Outback Corporation - 11. OBC Chapter 11

As I started to get my bearings I noticed a couple of windows high up in the wall, and from what I could see it was dark outside, with the faint sight of street lighting somewhere nearby, but I couldn’t hear any noise of people, just the distant sounds of traffic. I was guessing that I was in an old warehouse of some kind, and that it was in a remote part of the city, where I couldn’t be heard, so there was no point in screaming for help.

I noticed that I was laying on an old mattress, no sheets or pillows, just one single blanket. I stood up carefully and as I allowed my eyes to adjust to the darkness, I could see I was in some sort of office, the mattress where I woke up was in the inner office. There was a built in wardrobe and a small bathroom with no window. In the outer office held a desk and three chairs. The lighting was a bit better in this room as the windows seemed to be a lot closer to the street lighting outside. I quickly checked the solid looking door, finding it was locked, and none of the light switches worked.

Returning to the inner office, I attended to my bathroom needs. I was surprised that the toilet actually flushed and that the sink had running water. Once back in the inner office I sat down on the mattress,waiting. Waiting for what, I wasn’t actually sure. Suddenly I could smell food, so I made my way back to the outer office where I found some takeaway food from KFC and soft drink on the table, but there was no sign of anyone in the room. I sat down and ate the food that was provided.

Once I had eaten I returned to the mattress and laid down, suddenly feeling quite tired. I soon fell into a restless sleep. When awoke the next morning, I could once again smell food. This time it was two bacon & egg muffins and a cup of tea from McDonalds, but once again there was no sign of anyone else in the offices.

After I had eaten, I had a closer look of the rooms that I was confined to; both of the offices were bare apart from the mattress, the table and the chairs. The windows high up were not reachable, even if I placed a chair on top of the table, I would still be unable to reach the window, which are very dirty and look like they haven’t been cleaned for many years, maybe decades. I could hear traffic in the distance, and it was a busy traffic, but still too far away so I was guessing that I was some distance from any main road.

In the late morning a few kilometres away from where I was being held, in the accountancy office, the accountant was concerned when his client hadn’t arrived for their set appointment and began to worry, as he knew that his client would not miss an important meeting like this. Unfortunately for me, the remainder of his day was kept busy with continuous meetings, and the matter of a client not turning up for a meeting slipped his mind.

Back at the place of confinement, I was getting anxious as I had no idea what was happening and what was being planned for me, I saw and heard from nobody all day, and wasn’t even given a meal at lunch time, and with the foam tea cup I was able to drink water to keep my thirst quenched, as I continued to stroll around surroundings.

While I was giving myself a face and upper body wash with my shirt, a meal was silently delivered to the room next door, along with a number of provisions. When I became aware that food had once again been delivered, I made my way to the outer office to see on the table a selection of Chinese takeaway foods, a thermos with a plastic mug, which had black tea in it. Also on the table there was a spare blanket, a pillow, a couple of old novels, a couple of Outback magazines, a towel and some soap. Grabbing the towel and soap I returned to the bathroom where I gave myself a proper wash, before returning to the outer office to eat my evening meal. I had now been in confinement for over 24 hours and I still had no idea why.

Once I had eaten and had a cup of tea, I sat down to read a little before all of the light disappeared, before settling down for a second night of restless sleep. Again, I woke up to the smell of food, the same as I had the day before, and once again no sign of anyone in sight. I listened carefully to see if I could hear any other noises in the building but had no luck, all I could hear was the distant sounds of peak hour traffic.

When I looked at my watch, I could see that it was just after 7.30am, and I knew that I had already missed one meeting and was about to miss a second one with the law firm, I had not contacted the station in a day and a half and I was hoping that this would get some action with getting a search started to find me.

Unknown to me, when I had not contacted the accountants at the end of yesterday, and with them receiving a call from Chris at Pondana Station, the police had been contacted, the law firm had been contacted by Chris to see if they knew where I was and they too were unaware of my disappearance. They were also very worried, especially after I didn’t appear my appointment with them at 9am on that day, and they were even more worrying when they received a courier delivered letter at 10am.

“I have Kyle Silverton, he is safe and well, but harm will come to him if a sum of $300,000 is not paid for his release within 24 hours from the time you receive this letter. Your will get instructions on where to bring the money later on in the day. Be warned, do not involve the police or he will be harmed”.

The law firm contacted Chris right away, once they realised how serious this matter was, asking for some directions on what action to take. Chris informed them, that the RFDS were about to leave the station to return to Kalgoorlie, and he would catch a lift with them to Perth. He would he there by mid-afternoon, and not to do anything till he arrives.

