Croc Country

by Kerry McGinnis

  It was an hour or more after the letter was finished before a tap on the door heralded Sophie’s arrival. She came in yawning, wrapped in her dressing gown, and perched on the end of Tilly’s bed.

  ‘I’m bushed,’ she said, yawning again. ‘It’s been a long day, so what’s so important, Till? That was a great meal by the way.’

  ‘Glad you liked it.’ Tilly sat up, heaving the doona higher against the chilly air. ‘I’ll keep him well fed while you charm him, and maybe he’ll see things your way. But never mind that. There was a vehicle that sneaked through here last night. I just happened to be up . . .’ She told the tale succinctly, including Connor’s real purpose, adding anxiously, ‘But you have to keep that to yourself, Soph. The point – and the reason you should keep Matt away from Graeme – is that we’re now pretty sure that he’s involved with the traffickers. He’s grading roads for them, after all. And if he is, he’ll try to sabotage your plans for Sandstone Springs.’

  ‘No way!’ Sophie straightened where she sat. ‘I find that hard to believe. Matt’s dedicated to the job. He’s been here three, going on four years now, and there’s never been any suggestion—’

  ‘How do you explain the new road then? We both saw it, Soph. And we followed that vehicle within a spit and whistle of it. The driver certainly knew it was there! Anyway, how well do you really know Matt?’ Tilly pressed. ‘Would you say, for instance, that he was a good bushman? That he can track?’

  ‘Well, of course he can. He—’

  ‘Then why is he pretending that vehicle drove straight through to the river? Even I could see where it turned onto the Sandstone road. There’s no way he could have missed it! Not when his main purpose was to follow the wretched thing. And, now I come to think of it,’ Tilly said slowly, ‘he’s been trying all along to discourage me from going anywhere near the caves. Talking about the dangers of ticks and the sores they leave that won’t heal. You know how I’ve wanted to see both the caves and the springs ever since I heard about them. I’ve often spoken of getting out there one day, but he’s always said how bad the road is, how easy you can bog there. And then going on and on about the ticks – well, you were there.’

  ‘He was just having fun, teasing you.’

  ‘Matt doesn’t tease,’ Tilly said flatly. ‘It’s business or silence with him, you know it is. And I’ve just remembered that it was the workshop Connor chose to search. Not the sheds or the engine room, but the one place, apart from his room, that is Matt’s domain. Like maybe he always suspected him. Connor started out looking for drug dealers. Who’s to say Matt’s not into that too? And consider this: to be efficient, wildlife traffickers would really need a man on the ground to tell them when the coast was clear. Matt’s perfectly placed for that, isn’t he? That’s why you shouldn’t let him talk to Graeme – not if you want Sandstone to be developed – because it’s the last thing he’ll want.’

  Sophie looked torn. She said, ‘But he’s good at his job. He cares about what we do here.’

  ‘Or he pretends to. And don’t forget he knows every inch of the country. Stands to reason with the amount of time he spends out on the roads. Who is better placed to tell the poachers about a handy cave where they can stash the animals they steal until they’re ready to collect them? And when the rangers are somewhere else for the day?’

  ‘You could say the same about Luke,’ Sophie retorted. ‘He knows the country equally well.’

  ‘Can he drive a grader?’ Tilly asked. ‘Anyway, can you see Luke killing and terrorising birds?’ Exasperated with her cousin’s unwillingness to believe, she rolled her eyes. ‘Remember, I was there today. I saw him on that road – well, one of our vehicles, which comes to the same thing! I saw the cave where the cages had been, not to mention that damned great snake and the box he got out of. Look, Connor wants to keep the whole thing quiet and let it play out until they can nab the lot of them – but I thought you ought to know.’

  ‘Well, thanks – I think. All right, I’ll bear it in mind. And I might have a word with your Mr Doyle too, when I see him next. I’ll give him botany!’

  ‘He’s not mine,’ Tilly said sharply. And then reminded, she added, ‘By the way, Luke’s Jane is heading this way soon, for a week apparently. He wondered if we could house her? She’s coming on the mail plane so she won’t have camping gear.’

  Sophie got tiredly to her feet, smothering another yawn. ‘Oh God, why not? Undercover agents, stray girlfriends . . . I might as well be running a pub.’

