A Time to Run by J.M. Peace Page A

registered to a Candy Curtis in Brisbane. Incoming, there’s three from Gavin Porter’s phone between about 7:45 pm and 7:55 pm yesterday that went to message bank, and the fourth call at 7:58 pm was answered. Then there’s one text message from Porter’s phone at 10:14 pm. It said, “Sorry we fought. Miss you. Have fun tonight. See you in the morning. Love you. Xx”.
    â€˜The phone was on all night until 4:21 this morning. Then it was either turned off or it ran out of batteries. We can’t triangulate the phone because no calls were made or received. But because the phone was on, we can see which phone tower the mobile was bouncing off. The first call to Candy came from the Angel’s Crossing area and you can basically trace the phone from there to Forest Lake. Then it went into the city and came back out to Inala. But the last tower the phone was bouncing off was Bald Hills. Nowhere near the Lion’s Head, but very close to your suspect’s house.’
    â€˜Shit,’ Janine said.
    â€˜I also ran the suspect’s number, the one his work gave you. It was bouncing off the Inala tower all night while he was at work. Then by about 4:20 am he’s at Bald Hills, and it’s still bouncing off the same tower now. So you can read between the lines. He has the phone with him at work, takes the phone home. It is still at his house, turned on but no one’s answering. No calls in, no calls out. It’s likely that he has two phones. One is his legit phone, the other would be a prepaid, probably under a fake name if he’s got anything to hide. Very difficult to find the phone number for. But I am working on it,’ Pam said.
    â€˜Thanks for that. Very useful,’ said Janine.
    â€˜I heard this is about a police officer. Is that true?’ Pam asked.
    â€˜Yep. But we’re trying to keep it low-key at the moment,’ Janine said. ‘We’re still piecing it all together.’
    â€˜If there’s anything else we can help with, just let us know. There’ll be someone in this office till ten tonight.’
    Janine thanked her before hanging up and reporting back to Bill.
    Bill shook his head sadly. ‘God, I hope it’s not what it looks like.’
    â€˜Even if Sammi turns up, we need to keep a serious eye on this guy,’ Janine said.
    Bill nodded. ‘OK, so it looks like she went to the barman’s house. Voluntarily or involuntarily?’
    â€˜Either way, it’s probably time to look at putting a warrant through there. Why would she turn her phone off when she got there?’ Janine said.
    â€˜I’m a bit worried that so much of the grounds for the warrant is going to be speculation. It looks like this might have happened, but it’s possible that it’s something completely different. Like she decides to leave her boyfriend because of the fight, and she already knows this barman and goes home with him. She knows there’s going to be a fuss so she turns off her phone and lays low. Not probable, but definitely possible,’ Bill replied.
    â€˜I disagree. She didn’t choose the pub they went to and it was a random chat she had with the barman. There’s absolutely no suggestion that she knew him. Even if she intended to go with him, she would have waited till the end of his shift rather than have him leave in a hurry with a fake excuse. He rushed out of work because he knew she was alone and wanted to intercept her before she got into a taxi,’ Janine said.
    Bill nodded. ‘That makes more sense but I’m playing devil’s advocate here. I want you to consider everything.’
    â€˜Look, if he has actually taken her, then every second is going to count. For Sammi’s sake. I think we’ve got enough for a warrant,’ Janine replied. ‘Do you think we need SERT to turn him over?’
    The Special Emergency Response Team were the men in black. They went in with balaclavas