Where the River Runs

by Fleur McDonald

  ‘Bugger it,’ Tom said. ‘Have to get the front-end loader over and fill it in. That’s the only problem with this rain. Came down a bit too hard and fast.’

  Cal shook his head. ‘That’s not the worst of it. Where the dirt’s been washed away, I can see something’s been buried.’

  ‘Buried?’ Tom stilled and looked over at Cal.

  ‘A skeleton. I’m sure it’s human.’

  Chapter 5

  Dave parked his four-wheel drive under a tree and looked through the curtain of drizzling rain. This wet weather hadn’t been forecast and it was unusual for the rain to continue after the storms had passed. Still, by all accounts it would be dry tomorrow. Then the humidity would kick in and everyone would be wishing the rain hadn’t arrived, and Kim would be complaining about how frizzy her normally curly hair was.

  ‘Fun,’ he commented, before sighing and opening the door.

  ‘Better than sitting at the station doing nothing,’ Jack answered, reaching into the back and pulling out the waterproof camera. ‘I bet the remains aren’t human, though.’

  ‘This Cal was very sure they were.’

  ‘If I had a dollar for every time I’ve been involved in a skeletal discovery the finder claimed was human, I wouldn’t be working here—I’d be lying next to a pool in Hawaii!’

  Dave laughed. ‘Well, mate, there’s a first time for everything. Come on.’

  They shrugged into their rain jackets and rubber boots and got out of the wagon, then walked quickly towards the two men who were waiting for them at the base of the hill.

  ‘G’day, I’m Dave Burrows,’ Dave said, holding out his hand when he was close enough.

  ‘Cal,’ the younger one said, ‘and this is my boss, Tom Taylor.’

  ‘You were the one who called it in?’ Dave asked Cal after shaking hands with Tom.

  He nodded.

  ‘What were you doing down here in the rain? Not a great day for checking the stock,’ Jack said.

  ‘It’s probably the best day for checking the stock,’ Tom corrected him. ‘Big rain after a hot spell, the temperature drops and that’s when you lose sheep. Especially if they’re a bit hungry.’

  ‘Have you lost any?’ Dave moved forwards and peered at the base of the tree. He could see deep erosion from where the water had rushed down the hill.

  ‘Not that I’ve found,’ Tom replied. ‘But I haven’t got far yet. Saved a couple who’d got tangled in fences. Most of them are in paddocks with good shelter but always gotta keep an eye on them.’

  ‘Well, let’s hope they’re all okay. So, what were you doing out here, Cal?’

  ‘I came to get the pump from the well. Wasn’t sure how high the water’d be running and didn’t want to lose it. Was on top of the wall. Over there.’ He pointed, and through the rainy haze Dave could just make out a red pump.

  Wiping the water away from his eyes, he turned back to Cal. ‘How’d you find this? It’s away from river.’ He indicated to the washed-away section where he could see the glimpse of white within the deep purple soil.

  ‘Mate, you can see how much erosion there is here. I went over to take a closer look. See how bad it was. See how hard it was going to be to fix—or if I could get the front-end loader in now and start to divert the water away from where’s it tracked so it doesn’t get any worse. Better to act on this type of erosion at once rather than wait until the water has stopped running.’

  ‘Did you know what it was straightaway?’

  ‘Nah, took me a little while to work it out. First up, all I saw was white—or grey. But it stood out against the dirt. Then I realised they were bones and just thought it was a dead sheep or roo or something. But the skull. It didn’t look right. Walked a bit closer, realised it looked human.’

  Jack pulled on a pair of gloves. ‘Seen human remains before?’ he asked.

  ‘Only on TV.’

  ‘Better have a look,’ Dave said. ‘Did you get close?’

  ‘Only within a couple of metres. When I realised what it was, I knew enough to stay away.’

  Dave glanced around, getting a feel for the country. The river was settled deep within two lines of hills, one to the north and the other to the south. A public road, running along the edge of the river, snaked its way through the middle. He could see where the water had gouged out a deep crack down the side of the hill and run in a zigzag across the country until it reached the low ground. The height of the hills made it easy for water to run hard and fast when there was a heavy downpour. Looking up, he realised that to the west the cloud was clearing; there was a glimpse of blue among the heavy grey clouds. If this was a grave, the person buried here was in a picturesque and peaceful spot.

