Good, he thought uncharitably. That would solve a few problems. ‘Get in the car.’
‘What about my babies?’
‘We’ll put them in the back.’ He spent the next ten minutes chasing after the young birds, without any luck, much to Sophie’s amusement.
‘How about I get in first?’ Sophie climbed into the back of the station wagon. The goslings lined up obediently at the tailgate, flapping their stubby wings. One by one he picked them up and placed them beside her.
When they reached the house, there was still no sign of Max. ‘If your grandfather came home, like you said, where is he?’
‘Poppi’s not ho-me, da-dee-da-dee-dum,’ sing-songed Sophie. She was dancing with the geese, running in circles and waving her arms. ‘He’s gone fish-ing, la-la-la-la-la . . .’
Fishing? Ric plucked the girl from among the whirling birds. ‘This is important, Sophie.’ He kept a firm grip on her arm. ‘Tell me exactly what happened.’
‘I think Poppi was drunk,’ she said. ‘He saw me riding the bike, and I thought he’d tell me to get off, but instead he kissed me and said how clever I was.’
‘And?’
‘And then Poppi went down to the river with his fishing stuff. I went with him. I tried to tell him that he shouldn’t catch fish, that fish want to be free and alive, just like us. Just like the whale in Free Willy. But he didn’t listen. So then I asked him when he’d be back, because it was his birthday and we had to have the cake, and there were going to be presents. Don’t you remember? You said you’d help me make Poppi presents?’
‘Then what?’
Sophie played with her plaits, enjoying making him wait. ‘Then Poppi said he might be back late, and he got into the punt and went off.’
‘Are you sure that’s all? You didn’t see anybody else?’
Sophie rolled her eyes, but he kept tight hold of her. ‘There was another boat,’ she said at last. ‘A bigger one, a little bit afterwards. I waved at the man but he didn’t wave back. He followed Poppi down the river.’
CHAPTER 24
Nina put down the phone and turned to Mum and Lockie. ‘That was Ric. He was wrong about Max being in town. He’s gone fishing, and it looks like Dad’s gone after him.’
Her mother’s face paled. ‘I’m worried,’ she said. ‘Jim’s usually so level-headed, but when it comes to that man . . .’
‘I’d go fetch him back,’ said Lockie, ‘but there’s no boat. Do you think if I asked next door at Killara . . .?’
‘They don’t have a boat,’ said Nina. ‘It was nicked a few weeks ago, cut from its moorings.’
‘Want me to try further afield?’ he said. ‘See if I can borrow one up the river?’
‘If you hadn’t given Dad the keys in the first place, we wouldn’t need a boat.’
‘Don’t blame Lockie,’ said Mum. ‘After all, it is your father’s boat.’
Nina groaned. ‘No, it’s not, Mum. I’m sick of this. You and Dad act like you still own Red Gums. The Pelican’s my boat, it came with the place when I bought it.’ Frustration and a creeping fear overcame prudence and the hurt on Mum’s face wasn’t enough to silence her. ‘Things were just fine before you all came,’ she said. ‘Then Lockie goes and pokes his nose where it’s not wanted, and Dad jumps on the bandwagon.’ She threw her hands in the air. ‘Now look where we are.’
‘They were just trying to help . . .’ Mum said.
‘Not helping,’ said Nina. ‘Interfering.’
Her mother left the kitchen, stiff-backed and stern-faced.
Nina avoided Lockie’s gaze. He filled the kettle and put it on the stove to boil. ‘You were pretty rough on your mum,’ he said as he dropped teabags into cups. ‘But you’re right. I had no business going up the diversion, and I shouldn’t have given Jim the keys when he was so wild. I’m sorry.’ He took a sugar bowl down from a shelf.
‘Pick the ants out first,’ she said. Lockie peered into the bowl and foraged around with a teaspoon. It was hard to stay mad with Lockie. If it wasn’t for him and his suspicions, Max would have got away with sucking the river dry. She really should be thanking him.
Lockie thrust a mug of tea into her hand and put another on the table. ‘Why don’t you take this to your mother? She could probably use it.’
Nina gave a tight smile. ‘I shouldn’t have talked to her like that. It’s all true, mind you. Mum and Dad do forget that Red Gums is mine now. But I’ll go eat humble pie anyway. Lord knows Mum’s got enough to worry about without me adding to it.’
