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Two weeks ago that vehicle had been spotted driving down the main street of Strahan on the west coast.Too close for comfort in Nico’s mind, and the news had made his blood run cold.But that would make sense, because Nico was sure the intruder in their house six weeks ago had in fact been his father.If he were hiding out somewhere near Strahan, it put him well within driving distance of Boat Harbour Beach.McTernan had asked some careful questions around the small country town and a man who possibly matched Serge had been spotted at the gas station one night, as well as buying food from the local supermarket on another occasion.
But there’d been no word from McTernan for over a week now, and Nico was getting worried.He stood up and stretched his arms above his head.No point in dwelling on it.McTernan would get in touch when he had more information to share.And Nico would just have to grin and bear it until then.Now, it was time to get his head back into this paperwork.
Just as Nico prepared to retake his seat at his desk, Sally-Ann appeared in the doorway to his office, a frown wrinkling the spot between her eyes.“Linc and Lacey just called in a dead body,” she said without preamble.“A young woman lying in a ditch on the side of Cutter’s Road, right near that farmer’s place.”
“Shit.”The word was out of his mouth before he could stop it.“Tell them I’m on my way.”He surged out from behind his desk, the quick movement causing a tug deep in his side, reminding him that he still wasn’t completely healed.Motioning Sally-Ann to follow him down the hallway, he asked, “Do we have any details yet?”His mind kicked into top gear, both surprised and alarmed that the farmer’s tip-off had actually amounted to something.
Sally-Ann shook her head as she tried to keep up with his long-legged gait.“Not really.Linc just called it in.Said the farmer directed them to a gravel road that runs through the back of his place.That’s where he heard the screams coming from.The body was clearly visible to anyone who was driving down that road.Not hidden at all.No particulars as to cause of death or injuries at the moment.”Sally-Ann rattled off the few facts she knew.“But she was found naked,” she added.
An eerie tingle ran down his spine.Naked didn’t mean murder.But it certainly pointed to it.Along with the screams the farmer heard.Shit.Sally-Ann was smart enough not to say anything further.Not to extrapolate or put her thoughts into words.But he knew she was thinking along the same lines as him.
But more than that, this was becoming eerily familiar.Linc and Lacey had been first on the scene when the body of the girl had been found in the river before Christmas.And Lacey had been first on scene six months before when Rania’s life had been taken by his best friend, Gabe.He hoped with all his might this wasn’t an omen, and another killing spree wasn’t about to start.
His immediate thought went to Lacey; he wanted to take her off the case.To keep her safe by spiriting her away.He knew it was a knee-jerk reaction and she wouldn’t go for it in a million years.And rightly so.Her job as a police officer was to preserve the peace and protect the innocent, which sometimes put her squarely in the line of fire, and he knew better than to override her wishes.While he’d been up on top of Barn Bluff, he’d finally come to terms with the fact that no matter how much he wanted to, he couldn’t protect her from everything; he couldn’t be her shield all the time.But goddamnit to hell, he was having a hard time keeping the fear at bay right now.
CHAPTER THREE
“I HEARD SOME god-awful screams last night.Scared me so much, me hair turned gray.”The farmer smiled, showing a couple of missing teeth.Lacey kept her features blank; screams in the middle of the night we’re not to be taken lightly.The farmer had told them to call him Pacca—short for Alpaca.His son had thought it was hilarious when he’d first started to breed the animals and decided to call him that as a joke, but now he was the one laughing all the way to the bank.Pacca stared at them from the safety of his front doorway as his grin fell away.
Lacey shot Linc a sideways glance.He stood straight-backed in his dark-blue uniform, staring unblinking at the farmer, clearly unimpressed with the old man’s form of humor too.Then she let her gaze slide around the dilapidated veranda as she waited for the farmer to elaborate.The house was weatherboard and had clearly seen better times.If this guy was making as much money from breeding his animals as he said, then he wasn’t putting it back into keeping the place shipshape.Driving up to the house in the police cruiser, she’d noted how the roof sagged in one corner and the outside was in desperate need of a new coat of paint.The grassy paddocks had at least looked in better shape, with a healthy coverage of pasture and the wooden rail fences in good condition.A herd of alpacas eyed them warily as they’d crested the hill and come to a halt out the front of the small homestead, long necks erect as they stared down their noses like a haughty bunch of queens.
Lacey finally let her gaze come back to the old farmer.There seemed to be no Mrs.Pacca, or indeed no family at all, just the old man on his own, judging by the state of the place.Which was a little sad and Lacey reevaluated her perception of the farmer.Loneliness was a hard burden to bear.
