Diamond Sky

by Annie Seaton

  Greg scrolled to the final page. ‘I’ve downloaded the transactions for this account. It’s an account with another bank. Two transactions about eight months ago. A deposit of nine hundred thousand dollars. It sat there for three days and then was withdrawn and went to a solicitor’s trust account.’

  ‘Holy shit.’ Connor leaned forward as his adrenaline spiked. He was right, Dru was the one. Forget the gut feeling that she was involved; here was the proof. ‘Where did the deposit come from?’

  Greg’s teeth glinted in the light from the screen as he smiled. ‘Dubai.’

  Chapter 16

  Purnululu National Park

  Twelve days hiking in the Purnululu National Park with fourteen carefree backpackers helped Dru relax more by the day. She wore herself out physically, slept like a baby and regained her equilibrium. It truly was ‘glamping’; she’d smiled when she’d seen the double bed and solar shower and toilet in her tent.

  The enormity of the beehive domes, and the giant scale of the rock formations helped put her problems into perspective, as did the nights spent at the bush camp. Sitting around the campfire, sharing stories, and laughing at what some of the group had experienced in the outback was cathartic.

  On the last night of the tour, Dru walked out beneath the stars along the Cathedral Gorge Trail, lost in her thoughts. She had always recognised that her father’s murder ten years ago was at the root of her insecurities. Back then, she’d refused to see a counsellor and had buried her grief in wild and risky behaviour during her final weeks at high school in Jabiru. Non-stop partying, underage drinking and unprotected sex; it was a wonder she’d passed her Certificate of Education. It was a miracle that she hadn’t fallen pregnant or caught something, but thankfully she’d avoided causing her mother any more grief.

  Not that Mum would have known about it anyway, dosed up on antidepressants and hiding away in the house most of the time. Emma had done her best to guide Dru into safe behaviour but she had been wasting her time. By the time Dru left school a few weeks after Dad’s funeral, they’d moved from the farm into Jabiru, and that had made it even easier to get to the parties. But after a few scary experiences Dru had even frightened herself with the risk taking and finally she had given herself a stern talking to when she headed off to uni.

  A new Dru, a new reputation in a fresh environment. The only risk taking there was in her choice of sports. She pushed herself, needing the buzz that the danger gave her. While she was doing that the dreams and the bad feelings left her alone. She joined the abseiling and sky diving clubs. The rush she got from standing at the top of the mountain and jumping from a plane had filled the emptiness that constantly dogged her.

  By the time she’d graduated and got the dream job in Dubai, Dru’s restlessness had mostly settled. Her friendship with Megan had been the next step in confronting her fears. In Dubai she had finally opened up to Megan; the first person who had ever got her talking about herself—and her past—and in a way Meg’s pseudo-psychoanalysis had been cathartic.

  ‘You know it’s because you lost your dad when you were young, don’t you?’ Megan had put her hands on the table and stared at Dru as they sat in one of the bars at Atlantis, the Palm, looking out over the azure waters of the Persian Gulf. Dru had been more interested in the logistics of building the huge man-made island that the hotel was situated on, but Megan wouldn’t give up. ‘You’re scared of losing someone else. That’s why you shut down so quickly. The cold response is a barrier.’

  ‘Cold?’ Dru had almost spat the cocktail—her second—over the huge circular table in the Ossiano bar. She quickly regained her composure and looked away from the view, past the huge column towards the other side of the room. ‘That aquarium is amazing, isn’t it?’

  A huge spotted stingray glided through the myriad of brightly coloured fish, closely followed by a shark. Dru pretended to be interested in their progress through the water.

  ‘Don’t change the subject.’ Megan sat back, put her cocktail glass on the table and folded her arms. ‘You put up this big ice queen front, but you don’t know how challenging that is to some men.’

  Dru pursed her lips and turned back to face Megan. ‘You’re talking rubbish.’

  ‘Don’t look at me like that. I know the real you and I know you care about people, no matter what you hide behind. Plus being stunning looking just adds to the challenge.’

