Turtle Reef

by Jennifer Scoullar

  He held up a hand for silence. ‘I’ve fallen for you, Zoe, and not just because you’re the most gorgeous woman in town.’ The most gorgeous woman in town? He certainly was a flatterer. ‘It’s your courage, your sass, your honesty. The way you speak your mind and hang the consequences. The way you wear your passion on the outside. I was talking to Quinn the other day about what a breath of fresh air you are. Stuffy old Kiawa is far too set in its ways. “This town needs a good shake-up,” I said, “and Zoe King is the one to do it.”’ Leo crossed his arms. ‘Quinn agreed with me.’

  ‘He did?’

  ‘Oh yes. He seemed quite taken with you. I don’t think you’ll have too much trouble bringing him round to your way of thinking. If Quinn wasn’t already spoken for, I reckon he’d be after you himself.’ Zoe’s mouth went dry. She tried to clear her throat, but needed a glass of water to regain her composure. Leo looked at her shrewdly. ‘Is there something I’m missing here?’

  Zoe wandered away to the patio railing to avoid his searching eyes. To the north, Cliffhaven’s infinity pool met the sea in a seamless expanse of blue. Something moved out on the reef: vast shadows, a spume of spray, a tipping tail. ‘Look,’ she called. ‘Whales.’ An awe-inspiring and timeless scene. She longed to be out there with them, to dive into the warm azure blur, to be lost in the majesty of migrating ocean giants.

  Leo’s voice came from close behind her. ‘What are we waiting for?’ He’d read her mind. She followed him down to the boat, her body buzzing in anticipation, already one with the humpbacks in the magical waters of her imagination.

  CHAPTER 23

  Loud barking heralded a visitor. The noise reverberated around the massive engine block of the haul-out, making Quinn’s ears ring. Not Zoe. Captain would never bark at Zoe like that. Who then?

  ‘Morning.’

  Great, Leo. Quinn swore softly. He hauled himself out from under the chassis, face dripping with sweat. The air was unseasonably humid, so humid he could have wrung it out like a towel. Quinn mopped his neck with a rag and nodded a greeting.

  ‘How about this weather, eh?’ Leo glanced up, where a bank of threatening clouds hung low in the west. ‘Damn wet starts earlier and earlier each year.’

  Quinn frowned at the sky as thunder rumbled near. Leo was right. How on earth were they meant to bring in the cane when it never stopped raining? With fields too soggy to burn, and too muddy for the heavy harvesters? This season had been a difficult one, starting with the wettest June in thirty years. The mill had been forced to shut down until the paddocks dried out, and they’d had precious few windows in the weather since. A crush that should have been almost finished was only three-quarters done. He’d been forced to bring in special wet weather machinery, tracked harvesters and high flotation haul-outs. But the smaller growers, the close-knit community of farmers he’d known all his life? They couldn’t afford it. It tore him up to see despair, even fear, in his friends’ eyes.

  ‘What’s up, Leo?’

  ‘We need to talk.’

  ‘Shoot.’

  ‘Not here.’ Leo gestured towards the house. ‘You got some time?’ Captain erupted in another flurry of barking, and Quinn called him to his side. The dog didn’t like Leo any more than he did. Thunder cracked, and here came the rain.

  Quinn looked around, hoping some urgent task would reveal itself. The afternoon might be a washout but there were plenty of things he’d rather be doing than chatting with Leo. Quinn couldn’t forgive him for the way he’d raised his daughters, playing them off against each other, sacrificing Bridget’s pride in the process.

  Worst thing was, Leo had got clean away with it. Despite his mistreatment of them, the girls worshipped their father. Quinn didn’t understand it. Maybe it was some form of Stockholm syndrome. Quinn kicked at the haul-out tyres. No use trawling over old territory. Leo was going to be his father-in-law and he’d learned to put up with him long ago. ‘You head on to the house before the rain gets any heavier,’ said Quinn. ‘I’ll be up in a minute for a cuppa.’

  Leo nodded assent, eyeing the growling Captain before turning to go. Quinn wiped his hands on an oily rag, feeling more aggravated than usual by Leo’s visit. He put away his tools and tried to ignore the little nagging voice in his head. The reason he felt so hostile . . . was he jealous of the man? It certainly riled him to think of Zoe spending so much time around him.

