Deadly Secrets

by Sarah Barrie

  ‘She’s not my — what do you mean?’

  ‘I mean I think Hal’s got something in mind for your — for Jordan. The fact that someone with Brian’s morals argued against it worries the bejesus out of me. They’re up to something.’

  ‘No surprise. Thanks for the heads up.’

  ‘So, does your bright, happy mood have anything to do with your not-girlfriend?’

  ‘Got to go, buddy. Joel Tanner just walked in.’ As Reid hung up, Joel sat down. ‘Joel, thanks for coming.’

  ‘Said I would.’ Joel nodded, then as Mary instantly appeared, thanked her for the coffee she poured him. ‘What do you need on Hal?’

  ‘What have you got?’

  ‘Nothing I can prove…you’re worried about Jordy?’

  ‘Maybe. What about the men that work for Hal?’

  Joel took a sip of his coffee. ‘Only really know Gary and Brian. Be lucky if Gary’s smart enough to poke a stick. Look, he’s alright when he’s not on the booze or the dope. Was always a bit easily led…got into some trouble with Beau but keeps to himself mostly. I’ve never personally had a problem with him. Nor with that Jonno character.’

  ‘Brian?’

  ‘Worked for Tom, Jordan’s dad, for a few years while he was in his teens, nice enough kid. Then he started hanging around the Carters and that was that. Tom sent him packing. Ended up working for Hal like his dad.’

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘He went hot and cold with the work, started on the pot and got a bit too uncomfortably attached to Jordy for Tom’s peace of mind.’

  ‘Were they…’

  ‘No! No, Jordy was barely in her teens. She saw him more as a kind of honorary family member than anything else.’

  ‘Any of these guys likely to come at Jordan?’

  ‘Can’t see it. Why?’

  ‘Just keeping tabs.’

  Joel shook his head and leaned forward, scowling. ‘Excuse me for saying this, but if you’re going to spoon me crap, don’t expect me to open my mouth. You didn’t call me in here for idle chit-chat. If you think any of Hal’s goons are going to give Jordan any trouble, I need to know.’

  Reid studied Joel’s concerned face for several seconds before nodding slowly. ‘Okay. I have reason to believe Hal Carter’s got something up his sleeve for Jordan.’

  ‘What sort of reason?’

  ‘A reliable one.’

  Joel planted his hands on the table. ‘Then I’d best be off to chat with him.’

  ‘How about having a chat with me first? What do you think he’s capable of?’

  Joel swallowed hard. ‘Just about anything.’

  ‘If I said there was a rumour that Hal might know something about Beau Davison’s death, what would you say to that?’

  ‘Well, if we’re being straight with each other, I’d say he does go through a lot of hands. A guy called Frank Braile ended up face down in the creek a couple of years back, tragic accident. A Kane Choo vanished a year before that. Could have been he just took off, left all his stuff…didn’t tell anyone…’

  ‘You think Hal Carter’s a murderer?’

  ‘Hal personally? No. Do I think he’d get someone else to murder for him? Not on a whim, but if he was backed into a corner… maybe. But Jordy? No. He wouldn’t.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Hal and I are at a bit of a stalemate. I know some things about him; he’s holding some others over me. While it stays that way, he wouldn’t dare do anything stupid.’

  ‘My information says otherwise.’ The beeping of Reid’s mobile interrupted the exchange and he pulled it from his pocket. Seeing it was from Brett he opened it and checked the message.

  CHECK ON JW.

  Joel saw a muscle work in Reid’s jaw. ‘Problem?’

  Reid juggled the need to immediately ensure Jordan’s safety with continuing the conversation, decided it was no contest. ‘I need to check on Jordan.’

  Jordan arrived home from town dreading the workload ahead. Everything had taken too long to do today and she was fast running out of daylight. Although the stud cattle were now leading well enough and looked physically ready, there was still a hell of a lot of work to do. Clipping — she hated clipping, and all twenty would have to be done right before the show. Sean and Julie Kent’s mare needed to go home, her own horses were barely fit, and the truck needed looking over before the cattle were loaded on.