  Dru almost spat her drink again at that comment. ‘Yeah sure. Okay, so what do I hide behind, Ms Psychoanalyst?’ A slow simmer of anger had begun to burn in her throat and she took another slug of her mango cocktail.

  ‘Good, get cranky. It’ll do you good to talk about it.’ Meg reached out and put a perfectly manicured hand on Dru’s wrist.

  Dru bit her lip as she stared down at the red, tapered nails. In contrast, her own nails were trimmed and unpainted. Practical.

  ‘You work your butt off to be the best at what you do. You’re trying to prove something.’

  ‘Being good at my job is important to me.’ Dru couldn’t believe that tears were pricking at the back of her eyes.

  ‘But why is it so important to you? Have you ever wondered?’

  Trust Meg to cut to the heart of it.

  ‘I don’t have to wonder. I know why.’ Dru pulled her hand away from Megan’s touch and shook her fingers in front of her chest. ‘My job is all I’ve got. No one can take it off me if I do it well.’

  Meg grabbed at one of Dru’s hands. Dru was still opening and closing her fingers slowly.

  ‘Why do you do that shaking stuff with your fingers? I’ve noticed you do it a lot.’

  Dru stared down at her hand that was now firmly clasped in one of Megan’s.

  ‘It’s a nervous thing.’ She kept her voice low, ashamed to admit to any weakness. ‘When I get stressed, I get this feeling in my hands.’ All of a sudden her vision blurred. ‘Like butterflies in my fingers. Crazy, aren’t I?’

  ‘It’s okay. No need to be stressed here. I’m here for you, hon. And I will be whenever you need me. Just talk when you want to, okay?’

  Dru nodded. It had been a long time since she’d talked to anyone about how she felt.

  Meg gestured around the luxurious bar. ‘Gawd, look at this place. Opulence unlimited.’

  Dru took a deep breath and reached for her drink again, hoping that Megan had changed the subject, but she hadn’t finished.

  ‘You know what causes your stress? You’ve got family issues. You should hear yourself. You talk about your sisters as though you don’t care but then you refer to them all the time. Emma did this and Ellie’s a helicopter pilot. Yada, yada, yada. You might be fooling yourself, but you haven’t fooled me.’

  Megan’s lecture had made Dru take more notice of her family for a while. When she fled Dubai, it made it easier to go home to Mum’s place in Port Douglas.

  The mournful call of a night bird in the gorge brought her back to her present. She stopped on the trail and stared down the rock walls below her. These incredible sandstone formations were thought to have been forged over 350 million years ago from the sediment of an old riverbed. The unique orange, grey and black stripes were lit by the faint light of the new moon in a clear sky. She lifted her head and looked up at the stars. The velvet black sky out here in the desert was not tainted by light pollution. Thousands upon thousands of pinpricks of light were visible to the naked eye. What had Dad called it?

  A diamond sky.

  ‘When you feel as though your problems are overwhelming, go outside and look up at the night sky. It puts them all in perspective. Each of us is just one little spot on one planet orbiting around just one of how many million stars that are out there.’

  Dru could almost hear Dad’s voice as he’d lain on the grass beside her looking at the stars. Remembering his words, she looked up at the sky again; the awesome grandeur and the complex magnitude of the solar system reinforced how minuscule her problems were. The tranquillity of the night sky and the serenity of the ro
cky landscape held her motionless; Dru let her thoughts return to another desert ten thousand kilometres away.

  Since she’d left there her fears had come back tenfold. But it was all in her head; none of it was real. She turned and walked slowly back to the camp. Surely her recent fears were unfounded and Connor had just been an unknowing target of her paranoia. Megan was right; she had overreacted in Dubai and thrown a good job away. There was little chance—even if he knew where she was—that Zayed would even be interested in getting her back there. He would have moved on by now. It was time for a fresh start and to get over this stupid fear that dogged her everywhere she went. Life would be unbearable if she didn’t get over it.

  And she would. Today was a new start.

  Tomorrow she’d head back to Kununurra with the group. She’d collect her car and go back to the mine a couple of days early. She was good at her job, and she enjoyed it. The money might be less than Dubai but it was still a generous salary for a recent graduate. And now she had the apartment in Darwin, she could start saving again.

