‘What the hell is that?’
‘It’s tea-tree stem,’ the girl said. ‘I’ve got some aloe vera for the sunburn. This is goat’s foot.’ She showed me a plastic tub of brown paste.
‘Goat’s foot!’
‘The plant is called goat’s foot. It’s from the north of the state.’
‘Haven’t you people got any real medicine?’ I rummaged through the box beside her.
‘We’re committed to cruelty-free medical intervention,’ Ocean said. She crouched beside me. ‘We don’t use any pharmaceuticals that are wholly or in part derived from the unethical treatment of animals, or from animals themselves. So that leaves us with little choice but to rely on what we can gather from nature.’
The girl smeared some of her concoction onto my palms. The pain was gone almost immediately, but I wasn’t about to shout it from the rooftops.
‘Has Amy King been out here in the past twenty-four hours?’ I asked.
‘Your people are constantly in and out of here.’ Ocean’s lip curled in distaste. ‘For a group who’s so careless about the environment, they’ll sure trudge through it to get weed. They toss their waste along the way. Water bottles that take billions of years to biodegrade. Let me ask you, what’ll you be –’
‘– doing in a billion years?’ I asked. ‘Nothing. I’ll be dead in the cold ground, not listening to lectures about the environment.’
‘That’d be right,’ she sneered. ‘It’s all about you. It’s all about now.’
‘It’s all about Amy King,’ I said. ‘You seen her?’
‘Detective Blue doesn’t mean to disrespect your cause,’ Whitt said from nearby. ‘But the girl’s been missing since last night, and we think her disappearance might be connected to the disappearance of three other miners, including her sister Tori.’
Some of the girls near Whitt exchanged meaningful looks with Shamma.
‘We haven’t seen anyone in the past twenty-four hours,’ Ocean said. She tucked her hair behind her ear, and I noticed a plastic tag poking out from the silver strands. The tongue of the tag was threaded through the cartilage at the top of her ear.
‘What the hell is that?’
‘This?’ she asked. Her face hardened. ‘This ear tag was worn by an eight-month-old Australian lamb. His name was B211349. He was stunned with electricity, and then slaughtered. His throat was slit, and his body was consumed.’
I breathed long and deep through my nose. ‘And you wear his ear tag?’
‘Some of us have their names tattooed on us,’ one of the girls nearby said. She showed me the inside of her forearm. ‘We mourn them.’
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, and I couldn’t help some sign of that emotional struggle showing in my face. Ocean noticed. The tall, sun-bronzed woman got to her feet, and as I watched her go to the group of men by the cars, three more men came in from the desert, barefoot and covered in dust. One of them was wearing desert-camouflage pants, but no shirt. Ocean tossed a mean glance back at us as we sheltered in the cave, the kind of look I’d seen plenty of times. It was the gaze of someone measuring up an opponent for a fight.
Chapter 51
I TRIED TO hurry along the guys who were giving us a ride back to the camp, though the EarthSoldiers didn’t strike me as people who did anything quickly. I used one of their satellite phones to call the mine. Gabe Carter was not yet back from town. In the background of the call, I could hear the alerts for Amy still going out.
‘I don’t know what’s worse,’ I said. ‘Mourning dead lambs, or the blatant hypocrisy going on here. How long’s it going to take for all of these gadgets to biodegrade?’ I asked Whitt, kicking a generator as we wandered restlessly through the EarthSoldier camp. ‘That Shamma girl’s got make-up on, I swear.’
‘Maybe it’s cruelty-free make-up,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t go trying to argue with these lot. They sound pretty practised. They’ll just tell you they need all the tech for their cause. A minor sacrifice for a greater good.’
‘Yeah, well, if they’re so big on making sacrifices, maybe they’ll stretch to a human sacrifice.’ We paused at the edge of the EarthSoldiers’ camp, beyond the overhanging rock. ‘The way Ocean spoke about that lamb; they must see the person who killed it as . . . something else. A murderer. This is a real war to them. And remember what Linebacker told us. They nearly killed someone with the steamroller stunt. I don’t see them wearing that miner’s helmet in mourning had the guy been squished.’
