Hitch Hikers by Ian Dolby - HTML preview

EPILOGUE

#...Two nights later, on Saturday night, as a cold front swept its chilly, but cleansing blast across much of south-eastern Australia, officers from three State Police Forces and the ACP, made a series of raids on the homes or locations of suspected or identified paedophiles.

#...A mansion in Melbourne yielded the greatest prizes – the most vocal being a selection of Melbourne's upper echelon of government, politics, high society and celebrities, along with a number of young children, most of whom were illegally in the country. The kids all showed signs of abuse in one form or another. An office on the ground floor held an astonishing collection of paper and digital records listing all the members of the Ring, their tastes, preferred partners and contact details. Because international addresses were also listed, Interpol was given the information and promptly passed it on to the Police Forces of the countries concerned.

#...Many social gatherings, both large and small were disrupted that evening, when uniformed police officers came knocking on doors, regardless of the name or self-imposed status of the owners of those doors. That first sweep filled the holding cells of 350

nearly every police station to capacity, with the most astonishing variety of men, as well as quite a few women, all yelling for lawyers. Due to the unprecedented co-operative agreement already reached between judges and magistrates in all four involved States and the ACT, massive legal fees were racked up in vain by lawyers attempting to get their clients out on bail. All applications were repeatedly refused.

#...In a number of private homes in each State and territory, the echo of a single gunshot rendered an arrest pointless, although the stunned families were then subjected to intensive house searches and witnessed the removal of masses of records and computer drives.

#...Although some guests thought it part of the evening's entertainment, Mr Xavier, ak a Terry Johnson, was removed in handcuffs from a very fashionable party in St Kilda.

That was after the guests were treated to the public reading of a long list of charges which started with murder, extortion and kidnapping, worked down through tax evasion , before ending with failure to pay parking fines. A fellow guest was heard to comment facetiously that, ‘He seems to have been a very naughty boy!’

#...Miss Julie was roused out of her bed and taken, still in her nightie and dressing gown, to the Steel Associates office to open every locked drawer and safe, as well as booting up and un-protecting all computers. A five-tonne truck had to be hurriedly hired to cart away the files and hardware from that office alone. She would receive a suspended sentence in return for her co-operation in telling the entire story about the company's dark dealings, including literally showing the police where some of the bodies were buried.

#...On Sunday morning, a large, fast powerboat crossed the rough Lake Victoria from the Bunga Arm to Paynesville, in strong winds and pouring rain. It nosed up to a small jetty beside the Esplanade, opposite a newsagency. A pretty, blonde girl leapt ashore and ran the short distance across the road, heedless of the rain and emerged minutes later with an armful of local and interstate newspapers. After she scrambled aboard, it departed to the south at a highly anti-social speed. If there had been any curious onlookers on that cold, wet and windy morning, they might have heard the sound of clapping, cheering and laughter drifting back from the sleek red craft as it thundered away into the murk.

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#...Over the following weeks and months, most of the detainees from that fateful Saturday night roundup were processed through the legal system in open court, which in an Australian first, functioned without delay, and convicted an unprecedented 93% of all arrestees. Indisputable picture and video evidence was cited as the main reason for the high conviction rate.

#...An astonishing who's who of Australian notables figured prominently in the trial reports, and as a wise man had predicted, it had the potential to bring down a ruling Government. However, in what was described afterwards as a 'close re-run of the 1975

Australian Constitutional Crisis', it was the cream which rose to the top this time with a Prime Minister who actually acted prime ministerial for a change.

He made the strong decisions necessary to flush out the undesirables and saved the Australian people from having to elect, at hideous expense, another bunch of over -paid, low-achieving, no-hoper politicians. Since many of the Opposition had been caught with their collective pants down, their ranks were equally thinned.

There were no objections to a thorough flushing-out of paedophiles in all positions of trust and power. The long-term savings in Ministerial and Senior Executive Service salaries alone, paid for the whole operation several times over, as two, sometimes three electoral districts were rolled into one.

#...For his prominent part in the purchase of the Headquarters and functioning of the Ring, Luke Emery received a 25-year jail sentence, although his lawyer cheerfully told him that he'd be out in 18 years if he behaved himself. Unfortunately for Mr Emery and for most of the other convicted persons, the inmates of Australian prisons once again displayed their feelings toward paedophiles. Therefore, Luke Emery survived just three painful months after being elected Prime Bitch for a group of ex-bikie club members, before he was found naked in the showers one morning in a decidedly deceased condition, a lump of soap having rendered further intake of air impossible.