Mum wasn’t in the lounge room. She wasn’t in the bathroom or the spare room or the main bedroom. Nina knocked softly on the last door along the hall. Nothing. She knocked again, a bit harder this time. ‘Come in,’ said a small voice. Her mother lay on the narrow bed under the window, propped up on the cushion from the wickerwork chair, staring into space. The room had hardly changed from when Nina was a child. The same horsey curtains. The same rose-pattern wallpaper. The same sweet musty smell. Only her mother had changed.
Mum looked at her, gave a shuddering sigh, then turned away again. Nina offered her the tea. Her mother sat up a bit straighter and took the mug. ‘Thank you, dear.’ Jinx pushed past and went to sit beside the bed.
‘My mouth runs away with me sometimes,’ said Nina. ‘You know that.’ Mum nodded wearily and sipped the tea. Her hand trembled a little. ‘Don’t worry. Dad will be back any minute.’ Nina settled herself into the little chair. It was too low to the ground to comfortably accommodate her long legs and her knees stuck up comically. ‘What’s the worst that could happen?’
Her mother wore a strange half-smile. ‘Your father fell in love with me when I was just fifteen years old,’ she said. ‘Forty-two years, and he’s never once let me down, never once looked at another woman.’ Mum’s hand was trembling so hard now that a little wave of tea washed over the lip of her mug. ‘I couldn’t bear to lose him.’
‘You’ve worked yourself up,’ said Nina soothingly. ‘Dad’ll be fine. I’ll go give him another ring.’ She turned on the fan, left Mum with the tea and went back to the kitchen. For once Jinx didn’t follow her. Dad still wouldn’t pick up. What was the time? Four o’clock already. He’d been gone for hours now.
Lockie was leaning on the verandah post outside. He’d helped himself to a beer. Nina tipped her lukewarm tea down the sink, grabbed a beer herself and joined him outside. The air was oppressively hot.
‘There’s not even a breeze,’ she said.
‘You know Bob Carson? Grows corn out of Cunnamulla. To hear him tell it, it’s so hot out there the corn’s popping in the paddock before they can harvest it.’ She gave him what she hoped was a withering look. ‘And they have to put ice cubes in the chooks’ water, or else they lay hard-boiled eggs.’
‘Stop it,’ she said, but a smile sneaked out just the same.
‘That’s better.’ Lockie grinned and finished his beer.
‘Did you take photos of the wheels?’
‘My oath.’ Lockie scrolled through his phone and handed it to her.
Dozens of shots. Wheels jammed with sticks and waterweed. Wheels drowned by high channel levels and mud, so they couldn’t turn. The evidence was indisputable. Max had made a travesty of all her carefully devised water-saving measures. How long had it been going on? The wheels in the photos looked like they hadn’t turned for a long time. It made her sick to think of the river’s lifeblood, pouring into Max’s dams, night and day, maybe for months. Pouring into Max’s dams even now.
She gave Lockie back the phone. His jaw was set in an angry line, his expression grim. It was hard to know how to feel, having him here after what she’d done last night. They may have broken up, but only just. She couldn’t shake a creeping guilt. ‘It’s about time I thanked you, Lockie.’ She raised her beer to him. ‘Don’t know why I never checked that diversion myself. Guess I didn’t want to rock the boat. Didn’t want to doubt my neighbour. Didn’t want any more trouble.’
‘Glad I
could help.’ Lockie’s face grew soft. He moved towards her, as if for a kiss, then stopped himself. ‘I’d do anything for you, Nine, you know that.’ She had a sudden urge to ask him about what he’d told Ric all those years ago, about the foolish brag that had changed her life. But it wasn’t the right time.
He held out his hand. ‘Friends?’
Nina shook it and smiled. ‘Friends, but that’s all.’
‘If you say so.’ Lockie finished his drink. ‘What do you want to do?’
‘Get those bloody wheels turning,’ she said. ‘As soon as Dad arrives back with the boat. And afterwards, I’m telling whoever will listen. State Water Corp, Irrigation Commission, Department of Primary Industry, the Cotton Growers Guild . . . the cops. I’ll shout it from the rooftops, about what a lowlife scumbag runs Donnalee. Just wait till the floodplains farmers hear about this. Max will have a war on his hands.’
Lockie cracked his knuckles. ‘Suits me.’
