I drove straight to Gene Randolph's house, but it still took an extra fifteen minutes for Dave to show up. He parked behind me and I went and met him by his car.

'You know how bloody hard it was to get out of work in the middle of the day?' he said as he was shutting his door.

'You are pursuing an independent strand of investigation that had suddenly been discovered. You'll have something to bring back to your squad, and they'll thank you for it, I promise.'

'Where the hell are we anyway? Whose house is this?'

I pressed the buzzer at the front gate but there was no response.

'Come on,' I said to Dave.

'What the hell are you doing?'

'We are investigating the premises.'

I hoisted myself and climbed the fence, perching myself at the top to give Dave a hand up. He reluctantly followed. Once we were over, we went up the front path to Gene's front door.

I knocked, even though I didn't expect an answer.

'We can't go in there without a warrant,' Dave said.

I nodded. 'I know. He's not home anyway. I just wanted to make sure.'

'How do you know?'

'His car's gone. Come on, we're going for a drive. But don't worry—you'll be back at the station before the end of the day.'

'Okay, where are we going?'

'Taking a day trip. We're going to Pillar Bay.'

We took my car and I drove to the motorway as quickly as I could. Gene had had a good headstart on me to make it down there on his own.

'On our long drive, will you be so kind as to let me in on your line of thinking?' Dave said.

'Of course, Dave. We sure as hell won't be listening to the radio.'

'Who lives in that house?'

'Eugene Randolph. Son of Don. Maybe you've heard of him.'

'The politician.'

'The very same.'

'You mentioned him the other day. What the hell does he have to do with Abbott?'

'I'll have to backtrack to explain all that. Okay—remember what we talked about at the station? About Abbott and his friend Winterson hustling the streets for Travis Kerr? Turns out there's more to it than that. Don Randolph and Kerr used runaways like them as agents for blackmail together. If we get Abbott, you'll finally be able to get a full confession on the record to take down Kerr once and for all. He'll have nothing to hide behind anymore.

'Anyway, Abbott and Winterson—they were in love. They decided to make a break from the life they had. But they needed money. A lot of money, so that Randolph and Kerr wouldn't be able to track them. They stole two million dollars marked for one of Kerr's development projects, a housing estate in Pillar Bay.'

'How the hell did they do that on their own?'

'Beats me, but there's a good chance it had come from a source under the table of legitimacy, if you know what I mean, so it might have been made up and was being delivered entirely of cash. Whatever scheme the two of them came up with, they managed to make off with it all as physical tender.

'Now, from here on is just my own conjecture. What I think happened next is that Sebastian got scared after he and Sam ran off so easily with the money. Maybe he was scared of Sam, maybe he was scared of what was going to happen to them, or maybe he was just scared of the money itself. So, what I think happened was that he stole the money from Sam himself and got rid of it entirely. Hid it somewhere. Made a clean slate so that no one could have it. So, all this time, Kerr, Randolph, and Winterson have been running around looking for the money themselves. Sam took on Sebastian's identity and started dating Gene Randolph, the son of Don, so that he could be close to the father's tracking, while at the same time also juggling another fraudulent relationship with another spoiled rich kid named Cameron Zehringer Jr. Him, I think Sam was just going to rip off for the money.

'But, the problem was that Sam was completely unaware that Gene Randolph already had a connection with Sebastian Abbott. Four years ago, when they were both just seventeen-year-old kids, they were star-crossed lovers themselves. But Don knew about that and exploited it into using it as an opportunity to get in touch with Sebastian himself and offering him a life away from his parents. Sebastian took it, thinking he was going to be with Gene. But Gene never saw him again—Don made sure of that, because Don turned him into one of his and Kerr's operatives. That pushed Gene over the edge. He never forgave his father for doing that.'

'So,' Dave said, 'Gene also knew that Sebastian was actually Sam the whole time? And he was doing the exact same thing—using the fake relationship as an opportunity to track the real Sebastian.'

'Exactly. When Sam-as-Sebastian found out about it he tried to escape, ditching Cameron Zehringer in the process, which is where I was put in on this. But Gene managed to catch up to him, and out of vengeance killed him, trying to disguise his identity so he'd have some more time to find Sebastian. That's where you were put in on this.'

'So what about the real Sebastian? He's going by Sam's identity, right?'

I nodded. 'Right. He got in touch with me and offered me information about Travis Kerr in exchange for getting him out of the city entirely, which he hadn't been able to do on his own.'

'But he didn't have any of the money?'

'I would have known if he did. He had nothing. He was like a frightened deer at that point, after being spooked by Sam's death. He just wanted out.'

'But—wait, I'm confused now...'

'I'll try and finish up quickly. Gene got in touch with me and told me that Sebastian-as-Sam had briefly visited him soon after you found the body. That was a lie, it never happened. What he wanted was an opportunity to bug my car so that I would be the next person he would track. When I drove Sebastian downstate, he knew exactly where I left him.

'Remember the fact that four years ago, Sebastian ran away by getting into a black car that was waiting outside? Naturally, it was driven by Don Randolph. A couple of days ago, Gene took that same car and drove to the motel to kidnap Sebastian so as to frame his father. If you check the car for prints, you'll probably find that the last person to drive it was Gene.'

'So where the hell is Sebastian Abbott, then?'

'Hopefully we're on our way to him right now.'

'In Pillar Bay?'

'It's a long shot, but it's all we've got left. I'm positive that Gene's ultimate goal is to tie his father and Travis Kerr definitively to all this. The easiest place to do that is the centre of all of it: Kerr's development site. I was almost killed there two nights ago by one of his minions, but while I was there I saw Sebastian. That's where he was being kept, and it's where Gene is waiting to come up with a way to tie all of this off.'

'And how do you know they're both there right now?'

'The fact that Gene's not at home helps, and I can't think of anywhere else he'd be. Once I was finally able to speak to his father, which he'd been trying to keep me from, he knew I'd finally discover the fact of his and Sebastian's relationship and piece it all together. So he's making a run to end it all.' I sucked air through my teeth. 'I just wish I didn't take so long to figure it out...'

Dave sat back in the seat and let air through his nose. 'Christ, Holden... This work is easy for you?'

'I never said that.'

'No. You just want me to believe it.'

In spite of myself I almost smiled. Then I thought about how easy it would be for Sebastian Abbott to be dead already and my smile fell off.

'I always liked the ocean,' Dave said after a breath.

I nodded. 'Me too.'