An unscheduled chapter. Happy birthday Tess 4 5!

Barbara was still facing away from him, her hands gripping the railing. The tension between them was real, it was not her imagination. Her mind wanted her body to run but her heart wanted to ease back against him and her body had desires best ignored. This morning when he had stood behind her at the window she knew that she had been right; their relationship was drifting inexorably towards something dangerous. That was thrilling and frightening in equal measure.

"Barbara I think that's the railway station," Tommy said to regain her attention. "And why did you want to talk to us?"

Barbara took a deep breath and turned towards him. Their eyes met and instantly they were back to normal and focussed only on the case. "Roo must have had money to catch a train and make a phone call. The Met are not in the habit of taking reverse charge calls from young boys half way around the world."

"Yes and where would he get it? Kidnappers don't usually supply their victims with funds."

"Exactly, so...

"In the confusion Roo stole the wallet from the man who was shot."

"I think so. Cam said the man might have had an Oyster..."

"Opal," Cam interjected, "our travel card is called Opal."

"Opal card," she continued, "for the trains so if we rang Fits. They checked the CCTV and a boy matching his description did use an adult card at Redfern at 4:40 am. The same card clocked out the trip at Wollongong at 6:20 am, about ten minutes before he phoned London."

"Brilliant work," Tommy said acknowledging both of them. "Do we have an ID on the owner of the card?"

Barbara smiled a little smugly. "One Pietr Toderovski."

"Toderovski? Macedonian?"

"Yep! I think we have a lead."

Tommy still struggled to refer to everyone by nickname but he tried hard to make it sound natural. "Have you asked Fits to place an alert on any of his bank accounts in case the boy tries to use them?"

"Does a kangaroo hop?" Cam replied.

Tommy was getting heartily sick of references to kangaroos. He had always thought they were cute but now he wondered if he ever met one how he would react. "So how do we pursue this lead?"

"Davo wants you to still chase up the grandmother this mornin' while he and Gibbo look into the background of Toderovski. We'll look for Roo and all then meet Davo at lunchtime to discuss the next steps. Baz and Whitey might have dug up somethin' too by then," Cam told them.

"Where?" Kosti asked pushing herself back into the conversation.

"The fish place down by the boat harbour at one."

"Right. Okay Tommy let's go. See ya then." Alessa seemed overly keen to separate her English colleagues.

"Let's think this thought first," Tommy said, refusing to be rushed. "We have a few different objectives, firstly to find Roo, secondly to break up this paedophile ring and thirdly to locate Woods, dead or alive."

"Yes, and we're working on all of them," Kosti said sweetly but with an undertone of exasperation, "the boy will be found quickly. How far can a small child go?"

"A lot further than most nine year olds would go," Tommy replied.

"He's smarter than the lot of us," Barbara said then looked at the hurt on her boss's face. "Well maybe he's no smarter than you."

"He knows you're here Barbara so he will lead you to him. The question is when and what is he doing first?"

"I don't follow," Cam said.

"He phoned London knowing Barbara would be told he had rung. He would have known when the police here were taking them to Sydney that she was already on her way from London. So he knew she wasn't there but rang anyway."

"That makes no sense," Kosti said, "why ring there and how did he even know the number?"

"Photographic memory. He sat at my desk for a while. We have our numbers on the phone and he..." Barbara replied.

Tommy interrupted her. "Doesn't trust the local police. He was taught to hide but I think he was also taught to run. I'll bet..."

"His mother gave him a plan in case his father ever got hold of him," Barbara continued.

"Do you two always finish each other's sentences?" Kosti asked acerbically.

Tommy and Barbara grinned at each other. "Yes," they replied in unison.

"The art of misdirection," Tommy said suddenly.

His statement even caught Barbara by surprise and she arched her eyebrow at him. "Hmm?"

"In his bedroom," he stated with certainty, "there was a book about magic. Magic is all about misdirection."

