‘When I was being chased I saw a police car. I flagged him down and got into the car. Joe Ross was the driver and he immediately locked the doors so I couldn’t get out.
‘I asked him to take me to a police station. He said he would take me “where there is judge and jury” and then he drove back towards the depot. Didn’t take Einstein to work out who he was going to take me to.’
Hal wagged his finger. ‘Do not say that in court. That’s an assumption. Stick to the facts. He talked about judge and jury and what else?’
Dave could hear Joe’s mocking tone as he said to him, ‘Not talking? Cat got your tongue?’ Dave focused on the question and pretended he was in court.
‘Ah, he asked who I really was, because he didn’t think I was who I said. At that point he drove straight by the police station and kept going.’
‘Right. Good. I’ll prep you a little closer to the time. Now, you would have heard we’re charging First Class Constable Joe Ross with conspiracy, corruption and attempted murder.’
‘Attempted murder? Why? He wasn’t even there when I was shot.’
‘He’s party to the offence because he tried to take you back to Ashley and Scott.’
Dave frowned. ‘Geez, counsellor, I reckon you’re drawing a pretty long bow there.’
‘Maybe a charge that carries a minimum of fifteen years imprisonment here in Queensland will help convince him he needs to roll over on Ashley and Scott. We’re aiming to offer a plea deal to drop that charge if he helps us. Anyway,’ he looked at the gold watch on his wrist, ‘I have another appointment. As soon as I know about the adjournment, I will get back to you.’
Dave thanked him and pressed the disconnect button, before letting out a long breath. He took out his phone and sent a text message to Mel: Think I’ve got it sorted, even though he wasn’t feeling confident.
Chapter 19
Kevin pushed the answering machine button and heard a deep gravelly voice on the line. ‘Kev, Detective Bob Holden here. Letting you know we’ve put alerts out on your cattle, like I said we would. Haven’t had any bites yet. Dave’s been to the saleyards a couple of times but there’s been no sign. Give me a call when you come back in. Cheers.’
Picking up the phone, he dialled the number that Bob had left for him and waited for him to answer. He’d been hoping that it would be Dave who called, but he couldn’t be picky when it came to which detective he dealt with. His dad thought this detective was a good bloke, so he would have to trust his dad’s instincts on this, even though he didn’t want to.
‘Burrows.’
‘G’day, Kevin from Spinifex Downs here,’ he said, pleased it was Dave who’d answered the phone. He’d liked Dave when they’d driven around and was sure he was going to be a good support. Plus he’d noticed the gleam in Dave’s eye which had said that he wasn’t the type to give up.
Kevin sat down at his desk and got out his diary to record the phone call’s details.
‘G’day, mate. How are things up your way?’
‘Not too bad. Nothing else has happened, which is a bonus. Well, not that I know about!’
A screech of laughter reached him, and he turned back to the window and saw four children in bathers diving into the waterhole. Even with the warmth outside, he knew the crystal-clear water would be freezing—it was deep, so deep the sun wouldn’t penetrate enough to heat it.
Better them than me, he thought.
‘That’s always good,’ Dave said. ‘Glad to hear it. Although I don’t have any news for you, I’m afraid. The alerts we put on the cattle, through the abattoirs and trucking companies, nothing has come of them. Fellas at the saleyards don’t know anything either. We’ll keep our eyes and ears to the ground, obviously, but right now there’s not much more we can do. Unfortunately this is a wait-and-see game.’
Kevin blew out a heavy sigh. ‘Pain in the arse. They were good breeding stock.’
‘Insured?’
‘Yeah, which is helpful in getting replacements, but it’s going to be hard to replicate the genetics and, of course, it puts me twelve months behind.’
‘What about the other cattle you said you were missing over the last few years? Were they breeders as well?’
‘Nah. I had about four hundred bullock calves taken last year; that’s just less than half a triple road train. I’ve had bulls that I haven’t been able to find too, but I’ve put that down to just not being able to find them when we’ve been mustering.’ He shrugged. ‘You don’t always find every beast when you muster. Some of the bulls, they get streetwise and canny. They know how to beat the choppers and bikes. Scrubbers.’