When neither Lacey nor Linc responded, Pacca went on with a scowl, “Away over there it was.On the road out the back, sometimes called Cutter’s Road, but I’m not sure that’s official, like.I might’ve seen flashing lights too.Reminded me of the war.I thought I was back in Vietnam for a second.”He waved a skinny, arthritic hand toward his rear fence as if trying to shoo the apparitions away.“That road ain’t used by many people no more.Not even me.It don’t go much of anywhere, the council blocked it off years ago.”A coughing fit suddenly overtook the old farmer, and he needed a few moments to regain his breath while she and Linc waited patiently.“It’s on my property.No one uses it without my knowledge.That’s why I called you coppers to come and take a look see.”
“Why didn’t you call it in last night?”Linc asked as evenly as possible.
“I thought about it.”Pacca shrugged.“But then I musta fallen asleep or something.It wasn’t till I was feeding the paccas this mornin’ that I remembered.”A rueful look entered the man’s red-rimmed eyes.One of regret, tinged with self-recrimination.“At first I thought I was dreamin’ about the war again, but then I knew it was more than that.”
Lacey thought that look might have something to do with the old bloke being too intoxicated to even dial a phone before passing out.She held in a sigh.
“But I know what I heard.”Pacca stood a little straighter, his creased clothes hanging off his thin frame.“So I thought I’d better do the neighborly thing and report it, you know.”
“Thank you, sir,” Linc said stiffly, taking a small step backward.“We’ll let you know if we find anything.”
“Much appreciated, son.”Pacca watched them with circumspect eyes as they turned as one and retreated down the rickety front steps to their cruiser.
Neither of them said anything until they were inside the vehicle and bumping down the dirt track leading around the side of the house toward the back paddocks, where a thin line of trees looked like it marked the road Pacca had mentioned.
“Screams and flashing lights,” Lacey said thoughtfully, raising a skeptical eyebrow in Linc’s direction.
“Hmm.It’s probably nothing,” Linc agreed.“The old bloke was probably hearing things.And seeing things.Did you catch a whiff of his breath?”Linc screwed up his face.
Lacey nodded.She’d been able to smell the stale whiskey and cigarette smoke coming off the old bloke in waves, even from her spot a few feet back from the door.Pacca clearly loved more than a little tipple every night.Together with his creased, dirty work clothes which looked like the old man had most probably slept in them, he didn’t make the most credible witness.And his reference to fighting in the Vietnam War might also make him unreliable.Flashbacks and broken memories were the scourge of many returned war veterans.
But they were here now and needed to check it out so they could report back to Shadbolt.Lacey’s money was on the false report.Then her mind drifted back unbidden to the day a little over six weeks ago when she and Linc had responded to a call out to the river near the outskirts of Burnie to discover the first body in a double homicide that’d changed all their lives.
A tingle of premonition fizzed through her veins.Surely, not another murder?Not so soon.This was a small town in the sleepy north of Tasmania.One killer in a year was unlikely, let alone two murderers and three bodies in six months.They’d had their fair share of murders.So this was bound to be another case of a false report by an old man who was too deep into his whisky glass to know any better.Yep, definitely an unreliable witness.Maybe it was the wind blowing in the trees, or a fox howling mournfully for its mate, or an owl hooting its haunting call as it sat in a tree watching in the dark.So many reasonable explanations.
“Sorry,” Linc apologized as he drove through an unavoidable large pothole and Lacey grabbed for the bar above her head.
“No probs,” she replied, gritting her teeth to try and hold herself steady, while keeping her eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary.Just in case.This road hadn’t been graded in years.In winter, this track may have been impassable for anything other than a four-wheel drive; it’d be muddy and treacherous.Lacey was thankful for the dry heat of summer as a plume of dust rose around the cruiser’s wheels.And even more thankful they were in the air-conditioned comfort of the cabin rather than having to walk through the growing heat of the day.Summer in Burnie was usually mild, but on days like today when the air was still and the sun beat mercilessly down out of an azure blue sky it could get hot enough to fry an egg on the tarmac.They were about halfway to the line of trees marking the road at the end of Pacca’s property and there was still a lot of pounding through potholes to go.
Lacey’s mind wanted to leap back to the problem uppermost in her thoughts, but she kept firmly focussed on the job ahead of them.She’d already spent way too much time cogitating on the subject on the way out here in the cruiser.She’d been so quiet in fact, that Linc had commented on her silence, asking her if something was wrong.Something was wrong, but she plastered on a smile and told him she was merely wishing she were back in the Tarkine on an extended holiday rather than chasing down rumors and innuendos.But it was almost impossible to keep her concentration on the task at hand.
Because her pregnancy test had come back positive this morning.
Positive.
