Bones on an Atoll

BONES ON AN ATOLL

By George J Perham

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2010 by George J Perham

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work. It is after all the author’s only livelihood.

Warning MAO: Contains; Violence/Murder/Gore.

Fiction

The story that follows is a work of fiction. While real geographical locations have been used the characters, scenes, conversations and events are purely the product of the author’s imagination. The story does not in any way relate to any real people living or dead, past or present. Liberties have been taken with Australian Anti Terrorism Laws and Australian Homeland Security Crimes Acts and those Laws and Acts used in the story are completely fictitious even though they may be similar in content to current Australian Anti Terrorism Laws and Australian Homeland Security Crimes Acts. Interrogation techniques used in the story are also completely fictitious.

BONES ON AN ATOLL

CHAPTER 1

A large constructed word spelling out ‘HELP’ had been made using driftwood and flotsam and positioned just above the high water mark on snow white beach sands on one of the small island atolls dotted along the Great Barrier Reef. The desperately put together word unfortunately had signaled its urgent message far too late to save the person who had hoped so much.

By the time the plea was seen by a tourist plane some distance away that day from the normal flight path and help sent, all what was left of a lone human being was sea petrel and crab ravaged bones already starting to get covered by drifting sands. Even clothing had gone now having been shredded by the birds and crabs fighting over the remnants. In fact the bones had been picked so clean that on sight only it couldn’t even be established just what nationality or color the person had been. That it was male was beyond doubt because of the pelvic bone structure, however whether the person had come from one of the many tourists or fishing boats that used the Barrier Reef would be at best a guess. There had been no reports or distress calls picked up that it could be connected to. A probably more legitimate guess was that a small vessel had been wrecked on one the thousands of treacherous reefs just below the water line that abounded right throughout the area that had claimed many ships and lives over the years. The body may have been one of a crew, but more likely a lone fisherman possibly flouting the Maritime Laws of going to sea without a life saving EPIRB on board. It happened all too often. However, without a sunken wreck being seen on reefs near the atoll, again it all would only be a guess.

The remains were taken to a mortuary on the mainland for forensic analysis to try to establish first how and when this person died. The cause seemed obvious. Hopefully an identity would come from dental records, or missing persons.

This was the case file at that stage that was handed over to Detective Senior Sergeant, Cliff Branson of the Australian Federal Police and based at the Townsville office, North Queensland.

While the bones had been originally picked up by the Queensland State Water Police reacting to the emergency call and using one of their ocean going craft, it was found the atoll was well outside their jurisdiction, being over 50 kilometres off the coast. Townsville was the closest mainland city to the atoll.

Senior Sergeant Branson wasn’t too happy about getting the file thrown on his desk once he had read the details.

‘Hell! They’ve got to be bloody joking!’ He said explosively in reaction.

‘What’s that shit then, Cliff?’ His partner, Detective Senior Constable, David Farquhar asked, curious at what was in the file that had caused the loud outburst.

‘Some poor fool has gone and got himself stranded on an atoll, apparently got eaten by birds and crabs and we’ve got to find out who the bones belong to,’ Cliff replied, his voice and demeanor sarcastic.

‘We definitely seem to be copping a lot of the crap jobs lately,’ his partner agreed, shaking his head in disgust.

It had been that way after they had as partners on a big case missed out on a vital identity clue that had let a big time drug runner escape the country. In reality and using reasoning it wasn’t their fault really as the vital clue hadn’t been picked up in time. However, someone had to take the stick down the line when the media dramatized it all, asking just what were the Federal Police doing and they had been the bunnies. There had been no demotions, that would have been taking it too far, but since then they hadn’t been involved in any big cases affecting their area, just a lot of airport and surveillance work that normally could have been done by uniform. Any big cases had been given to others to work on. Even mates in the Force couldn’t help the odd poke at them about it over a few beers. While it was all good natured from them it had been getting a bit thin of late.

‘I’ll check with State Police on Missing Persons. We might get a clue there,’ David volunteered now, trying to become enthusiastic. They had been given the file now and had no choice, but to work on it.