  Chapter Twenty-one

  In the morning, Tilly rose early to make a batch of rock cakes (the cake supply tended to dwindle between her turns as cook). She packed some, still warm, with Graeme’s lunch, mentally thanking Providence for the tender supply of corned beef in the fridge as she made his sandwiches. Somebody had got it right at last – half-done meat seemed to be the metier of her fellow cooks. Luke had refuelled Sophie’s vehicle, and Graeme and Sophie left straight after breakfast, him with an impressive-looking camera slung about his neck.

  Luke, having fed the cocky chicks, was the next to go, which left only Matt still at table.

  ‘Will you be needing your lunch today?’ Tilly asked. She found it hard to speak naturally to him and was relieved when he nodded.

  ‘Yeah. I’ll be workin’ at the camp. Ain’t worth drivin’ back just to eat.’ She felt his eyes on her and looked up to see them slide away. ‘What was the big confab about last night then?’

  ‘With Graeme and Sophie? I’ve no idea. I was clearing up.’

  ‘Later,’ he grunted. ‘I saw Sophie go into your room.’

  ‘Oh.’ Tilly, taken aback, searched for an answer. ‘Really, Matt, wouldn’t that be my business? If you must know,’ she improvised wildly, ‘I’ve suggested to my mum that she come up for a visit. Sophie agrees she needs a break and we were working out how to present it to her.’

  ‘Right, well. What d’you reckon about this McGuire bloke? Think he’ll go for it?’

  ‘I’ve really no idea,’ Tilly said primly. ‘Could you make your own lunch? I’d like to get on. That vegie garden looks like it hasn’t had a weed pulled from it in weeks. And I see there’s some laundry waiting as well.’

  Once he too had left, Tilly was glad to have the place to herself, the tourists coming and going hardly counting, their interruptions only brief as they signed in and paid. She mopped and tidied, worked in the garden and pegged out washing while half her mind played over the previous day’s events and the rest, caught by the idea she had plucked from nowhere to satisfy Matt’s curiosity, wondered if her mother could be coaxed north for a visit.

  Elaine, Tilly knew, had served her husband faithfully and submissively for nearly thirty years, so surely she was due a break. A week or ten days in respite care shouldn’t be too much to ask of a man who, according to her mother’s rambling accounts of her daily life, couldn’t even recognise his wife half the time. She could travel by bus if the airfare proved too expensive, and either be met, or catch the mail plane out to Binboona; Tilly herself could help with that fare. It would be a well-deserved break for Elaine, while to have days of her mother’s company would be an unalloyed treat for Tilly. Except when he was at sea, the shadow of her stepfather had always come between mother and daughter; not exactly threatening, Tilly mused now, but crowding the edges of their intimacy until his presence subtly succeeded in separating them. This unacknowledged silent pressure had, she realised, been mainly responsible for her leaving home when she did.

  Then there was Jane’s upcoming visit to factor in. There was only the one spare room, but Luke had said she would only stay a week, so her mother could come immediately after. She might even cook for them. Tilly smiled at the thought; her mother certainly wouldn’t care to eat anything that Luke, Matt or Sophie could produce. She found herself keenly anticipating Elaine’s arrival, momentarily forgetting that so far the idea lived only in her head and that both Sophie and Elaine would have to agree to make it happen.

&nb
sp; Connor arrived in the early afternoon, pulling up at the shed and walking across to find Tilly busy in the vegie patch.

  ‘Just coming,’ she called, without looking round. She smeared a gloved hand across her hot brow and rose saying, ‘Welcome to Binboona. It’s only – Oh.’ Looking up, she saw him and gave a little laugh. ‘Connor. Sorry, thought you were another tourist. What can I do for you?’

  ‘Luke said you’d pulled kitchen duties,’ he answered, ‘for the duration of your guest’s visit, I gather. I just thought I’d drop by on my way through.’

  ‘You’re leaving us?’ Tilly was surprised at the intensity of her disappointment.

  ‘Overnight trip, that’s all. I need a word with my man at Spadgers Creek.’

  ‘I see.’ Tilly remembered then and enquired somewhat guiltily, ‘Have you seen Sophie today?’

  ‘Yep. She’s not best pleased with me,’ he said ruefully. ‘Words like deceit and weasel spring to mind.’

  ‘I’m sorry, but I had to tell her. Oh, you don’t know the latest, do you?’ She stripped off her gloves. ‘Come in, and I’ll put the kettle on and tell you all about it. You’ll see then why I had to give you away.’

