Then there was a jingle of keys and engine turning over.
The motorhome started to move.
Louise, she thought helplessly, unable to move or call out. Louise, Georgie, Scott…
Then they were bumping over the ground, moving away from the flames, away from the others.
Away from anyone who could save her from this monster.
Aware that there was a bushfire still burning not too far away, most people had been sleeping lightly. It was the people right next door to the old white panel van who first became aware that it was on fire, and their panicked shouts soon roused everyone else.
Georgie hurtled out of the caravan one step behind Scott, who ran to the burning vehicle and took in the implications immediately.
“Omigod. The backpacker.” Horror rolled through Georgie. “He must have been smoking. Scott—is he still in there?”
“Don’t know.” Scott moved towards the van, but was driven back by the intensity of the flames. “Fire extinguishers—I’ll get them, you direct people out of harm’s way. Up to the top fence.”
Complying, Georgie ran to the caravan next door, but Dave was already at the wheel, driving it forward. Beside him, his friend was also climbing behind the wheel of his vehicle.
Georgie moved to the next RV, a reconditioned bus, and spotted its owner, transfixed by the sight of the burning car. “Jack!” she yelled, and waved him towards her when he turned in response to her call. “Move the bus!”
Coming to his senses, he waved back and ran back. “Take it up to the top fence, near the gate,” she said, and turned to the next one in line. The driver was already in place, ready to follow the bus. Further down, she was relieved to see Shirley’s motorhome starting to roll away. Good, she didn’t have to worry about her.
Jane was also climbing behind the wheel.
Thank goodness they’d taken care to line everyone up for a quick exit. Nobody had been expecting this, but at least people weren’t getting in each other’s way.
For a while it was pure chaos, with fire extinguishers making little impact on the ferocity of the fire. Scott had to hold a couple of men back, knowing that if the backpacker was still in the car, there was no chance he had survived. A ring of onlookers, with their rigs safely out of harm’s way, stood watching in disbelief.
Scott’s father came to join them, his face reflecting the horror on everyone else’s. “Might be a while before anyone can get here. All the Fireys are tied up with the bushfire. It’s giving them some trouble, threatening the road to Mount Nathan.”
Georgie sagged against Scott, feeling flattened. She could see from his expression that he felt the same.
“Why didn’t we see this coming?” she said tiredly. “Were we too focused on Shirley’s problems? Why didn’t we see it?”
Scott’s arm tightened around her shoulder. “You can’t save everyone, Georgie.”
Behind them, a timid voice sounded. “Georgie?”
She turned to see Jane standing there, but couldn’t even muster up a smile. “Hi, Jane. Are you OK?”
“Yes,” she said, tension making her voice shake. “I’m fine. But where’s Shirley?”
Georgie’s heart dropped like a stone. “What do you mean?”
“She’s gone.” Jane gestured up the hill. “I saw her driving up there along with everyone else, and then we were all looking at the fire, and I looked for her and…she’s not there. No motorhome, no Shirley. I don’t know where she is.”
27
On the Run
Chook stopped at the exit to the main road and wavered for a moment. He hadn’t thought about which way to go. He didn’t want to go back to Tamborine where Shirley and her motorhome might be known. The other way, then.
He turned right and sped up, exultation flooding through him.
It had all played out exactly as he’d planned.
Confusion, panic, fear. They’d all been totally focused on getting their rigs away from the fire, and in putting the fire out.
He was sure that not one single soul had noticed Shirley’s motorhome making for the gate. Lights off, crawling up the hill, and then racing down the access road to the main road.
He couldn’t hear a sound from back in the bathroom, but he had her well and truly trussed up and silenced, so that wasn’t a surprise.
Over in the bush, away from the road, he could now see flames. They were still a fair way off, so he’d be able to scoot through towards the coast before there was any danger. Besides, he heard them all talking about it; the fire was contained.
He hit the steering wheel in triumph.
