Red Dirt Country

by Fleur McDonald

‘Move to strike from the record, Your Honour! Hearsay,’ Mr Perkins shouted above Dave’s testimony.

  ‘Denied. We might have an adjournment to let the detective gather his thoughts.’

  Fifteen minutes later, Dave was back on the stand, giving cool and calm evidence. He answered the questions without emotion.

  Finally, it was over. Mr McCure said, ‘Your Honour, we’d ask that the detective be excused and allowed to return home, due to his current set of personal circumstances.’

  The judge nodded. ‘Yes, Detective, we appreciate the sacrifices you’ve made in leaving your family at this time and travelling here to revisit the events before the court. You’re excused and may return to Perth.’

  Dave froze. The judge had just revealed his hometown.

  Chapter 23

  ‘Oi! Kevin? Kev? I can hear a plane,’ Charlie came running into the shed where Kevin was changing a tyre on his motorbike.

  ‘Where?’ Jumping up, he ran outside and looked up. The sky was empty of anything except the sun.

  ‘Can’t see it, boss, but it sounds like the eastern side. And it’s low.’

  Standing still, he closed his eyes and listened. The distant growl of an engine reached him, and he turned around slowly until it seemed louder. It was coming from the east, Charlie was right. Where his two-year-old heifers were.

  ‘Maybe nothing,’ Charlie said.

  ‘Maybe,’ Kevin replied. ‘But I don’t trust a plane flying over Spinifex Downs these days. Come on, let’s go for a look. You take Nicky and head towards the boundary and I’ll go to the mill. It’s not that far off midday. All the cattle should be camped around water and sleeping in the shade. If they’re not, then I guess we’ve got something to work with.’

  Following the two-wheel track, Kevin drove over the cattle grid and into the three thousand acres where his heifers were paddocked. He was proud of these girls that he’d bred and couldn’t wait to see what sort of progeny they produced. They would be quality, he knew that.

  Bumping around the termite mounds and slowly winding his way along the edge of the creek, he couldn’t see any cattle. A feeling of disbelief started through him. Surely whoever was taking the cattle wouldn’t be so brazen as to take them in the middle of the day?

  No cattle.

  He drove along the fence line searching for tracks—any kind, cattle, vehicles, dogs. There weren’t any, and there weren’t any cattle either.

  Driving the creek line, he came out near a patch of trees where he knew the cattle always slept. Relief flooded through him as he spotted about thirty heifers standing under the branches. But they weren’t the relaxed cattle he was used to seeing, chewing the cud and flicking flies away with their ears.

  As soon as they saw his ute, the leader’s ear twitched forwards and she took a few steps back and shook her head at him. The other cattle, jittery, stepped sideways, and then one turned and ran in the opposite direction, tail in the air, taking the rest of the mob with her.

  ‘Some bastard has buzzed them,’ Kevin muttered. ‘That’s why they’re skittish. Whoever was up in that plane has been spotting.’

  Kevin stopped the ute and got out, listening to see if he could still hear the drone of the engine. Nothing. He always got there too late! Fury burned through his stomach as he thought back to what Jackie had told him. Cattle went missing, then their people did too.

  Surely whoever was doing this now wasn’t the same person who had been doing it when his father was a young jackaroo? And people wouldn’t go missing now. But what was the connection between the two and why was Spinifex Downs being targeted like this? It didn’t seem to Kevin that anyone else was having cattle stolen. Not that he’d heard about anyway.

  Grabbing the two-way mic, he called Charlie and Nicky. ‘Where you boys at?’

  It was Charlie who answered. ‘Just off the boundary, boss.’

  ‘See anything?’

  ‘I reckon you might want to come and have a look at this.’

  ‘Shit,’ he muttered. He got directions and drove to where Charlie and Nicky were against the boundary.

  ‘Don’t look good, Kev. I reckon someone has taken some of our cattle. Not many, but look at this,’ Nicky said, pointing to disturbed ground. The dirt was kicked over from many hooves running over the top, and there were a few branches broken on the bushes as if the cattle had rushed through, not taking the time to find the clearest path.

  Kevin went back to the ute, grabbed the camera he’d started to carry with him all the time and took some photos.

