"Sorry about the van. Forgot to tell you about the cargo hold, basically." Brady peered in while Hector loaded their bags into the back of the blacked out van, parked in the Moriarty's giant, barn-sized garage, full of many collectible vintage cars. And then there was that Toyota white van! "Have you thought about how you're going to do it?"

"Do what?" Hector walked onto the van, hunched, to move those bags further back, so he, Devi, and Chaya had some floor space to sit on for their journey. "We'll just sit on the floor and hope you won't give any cops reasons to pull you over."

"Will do." Brady chuckled, possibly checking out that tight ass as Devi often did these days. "But I meant, disguise her."

"Who?"

"Who else, Heck? Devi. Her face is everywhere right now. I can get you into Sydney, no problem, but as soon as she steps out and someone spots her, game over."

Hector paused with Chaya's bag in his hand.

"You hadn't thought about that, had you?" There was concern in Brady's voice.

"I've had so much on my mind." Hector dropped beside the bag he moved.

Brady sat on the step in the door. "I have an idea, but I'm not sure you'll like it."

Hector watched his once-friend. "Why are you helping us?"

"Isn't it obvious, Heck?" Brady gave half a smile. "I don't know what happened between us but I want us to be friends again."

"Why? I'm an asshole to you."

Brady laughed. "But you've always been."

"Well, that's fucked up, Braid!" Hector slipped into the old nickname so easily it surprised him a little. "I'm an asshole you want to be friends with?"

"Better an asshole that no friends." Brady stared at something outside of Hector's preview. "Do you wanna hear my idea or not?"

"Let's hear it then."

"Two words." There was a twinkle in his eyes as Brady said the next words carefully, "Ms Vani."

"Uh, nope. No way." Hector immediately got up and exited the vehicle at the absurd idea.

"Why not? She is a theatre major and can help us disguise Devi." Brady chased after him through the garage as Hector headed for the Moriarty's equally massive kitchen. So massive one would think it was a community kitchen and not a family farm. "Have you not seen some of her disguises for Halloween or those solo theatre plays she puts up? The woman is a Picasso with it."

"She's also a blabbermouth who loves the limelight!" Hector paused at the kitchen doorway, only to have Brady walk into him. "She'll go straight to one of the news vans Hilde mentioned, batting her eyes ..."

"Not if we explain what's at stake ..."

"Nope. Come up with a Plan B!" Hector about turned and marched into the kitchen where he could hear voices.

"But Ms Vani—"

Both men stopped talking as soon as they came into view of what had been three women when they'd left to pack the van. Now, four stood or sat before them around the room.

"Shit!" Hector whispered.

"Fuck," mumbled Brady beside him.

From the other side of the room, Grumpy Gavin's adopted daughter and his Chief's sister, Ms Manjula Vani blinked at them. "I knew my ears were burning for a reason ..."

Behind the woman, Devi sat at the long dining table, eyes wide in silent terror. Besides her Chaya sat, eyeing the boys awkwardly.

"Isn't this nice? Manju just dropped by with her famous jar of marmalade. She made a batch yesterday, and to think I was about to run out." Mrs Moriarty, clueless and chirpy Mrs Moriarty, turned to the boys with a wide grin, holding a large jar of orange marmalade. "I asked her to stay and have some afternoon snacks before your lot rush off to Sydney for whatever you need to do there."

Brady glanced at Hector and mumbled one word. "Serendipity?"

Hector smiled through pressed lips. "What if she—"

"She won't. I'll talk to her."

"Talk about what, dear?" Mrs Moriarty asked, pulling out a steaming tray of scones from her oven.

"Not you, Mum." Brady turned to Mrs Vani. "Could Hector and I talk to you in private?"

Many minutes later, out on the patio, Ms Vani chewed her lips. "I'll need my kit from home."

"I'll go get it!" Brady volunteered.

#

Devi stood leaning on her newly-getting-used-to crutches and eyed the unrecognisable woman in the large bathroom mirror.

Her nose crooked, like a crow's beak thanks to some prosthetics Ms Vani had supplied. A pair of Dame Ednaesque glasses sat delicately on the bridge of that nose. Her hair sported a lot more grey than she ever wanted to have, and it was tied up in a loose bun made her think the Nicole Kidman character from The Others was the inspiration behind it.

"I can hardly recognise myself. You should have been a special effects makeup artist for films." Devi turned to the jittery woman who looked about her age. "Remarkable."

"You'll be surprised how much we theatre and indie film folks learn on the job." Ms Vani handed over a small bottle of glue and a tub of white paste. "Just don't touch your face and apply the prosthetic and colour as I showed you.

"Now, do you know your story?" Ms Vani asked.

"I'm a retired theatre actor and heiress to some business I'm tight-lipped about. I was once famous in Europe, but an accident left me with hip issues, which is why I use crutches. I also quietly settled in one of the Pacific Islands to avoid unnecessary press. At present, I want to enjoy the best Sydney offers and hired a private yacht to get me away from the crowd. I'm not a crowd person, and I rarely meet people these days and I'm happy the way I am."

"Good. And you're travelling with?" Hector asked from the corridor.

"With my equally reclusive daughter. We like our privacy and don't care to mingle with the other guests on the yacht." Devi smiled, enjoying the way Hector scanned her from head to toe before turning his attention to Ms Vani.