David Farquhar was about 35 years old and had been with the Federal Police for nearly ten years. He had sat for his ‘Sergeants’ getting a good pass, but there were no positions currently available because of government financial cutbacks. He was a good looking man about 185 cm tall and very physically fit. While some men looked liked total dills or ex-cons with short cropped hair, the cut suited his brown/blonde hair, tanned skin and clear blue eyes. The plain clothes suit he wore fitted him well and looked tailor made although it was off the rack. The two were a well matched pair, although Cliff Branson was older by ten years and slightly taller. He too was a reasonably handsome man, but more in a rugged features way with dark short cropped hair and brown eyes. He also looked good in a suit. His one weakness was whisky and while not anywhere near a sot, it was starting to take its toll on his stomach. Sometimes the burning down there caused him to be a little abrupt at times. He then sucked on Quickies™ and you knew to keep out of his way at those times if possible. Today he was ok. Just the file had upset him. Both of them were childless and divorced as a lot of serving personnel were, or ended up being. The work load at times, with necessary long absences causing wife neglect often saw to that.

‘Ok. You do that...and I’ll have a word with the morgue and see if they’ve come up with anything,’ Cliff replied. ‘Also ask the State Police if they did any forensic work on that atoll. There’s nothing in the file about it if they did.’

At the morgue, the forensic specialists working on the remains had some information for Cliff. The bones were definitely male from a person around 40 years old, about 175 cm tall and very possibly of European extraction. The clue to that were the bones being quite heavy in structure. This clue leaned towards being a hereditary factor from a heavy physical laboring type family grouping. Possibly Southern Italian taking height into consideration. They would know more once the bones had been examined more closely by a specialist in anthropology they had called in. The time of death, based on the condition of bone marrow, was placed at around six months ago. One thing they were certain of. There had been no foul play. If there had been it would have had to have been soft tissue injuries only. Bone marrow had shown no sudden loss of blood or signs of trauma and there were no signs of clubbing, crushing or bone breaks. The fingers and toes had been missing, but without evidence of bone cuts it was assumed the birds and crabs had made off with them finally. The teeth had been photographed to check on dental records, if any. So at this stage the bones remained unidentified.

David had little luck either as far as Missing Persons went. There had been several cases open, but they had all been women. No males had been reported missing that still had an open file. His further query on forensics had revealed there hadn’t been any serious attempts yet outside of visual surface examination near where the bones were found. The case being off-loaded before a State Police forensic crew would have been organized and sent as a matter of course.

On hearing that on his return, Cliff then brought his partner up to date on the results from the morgue so far.

‘So...he could be of European descent, Cliff?’

‘They think so, but won’t know for sure till the anthropologist has a look,’ Cliff replied.

‘Could be an Italian fisherman?’ David suggested. ‘Most of them are small and nuggety and there’s quite a few of them around here,’ David remarked.

‘No one’s reported anyone missing though,’ Cliff reminded him.

‘Yeah that’s right. If he was a local he’d surely be missed by now,’ David agreed nodding.

‘Feel like a helicopter ride Dave?’

‘Going where?’ David asked a quizzical look on his face.

‘To the atoll. We need to have a close look around. I can’t see the Brass agreeing to send out a whole forensic team if there is no foul play to report.’

‘You’d be right there,’ David agreed knowing what their Chief was like on expenses.

‘Well, seeing they’ve put this crap in our lap it’s going to cost them some money now for legitimate investigations,’ Cliff said then, a grin coming over his face.

They had again given him and his partner a low priority case on purpose and he was determined now to apply any justifiable investigative costs to it as if it had much more importance than it did. While identifying the remains was important especially if there were family involved it could have been handled just as efficiently by uniform. It was in the true sense pure extravagance wasting their professional talents in such a way to suit the whim of a politically motivated Superior who was still stinging over the media attacks.