  ‘And here too,’ Nicky pointed out. Truck tracks.

  ‘What? Why the hell didn’t we see them before?’

  ‘Maybe the plane was leaving when we heard it?’

  ‘They’re getting game. In the middle of the day! Look here,’ Kevin pointed. ‘Reckon this is a small truck—a rigid body. See how the tyre tracks are thinner than a road train’s would be? Yeah, that’s what they’ve done. Come in here to grab a few and then got out quickly. Wouldn’t take long at all. Find a small mob camped up, run them along the fence and then into the back of a truck. Bob’s your uncle.’ He took more photos, then walked the fence to see if there were any wires broken. The only damage he came across was a couple of wooden posts that had been pushed hard and were now leaning on an angle.

  ‘Maybe it wasn’t today,’ Charlie said slowly as he squatted down and traced the tracks with his finger. ‘Maybe they were here yesterday and the plane has nothing to do with what we’re seeing here.’

  Kevin turned to look at the young man. ‘Any reason you say that?’ he asked.

  Charlie pointed to the tops of the imprints. ‘They’re not as clear as they’d be if they were made today. Just a little bit of wear from the wind.’ He stood up. ‘These tracks, they could’ve been made today, but they might be a bit older than what you think.’

  Considering that piece of information, Kevin made a decision. ‘You fellas stay here,’ he said. ‘Maybe do a run around the paddock and see if you can see anything else—if they’ve hit another part of the paddock we haven’t seen yet. I’m going to follow these tracks. They’re not getting away with it this time. Whether they were here today or yesterday, I’m going to find the bastards.’

  Yanking open the door, Kevin got into his ute and followed the truck tracks that arced back to the road leading from Spinifex Downs. He drove slowly, his elbow hanging out the window and his neck craning to see the tracks. It was only a small truck, he was certain. One that might carry only ten or twelve beasts. Who around here had a truck like that? he wondered. Most of the stations called in transport companies who used road trains or triples. Some stations had their own trucks to cart cattle from one side of the property to another—the distances were so vast, it made it easier to truck them—but, again, the trucks were big. Not some small farm truck.

  He trailed the twisting and turning the truck imprints until he looked up and realised where he was: right on his driveway that led straight to the main road. That highway was sealed. He wouldn’t be able to follow them any further from there.

  ‘Damn it!’ Instead of stopping straight away, he kept following, until he saw the tracks turn onto the road. There was a thin trail of dust from each wheel on the bitumen. The further down the road it went, the less dust there was, until it disappeared altogether.

  Snapping pictures so he had evidence of which way the truck had turned, he then wheeled the vehicle around and drove back to the community.

  ‘What’s wrong, boy?’ Jackie called as he flew past him and into the office.

  ‘I told you they’d do it again,’ he spat, snatching up the phone. ‘Yeah, it’s Kevin from Spinifex Downs here,’ he said when his call was answered.

  ‘G’day, Kev. How can I help?’ Glenn King asked.

  ‘I’ve had a plane over my place today. I know it was spotting because the cattle are all stirred up. Not on the waters the way they should be. Look like they’ve been chased.’ He was breathing hard, watching Jackie,
who was standing in the doorway, watching him.

  Glenn sighed deeply. ‘Right-oh.’

  ‘And there’s truck tracks. Looks like they’ve run cattle down a fence and onto the back of a truck. Not many, but I can still see what’s happened. I tracked them to the main road, but that’s as far as I got.’

  ‘Can you confirm the truck was on your place today?’

  Kevin opened his mouth to answer when Charlie’s words came back to him. Maybe it happened yesterday and the plane had nothing to do with it.

  ‘I guess I can’t be certain,’ he answered slowly. ‘But the cattle were still real stirred up when I was out there, so whoever has been there, they hadn’t been gone long.’

  ‘So they could’ve been there within twenty-four hours of you finding the tracks and the cattle missing?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Kevin admitted grudgingly.

  ‘Did you get some photos of the scene?’

  ‘Yep. Took a heap.’

  Kevin heard Glenn sigh again. ‘You’re not going to come out?’ Kevin asked.

  ‘There’s not a lot I can do really, Kevin. If you’ve seen that they’re on the main drag, I can’t track them anymore than you can.’

