Aw hell no!Finn’s gut clenched at the word: Mentor.
‘From our research, we found Drew used Renzo to do his dirty work.Paid him for it, too.And I’ve got the bank trail to prove it.’Taryn clicked through an assortment of images, early criminal photos of Renzo, the juvenile file, and Renzo’s bank account, one they didn’t know about—but Taryn did.
She clicked to another screen and up came another face they all knew.
‘Renzo’s co-offender in Izzy’s kidnapping, DaneDCCarter, was killed in Darwin prison last year while on remand.His killer?’
Finn had been hedging his bets it was Red who’d arranged that one.
‘Another one of Drew’s boys.Another juvenile from that same mentor program.’Again, Taryn showed pictures of a prisoner, from a juvenile to an adult with files linked to Drew’s name.
‘The money?’Izzy asked.
‘Was paid to his mother’s account, who is raising his son.’And she showed bank accounts, and surveillance photos of a boy and his grandmother.
‘And Renzo?’Izzy’s eyes widened as if watching a horror movie.‘What about the car accident that killed Renzo?’
‘The driver, who smashed into that prisoner transport, killing Renzo and those two prison guards, was also part of Drew’s mentor program.But this one,’ Taryn said, clicking to another set of images of a stranger, from his juvie record to a man.‘He had terminal cancer.Drew gave his family a payout, claiming it was from some bogus insurance company.They had no idea.But it clearly demonstrates a pattern.With Renzo and Dane Carter’s deaths, they were just pawns in Drew’s game, and he likes to clear his board of any loose ends.’
Dead men don’t talk, they all knew that.Finn especially.
Taryn then looked at the team.‘Drew kept up the juvenile mentor program because it made the perfect recruitment pool, but he tailored it to their individual needs, as if preying on their weak spots.Playing the long game, better than any chess master to build his own crew on call.He’d pay their debts.Buy their loyalty.And erase their records.Only to call in those favours when he needed to.’
The words hit Finn like a steel boot to the ribs, making his heart drop hard, turning it into something ugly.
He’d fought his way out of hell more than once—only to find the devil wore a badge, offering him a hangman’s rope and calling it a pardon.
And the worst part?
Finn wasn’t the first.But he also wasn’t just a pawn who’d helped Drew build that playing board—he’d become the poster boy for a federal con job.
Taryn clicked to the next slide.‘When the Stock Squad shut down Everlight, Drew didn’t fight it, because he didn’t need it anymore.He had the money.So he stopped, blocked, and deleted all connections to Everlight.And then went about setting up a different kind of operation, doing the same thing that Finn suspected with Everlight, creating way stations, like they have at the quarry.’
She circled a logo on the screen—Stokemir PC Inc.‘This is an international export company.It’s new and looks clean on the surface.But that’s where all the funds stolen by Everlight Energy Solutions went.’
Izzy murmured.‘All of it?’
‘Yep.It’s where Drew laundered the money to fund his entire operation—the planes, leases, transport, even bribes.’Taryn clicked the remote again.A new slide appeared: company logos, email headers, wire transfers.There were so many of them, it was doing Finn’s head in.
‘But how did it all work?’asked Romy.
‘Red did the scouting, targeting the bloodlines, looking for prime herds and exotic species that would fetch top dollar on the international markets.Red would also take Bob with him, as if recommending him as a contractor for these cattle stations.Bob told people he had a vet technician on call, and someone to manage the logistics.’
Which just confirmed Finn’s suspicions of how Red and Bob had tried to steal stock at Warraga Downs last night.
‘That tech guy,’ Taryn added, tapping the screen, ‘was Bastion.And the reason I know this is that the emails all go through one companyM.T.Spiker Co.It’s registered to an empty shed just outside Dublin, South Australia—home to one of the country’s busiest saleyards, where stock rolls through by the thousands.Making it the perfect place to hide in plain sight.’
Taryn clicked to the next slide.‘Officially, M.T.Spiker Co.sells fencing gear, vet supplies, stockfeed… real salt-of-the-earth feed store kind of vibe.Only the website’s full of stock photos.The phone rings out to a cheerful robot, and the shed is so empty it echoes.But the email?That’s definitely manned.’
Izzy raised an eyebrow.‘Let me guess—payments in split invoices, off-brand suppliers with government-sounding names?Like Everlight’s paperwork.’
‘Bingo.And half the ABNs link back to shell companies all headquartered at other strategic stock centres across the country.’Taryn tapped on the table where his team sat.
‘Sounds like the livestock industry’s version of Monopoly,’ muttered Stone without any of the smart-arse humour he was known for.
‘Except the only thing that gets passed around is stolen genetic material and fake waybills.’
Across the room, Finn didn’t say a word.He’d been to those stockyards, even stopping at that shed Taryn flashed on the screen.Back when he thought he was laying the groundwork for something clean, flagging it in the first Gaps File as a potential quarantine site.A base for a southern stock squad.And that mongrel had turned it into ashopfront for thieves.