The one local Federal Police helicopter wasn’t available on inquiry being currently used for surveillance purposes further up the coast. Cliff then rang one of the local helicopter pilots who took tourists for a look over the Barrier Reef and booked him. Cliff knew he would probably get an ear bashing from Brass for not going through channels and getting an authorization, but he wasn’t too worried. He actually had the authority as a Senior Sergeant to book aircraft for investigative purposes when needed, it was just the Brass were down on them at the moment. That they would be a pain in the neck wanting to know all the ins and outs and justifications he expected. Cliff liked to have a free hand and when a case was brought to conclusion that was the time he happily passed over all the facts for the Brass to dissect and then be passed on to the Federal Police Prosecutors. Win or lose then he’d done his job to the best of his ability.

After Cliff and David met the pilot at his helicopter-pad Cliff had pointed out the atoll that they wanted to go to shown on a map of the reef. The trip then out over the ocean and then over the coral reefs towards the atoll was really worth seeing. The sky was brilliantly clear and down below there was every hue of light greens and aqua blues. From light transparencies over white sands around atolls and over the shallows and exposed reefs to darker patches between them and almost blue/black tones in deep holes and gutters. The Great Barrier Reef was like that kilometer after kilometer. It was the biggest coral reef system in the World, stretching from past the tip of North Queensland right down to Gladstone, over 2,000 kilometers in length and easily seen why it was such a popular tourist destination.

‘Should have brought the fishing gear,’ David joked.

‘Yes. I bet there’s some great fish down there,’ Cliff agreed nodding his head and smiling.

‘I do fishing safaris if you’re ever interested,’ the pilot chipped in. ‘There’s a couple of sand cays we can land on with good deep water easily reached with beach rods. We also land on some of the remote atolls as well,’ he added.

‘Sounds very good,’ David replied. ‘We’ll let you know.’

‘You obviously haven’t landed on the atoll we’re going to for awhile, if ever, have you?’ Cliff asked then, curious why the distress signal hadn’t been discovered for so long.

‘No. We don’t generally go that far out. No need to...as it all looks the same for the tourists and there’s good fishing to be had on the cays and atolls a lot closer to the mainland,’ the pilot responded. ‘Keeps fuel costs down for the same returns,’ he then admitted with a grin.

‘How much further now do you reckon to the atoll?’ Cliff asked.

‘About another ten minutes. We’re just flying over what they term a doubled atoll and that puts us about there,’ he informed them, pointing it out on the map.

The ten minutes passed quickly with Cliff and David engrossed in the fantastic scenery below.

Once their destination atoll was below them Cliff asked the pilot to circle the atoll’s reefs first before landing to see if any wrecks could be seen beneath the water. Then like the State Police they saw no evidence of any. Cliff then instructed the pilot to land.

The pilot swung the helicopter around to face into the slight breeze and then looked for a good landing spot on the gleaming white sands of the ringed beach below. Having picked a spot he put the helicopter down very gently in a cloud of loose powdery sand blown up by the rotor blades. He just bumped the surface, then feeling all was well and firm he let the runners groove harder into the sand and turned the motors off.

There was very little vegetation in the centre of the atoll on the slightly higher ground. What was there was mostly made up of low coarse leafy salt tolerant plants that had found their way there sometime as seeds. Maybe in another thousand years if the ground got more fertile a palm tree or two might just sprout from washed up coconuts as they had on some atolls. This atoll offered nothing in the way of shade and definitely had no fresh water available unless it was caught during a storm. Anyone stranded here without drinking water would be dead in a week or two at most if not found. It would be a slow lingering death. Without some sort of distillation equipment to turn salt water into fresh it would be hopeless. Even then it would be a horrible experience.

‘Need any help?’ The pilot offered, as Cliff and David both climbed out of the cockpit and onto the sand.

‘No. But thanks anyway,’ Cliff replied politely.

‘OK. I’ll sit here and play some music on the radio till you’re ready to go again,’ the pilot now volunteered.

Neither replied to that as they first automatically ducked beneath the still slowly moving rotor blades and then started walking along the beach to look for the spot where the bones had been found. There had to be sand disturbance and footprints around the area of the location.