  The ancient tractor chugged past with Rob aboard, oblivious in his Driza-Bone to the downpour, heading for the fresh plantings by the railway line. That bloke was tough as old boots. Quinn gave him a wave, wondering what on earth he was planning to do. He couldn’t top-dress, not in this rain. It would just end up in the creek, a waste of good fertiliser. Quinn walked bang into the back of the quad bike. Shit. He rubbed his throbbing shin, mind wandering again. That booklet of Zoe’s. Leafing through, he’d seen a section on fertiliser run-off and the reef. He wished she was here so he could ask her about it.

  Quinn rubbed his stiff neck. What was the use? He’d accused her of interfering, justifiably as it happened, and now she was gone. Where was she spending her nights? The red Lexus was rarely parked at the guesthouse any more. She was staying at the shack, or maybe at Cliffhaven itself – with Leo. The idea evoked a flash of anger. Quinn tilted his head one way and then the other to relieve the tension in his shoulders. Zoe deserved better than that old wolf. ‘Come on, Captain.’ He whistled the dog. ‘Let’s hear what the bastard has to say.’

  Quinn plonked a mug of instant coffee down in front of Leo, who wrinkled his nose and took a sip. ‘This stuff’s rough as guts.’ He made a face and pushed the mug away. ‘I’ll have some brewed, if you’ve got it.’

  ‘All out, mate. There’s tea?’ Quinn knew very well that his prospective father-in-law didn’t drink tea.

  Leo swatted at a fly with his hat and shot Quinn a dark look. ‘How’s my daughter treating you?’ He didn’t wait for an answer. ‘I sure do miss Bridget’s cooking. I’d kill for one of those risottos of hers.’

  ‘Bridget’s fine,’ said Quinn. ‘Thanks for asking.’ Apparently the irony was lost on Leo. ‘What’s this about, mate? You need a hand with something?’

  Leo clasped his fingers together on the table. ‘I won’t beat around the bush,’ he said. ‘I’ve been having a yarn with Zoe King.’ What? That was the last thing Quinn expected to hear. ‘She has some concerns about the way you’re running your operation.’

  ‘Does she just?’ Quinn was a private person. He took a deep, disappointed breath. So Zoe had gone running off to Leo, telling him Swallowdale’s business. Irritation rose in his throat.

  ‘I’ll let you in on a secret, since you’re soon to be my son-in-law. Keep it under your hat, though, eh?’ Leo glanced around as if someone might be eavesdropping. The rain redoubled its efforts, drumming on the verandah roof, almost drowning out the conversation. ‘There’s a deal in the works, something major. Something that could well and truly put Kiawa on the map.’

  ‘I don’t want it on the map,’ said Quinn. ‘I like things fine the way they are.’

  ‘You’ll change your mind when you hear this.’ A dramatic pause. ‘Plans are in the works for an international resort development on the foreshore north of town. What do you think of that, eh? A coup or what?’ A yawning silence. ‘I can’t have agricultural run-off affecting the bay. You understand that, don’t you?’ said Leo. ‘Tourists will be coming to see a healthy reef, not a bunch of cane farms and dead turtles.’

  Quinn stiffened, hoping he hadn’t heard right. Not in Kiawa. Not in their little jewel of a town, the best-kept secret on the Queensland coast. What was Leo thinking? Quinn crossed his arms. The locals wouldn’t stand for it. There’d even been rumblings of discontent when Bridget decided to revamp the Reef Centre, complaints about the odd busload of sightseers. How much more up in arms would people be at the prospect of a big resort?

  ‘Have you told Bridget about this?’

  ‘Not a word,’ said Leo. ‘Nobody knows
, apart from Zoe and a couple of councillors who are sworn to secrecy. Oh, and now you, of course.’ He looked immensely pleased with himself. ‘Well, what do you think?’

  Quinn got to his feet. He wanted to punch the triumph off Leo’s face. ‘You can take your fucking international resort, mate, and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine.’

  Leo thrust back his chair and stood up. ‘Quinn, hear me out —’

  ‘This time you’ve gone too far, Leo, you and your council mates. Getting some juicy kickbacks are you, some sweeteners in return for ramming through the planning permits?’

