Sapphire Falls

by Fleur McDonald

  He knew how far advanced his method of snatching the women was. There had been some perfecting needed, and finding the right drug had taken time, too. He’d experimented with other drugs, but ecstasy was ideal because of the way it made the women act—like they wanted him. No one would believe a woman who cried rape if security footage showed her hanging off a man. That was what ecstasy made them do.

  Here he was, sixteen women under his belt, so to speak. He was almost a professional at it.

  Still, he couldn’t help the niggling fear and doubt gnawing away at his insides. The only thing that would make them go away was another woman. They were his weakness.

  ‘Fuck,’ the word came out as a long, drawn-out growl.

  Choosing a sheltered section of the park, where he hoped no one would see him, he sat under a tree, with his legs crossed and his shoes neatly by his side. Breathing deeply, he allowed his mind to slow, his breathing becoming deep and steady again, then he shut his eyes.

  Listening to the noise around him, he tried to think of every problem he was facing. Then he lined them up in order of importance.

  There was a technique his counsellor had taught him many years ago, and that seemed to help when he became as agitated as he was now. He imagined all of the angst inside him being packaged into a box. One by one, he placed each concern into it. He filled it corner by corner, stacking the difficulties inside. In his mind, he watched himself closing the lid. He conjured up a roll of masking tape and slowly sealed the flaps in place. He did this twice, even hearing the noise as he pulled the tape from the roll. Nothing could escape if it was sealed tightly.

  In the darkness of his mind, he placed the box in a fire and struck a match.

  Breathing slowly and rhythmically, he watched as the first thin orange flames started to lick around each side. As they caught hold, the flames became hotter, turned blue and went higher. Smoke began to billow out and was released into the sky.

  As the wind came and dispersed the smoke, it would take away all the pressure with it. Banish it.

  Or at least that was the idea.

  Chapter 28

  Dead sheep littered the paddock. The orphaned lambs were standing next to their mothers, baaing frantically. Some tried to nuzzle their mothers into getting up, without success.

  Fiona stared desolately around.

  Again, they were shorn sheep, but this time, there hadn’t been a cold front to kill them.

  They’d left the yards after being back-lined and drenched, raced out into the paddock, healthy, eaten grass and drunk water. What had killed them?

  ‘Poison,’ Rob, answered her unasked question.

  ‘Poison? It’s never happened before. There’s nothing poisonous in the paddock!’

  ‘Look at that one there,’ he pointed to a lone ewe staring blindly into space. As he spoke, the ewe lost control of her bowels and a pile of dark, watery diarrhoea shot out from her.

  Fiona took a breath, distraught at what she was seeing. The ewe took a few wobbly steps before stopping again and letting out a small distressed noise. Her chest was heaving with her laboured breathing and her stomach looked bloated.

  ‘She’s blind,’ Rob observed. ‘And the only one left alive—the rest seem fine. You’ll need to watch them for more symptoms, of course, but I think the ones that were going to die already have.’ He got a knife out of his van and sharpened it with a steel. ‘I want to do an autopsy on this one. Take some bloods, all that sort of thing.’

  He took a few steps, and grabbed the ewe around the neck and inserted a thermometer into her anus.

  Her twin lambs stood a few feet away, watching nervously.

  ‘Temp’s raised, too.’ He lifted her up and swung her into a crate on the back of his van. ‘I’ll take her back to the surgery and do the autopsy there. What are you going to do with the lambs?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Fiona whispered, ashen-faced. ‘I’ll work something out though.’

  ‘If you put a call out over Facebook, on the Buy, Trade and Sell site, you might be able to get a few people who’d like to raise orphans to take them. There’s too many here to raise by yourself. They’re just a little bit young for them to be without milk. Give them three weeks and they’ll probably be okay to go out onto pasture.’

  She nodded.

  ‘I’ll be back in touch, Fee.’ Rob put his hand on her shoulder and left.