  Even lost in thought, she knew something was wrong before she’d made it halfway down her drive. It took her a minute to figure it out, then it hit her with a sense of absolute dread.

  The steers were gone.

  Frantic, she scanned her entire property and drove around the perimeter of the paddocks until she found the hole in the fence. It was deliberate, no doubt about the clean cuts to the wire. It had even been tied back to ensure the cattle would go through. Around the hole, tire tracks cut into the ground — they’d been rounded up and pushed through.

  Trying not to panic, she drove back to the shed and threw a bale of lucerne hay onto the quad. The cattle were used to the sound of the quad and knew the taste of good hay. If they were around, it was her best chance of recovering them.

  ‘You coming, Mack?’

  The dog raced off ahead as she started up and took off after him toward the back gate. She followed the tracks up the mountain, then into the bushland along the fire trail, right up to her back boundary until she reached another cut fence. More dread somersaulted in her stomach. The cattle were in the park.

  The forest here was thick and steep — dangerous country for fat, lazy cattle. ‘Come on!’ she called over and over, occasionally revving the quad.

  Mack darted through the gap but she let him go and continued calling. After a long couple of minutes, she heard the cattle bawling from a frightening distance away.

  She kept it up. The light was dying and she wondered how much time she had left before she lost it completely. Deciding to go after them, Jordan jumped off the quad and pulled at the barbed wire to create a wider gap in the fence. There was already hair and skin attached where the cattle had caught themselves rushing through. Trail-bike tracks led in after them.

  Once the gap was more satisfactory, she trekked down into the heavy bush, bulldozed over by the large herd of cattle. She reached a large drop-off and immediately spotted Mack sniffing around a dead steer about twelve feet below. Cursing under her breath, she spotted the steep, muddy slope to the right of the drop that the cattle had created slipping and sliding their way down the hill. She negotiated her way down it, much as the cattle had done, and reaching the bottom, she followed their tracks.

  After another eternity of calling, the first white head of a Hereford steer appeared in the rapidly darkening forest. A few more followed closely behind and then the herd were slowly moving toward her.

  Jordan turned to struggle back up the track. It wasn’t going to be easy for them to get back in, so she darted ahead and grabbed a couple of biscuits of hay, scattering them to tempt them up the difficult bank. Her actions caused the majority of the herd to bound up the slide, and she scooted down behind the stragglers to push them up. Mack thankfully stayed by her side, which helped move the cattle on.

  She counted forty-seven, which left six missing. She waited, judging how long it could take the additional stragglers against the amount of daylight she had left. She was startled by the sound of her mobile phone, surprised there was any reception at all.

  ‘Reid? I can’t talk right n —’ The air left Jordan’s lungs with a startled cry as a steer emerged from nowhere and knocked her over. Mack went ballistic as she fell, sprawling onto her stomach. The steer sprang away from the dog and bounded off her like a trampoline, its heavy toes catching her on her shoulder as it pushed off to face the steep slope. She gritted her teeth at the shock of intense pain, and lay stunned for a moment as she struggled to catch her breath.

  ‘Bloody hell,’ she groaned as she lifted her head, squinting to see through a face-full of mud.
‘Have to move…’

  She tentatively wiggled her fingers, moved her injured shoulder — swore again when a sharp, searing pain ripped through it — then tested the rest of her body. It hurt just about everywhere, but everything seemed to be working.

  ‘Nothing broken,’ she reassured herself as Mack frantically licked at her face in a frenzy of concern. Spitting dirt from her mouth, she forced herself stiffly and gingerly to her feet.

  She found her phone — destroyed and caked in mud. ‘Shit. May as well just leave it there. Mack, come here!’ she ordered, worried the group of cattle at the fence would startle at his bounding and barking. Then she bit her lip hard and slowly dragged her body up the slope.

  Limping, gritting her teeth, whimpering against the explosive pain and clutching her injured shoulder to her side, Jordan reached the fenceline. She leaned on a post for a few seconds, willing the world to stop spinning and the queasiness in her stomach to back off.