Step one: get away from here, away from the fire, and park off the road where nobody could see him. It would have to be near a town; he needed access to a phone network so Shirley could transfer money to his account.
Step two: decide what to do with her. It would have to be a permanent solution. Best if he could push her off a cliff somewhere near a track, so it looked like she had fallen. Somewhere she couldn’t make it back to tell the tale.
Step three: disappear. He’d have to go completely under the radar. Adopt a new identity. He’d already realized that his original plan to just head off around Australia in her motorhome wouldn’t work: Emma would raise the alarm when she disappeared, and they’d be looking for her vehicle.
Sell the motorhome for cash, someone who’d ask no questions. Buy another one, under a new name.
So many things to think about…but he’d do it. He’d head for the outback; hide well away from civilization until he’d covered his tracks.
He passed a truck belonging to the Rural Fire Service, parked on the side of the road, lights flashing. For a moment he panicked, waiting for someone to step out, but there didn’t appear to be anybody in it.
Chook breathed again, and rounded the curve, and hit the brakes. About ten car lengths ahead there was a freakin’ fire tanker, stopped in the middle of the road.
A guy in full yellow garb ran down from the bank, waving. He could see a group of them standing up there, silhouetted against the flames about a kilometer or so distant.
Shit. Chook coasted to a stop just behind the tanker, thinking fast. He could just about squeeze around it, but not with this guy running across the road in front of him.
He wound down the window. “Hi. Is there a problem?”
“Yeah, there’s a problem!” The guy looked at him as though he were an idiot. “It’s called a bushfire, mate. You can’t go any further.”
Chook looked towards the flames. They appeared to be a safe distance away to him. “I’d be able to get through, wouldn’t I?”
“Road’s closed.” In a tone that brooked no argument, the guy described a circle with his hand. “Turn around, go back. Where did you come from?”
“A farm,” Chook said cautiously.
“And why the hell would you want to travel in the middle of the night in a bushfire?” The guy’s voice grew aggressive. “Go back, park somewhere in an open space. Tony Mowbray’s got a place, about 20k back. Turn in there, go up the hill.”
Chook felt like smashing a fist into the guy’s face, but then he’d have law enforcement after him.
“OK,” he said. “Sure. I’ll go back.”
“Don’t go past there. Road’s closed all the way into Tamborine until we say so,” said the guy. “You’ll find it blocked down that way, too. Go to the Mowbray place and wait it out.”
Chook nodded, clenched his hands on the steering wheel, and backed up. He did a U-turn and headed back the way he’d come. In the side mirror, he saw the guy going back up the bank to join the others.
He was trapped.
No, he refused to believe it. There had to be a way out.
Go back to wait it out at the Mowbray property? Oh, yeah. He was sure he’d get an enthusiastic welcome there.
He rounded the curve, saw the 4WD, and stopped.
He thought about Shirley, thought about his plans, now falling apart, and swore.
&nbs
p; She’d done it again. Stuffed up his plans, wrecked his life again.
No way he was going to hang around. He could still get out of this, with whatever cash and credit cards she had.
One day, he’d catch up with her, and she was going to pay double for this.
He snatched up her wallet, sitting on the table, and grabbed her laptop computer for good measure. That could come in handy.
He stepped out of the motorhome, jogged across the road and opened the door of the Fire Services 4WD. No keys in the ignition.
They wouldn’t leave keys with one person. Spare set, maybe, but not all of them. He tipped down the sun visor, and the keys fell into his hand.
Just as he thought. He hadn’t lost his touch.
Chook threw Shirley’s wallet and laptop on the seat, jabbed the keys into the ignition and drove around the curve, squeezed past the fire tanker, and on down the road. A couple of the RFS guys turned to look at him go, and one started running down the hill.
He looked at the flames, drawing closer. The fire still wasn’t anywhere near the road.
He stamped on the accelerator and headed towards freedom.
