Sapphire Falls

by Fleur McDonald

  ‘Then one night I found him. So I came on to him.’ She hiccupped again. ‘Oh, he was happy to have me. But he hurt me, too. I thought I was going to end up like my sister.’

  With shaking hands, she wiped at her face. ‘I decided that maybe it didn’t matter. With Rossie gone, there wasn’t much point in going on. I didn’t have anyone left.’

  ‘What did he do to you?’ Dave asked.

  ‘Tied me up, hit me. He’s got a whole room full of stuff. Sadistic stuff.’

  ‘Can you tell me when this was?’

  ‘It was the fourth of April.’

  Dave blinked. Fourth of April? Hang on, April was the fourth month. The fourth of the fourth … He looked over at Jack, who sat there impassively. He hadn’t picked up on it.

  ‘Do you want a coffee or something to eat, Chelsea?’

  She shook her head.

  ‘Why did you come to us? And what’s Fiona got to do with it?’

  ‘His phone rang while I was with him and I saw the name Albany Mason. I researched him and found out he was part of a mining company—Delany Mining. That’s how I found out this bloke’s name. Leigh Bounter. Albany Mason was talking to him about a mining venture and the names Charlie and Fiona Forrest were mentioned.’

  Chapter 35

  ‘It’s not bloody circumstantial now,’ Jack said, excitement in his voice. ‘We’ve got a witness!’

  ‘Not for anything to do with Fiona,’ Dave cautioned. They drove back towards Barker, leaving Chelsea in the care of a kindly policewoman who would take her statement. ‘Only for her sister and her. We need more—we need his foxhole to pin it on him properly. We know it’s Leigh using the date-rape drugs and bashing women, but we need to bring it back to our investigation. Let the Adelaide boys deal with the other part of it, even though it’s all linked.

  ‘First things first, we need to get to his house and see if he’s there.’

  ‘Do we need backup?’ Jack asked.

  Dave looked out the window and watched the countryside flying by. He remembered Toe-cutter’s threat and said, ‘Let’s get the STAR team up here. Just to be on the safe side.’

  ‘His ute is in the shed and the engine is still warm,’ Jack said as he put his hand on the bonnet. ‘He’s got to be here somewhere.’

  They looked around the farmyard, then towards the house. In the distance, Dave could see a tractor spraying one paddock and a blip of white in another. He assumed Leigh’s workmen were going about their daily business.

  ‘Look.’ Dave pointed to the front door, which was ajar. Getting out his gun, he knocked loudly on the door. It swung open further.

  ‘Leigh? It’s the police. Are you in there?’

  No answer.

  He motioned for Jack to go around the back, then crept into a small entry that led straight through to the kitchen. It was empty.

  In his peripheral vision he realised there was a passage leading from the kitchen, further into the house. Keeping his back against the wall and his gun raised, he moved quietly towards it, all the while scanning his surrounds.

  He saw a shadow pass by the window and froze, his senses on high alert, but breathed easily when he realised it was Jack’s silhouette.

  Stealthily, he advanced towards the middle of the house again. The silence was unnerving.

  He pushed open the first door he came to, peering inside. Clinically clean and tidy. The bed covering even had hospital corners.

  The next door revealed a sterile bathroom, but the following one opened onto what was obviously Leigh’s bedroom.

  At first glance, nothing stood out. Dave put gloves on and looked through the bedside table. Nothing.

  Sliding open the cupboard door, he flicked on the lights and looked through the suits and work clothes. Something in the back caught his eye. Pushing through the clothes, he saw a pair of handcuffs hanging from a hook on the wall. Next to it, a coiled rope, nipple clamps and a blindfold. The gun cabinet Leigh had told him about was next to the ‘toys’.

  He got out his phone and snapped a few shots. As he was turning to go, he saw something silver glinting at the back of the pigeon holes. Dave pushed the jumpers out of the way and peered at it. He knew exactly what it was.

  ‘Got you, you bastard,’ he whispered as he snapped a picture of the urn in situ.

  ‘Hey!’ A voice from outside made Dave stop. ‘Stop! Police.’

  It was Jack. Dave, keeping low, moved to the window. Jack was running towards a shed.