  She heard another animal behind her. Anxious not to get flattened again, she hobbled quickly out of its path and turned to see a steer dragging a hind leg uselessly. She felt sick again, this time with regret. She hated seeing animals hurt, and cursed herself for not bringing her rifle. What now? If she took off on the quad she could lose the rest of the herd, if she took them down there’d be no time to come back before dark.

  Making a decision, she left the cattle and secured the wire as well as she could. She prayed they wouldn’t wander off, but at least they were back on the relative safety of her own land. She admitted, as she levered herself onto the quad, that this wasn’t the most sensible course of action, but she couldn’t leave an animal out there to suffer. It just wasn’t in her to do it.

  Injured, it took her longer than it should have to return with her rifle but with relief she saw the cattle were not far away. Struggling to see more than a few feet in front of her, she made her way carefully back to the fence, ordering the heavily puffing Mack to stay back.

  The remaining unaccounted-for cattle had caught up and were standing vigil around the injured one. With the main herd now fighting over the new bale of hay she had — with a lot of difficulty — gotten onto the quad and brought back, she opened the fence right back up, and in a stroke of luck, the last of the stragglers scrambled through the fence before too many of the others decided they might like another shot at freedom. Rifle in her good hand, Jordan limped back down the slope.

  Twice she raised her rifle at the steer, twice she lowered it.

  ‘Damn it!’ she cursed as she felt tears prickle her eyes. The animal looked straight at her, helpless and suffering. Two deep breaths, aim. This time she fired. The steer dropped lifelessly into the mud. She forced herself to inspect it and fired again, just to be sure. It was done.

  Fury hit her in the chest like a sledgehammer as she swiped at the tears running down her cheeks. The herd shuffled around above her, greedily fighting over the remaining scraps of hay. It was dark now, and a rising moon provided the only hint of light other than the twin beams from the quad. She needed to get the cattle off the mountain. Slowly, as she began pushing the herd along the fire trail to the paddocks below, she promised herself Hal would pay for this. He would pay.

  Joel watched on at first with bewilderment, then growing concern as Reid repeated Jordan’s name a couple of times, cursed, then leapt to his feet and dug his keys from his pocket.

  ‘What is it?’ he asked, following suit.

  ‘Not sure.’ Reid saw the pallor wash over the man’s face, the genuine fear. ‘It could be nothing. But I need to go check it out. Where would she be, Joel?’

  ‘She should be at home by now. I’m coming with you.’

  It was pointless to argue and Reid knew it. ‘Bring Harry, just in case.’

  ‘We’ll be right behind you.’ Joel was out the door before Reid was.

  When Reid pulled up at Jordan’s, Harry and Joel were right behind him. ‘What’s going on?’ Harry demanded.

  ‘I don’t know. I got some information Jordan might have been in trouble. So far this visit’s just a precaution.’

  But it was more than that, because he’d heard Jordan’s cry, heard Mack’s furious barking, and he was fighting a very real, very urgent sense of panic. As there was very little light left, Harry flicked on his torch.

  ‘You look pretty concerned for just precaution. And you’re carrying.’ Harry indicated the gun Reid had strapped to his side.

  Reid looked deliberately at Joel, decided to hell with it: nothing was more important to him at that moment than finding Jordan.

  ‘I got information from a pretty reliable source that Hal had something in store for her. And I’m not sure Jordan didn’t scream as we got cut off. The dog was carrying on in the background like a lunatic.’ They’d reached Jordan’s veranda and Reid opened the door. ‘Jordan!’ he called through the kitchen door, just to be sure. Nothing.

  A shot echoed out over the valley. He immediately pulled his weapon, spun to try and locate the direction.

  ‘That was on the mountain,’ Joel said, forcing down his own panic.

  Another shot rang out. Harry lifted his weapon into the air.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Reid asked when he fired two quick shots.

  ‘Just wait,’ Joel instructed. Within seconds two more fired back.

  ‘She’s alright.’ Joel told him, relief obvious.

  ‘What’s that — bush telegraph?’

  ‘You could say that.’

  ‘I can hear cattle,’ Reid commented.