28
Ashes
Scott got to the end of the access road and sat there, rubbing his forehead, his eyes wild. “Which way?”
Georgie closed her eyes, holding the panic at bay.
They had no crystal ball, no cards.
She could operate only on instinct. On gut feeling.
If she guessed wrong, Shirley would be going further away.
“Wait.” Her voice came in a whisper, and she focused on the face she had twice seen in the crystal ball. The man with the lank hair, the twisted smile.
Shirley. She let Shirley’s face drift into her mind, and put both images together.
Shirley. Jason.
Jason. Shirley.
She opened her eyes, and risked everything on the hunch that was telling her to go one way and not the other. “Go right.”
Without hesitation, Scott spun the wheel and roared away, planting his foot.
“The sky’s so red,” Georgie said, hearing the raggedness of her own voice. “I can see the flames now.”
“Yes.” He reached out and found her hand, squeezed it briefly. “Don’t worry, Georgie. If we can’t…if we can’t get through, we’ll turn around. You’ll be safe.”
“I’ll be safe,” she said, feeling as though her heart would break. “But Shirley…”
“We do what we can.” Scott put his foot down, and the LandCruiser responded.
Kilometer after kilometer went by, and they could see the fire front advancing, sweeping across the bush. It was still ahead of them, moving in the same direction they were driving, but coming closer to the road.
Scott cleared his throat. “Can’t go much further, Georgie.”
She nodded bleakly, knowing he was right.
They went around a sweeping curve, and incredibly, their headlights were lighting up Shirley’s motorhome, on the other side of the road, pointing towards them. Scott screeched to a stop, pulling onto the verge.
“Doesn’t look like there’s anybody in it,” he said, throwing open the door and jumping out.
Georgie followed him, holding back the tears. No Shirley. What had he done with her?
Within seconds Scott was across the road and inside the motorhome, yelling. “Shirley? Shirley!” He hurried past the dinette and down to the bathroom, and threw open the door.
Georgie, right behind him, heard him let out an oath. “Scott…? Omigod. Shirley!”’
Scott lifted Shirley up, instinctively murmuring, “Sssh...ssh. We’ve got you. It’s all right now,” in response to her terrified moans behind the duct tape.
Georgie whirled and ran to the kitchen drawer and pulled out scissors, and Scott turned Shirley around so Georgie could cut the cable ties around her wrists. Shirley fell into her arms, her sobs muffled behind the tape.
Scott, wincing, tugged at the corner of the duct tape until it peeled back enough for her to speak.
“Georgie. Georgie. You came.” She broke up, heaving with emotion.
“Shirley, we’ve got to get out of here. Georgie will drive.” Scott put a hand on Georgie’s shoulder. “You go, take the motorhome. I’ll follow you.”
She nodded, and slid into the driver’s seat while Scott buckled Shirley into the passenger’s side. “Go,” he said. “I’ll be right behind you.”
He leapt out and ran to the LandCruiser, and as Georgie set off down the road she could see him in the mirror, turning it around to follow them.
She didn’t know where Jason Cooper was, and she didn’t care.
Chook felt fear jump into his throat as the world around him glowed red. The smoke across the road was so thick that the headlights just bounced off it. He had no idea where he was. He slowed down.
Ahead of him, flames licked the edge of the road.
He had to go back. Dying in a bushfire wasn’t part of his plan.
He hit the brakes, and turned the 4WD around—or tried to. The road had narrowed, and he felt the thump as the bull bar hit a tree trunk. His pulse racing, he put the vehicle into reverse, cranking the wheel in a 3-point turn. Forward, and back again, then forward.
He crawled ahead, peering through thick smoke, going back the way he’d come, but then it was suddenly all too late. Flames, huge and terrifying in their heat and power, raced across the road.
Chook screamed as they swallowed the car, but there was nobody to hear.
