‘What did you think you were doing?’ she’d asked angrily.
She’d hated the lazy smile he’d given her. ‘What I like.’
Chapter 32
‘Could I please speak to Dave Burrows?’ asked a female voice on the other end of the phone.
Jack adjusted the receiver and grabbed a pen, ready to write down a message. ‘Sorry, he’s out of the office at the moment. Can I help?’
‘I don’t know who you are.’
‘Sorry, Jack Higgins. I work with Dave.’
‘Are you a detective?’
‘No, but I do a bit of the legwork and gather information for him.’ He wondered where this was going. ‘Can I have your name, please?’
There was a long silence and Jack speculated on whether she’d hung up. Then she said, ‘Ros Willowby.’
‘Okay, Ros, how can I help you?’
‘I’ve got some information about Fiona Forrest that I think would be handy for you.’
Jack sat up straight. What he wouldn’t do for some drum! He’d just finished checking through Geoff’s high school records and he hadn’t found anything there. He was about to start on Fiona, then Leigh.
‘I’d be happy to listen,’ he offered.
‘Well, see, now. The thing is, I’m hearing there’ve been some pretty nasty things happen to Fiona and I’d appreciate a little information in return.’
The light dawned. ‘What paper do you work for?’
‘Uh-uh!’ With the tone she used, Jack could almost imagine her wagging her finger at him in a ‘no-no’ gesture. ‘Don’t hang up. You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.’
‘I can’t do any deals. Give me your number and I’ll have Dave call you.’
‘Are you sure, Jack?’ she purred. ‘Wouldn’t you like the notoriety of breaking a case? Especially one as emotional as this?’
Jack scratched his forehead nervously. Then his instincts kicked in. ‘If you had good info, you’d be solving the crime yourself. Thanks for calling. Have a nice day.’
He waited a split second before taking the receiver away from his ear, in case she said something more.
‘Hang on! Don’t hang up.’
Jack nodded, pleased he’d read the situation correctly. ‘I’m here.’
‘Alright, I do have some information, but it doesn’t involve Fiona Forrest. I’d like some information on her. Can you help me?’
‘What does your intelligence revolve around?’
‘A mine.’
‘A mine? What sort of details do you have?’
‘Nothing I’m going to give you. Unless you help me.’ In the background, a dog started barking and Jack frowned, straining to pick up other noises he could identify. He could hear the hum of cars, then glanced at the number on the screen and realised it wasn’t a mobile. Maybe she was calling from a public phone somewhere.
‘Why do you want information on Fiona Forrest?’
‘I’m not discussing that yet.’
‘Give me your number and I’ll call you back,’ he hedged.
‘Don’t bother. I’ll call you. When is Dave Burrows back in the office?’
‘I’m not sure …’ But he was talking to dead air.
Jack held the phone against his mouth, thinking hard. A mine? A mine … Ian Tonkin wanting to acquire land … But that was for a farming entity, not a mining one …
Opening his web browser, he googled ‘mining in the mid-north of South Australia’. He quickly scanned down the page but nothing caught his attention.
‘Mining magazines’ was the next search. There were quite a few newsletters that seemed worth checking, so he flicked through the headlines. ‘New case of Black Lung disease’.
‘“Environmentally friendly” leaching agents contain cyanide’.
He raised his eyebrows at that one. ‘Nice.’
‘Rio Tinto to open new mine’. That piqued his curiosity, so he clicked on the link.
‘Rio Tinto will resume …’ Jack shut it down as quickly as he’d opened it. ‘Resuming’ wasn’t what he was looking for. He thought he might be searching for a business that was opening a new mine here in the mid-north. He worried about whether he would find anything. Maybe there was nothing to be found. Did mining companies release that sort of information? It might be confidential until the land had been secured.
Googling BJL Holdings again, he tried to find out if they had any mining interests as well as agricultural ones, but as he’d told Dave previously, they seemed to fly under the radar.
Snatching up the phone, he rang Dave.
‘I think I might have something—or a hunch at least.’
‘Hit me with it. I’ll take anything at this stage.’