  ‘What about putting an alert out on the truck?’

  ‘I’d love to, but what sort of truck are we looking for? Do you see what I mean? So many trucks this time of the year shifting stock.’

  ‘My cattle will be in the crate.’ His voice rose. Surely that was obvious!

  ‘I understand, and I can let people know to be on the lookout for them, but that’s about all I can do, mate. Get me those photos and I’ll put them on file.’

  Kevin slammed the phone down, his heart thumping in his chest.

  ‘Told you white man’s law wouldn’t help us,’ Jackie said from the doorway.

  ‘I’m not finished yet,’ he snapped and picked the phone up again. ‘Is Dave Burrows there, please?’

  ‘Not at the moment, sorry. Take a message?’

  ‘Or Bob … Bob, can’t remember his last name.’

  ‘That you, Kevin? It’s Bob here, Bob Holden.’

  ‘They’ve been here again, Sergeant. Taken some more of my cattle. I’ve seen the tracks.’

  ‘Whoa, slow down there,’ Bob said in a calming tone. ‘Start from the beginning.’

  ‘My boys, they heard a plane and we went to look,’ he said and told Bob everything he knew so far. ‘And the copper in at Boogarin, he said he can’t help me.’

  ‘Did he?’ Bob asked. ‘Well, don’t worry, I’ll put an alert out on your cattle. Give me the details. Heifers?’

  ‘Yeah, the new breeding stock I showed Dave when you fellas were here. Brand is 9SP for Spinifex Downs.’

  ‘What type of cattle?’

  ‘Red Brahmans.’

  ‘Got some pics of them? Or any that are like them?’

  ‘Yeah, I got some.’

  ‘Okay, can you get them to me so I’ve got something to show the boys at the export and saleyards when I put an alert out? And anything else you’ve got that might help identify them. But, mate, I’ve got bad news for you. Being heifers, I doubt they’ll be going anywhere bar another property.’

  ‘The truck turned south, Bob,’ Kevin said. ‘I could see the dust on the bitumen.’

  ‘Okay, that’s good to know too. Look, stay vigilant. Dave and I will be up ASAP.

  ‘Now, while we’re getting organised to drive up there, I want you boys to run around and muster that paddock. Get what’s left into the yards and do a count. We need to know exactly how many are missing.’ He paused. ‘Have you got somewhere closer to the community that you can run these cattle?’

  Kevin thought for a moment. ‘Yeah, I can bring them in around the community here. It’ll make a bit of a mess, but it won’t be for long.’

  ‘Good man, you do that. And can you get out all your figures, from calf marking to sales? Weigh bills and sale transactions so we know what has legally gone off the place. We’ll do a full muster when we get up there and find out what the hell we’re dealing with.’

  ‘Sure thing.’

  ‘Right, we’ll see you soon.’

  Hanging up the phone he looked at his father who was still standing in the doorway. ‘They’re going to help us.’

  Chapter 24

  Bulldust checked his phone and saw the call was from Reeve Perkins.

  ‘What have you got?’

  ‘You won’t believe it. The judge dropped a bomb today! The DPP will be fuming.’

  ‘Why, what’d he say?’

  ‘He let out of the bag that the detective is from Perth. He actually said, “You can return home to Perth.”’ Reeve sounded like he was still in shock. He was sure there’d be ramifications for the judge. Apparently the DPP lawyer had frozen when he’d heard it, but he was never going to call it out in court and embarrass the judge.

  ‘What’s he look like?’

  ‘About six foot two, dark brown hair and blue eyes. He’s wearing a pretty nice suit. Black, but my guess is that he’ll change before he gets to the airport. Who’d want to sit in a suit on a six-hour flight to Perth?’

  ‘Heading there now, are they?’

  ‘I’d say so. Security bundled him up and out quickly. You won’t be able to identify him; they’ve taken him out through the back entrance. Reckon they’ll keep him close until he’s about to board that plane.’

  ‘Thought as much. We’re in a car outside and can’t see him. Fucking people everywhere.’

  ‘Maybe try to catch him at the airport.’

  ‘That’ll be a waste of time if he’s surrounded by coppers. I’ll get someone to the Perth airport tonight. Should be able to pick him up that way.’