  Jack was already standing over the bones and examining them. Dave asked Cal and Tom to stay where they were for the moment and walked over too.

  ‘You won’t believe this,’ Jack said in a low voice.

  ‘They’re human?’

  ‘They bloody are! Look here.’ He pointed to the rounded skull which was lying face-down in the soil. ‘See the curve? And here’s the start of the spine,’ he continued. ‘And before you say anything, there’re no monkeys or chimps around here, so I’m not making an assumption!’

  Dave nodded. When he had first arrived in Barker and started investigating a carjacking, he’d kept making the comment that assumptions weren’t part of detective work. His junior officer had never let him forget it. ‘Good to know I have taught you something!’ There was humour in his voice.

  Squatting down, he looked into the grave. There was water pooling in the hole and trickling out to the creek below. Although he could only see the base of the skull and a small amount of the spine, he had to agree with Jack. The parts he could see were encrusted with the deep purple soil, and there seemed to be a decaying hessian bag, which perhaps the body had been wrapped in.

  ‘Right, we’ll need to get forensics up here. Tell ’em it’s wet and soggy. I’ll get the camera.’

  Together they walked back to the two waiting men.

  ‘Unfortunately, you were correct, Cal,’ Dave said when they got closer. ‘They are human remains. We’re going to have to cordon off the area and get a forensics team up here to excavate the skeleton.’

  Tom stared at him. ‘Has it been there long?’

  ‘We’re going to have to wait until the examination has been done. There’s no way I can answer that.’

  ‘But …’ The older man looked bewildered. ‘Do you mean to say that a person has been lying there for months and no one has known? Why would they have been buried there? Is this going to be part of a murder investigation?’

  ‘I certainly can’t tell you whether their demise was the result of murder or natural causes. We’ll need to look at everything much more closely. Working this out will take time. And people who know what they’re doing. We’ll call them in and get started on it as soon as we can.’

  Cal kicked at the ground with a scuffed boot and scratched his head. Dave recognised all the signs; he was uncomfortable. He turned to him.

  ‘How long have you worked here, Cal?’

  ‘Four years this Christmas.’

  ‘How’d you get the job?’

  ‘Hang on,’ Tom interjected. ‘Are you questioning him? Doesn’t he get a lawyer or something?’

  ‘S’all right,’ Cal said, turning to Tom. ‘They gotta do what they gotta do. I’m more worried about how this is going to hold up the dam digging we had planned.’ He turned back to Dave. ‘I got the job after Tom advertised in the Stock Journal. Been over in the west working on a cattle station out of Broome and wanted to get back a bit closer to home. My olds live in Port Pirie and are not getting any younger.’

  ‘I tell you what,’ Dave said. ‘Why don’t you blokes go back to the house and get dry. We’ll do what we have to do here and be back to catch up with you both. Hopefully by the time the forensic team arrives, the rain will have cleared and the conditions will be easier to work in.’

&nbs
p; ‘Good-o,’ Tom said and walked towards his ute without a backward glance.

  Dave noticed Cal was slower to walk away and kept glancing towards the site.

  When the men had driven off, Dave got out the camera and started to take photos of the skeleton in situ while Jack put up a tent to cover the remains.

  ‘No point in getting the crime scene tape out here, I don’t reckon,’ Dave said. ‘The tent cover will be attraction enough. How long before the team get here?’

  ‘Probably three hours. They’re coming from Port Augusta, not Adelaide.’

  ‘Well, that’s good news. Won’t have to hang around here too long.’

  ‘I don’t suppose it’ll be you anyway, will it?’

  ‘What’d you mean?’

  ‘You’ll go back and talk to them and I’ll stay here keeping the silent witness company.’

  Dave grunted. ‘Maybe.’

  They worked in silence for a while, Jack fastening and securing the tent, while Dave shot photos from every conceivable angle.

  ‘Hey, Dave, look at this.’ Jack pointed to a spot a little way from the body. ‘What do you think this is?’