‘Maybe we should get some background checks,’ Whitt said.
‘I agree. The shooter was wearing a desert-camo shirt. There’s plenty of that pattern getting around.’ I gestured at some girls sitting in a circle at the back of the cave, two of them wearing the army-style pants.
We wandered out of the camp and stood in the shade of the ridge, eyeing the drivers. I only hoped Gabe had found Amy in the town. Every second that Amy was missing, she was in danger. I couldn’t understand why no one else saw that. I was about to launch into a tirade at the men near the trucks when the girl, Shamma, approached me.
‘Are you guys here about Danny?’ she asked.
‘Yes.’ I focused on her. ‘And others. Did you know him?’
She ducked her head and scratched at her mass of messy locks. ‘We were friends, I guess. I was sad to hear what happened. Are you guys sure he’s dead? I mean, you don’t know he’s not out there somewhere just . . . just missing a foot?’
‘He’s dead,’ I said. ‘The animal predation was post-mortem.’
‘And we’re really sorry for your loss,’ Whitt chimed in, elbowing me.
‘Thanks.’ Shamma shrugged. She turned to go then hesitated. ‘Can I show you guys something?’
‘We don’t have ti–’
‘Sure,’ Whitt said.
We followed the girl around the side of the ridge, into a narrow strip of shade. I was itching to get back to the camp and trailed behind. When I caught up, Shamma was kneeling in the sand by a little mound of stones.
‘The boys found a kangaroo a couple of weeks back.’ She drew a finger through the sand, tracking a neat concentric circle out from the stones. ‘It was badly injured. The wound had stopped bleeding, but it seemed to have been wandering a long time. It was exhausted. It died here, on the camp.’
Whitt crouched down to look more carefully at the stones, the mound of earth where they had buried the creature.
‘Its leg had been blown off,’ Shamma said. ‘What kind of person would do that?’
Chapter 52
WE RETURNED TO the mine, and Whitt went off to the medical centre to have his cuts and scrapes seen to. The sun was already casting afternoon shadows. When I rounded the corner to my donga, I found Gabe there. He came forward, his mouth falling open.
‘What the hell happened? You look terrible!’
‘We were shot at.’ I sat on the steps, exhausted. ‘Someone hunted us in the valley like dogs.’
‘Oh my God.’ Gabe looked around. ‘Where’s your partner?’
‘He’s gone to the medical centre. He fell down a crevasse. I’m going to sit here for a minute, because I’m fucking tired. And then we’re going straight to the bosses. There’s a shooter on the loose. No one is safe.’
‘You won’t find any of the top administration here,’ Gabe said. ‘I’ve already tried to approach them about Amy. There’s a meeting on at a mine to the north, and all the brass have gone there.’
‘I’ll get police approval if I have to,’ I said. ‘We’re shutting down this camp pending further investigations.’
I stood and stumbled. Gabe caught the arm I threw out.
‘I want a phone, an aspirin and a glass of wine,’ I said.
‘You want a glass of water, it sounds like,’ he said. ‘You’ve probably got heat stroke. Your arms are absolutely fried.’
He turned my arm over. The skin was fever-red, right to my fingertips. I could already feel the burned back of my neck beginning to itch beneath my collar.
I sat back on the steps and the big man sat beside me.
‘So there was no sign of her?’
‘No,’ he said. ‘Couple of people saw her in the town, buying dinner. She got a ride here, and someone else saw her on her way to her donga. That was it.’
I tried to breathe deep. Since I’d been told about Sam, my stomach had been teetering on the knife-edge of nausea. The heat stroke, and my concern for Amy, didn’t help.
‘I can’t believe I lost her,’ I said. ‘From right under my nose. Why didn’t I recognise her as a possible target? I lost her, and I lost the killer out there in the valley. I should have run right at him. I should have done what I could to get a better look.’
‘Harry, are you absolutely certain it was the guy you’re looking for?’
I looked at him, and my look must have been frightening because he put both his hands up.
‘I’m just playing devil’s advocate. Is it possible it was some Outback dickhead out there trying to run you off their land? Or one of the EarthSoldiers warding you off?’
