He took the photocopy back to his office, started a file for Henry, and then took out another file, that of another disappearance which had been reported to him by an apartment body corporate chairman, whose strata rates had not been paid recently. The chairman had become Dick’s client and also given permission for a search, in this case of the entire apartment belonging to a man named Patrick.

Dick spread both files on his desk, and looked at the most recently dated piece of paper prior to Patrick’s disappearance. It was a newspaper with a circle drawn around a job advertisement:

PERSONAL ASSISTANT – TEMP

Company director needs a personal

assistant to help with all kinds of

work around the premises. Apply, in

the first instance to:

Colleen Balfour

T/A Reduced Interest Co,

using the address or telephone number

at the bottom of this advertisement.

Now he looked again at the photocopy of Henry’s school lessons timetable. The first page listed each subject, and the name of Henry’s teacher for that subject. Beside English and Science was the name Miss Balfour.

Dick went to the school and made enquiries with other staff, to learn that Colleen had been still teaching at the school at the time of Henry’s disappearance, but had gone on a sabbatical starting shortly before Patrick’s disappearance.

Dick found her address in the telephone book, and decided to do some covert reconnaissance. That night, he took his flashlight with him, walked up to Colleen’s house, and used a professional lock pick tool to open the door which Henry had once picked with a piece of twisted wire. He let himself in silently, turned the flashlight onto its dimmest setting, and began to look around the lounge room. He presumed that her bedroom was upstairs, and that she couldn’t see any light directly beneath her, even if she woke up.

He wondered what to look for. What could the connection be between a year 7 schoolboy and a young adult looking for a job? Probably none at all, as they had both no doubt encounted Colleen Balfour in different contexts. So what then, was he looking for? What evidence would justify a midnight felony for the downmarket fees he’d opened his business by charging?

Suddenly the light was turned on, and he saw a lady holding the light switch on the opposite side of the room, right next to a doorway. She was holding some small contraption in her other hand.

“Colleen Balfour, I presume,” said Dick.

“And you would be Dick Flanigin. Pleased to eat you,” said Colleen.

“I think you left out an m,” said Dick, putting his flashlight into his trenchcoat pocket.

“I was saving it up for the word ‘mouth’,” said Colleen, “That’s where you’ll be going at lunch time tomorrow. My friend at the school called me this afternoon, to let me know about your enquiries concerning my sabbatical dates. I’d have caught you anyway. A few weeks ago, I was concerned at how easily someone else broke into this place. So I made a point of setting up a video camera arrangement which trips a silent alarm connected to an alternate on switch for my bedside lamp. I’d have caught you anyway, even if my friend hadn’t given me reason to expect an uninvited guest.”