"So he will mislead us?" Cam asked.

"No, he'll misdirect others but lead me to him. He'll trust I understand," Barbara said comprehending Tommy's logic.

"If you follow the trail and we sort out the misdirection, we'll find him. And I think he intends to help us find his kidnappers too." Tommy was concerned that the boy might try something beyond his capabilities but he was not going to share that fear, even with Barbara.

"This sounds far too Sherlock and Watson for me," Kosti said, "here we work on facts, not theories and belief in the superpowers of a nine year old boy."

"Shut it Constable," Cam snapped, "for once just be open to new ideas. We might learn something."

Tommy was keen to remove any tension. "There's logic and fact but Barbara and I have worked together so long we have developed a system of shorthand; like you say we even finish each other's thoughts. Someone said the phone was on the city side of the station so I think he has probably headed into town."

"Strewth! If that's true he's a smart kid but it makes sense," Cam said, "hide in plain sight in a crowd. Harder for someone to find him or take him too without someone noticing he was objecting."

"Let's start there," Tommy said with authority, "begin at the station and work your way into town. Keep a close eye out for any clues because he will leave them. Alessa, we'll start with the grandmother's old house as planned. If he had a plan someone might know something."

"We'll stay in touch," Cam assured him.

Tommy nodded then turned to Barbara. "I hope you find him but be careful please - no heroics."

Barbara raised her eyebrows. "Yes pot!"

Tommy smiled at her with genuine amusement. "Nothing stupid, I promise kettle." He turned and followed Kosti to the car knowing Barbara was still watching him.

Twenty minutes later Cam pulled into a car space on the road near the railway station. They walked onto the platform and began to trace Roo's steps. The telephone booth was in a bank of three about twenty metres up the road. Barbara checked but there did not appear to be any messages or clues. A little further on there was a silver rubbish bin. Barbara looked in it. "Cam here!" she cried as she gingerly fished out a black hoodie.

Cam reached into his pocket and retrieved a neatly folded garbage bag. He helped Barbara search the pockets for a note then bagged it. "What?"

"How many more garbage bags to you have hidden there?"

"One but I have a roll in the car. You never know when you might find crucial evidence."

"Well see if there's anything else in the bin," she said laughing. She liked Cam and thought he was a very good policeman. She was learning things from him that might be handy.

As they walked back to car Barbara phoned Tommy. "We found his hoodie discarded in a rubbish bin near the station."

"He knows we'd've used CCTV to find him but if he saw the news he knows the men also know what he's wearing. He might try to buy something else. Check out the shops that a kid might use and see if Fits has had any hits on Toderovski's plastic. We're almost at the grandmother's old house. I'll ring you if we learn anything."

Cam dropped the bag in his car then led Barbara up to the main shopping centre. It was a medium sized complex in four main buildings, obviously constructed in stages over the last few decades. The newest block was glass and curved steel but the oldest was a dull cream facade reminiscent of a 1940s department store. The buildings clustered around a central pedestrian mall that had once been the main street. The paving and structures looked new and the trees looked like they were struggling to establish themselves amongst the hard, angular surfaces. The buildings were linked by glass walkways. Barbara scanned the enclosed bridges and open spaces for a familiar face. Being mid-morning schools were in session so there were only a handful of children and none of them were Roo. "Where would a nine year old shop for a jumper?" she asked.

"Most kids would probably go to the surf shop but you said he's not like most kids so probably one of the big department stores."

Barbara pondered Cam's words. "Think about what Tommy said about hiding in plain sight. Maybe that's exactly what he would do to blend in. Is there one near here?"

Cam checked a large board displaying a map. "Yeah, this block over here," he said pointing to the nearest building.

