Flashpoint

by Felicity Young

  The woman’s bottom lip trembled despite Cam’s gentle tone. Leanne put a hand upon her arm and scowled at Cam, as if grief was some sort of secret women’s business. If they were to progress at the speed Leanne was instigating, he thought, they’d be here all night.

  ‘Did you bring the tissues?’ Leanne asked him.

  He slapped his hands on his thighs and went back to the caravan, allowing several minutes to elapse before returning with a long ribbon of toilet paper.

  ‘Gay was saying Herb always wanted to have his ashes scattered off the Abrolhos Islands,’ Leanne said, taking the toilet paper from Cam and handing it to the grieving woman.

  ‘He liked fishing, did he?’ Cam asked. Gay nodded, trumpeting into the paper.

  ‘I see he also liked the odd marron or two.’

  She looked up from her nose blowing long enough to shoot him a poisonous glare.

  ‘That’s not what’s bothering me, Mrs Cronin,’ Cam said. ‘I don’t give a hoot about his poaching, or his social security fraud, or any of his other sins, unless they can help us solve the mystery of his death.’ Cam took a breath, trying to hide his impatience. ‘We need your help, Mrs Cronin – I’m presuming you want the character who did this caught, don’t you?’

  Sparks ignited in her muddy eyes. ‘Too right I want him caught, and when you catch him, I’m gonna scratch out his eyes and cut off his balls for what he done to me.’

  Cam didn’t doubt it for a minute. ‘Our evidence suggests Herb drowned in a dam. Did he go marroning Saturday night?’

  She looked at the deepening sky, giving the matter thought. She ignored him and turned to Leanne. ‘Yeah, he left about eight and never come back.’

  ‘You didn’t report him missing, Mrs Cronin. May I ask why?’ Cam said.

  ‘We had a tiff, that’s why. I thought he’d just gone walk-about. He does that sometimes. He’ll go on a bender and not come home for days.’

  ‘Apart from your blue, then, had he been acting strangely? Did he seem scared or worried about anything or anyone?’ Leanne asked.

  ‘Nah, no more than normal. He was always figuring someone was out to get him, and that’s hardly surprising, seeing as how everyone was. He seemed to piss people off wherever he went.’ She made a wheezy noise that sounded almost like a laugh.

  Cam attempted a smile. ‘Do you have any idea which dam he might have gone to?’

  ‘There’s a few. Any he could walk to that had the marron. Sometimes he went to the creeks looking for koonacs.’

  Leanne said, ‘There must be about four dams within walking distance from this place, Sarge, not to mention the little creeks and ponds.’

  ‘Shit,’ Cam said under his breath. He got to his feet and walked away from the women, treading carefully to avoid the gumnuts strewn across the ground like ball bearings. He gazed out across the hills with his hands on his hips. It was that magic moment, just before dusk, when the light was the colour of melted butter, the gum trees under the spell of an almost supernatural stillness. The humpback silhouettes of grazing kangaroos stood out among the dotted sheep on the hillside. Birds squeaked, chattered and squawked as if making one last-ditch effort to drive off the silence of the encroaching night.

  The caravan site was on ground equal in height to the tallest of the surrounding hills, allowing an unhindered view across miles of rolling farmland. Small clusters of dusty gums rose from the wheat stubble. Bare paddocks of dry earth, sliced by eroded gullies, or terraced by perfectly contoured sheep paths, curved down the muscled hills to valleys forming natural water-holding cups. The fading sun reflected off two dams he could see, making them shine like sequins in the setting sun. Just how many more were down there, hidden from the naked eye?

  Leanne picked her way across the gumnuts to stand at his side.

  ‘Does she have an alibi?’ he asked, still gazing at the view.

  ‘She said she was alone that night, just her and the telly.’

  ‘That’s not going to do her much good.’

  ‘She knew what was on, but,’ Leanne said, brushing away a persistent fly.

  ‘That’s easy: TV guide.’

  ‘Yeah, but she watched the same programs as me. We discussed the shows. She knew all the cliff-hangers, who was caught in bed with who, who stole the jewels, everything.’

  ‘I see,’ Cam said.

  ‘Well, there’s nothing else to do,’ Leanne said defensively. ‘Besides, do you really think that poor old bat would be able to make it all the way down the hill, do her old man in, then stagger all the way back up again? She’d have a heart attack. It’s not like they have a four-wheel drive either. That old bomb’s all they’ve got and it has less chance of making the climb than she does.’