  Dave crouched down and looked carefully, before putting on another set of gloves and carefully scraping away a small amount of soil.

  ‘What do you think it is?’ Jack asked, getting out a flashlight to brighten the area.

  ‘Hmm. Maybe a box of some sort.’ Dave gently scraped the dirt away to reveal a dark wooden corner.

  They looked at each other.

  ‘This scene just got a bit more interesting.’

  Dave nodded and snapped a few more photos. ‘Better leave this to the experts. Don’t want to bugger that up in any way. Might be important information in it.’

  ‘How long do you think they’ve been there?’ Jack asked as he finished his task.

  ‘Hard to say. I don’t think I’ve seen one like this. I’ve always told you not to make assumptions.’ He glanced up and grinned. ‘Don’t make me make them.’

  ‘Did you see Cal’s reaction?’

  ‘Mmm. Might be a bit unsettled because he found the remains, that’s all. He’s probably never seen anything like this before.’

  Both men stood at the side of the grave and looked in as they talked. Now that the tent was up, the water was soaking into the ground.

  ‘Wonder what the story is,’ Jack said quietly. ‘But it’s a proper skeleton all right.’

  ‘We don’t know that! Got no idea what it might look like underneath the dirt. We can only see that small part of the skull which, yeah, is clean and devoid of any flesh, but the rest of the body mightn’t be like that.’ Dave clapped Jack on the shoulder. ‘We don’t know, so no point in speculating. We’ll have to be patient. Come on, let’s go and talk to those blokes. I’ll zip this up and secure it, so no one can get in.’

  They went outside and Dave zipped up the tent flaps while Jack got out the tape and stuck it over the zip, then looked at his work.

  ‘A passer-by will probably think this is a cover for a pump or something,’ Jack said.

  ‘Hope so.’

  ‘Cup of tea?’ Tom asked as the two policemen sat down at the kitchen table. They’d left their wet rain jackets rolled up in the back of the car to be hung out when they got home and their muddy boots at the door.

  ‘I’ll get the tea,’ the woman in the kitchen offered.

  ‘I’m fine,’ Tom replied, his tone hard.

  She raised her eyebrows and backed out of the kitchen. Dave watched them closely; there was clearly some animosity between father and daughter and he wondered why. Then he caught himself.

  ‘Your daughter?’ he asked, tilting his head towards the door she’d disappeared through.

  ‘Yes. Chelsea.’

  One-word answers. Excellent.

  For a moment his mind flew to his ex-wife, who had always been an expert on one-word answers. Then he shook himself, surprised. He hadn’t thought of Melinda in years. Maybe it was the phone call from Mandy that had dredged up the past. He briefly wondered how his brother was doing and then focused on Cal, who was sitting at the end of the table picking at his fingers.

  ‘How much rain was there?’ Dave asked.

  ‘One and a half inches,’ Cal answered, looking up.

  ‘Just over thirty-eight.’ Dave did the conversion in his head. ‘Nice. I know it’s not the best time of the year, but it was needed.’

  ‘It’ll be fantastic for the dams,’ Cal agreed. ‘There probably won’t be too much feed turn up from it. Actually, that’s wrong. The feed will spring out of the ground, but the heat will burn the seedlings before they get the opportunity to adjust. It’ll get hot as soon as this cloud disappears.’

  ‘And humid,’ Tom put in as he filled the kettle and switched it on. ‘We’ll have to watch the sheep for flies, Cal.’

  ‘How many sheep do you run?’ Jack asked.

  Dave nodded approvingly to himself. Jack had come to understand that detectives needed to connect with people to gain their trust. People would never talk to someone who they didn’t. They might give the basic information, but nothing more.

  ‘Three thousand. Shandona is only small compared to a lot of the stations around here, thirty-five square miles. Carrying capacity is dependent on the season.’

  ‘Thirty-five square miles? What’s that in hectares?’

  ‘Close enough to nine thousand.’

  ‘And you’re the only farmhand who works here?’

  He nodded.

  ‘Couldn’t do without him,’ Tom said as he put the pot of tea on the table and went back to the bench for the cups.

