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CHAPTER FIFTEEN
DALE WATCHED, UNBELIEVING, as King helped Wazza into the rear seat of the police cruiser and shut the door. Then the senior constable slipped into the passenger seat, keeping his eyes directed straight forward. The rest of the Stormcloud staff stood around the parking lot, all equally in a state of shock. Senior Sergeant Robinson put the vehicle into drive, and it disappeared around the corner of the lodge, kicking up a small trail of dust as it went.
Everyone seemed to be frozen. No one moved or spoke for many seconds after the car disappeared.
Steve was the first to break the spell. “Right, I’ll follow them into town and find out what the hell is going on.” He jangled a set of keys in his hand as he headed straight toward his Land Cruiser. “Daniella, look up the details of a good lawyer and text them to me. We need to make sure Wazza is looked after,” he added.
“What?” His mum looked like a fish stranded out of water. It took a lot to knock the wind out of her sails, but this arrest had completely confounded her. The iPad dangled, forgotten from her hand.
“Wazza is going to need a lawyer. I want to make sure he has the best. We know he didn’t do this, and I’ll be dammed if the police are going to pin it on him.” Dale had never seen Steve so worked up, furious anger clearly visible, a rage of boiling lava just beneath his skin. Steve jumped into his vehicle and took off, wheels spinning in the dirt, without even waiting for an answer from Daniella.
Daisy stirred beside him. She looked as shocked as the rest of them, and without thinking, he took hold of her hand. The comforting gesture was as much for himself as it was for her. Right at that moment, Skylar, who was on Daisy’s other side, glanced down and saw their hands entwined. Her blue eyes came up and met his, a question in their depths. It seemed the cat was out of the bag when it came to him and Daisy. He wasn’t bothered about it right now.
In the rear recesses of his brain, Dale understood Daisy might well be cheering on the police, at least silently in her head. This arrest might mean that River was innocent, as he claimed to be. It certainly took the pressure off River. Dale wouldn’t be so quick to jump to conclusions, however. The police could have the wrong man. He hoped the police had the wrong man.
“What are we going to do? What shall we tell the guests? How are we going to run this place if we’re down two station hands?” Daniella said, her voice rising to a wail.
“Let’s go back inside,” Dale suggested. “We don’t need anyone else hearing this.” Reluctantly, Dale released Daisy’s hand, taking his mother by the shoulders and steering her through the back door. He pushed her onto one of the barstools and removed the iPad from her hand.
“I can’t believe this is happening.” Daniella leaned forward, hands on her knees, and began gasping for breath. Oh God, was she hyperventilating? She was a woman who never lost her cool, and seeing her this way made Dale want to lose it, too. She was right; this didn’t feel real. But it was. His body went numb, he couldn’t think straight, and his arms and legs felt like they were made of lead.
Daisy stepped forward, placing a hand on his mother’s hunched shoulders, rubbing small circles and murmuring, “It’s okay. You’ll be okay. Take some deep breaths, that’s right.” After a few seconds, Daniella took Daisy’s advice, dragging in deep lungfuls of air. “That’s good. Now let it out slow and steady. You’re doing well,” Daisy encouraged. The sight of Daisy helping his mother, while he stood back and watched on as helpless as a fool, finally snapped him out of his funk. Moving to his mother’s right-hand side, he put a hand on her shoulder. The contact felt a little odd; he rarely touched his mother; she wasn’t the sort for public shows of affection.
“None of us can believe this is happening,” he said gently. “But we’ll get through it, we always do.” He knew his rote response wasn’t strictly true, but it was what his mother needed to hear at the moment. Daniella nodded, and kept doing her deep breathing, her eyes fixed on the floor.
“Thanks,” he mouthed, leaning forward to catch Daisy’s gaze. The corner of her mouth curled up in reply.
Then he glanced up and saw Skylar’s worried frown. They both hated to see their mother this way. Skylar said, “I need a strong coffee. Anyone else need one?” There were murmurs of agreement, as people arranged themselves around the centre island in the kitchen.
“Will we, though? Get through this, I mean? What does this mean for Wazza?” Sally blurted. She was tapping her fingers on the bench in an agitated manner, her gaze darting from one person to the next. “What does this mean for all of us? What if we’ve been living with a killer in our midst all along?” He couldn’t blame her for her blunt questions, they were all terribly anxious and worried.
