That made Dave sit up and pay attention. He looked at the whiteboard and his eyes slid to Paul’s name. ‘Okay, I’ll be there as soon as I can. Give me the directions to the paddock.’
Amelia told him and he hung up. Hoping to get one of the locals, he dialled the Barker police station. Jack answered and Dave gave quick and precise instructions about meeting him at Eastern Edge. Then he gathered up his evidence kit, phone, notebook and camera, and hurried out the door.
On the drive over, Dave talked himself through everything he knew. ‘Five crimes, four on farms. Chemical, GPS equipment, diesel, ute. All to do with cropping. But it’s sheep this time—doesn’t fit. So have they changed or is it someone else acting under the cover of the previous crimes? Do we have two different lots of people doing it now?’
He turned onto the road that bordered Eastern Edge and drove slowly, looking for the cocky gate on the left-hand side that Amelia had told him about. He rounded a corner and saw her standing in the middle of the road like she’d promised. She waved to him and he pulled up. ‘In here,’ she called, gesturing him towards her.
Dave ignored her, parking on the opposite side of the road and getting out. ‘Have you walked or driven through the gate?’ he asked as he grabbed his trusty rucksack—packed with everything he’d need—from the back seat and walked over.
‘Yeah, we drove through.’
Dave said nothing, but surveyed the ground. Truck tracks, with ute tracks over the top, he was sure. He took the camera out of his bag. Clicking quickly, he zoomed in on the clear part of the truck tracks, thicker and wider than those of the ute. And there was something about them . . . He leant even closer. It looked like one of the tyres had a chip of rubber missing. That could be a crucial piece of evidence.
‘Where’s Paul?’ Dave asked, still clicking.
‘He’s gone to check some of the other paddocks.’
Dave stopped and looked at her. ‘I thought you said you’d already done that?’
‘We have!’ she protested, her lips turning down. ‘You don’t trust anyone, do you?’ Then she gave a short laugh. ‘Huh, why would you, you’re a copper.’ She shook her head before saying, quietly and clearly, ‘We have. We both have. We’ve spent over two hours looking for them and they are certainly not here. Back at the house is the paperwork that came with them, if you want that.’
‘I do.’
She looked taken aback, and he realised he’d gone a bit too far.
‘I’m sorry if I sound brisk and abrupt,’ he said. ‘I get like that when I’m investigating.’
‘It’s okay,’ she said, shrugging.
Dave cleared his throat. ‘Right, can you just stay here for now? I’m waiting for Jack Higgins to arrive. If you can show him where to go, that would be great.’
‘Sure.’ Amelia folded her arms across her chest. ‘No worries.’
Dave grabbed his rucksack and put it on his back. Picking his way through the gate, he made sure he didn’t step on any of the tracks. He followed their progress into the paddock. Deep grooves in the sand showed that the truck had turned to the left, and he took more photos before following them along the fence line.
The roadside bush was high and thick—there was no way anyone could have seen what was going on from the road. He knew the moon had been almost full, because he and Kim had walked down to the Lions Club park and sat by the pond. The moon would have provided enough light to see the ewes and load them. He’d also been following the moon cycles on the weather site he used. Most rural crime happened leading up to or on a full moon—the crims needed to see what they were doing.
Whoever did this would have needed dogs, though. Unless . . .
He turned and yelled, ‘Amelia?’
‘Yeah?’
‘You drove through this gate in a ute?’
‘Yeah, we did.’
He didn’t answer. Okay, well, that meant it wasn’t the ute that had been stolen in a previous robbery. They had to have dogs, and some type of panels or gates. He kept following the tracks until he came to the corner of the paddock. He looked back to the gate and judged the distance to be about three hundred metres. Standing there, he examined all the marks in the ground before getting out the camera again and shooting several more photos. He could see where the truck had been parked, as well as a mixture of tracks leading into where he assumed the back of the vehicle had been.
This was clearly where the ewes had been loaded on. Without disturbing the scene, Dave walked to the fence and looked around some more, his eyes raking the ground for anything that had been left behind. Once again, to his frustration, it seemed the scene was clean, bar the tracks.
‘Damn,’ he whispered. But then his eyes caught on something.