They came across the first of the footprints above the high water mark where the State Water Police had landed. Following the foot prints along the beach they soon found an area where the sand had been obviously disturbed over a few square meters. It would have to be where the bones were collected. Just a little away from there they could see more disturbance where the State Police had kicked the driftwood and flotsam HELP sign apart destroying it so that no one else would see the sign later and think that someone was still in need of rescue. The atoll was a long way out and dangerous waters had to be navigated.

‘So what are we looking for Cliff?’ David asked. ‘And where do you want to start?’

‘Your guess is as good as mine,’ Cliff replied, looking at the area and shaking his head. It was a lot more barren looking at the moment than he’d considered. ‘Perhaps we should do a quick circle of the atoll to see if anything at all is visible. There might be some evidence of shipwreck on the beach,’ he suggested now.

‘The guy would have moved around the atoll too while he was still alive,’ David suggested.

Cliff nodded and the two of them followed the beach sands around with their eyes glued to the surface. There had been no more footprints visible a few meters from where the disturbances were. If the guy had moved about the wind and weather had covered his tracks in the sand now. After a full circle and no joy they decided then to check the low growth area in the centre of the atoll.

Again there was not a sign of anything. It was pretty disappointing. They then decided on a one last ditch attempt by going to the spot where the bones had been found and running their fingers through the sand around the area, sifting it in hope. Normally this would be done with a fine toothed rake or shovels and sift boxes, but they had brought no equipment with them. Cliff’s mental visualization of what they might find on the atoll didn’t come down to any equipment being necessary.

After ten minutes of that Cliff was about to call it a day when David suddenly cried out excitedly.

‘Found something Cliff!’

David then held up a thick gold ring between his index finger and thumb.

‘Great work mate!’ Cliff reacted. A big grin came over his face now. The trip had been justified after all.

A close check of the ring found it had a black onyx inlay with some sort of fancy dagger shape piercing a heart embossed on the onyx in gold. It looked like a Fraternity type ring. There were no inscriptions inside the ring only the gold mark showing it was 14 carat.

They went back to the helicopter and climbed aboard ready for take-off.

‘You guys find what you were looking for?’ The pilot asked as he turned the key to start the motors.

‘Strictly Police business,’ Cliff replied, his face serious.

The pilot nodded, took the hint, and then revved the motors. The rotor blades picked up speed swirling a cloud of the loose powdery sand into the air again and the helicopter lifted off the atoll and started on its journey back towards the mainland.

Feeling a little sorry for the guy for being abrupt, Cliff said he might take him up on his offer of a fishing trip for himself and David in the not too distant future. That brought a smile to his face and for the rest of the trip back he pointed out various cays and atolls he felt would be great for fishing. The conversation had whetted their appetites to get bait in the water. With the views below it wasn’t hard to be convinced.

Back at the office Cliff sent off the helicopter invoice to accounts then let forensics know that they had found the ring and arranged for a photograph of it to be sent through to the section. It would be important if relatives were found if and when the bones got an identity. The ring could be the only confirmation for them that it was their loved one. It would be too much of a coincidence on a deserted atoll to belong to anyone else.

Cliff got David then to put out an all State and Federal Police request on the computer with a photograph of the ring, asking if anyone could recognize the ring and if it was indeed some Fraternity which may give them a lead. For the moment he wouldn’t use the media until there was no other choice. Certainly not after their last efforts that had himself and David looking like fools.

It wasn’t very long then before they received information back on the ring. Melbourne CIB made return contact almost immediately to tell them the ring was in fact a Fraternity but not the legal type. The dagger insignia embossed on the ring belonged to a Melbourne Mafia Family and only very close Members were issued those rings at the time of induction into the brotherhood.

Cliff and David were now very intrigued at that news. It could mean their low priority case had suddenly become a lot more important.

Cliff thanked the Melbourne CIB for their help and gave them the information to date about the bones found on the atoll and the close proximity to them that the ring was located. He also requested that the CIB visit any known members of the Family and ask if anyone was missing. If it was the case could they possibly get hold of a photograph? The last request he knew was stretching it, but if you didn’t ask you wouldn’t receive.