  ‘It’s okay,’ he assured her. ‘And I do understand why she was upset. It’s human nature not to want to feel that you’ve been used or made a fool of. Which was not my intention.’

  ‘No, of course not.’ Tilly led him inside. ‘Take a seat, I’ll be right back when I’ve washed.’

  Seated across the table with the tea things between them, Tilly told him Matt’s version of the previous day and his low-key but persistent opposition to her earlier desire to visit the caves. ‘Of course, he doesn’t know that I did. I had to tell Sophie about that and it’s made her even more determined to have Sandstone Springs made accessible for tourism. Having the public there will protect the caves too – even just the workmen being there would be enough. So,’ she finished, belatedly realising that she hadn’t made plain her reasons for telling Sophie about him, ‘I had to warn her about Matt. Because she was going to let him show Graeme – he’s the company’s money man – around the place. And of course Matt would have done his best to talk him out of it.’

  ‘But would this Graeme have listened? Sophie’s in charge, isn’t she?’

  Tilly gave him a pitying look. ‘And Matt’s a man, and understands machinery and the costs and difficulties of keeping roads open in monsoon country. What do you think?’

  ‘Ah. Well, she chewed me out pretty well this morning but has agreed to keep quiet about who I am. I have to admit I’ve had my eye on Matt all along. Because if Binboona’s strip of coastline was being used, then somebody here had to be in league with the bad guys, and on the surface he’s the most likely candidate. And now we know I was right. Of course, Sophie’s simplest course would just be to sack him – not that we want her to do so.’

  ‘She can’t do that,’ Tilly protested. ‘I mean, not without proof. She’s only got our word for it after all.’

  He raised his brows. ‘And she wouldn’t believe us – you?’

  ‘Yes, but she has a boss too, and he’d be harder to satisfy. He’d probably fear a backlash for unlawful dismissal. And think how Matt could twist it if he chose to. I don’t expect he would, because he wouldn’t want to draw official attention, but he might claim it was a put-up job, that I orchestrated it to get rid of his attentions to me. Because I do think,’ she said hesitantly, ‘that he’s attracted to me a little, so there are grounds there if he wanted to use them.’

  ‘I’m a bit at sea here.’ Connor’s eyes narrowed. ‘Is it that you actually care for him?’

  Tilly’s colour rose again. ‘No, I don’t,’ she said vehemently, then added more moderately, ‘not at all. In fact I had no idea until . . . Anyway, I doubt that Sophie’s about to sack him. Apart from anything else, this place would be lost without a mechanic. Luke can change a tyre and that’s about it.’

  ‘Good. It means I shouldn’t have to worry that he’ll disappear on me. Look, thanks for the tea and the chat, Tilly. I’d better get moving. I hope you all succeed in talking your visitor round on the springs. That whole area is certainly worth exploiting. The tourists will love it.’

  ‘We think so too.’ Tilly walked to the verandah with him and stood to watch him leave, then checked the pleasing growth of her seedlings in the tubs at the foot of the steps and returned to her weeding.

  Sophie and Graeme arrived back mid-afternoon. Luke was home by then, and Matt arrived soon afterwards. He had been fencing, it seemed. Luke helped him load a supply of timber posts for next day, and while Graeme showered, Tilly pounced on her cousin. ‘Well? How did it go?’

  ‘Pretty well, I think.’ Sophie was cautious but there was a gleam of excitement in her eyes. ‘He was definitely impressed, and he said he could see the potential. Turns out he’s got a real interest in birds too, so tomorrow I think I’ll get Luke to take him down to the coast along the river road. There’ll be plenty of wading birds to look at, and with a bit of luck, he’ll see jabiru and fish eagles too.’

  ‘Birds?’ Tilly raised her brows. ‘What’s that got to do with Sandstone?’

  Sophie shrugged. ‘If zebras were his thing, I’d do my damnedest to find some of them for him. I want him to love the place, Till. What resources get allocated to the various properties the WPA owns isn’t just up to him. He has to go back and convince the board, or shareholders or whatever, that it’s worth spending here. I want him to root for Binboona. It’s a truckload of money we’re asking for.’

  Tilly nodded. ‘That makes sense. I’ve made pasties for his lunch tomorrow, and he’ll have croissants for breakfast.’

