by Annie Seaton
‘Banggerreng?’
‘Knock ’em down season. One of the six traditional seasons we have up here. It’s not the wet and it’s not the dry but we can get the most amazing thunderheads.’
‘I’ll look forward to it.’
Ellie lifted her head and looked at him as hope unfurled in her chest. ‘You’ll be around then?’ She kept her voice casual.
‘I will. I’ve been thinking. There’s a lot about this place that I like.’ Ellie smiled as he pointed to the sky. ‘Sunsets are pretty good.’ Kane lifted his arm and put it around her and she leaned into his shoulder as he rested his chin on the top of her head. ‘Not hurting you, am I?’
‘No, I’m good.’
‘And I hear the lodge could do with another pilot.’
Ellie smiled. His healing had begun. ‘You’ll be working with a pretty cranky female pilot.’
‘Not a problem.’ Warmth feathered through Ellie’s skin as Kane dropped a gentle kiss on her forehead. ‘I don’t believe that prickly exterior she puts up. She’s as soft as butter inside.’
‘I’m the senior pilot.’ The stubble on his cheek was rough against her face as she grinned.
‘I’m the best pilot.’ Kane squeezed her arm.
‘Maybe. It’ll be fun finding out, anyway,’ she said bumping him playfully with her shoulder. Knowing that Kane was going to be around for a while lightened her heart. The tears were gone.
‘I’ve got another question for you.’
Ellie moved back a little and looked up at him. Kane’s eyes were dark and his expression serious as he held her gaze.
‘You love mucking around with this stuff, don’t you?’ He gestured to the pots along the railing. ‘Now that Mum and Panos have gone . . . the farm will be mine. Panos had no family. I’ve always had a yen to grow something. How would you feel about trying to resurrect a mango plantation?’ He rushed on as Ellie felt her mouth drop open. The lightness in her chest was replaced with joy that spread through her entire body as she looked at this man. This man she knew she’d fallen in love with.
‘We could knock down the old house, build a new one . . . and the shed. Get rid of all our bad memories. Plant some new trees maybe?’ Kane’s hand cupped her face. ‘Maybe it’s too soon but we’ll see. One thing I am sure of is that I’d really love you to share it with me.’
‘Are you sure?’ Ellie whispered.
‘I’ve never been surer of anything in my life.’
Ellie lifted her head and pressed her lips against his.
‘I take it that’s a yes.’
Chapter 37
One week later
Daintree, North Queensland
When the wound on Ellie’s head had healed and her headache was finally gone, Kane travelled to Queensland with her. They’d waited until after his mother’s funeral and driven to the airport the next morning.
Ellie knew her own healing could not begin until she spoke to her mother and told her that she’d been right about the farm – about her father’s death, and about the men who had wanted to use the place for its resources. The news she had was not the sort of thing she wanted to deliver by email or over the phone. When she’d asked Jock for more time off, he’d understood, knowing the ordeal she’d been through.
‘I owe you, Jock.’ Ellie hugged him.
‘No, I think you’ve done me a big favour.’
‘How’s that?’ Ellie tipped her head to the side, wincing a little as the plaster caught on her hair.
‘I think we finally have another pilot who’s going to hang around a while.’ Jock grinned at her. ‘No ex-wife likely to turn up looking for Kane, is there?’
Ellie smiled back. ‘Not that’s he’s mentioned. I’d better check.’
They landed in Cairns in the early morning and Kane drove to their hotel. Ellie yawned as the beaches flashed past her window. ‘Why is it that every flight seems to leave Darwin in the middle of the night?’ She looked over at Kane as he drove through the city. His tanned arms held the wheel confidently and the haunted look had left his eyes. His mouth was relaxed but Ellie knew he still had a way to go before he healed.
He had talked more about his flashbacks and the stressful memories that he carried inside him. ‘When I think about you on the side of the helicopter in the river . . .’ He shook his head slowly. ‘I’ve got another reason to have a bloody flashback.’