  Spinning around, Dave dashed into the passage and ran to the back door, where he could see Jack crouched next to the entrance to the shed, his gun drawn.

  Dave bent low, his gun also drawn, and ran towards him.

  ‘Bounter, you might as well give it up!’ Jack yelled.

  ‘Where?’ Dave puffed as he arrived next to his colleague.

  ‘Behind the tractor.’ Jack pointed to a dark corner of the shed.

  Looking around, Dave realised that if they used a pincer movement, they should be able to corner him.

  He used hand signs to indicate his plan. Jack threw him the thumbs-up and nodded.

  ‘It’s Detective Dave Burrows, Bounter. Come out.’

  Silence.

  Dave moved towards the tractor.

  ‘Bounter? This won’t help you.’

  A shower of dirt hit Dave’s head and shoulders and he jumped, raising his gun towards the roof, where he could hear a squeaking noise. A rodent must have dislodged a willie wagtail’s nest from a rafter. He turned his attention back to finding Bounter.

  He glanced across at Jack to confirm he was in position. ‘Now!’

  Jack raced along one side of the tractor, yelling, ‘Stop, Police!’

  Dave did the same.

  They met face to face at the bonnet.

  ‘What?’ Jack looked confused.

  ‘Damn!’

  They heard the scrabble of feet on gravel and looked around. Dave dropped to the ground and checked under the tractor. He saw boots heading for the shed door.

  ‘He slid underneath and got out that way!’ he yelled. ‘Go, go, go!’

  Jack slipped on the loose stones as he started to run after Leigh but Dave managed to get around him.

  ‘Fuck!’

  Squinting as he came out into the bright sunlight, he suddenly realised how exposed he was. He raised a hand to block out the sun and moved against the wall for cover, then looked around for Leigh.

  On the verandah of the house.

  Dave took off at a sprint, his instinct telling him Jack was behind him. ‘House!’ he called. ‘Front!’ He indicated that Jack should skirt around the shed and arrive at the front door.

  Dave stopped abruptly on the front verandah, breathing heavily as he saw Leigh standing in the doorway, his gun raised.

  ‘Nice of you boys to visit.’ His eyes didn’t stray from Dave’s face. ‘Where’s your mate Jack?’

  ‘Now, Leigh, is there any need for this?’ Dave raised his hands in a conciliatory gesture. ‘We’ve just got some questions for you.’

  ‘Ah, I don’t think there’s any need for that, do you? After all, you wouldn’t be here unless you knew what I’d done. Shall we just get it over with? Jack!’ he called out loudly. ‘Would you care to join us?’

  Dave realised they were dealing with a psychopath and that he would have to be very careful.

  ‘Get what over with? Did you want to tell me everything?’

  Jack came slowly around the side of the house, his gun holstered.

  ‘Nice to see you again, Jack. Why don’t we continue this discussion inside?’ Leigh directed them into the lounge before turning his attention back to Dave, his eyes narrowed. The gun didn’t waver. ‘Think you can take me in? I don’t think so. But,’ he continued in a conversational tone, ‘I’ll tell you about Charlie. I felt bad about Charlie. And Fee’s a sweet girl, if boring. She probably deserves to know.’

  ‘Go ahead,’ Dave said. ‘I’ll have to caution you though.’ Watching Leigh c
losely, he tried to work out how they could disarm him. He hoped that Jack was doing the same. He started reciting the police caution while Leigh stood there impassively.

  ‘Did you want to sit down?’ Dave asked after he’d finished. ‘Your arms will get sore holding up the gun. In fact, I’d be happy to take it from you.’

  Leigh smirked but didn’t change his stance.

  ‘I wanted to make millions, you see,’ he started. ‘My mate Albany Mason was in mining and he came to me. Said they’d found a deposit of copper underneath Charona and he wanted me to get it for him. I said I would. At any cost, he told me.

  ‘Charlie wouldn’t sell. I asked and asked, but he just wouldn’t. Shame, really. I always felt a connection with Charlie. Neither of us had any parents—mine died and his—well, his just abandoned him. We were two men alone in the world. Then Fiona came along and I was still alone and he wasn’t.’ Leigh sighed. ‘Of course, he was good to me when I was hurt,’ he acknowledged. ‘So I really didn’t want to kill him. Then when all of this happened, I saw a way to make it happen.’