‘He wasn’t trying to get rid of us, Gabe,’ I snarled. ‘He was trying to kill us. Bullets were hitting the ground at my fucking feet. Whitt fell down a fucking hole in the earth.’
‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I had to ask. The bosses are going to ask you the very same tomorrow. They’re going to suggest, the way they have with Hon, Danny and Tori, that the whole thing is an overreaction.’
‘And I’ll wring their fat fucking necks.’
‘That’s not going to get you anywhere,’ he laughed.
‘I feel like I’m losing it.’ I rubbed my eyes. They ached with exhaustion. ‘If anything happens to Amy, it’s all on me.’
‘Do you always blame yourself for everything?’ Gabe grabbed my hand. I hardly noticed. ‘Or is it just this case?’
‘I don’t know. I just feel cursed right now,’ I said. ‘Everyone who has anything to do with me is in danger.’
‘It’s probably worth the risk.’ I realised his fingers were around mine and resisted the sudden and all-consuming urge to snatch them away. All my life I’ve had the impulse to retreat from kindness.
There was so much risk in getting involved with Harriet Blue. The foster parents who cared for me. The boyfriends who loved me, who I routinely dumped without explanation when things got serious; the mere sight of a man’s toothbrush in my bathroom too much commitment. The bosses who took me on, the wildcard, the girl with the temper. Part of me was sure Sam was innocent and something to do with me had caused this hellish thing to come into his life. It had to be me. I stained people. I brought the danger to their doors.
Chapter 53
DESPITE KNOWING THE hassle Gabe and I faced if Linebacker caught us, we snuck out of the camp and into the desert. The sky was cloudless, huge and pricked with stars. It was a hot night – almost none of the heat of the blinding day had dissipated yet. We walked for a while in silence, and just as naturally as he had when we were back on my doorstep, Gabe took my hand again. I felt that old familiar tingling up my neck, excitement, crashing against a heaviness in my stomach brought on by memories of the last time someone had walked with me this way. All my feelings for past lovers were distant and painful. I felt my body rebelling. On the horizon, the purple of the sunset lingered like mist.
We found a large, flat rock and sat side by side on the warm surface, watching the moonrise.
‘If he meant to kill you,’ Gabe said suddenly, ‘why aren’t you dead?’
I had to think for a moment. My near-death experience that day was the furthest thing from my mind. Someone had tried to kill me, and it was a stranger’s hand in mine that had me consumed with terror.
‘Oh, you know. My incredible speed and agility saved the day,’ I said.
He laughed. ‘Is Whitt incredibly fast and agile too?’
‘No, he’s just lucky.’ I remembered his story while we sheltered in the rocks, and I looked towards the camp, wondering how he was going at the medical centre. I’d left him in their care, the nurses stripping off his jeans, peeling a sweat-wet shirt off his shoulders. Gabe followed my glance, catching sight of my gun poking from the back of my jeans.
‘You wear that thing everywhere?’
‘I will be from now on,’ I said, flipping my T-shirt down over the weapon.
‘I bet a few men have copped a shock going for a handful of your arse and finding a police-issue Glock.’
‘Where I come from, a sudden arse-grab is not the generally accepted greeting.’
‘Well, you’re in the Outback now.’ He smiled.
‘Maybe you should get the word out. No grabbing Harry’s arse. No grabbing Whitt’s arse, either – he’ll be wearing a gun, too.’
‘I’ll try to contain myself.’
‘I think he’s alright, that guy,’ I said, glancing towards the camp again. ‘But I’m not sure. It’s so hard to trust people when there’s so much at stake.’
‘It’s so hard to trust people when there’s nothing at stake,’ Gabe said. ‘If you’ve been burned good enough once, you’ll always be scarred. Your instincts change.’
‘You sound like you’re speaking from experience,’ I said.
He smiled sheepishly. ‘How personal do you want to get?’
‘You can get as personal as you like.’ I shrugged. ‘Me? I admit nothing.’
He looked at the horizon. The wind tossed the hair over his brow.