  ‘Why was she painting it? What’s she covering up?’

  ‘Jeez, Sarge,’ Leanne said, slapping her palms onto her, thighs. ‘Maybe she thought it just seemed like a good idea at the time? People don’t have to have motives for everything, you know.’

  The lilting cadences of Slim Dusty reached them through the menthol-scented air. Gay Cronin took a swig from a long neck and gave him a wave, his sins now diluted by alcohol. She warbled out the chorus with Slim, the hills sucking down her voice and throwing it back as an empty echo.

  Leanne’s face clouded with a look he thought he understood.

  ‘There but for the grace of God,’ she said, shaking her head. She took off her peaked cap and smoothed back her thin hair, drawing in a deep breath as if it might restore some of her usual bounce. ‘Cripes. How the hell are we going to find the right dam? The Blaney property must be at least two thousand acres. As far as I know the State Emergency Service hasn’t even touched it yet.’

  Cam paused for thought, rubbed his chin and stared through a cone of gnats swarming in a shaft of fading sunlight.

  ‘I think I have an idea.’

  29

  SATURDAY

  Early the next morning after a good night’s sleep, Cam, Jo and Leanne were back at the caravan site, poring over the map spread across the bonnet of the police ute. A gentle snoring emanated from the caravan; they’d been careful not to disturb Mrs Cronin who was still sleeping off last night’s bender.

  ‘So what do you reckon, Jo?’ Cam said. ‘Can she do it?’

  Jo patted the slobbering Prudence who strained at the leash, trying to reach the geriatric kelpie. The bloodhound seemed to have the concentration of a fruit fly and Cam was beginning to doubt the wisdom of his idea.

  ‘We’ve been in a lot rougher country with the State Emergency Service. The problem as I see it is not so much the country as the freshness of the scent,’ Jo said.

  ‘But I thought bloodhounds were supposed to be the Rolls Royce of tracker dogs? They can find a body underwater, follow someone in a car, track scents that are weeks old.’

  She’d said this earlier and Cam was quoting her word for word. Deep in thought, she missed his sarcasm.

  ‘Yes,’ she hesitated. ‘Some can, but the scent is old. Prudence has found people before, but never after this long. One thing in our favour though, is the early morning dew. Damp always heightens the scent.’

  ‘They’ve forecast thunderstorms for later,’ Leanne said, looking up. Cam followed her gaze. The sky was the colour of old tin, the atmosphere so muggy he could almost see it. He pulled at his clinging shirt, trying to invite a phantom breeze.

  ‘Rain will destroy evidence. We’ve got to find that primary crime scene ASAP,’ he said.

  ‘And heavy rain will wipe out any remaining scent,’ Jo added.

  ‘Let’s get to it, then. You’re the boss, Jo, what do you want us to do?’

  ‘It’s important to keep distraction to a minimum. You follow me, never get ahead and talk only when you have to.’

  Cam nodded and turned to Leanne. ‘You follow behind us in the ute, OK?’

  Leanne’s relief showed through her grin. ‘And what about you, Sarge? Do you think you can keep up? My CPR’s a bit rusty.’

&n
bsp; ‘Enough of your cheek. Get in the ute and stand by.’ He turned to Jo. ‘You ready?’

  Jo nodded, indicating for Cam to stand behind the dog. She sat Prudence down and adjusted the harness. Putting Herb’s old bush hat under the dog’s nose she said, ‘Seek, Prudence, seek!’ And the dog was off, like a greyhound from the barrier.

  ***

  He bent over with his hands on his knees, breathing deeply. When he looked up again Jo and the dog were even further ahead, running towards a mob of sheep moving away from them like a flowing body of water.

  Cam marvelled at Jo’s ability to keep on going, though he expected the dog straining wildly on its leash gave her little choice.

  Suddenly Prudence charged towards a clump of weeds on the edge of a small pond. This is it, he thought with excitement, sprinting to catch up. The dog dived into the water, dragging Jo behind her.

  With an indignant quack and a slap of wings, a pair of wood ducks took flight.

  ‘Shit!’ Cam exclaimed, sinking onto the gravely dirt and giving Jo a pointed glare. ‘I thought you said . . .’