  Bulldust hung up without saying goodbye, then rang his brother.

  ‘Detective from Perth. All we know. I’m on it.’

  ‘Good,’ Scotty replied.

  Bulldust hung up again and started flicking through his contacts. He found the name he was looking for and dialled.

  ‘Bulldust, what a long time,’ drawled the whiskey-rich voice of Missy Harper.

  ‘It’s been too long since I’ve seen you, sweetheart. What are you doing?’

  ‘Not waiting around for you if that’s what you’re wondering.’

  ‘You’ve broken my heart.’

  ‘Sorry, sweetie.’

  ‘Got time to do me a favour?’ Bulldust looked up as the throng of people near the courthouse began to move. They’d obviously been told the celebrity detective had given his evidence and was now out of the building. He’d have to move; he couldn’t take the risk that a cop might see him. Even clean-shaven and with his hair cut short he was worried about being recognised.

  ‘Anything for you, honey.’

  ‘There’s a bloke getting off a flight from Brisbane tonight. Not sure what airline he’s flying, but I need you to follow him. Tracking people without being caught, that’s what you’re good at.’

  Missy laughed, deep and throaty. ‘I know that’s what I’m good at, but I hope you’ve got some more information for me. I could follow anyone home with what you’ve told me so far.’

  ‘He’s a cop. Just given evidence against one of my employees, who’s looking at a long stint inside.’ He went on to give the description Reeve had given him. ‘I want you to follow him home. Find out where he lives. And if you can get his name that would be even better.’

  ‘Good thing I like a challenge,’ she said. ‘Leave it with me. I’ll ring you when I’ve found him.’

  ‘Cheers.’ He put the phone down and started the car, pulling away from the kerb slowly so as not to draw attention to himself. He badly wanted to drive to the airport and see if he could pick this bloke out of the crowd, but he knew it was too chancy.

  In this line of work, patience was a virtue.

  ‘Fuck, I can’t believe the judge said where I was from in the courtroom.’ Dave ran his hands through his hair.

  Justin held out a cap. ‘Come on, put this on. Wh
at I wish is that you weren’t so bloody tall. You stand out.’

  Dave took the cap and pulled it down firmly over his ears and put his sunglasses on.

  ‘Better let someone at home know,’ Justin said, glancing over his shoulder as they hurried through security and towards the boarding gate. ‘Get them to meet you. I’ll call Spencer when you’re on the plane and update him.’

  Pulling out his mobile phone, Dave called Bob. ‘Got a problem. The judge told the court I was from Perth.’

  ‘What the—’

  ‘You’re telling me.’

  ‘Hold your horses, it was a closed court wasn’t it, son?’

  ‘Not the point.’

  ‘Surely there won’t be anyone in there who would pass it on?’

  ‘Joe Ross would if he got the chance.’

  ‘He wouldn’t be in contact with Bulldust, though. He’s in custody, isn’t he?’

  ‘Nah. He’s not. He was bailed, so he’s still going home every night. If I know Bulldust, I reckon he’ll be keeping a close eye on him and making sure he doesn’t spill his guts for some immunity deal. I would almost bet they’re in contact somehow.’

  ‘You’re fucking kidding me? What was the judge thinking?’

  ‘He wasn’t, obviously. Anyway, can I get you to get me out of the airport on the QT?’

  ‘Leave it with me.’

  ‘Please make sure my family are safe, Bob.’

  ‘I’ll get the guys on duty to do a couple of drive-bys over the next few days. I’ll get everything else organised. What time do you land?’

  Dave told him, his eyes roaming around the airport.

  ‘Right. Now while I’ve got you, a heads-up. Kev rang and they’ve got trouble up there again. We’ll need to drive up tomorrow or the next day at the latest.’

  ‘Beautiful, that’s going to go down a treat.’

  ‘Yeah, sorry about that.’

  ‘It’s the job, all good. Can’t let that bloke down. Sounds like too many people done that in the past. See you in a few hours.’ He hung up just as they called his flight.

  ‘Thanks for everything, mate,’ he said to Justin.

  ‘Safe flight home. Hope everything picks up for you over there. We’ll make sure we keep our ears to the ground and let you know if there’re any problems. You do the same, yeah?’