He explained about the phone call. ‘What if,’ he said, ‘what if a mining company, pretending to be BJL Holdings, wanted to buy Fiona’s land? Then wanting to get her off the land would make sense.’
‘That’s a great hunch, Jack—brilliant, in fact, but I don’t think it can be that.’
‘Bugger.’
‘I’ll tell you why. You know how I’ve told you ninety-five per cent of murders are a crime of passion? Not love passion, but passion—fury, desire, anger, that type of thing?’
‘Yeah.’
‘A corporation that wants to buy land, no matter how badly, isn’t going to take the ashes of somebody’s loved one. Someone who knows Fiona is targeting her because they want her off the land, or …’ His voice trailed off. When he came back on the line he sounded excited. ‘Or they’re trying to silence her because she knows something she shouldn’t. They’re exercising control over her.’
Jack could hear the tapping of Dave’s fingers on the steering wheel. He grinned. That was a sure sign that he’d had an idea, or at least was thinking very deeply.
‘I’m heading back to Booleroo. I want to talk to Fiona. But I’ll be back in Barker tonight. Kim has already left to head home. If that woman rings again, see if you can set up a meeting with her.’
‘Sure, no worries. I’ve finished checking through Geoff’s background and I really can’t find anything at all of interest there. And there was nothing on the SD card. A couple of birds flying by in the early morning and the usual cars—the ones that we know. I’ve checked all the numberplates Fiona gave us and there isn’t a suspicious vehicle that I’ve seen. I’m about to start on Jo and Leigh.’
‘But do any of them arrive at strange times? Just because they’re numberplates we know, doesn’t mean it’s not who we’re looking for.’
‘Good point,’ Jack said, scribbling a note on his pad. ‘I’ll check again, but nothing stands out.’
‘Good-oh. I’ll let you know what I find out from Fiona, if she’s up to talking. Don’t work too late. See you in the morning.’
Jack hung up with a short bark of laughter. He looked at his watch. It was already ten pm. ‘Don’t work too late,’ he muttered, before bringing up the Instant Management System and typing in Leigh Bounter’s name.
The soft streetlight glow was too dim for Dave to see his way over to the hospital path, so he grabbed his torch and turned it on.
Flashing it around, he caught sight of Rob’s ute. Briefly he wondered what he was doing back again.
The front-entrance door slid silently open to reveal the darkened corridor of the hospital. The antiseptic smell hit Dave in the face and he wrinkled his nose. He hated hospitals. He realised how lucky he was not to be visiting Kim in one, then focused on seeing Fiona.
He found the nurses’ station and asked if she was awake.
‘She’s been awake, but she’s sleeping again. Rob’s with her at the moment.’
Dave nodded. ‘Can I go and sit with her for a while?’
‘Sure, but don’t put her under any stress. None at all,’ the nurse instructed sternly.
‘I won’t.’ He certainly hoped his question wouldn’t do that.
Rob was sitting in the room with his back to the door, watching a late-night talk show.
> ‘G’day again,’ Dave said quietly as he entered the room.
Rob turned in surprise. ‘Didn’t think I’d see you again today.’ His voice was low so he wouldn’t wake Fiona.
‘I could say the same thing about you.’
Rob shrugged. ‘I sort of feel involved after being there this morning. I came back to check on her, and Jo needed a break. Carly hadn’t come back, so I offered to sit with her until she did. I think we’ve started a tag team!’
‘Have you talked to her?’
‘Only briefly. She wasn’t awake for long. I’m not sure if she’s sedated or just sleeping because she doesn’t want to face anything.’
‘Our minds are powerful things,’ Dave said.
‘What’s going on?’ Fiona suddenly opened her eyes and looked blearily at both men.
Dave leaned forward. ‘Hey there, nice to see you back with us.’
Fiona swallowed, blinked and licked her lips. ‘Is there any water?’ she croaked.
Rob got up and handed her a glass with a straw, keeping his hands around hers in case she dropped it.
‘Thanks. Where’s Meita?’