  ‘Cam, bring the hat over,’ she said. ‘That was just a minor distraction.’

  Cam had forgotten he was still carrying Herb’s old bush hat. He could see Leanne smirking from the ute, window up, enjoying the air conditioning. After another sniff of the hat, the dog began to turn in tight circles.

  ‘She seems to think he was here,’ Jo said. ‘Maybe he stopped at this pond first?’

  ‘Yeah, maybe,’ Cam said without much faith. Prudence dragged her owner around the edge of the pond, jumping and swerving to stay untangled from the lead. Then, with a noise like a foghorn, she took off again. Now they were charging down the hill, heading for the next hollow at a full run. Cam had trouble keeping up. Kamikaze locusts sprang up from the prickly stubble, flicking against his legs and face. They came to a barbed wire fence with no gate in sight. The dog seemed to think Herb had crawled through it. Gasping for breath, Cam caught up and trod down the lower strand for Jo and Prudence. Jo turned, taking the lead from him. He ran his arm across his forehead, letting out a breath.

  She gave him a cheeky grin. ‘C’mon, you know you’re loving this.’ Then she was dragged off once more by the baying hound.

  He felt his breath catch. He let go of the wire and listened to it hum in the stillness. She was right: he was enjoying himself. Out here it was almost possible to forget fire, murder, grief and guilt. As he watched the girl and dog running down the next hillside, he thought, maybe if things had been different . . .

  ‘And how am I supposed to get through, Sarge? You going to lift the fence up for me too?’ Leanne said, leaning out of the window of the ute.

  ‘This fence has to end somewhere. Follow it down until you find the gate,’ Cam said over his shoulder, setting off at a run to catch up with Jo.

  ***

  ‘This is it, Cam, I know it. Prudence knows it too,’ Jo said, sinking onto the large dam wall. She pulled a bottle of water from her belt, took some gulps and handed it to Cam who drank it down gratefully. They had plenty of water in the ute but Leanne hadn’t shown up yet.

  Cam patted the dog. She’d obeyed Jo’s command to sit, but still whined and whimpered with excitement. Jo kept a hand on her collar, holding her back. ‘I’ll give her a small breather, then we’ll walk the edge of the dam,’ she said.

  Cam nodded, looking across the silky expanse of water. A slip in the dam wall had caused an indentation in the middle, turning it from oval to kidney shaped, with a fringe of tall reeds in the hollow.

  Leanne pulled up in the ute, parking at a safe distance from the dam wall. She climbed out, leaving the door open. The radio static slashed through the thick still of the air.

  She looked as cool as an ice pack in an esky, and her smug expression made Cam scowl. ‘Time to do some work, Constable,’ he said.

  Jo climbed to her feet, once more sticking Herb’s hat under the dog’s nose. Cam and Leanne followed them along the baked dirt of the dam wall until they came to the patch of reeds where the dog bayed and pulled Jo into the muddy water.

  ‘Watch out for snakes,’ Leanne said, hesitating at the water’s edge. She looked at Cam, already knee-deep, shrugged and waded in after him.

  He whirled at her shout, to find her pointing at a blue object nestled among the reeds. He grabbed a stick and prised out a set of goggles with HCB written upon them in permanent marker. Another flash of blue and he retrieved a pair of similarly initialled flippers.

  ‘Grab some evidence bags, Leanne,’ he said, slogging back through the reeds with his catch to join Jo on the dam wall.

  ‘You look like the cat that got the cream,’ she said. Cam smiled, fighting a sudden urge to reach out to her.

  Leanne reappeared to bag the flippers and mask. ‘What now, Sarge?’ she asked.

  He gazed out at the smooth expanse of water. ‘We sit and think.’

  The silence stretched. The dog’s droopy jowls quivered as it followed the flight of a startled heron.

  Finally, Leanne said, ‘I’ve never known anyone to go marroning with flippers and goggles. Where’s his nets?’

  ‘Maybe he wasn’t marroning.’ Cam pointed to the middle of the dam. ‘You’ve got better eyes than me. See the break in the water’s surface – what do you reckon it is?’

  She squinted. ‘Can’t tell for sure.’

  Cam climbed to his feet. ‘Well, there’s only one way to find out.’

  ‘Sarge, you’re not going –’ Leanne turned to Jo, giving her friend an incredulous shrug. ‘Jeez, I think he is. Boy oh boy. Now we’re getting a strip show.’