  Fiona began mustering the mob, taking them steadily across the paddock. She carefully ensured she had the whole mob together, with the ewes who were still alive leading the way, otherwise she wouldn’t be able to muster the orphaned lambs. Lambs were tricky things to get in the yards at the best of times, but without their mothers to guide them, they’d be near impossible to move. It took her over an hour, and every ounce of concentration and energy she possessed, but she finally managed to get them into the compound.

  She opened a gate into the yards and hoped that the orphans would go into it, looking for their mothers—she couldn’t draft them. She had no way of knowing which lambs were orphaned as they came down the race. Fiona could only tell when they were out in the paddocks, running around in search of their mothers.

  Feeling as if her heart might break for the second time, she took her phone out to ring Dave. But as she dialled the number among the bleating and distressed lambs, she guessed Rob might have beaten her to it.

  ‘I think we’re looking at a murder enquiry,’ Dave said to Jack.

  ‘What makes you say that?’ Jack pulled up a chair and sat down, reading the notes on the whiteboard Dave had made earlier.

  ‘Okay, look at these photos.’ Dave pushed a bundle across to him and pointed to the one on top. ‘Thank God someone thought to photograph the body in situ and get close-ups of him. Who did that?’

  Jack looked embarrassed. ‘Me.’

  ‘You’ve done a bloody good job. Okay, see here?’ He pointed to Charlie’s hands. ‘There are a few of what I would call defence wounds here. Tiny bit of bruising across the top of the knuckles, and there are some cuts on the top knuckle on the right hand. The coroner should have picked this up when he did the autopsy.’

  ‘Why didn’t he?’

  ‘I really don’t know.’

  ‘Is there anything else?’

  ‘The bare feet bother me. I can’t see any dirt on them. Why wouldn’t he have dirty feet if he’d been in the shed?’

  ‘Good point. It’s not cemented. I noticed it was a dirt floor and quite powdery when I was in there looking at the chemical drums,’ Jack answered. He looked over at the board again. ‘That drone is bothering me.’

  ‘Me, too. I think …’ Dave stopped as the phone rang. He picked it up. ‘Burrows.’ His jaw set as he listened. ‘Okay, hang on. Can you slow down for me? When did you find them?’

  Reaching over his desk to where he kept a pile of notepads, he took the top one and started writing.

  Fiona Forrest—he underlined her name. Sheep dead. Shearing, this morning. He dated it. Second time. First one due to cold front???

  ‘Okay, we’ll be there as soon as we can. You said the vet has been in? Yep, yep. Sure. Hang in there.’

  He hung up the phone and finished writing before he looked at Jack.

  ‘I also think we have someone trying to scare this woman off her land. She’s got another heap of dead sheep and the vet is sure they’ve been poisoned.’ He got up and wrote a few more notes regarding the sheep on the whiteboard and stood back, examining it.

  ‘Suppose,’ he said slowly, ‘that someone really wants her land. Suppose that someone knocked off her husband, thinking that she’d sell, and suppose they’ve underestimated Fiona, because she won’t. Which, in turn, has put them in a bad spot, so they feel they have to frighten her off.’

  ‘That’s a lot of supposes that we have to prove,’ Jack said, getting up. ‘I’ll get the car.’

  Fiona was grateful to Carly for holding her hand in the cold kitchen. They’d only just finished burying the second lot of dead
ewes. Again, Leigh had brought a workman with him and the job had been finished quickly, but Fiona kept seeing the bodies of the freshly shorn ewes dumped in their grave. Their staring eyes, unseeing.

  She had to breathe deeply so she wouldn’t cry.

  ‘We’ll let Rob do his job before we make a start on the ewe side of things, I think, Fee,’ Dave said. ‘I’ve taken the SD card out of the camera we put in place on our first visit and Jack will review that when we get back to the station.’

  Fiona thought he sounded as grave as he looked.

  ‘I’d like to talk about Charlie for a bit. Can you do that?’

  She nodded.

  ‘First off, how are the finances? We couldn’t help but overhear the other day that you had a phone call from a creditor.’ Dave sat with his pen poised, looking at her with sympathy and concern.

  ‘It’s tight at the moment. The bank had to freeze the business account and I’m fairly short on money. I’m juggling things as best I can, but I’m having trouble paying some of the bills, for sure.’

  ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ The words burst from Carly. ‘I can help you.’

  ‘No, it’s not your problem, Mum.’ Fiona lifted her head proudly. ‘It will get sorted.’

  Carly put a trembling hand to her mouth, looking tearfully at her daughter.

  ‘Was it like this when Charlie was alive?’ Dave brought her attention back to him.

  ‘Not as bad as this. There are always challenges with farming, and cash flow can be one, but no, it wasn’t as hard as it is now.’ She swallowed, remembering how Charlie had told her never to worry about the money side of things. ‘I’ve got it all under control,’ he’d told her with a kiss.

  ‘Did you two have a long-standing debt to anyone in particular? Or did Charlie by himself owe anyone?’

  Fiona thought about it but quickly shook her head. ‘I knew everything about the bank accounts, even if I didn’t have to handle it. We talked about every purchase and bill. There weren’t any secrets between us, so I would’ve known if he owed money to someone.’

  ‘Okay.’ Dave tapped his pen, thinking. ‘Can you remember before the accident when Eddie was killed? Was Charlie stressed or upset in any way? Did he act differently?’

  Fiona got up and started to pace the kitchen. ‘No,’ she responded slowly. ‘I can’t think of anything that was out of the ordinary with his behaviour. He was just Charlie.’

  ‘I’m getting the impression he was a really affable type of bloke, that everyone liked him.’ It was a statement.

  Fiona stopped, remembering him. ‘Everyone liked Charlie,’ she said in a soft voice. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say a bad word about him. He didn’t have any enemies.’

  She watched Dave write No enemies.

  ‘Okay, we’re going to do a bit of looking around and then head off. We’ll be back in touch as soon as we can.’

  ‘I’m not an idiot, Dave, I know there’s something more going on here. You keep asking about Charlie, not what’s happened here since he died.’ Fiona looked straight at him, wanting to know what was going on.

  ‘I’m gathering information to get a full picture,’ Dave answered in what was obviously a practised tone. That was all she was going to get out of him, so she had no choice but to let him go.

  Dave and Jack drove out of Charona and onto the public road. About three hundred metres later, they turned into the neighbouring drive.

  They knocked on the door of the homestead and introduced themselves.

  ‘I’m Dave Burrows and this is Jack Higgins. We’re from the South Australian police force.’ He held up his badge for identification.

  ‘How can I help? I’m Damien MacKenzie.’

  ‘We just want to ask a few questions about a drone that’s been sighted from your neighbour’s property, Charona. Can we come in?’ Jack asked.

  Dave cringed. That wasn’t the way to get the young farmer to open up to them. ‘Nice place you’ve got here, up on the hill. Great views! You’re in the perfect area to spot it!’ Dave added quickly, hoping to get him on side.

  ‘Drone? Is that what it is? Little silver thing flying around? Yeah, I’ve seen it. I’ve read about them. Always wanted to experiment and have a go at using one—you can take good photos with them.’

  ‘Ah, don’t own one then?’

  ‘Nah, wish I did. I reckon it’d be too expensive for me.’ He came outside and looked up at the sky. ‘Not around today?

  ‘Haven’t seen it yet. Can you tell us when you’ve seen it?’

  ‘Do you want to come in?’ Damien indicated for them to enter.

  ‘Thanks very much,’ Dave said. ‘I’ve got a couple of phone calls to make, but Jack will get the information and then we can get out of your hair.’

  ‘Sure.’ Damien held the door open and Jack went inside.

  Heading back to the car, Dave looked around him. He estimated the boundary fence to be three hundred metres from the house and he could just see the roof of Fiona’s home, which was nestled in a gully.

  Turning slowly in a circle, he tried to work out what was so important about Charona compared to this place next door.

  He jotted down some more notes and looked over his shoulder to see if the door was still shut. It was. Quickly heading over to the shed, he had a swift look inside. He ran his eye over the chemical drums that were in there—nothing looked out of place. He opened a cupboard—it was full of electric fencing gear, staples and sundry items. No sign of a drone.

  Hearing voices, he turned and casually walked back towards the car.