  ‘You’re the best! Anything interesting happen today?’

  ‘Connor came through and I told him about Matt. He said you chewed him out properly. He’s really sorry, you know, about having to deceive you. You didn’t actually call him a weasel, did you, Soph?’

  ‘I believe the phrase was “weaselling his way into the place”,’ she replied. ‘Why couldn’t he just have explained to us?’

  ‘How? He’s working undercover! There’s also a cop in the stock camp at Spadgers Creek. I bet Bruce Hansen isn’t aware of that either, so don’t mention it.’

  Sophie shook her head. ‘Lord, the things that go on.’ She sniffed. ‘Something smells wonderful – what’s for dinner?’

  The following morning, Graeme entered the kitchen to find Tilly staring through the binoculars at the bird basin. She looked up and beckoned, saying quietly, ‘Quick, come look. Gouldians. It’s the second time in a month that I’ve seen them.’

  He took the glasses. ‘Oh, wow! Isn’t that something. Whose idea was the basin?’

  ‘Luke’s, of course.’

  ‘That figures. Sophie said he was keen on birds. The finches certainly like it. Man, I can see some crimson, some double-bars, and long tails . . . And those two. You can hardly believe they’re real, can you? Such colour.’

  ‘Oh, Binboona can turn it on.’ Tilly spoke eagerly. ‘We had the cutest little sugar glider a while back. Very weak and covered with ticks. I’d never seen a real one before. We were able to nurse him back to health, which was very rewarding. And there’s Harry the brolga, and the joeys . . . Have you seen Luke’s black cocky chicks?’

  He spoke with the glasses still to his eyes. ‘Not yet. So, why did you decide to become a ranger, Tilly?’

  ‘It’s an interesting job. And worthwhile – I like doing something, however small, to help the environment. And I love the tranquillity of the place. Oh, the climate’s extreme but it’s very beautiful country. It’s become home to me.’ She smiled. ‘I’m a transplanted southerner, you know. Once we discover the north, I doubt we ever leave.’

  ‘Ah, they’ve gone.’ Graeme lowered the binoculars. ‘Never mind, I understand we’re going bird-watching today. I envy you, Tilly, with all this for a backyard.’ A circular sweep of his arm took in the open slope to the timber-fringed river bank w
ith the sparkle of water beyond. ‘It’s a bit different to the city.’

  ‘It’s certainly that,’ she said. ‘How are you getting back to Darwin, Graeme?’

  ‘I’ll fly out tomorrow on the mail plane. Then I’m heading across to Halls Creek. The company has a property there. Thank God for aviation, eh?’

  ‘Better than bulldusty roads,’ Tilly agreed. ‘Breakfast is ready when you are.’

  Later in the day when Luke and Graeme had left, with Sophie on camp duties and Matt occupied with something in the shed, Connor returned. Tilly was again in the garden, watering this time, and turned off the hose at his approach.

  ‘How’s it going?’ she asked. ‘Did you get your errand done?’

  ‘Hi, Tilly.’ He ran an eye over the vegetable plot. ‘You’ve certainly got a green thumb. That all looks good enough to eat.’

  She laughed. ‘Vegetables are meant to, or what’s the point? But no special credit is due. Everything grows up here, and there’re no pests. I haven’t seen a cabbage moth in two years. Would you like some greens? There’s plenty to share.’

  ‘Well, if you’re sure. I suppose a bit of fresh stuff in my diet wouldn’t hurt. Actually, the reason I stopped by was to give you this.’ He held out the jar that had been half concealed in his hand. It was full of a golden liquid with something floating within it.

  ‘What is it?’ She eyed it curiously, lifting it to eye level.

  ‘Just a little carving I thought you might like. You should leave it to cure in the bottle for a month or so, because the wood’s green and it’ll split if it dries too quickly. And as you seem to be the one who looks after him . . .’

  ‘It’s Harry!’ She looked from the jar to him and back again, marvelling at the detail. ‘Good Lord, you can see every feather! It’s beautiful, Connor. Thank you. Though why—’

  ‘It’s all in the timber,’ he said, cutting her off. ‘That’s got to hold the shape before you start. You can’t, for instance, get a horse out of something that’s plainly holding a dog. Birds are simpler. There’s plenty of them lurking in branches everywhere.’