#...Janice, Angie and Zoe tearfully departed Firebird a week after the raids, with the girls returning to University, while Janice arranged to sell the lovely old house and made the move to a charming cottage on a small rural property east of Melbourne, with a pair of supportive and influential friends close by. As promised, they planned to join Firebird whenever possible during Uni holidays.

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#...In a gala presentation by the National Press Club, Hillary Jones was awarded the Gold Walkley for her series of articles on the rise and fall of the largest paedophile ring in Australia's history. A book was rumoured to be under way.

#...The law enforcement sections of various overseas Governments were qu ietly effusive with their praise for the assistance given in clearing up a large chunk of the kiddie-porn market in their own countries. Rumours of awards for the operatives involved were quietly squashed.

#...To Janice's delight, Rob and Annette got together permanently, with Rob moving to Canberra to live with her. They saw no need to formalise the arrangement any further than that. She received a big promotion as a reward for her part in tracking down the culprits and more importantly, a great deal more status and credibility from her peers.

Oddly, Rob declined any recognition and refused to take any part in the prosecution process. He continued to practice law as a Barrister in Queanbeyan.

#...At the urging of her boss, Sandy took a bunch of accumulated leave and after she and Harry gave a series of notarised formal interviews, Firebird departed the area and within the week, was wandering aimlessly around the Whitsunday Islands. Selected persons received invitations and made the flight to Hamilton Island airport where they were met by a cheerful, tanned couple on a catamaran with a large black cat.

#...Less than a year later, Annette, Janice and the girls were devastated to receive notification that Rob had been involved in a head-on car accident with a drugged driver and did not survive. When clearing out his effects, Annette came across a key to a long-term storage locker with a Melbourne address, so she sent it to Janice along with a few other items she didn't want to keep. When they found the locker, it contained many souvenirs and memorabilia, most of which Janice threw away. There was one curious item that Zoe decided to keep. It was a HytechToyz voice-changer box, still with batteries fitted. A perfect re-production of Darth Vader's voice came out of the speaker when she talked into the microphone attached to the box.

‘I wonder what Pops had this for?’

‘Probably was going to give it to you or Angie as a present,’ her mother suggested. ‘Are you going to keep it?’

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‘Yeah. Might as well. These are cool, and it'll be fun making a phone call to our friends using that weird voice. No one will know who it is!’

#...Harry’s standing with the ACP had also increased dramatically with the huge success of the operation. He was retained as a permanent, deep undercover operative, with the brief of remaining blended into the boating community as an eccentric, wealthy boat bum, but they increased his discrete funding. He and Sandy made no particular personal plans, but she received a double-jump promotion to Inspector which required her to attend management courses, even though she'd already done m any of the training modules. Her boss, Bob Casey, let her keep her undercover role, but until another investigation came up, she had to return to uniformed station life for a while which included relieving duties in several remote area stations.

#...After hanging around the Whitsundays for a while, Harry moved Firebird to the Gold Coast and leased a permanent mooring off the Yacht Club so he could be close to Sandy, although she was frequently away gaining experience with her new rank as a Relieving Officer.

#...Harry needed to use his considerable pull with both the ACP and the Queensland Police to keep Jasper after several people complained about the presence of a

'dangerous animal' in their midst. After he was de-sexed and microchipped, no further action was taken.

#...Corrine and Dave remained happily together and were allowed, as promised and by various un-official paperwork fiddles, to keep Seeker. They set up an Executive Charter service and after struggling for a while, made it flourish.

#...Hillary and Debbie flew to the Gold Coast to present Jasper with an eight-week-old female black kitten, from the one litter that their domestic shorthair house cat had been allowed to produce. She had round amber eyes like an owl and an unusual scattering of pretty white speckles throughout her fur. In a display of indignation at being confined in a pet carrier for the two-hour flight from Melbourne, the tiny, feisty bundle of bristling black fur darted out of the carrier, bit Hillary's finger and swiped at Debbie's bare toes with her needle-sharp claws, before scampering up Jasper's foreleg to crouch on his head, claws extended for stability and mouth open, loudly voicing her disgust with all 354

humans. Jasper simply closed his eyes, settled down and started purring contentedly, which seemed to indicate his pleasure with the situation and his new companion.

The End of Hitch Hikers

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