  ‘Hold on. Everything’s legit and above board about this deal, which is more than I can say for you and your poisonous chemicals.’ Quinn gave a snort of laughter, and Leo’s shrewd eyes narrowed. ‘I thought better of you, Quinn, I really did. Thought you had a bit of vision, a feel for the future. But you’re as bad as the rest of them in this backwater of a town. Stuck in the past, clinging onto the idea that Kiawa is some sort of Shangri-la, to be preserved under glass like a museum piece.’

  ‘What can I say?’ said Quinn. ‘I don’t like change. So shoot me.’

  ‘Have you ever heard the saying, Nothing is permanent but change?’

  Quinn shifted on his feet. Shit. He shouldn’t have responded to Leo’s rant. It would only encourage him.

  ‘Things aren’t perfect in this town,’ said Leo, ‘and you fucking well know it. Kids can’t get jobs. Growers going bust. And now your sloppy, out-of-date farming practices are threatening to wreck the one thing this place does have going for it – the reef.’ Leo put on his hat. ‘I’m warning you, Quinn. You’d bloody well better get your act together pronto, and tell your country bumpkin mates in the Canegrowers’ Association to do the same.’

  Captain growled and crouched low. ‘Get off my land,’ said Quinn.

  Leo’s face reddened. ‘You haven’t heard the last of this.’ He stepped off the verandah into the driving rain.

  Captain whined and pressed against Quinn’s leg, while keeping an eagle eye on Leo’s retreat to his car. Quinn fondled the collie’s ears. So nobody in Kiawa knew about the plans for the development, including Bridget. Leo hadn’t even told his own daughter. But he’d told Zoe, made her his confidante. How long had she known? He groaned and rubbed his eyes. What did it matter? It was perfectly clear whose side she was on. He’d been a bloody fool to get so sweet on her. The dog put a muddy paw on his knee. ‘You and me both, eh, Captain?’ Quinn stroked his head. ‘Whoever said animals were good judges of character?’

  CHAPTER 24

  It was one of those sparkling mornings of early summer, diamond-bright, just past daybreak. Zoe couldn’t get out of the habit of rising early, even though there were no horses waiting for her any more, shifting like shadows in the dawn light. She pushed down the longing in her heart. How she missed them.

  Zoe carried her tea and toast out onto the little balcony, filled with melancholy, still dressed in her cotton nightie. These days she took every opportunity to confront her aversion to heights. Staying at the shack made that easy, and this self-imposed desensitisation program seemed to be working. The fear she used to feel sitting out on the deck had turned into a half-giddy kind of delight.

  And she needed all the happiness she could get this morning, because the rest of the day wasn’t looking too promising. Time to start mapping the northern quadrant of Kiawa Bay. She gulped her lukewarm tea and took in the view. Low tide, with whorls and channels etched into the sand. Seaweed lay exposed in the intertidal zone, lacing the beach with green. To the north, a patch of dying seagrass lay like a bruise on the water. Depressing to think that this afternoon she’d be seeing the devastated meadow up close. She looked instead out to sea, where a pod of a dozen wild dolphins frolicked at the edge of the reef. Was Kane with them? She hoped so.

  Voices floated up from below. Down at the lagoon, Bridget was feeding the dolphins and attempting to put them through their paces. Two men in khaki shirts and shorts stood beside her. They must be somebody special. The place didn’t open until ten. Well, if Bridget was trying to impress them, she wasn’t succeeding. The show had descended into chaos. Dolphins, not humans, set the agenda now and they’d become rather creative. Zoe liked the way each animal carried out a variety of its own favourite tricks, generally ones based on natural behaviours like tail-slapping, leaping and breaching. Bridget randomly rewarded their stunts, grateful that the dolphins were performing at all.

  The slender spinners rose from the water and twirled as one in a spectacular aerial display in front of the two men. Nice. Bridget was so happy she threw half the bucket of pilchards in their direction. The larger, lazier bottlenoses snapped up the treats, leaving the acrobats unrewarded. No matter. The spinners leaped again in synchronised grace. Zoe smiled. Their behaviour was voluntary, born of spontaneous joie de vivre, and she much preferred it that way.

  Bridget picked up her bucket of fish and led her visitors to the adjacent pool containing Mirrhi and Echo. Echo kept to the far side, swimming robotically up and down, up and down, keeping as far away from the strangers as possible. Now that Josh was no longer working with him, the young male had retreated into himself. He showed little inclination to interact with the staff, and Zoe was becoming concerned about him. Depressed captive dolphins had been known to commit suicide by simply deciding not to breathe.