  From now on she’d apply the same analytical skills that she applied to her work to her emotional turmoil. Her first task would be to ring Megan and accept the offer of being bridesmaid, and tell her she’d be there. Then she’d get her flight to Dubai sorted. Dru pushed away the tiny niggle of nerves that fluttered in her fingers and clenched her fists. No more finger shaking. No more stress. She looked up at the sky.

  Serenity and tranquillity. That would be her new mantra.

  With a happy grin she walked back into the camp and headed for her tent.

  Chapter 17

  Matsu Diamond Mine

  ‘So?’ Meg’s hopeful voice brought a smile to Dru’s face. Since she’d left the national park and returned to Matsu a couple of days earlier, she’d been feeling upbeat and managed to keep her nerves at bay.

  ‘Yes, I’ll be there. But just for three days.’ The new Dru was still wary.

  ‘Oh my God,’ Meg’s voice was so loud Dru pulled the phone away from her ear. ‘Really? You’ll really be my bridesmaid?’

  ‘I will. But the deal is I don’t wear a dress or heels.’ Dru’s voice was dry.

  ‘You got it, babe. I told you I have a killer pantsuit picked out for you already. Oh, Dru, I am so happy. You’ve made my day.’

  ‘That’s good. I’ll book my flights but I want Sam to pick me up at the airport and take me straight to your place. Okay? Nowhere else. Your place, the wedding and then the airport. I might be being silly but I’ll feel more comfortable if we do it that way.’ Even though Dru had come to terms with her irrational fear, she still wasn’t going to hang around Dubai. She’d see Meg and Sam, do the bridesmaid bit and come back to Darwin for a while. Heck, maybe it was even time to go and visit Mum. Perhaps she could fly back via Cairns International Airport.

  ‘Got you loud and clear and not a problem, we’d already thought of that and done better. We’ve booked a few rooms at the Atlantis and we’ll look after you. We’ll both be there for a couple of days before the wedding. All the family are flying in and we don’t have enough room at the apartment.’ Megan squealed. ‘Oh, I am so happy you said yes!’

  ‘So what are we going to do about this “killer pantsuit”? Remember I’m not an off-the-rack size.’

  A quick discussion about measurements and dressmakers satisfied Dru that Megan had the outfit well under control. She agreed reluctantly that Dru could pick her own shoes.

  ‘A little heel maybe?’ Meg cajoled. ‘Just a teensy one?’

  ‘Don’t push your luck, sweets.’ Dru laughed. ‘I’ll see you in a couple of weeks.’

  *

  There had been no sign of Connor in the staff mess or around the site since she’d come back, and Dru wondered if his work at Matsu had finished already. She shrugged as she headed out to the ute. She was keen to head out to the rehabilitation site and see what had happened while she was off. Before she could do that, there was a meeting with the traditional owners to attend in the administration block. She’d been surprised to see the extraordinary meeting notice in her email when she came back.

  Dru parked in the front car park and made her way to the building. Outside the main door a couple of unfamiliar men in suits were deep in conversation with Rocky. Unusually for him, his trousers were pressed and he was wearing a collared shirt. His hair was slicked back with oil and he was clean-shaven. As she pushed open the door and entered the foyer, John Robinson, the CEO of the company, nodded at her. She’d only met him briefly once before and didn’t know him well enough to start up a conversation, so she walked to the water cooler under the pretext of getting a glass of water. The door opened again as more committee members arrived. Finally Rocky came inside with the two men and John ushered everyone into the meeting room.

  The chairman called the meeting to order as soon as everyone was seated around the U-shaped table. The secretary from the main office was sitting on John Robinson’s right, taking minutes on a small laptop.

  ‘I’d like to welcome you to this extraordinary meeting. The traditional owners have requested this meeting in relation to the proposed expansion of the mine. The legality of the current Participation Agreement has been called into question, and we are taking this opportunity to listen to the concerns raised in a letter to the committee—’ the chairman glanced down ‘—dated the first of November.’