  ‘You killed him?’ Dave asked.

  ‘And made it look like suicide. He’d asked me to go down for a drink that evening. He wanted to talk, ask some questions. He’d picked up on this missing gun, you see. We had a couple of drinks, I slipped him a pill and the rest, as they say, is history. Funnily enough, he fought me a little bit, even after I drugged him, which was surprising. But he didn’t fight enough for me to stop. Got a few cuts and scratches on his hands. I was amazed no one ever mentioned it.

  ‘You see, I’d had to stop him from topping himself once before.

  ‘About three weeks earlier, I’d turned up at the shed just after he’d thrown a rope over the rafter. I talked him down and convinced him to see a counsellor. It didn’t work. He was still depressed.

  ‘In the end I’m sure Charlie would have been glad I did what I did. He was in pain and by the time I’d finished he wasn’t.’

  ‘Interesting you should bring up that missing gun,’ Dave commented, still holding eye contact with Leigh. ‘The investigation shows we’re missing a gun. A .22. Do you know anything about it?’

  ‘Charlie’s gun. I do. I dumped it. I took it that night when I ran to get help. But you don’t need to know where I dumped it. There’s a history to that gun and it’s safe where it is.’ Leigh raised his gun, which had begun to dip. He swung it between the two men. Jack took a step backwards.

  ‘So you’re telling me this missing .22 isn’t anything to do with this case?’

  ‘You are smart. I can see why they made you a detective. Unlike that idiot who turned up on the night.’ He shook his head slightly. ‘No, nothing to do with this. I needed a clean gun, borrowed Charlie’s with every intention of returning it, but all this happened. Thought it was easier to get rid of it than it turn up while you lot were asking questions.’

  ‘Want to tell me what it was used in?’

  Leigh snorted. ‘Not really.’

  ‘He wasn’t wearing any shoes, Leigh,’ Dave said, changing tack quickly. He hoped it might unsettle Leigh and get him to admit to something else.

  ‘No.’ Leigh mused. ‘I decided to take them. I like mementoes, you see. I have quite a collection.

  ‘It was all going well until you turned up and interfered.’ Leigh levelled the gun at Dave’s head. ‘Then I thought I’d be able to scare Fiona into selling. Turned out she wasn’t as pliable as she seemed, which was unfortunate, too. I certainly hadn’t planned on hurting her too much, what with the baby and all. I’d commandeered Jo to help me get at Fiona, but she wasn’t much use either. It’s all been so very disappointing.’

  ‘So what are you going to do now?’ Dave asked. ‘We’re here. You’ve just admitted to murder. And we’ve got a few other little things on you. Maybe you should tell us everything. Like, what is so significant about the number four?’

  Leigh blinked. ‘Oh, you’ve put that together, have you? Very clever. It started a long time ago.

  ‘There was a little boy with a dream of becoming an AFL player. He had a coach he loved and trusted, and this coach promised, if this young boy would “cooperate”, he would help him make it to the highest level.’ Leigh’s eyes didn’t leave Dave’s. ‘But then he broke his promise by moving away and leaving the boy feeling isolated, filthy and powerless. I never wanted to feel like that again. So, the fourth of April was when I became mayor, someone everyone looked up to. I felt powerful for the first time. And that’s the day I like to celebrate.’

  ‘You celebrate by raping and beating women?’ Jack asked, the disgust plain in his voice.

  ‘Don’t be so quick to judge, mate. Give it a go, you might find you like it. But it’s not just that.’ He frowned at Jack. ‘It’s about authority and supremacy. Reminding myself that’s exactly what I am—power.’ The muscles in his arms clenched as he spoke.

  ‘I don’t quite understand how Eddie came into this.’ Dave tried to get the conversation back on track.

  ‘He caught me out. Knew about my secret life. Came to me and told me he knew about my dirty little secret. Blackmailed me to keep me quiet. That was okay for a while—I supplied him with all the prostitutes he wanted, but he began to want more.

  ‘So I waited. The opportunity came up that night.’ He shrugged. ‘When the ute started to tip, I was holding Charlie’s shotgun. I aimed and shot Eddie. And in all the confusion, I managed to get Charlie’s hands back on the gun so that his prints were on it. Genius, really, wouldn’t you say?’

