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CHAPTER SIXTEEN
JULIE SEARCHED THE skies above for a sign. A sign of what, she wasn’t sure. A sign that she was doing the right thing, perhaps. She went back to beating the cake mix and gave a secret smile. Today was the fourteenth. It was Aaron’s birthday. Did he think she wouldn’t remember? He certainly hadn’t mentioned anything to her, and she got the distinct feeling he’d be quite happy to let it slip on by unnoticed.
This day was bittersweet. Because it was also on this day twelve years ago that he’d disappeared from her life. And she still hadn’t forgiven him. Had she?
“Do you need a hand?” Aaron’s deep baritone broke through her musing.
“No, no, all good,” she said, half-turning away. Most likely he wouldn’t ask what she was cooking, but she didn’t need him getting suspicious.
Aaron raised an eyebrow as if he were about to argue, the one with the white scar bisecting the dark hair. That scar was also a reminder of the day he’d left her, but somehow, she didn’t mind it. In fact, she wanted to run her finger over it, to feel if the skin was smooth and healed, or was it still slightly raised after all this time?
“What did Dad say this morning before he left?” she asked, to distract him, and herself. This morning, Steve had beckoned Aaron over and leant down from atop his saddle, talking earnestly into his ear.
“Much the same as he did yesterday afternoon,” Aaron replied. “He was just making sure that… I, ah…kept you safe.”
Julie snorted. She could just imagine the conversation. Steve worried about his daughter, even though she was fully grown. But then, what parent ever stopped caring about their kids? When they’d first arrived, Steve had suggested he or Dale stay behind at camp, as well, to make sure Julie had adequate protection, but Aaron had convinced him that he was very good at his job and Julie was in capable hands. Steve had headed out on the first day with a frown darkening his features and had radioed in more often than was strictly necessary throughout the day to make sure she was okay.
Then yesterday, after Aaron had shown her the photo of Travis Mailmann, her stalker, and after she’d finally pulled herself together—she couldn’t believe she’d broken down in his arms twice now, what was happening to her—they’d taken lunch out to the crew and relayed the new information to Steve and Dale and the other Stormcloud staff. Steve had sobered and interrogated Aaron as to what they were going to do with the new facts. Aaron had told her father that this was a step in the right direction. His man, Nicolay, was onto it, delving into all the tiny details they could find about the stalker. He’d also passed the information onto Nash, to see if the police had this guy on file, but they were still waiting to hear from the senior constable. Steve had seemed slightly more at ease after Aaron told him all this and had stopped calling her on the UHF every five minutes. There’d been no more contact from the stalker, no more threats or innuendos, it was almost as if he’d been a figment of her imagination. But Julie knew her father wouldn’t relax completely until they’d caught this guy.
Last night had passed in pretty much a mirror image of their first night out in the bush. She and Aaron had set up their swags under the tree and gone to bed early, ready for another early start. The rhythm of living and working in the stock camp was starting to get into her blood. It was hard work, but she loved falling into her swag, exhausted at the end of the day.
She and Aaron had worked hard all day, with no time for a short ride up the hill, like they’d done yesterday. They made a good team, falling back into the same easy camaraderie they’d been used to at Roseby Downs. Perhaps not quite so easy, Julie amended silently, because there was always that matter of trust between them now. She didn’t think she’d ever allow that wall she’d put up around her heart to come down, not when it came to Aaron.
The muster crew was farther out today, and it’d taken them longer to drive lunch out. Plus, she might have to admit that she’d perhaps overextended herself a little, and her menu might’ve been a tad ambitious. She’d made quiche and roast beef sandwiches with mustard and lettuce for lunch and homemade sausage rolls for smoko. And she was now in the process of putting the finishing touches to her two large pots of shepherd’s pie; a special request from Dale, as it was his favorite. It was helpful to have the oven in the caravan, as it gave her the added ability to be able to cook things like biscuits, cakes and other pastry products. Adding another level of complexity by deciding to bake a cake for Aaron—she was going to surprise him with it after dinner—probably didn’t help.
Julie had talked to Skylar this afternoon; her stepsister had called on the sat phone to check that all the meals were going as planned, and to make sure her supplies were still sufficient to keep the camp going for the next few days. Julie had held in a sigh. She was more than competent at handling the camp mess tent, she’d proved that when she’d taken over the kitchen for those few weeks while Skylar had been hiding from a crazed gunman. But Skylar was a perfectionist and a bit of a control freak, so Julie let her talk and made the right noises at the right times, not wanting to antagonize her.