  He read from the letter in his hand. ‘The Kija and Miriwoong are the traditional owners of their ancestral lands in the East Kimberley, and the Matsu Diamond Mine has been in operation on their land for the past ten years. We hereby register our objection to the proposal for a second underground shaft. This further incursion on our traditional land will continue the destruction of our ancestral homeland, irreversibly devastate our cultural heritage, and offer little in return for such a massive loss.’

  He put the letter down and opened the meeting for comments.

  Rocky raised his hand. ‘I want you all to know about our main concerns. This meeting has been called by the traditional owners of this land.’ Dru jumped when he slammed his fist on the table. ‘Not the imposters who signed this agreement ten years ago.’

  The chairman looked over his glasses at Rocky. ‘Would you please clarify what you are trying to convey, Mr Cardella?’

  ‘What I—’ Rocky glanced at the two men sitting on each side of him. ‘What we are conveying—’ his voice dripped with sarcasm ‘—is that the original agreement is not legal. It was a set-up.’ He reached up and ran his finger around the collar of his shirt. ‘Some of the original signatories were not members of our people and our two legal representatives here today can prove that was the case. We have proof that the agreement was signed without the agreement of the genuine and true owners of our land, and further we have proof that some signatories received payment for signing the agreement.’

  Dru examined the faces of the men sitting alongside the chairman. A few frowns could be seen, but John Robinson’s face was the one that caught her attention. His eyes were as cold as flint and his mouth was set in a straight line.

  The man on Rocky’s left cleared his throat and raised his hand. ‘My name is Tom Wari, and I represent my people. We are prepared to be reasonable with the negotiations to address this matter—and please rest assured that there is an issue. We are not saying that Matsu Diamonds was behind this; we are looking into the situation from our side. However, no matter how the signing off was done, our major concern is that a sacred site on the southern side of the mine has been compromised.’

  Dru sat up straight. That’s where she’d been working recently. And it was where Rocky had been spending a lot of his time wandering around. She paid close attention to the ensuing discussion.

  Tom continued to speak with passion. ‘Land is fundamental to the wellbeing of our people. It’s not just soil or rocks or the mineral wealth in the ground. The land sustains our people, and in return our people and culture sustain that land. Our country, and our sacred sites,
are at the core of our relationship with our land.’

  John Robinson’s voice was cold. ‘May I ask why it has taken ten years for this issue to be raised?’ His tone implied disbelief. ‘Our agreement was the result of a structured—’

  ‘That’s all good, mate. And too bloody right the structure was there,’ Rocky interrupted. ‘But what we’re saying is that some of the signatories were not the traditional owners. It was dodgy.’

  Robinson ignored him. ‘As I was saying, our agreement resulted from a structured negotiation process.’ He picked up the water glass in front of him and drank. ‘There were ethnographic and genealogical studies of the area, heritage protection agreements, the execution of a land use agreement, and we examined the traditional culture—’

  Rocky’s voice drowned him out. ‘You can go on all you bloody like. Sitting down there in your office in Perth or wherever, the agreement is still illegal.’

  ‘There was no mention of any sacred sites within the defined boundaries.’ Robinson’s voice was dismissive and Dru watched with interest as Rocky stiffened in his chair. ‘So what do you want, Mr Cardella?’

  ‘We are going to lodge a dispute with the National Native Title Tribunal.’

  The room was silent.

  Tom Wari leaned over and whispered in Rocky’s ear. Dru looked from him to John Robinson; whichever way this issue went, it might not have a good outcome. For the expansion of the underground mining—or for anyone’s job here at the mine.

  ‘Before the dispute is lodged and goes to arbitration, we, the traditional owners, are prepared to come to a compromise agreement. As a traditional owner representing my people I have been given authority to raise it here today.’ Tom paused.

  ‘A true traditional owner,’ Rocky muttered but loud enough for everyone to hear. Tom put his hand on Rocky’s arm.

  ‘Go ahead.’ Robinson nodded to Tom to continue.

  ‘We will not object to the new drilling on one condition. We know the importance of the mine for the economic development of our state, and we appreciate the employment and the educational support that our people have received over the past ten years. We also appreciate the effort that has gone into the rehabilitation of the site.’ He looked at Dru and nodded slightly.