When Chris was collected from the domestic airport by a chauffeured car, he was taken directly to the lawfirm offices in the city. Seated in the conference room, Chris was shown the first letter that was delivered in the morning; next he was shown the letter that had just arrived less than half an hour ago with detailed instructions on what to do with delivering the ransom money.

Soon after Chris had read both letters, a staff member had arrived informing them that two police officers were in reception regarding the matter of Kyle Silverton. Chris looked very angry as he had left instructions for nothing to be done. When Chris met the two police officers, he was informed that the accountancy firm had contacted them, as they were concerned for their multi-millionaire client, who missed his appointment.

The police where shown the two letters, and they said that they would be able to set up a squad of officers to capture the extortionists once they collect the money, but Chris said that it would not happen. He had a better idea, letting the police know what exactly what he had in mind. Before the close of business, Chris visited the bank and withdrew a sum of $300,000 in large denomination notes, before going to his second location for the afternoon, the Perth Gold Mint, where he used the cash to purchase $300,000 in Gold bullion, which was placed in the sports bag that he had carried the cash in.

The police had already notified the Perth Gold Mint of what was happening and organised for the gold bullion purchase to go smoothly. When Chris had the gold he follow the instructions and travelled to the East Perth Terminal, where he placed the sports bag in the assigned locker as he had been instructed in the second letter, before leaving the building and returning to the hotel. Meanwhile in the terminal, plain clothes officers were stationed in the security office watching the cameras that were aimed at the locker where the gold bullion was placed.

When the terminal was closed for the day, the cameras were monitored as the cleaning staff entered the building two hours after it was closed for the day, and it was the cleaner who was operating the floor scrubber that caught the police officer’s attention, when he made a few passes past the lockers, and each time he was looking around to see if anyone was watching.

On the third pass the cleaner stopped at the lockers and with a key in hand he opened the locker and attempted to pull out the sports bag, which was a lot heavier than he expected. When he opened the bag and looked in, he was shocked to see gold bullion instead of cash, and he struggled to pull the bag out and attempted to place the bag inside the empty water tank when a squad of armed police suddenly swooped on him, and arrested him.

When I received my dinner that night, I had no idea that it would be my last meal for a few days, and I ate it down quickly. Finishing, I left the rubbish in a neat pile on the table, like all the other times so it could be collected the next morning when the breakfast was delivered. After eating dinner, I gave myself a sponge bath like I did the night before. Once satisfied that I was respectfully clean I dressed into just my jeans, and I went to work washing my shirt, boxer shorts and socks in the sink, when I was satisfied that they were clean enough, I hung them out to dry, before laying down to sleep for my third night of captivity.

In the morning, once I woke up, I decided to remain in bed to wait till I could smell when breakfast arrives. When my stomach started to rumble, that I decided to get up and see if it had arrived. Seeing that it hadn’t been delivered, I looked up at the window to see that it was close to mid-morning, and came to conclusion that I wasn’t going to get any breakfast today, so I laid down on the mattress and began to read one of the books that my captors had provided.

By mid-afternoon, I was getting bored with reading and was starting to get real hungry, so I decided to have three glasses of water to try and fill my stomach up with something even if it wasn’t food. After I had done that I walked around the two office buildings, taking in every detail of each room. Once I had enough of that I went back to the mattress and started to do some sit ups and push ups, just as another activity to keep my mind off the uncertainty of what was going to happen to me.

As the sun started to set and the rooms began to get dark, I was really starting to get worried. I was thinking maybe something has happened to my captors and that no one knows where I am, and I could possibly die in this lonely place, without seeing my family ever again. This thought made me even more depressed, and soon I was crying my heart out, wishing I was back home on the station.

Back at the police station the extortionist refused to give his name, and after a number of attempts of get more information on why he was extorting money off the Silverton family, a number of times he was taken from his cell back to the interview room where police officers attempted to extract information, but remained tight lipped.

Eventually the police decided to just charge him and try and get more information after investigating other avenues of enquiries. As he was being processes he had DNA samples taken as well as his finger prints, and it was only after his finger prints were taken and they were checked on the police data base, that they learnt who he was, and now had a better understanding why Kyle Silverton had been kidnapped.

Shortly after his identity was worked out, Chris received a call from the police informing him that they had a man in custody, and although he refused to give his name, a finger print check came up with his identity.