  He tossed his utility belt to the ground, then his shirt. ‘You want the glory?’ he asked her.

  ‘No way!’

  Jo smiled into her hand.

  ‘Maybe we should test your theory that bloodhounds can smell under water?’ Cam deadpanned.

  ‘No. I think I’ll leave this to the experts,’ Jo said.

  Cam picked his way across the gravely clay to the water’s edge. From the top of a dead gum, a kookaburra started to laugh. He waded in; the water between his toes felt like warm tomato soup. When he launched himself away from the shallows, it became a glorious blanket of cool.

  The women on the dam wall watched as Cam swam effortlessly towards the submerged object, tiny darting fish flashing silver in his wake.

  He reached his destination, let out a yell and gave them the thumbs up.

  Jo drew a sharp breath. ‘There must be something there!’ she said, scrambling to her feet.

  Leanne shaded her eyes with her hand and looked on.

  ‘Have you any idea what it could be?’ Jo asked.

  Leanne shrugged. ‘Who knows?’

  They saw him circle the object, then duck below the dam’s surface.

  After some thought, Leanne said, ‘It’s funny how quickly you get used to them.’

  Jo tore her gaze from the water. ‘What?’

  ‘The scars; you know, on his neck and arm. When he took his shirt off I noticed he had some down his side, too.’

  ‘Oh,’ Jo said, quickly turning back to the dam, ‘I didn’t notice.’

  Leanne stood up and flicked a small flat stone across the water’s skin. One, two, three skips and it sank.

  ‘Sure you didn’t.’

  ***

  Cam’s head bobbed up as he took a breath then dived down again. After a few more such explorations, he struck back to shore with an adrenalin-charged crawl.

  As he stumbled through the grey goo at the dam’s edge, he seemed to be panting with excitement more than exertion.

  ‘It’s an old car,’ he said to Leanne, ‘resting on an underwater rock pile, its roof just tickling the surface of the water. The recent hot spell has caused the dam level to drop. A few weeks ago it would’ve been fully submerged.’

  ‘Did you get a look inside?’ Leanne asked.

  ‘It was pretty murky down there. Goggles would have aided visibility.’
r />   ‘What? The goggles we found?’

  ‘This is definitely our primary crime scene, Leanne. Bell obviously saw something when he was here on one of his poaching expeditions. He decided to do some of his own investigating, bringing goggles so he could check it out properly, but he was caught at it. I poked my hand through the missing windows and groped around. Both door panels have been prised away. I’m guessing something, drugs or money, was hidden in the doors. We’ll have to get the car out.’

  Jo handed Cam his dry shirt and he wiped his face with it. She was bursting with questions, but held herself back, suddenly feeling very much the outsider.

  Cam sat down and tried to dry his feet, fighting off the flies. He fumbled with his shoes and socks and said, ‘Run back to the ute, Leanne, organise a tow truck ASAP.’ Leanne started back across the dam wall.

  ‘Oh, and . . .’ He gave Jo a quick glance. ‘Not Cliff Donovan, OK? Get someone from Toorrup if you can.’

  Leanne acknowledged his instructions with a wave.

  Cam turned back. He seemed awkward now. ‘Uh, this is police business. I would appreciate it if . . .’

  ‘I kept this to myself?’

  He nodded. ‘Not even your mate Ruth, OK?’

  She put her hand on his wet arm, feeling the goose bumps prick under her fingertips. ‘Of course not.’

  He met her gaze before breaking away to button his damp shirt.

  Jo cleared her throat. ‘So, what’s Ruby doing today?’

  ‘I can tell you what I hope she’s doing. Whether she is, is another matter.’

  ‘Look, I’ve not got much on. How about I pick her up so she can spend the day with me? You’re obviously going to be flat out for quite a while.’

  He was in the middle of a grateful acceptance when they heard a shout and saw Leanne running towards them at a mad pelt. She pulled up, puffing and red in the face.

  ‘Did you get the tow truck?’ Cam asked.

  ‘Yeah, but it’s not that. Derek just radioed.’ She took a breath. ‘There’s been an accident in town.’

  Cam paled. Jo’s heart lurched for him.

  ‘Car versus pedestrian in the back lane behind Foodland. Hit and run. Pete’s at the scene now and wants you there,’ Leanne said.