They found the brightly lit shop just inside the entrance. Barbara was dwarfed by an impressive line of pointy surfboards adorned with bold, aggressive insignias. In the middle of the shop shiny white and black plastic mannequins modelled a range of swimwear that she imagined would not be sturdy enough to withstand even a gentle wave. "Do people really wear these?" she whispered to Cam as she stared at a female model in a skimpy G-string bikini next to a male mannequin in what looked like small, very tight underpants, "I would have to arrest them for public indecency in England."

Cam chuckled loudly. "Yes they wear them and we nickname the men's racers that you can't keep your eyes off 'budgie smugglers'. Our prime minister wears them when he does surf races."

"How big are Australian budgies? That statute is..."

"Welcome in my house any day, now yes, come on we have a boy to find rather than look at swimming costumes!"

"Cam! You can't say that."

Cam pushed her towards the counter. "Why not? You were thinking it and you're as devoted to Tommy as I am to Sammy. No harm in window shopping."

Barbara knew her face was beetroot red as she introduced them to the young man behind the counter. In broad terms she explained that they were looking for a missing boy. Before they could finish the man nervously blurted out, "I knew he was under sixteen but he used Pay-Wave so it just went straight through. I didn't know how to reverse it and I figured no one would ever know."

"We're not interested in whether he used the card legally we just want to know when he was here and what he bought," Cam assured him.

"A red hoodie like this," the man replied as he pulled out a well-known Australian surf brand. "He insisted on something popular and this had been selling quickly this month. I thought he'd pay cash. He seemed to have plenty of it in his wallet. He also bought this tee-shirt and a backpack like this one. He said he was with his Mum but that she was letting him be all grown-up and buy it himself. He even offered to ring her when I wasn't sure."

"So he had a phone with him?" Barbara asked.

"Yeah, fairly expensive too for a kid."

"What time was he in?" Cam continued the questioning.

"About half nine"

"Did he say where he was going or where he was from?"

"Yeah, he mentioned going surfin' at Kiama. We talked about the break at Bombo."

"Are they local beaches?" she asked.

"Sorta, they're about forty clicks south."

"That doesn't sound very local to me."

The man looked at Cam then back at Barbara. "You haven't been in Australia long 'ave ya?"

"Did he say anything else?" Barbara asked as her phone began to ring.

"No, he was a polite kid. Didn't really strike me as a surfer but he said he was takin' lessons because he had just moved here."

"How much money do you think he had?" Barbara asked as she re-joined the conversation.

"Lots of yellow and green, I dunno, a grand maybe. I thought it was a lot for a kid to carry around but he disappeared pretty quick."

"Yellow and green?"

"Fifties and hundreds. Banknotes," the man said in amazement at her lack of comprehension.

Cam pulled out his wallet and showed Barbara a colourful array of currency. Barbara felt one. "They're plastic!"

"Great for surfing," the shopkeeper said enthusiastically, "put that and ya licence in yer boardies and you're good to go."

Barbara ignored the broad grin on Cam's face. "Thanks, which direction did the boy go after he left here?"

"Over there to the hairdressers. I saw him come out about 10 mins later."

The officers asked a few more questions then returned to the open mall. "Fits had a hit on his card from the ATM in the centre here. Took out a thousand dollars which I think must be the maximum?"

"Yeah, you can generally only take a grand a day. I wonder why he needs so much although I guess it saves him being spotted later or he might think we would stop the card. If half of this is deliberate he's smart."

Roo was beginning to remind Barbara of a mini-Tommy. That might be the best way to get one step ahead. "Let's find out what he had done at the hairdressers."

A few minutes later she phoned Tommy but it went through to voicemail. It puzzled her and made her worry but she knew he would ring back. If he did not she would go out there herself. She and Cam walked out into the mall to continue their search.

Tommy had heard his phone but was too busy running to answer it. He and Kosti had arrived to a kerfuffle in the street. The woman in the house that had been Roo's grandmothers had been shouting at her neighbour in a language that Tommy did not understand but that sounded very graphic. Her neighbour was gesticulating wildly and pointing up the road. "Boy, boy in red! I no push your pot you hairy bitch of brain-dead whore!"