‘I came out here to ruin my marriage,’ he said.
Chapter 54
HE LET THE words hang in the air. The unease in my stomach was growing, my body telling me that I was too close to this guy, that I was too vulnerable. That if I let him draw me in with his secrets, I might have to offer some secrets in return.
‘Our story was a great story, you know?’ he said, stretching out his legs. ‘When I heard my father tell it in the toast at the wedding, it sounded made up. She and her girlfriends were heading out to an art gallery one night, dressed to the nines. Ball gowns and stuff. Some charity thing.
‘As I’m driving on my way to work I see their group looking like they’ve come out of a photoshoot and I almost put my car up the back of a truck. Then the sky opens up and it pours. Straight down.’
He threw his hands down.
‘Oh no.’ I laughed.
‘So I shout, “Get in! Get in!” while they’re all panicking. Looked like a bunch of wet chickens. There isn’t a strip of shelter anywhere. They didn’t even think about it. They just threw themselves in the car.’
‘Not at all concerned that you might be some kind of axe murderer?’
‘Well, I was wearing a McDonald’s uniform.’
I laughed hard. ‘What? How old were you?’
‘Nineteen.’
The pain in my stomach was easing.
‘Michelle got in the front seat,’ he said. ‘When we got to the front doors of the gallery I asked her if she wanted to go get some ice-cream instead. She actually said yes. I blew off work and we drove off together.’
‘That story does sound made up.’
‘Doesn’t it? The craziest part is, a year later I married her.’
A silence fell between us, in which a real sadness lingered.
‘She was out of my league. It was obvious that first night we met, and it stayed obvious, through the engagement, the marriage. She’d decided to settle down in a suburban home with some lug-head construction guy when she could have been sipping champagne with movie stars, the way her family was.
‘It was when we had our second daughter that she changed,’ he sighed. ‘She was going out a lot. We used to have these roaring fights. She just hated me, you know?’
‘Wow,’ I said.
‘I felt like it would be easier for her if I left.’
‘So you came out here,’ I said.
‘Yeah. And after a while I stopped going back. I’d do back-to-back shifts and I wouldn’t call. I gave her a ticket out. She used it.’
‘Do you s
ee your kids now?’
‘Whenever I can,’ he said. ‘It might be better for them, this way. And Michelle, too. She’s going to law school.’
‘Law school won’t keep you warm at night,’ I said.
A smile spread over his face. ‘No. No it won’t. And she must be freezing.’ He wiped sweat from his brow, flicked it away. ‘Because I’m pretty hot.’
I laughed, a great honking sound, the kind I do rarely in the company of people I don’t know. It made him laugh too. He put an arm around my shoulders, held me close. I squeezed my eyes shut as my stomach fell again, excitement and terror as our lips met.
Alert. Alarm. Panic stations. A rush of images before my eyes.
Sam. The dead girls. The strange room in the photos on the case wall. Danny. Hon. Tori. Amy. Whitt. The dark tunnels beneath the earth, falling down and down into nothingness.
Just let go, I told myself. Just fucking let go.
I slipped into his lap, raked my fingers through his sweat-damp hair. He pulled me down against him, crushed me.
‘Oh God,’ he whispered, his forehead pressed against mine.
I wound my arms around his neck.
Chapter 55
WHAT. THE FUCK. Did you do?
I walked through the camp, keeping to the alleyways between the accommodation buildings, going nowhere, hiding more from my own mind than from any real threat. I was so frazzled by what Gabe and I had done in the desert that I stopped now and then and looked up at the stars.
What. The. Fuck.
I slept with a guy on a case.
I slept with a guy I hardly know, on a case.
I slept with a guy, here, now, while I’m stuck in the middle of fucking nowhere and Sam is facing life in prison and someone is picking off young miners like ducks, while someone is hunting Whitt and me, toying with us like game pieces.
By the time I came to my senses, I was standing outside the mine. A truck rumbling past me threw orange light up against the huge rock walls. I had vague memories of passing Linebacker along my journey, watching him smoking a cigarette on the first platform of the huge crane. I’d seen him but not really seen him, my head was in such a mess.