There was a small pool of black liquid on the ground. Watching where he put his feet, Dave looked at it closely and realised it was oil. Raising his head, he checked out the scene again. ‘Yeah, yeah, this is where the cab of the truck would most certainly have been,’ he muttered. Dumping his rucksack on the ground, he grabbed an evidence bag and used his pocket knife to scoop up a bit of the oil to cross-match when they finally found the truck. Searching for the tape measure he knew was in there, he finally found it and looked up just as someone called his name.
‘Dave!’
He saw the young cop walking towards him. ‘G’day, Jack! Got another one.’
‘This is tough, hey? Paul Barnes can’t take a trick. Sells a bit of land to get a bit of cash. Buys a few special sheep to make a bit of extra money, and then they get stolen.’ Jack shook his head. ‘Poor bastard.’
Dave looked at him curiously. ‘How do you know they’ve been stolen?’ he asked.
‘Well, of course they’ve been! Just like all the other robberies around here.’ Jack seemed affronted.
‘Right.’ Dave shifted from foot to foot. ‘I understand what you’re saying, but how do you know, without looking at the scene, that Paul Barnes hasn’t made it look like they’ve been stolen so he can get the insurance money?’
‘I . . . uh . . .’ Jack mumbled, looking stunned.
‘Exactly, you don’t. That sort of attitude affects cases,’ Dave said severely. ‘Now, grab hold of this so we can measure.’ He held out the measuring tape.
Jack’s brow furrowed. ‘Measure what?’
‘Look here.’ Dave pointed to the oil. ‘We’ve got an engine leak. If we measure from here to where the sheep were loaded on, we can work out the length of the truck and do a check on who owns trucks like this one.’
‘Right.’ Jack grabbed the end of the tape and together they walked around, taking measurements. Dave wrote everything in his notebook with an excited feeling beginning to bubble in his stomach. They were getting closer to solving this, he was sure. He’d arrange to have the diagram and measurements sent off to Adelaide as soon as he got back to Torrica. He was pretty sure that Coops and the crew would be able to give him an idea of what type of truck he was looking for. Then he’d pull all the rego records on the trucks in the district and be able to narrow down a list of suspects—hopefully a shorter list than he had right now.
Dave kept circling the scene. The sand was deep and it was likely that if something had been dropped, it had disappeared under the surface. He stooped over, peering at all the tracks again. Finally he was rewarded. There was something else!
Using a pen, he shifted the sand from around the object. ‘Bloody hell,’ he muttered. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a pair of gloves and put them on. ‘Pass me the tweezers from my evidence kit, can you?’ he called to Jack.
‘Here!’ Jack ran up to him with a pair.
‘Got an evidence bag?’
‘Ah . . .’ Jack glanced around. ‘No.’
‘In my rucksack pocket. Back left,’ Dave said. He bent down, shifted a little more dirt and latched on to the item, drawing it out and holding it up.
Jack was holding a plastic evidence bag open. ‘What is it?’ he asked.
‘A used canist
er cartridge from a taser gun.’
Chapter 27
‘The after-sport rush will be here shortly,’ Kim said to Amelia as they sat together with iced coffees in front of them. ‘All the junior netball and footy players and their parents will be wanting a coffee and piece of cake before they go home. Reckon we’ve got about two minutes.’
Amelia stood up and looked out the window. ‘No, I think you’ve got about thirty seconds. And it looks like there are a few grandies in among this lot!’
‘There goes the peace,’ Kim said, sighing and getting to her feet. ‘Can you take the orders? I’ll get the coffee machine warmed up and do some prep in the kitchen.’
Amelia didn’t shift from where she was perched on a stool, but watched as they all walked in. These were people she’d known forever and had trusted implicitly—until the attack. Now she wasn’t sure who to trust. Especially after the memory of that voice saying, She’s not going to like this. Who could that woman be?
Over the past few days Amelia had found herself watching people as she walked down the street or shopped in the supermarket. People she knew well and people she only knew by name. Assessing them, wondering if they had the ability to mastermind and carry out such a violent attack.