29
Aftermath
Exactly one week after the Rural Fire Service lost one of their vehicles in the Tamborine Mountain fire, and then found what remained of Jason Cooper inside it, Georgie and Scott said their goodbyes to Shirley.
She gave Georgie a fierce hug, and then followed up with another for Scott. “I’ll never, never be able to repay you. Ever.”
“Not necessary,” Georgie said, patting her arm. “I’m just so happy for you. You’ve got a new life ahead. No more looking over your shoulder.”
Shirley closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I’m a terrible person. I’m not even sorry he’s dead. After what he did to us, and what he was going to do to me this time…” She shivered. “I knew he was trouble, but I didn’t know he was that bad.” She looked at Georgie. “I feel sorrier about that poor security guard he shot. I wish he knew that the person who did it is dead. That he didn’t get away scot-free. Even though—” Her voice hitched. “Even though it was my fault that they didn’t ever charge Jason for it, covering up for him like that.”
Georgie shook her head. “Everything you did was with good intentions, Shirley. Thanks to you, Norm’s last few months were peaceful, with much less pain. You won’t achieve anything now by making it all public. It wouldn’t help anyone, but it would make life harder for Emma and her family.”
“I know, I know.” Shirley put her chin up and blinked back the tears. “I’m going to put it behind me. Make the rest of my life as productive as I can, try to do the right thing by people.”
“That’s all that any of us can do.” Georgie looked over her shoulder to where Jane was sitting outside her little caravan, next to Shirley’s motorhome.
Right near the CARETAKER sign.
Jane waved, and Georgie smiled. “Louise is so happy you’re both staying for a few months. She doesn’t want to lose you just yet. Jane either—she’s taken a liking to her as well!”
“She’s going to take both of us to meet her quilting group. And I’m going to teach her to make greeting cards.” Shirley grinned, a hint of mischief returning to her smile. “She’s also threatening to show me how to read cards, but the jury’s out on that. Although…” she made a face. “I have to admit that there could be more in it than I once thought.”
“Tell her that,” Georgie suggested with a wink. “She’ll be thrilled.”
“I’m sure she already knows,” Shirley said, “but I’ll hold off on conceding the point for a while
.”
Georgie and Scott both laughed, said another ‘goodbye’ to Jane, and then headed for their Jabiru Outback, hitched up and ready to go.
“Well,” Scott said, buckling his seat belt into position. “Up to the house, say the final goodbyes to Mum and Dad, and we’re off. Now the real journey begins. Excited?”
“You have no idea,” Georgie said. “But Tamborine Mountain was the starting point. That’s going to be my first square.” She glanced at him. “For the quilt.”
He laughed. “I’ve been around Mum and her quilts for years, I knew what you meant.” He glanced at her, driving slowly out of the gate and up towards the house. “Are you going to use the greens and blues that were in the parcel mum gave you? Trees, sky, water?” His voice sobered a little. “Or are you going to look for reds and oranges?”
“For the flames?” Georgie shook her head. “No. I’ll never be able to forget that fire, but it’s not how I want to remember Tamborine Mountain. I want…” she twisted in her seat to look at the view that she had admired so many times from Louise’s big windows, overlooking the green hinterland and the dark ridge of Tamborine Mountain. There was still plenty of green, but there was a broad swathe of blackened earth and trees, too. “I want to remember it like it was. Without the blackened trees, without the flames. Green and cool and beautiful.”
He smiled at her in complete understanding. “It’ll come back again, just as it was before.”
Georgie turned back, and saw Louise and Tony come out of the house to bid them farewell.
“It’ll be sad to say goodbye.”
“Yes.” Scott shot her a look. “But it won’t be for long. The new Crystal Ball Investigation Team, remember? You don’t honestly think that you’re going to get all the way around Australia without being in touch constantly?”
Georgie had to laugh as they slowed and stopped. “Did I really think I’d come DownUnder and get away from it all? I must have been dreaming.”
Good Intentions Page 13