"What if they don't buy that I'm her daughter?" Chaya nervously asked from where she sat, on the bathtub, assisting Ms Vani with items from her makeup kit.

"You two practically look alike!" It was Ms Vani who said this before Hector could come up with an excuse. "We move your fringe out of the way"—she made a move to that effect only to have Chaya stop her hand.

"Don't worry. No one will barge into your and Devi's room." Hector stole a glance at Devi. "Captain Parry will announce before departure that it is a private charter and as such, I and the other guests should be glad that the mother-daughter duo didn't mind assisting police on their investigation as long as no one, and I mean no one, bothers them on their stay. It should keep the nosy buggers away from you both until the end.

"You sure you want to come along?" Hector addressed Devi. "I mean, everyone will be on board, so you'll be quite safe to go home and stay in your apartment."

Devi shook her head. "Nope, I'm coming. It's my life and I want to be there and look this asshole in the eye when you arrest them. I want them to know they failed."

"I don't like the idea of having you that close to whoever tried to kill you the first time."

"You don't have to like it. It's my life, my decision."

Nurse Chaya stood then. "Would you really need me anymore, Hector? I mean, if Devi stays in her room and others leave her alone on the Captain's orders ..."

"I'll feel better if someone was there to help Devi if she needs help. She'll be safer with some company. I'll pay you extra for your time."

"Don't worry, Chaya. You'll be fine with me. I'm scarier than any of those idiots on board. Just, that day, I was drunk and easily overwhelmed. It won't happen twice." Devi chimed in, securing her crutches under her arms. "We'll stay in my suite and pretend we are the mother-daughter duo who hired the yacht and didn't mind sharing it with Hector to help him out with his investigation, because I'm a lonely old widow who likes a bit of eye-candy."

"If you do this for us, I promise I'll help you locate your mother, even if Sydney says they can't," Hector added, to sweeten the deal.

"You're looking for your mum?" Ms Vani gasped, hand to chest, dramatically. "What's the world coming to? People are missing everywhere."

"Her biological mother, Ms Vani," Hector corrected before addressing Chaya again, "Please. Just a couple more days."

Devi watched as Chaya looked from one person to the next, seeming to struggle with her decision. But finally, she said, "Fine. As long as I don't have to deal with any of these people you're investigating."

"Deal." Hector beamed.

Well, after that minor hiccup, this band of merry folks found themselves being driven to Sydney on the floor of a van where they could feel every bump on the road.

And as he drove them, Brady did exactly what he'd promised, he interviewed Devi, with the promise that he wouldn't publish the article until they were well out at sea and Captain Parry turned off the Wi-Fi as planned so that no guest could see or hear the ground-breaking news that yes, Devi Dhungel is still alive!

He asked Devi many questions, recording the whole thing on his Zoom recorder with a lapel microphone hanging on Devi's blouse. Questions she happily obliged with, given how the man had gone beyond the call of duty to get her out of boreville.

And after hours of being in that van, with their bums surely bruised, Brady drove them into the underground parking of a hotel where he knew a guy who knew a guy that could get them into a hotel room incognito.

The man even booked the room under his own name as a friendly gesture to his once-friend Hector Martinez and wished them well before returning home.

Thus, phase one of Hector's plan was complete. And phase two would begin at sunrise—well, more like at nine when couriers and the post offices opened, but semantics.

Hector was optimistic for once, enough that he bounced around the big two-bedroom suite like a child. He'd never been in a hotel room that big. Not even when he'd accompanied his father on a book tour or two.

But once Chaya the nurse slipped downstairs to grab them some dinner, Devi burst a little of that giddy bubble.

"This whole thing hinges on every one of them coming." She shifted herself onto the sofa and dropped, placing her crutches to the side. "What if none of them come being so close to Christmas?"

"I have a failsafe idea to ensure all these desperados turn up." Hector grabbed the mini bottle of wine from the bar fridge.

"What's that?"

"The invitation stipulates that one lucky person who joins the trip will go on to win one million dollars, at the discretion of the host." He pointed at Devi with the wine bottle. "Courtesy of you and your reclusive daughter."

"One million dollars?" Devi scoffed. "You think they'll fall for that?"

"From everything you've told me about these people, they all have one thing in common." Hector poured the wine into two glasses and brought one over to her. "Greed. And greedy people rarely think twice before declining an anonymous invitation that promises a luxury trip, free food, booze, and a chance to win some money.

"So cheers to us catching whoever it is." He clinked his glass with hers and took a sip.

Devi followed suit, sipping the wine. "And where are you going to get that kind of money?"

"Who said the money was real?" Hector smiled. "Besides, it's at the discretion of you and your daughter. And I doubt after everything that'll go down, you'll choose a winner."

Devi Dhungel smiled then. "That's naughty, Inspector, so very naughty."

And wasn't it just! Hector Martinez was finally daring and taking risks, two characteristics that always sent Devi Dhungel ga-ga over a man. But lucky for them—or not so lucky—they weren't alone in that suite. Not for too long.

"I got us Maccas! It was the quickest thing I could grab." Nurse Chaya slipped back into the room tad too early.

Alas, any ideas of hanky-lanky had to wait. For how long? Who knew?

"Good. I'm starving." Devi drowned her lust in a mouthful of wine.