‘Four hundred?’ Dave was incredulous. ‘And you didn’t report them?’
‘At first, when I realised what was going on, the numbers weren’t as big. I didn’t understand what was happening. Just thought they’d wandered off and died. You know, bitten by snakes or something. Cattle are curious and seem to love to sniff things and they often get bitten on the nose. That’s what I thought when it came to the bulls. But then I talked to the old men and they said someone had probably taken them. Like they were used to hearing about this kind of thing.
‘The second lot, yeah, I knew something was amiss then. But even then the Elders said not to report the thefts. They didn’t think the law would be applicable to us.’
‘Fuck.’
Kevin watched the kids swimming, thinking how ridiculous it was he hadn’t reported the cattle thefts. He wondered if it made him look suspicious.
Dave broke the silence between them. ‘If I didn’t know better, I’d almost say you’ve been targeted.’
‘Yeah.’
‘Anyway, Kev, leave it with us. Trust us—we will do the best we can.
‘Cheers, mate,’ he said and hung up the phone.
The smell of old smoke was drifting in and Kevin went outside and stood on the verandah to see if there were any fires still alight. The day before, some of the Elders had taken the young boys out into the scrub and started to burn some spinifex and bush. Getting rid of the grasses made the goanna holes easier to see, and they would’ve been hunting them today. Maybe there would be goanna cooking on the fire tonight.
He looked around the community he had started to clean up. The eight transportable houses were perched back from the creek. The junk that had surrounded them when he’d first arrived home was now cleaned up and all the front yards were tidy. There weren’t any gardens, but every morning the women raked a brush broom over the soil, leaving it free of footprints and leaves.
The children were clean and tidy and loved learning in the schoolroom the government had provided, and Hayley, the teacher, was loved by everyone.
Kevin nodded contently. Yeah, he’d made a difference, but he still had some more things to fix. He would find out, with the police’s help, who was taking his cattle.
Stepping down off the verandah, he walked over to the waterhole and stood beside Hayley. ‘All good?’
‘Oh, hi, Kev. Yep, everything’s fine. Look at little Yarran there.’ She pointed to a boy who was swimming underwater. ‘There’s no way you’d think he’d grown up in the desert. He can swim like a fish!’
‘He’s the one we’ll have to send out when they go fishing then,’ Kevin said with a grin.
‘Hey, Kev!’ A little girl with a mop of wild curls ran by, chasing her sister. Her smile was wide when she saw him.
‘Hi, Yindi. What are you up to?’
‘Running!’
He laughed. ‘Yep, it looks like you are.’ He walked further into camp and stopped to talk to a couple of the women before seeing Jackie and two other Elders sitting at the campfire underneath the white bark river gums. It looked like they had been there for a while.
The lyrical words of his native language reached him. He was fluent in his own language, but he hadn’t had much use for it while he was down south. It made him feel safe and comfortable when he heard it now, and he loved listening to it. Hearing the old men speak kept h
is ear in and he found himself repeating what they were saying in his mind. Repeating the inflections and words.
He sat himself down next to Jackie and watched as his father scraped a flat stone over the edge of a boomerang to smooth it out as he talked to the other men. They were sitting cross-legged, the fire reflecting in their eyes, and they turned to nod at him as he joined them.
They radiated peace when they sat like this: still, their hands on their knees.
‘How are you, boy?’ one of the men asked in English.
‘Good,’ Kevin answered.
‘The cattle good too?’
‘Yep. When’re the rains coming this year?’
‘Long time to go yet.’
Kevin reached out and took a pannikin which was sitting on the ground with two tea bags in it; a billy was boiling on the coals. He poured himself a cup, then shook in some sugar from a tin and stirred it with a stick.
‘I had a message from that detective down south,’ he said.
