The late afternoon summer sky was absent of clouds, an expanse of pale blue that stretched all the way to the horizon. Beyond it, the ocean shimmied, glistening in the sun, its white waves glowing like diamonds. With our shoes hanging off our fingertips, Rose and I padded across the hot sand. I was glad to be at Coogee Beach, close to where her grandfather lived. Before we got the chance to go in the water, my phone rang. I answered the call, not expecting what would await me on the other end of the line. Scott, the police officer who had been in charge of Mitchell’s case, had an update from another investigation which he thought might have pertained to the circumstances of Mitchell’s disappearance.
“The police in Paddington have arrested a young man named Billy Tanner. He was being questioned about counterfeit passports and this is the quote the officers have sent through, word for word: ‘Oh yeah, there was a plan they’d hatched about a couple of years back, around about, to take that fella who went missing, that, um, Reyan, that del Reyan, fella. He was the right type, you see, medically, for Sir Magnus, who had a bit of a dodgy ticker, he was a bit dodgy all over, in fact, and you just in the shady way you mob talk about, although he was that too, obviously. Anyway, it’s been a bit quiet on that front lately and Sir Magnus kicked the bucket a few months back, so I don’t really know what happened there. Perhaps they took his bits and it didn’t work, maybe they pulled out of that plan, perhaps they tried to take him and then they’d made a mistake or something or whatever.’”
I thought that I was going to explode into a million pieces myself.
The younger sister of missing Sydney man Mitchell del Reyan, Nina del Reyan lives on Dharug land in western Sydney. She has recently commenced a teaching degree at Macquarie University. Nina loves her family and friends and is deeply committed to finding answers and justice for the families of missing people.
Abbey Sim is the founder of Huldah Media. She is a creative writing, law and theology student who lives on the lands of the Dharug people in Sydney, Australia. Abbey desires to explore themes of hope, love and longing through her storytelling. She is the author of 'Shadow' and 'From the Wild'.
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