It wouldn’t suit Ric. What would he make of her conducting a campaign of accusations against his father? She swigged her beer for a little Dutch courage. Ric might not like it, but he’d bloody well have to put up with it. After all, this problem was partly of his making. If he’d had enough sense to check the dethridge wheels himself, Dad would never have taken off after Max like that. More importantly, megalitres of precious river water might have been saved. Nina squirmed as the crawling doubt returned. Ric couldn’t have known, could he? Known, and not told? The thought was too unsettling. ‘I’ll go down to the mooring and wait for Dad,’ said Nina. ‘Could you stay with Mum?’
‘Sure,’ said Lockie. ‘I’ll stay.’
Jinx padded onto the jetty, whined and gazed downstream. Nina called him over to where she sat, bare legs dangling, and hugged his soft golden neck. How often had she sat like this? Nina stared at the brown Bunyip, crawling by beneath her feet. There was a time years ago, when her toes would have trailed in the river. When schools of skittering rainbow fish skimmed the water. When the red gum canopies came alive at dusk with roosting Major Mitchell’s cockatoos, proud crests banded red and gold. How long had it been since she’d heard their soft whistles as they sang themselves to sleep?
Nina hauled herself to her feet, stiff and sore from sitting in one place too long. She checked her phone for the umpteenth time. According to Ric, Max wasn’t back either. The knot of fear tightened in her belly. Something was seriously wrong.
The late afternoon sun hung low, firing the sky, turning the river blood-red. Sombre shadows slunk from the opposite bank and made familiar objects strange. Fallen trees became skeletons. Half-submerged logs looked like bodies. Nina turned from the river. Just a trick of the light. She hugged herself tight, skin goosebumped in spite of the heat. Somebody just walked over your grave, that’s what Mum would say. Jinx whined again, louder this time, and ran to the end of the jetty. Nina followed him, ears straining. The faraway thrum of a motor. She’d recognise that sound anywhere. The Pelican, and it was on its way home.
CHAPTER 25
Nina retreated down the drive, out of earshot, to make the phone call. ‘Dad’s back, thank God,’ she said. ‘But there was some sort of fight. He’s all beaten up.’
‘Shit,’ said Ric. ‘I was afraid of that.’
Was that it? No ‘I’m sorry for what my crazy father did’. No ‘Max is a lunatic’. Just ‘I was afraid of that’.
‘What about Max?’
‘He’s still not back.’
Nina hung on the phone while the silence yawned between them. She twisted the unfamiliar ring on her finger as she ended the call. That feeling was back, the unease she often felt at day’s end. Her knees began to tremble with weariness and she hurried back inside.
In the kitchen Mum had a washcloth and the Dettol out. She winced in sympathy with each dab at Dad’s battered face. ‘We’d best get your father to the doctor, Nina. I think his nose is broken.’
‘You should see the other fella,’ said Dad.
Mum scowled and dabbed harder. ‘This is no time for jokes.’
‘Who’s joking? Got in a couple of good ones myself before he clocked me that last time. Went out like a light, I did. When I came to he’d shot through. No sign of the coward.’
‘Stay still.’ Mum sponged the dried black blood on his lips and chin. ‘Hold this.’ She handed Dad the bowl of antiseptic.
‘Ow.’ He dropped it, splashing the cloudy liquid over the table.
Mum held up his swollen right hand and peered at it. His middle finger looked crooked. ‘Serves you right, Jim Moore.’
Lockie, sitting on the counter beside Nina, leaned close and whispered, ‘He’s dislocated the knuckle.’
‘A grown man,’ scolded Mum. ‘Fist-fighting like a teenager, worrying us all sick.’ She turned to Nina and Lockie. ‘Max used to be a boxer, a middle-weight champion.’ She kissed her husband tenderly on his sunburnt head. ‘Nina, do you have frozen vegetables, anything like that?’
Nina got a packet of peas from the freezer. Dad’s face had turned various shades of red and shiny blue. One eye was squinted shut. It must have been one hell of a fight. ‘Do you want me to get the Skyhawk ready?’
Mum pressed her lips together. ‘No. I’ll take him to Doc Bowman at Drover’s tonight. Get his opinion first. If we have to go to Moree, I’d rather drive, so I have the car.’
Nina took a few photos of Dad’s smashed face. He tried to smile for the camera and failed. ‘Go to the police first thing, Mum. An assault on top of theft? Max is in big trouble now.’