The men didn’t answer him, but he could tell they were listening. The wind picked up and tossed the leaves of the trees about, and a small amount of raised dust blew across the creek. In that moment of breeze, the flies were finally still.
‘Nothing to report, by the sounds of it.’
‘Won’t be,’ said the first old man.
‘They’re gone,’ the second Elder said simply. ‘Long gone.’ He nodded as he talked.
Jackie was quiet as he continued to work on the boomerang.
Taking a sip of the tea, Kevin placed his fingers in the dirt, before swirling them around. ‘What do you mean, long gone?’
‘Just that. They’re gone and won’t get found. Just like the others,’ Jackie finally spoke.
‘We didn’t report the others.’
‘Not what I meant,’ Jackie said.
‘The detectives are looking for them though. They’ve got alerts out.’
‘Don’t push too hard, boy,’ Jackie said, looking up.
‘What?’
‘Just what I said. Don’t push. Bad things might happen.’
A dog of many different breeds wandered up to the fire and sat down next to Kevin. He reached out to stroke its head, anxiety rising in his stomach.
‘I don’t know what you’re telling me,’ he said.
‘In early times there was trouble between the whitefellas and the community. Our people used to disappear. Police always said that they’ve gone walkabout.’ He leaned over to Kevin and spoke very clearly. ‘But they never came back. Them disappearing? It was never “just walkabout”. The cattle would disappear and so would our people. I’m worried that might happen to you.’
‘Come on, Dad, you know people walk off all the time.’ Kevin glanced at the other two old men, but they weren’t looking at him. They had gone quiet and were looking at the ground.
‘You haven’t seen it.’
Kevin frowned, frustrated now. ‘You’re not telling me anything I can understand. If you’ve got something to say, tell me so I can do something about it.’
‘You don’t know what I’ve seen. What we’ve all seen.’ Jackie indicated in a wide arc to the other Elders. ‘When I was a boy, things used to happen. I don’t want to think about that. We don’t want to talk about that. But you need to know that the white law isn’t going to take our side.’
‘They will. They’re good men, you said so yourself.’
‘You’re not listening, boy. I’m telling you. I saw things when I was young that I’m not going to talk about because of bad spirits. I’m not talking about it. I don’t want that to happen to you. You’re good here. Doing good things. The coppers won’t help.’
‘You know it’s not like that now. Those fellas are here for us. If they can find the cattle, they will. I thought you liked the sergeant.’
‘Yeah. Yeah, I like the sergeant. I could see in his eyes he spoke the truth. That don’t mean the law will take our side.’
Kevin turned to look at his dad. ‘Are you saying that whitefellas took our people away and killed them?’
‘Boy, I’m not talking about it. You just need to know that bad things happened in the past. Same thing might happen to you.’
‘How do you know our people just didn’t take off out into the bush or get bitten by a snake?’ He was grasping at other possibilities because what he was hearing was too frightening if it was true.
‘Don’t be stupid. The old people knew the bush. That’s not gonna happen to them.’
The two other old men stood up quietly and walked away.
‘Where are they going?’ Kevin asked, trying to understand his father’s riddled talk.
‘They don’t want to be here while I’m talkin’ about this. I’m not telling you what happened back when I was a boy, ’cause we can’t talk about it. Bad spirits. But you need to watch yourself.’
Another gentle gust of wind and Kevin looked up at the trees, the leaves dancing with the invisible force, and he wondered what his father could have seen to make him frightened to report cattle theft to the police and to distrust the law so much.
Chapter 20
Reeve Perkins slammed down the phone in annoyance then snatched it straight back up again. He didn’t want to make the next phone call, but it would be better to get it done straight away rather than waiting.
‘Bulldust. Reeve,’ he said when the call was answered.
‘Yeah? What do you want?’
‘We’ve got some trouble. I’ve just had the DPP Hal McCure on the phone. Seems they’re looking for an adjournment.’
‘What the fuck for?’ Bulldust snarled.
‘Witness X has a personal emergency and he’s not wanting to leave where he is.’
