp outside the building. I'd know she was alive and okay, even if only for a moment. "Ask him where she is. He'll know."

"She was never going to be part of the inquiry. She didn't have any contact with him beforehand and her statements will be enough, or they would have been, if we could find them. All we have are the enraged emails from the hospital, which they were only too happy to give me. Mott forced them to go against hospital policy, allowing you to share a room with Caitlin. Said it was a matter of national security, for her safety...he said he'd have any hospital staff who objected arrested for assisting a known terrorist. I can't believe I didn't realise then that he was corrupt. Now, I don't even know if there'll be an inquiry at all." He sighed and lobbed his empty pie bag into the nearest bin.

I stopped dead. "What do you mean, no inquiry? I get paid off to shut up while that dickhead gets off scot-free? f**k that."

Navid sighed again. "The justice system isn't geared toward punishing dead people."

"Yeah, which leaves Mott, seeing as everyone else is dead. Wait, hang on...are you saying he's dead, too?" My mouth hung open. "Who killed him? Whoever did it's a legend and I owe him a carton of beer. I've wanted to do it for years!"

Navid coughed out a laugh. "Then you owe Mott a carton of beer, because the official report says he killed himself. With an ornamental dagger, no less. Bit melodramatic, if you ask me."

I found myself shaking my head. "That can't be right. Mott was a mean bastard. He'd never do the world a favour and off himself. And if he did, he'd take people with him or at least set someone up for his murder so he could laugh all the way to hell. Who do you suspect?"

Navid shrugged. "Well, how many people hated him? It could be anyone."

Caitlin was good with a knife, I thought idly, not willing to believe it was her. If anyone deserved to be on the point of her blade, it was him. His negligence...his indifference to what she might suffer had almost gotten her killed.

"Look, I got to get back to work. They've got Michael and me looking for her. One girl in twenty million people, if she's even still in the country. The guys in Canberra want this whole affair over and done with as quickly as possible, so we got pulled off other projects to look for a girl who doesn't want to be found." He laughed but sobered quickly. "Hey, she never mentioned anything to you, did she? About where she was headed, or the new name she'd be using? I remember the day Mott told her about the arrangements. She was really pissed off about them. Wish I'd asked her then."

I shook my head. "If she'd told me anything, I'd have given in and started hunting for her long before now. I'd change my name and go into hiding, too, if I had to." His words started to sink in. "Hang on. She never met Mott. He visited her in hospital when she was unconscious, but never afterwards. I'd never have let that bastard anywhere near her!"

He wouldn't meet my eyes. "She spoke to me privately when you weren't around, requesting a meeting with your superior. I made the arrangements and I drove her to the office and home again for both meetings. She spotted some inconsistencies in what he said, and told me she suspected he was corrupt. I dismissed it at first, figuring she was just a teenage kid with an overactive imagination, but some of the things she said rang some pretty loud alarm bells. Then I started to see him make mistakes, too. It took me four years to get enough evidence together to warrant an inquiry, and now he's dead, so we'll never know why he did it, or what else he knew." He laughed quietly. "I wonder if she knew. I'd love to ask her now."

I hesitated, then ploughed ahead anyway. "If you find her, can you tell me? I just want to know that she's okay. It's killing me, not knowing."

He shook his head and wouldn't meet my eyes. "Nathan, you know I can't do that. She's in witness protection for a reason, even if the official five years are up and she can let up on the secrecy now. She's not the sort to go splashing her photo on every social media channel she can find just because she can." He inhaled sharply, considering. "I'll tell you what. If we do find her and I get a chance to speak to her, I'll tell her that you wanted to know she was okay, and that you'd love to talk to her, but only if that's what she wants. It's not like you offered to go into hiding with her."

"I would have if she'd asked me, or even wanted me," I whispered, more to myself than to him.

He acted as if he hadn't heard. "See you later, mate."

"Yeah, see you." I sighed, looking at the papers clenched in my hand. "Hey, if I come back to the office with you, can you witness these? Not like I'm going to tell anyone, anyway. Maybe the money will come in useful. My wing mirror's fallen off again and we need a new letterbox."

He laughed. "You never change, do you? I bet you've never told your sister it's you crashing into the mailbox every other week, either."

Shit, no. I wasn't telling Chris that. She'd get me labelled as an unsafe driver and try to get my licence revoked. I'd be cooped up at home with her forever and at the mercy of public transport with all the nutjobs on the train to and from work. And she thought I was crazy. Commuters were worse.