Dale wasn’t sure how to reply. Skylar placed a mug of coffee in front of him, and then one in front of Daisy and his mother. It was so like Skylar, keeping everyone fed and watered. That was how she dealt with things, by keeping busy, keeping moving.
Alek had taken a seat at the end of the island, next to Bindi, and he spoke up for the first time since the police had arrived. “Steve seems to believe that Wazza didn’t do this. But how can we be so sure? The police must have some sort of damming evidence to arrest him.”
Dale glanced at Alek. The man looked positively sick, his pale-blue eyes bloodshot and his long hair greasy, as if he hadn’t washed it in days. Why would he be so quick to condemn Wazza? Surely, he knew Wazza wasn’t capable of this? Thinking back, Dale remembered Alek had been the first to mention rumors of Karri seeing someone over at Koongarra. How had he known? Did he know more about Karri than he was letting on? It almost seemed as if Alek wanted the police to have conclusive evidence. Dale glared at the man.
“Yes, that’s right,” Sally agreed with Alek. “Maybe this is a good thing. If they have captured the killer, then we can all return to normal, can’t we?” Sally’s agitated fingers finally stopped their tapping and a small smile appeared on her face. “This is actually good, if the police have their man, they’ll stop bothering us.” She almost looked pleased with herself, like she was proclaiming their salvation. Why was Sally so quick to agree with Alek? It felt as if both she and Alek were too hasty to betray their good friend and workmate. So far, Bindi had said nothing, merely watching the interchanging with widening eyes.
Before he could voice his doubts, Daisy stood up and glared at Sally. “What about innocent until proven guilty? Doesn’t Wazza warrant the benefit of the doubt? It sounds like you all have him locked up already.”
Sally narrowed her dark eyes at Daisy. “Just who the hell do you think you are, telling us what to think? You’ve been here for all of five minutes. I don’t—”
Dale jumped in before this erupted into a full-scale argument. “Everyone calm down. We need to wait until Steve reports in. We can’t keep jumping to conclusions.”
Six pairs of eyes turned toward him, and he could feel the tension in the room ramping up. Daisy was correct, Wazza was innocent until proven guilty.
“I agree with Dale,” Daniella said, surprising him. She seemed to have finally recovered her composure. “We should all take this down a notch. Everyone needs to get back to work. The guests will be awake soon. This place isn’t going to stop just because one of our station hands has been arrested.” Daniella leveled her cool gaze at each of them in turn. His efficient, collected mother was finally back in charge. Dale breathed a silent sigh of relief.
“Steve was going to tell you this morning, before we got rudely interrupted,” Daniella continued. “Julie, his daughter, will come out to give us a hand, She’s arriving today. She’s in between jobs and is willing to help us out. And God knows, we’re going to need her more than ever, now that we’re two station hands down. Three really, if you count the fact we never replaced Paula. So at least we don’t have to worry about our heavy workloads.”
That was good news. Dale nodded in approval. Julie was a few years older than him, and while he didn’t really know what she did for a job—something to do with marketing—the few times she’d visited Steve at the station, she’d shown she was also good with the horses and had no problem getting her hands dirty.
“Come on everyone, let’s get moving. Skylar, have you got breakfast organized?” Daniella snapped. Skylar rolled her eyes, but she motioned to Bindi, who jumped up and they began pulling breakfast supplies out of the cool room. Daniella glared in Alek’s direction until he finally got the hint and disappeared through the door to organize the schedule for the day. Sally followed quickly on his heels, probably to go and set the tables for breakfast. Even though they were currently only half full, it still meant they had over twelve guests to look after.
“And you.” His mother rounded on him. “What are you supposed to be doing right now?” There was acid in her voice and her eyes flashed, hiding a growing anger. She hated it when things didn’t go according to plan. When she wasn’t fully in control. No one wanted to get in her way when she was in this sort of mood. This morning would’ve been her worst nightmare, and now they were all in the firing line for the fallout of her foul mood. Especially because everyone had seen her lose it earlier.
“I’m taking eight of the guests over to the mine site this morning, we might even do some panning for gold. Daisy’s coming with me.” He kept his voice conversational, winking at Daisy over the top of his mother’s head.
