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She continued to stare at him mutely, enormous eyes like green pools, reminding him of the billabong on a calm day. Her whole body was radiating tension, like she was a caged animal about to turn violent. Her eyes glazed over, and he guessed there was some sort of internal battle going on in her head. His unease morphed into growing alarm. Why wouldn’t she answer him? No normal person was this afraid to talk to the police.
“I… I can’t tell you,” she replied, so quietly he almost didn’t hear her. Then, as if a sudden thought hit her, her blank gaze cleared, and she sat up straighter. “I mean…it’s nothing. Don’t worry, there’s nothing wrong.”
“Dale, can you come and help us serve the refreshments, please?” His mother’s voice rang out, breaking the tension between him and Daisy. She snatched her hand away from his. Dale didn’t want to leave her, he needed her to tell him what was going on. Something wasn’t right, and it was important he find out what.
But Daniella called out again, more impatiently this time.
“Go on,” Daisy urged. “Your mum needs you.”
He stood up slowly.
“I was just being silly, don’t worry.” But that fake smile she pasted on her face didn’t fool him for a second. Something was terribly wrong, but if she wouldn’t confide in him, then he had no idea how to help her. And he had no way of stopping those insidious voices warning him to be careful of her.
By the time he reached the bar, Skylar, and Bindi had uncovered the trays of scones. He gave Skylar a quick hug. They might not always see eye to eye, but they’d invariably been close. He knew she would be taking this as hard as he was.
“How about some of those answers you promised us?” a man’s voice rang out from the front table. It was the guy who’d come barramundi fishing with them, Jack, and his wife Joanna. Dale didn’t disagree. He had millions of those exact questions, all clamoring for answers.
“Sure.” Steve ran a hand through his hair and glanced at Daniella. And then, surprisingly, at Wazza. “If you’ll stay seated, we’ll serve you at the tables, and I’ll fill you in.”
Dale doubted many people would want the refreshments, but he guessed it was his mother’s way of maintaining a version of normality. And it probably helped the two women keep calm, having something to do.
“I’m not sure how many of you know, but Karri went missing yesterday around lunchtime. We were worried about her, but this…wasn’t an uncommon occurrence for her.” Steve didn’t elaborate, the guests didn’t need to know details about Karri’s past actions. “Anyway, when I still had no word from her or her family this morning, I called the local police station and lodged a missing person report with them. Senior Constable King said it was too soon to do anything, but noted it down, and told me to get back to him if she still hadn’t turned up by this evening.”
Dale nodded, along with a few other guests; those who’d been here for a few days had probably met Karri out on one of the guided horseback rides.
“Warwick…” Steve turned and tilted his chin at Wazza, “Went to continue work on a fence that he’d started repairing yesterday afternoon.”
Wazza lifted his gaze to look at Steve, the anguish clear on his face now. Then it hit Dale. Oh, Jesus, Wazza had been the one who found her. The man looked positively sick. What a horrible thing to have been confronted with.
“Wazza…sorry, Warwick found Karri floating in the flooded creek, near to where he’d been fixing the fence. He pulled her out and commenced CPR.”
Dale could imagine Wazza frantically trying to breathe life back into Karri’s inert body. They’d all been drilled in their first aid skills; his mother had demanded it. The policy was to do CPR first, ask questions later, because you never knew, miracles could happen.
“But she’d been in the creek for too long, and he was unable to resuscitate her,” Steve continued in a monotone voice.
Wazza hung his head again, and Dale thought he heard the big man utter a soft groan of despair.
“How the hell did she get into the creek?” Thomas asked belligerently.
Steve ignored the other man’s tone. “We don’t really know. After Wazza called me on the two-way, we found an ATV submerged in the middle of the creek. We don’t want to speculate, but she could have perhaps been trying to cross the creek and got washed off her bike by a surge.”
The sound of a helicopter broke the midday air above the lodge. Senior Sergeant Robinson had arrived. The station had a helicopter landing pad out behind the stables. Stormcloud used a local helicopter company to ferry guests in from Cairns, as well as to help with the cattle mustering. The landing pad was a three-minute dash on foot, or a thirty-second drive if you took one of the vehicles.
Steve turned toward Dale. “Come with me, please.” It wasn’t really a request, and Dale knew it. Dale scrutinized Steve’s back as he turned toward the rear door. Why had Steve chosen him in particular? Dale couldn’t very well say no. He cast one more look at Daisy, who sat alone at the end of the table, staring out the window and chewing her lip. She looked about ready to bolt at any second and Dale had taken two steps toward her, when Steve’s voice commanded him. “Now, Dale. I need you with me.”
Dale hoped fervently that Daisy stayed put as he followed Steve through the doorway.
Steve jumped into his Land Cruiser, started the engine, and the vehicle was already moving before Dale was fully in the passenger seat. He pulled the door shut as the vehicle picked up speed. Steve was clearly rattled. He was a stickler for safety. He’d never normally even start a car unless everyone had their seatbelts on first.
Without preamble, Steve said, “I wanted you to know, before the senior sergeant questions people. Karri had a large wound on her head.” Steve wouldn’t look at him, kept his eyes fixed on the muddy track leading them around the back of the hanger.
Dale took a few seconds to digest Steve’s words. “What do you mean? Did she hit her head on a rock when she was washed downstream?”
“Possibly.”
What was Steve not saying? “How else would she have gotten a head wound?” It suddenly occurred to Dale what Steve was hinting at. “Oh, fuck. Do you mean someone could have hit Karri over the head? Do you think she was…murdered?”
“I’m not speculating anything,” Steve replied, his voice expressionless. “That’s the senior sergeant’s job.” Steve’s hands gripped the steering wheel so tight, the knuckles were bulging through the skin. “And I don’t want you passing this on, especially not to the guests. I just wanted you to know, that’s all. So you’re not taken completely by surprise when the police ask you what you know.”
“Oh, God.” Dale closed his eyes. This couldn’t be happening. “Who would want to hurt Karri?”
“Like I said, I’m not going to speculate—”
Dale interrupted him as his mind flew to the obvious scenario. “But if that’s true, does that mean…?” Dale could hardly believe he was about to say this. “Does that mean we have a murderer here? On the station?”
Steve finally looked at Dale. His lips were drawn together in a rictus and his eyes were dark and haunted. That look told Dale everything the other man was afraid to say.