‘I’ve got her in my kennels at the surgery,’ Rob answered. ‘She’ll be well cared for until you’re back on your feet. Don’t worry about her at all.’
She cast him a grateful glance, before trying to pull herself into a sitting position. In the end, she relaxed onto her side, facing Dave.
‘I remembered something last night,’ she told him. ‘I tried to find it, but I couldn’t.’
Dave was immediately focused, listening intently to her faint voice.
‘Charlie lent a gun to someone—I’ve only got vague recollections of it. Not sure if I overheard a phone call or something, but I know he lent a gun to someone. It’ll be written in the notebooks in the office. I only went through one book last night, but there are five there.’ The effort of talking seemed to exhaust her.
‘Can I go out there and have a look at them?’ Dave asked. Not that he thought it would fit the puzzle in any way, but at this point all intelligence was good intelligence.
Fiona nodded.
‘Great, I’ll call in on my way home. Where will I find a key?’
Fiona gave him a blank look. ‘I don’t know what happened about locking the house. But there’s a key in Meita’s kennel, right up the back in a plastic container.’
‘No worries. Now, I need to ask you a question.’
She nodded again.
‘Is someone blackmailing you to keep quiet about an important piece of information? Something that would help us find out who wants your land?’
Instantly Fiona said, ‘No.’
Dave tried to work out if she’d reacted too quickly. She might have. ‘Are you sure?’ he persisted.
‘No, nothing like that, Dave. I wouldn’t put myself through it, I can promise you that.’
‘Okay. You concentrate on getting better. Looks like you’ve got a good team behind you.’ He nodded at Rob, got up and left.
The next morning Dave pulled up at the police station and ran up the steps. Even with the little sleep he’d had he was jazzed.
Jack was snoring at his desk, but Dave didn’t take any notice. ‘Come on!’ he banged on the desk to wake him up. ‘Let’s go. Get some coffee and wake up.’
Lifting his head groggily, Jack asked what he’d found.
‘Nothing yet, but we will today. I can just feel it.’
He grabbed a pen and started to make notes and talk at the same time.
‘Okay, we’ve got Ian Tonkin wanting to buy land for BJL Holdings. My gut instinct is this is the key, but I can’t work out how, because like I said to you yesterday, it’s personal. This is a large company. Still, somehow it holds the main clue.’
‘Hang on, let me make that coffee.’
‘Be quick.’ He continued to scribble and talk, but with his voice raised so Jack could hear him in the small kitchen next door.
‘We’ve got a drone and a strange car hanging around Charona at night. Poisoned sheep, missing ashes, two dead men—and I’m not convinced it was accidental—a phone call giving us a hint about a mine. What did you find out last night?’
‘Absolutely sweet fuck all. I can’t link anyone to anyone.’ Jack came back into the room, his eyes bloodshot. He rubbed his face, scratching at the overnight growth of stubble.
‘We’re missing something so obvious here, Jack. I promise you, it’s staring us in the face. Call Ian Tonkin and ask who he is dealing with at BJL Holdings.’
‘On it,’ Jack said, before gulping his coffee.
Chapter 33
‘I really need to know who you’re dealing with at BJL Holdings,’ Jack spoke sternly to Ian Tonkin.
‘I don’t think I’m at liberty to say,’ he replied, his voice blurring as he expelled his breath heavily down the mobile phone line.
‘If you don’t answer the question, sir, I will get a warrant, and I’m sure your documentation will tell me what you’re not.’
The heavy breathing continued and the silence lengthened.
‘Leah Kent,’ he finally relented.
‘Thank you. Now, does she do the negotiating as well, or just sign the sale documents?’ As he spoke he entered the woman’s name into the IMS. She had a driving offence but that was all. He clicked on the Persons tab. This would give him information on every person she could be related to, criminally. There was no one.
They’re bloody good at covering their tracks, Jack thought. Unless we’re wrong.
‘She does everything. I’ve dealt with her personally on the sale of all these farms.’
‘And tell me, did she say up front that she wanted to buy Fiona Forrest’s farm?’