After they’d sorted out the finer details of what to cook for the crew, Julie asked, “How are things going back at the lodge?” What she really meant was, had there been any more signs of her stalker while she was gone.
“Pretty good,” Skylar answered. “Nothing out of the ordinary, if that’s what you mean.” It was Skylar’s way of telling Julie they’d heard nothing more, which was a good thing. Julie was beginning to wonder if her stalker had just given up. Perhaps knowing that Aaron was guarding her had warned him off and he’d gone home with his tail between his legs. “We’re run off our feet, of course, with you guys all out there,” Skylar continued. “Mum is in a flap half of the time. You know how she gets.”
Julie could imagine, Daniella was very organized and efficient, but when she got stressed, she often became extra demanding and ran around trying to do everything herself. “Hang in there, sis,” Julie replied. “Only a few more days, and we’ll be back.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t think those guests leaving in the dead of night, two days before they were due to check out, helped Daniella’s mood.”
“What? What do you mean? Who left?” Julie was puzzled. It was highly unusual for anyone to leave early, everyone loved staying at the lodge, and they were paying a premium to do so.
“That newly married couple, the older guy and the cute little younger woman,” Skylar said disinterestedly. Skylar never took as much time as Julie did to learn the guest’s names. She was much more interested in hiding away in her kitchen than fraternizing with the clients.
“You mean Chase and Maya?” That was odd. “Why would they do that?”
“Yeah, that’s them,” Skylar said. “And I have no idea, they just packed up their four-wheel-drive and took off really early yesterday morning, without letting us know. Daniella was pretty mad when she found out, but she’s got the guy’s credit card details, and she said she’s going to bill him the full amount, anyway.”
“That’s pretty weird,” Julie mused. But then it took all types. From what she remembered about the couple, they were going to do some exploring after they left Stormcloud, head north and check out more of the outback, as they called it. She hoped they’d be okay. A lot of city folk drove up here in their big cars and thought they were invincible, but the land could be harsh and unforgiving if you weren’t prepared for it. And Maya especially seemed sweet and a little naïve. She might not do too well camping rough in the severe conditions of the outback. “Did you tell Nash about it?” she asked suddenly, as a prickle of concern ran down her back.
“Yeah, I did. He said he’d keep an eye out for them. But he’s a busy man, you know.”
That was for sure. Nash and his partner, Constable Willow, ran the small police station in Dimbulah and were the only two cops for hundreds of miles. Their jobs were so much different to those cops in the city, and they were often away from the station for hours, or even days, at a time. But that wasn’t exactly what Julie had meant. They’d been told to keep their eyes open for anything different or out of place, and this was both of those things.
Julie had spoken to Skylar for a few more minutes and then ended the call so she could go and get the Anzac biscuits out of the oven. She’d mentioned the call to Aaron, and he said that Nash had already passed on the information, so Julie soon forgot about it. As long as Nash and Aaron knew about the guests’ slightly odd behavior and neither of them seemed worried, then she wasn’t troubled, either.
It was now getting on toward late afternoon, the orange rays of sunshine flashing through the tops of the trees, setting the billabong on fire. The bird life around the body of water was amazing, and the lowering of the sun toward the horizon was bringing in thousands more birds for a final drink before they retired for the night.
“They’ll be back soon,” Julie called out to Aaron, who was over by the fire, stoking the coals to keep the two large camp ovens sufficiently hot. “I heard Scanner on the radio a few minutes ago. It sounds like they’re only ten minutes out.” Julie ducked back into the large canvas annex they’d erected as a makeshift mess tent. Where had she put those cake tins?
“Yeah, I can see the dust plume coming closer. I think I can hear them as well,” Aaron added, standing on tiptoe and craning his neck. Was that a look of longing on his face? Don’t tell her that Aaron Powell might actually want to be out there helping them bring in the recalcitrant bush cattle, rather than standing guard over her? She knew that once he got out here, he might remember some of his idyllic lifestyle from his teenage years, but of course, he was still denying he missed it.
She took the chance to examine his profile while he was distracted by the oncoming muster. He’d barely left her side over the past two days. Which was both annoying and somehow comforting, all at the same time. And he continued to carry his small gun in his ankle holster, which was also both annoying and comforting. The more she got to know this new Aaron, the more she could see so much of the old Aaron still hiding inside.