  ‘And a quad — sounds like Jordy’s bringing some off the mountain. Best we get to the back gate and help her get them through.’

  It wasn’t long before the cattle emerged and Joel pushed them into a safe paddock. He noted a few limping along. By their pace he gathered most were exhausted. Jordan eventually appeared behind the last of them with Mack slowly trotting behind.

  Jordan saw the car lights as she emerged from the trail. Relieved, she knew Joel would secure the cattle in the north paddock for her as she brought them down.

  Then she noted it was three figures in the headlights, and made out Reid and Harry. What were they doing here? The last of the cattle made it through the gate and she followed, Reid closing the gate behind her. It was too dark to assess the condition of the remaining herd tonight, she decided, but they’d made it down, and they were safe.

  As reaction began to set in, tears threatened and she blinked them back. She called Mack sharply when he bounded toward the men and his stride faltered.

  ‘Heard some shots,’ Joel remarked as he strode back from securing the cattle. He looked for Mack — trying to keep an eye on a black dog in the dark was not easy — so he kept a cautious distance from Jordan.

  Jordan tried to speak but her voice didn’t want to work. Somehow she managed, ‘Lost a couple.’

  ‘A couple?’

  ‘Had to shoot one — broken leg. Another one was already gone,’ she got out in a voice that wasn’t quite steady.

  ‘Are you okay?’ Reid asked. ‘What happened?’

  Oh crap. She was going to break down into a blubbering mess if she wasn’t careful. She nodded, then realised he probably couldn’t see the movement and tried again.

  ‘Fine. Cattle were driven into the park.’

  ‘Let’s get back to the house,’ Joel suggested. He knew she was too upset to speak, knew she wouldn’t want them to see it.

  Jordan bent forward to start the quad and the world twisted on its axis. Closing her eyes, she waited for everything to right itself.

  ‘Jordy? You coming?’

  ‘I am…I just…’ As she opened her eyes stars flooded her vision. She heard a muttered oath but wasn’t sure who from. She swallowed another, then another wave of nausea.

  Then Reid was beside her. ‘Back off Mack!’ he ordered when the dog growled. It seemed to work. He laid a hand on her arm, then pulled it back as she took a quick, shuddering breath. ‘You’re hurt.’

  ‘
I’m okay, I’m fine.’

  ‘The hell you are. Come here.’ Ever so gently, he lifted her from the quad. ‘You can ride up in the car with Joel and Harry, I’ll bring the quad back.’

  The ride back to the house gave her head time to stop spinning and the full impact of what had just happened time to hit her. She needed to pay Hal Carter a visit. This time he’d gone too far. This time she was letting him have it.

  Ignoring the pain, she climbed out of the car as it stopped and stormed up onto the veranda. Her temper too frayed to care what they thought, she slammed a foot viciously at the door; it flew open.

  And shit, shit, shit! Unless she made it to a chair, she was going to pass out. She took a couple of unsteady steps as the blackness overtook her, and would have dropped on the spot had Reid not caught her from behind and lowered her to a seat.

  ‘Put your head down,’ he instructed swiftly.

  When she trusted herself to lift her head, she felt his hand still on the back of her neck.

  ‘I’m fine,’ she objected. ‘Hands off.’

  ‘Even for you, Windcroft,’ he muttered.

  ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

  ‘You’re not fine, you’re hurt. And in your current state I would have thought you’d have the sense not to go kicking in doors.’

  ‘I think we’d better get her to the hospital,’ Joel decided as he scanned Jordan from head to toe.

  She knew she was covered in dirt and scratches, noted the purple bruising already starting to show where her t-shirt had a gaping hole around the midriff area and turned to see her shoulder was twice the size it should be and all sorts of fascinating colours. She decided one slash of red was possibly the exact shape of the steer’s toe. She didn’t see that as a problem. The problem was Hal Carter.

  ‘I’m not going all the way to the hospital over a couple of scrapes and bruises.’

  ‘What happened to you?’ Harry asked.

  ‘Hal doesn’t want my cattle getting to the sale. They were pushed into the park.’