  The sound of little feet running on floorboards echoed through the house and a young girl appeared, her hair damp. ‘Papa! Can I have a cup of tea too, Papa?’

  ‘Aria!’ Chelsea followed her, a towel in her hand. ‘Leave Papa be, he’s busy.’

  ‘Never too busy for you, my dear,’ Tom said with a smile. ‘But this is grown-up talk. How about you take these cups over, and once these nice men have left, you and I can take a thermos and some sandwiches out into the paddock and check the sheep?’

  ‘Okay.’ She reached up for the cups and took them across to the table where Dave leaned down to take them. Chelsea disappeared again while Aria helped her grandfather.

  ‘Thanks, missy. What’s your name?’

  ‘Aria,’ she said shyly.

  ‘Well, Miss Aria, are you up here visiting your pop?’

  She nodded her head vigorously. ‘It’s my first time here.’

  ‘Wow, your first time? You must be having fun. Tell me, how old are you?’

  Aria held up four fingers.

  ‘Four?’

  Nodding, she went back and stood next to Tom.

  ‘And we’re having fun aren’t we, Aria?’ Tom said.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Now you run along and find Mum, there’s a good girl. I’ll come and get you soon.’

  ‘Always nice to have family visit,’ Dave said as he poured himself a cup of tea, hoping to get to the bottom of why the relationship between father and daughter seemed so strained when Tom was clearly besotted with his granddaughter.

  ‘How long are you going to be in my paddock for?’ Tom asked.

  Dave leaned back in his chair and looked at him. He didn’t seem like a man who was pleased to have his family visit. Or at least his daughter. ‘That’s a bit like the eternal question, “How long is a piece of string?”. Forensics should be here in—’ he looked at his watch—‘about an hour and a half. They’ll have to process the scene. Get the bones out of the ground, account for them all, then we’ll have to sift through the soil to make sure we haven’t missed anything.’

  ‘Like what?’

  ‘Anything really. Extra bones that don’t match the skeleton. Personal belongings, any indication as to whether it was a natural death or not. It’s going to take a few days at least.’

  Tom was beginning to look worried.

  Cal leaned
forwards and drew the sugar bowl over. ‘That’s okay,’ he said more to Tom than anyone else. ‘I’ve been thinking. The dozer can start on the other end of the place.’

  ‘I don’t know …’

  ‘It’ll be okay, Tom,’ Cal said, and took a sip of his tea.

  Chapter 6

  ‘Where to now?’ Jack asked, climbing into the passenger seat and reaching for his seat belt.

  ‘Back to the site, I think. We’ll give forensics a welcome and brief them, then leave them to it. Good thing they could come so quick.’

  ‘They’d just finished up something in Port Augusta, so they were right to leave once they got the last of their team back from the scene.’ Jack wound the window down a fraction to stop the windscreen from fogging up. ‘Strange feeling in the house,’ he commented as they drove past the dam.

  Dave didn’t say anything. He was too busy himself thinking about the things that hadn’t seemed right: strained relationship with daughter; a workman who seemed more like a son; a boss who disappeared within himself when the conversation became stressful or pressured.

  ‘Did you take any notes?’ he finally asked Jack.

  ‘A few.’ He opened his notepad. ‘None of them know of any missing persons from around the area. No family members missing, nothing in the history of the place that indicates there should be a buried body here.’ He paused. ‘It could be anyone! Someone who died in the Depression or something. I mean, there have to be bodies buried everywhere out here, don’t there?’

  Dave laughed and flicked on his blinker to turn out onto the main road. He drove carefully. The roads were still oily from the rain. He was glad it had cleared up—drying conditions would be much easier to work in than wet.

  ‘I’m sure there aren’t bodies everywhere! Well, I’d bloody hope not. Still, in the early years many people died natural deaths and were buried in graves out in the bush. There wasn’t always time to get them to a cemetery, especially if they died in the middle of summer. People had to make do. But then again, it could be the remains of someone who has only been there for ten or so years, and even though that makes it a cold case, it still needs investigating. Alternatively, it could be someone who was buried recently. We’ve really got no idea.’