‘Not in those exact words,’ Ian sounded unsure. ‘I think she suggested that it would be a nice farm to get hold of.’
‘Why do you think that would be, considering it hasn’t got the rich black soils of the other type of farming land she’s bought?’
‘Mate, I don’t know. What do you want me to do? Ring her and ask?’
‘No, but I’d like you to give me her phone number.’
‘I’d like to speak to Leah Kent, please.’ Jack had the phone on speaker so Dave could hear the conversation.
‘I’m sorry, she’s in a meeting. Could I have her call you back?’
Jack looked at Dave for confirmation, but he shook his head. ‘No, thanks, that’s fine, I’ll call back. When would be a good time?’
‘If you’ll hold for a moment, I’ll check her calendar.’ They listened to electronic chimes for a few seconds before the secretary came back on the line. ‘If you could call back next Tuesday. She’s out of the office for the next two days and won’t be contactable.’
‘Thank you for your help.’ Jack punched savagely at the button. ‘Damn!’
‘Can’t be helped, mate. We’ll just keep trying to get hold of her. I reckon we should put together an application for a warrant so we can access her phone records. Can you start on that? If anything turns up on her that needs closer investigation, we’ll go and see her personally.’
‘Sure.’
‘I’m going to finish reading these diaries of Charlie’s to see what we get from them.’
The office fell silent as each man worked on his tasks. Dave was so engrossed in reading the entries that he didn’t hear the phone ring, but he certainly felt the pen that Jack threw at him to get his attention.
‘It’s the woman who rang yesterday. Listen to the background noise. I’m sure she’s not a journo—if she was there’d be chatter and phones ringing around her. I can only hear cars. There was a dog barking yesterday. And she’s calling from a public phone—well, it’s not a mobile anyway.’
Dave released the hold button. ‘Burrows.’
‘Ros Willowby,’ she stated.
‘Hello, Ms Willowby, or can I call you Ros? What can I do for you?’
She repeated everything Jack had told him about the call the previous
day.
‘I’m curious to know why Fiona Forrest interests you so much.’ He let the question hang between them.
‘Because I’ve been her.’
That made Dave sit up. Because I’ve been her, he repeated silently to himself. What the hell did that mean?
‘Can you elaborate?’
There was a muffled sob down the line, then the line went dead.
Dave slammed it down in frustration. ‘What the fuck is that supposed to mean?’ he cursed. ‘“Because I’ve been her.”’
Quickly, he summarised the facts for Jack.
‘Okay, what’s Fiona been? Pregnant, widow, farmer, suffering,’ Jack threw the words out as quickly as they came to him.
‘Search Ros Willowby’s name in the IMS,’ Dave instructed. ‘That’s if it’s her real name. Try Roslyn or … What the hell is Ros short for?’
‘Rose, Rosemary, Roseanne, Rosetta, Rosa, Rosalie … I could go on,’ said Joan, coming in to drop some papers on Dave’s desk.
‘Damn!’ Dave repeated. ‘Anyway, anything hard is always worth it in the end. Let’s go!’
‘Nothing under Ros Willowby. Um …’ Jack clicked at the keys on the keyboard, trying different combinations. ‘Willowby, Willowby …’
‘How are you spelling it?’ Joan asked.
Jack began spelling it out for her. He hadn’t finished before Joan started shaking her head.
‘Try it like this.’ She wrote it down and pushed the piece of paper across to Jack: Willoughby.
Dave was flicking through the pages of the diaries now, not reading, but scanning quickly.
This was a cryptic puzzle that Ros had put in front of them. She knew something really important. ‘“Because I’ve been her,”’ he muttered.
He saw a notation dated six weeks prior to the accident with Eddie and stopped, flicking back.
Leant Leigh shotgun.
‘“Because I’ve been her.”’
‘I’m going for a walk,’ Dave snapped. ‘Ring me.’
Jack didn’t even look up. He was too busy trying different combinations of names.
Without realising it, Dave ended up at Kim’s roadhouse. He’d walked over four kilometres to get there—but his head was a lot clearer than it had been before.
Sapphire Falls Page 25