She’d even, just for a second, suspected Sav, after she’d blanked her the other day. But Amelia had got cross with herself over that—surely she’d learned her lesson after opening her mouth before engaging her brain with Paul. Now, however, she was even more determined to try and work out who had done this. Paul’s sheep had been taken—what would they do next? It seemed personal.
‘There’s got to be a local involved,’ Amelia heard Gus say, as he and Pip walked into the roadhouse.
‘Surely not,’ she retorted. ‘We’re such a close-knit community. I can’t think of anyone bad enough to do these sorts of things. No, I’m sure you’re wrong.’
‘What about Justin Croaker? He was always hurting little kids when he was at school.’ They stood at the counter, completely absorbed in their conversation. ‘Maybe he’s turned out even worse than he was when he was a kid.’
‘Now, you can’t be saying things like that out loud and in public, Gus.’ Pip frowned at him, then noticed Amelia. ‘Oh hi, Milly, how are you? Your face looks much better.’ With a grin, Pip opened her arms for a hug.
Gus patted Amelia on the shoulder. ‘Good to see you. You going all right?’
She smiled up at him. ‘Fine, Gus, thanks.’ Then she noticed Pip glancing behind the counter, looking for Kim. ‘Did you want me to take your order?’
‘Thanks, love,’ Pip said, beaming. ‘Two coffees to go and a bucket of chips.’
‘No cake?’ she asked, thinking of the huge chocolate mud cake and the banana bread that were sitting in the kitchen.
‘Oh, no, I don’t think so,’ answered Pip, patting her stomach.
Gus rolled his eyes. ‘And chips are much less fattening,’ he said with a patient grin.
Amelia wrote it down and took it through to the kitchen, where Kim was grilling up a steak. ‘First couple don’t want cake! But you were right about the coffees.’
‘Thanks, sweetie! Won’t be long.’
‘Sure.’ Pushing back through the kitchen doors, Amelia saw Anne walking up the path to the roadhouse. The bell tinkled as she walked in, and Amelia returned her broad smile. ‘Anne! How are you?’
Amelia hugged her, and Pip and Gus said their hellos.
‘Terrible business this stealing, isn’t it?’ Pip started.
Amelia listened from behind the counter, hoping there was some new information she hadn’t heard yet.
Anne shook her head. ‘Just shocking. I can’t believe this could happen in a town like Torrica.’
‘Paul’s just had thirty White Suffolk stud ewes stolen,’ Amelia put in.
‘Really?’ Anne turned to look at her in astonishment. ‘How dreadful. When?’
‘Happened sometime last night. Got to be after nine-thirty because Paul was out fox shooting until then and he didn’t see anything. We went looking for them, but we had to call Dave in. They’ve completely disappeared.’
Kim came out with Pip and Gus’s order. ‘Here you go, guys.’
Gus thanked her and went over to pay. ‘Now there’s another example of why someone local has to be involved. Obviously they knew there were prize sheep and what paddock they were in. It’s like the diesel that was taken a while ago. The tank had just been filled.’ He handed over the money and gave everyone a significant look.
Amelia took a sharp breath. That was exactly what she and Chelle had discussed yesterday. The crims had to know what was on the farms, therefore maybe it was someone who had access to people’s properties without attracting suspicion. There were those two names that sprang to mind: Jim Green and Grant Hink.
Amelia had also considered the local stock agent in Barker, but she was sure he couldn’t be involved. For one thing, he was almost seventy not out, and for another he was incredibly overweight. Last time he’d been at Granite Ridge to look at some mutton, he hadn’t even got out of the car, just stared at the ewes and offered the price.
‘Gus, how on earth can you say that?’ Anne asked. ‘Are you forgetting Mr Collins? Nobody in this area could possibly use a taser gun on an old man. We’ve all been brought up and raised our kids to have respect for people, possessions and animals. For everything in life. That’s just ridiculous.’
Pip lifted her eyebrows at her husband in a told-you-so manner.
‘But who says the local person isn’t working with thugs from out of town?’ Gus asked, raising his hands. ‘Even if they’re all locals, don’t you see my point?’
‘I do,’ Amelia said softly.