Her mother looked doubtful and beckoned Nina out onto the verandah. ‘Let’s hold off till I can talk to Max, find out if he’s hurt too.’ Her face shone pale in the porch light. ‘It might be your father who’s in big trouble here. After all, he was the one who went down that river spoiling for a fight. You heard him. Sounds to me like he started it.’
‘How can you blame Dad for this? Look at him. And since when do you go talking to Max Bonelli? It’ll just make things worse.’
‘It won’t.’ There was a steely insistence in her mother’s voice. ‘It never hurts to hear both sides. We’ve got to know about Max.’
Nina was ready to argue, but something about her mother’s expression made her bite her tongue. ‘I’ll ring Ric.’
Mum creased her brow, then nodded. ‘Yes, you do that. Find out what Max is saying.’
Nina made the call. ‘Ric? Max back yet?’
‘No. It’s gone dark and I still can’t raise him. We’re here with his birthday cake and I’m trying not to scare Sophie. Reckon it’s time to go looking.’
‘What is it?’ asked Mum. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘Max still isn’t home. Ric thinks we should go look for him.’
‘Yes,’ said Mum quickly. ‘That’s a good idea. Get Ric over here and take the Pelican downstream. See if you can find Max.’
‘What about Sophie?’ said Nina. ‘Ric’s little girl.’
‘Isn’t there someone at Donnalee who can look after her?’ Nina shook her head. ‘Well, I guess she’ll have to come too.’ Mum reached for Nina’s hand and squeezed it tight. ‘I hope Max is all right.’
Red Gums’ little kitchen was getting crowded; an awkward gathering. Ric stood behind his daughter’s chair, gripping its bentwood back. Jinx sat beside Sophie, licking her arm. The girl’s mouth curled down, and her eyes held a sadness that not even Jinx could shift. Lockie stood in the doorway, lounging against the lintel, chewing gum with a sour expression. Dad sat with his bandaged hand on the table. Nina sat beside him, spooning a little more sugar into his coffee.
Mum pulled a tray of banana muffins from the oven, and drew in a deep breath. ‘I do miss this stove,’ she said. ‘Things always turn out just so.’ She placed a plate of muffins in the middle of the table. Lockie spat his gum outside and helped himself. ‘What’s the verdict, Lockie?’
‘Perfect, Mrs M,’ he said. ‘Are you sure that’s the same oven your daughter uses?’
Nina
pulled a face. Ric frowned, clearly unhappy that Lockie seemed so at home in her kitchen.
‘What is it you say, Nina?’ Lockie continued. ‘Dinner will be ready when the smoke alarm goes off.’
‘Go on with you,’ said Mum with the ghost of a smile. She folded her tea towel, put a muffin and glass of milk in front of Sophie, and sat down. ‘Right, Jim. One more time. Just exactly where did you and Max fight? Can you think of any landmarks?’
His voice came soft and muffled through stiff lips. ‘Five or six k’s downstream, I guess, a bit before the Kingfisher comes in.’ Nobody spoke for a while. However would they find it in the dark?
‘Was it past the old jetties?’ asked Nina.
‘Yes, come to think of it, I think so. Somewhere round the next bend.’
‘There’s a big fallen red gum further along,’ said Nina. ‘Was it near there?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Dad. ‘So many fallen trees . . .’
‘This one looks a bit like a bridge,’ said Nina.
‘A bridge,’ said Dad. ‘That rings a bell.’ He flinched as he opened his mouth too wide for comfort. ‘Yes, that’s where we had the blue all right. That bastard had —’ Mum shook her head and indicated Sophie with a tilt of her chin. Dad started again. ‘Max had pulled over against the opposite bank. Looked like he was baiting hooks with yabbies.’
‘I know the spot.’ Nina kissed her parents swiftly. ‘Let’s go. There’s a portable floodlight in the boat.’
Ric kneeled down beside Sophie and held her shoulders. ‘You stay here,’ he said. ‘I’m going to look for Poppi.’ Sophie nodded, her eyes wide.
‘We’ll take care of her till you get back,’ said Mum. ‘And remember, no trouble, you hear me? Lockie? Ric? We’ve got enough as it is.’
Lockie’s gaze flickered to where Ric stood in the corner of the kitchen, arms folded. ‘Won’t be no trouble, Mrs M,’ he said. ‘You’ve got my word on that.’
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