  ‘Thanks very much for your help,’ Jack was saying.

  ‘Oh, before you go, Damien, I have a quick question,’ Dave said. ‘Has anyone approached you about selling your farm?’

  ‘Nope,’ he said. ‘Sometimes I wish they would!’

  ‘Finding it a bit hard?’

  ‘Always hard to make ends meet when you’ve got a big debt and you’ve gotta share the income with your gran—she takes a bit of looking after. You would have seen all the rails and independent living stuff in there,’ he said, turning to Jack. ‘But I love farming and everything to do with it. Wouldn’t want to do anything else.’

  ‘Gets under your skin, doesn’t it? Is there any difference in the soil type between here and Charona—are they both as good as one another in a farming sense?’

  ‘I’m biased, but if you ask me, my land is a bit better. See, Charona backs onto a national park—see all them trees over there?’ He pointed to where a block of trees ran from the boundary fence into the distance. ‘If you get a fire come through, it’ll go straight through Charona. Won’t be able to stop it. Then you’ve got all the pests that come through—foxes, rabbits and the like. But as for soil type—mine is better.

  ‘There’re a lot more stones down on Charona. I’ve seen Charlie and Fee out picking stones in the middle of summer so they can clean up a paddock for cropping. Don’t want any of those dirty big buggers going up into the header!’

  ‘No way,’ Dave agreed. ‘So given half the chance, would you buy Charona if it was up for sale, even though it’s not as good as your land?’

  ‘I couldn’t afford it, but I’d love to expand. But if I had my choice of land, I’d buy something back towards that way.’ He pointed in the opposite direction. ‘They get slightly more rainfall down there and the soil is a little softer.’ He shoved his hands in his pockets and grinned. ‘But there’s always something to be said for buying the neighbour’s farm and having all your land together.’

  ‘You must’ve had an awful shock when you heard about the shooting accident.’

  ‘Sure did. Eddie was an okay sort of fella. Never thought anything like that would’ve happened. They were all experienced shooters, especially Eddie. And then for Charlie to do what he did, well, bugger me. It’s just really stuffed.

  ‘Fee’s a top chick. I did some spraying for her the other day, but we had a bit of a problem with the chemical. I’ll have to go b
ack over it for her. Charlie? He was a helluva nice bloke. Really kind to me. Offered lots of advice when I first took this place on. Always had time for me. I never really understood why he did what he did. It was such a waste.’

  ‘Would you have seen Charlie and the gang out shooting the night Eddie was killed?’ Dave suddenly asked. ‘I’m beginning to get my bearings and I’m sure that’s the paddock over there.’ He pointed to a hill in the distance. If he had binoculars, he was sure he’d be able to see the crime-scene tape fluttering in the wind.

  ‘I could’ve; yeah, you’re right. But I wasn’t here that night. I was in Adelaide. I never heard anything about what had happened until I was driving home the next day and the news was on the radio.’

  ‘Thanks for your time,’ Jack said when it was clear Dave didn’t have any more questions. ‘And for the cuppa.’

  Back in the car, Jack passed on what he’d learned from Damien. ‘As he said, he’s never operated a drone, but he’s a keen photographer. This one has been flying around for the past couple of months, but he’s got no idea who owns or operates it.

  ‘But what he has seen, is a car that’s been parked all around the boundary of Charona while the drone’s been operating.’

  Chapter 29

  ‘You’re not staying here by yourself.’ Carly stood with her hands on her hips, staring Fiona down.

  ‘Where would I go, Mum? Laura is a ninety-minute round trip from here! I’d be too tired by the end of the day to drive that road. It’s so windy, too. Anyway I don’t want to stay over there with you.’

  ‘Scott’s got a granny flat at the back of his house in Booleroo. I’m sure he’ll let you stay there. Are you really even considering staying here with what’s been going on?’

  ‘Yeah, I am,’ Fiona said mildly. ‘I’m scared, there’s no two ways about that, but I think I need to be here to protect the animals.’

  ‘You can’t do that. It’s a man’s job, not a pregnant woman’s. What if they’ve got guns, or, or …’ Carly shuddered visibly.