Ellie shivered; it would take her a long time to forget the fear that had gripped her while she waited for rescue. She had blocked the memory of the crocodile taking that man. She reached over and put her hand into Kane’s, and he squeezed her fingers. The shiver left her as he lifted them to his lips.
Kane was staying at the hotel while she drove to Emma’s by herself. ‘It’ll be better if it’s just you and your mum and sister.’ Ellie appreciated his thoughtfulness. She was seeing more and more of the real Kane every day.
Emma and Mum lived in a small cottage on the river in the little village of Daintree, north of Port Douglas. Ellie hadn’t called to say she was coming because she knew she would have blurted out what had happened. Her involvement in the rescue of Gina Johnson hadn’t made the papers; the only person the journalist had been interested in was the heavily pregnant wife of the Chief Minister.
David had called them on Monday afternoon. Apart from the committee members, they were the first to hear that the vote for the mineral exploration on the edge of Kakadu National Park had been emphatically defeated. David had spent time at police headquarters telling them what had happened. Of course Russell Fairweather had denied any involvement, but allegations about the industrialist were being investigated by an independent corruption body. The email from Panos that Ellie had found in her father’s old email account had been filed as evidence.
‘Don’t let that blackfella talk you out of Russell’s deal, Pete.’
Panos had also bragged about the money.
‘A million dollars is nothing to Fairweather. We’ll all be rich, mate.’
David was resigning from parliament. He’d told Kane and Ellie when they’d visited Gina and little Ellie Rose in the hospital before they headed back to Darwin with the children. He’d been eager to get back for the vote. Bill Jarragah, mortified by Heather’s actions, had followed them in his old Land Cruiser. David and Gina had elected not to press charges against Heather but the relationship between Ellie and Heather had been tested, and although Heather was contrite and doing her best to preserve their friendship, Ellie knew it would be some time before she’d be able to trust her again.
The small town of Dalrymple flashed past and Ellie shivered as she passed the crocodile warning sign on the river bridge on the northern side of town. A few minutes later she turned off the main road and drove along the river into Daintree.
Ellie parked the car beneath a spreading tree covered in red and orange flowers. A small punt was moored at the old wooden jetty. The boat was attached to a rope that hung across the narrow arm of the river. It was the quickest way to get to Emma’s Crooked Cottage unless you took the winding dirt road up through Cooper’s Creek. Ellie looked straight ahead and tried not to think of crocodiles as the rope pulled her across the narrow river.
She tied the punt to the post and pushed the gate open. Tears filled her eyes as her beautiful mother rose to her feet from a chair on the front porch and turned towards the front door.
‘Emma, come quick.’
The door opened and a wide grin crossed Emma’s face. ‘Ellie! What on earth are you doing here? Why didn’t you call?’
Ellie reached for her mother and blinked back the tears as the frail shoulders pressed against her arms.
‘I have something to tell you, Mum. It’s going to be hard for us to deal with. But it will help us move on.’
Ellie smiled at Emma as she held the door open and they went inside.
Chapter 38
Gunumeleng, late October
Porter Farm
Ellie turned her car off the highway and d
rove into Kane’s farm. She tried not to think of it as the ‘old farm’ these days. It belonged to him now and although she still had her apartment at Makowa Lodge she’d been spending more and more time here. Kane had tried to convince her to move in, but she wanted to take it slow.
The wet season was not far off and the air was becoming more and more humid. Thunderstorms would build each afternoon and the showers were greening the land. The streams were beginning to run, and the dams filling. Kane had just caught the end of the dormant season. He’d purchased two hundred propagated mango plants and they had planted them in the front paddock. Together they’d dug two hundred holes and mixed fertiliser.
And laughed. And teased each other. And begun to move on from the losses of the past winter.