‘I don’t give a fuck whether he’s got an emergency or not. Just get him here.’
‘It’s not as easy as that,’ Reeves explained hurriedly. ‘This request goes to the judge. If he agrees, I can’t stop it. Sounds like he’s interstate somewhere, because if he can’t get an adjournment, then he wants to give evidence by video link.’
‘That don’t mean anything, does it? He could be in the next room but still on video.’
Reeve doodled on the paper in front of him. ‘Yes, good point,’ he agreed.
‘What’s this personal emergency?’
‘The story is that his wife is sick. Whether it’s true or not, who knows. He might be trying to avoid coming back here. I can ask for evidence that she’s unwell, which will hold things up a little.’
‘Have you found out who he is yet?’
‘No. Nothing there. I have an investigator on it. All he’s been able to find out is that the bloke is definitely police.’
‘How’d you find that out?’
‘I’m not privy to how they investigate, but that fact was mentioned in the last conversation I had with the PI. Anyway, we already knew he was; just hadn’t had it confirmed.’
‘Yeah, I guess you’re right there.’ Bulldust paused. ‘How come you can’t find out his name then?’
Reeve swallowed and said, ‘Everything to do with this guy has been suppressed. The judge ordered that when Joe Ross was first charged and went before the court. It can’t be reversed unless we have good reason to ask for it.’
Bulldust chuckled. ‘We do have good reason.’
‘Not one that’s going to work for the judge, I’m guessing. And whatever your reason is, as your lawyer, I don’t want to know.’
‘Yeah, probably a good idea. Don’t agree to the adjournment. Do everything in your power to make sure it doesn’t happen. I want that fucker in Brisbane.’
‘Right.’ Reeve put down the phone and stared at the blank notepad in front of him. He’d never thought he’d end up taking dirty money and defending a lawless man. But Bulldust owned him, as he assumed all the people around the man were owned. One day when all of this was over, he’d ask some of the others—he knew who they were, because he’d defended them.
Larry Jones had driven the truck for Bulld
ust and was part of the Highwaymen musters. Now he was in jail at the Brisbane Correctional Centre, as was Chris Mooney who flew the chopper during the illegal musters, and George Dellaney, who had been the general dogsbody.
All of their cases had been simple. They’d pleaded guilty and gone to jail. Bulldust didn’t want them anywhere else, because he knew they wouldn’t roll over on him.
Defending First Class Constable Joe Ross was a whole different story. He was a dirty copper who knew the system and knew how to make deals with the DPP. Somehow, Reeve had to keep him protected from that and loyal to Bulldust.
How Reeve wished he’d never gone to Nundrew on holidays—what a ridiculous place to decide to ride his motorbike. He hadn’t gone there by himself; he’d been with two other blokes who rode bikes as well. And the decision to go to Nundrew had been his mate’s.
He also wished he’d never come across Shane, Bulldust’s daughter.
Embarrassment flooded through him as he remembered how Shane had danced close that night in the pub. She’d even rubbed her groin against his. The thought of having her in his bed had driven him wild. It hadn’t been long before they were tumbling out into the night, towards his hotel room.
His mates had turned a blind eye to the fact he was married with three young kids. They’d all done things they’d never tell anyone about while on these sorts of trips. The old rule. Boys Only. What happened on Boys Only, stayed on Boys Only.
Bulldust, however, hadn’t been too happy to find his daughter straying. He’d gone to work and found out who Reeve was. Two days later, as he refuelled his bike at the local servo, Bulldust had pulled up next to him and leaned out the window.
‘Reckon you might be the fella I’m looking for,’ he’d said.
Reeve remembered looking over to see a large man with a bald head and long beard.
‘Don’t think so, buddy,’ he’d replied. ‘Don’t know your face at all.’
‘You’re about to ’cause you slept with my daughter a couple of nights ago.’ Bulldust had got out of the car and Reeve, a slight man, had seen how tall he was. And strong.
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