A Great Leap (First Draft) - Outer Realms Book 1

Chapter 6

When Mikayla returned to the conference room she found Joel surrounded by towers of paper surrounding him on the table, arguing quietly into the phone while typing on his computer.

"No, that's not what I'm saying at all," Joel was saying, "I'm just asking if it's possible to do a headcount. Because I have a dead guy who was torn to piece by what look like teeth and claws and it would be a waste of time for dozens of people if this is an animal attack and not a human murder, not the mention the money. I get that, I really do but that doesn't look very good on an official report. Please. Thank you. Goodbye." Joel hung up and let out a sigh.

"That sounded like fun," Mikaya said, taking a seat.

"Apparently there was only one person at Taronga available to talk to the police and by sheer coincidence, it was Jake."

Mikayla winced. "I thought he was still out at Dubbo."

"Me too but apparently he's living in the city."

"You know you kind of have terrible taste in guys."

"So mum keeps telling me but I'm sure that has more to do with them being..." Joel pointed at his cheek. "Melanin deficient."

"Your mother does hold firm to her opinions. So what did I miss?"

"I dug deeper into the money. Our victim's had three jobs in his life. First was fast food, second was a shoe retailer during university then he went into real estate. PID shows up on his taxes from his first day in the industry. There's been a few buys and sells around the inner west. Looks like fairly standard house flipping. Managed bunch of rentals for them like we suspected. It looks looks above board."

"Did you get a list of renters?"

"I've asked for it. It's on its way then we can check for anyone who might have disliked the way Mr Colora handled their rent."

"But if he's handling rentals for that firm then we might have to look more closely at them when we get a chance. Any word on the girlfriend?"

"Still no sign of her yet. Was thinking of asking around her work, seeing if they noticed anything out of place but unfortunately the media's caught up and I've been working on our statements with the Superintendent for the last half hour. Got reports coming in shortly. Everything alright with Erik?"

"He's skipped school. I'll talk to him when I get home. If he was in trouble he'd call me. I decided against tracking his phone. Hoping that will earn me enough trust for him to tell me what's going on."

"You know he knows how to get around that app, right?"

"I know but I'm pretending he doesn't. If no one's called Jessica Nyhan's work I'm going to give them a ring, see if they have any idea where she might have gone."

"She works at the hospital with her sister," Joel said, "Radiology department, I think. I'm Goddard's warm up act so I have to go through things with him then head downstairs and see if we can get more out of them than we give up."

"Have fun with that," Mikayla said with a hand wave, "They send Whats-Her-Name? Brunette in the glasses? She has a thing for you."

"I told her it was never going to happen."

"Maybe she thinks she's the right woman to flirt you out of this experimental phase."

"I'm happy being experimental. Sort of like you're happy tormenting me all these years. You wonder why Mum doesn't like you when you're so mean to her baby boy."

"Yeah, that's the reason.

"If you come back and you haven't got any new information to share...?"