  ‘So the dead sheep, all the little things that have been going wrong at Charona?’

  ‘Oh yes, all me.’ Leigh stopped. ‘You’re very good,’ he said to Dave. ‘I didn’t plan on telling you all that. How did you manage to get me to?’

  ‘I think you wanted to brag,’ Dave answered.

  There was a noise outside and Leigh turned.

  Dave launched himself at Leigh as the STAR team barged into the room, yelling, ‘Get down, get down, get down! Police! Get down!’

  ‘Get the fuck off me,’ Leigh tried to yell, but his voice was muffled as Dave shoved his head onto the floor and yanked his hands behind his back.

  ‘I don’t think so,’ he leaned over and whispered in his ear. ‘Maybe you’ll find out what it’s like to be the one who’s hurt. I won’t be responsible for the blokes who take you to Adelaide and lock you up.’ He clicked the handcuffs together and stood up, yanking Leigh to his feet.

  ‘Great job, Dave.’ Steve walked in, his bulletproof vest on the outside of his uniform. ‘You, too, Jack.’

  ‘Thank you, sir,’ Jack replied as he re-holstered his gun.

  ‘We got it all on tape. Bloody good thing you cautioned him, otherwise none of it would be admissible. And, Dave, you did it without being a one-man band.’ He clapped Dave on the shoulder and walked out.

  Epilogue

  ‘That’s it, one more push,’ Scott said.

  Fiona, sweaty and tired, wanted to hit him. ‘I can’t,’ she said through gritted teeth.

  Carly grabbed hold of her hand. ‘You can, you’ve got this, just one more.’

  ‘Oh, look at that, here he comes, here he comes.’ There was true emotion in Scott’s voice as the baby slipped into his hands. ‘It’s the boy you’ve been waiting for, Fee.’ He placed him straight on her stomach and smiled at Carly, who had tears rolling down her cheeks.

  ‘Hello, Hamish,’ Fiona whispered. ‘I’ve been waiting for you.’

  The little face screwed up and the cry of a newborn filled the air. After a few moments, he quietened and nestled into Fiona’s chest. She ran her finger down his face and examined his features, looking for Charlie. He was there in her baby’s eyes. She watched as Hamish opened his mouth and gave another loud scream. ‘Shh, shh,’ she whispered.

  As quickly as he’d started, he stopped screaming and a familiar expression passed over his face.

  Goosebumps rose all over Fiona as she leaned closer to him. That was Charlie�
�s expression when he told her he loved her.

  ‘Can we tell the others?’ Carly whispered, running her hand over her new grandson’s head.

  ‘Yes. Yes, please.’

  ‘Here, I’ll get him wrapped up and then you can feed him,’ Scott said in a soft tone.

  ‘It’s a boy!’ Carly yelled from the doorway.

  Fiona laughed as she heard the cheer go up.

  Jo and Kim would be out there, along with all of Carly’s friends. And Rob. Rob would be there, too.

  Kind and gentle Rob, who had been at her side constantly since that day. He was a good friend. A friend who might become something more when the time was right.

  But at this moment in time, it was her and Hamish, her and her little Charlie. And together they would face everything that life threw their way.

  Acknowledgements

  My clan—the best one in the world! Cal and Aaron, Em and Pete, Heather, Jan and Pete, Robyn, Tiffany, Scottish.

  Rochelle and Hayden—my everythings.

  Mum and Dad, Nicholas and Susan and the rest of my family. Always at the end of the phone, still loving me despite the challenges I bring!

  Dave Byrne. Book 8! Thank you so much for your wisdom and advice, your knowledge and help.

  My agent, Gaby Naher. Your knowledge, support and kindness is so much appreciated. My publisher, Louise Thurtell—again, thanks for these wonderful opportunities and support (and patience!). My editors, Sarah Baker and Alex Nahlous, thanks so much for your help in whipping a grotty manuscript into a shiny piece of work!

  All you wonderful readers! Thank you for being alongside me as I keep writing. Without you guys, I wouldn’t be where I am.

  Please feel free to get in contact. I love hearing from you all and I do my best to respond to everyone!

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