‘So do I,’ Kim agreed. ‘But as far as that goes, a “local” doesn’t need to be someone that’s been raised here. Maybe there’s a new workman on someone’s farm, or a person who’s shifted into a caravan park. There are plenty of reasons why it could be someone in this district. Anyone with an ear to the ground could have heard these types of things. Especially if they hang out at the pub.’ She shrugged her ample shoulders and flicked back her curly hair.
‘But if they’re hanging out at the pub, we would have seen them,’ Anne argued.
Kim shrugged. ‘Just throwing ideas out there.’
Interesting ideas, Amelia thought, although she wasn’t sure about them.
The bell on the door jangled as Cappa walked in. ‘Ah, we got a committee meeting I didn’t know about?’ he asked as he spotted everyone.
‘We can’t possibly start—Jim’s not here,’ Amelia said in a sarcastic tone, and everyone laughed.
‘We’re just discussing if the criminals are local or not,’ Pip said, sipping her coffee. ‘Got any thoughts?’
Cappa grimaced before shaking his head. ‘Gotta say I haven’t given it a lot of thought. To me it doesn’t matter if they’re locals. The fact is, they need to be caught and I don’t want them on my place. I’ve beefed up security since going to that detective’s crime forum. Bloody amazing, the things he came up with. Things I never would have considered. I’ve put security cameras at my front gate now, and I’ve got a couple around the sheds too.’
Anne looked shocked. ‘Bloody hell. I remember Dave suggesting that, but I thought it was going a bit far.’
‘Don’t think we can be too careful,’ Cappa said, pushing his hat back and scratching his forehead. ‘We’re in a situation where we have to change our way of thinking. Not be so trusting. It’s a bugger, really.’
Amelia thought that was the whole point. Not be so trusting. She felt a shiver run down her spine. This wasn’t about what people thought of her anymore, not even Dave: it was about wanting to know herself. She couldn’t feel safe in Torrica. She didn’t think she’d feel safe anywhere until these people were caught.
‘Fancy having to lock our front doors at night,’ Anne was saying. ‘Never even considered doing that until now.’ She sighed. ‘Times are a-changing.’
<
br /> ‘You got that right,’ Pip said.
Kim picked up her pen and pad. ‘Right, let’s talk about something far more encouraging,’ she said, putting a huge smile on her face. ‘Who wants to order, and who’s going to Graham and Dani’s engagement party tonight? Should be a blast!’
‘Oh yeah,’ Pip said, with pleasure in her voice. ‘We’re going. Great to see something positive happening here.’ She grabbed at a chip from the bucket Gus was holding. ‘Goodness, they’ve spent some money though, haven’t they?’
Gus closed his eyes. ‘Come on, Pip, time to go. You ladies just love to gossip, don’t you?’ He started towards the door. ‘Good to see you all! Catch you tonight.’
Pip rolled her eyes and followed him, before turning back. ‘Gossip’s what we’re supposed to do, isn’t it?’ She gave a cheeky grin and winked at Amelia. ‘See you!’
Kim, Anne and Amelia all chuckled, while Cappa stood there with a bemused look on his face. ‘Never understood women,’ he muttered. ‘You’re a funny breed of cattle.’
‘Cappa!’ Amelia squealed indignantly.
‘All right, all right, break it up, you two,’ Kim said with a grin. ‘Now, orders?’
‘Steak sandwich, please,’ said Anne, ‘and I’ll grab a Coke from the fridge.’
‘And you, Cappa?’
‘Toasted ham, cheese and tomato sandwich, please. And I think I need a coffee too. And . . . I can’t resist a slice of your scrumptious mud cake.’
‘Milly, can you ring these up?’ Kim went back into the kitchen.
Amelia told Anne and Cappa the amounts, took the cash and put it in the till. Cappa turned to the noticeboard and started to read all the ‘for sale’ and community notices. A big group of customers trickled in; Amelia took their orders and handed them over the swinging doors to Kim, while the group sat down by the front window.
Anne was still sitting at the counter, drinking her Coke. ‘Are you looking forward to the party then, Milly?’ she asked.
Amelia half-shrugged. ‘Of course I am. After all, he’s my brother.’
‘You’re sounding very enthused,’ Anne said with a wry grin.
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