Tommy looked up and saw Roo staring at him. The boy turned and fled towards a busy crossroads with Tommy chasing. With the boy's lead and in dress shoes a huffing Tommy reached the intersection too late to determine which way the boy had gone. He scouted around but could find no sign of him and reluctantly returned to where Kosti was still trying to keep the two women physically apart.

"I lost him."

"Bugger. Well I'm not getting much sense out of these two."

"What happened?" Tommy asked the resident of the house. The woman was in her late fifties and dressed in black including a black scarf that was draped over her head. She reminded Tommy of European widows.

"Look see, big pot, pulled, smashered all over my runway! She's always causing me trouble. Man-eating son of the Devil's goat!"

"And you say that boy did it?" he asked the other woman who was slightly younger and dressed in a tight fitting animal print dress. She had black stocking hiding thick legs and thin stiletto heels that defied gravity. The woman was moving her shoulder in a manner he presumed she thought was seductive but to him looked ridiculous. When he ran his hand through his hair to remove it from his eye she licked her lips and pouted at him. He suppressed his shock but wished Barbara had been there to save him. She was always good at giving woman like that a look that made them behave.

"Yes, I saw him run away as I emptied my letterbox." Her English had improved dramatically. All part of the seduction routine he imagined.

Tommy turned to the woman. "I think your neighbour might be right ma'am, I think the boy knocked over your pot. Can we look?"

The woman waddled down her driveway. Underneath the window a large urn had been pulled over. Soil and a straggly old plant had fanned out across the concrete. A hammer lay near a large fragment of pot and Tommy could tell someone had smashed the pot looking for something. In the remaining base there was an imprint of a square shape which Tommy thought was probably some type of box.

"This pot; is it yours or was it here when you moved in?"

"Always here. Itsa too big to move."

Tommy turned to Kosti. "Straighten this up please. I have to ring Barbara."

Barbara answered her phone on the first ring. "Sir?"

"It's Tommy remember."

Barbara ignored his objections. "Any news," she said trying to sound casual.

"I saw Rufus," Tommy said noting the sharp inhalation on the end of the line. "Little monkey is fast though. He ran away from me so he obviously doesn't want to be caught yet. He was wearing a red shirt of some kind and looked like he might have cut his hair."

"Both," she answered vaguely then told him what they had discovered at the shopping centre.

Tommy then told Barbara about the warring neighbours and how he had left a flustered Kosti to manage them. She enjoyed the story knowing that Tommy had no personal interest in the policewoman. He was too much of a gentleman to have left someone he respected to manage that situation. She smiled broadly and shook her head when Cam shrugged his shoulders to ask what was happening.

"Well he couldn't have walked here so he must have caught a bus or the train. I'll ring Fits and get him to check. Unless you think you'll learn more there why don't you head up to lunch and see what the others have found. We'll ask around here but I don't think we'll learn much. See you soon."

"Okay, see ya."

"That sounds very Aussie," he replied but she had already hung up.

She rang Fits and waited while he checked. "No, he didn't use the Opal card on any of the trains or buses. Maybe he hitched?" he suggested.

"No, I don't think he'd trust anyone. Ta. We'll head up to the fish place."

Barbara relayed everything to Cam who returned from a small shop with a bottle of water for each of them. They sat on the curved concrete seats in the dappled shade of one of the trees to drink them. "Thanks I was thirsty. It is damned hot here."

"Welcome. What if he bought another Opal card? He ran from Tommy so maybe this is one leg he didn't want you to find out about."

"Oh Cam, can I take you back to England? That's it. Where can you buy them? The station?"

"No, you can buy them at select convenience stores too. There's one near the surf shop and then the bus stop is just behind that in the other street. Come on!"

Half an hour later they had confirmed their suspicions. She rang Tommy and said grimly, "Roo is going after his father."