The machinery in the boundary paddock had been taken away and was being stored in a police compound in Darwin while the investigation into Panos’ murder and the inquiry into the illegal drilling were underway. Black Coal Holdings had been registered to Sordina. As far as they could ascertain, there was no evidence to link Russell Fairweather to the company, or to the murders of either Panos or her father. Mick Dawson – Henry as Ellie had known him – was the only connection, and he was dead. Fairweather had publicly expressed regret that one of his staff had been involved in the attempt on Ellie’s life. Again there was no concrete evidence to implicate him.
Ellie parked the car, climbed the new steps and pushed open the door of the house. Looking around with pleasure, she dropped the keys onto the kitchen table. In the end they’d decided not to demolish the old house. Too many of the memories were good ones. Kane had had the place gutted and it amazed Ellie how he’d been able to get local contractors to work at short notice. Kane’s demeanour had lightened and he was becoming known and well-liked around the district, as well as at Makowa Lodge where he still worked as the second pilot.
The kitchen, the bathroom and the main bedroom were finished and the other rooms were lined with drop sheets as the painters prepared to commence work. Mum and Emma and Dru were coming for a visit at Christmas, and as Kane insisted on telling her, there wasn’t room in her place at the lodge for all of them. Today, she had news for him. She’d told Jock she’d be giving up her apartment and moving back here. Kane was taking up the sunset flights this afternoon, so Ellie had offered to cook dinner and had called into the supermarket at Jabiru on her way home.
‘Steak and veg, please.’ He’d placed his order as she’d left him in the hangar and accompanied it with a long kiss.
‘You are such an Aussie bloke.’ Ellie smiled against his lips. ‘Steak and three veg it is.’ It was probably not professional, but there had been no one around to see when he’d lifted her shirt and placed his hands on her bare skin.
Ellie opened the fridge and put the groceries in before she headed to the bathroom for a shower. She heard the front door open as she was drying off.
‘You’re early. I haven’t even started dinner yet.’ Knotting the towel above her breasts, she pushed open the bathroom door.
A short, heavyset man in a suit was standing just inside the front door at the end of the long hall that ran down the centre of the house. Kane hadn’t mentioned any contractors coming this afternoon. Taking a step backwards, she pulled the towel together tightly. Cold dread washed over her as she recognised him.
‘I’m sorry. I wasn’t expecting you.’ Ellie forced a pleasant smile onto her face. ‘Please wait in the kitchen. I’ll be with you in a moment.’
Her skin rose in goosebumps when a strange smile crossed his face.
‘But Ellie, you must have known I would come for you eventually.’
‘Who are you? What do you want?’ Her whisper was soft as her heart began a slow heavy beat. Fairweather’s photo had been in the papers almost daily since the corruption inquiry had begun. But she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of letting him know she knew exactly who he was.
It wasn’t over, like they had thought, but she wasn’t going to play his game.
‘It seems I made a mistake in underestimating you.’ He took one step towards her and Ellie pushed back against the wall. ‘The same as I misjudged your father. And I never make mistakes. Do you know how much you’ve cost me?’
Ellie shook her head. If she could keep him talking, it wouldn’t be long until Kane was home. ‘Tell me. I have no idea. According to the papers, you have nothing to answer for.’
‘Ah. So you do know who I am.’
‘I do.’ She took a small step to the left and put one hand behind her back, feeling along the wall.
‘If your father had been a reasonable man, and not listened to that Bill Jarragah, no one would have been hurt. They had strange priorities – choosing a piece of land and a muddy river over a million dollars.’ He shook his head as she took another step away. ‘Take one more step and I’ll shoot you from here.’ The smile stayed on his face as he reached into the breast pocket of his jacket and pulled out a small handgun. Ellie fought the coldness settling in her chest.
‘A Colt .45. Did you know that I love to practise target shooting? Not the sort of pursuit you’d normally expect a man like me would enjoy, you think?’
She stopped. He was mad.