  But it was Mirrhi that the visitors seemed interested in, pointing at her and raising their voices in animated conversation whenever she drew near. Bridget coaxed her to the poolside. The men gathered round, stroking the young dolphin and taking photographs. Who were they? She made a mental note to find out.

  Zoe finished breakfast and went inside to get dressed. A quick check of her emails first. Still no report from Queensland University on the seagrass samples. Damn. It was time to give them a call. Bridget had contacted the lab twice to hurry them up, so far with no result. Apparently they were short-staffed. Even so, the delay had dragged out for more than a month. Maybe she’d have more luck than Bridget had.

  Zoe checked her account. Last month’s pay still wasn’t in the bank. She may be living with free accommodation and car, but she did have some expenses and they were beginning to eat into her meagre savings. She’d better have another talk to Bridget about it. Things always happened in slow motion around here.

  A knock came at the door. ‘Are you decent?’

  She got up to answer it. ‘Come in, Leo.’ He must be on his way to work, and already looked hot in his tailored suit. ‘What’s up?’

  ‘Any chance of a coffee?’

  ‘Sorry.’ Zoe felt his eyes on her legs and pulled her skimpy nightie down over her knees as she sat at the kitchen table. ‘No coffee. I’m hooked on tea.’

  ‘Not to worry.’ He sat down opposite her. ‘Thought you might like to know that I saw Quinn. Tackled him about chemical run-off on the reef.’

  ‘How’d that go?’

  ‘I didn’t get much joy. He’s got his head stuck in the sand, same as most folks around here.’

  ‘Ignoring the problem won’t make it disappear. I’d better have another talk to him.’

  ‘Good luck with that,’ said Leo. ‘Quinn’s trapped in the past and as stubborn as a mule to boot. Takes after his father. Don’t get me wrong – Marshall Cooper and I were friends, and good ones at that, but I won’t gloss over his faults. He belonged to a bygone era.’

  ‘What about Bridget?’ said Zoe. ‘Why not enlist her help? Surely if anybody can get through to Quinn, it’s her.’

  ‘I’d rather not drop her in the middle of a fight between her father and her fiancé if I can help it. She tends to take my side and that could cause them problems.’

  Problems? There were already problems aplenty in that relationship. Still, the thought and compassion behind his comment surprised her. Leo may be overbearing and insensitive, but it was clear he loved Bridget in his own way.

  ‘My daughter didn’t know you had samples independently analys
ed,’ said Leo. ‘She feels a bit sidelined. After all, it is her research project.’ Yes, that was true. And it was a research project that Bridget seemed strangely uninterested in. ‘Any reason why you didn’t fill her in?’

  Zoe fiddled with the sugar bowl. How could she explain it to Bridget’s father, of all people, when she didn’t understand it herself? Zoe might have superficially patched things up with Bridget, but she didn’t trust her.

  However counterintuitive it seemed, Zoe’s stint in this quiet coastal town had taught her something that a lifetime of living in Sydney never had. She’d learned to believe her gut instinct, the way animals did. There’d been too many contradictions. Dozens of little inconsistencies that made her question Bridget’s motives. And the deceit. She’d seen its impact on Josh in particular. So Bridget had accomplished something nobody else had ever been able to: she’d cured Zoe of her illusions, taught her that common sense and discernment were important qualities too, and that trust needed to be earned. But this was hardly a breakthrough she wanted to share with Leo.

  ‘Bridget’s got a lot on her plate,’ said Zoe. ‘I didn’t want to bother her, that’s all. Her tests have been delayed, so I organised the second set to keep the research project on track.’

  Leo studied her. She made herself hold his gaze. ‘Fair enough.’ He stood to go. ‘But Bridget knows now. You might have some explaining to do.’

  Zoe groaned inwardly. That was going to be fun. ‘Bridget’s leaving this morning for Brisbane, but we’re going diving together on Friday. I’ll talk to her then. And I’ll talk to Quinn too. Have another go at getting through to him.’

  Leo nodded, seemingly satisfied. ‘Pop in when you’re done. Let me know how you go.’ He turned to leave, then swung back around. ‘And give Quinn this warning: if he doesn’t move to clean up his act, I’ll damn well report him to the Department of Environment myself. Future son-in-law or not. Those blokes will swoop in so fast it’ll make his head spin. And I’ll report his mates as well.’ And with that Leo marched out of the door.