‘Over one hundred million dollars, Ellie. That’s how much this place was worth to me. And that was just the beginning.’ He smiled, but the expression in his eyes was ugly. ‘And now? Now I stand to lose everything. I have to front the inquiry next week. How dare they?’ He reached up and smoothed his hair with one hand as he levelled the gun at her with the other. ‘But there are only two witnesses that concern me. Without you and your Army hero around, there will be no one to testify. That other snivelling coward has run off to Italy.’
David Johnson was flying back to Darwin next week but Ellie wasn’t going to share that. Anger burned in her throat. She was face to face with the man who had ordered her father’s death. The same man who had ordered her death. Her anger was replaced by a cold calm and she took another tiny step to the left, feeling behind her back for the door to the hall cupboard. Her fingers brushed against the hinge. She needed to take two more steps to reach the cupboard handle.
‘Of course I have a watertight alibi this afternoon. No one would doubt the word of the police commissioner.’ As he glanced down at his watch, Ellie took another step, the wooden boards cool against her bare feet. ‘In fact, according to his schedule, we’re having a conversation in his office –’ Fairweather lifted his head and his slitted eyes were flat and empty ‘– right this very minute.’
‘You have nothing to worry about. We have no evidence. You were too clever for us. We know that.’ Ellie let her voice shake. If she could only open the door – there was a shotgun at the bottom of the hall cupboard. The one they used for the rats in the packing shed. Kane had laughed when she said they would need it in the wet season.
Her fingers found the handle; she swung the door open and stepped behind it in one swift movement.
As she bent, a bullet split the panel above her, showering her with particles of chipboard. Fairweather’s footsteps pounded on the wooden floorboards of the long hall as she reached to the back of the bottom shelf and grabbed the gun.
‘You can’t hide from me.’ His laugh chilled her blood as she picked up a shell. With shaking hands, she loaded it into the shotgun.
Fairweather laughed again. Ellie kicked the cupboard door back and it crashed against the wall.
She lifted the gun to her shoulder and pulled back the hammer.
*
The first shot rang out as Kane got out of the Jeep.
He ran, grabbing the shovel that was leaning against the side of the house as he tore up the steps. A second, louder shot followed, and Kane burst through the door, holding the shovel aloft. A man lay moaning and clutching his leg, a small gun on the floor beside him. Kane reached down and picked up the gun, and stepped over the man. Ellie stood at the other end of the hall, wrapped in a white towel spattered with blood; the shotgun
at her shoulder pointed at the man on the floor. Her eyes were fixed on the man and her mouth was set in a straight line.
He covered the distance quickly and she lowered the gun and fell into his arms.
‘It’s over, Kane. It’s finally over.’
*
Two hours later, Kane and Ellie stood side by side on the verandah, looking out over the new trees in the front paddock. She leaned against him as he held her close with one arm.
It truly is over.
They had their lives back. The police had left, and Fairweather had been taken away in an ambulance. His injury was not life-threatening, but Ellie knew that by shooting him, she had saved her own life – and Kane’s too.
The greed of one man had led to many deaths, and the disintegration of more than one family. It was time for the healing to begin.
‘Okay?’
Ellie closed her eyes for a moment as Kane turned his head and pressed his lips to her forehead. She nodded and took a deep breath. ‘All I could think was that you didn’t know that I love you.’
‘What would make you think that?’ His warm breath puffed against her cheek.
‘I never told you.’
‘You don’t have to, Ellie. I know.’
She pressed her lips against his, and she felt his lips tilt against her mouth. She loved the way he always smiled when he was kissing her.
‘Jock spilled the beans about you giving up your apartment. So I guess that means you’re moving in?’
‘It does.’ Her heart swelled with love for this man.
The sun shot its golden rays into the sky before it dropped below the horizon in one of the most spectacular sunsets of the season. Kane put his arms around her shoulders and her gaze shifted to the north. Towering pillars of white cloud presaged the coming storm, the same clouds her father had loved.
She wondered if he was looking down on her now. If so, she hoped he was smiling.
Acknowledgements