Red Dirt Country

by Fleur McDonald

  Dave stood up. ‘Thanks, Ellen. I can’t tell you what it means to me to hear you say that. Can you …’ He swallowed. ‘Can you tell Bec that I think about her every day?’

  ‘Of course I can.’

  ‘I’ll be hard to get hold of up there. The mobile range is pretty haphazard. With any luck I’ll only be gone about a week anyway. If the baby arrives, call me and I’ll come straight back.’

  ‘I’m sure nothing will happen between now and then. When the doctor examined Mel last, he said the birth was still a way off.’

  Dave nodded. ‘Thanks again.’ He let himself out of the house without saying goodbye to Mel and drove away.

  In bed that night, Dave lay staring into the darkness, thinking about Mel. He could smell her shampoo on her pillow and it made him miss her.

  Rolling over, he tried to get comfortable, but the bed seemed lumpy tonight. The nightmares still plagued him and there were nights he didn’t want to go to sleep. Tonight was different. Even so, he couldn’t drift off; there were too many thoughts rushing around in his mind.

  He thought about Spinifex Downs, and if there had been any more cattle stolen. He thought about Bob and what they’d do when they got back to Boogarin. They’d need to do a muster. Maybe muster some of the neighbouring properties to find out what cattle were where. If they found Spinifex Downs cattle on another property, that would make for an interesting investigation.

  He thought of Bec and her smile. The way she called out, ‘Daddy!’ when he walked through the door. How her chubby little fingers held his hand and hugged him tightly.

  What would he do if she wasn’t in his life?

  A tear leaked out of the corner of his eye and he felt it roll past his ear and drop onto the pillow. ‘Shit!’ He thumped the pillow now and sat up just as a noise exploded over his roof. It sounded like hail raining down.

  Leaping out of bed, he dropped to the floor, crawling to the window to see if he could see anything from there.

  The noise sounded again. What the hell? His heart was racing as he peered over the ledge of the window, then he heard loud whispers.

  ‘I know that’s a copper’s place. I seen him turn up in that copper car. Reckons we can’t work it out ’cause it’s unmarked. Fuckwit. See what he thinks about someone scaring the shit out of him.’

  ‘Fuck the coppers.’ The sound of laughing, then another round of rocks on the roof and running feet.

  Dave relaxed. Kids.

  He turned and leaned his back up against the wall, not having the energy to chase them. Didn’t matter. They hadn’t been Bulldust or Scotty and they weren’t chasing him, only wanting to cause a bit of mischief.

  His heart began to slow. Would the brothers actually come after him, he wondered, or did he just have the wind up him because of all the security measures there’d been in Brisbane? He wasn’t sure, but he knew that Bulldust and Scotty were bad enough to want to come after him. But were they brave enough to risk getting caught trying?

  Chapter 26

  ‘Glenn, what we really don’t understand is why you were so unhelpful to Kevin when he rang you about these cattle,’ Bob said from across the desk in the Boogarin Police Station.

  Dave and Bob had driven through the night and made it to the town in good time. It was early morning and they’d been waiting for Glenn to arrive so they could ask a few questions before heading out to see Kevin.

  Glenn spread his hands. ‘Mate, I’d had a brawl in the pub the night before and was taking statements from the five fellas I had to lock up—by myself. He couldn’t tell me when the truck had been on his property. Maybe the theft happened a week ago! I know he thought there had been people on his place that day, but he didn’t see them. They could’ve been five hours away by the time I got out there to have a look.’

  He shrugged. ‘What do you want me to do? He’s asking me to look for a truck. But what sort? He’s crazy if he thinks I can pull over every truck and look at the paperwork. Too big a job for me—you blokes got any idea how many trucks are on the road at this time of year?’

  ‘Anything negative towards the blokes at Spinifex Downs is going to be counterproductive. It would’ve been great if you’d done something. You’re looking for red cattle, with the earmark and brand of their station. Pretty easy when you think about it.’ He stepped up to the map which was hanging on the wall and looked at it. ‘I do get your point about timing, though.’

  ‘Sure, if you’ve got the resources, which I don’t. Anyway, it’s your job to do that sort of thing, not mine. I can’t keep running around looking after these boys out there. I’ve got other jobs on too, you know.’

  Bob crossed his legs and regarded Glenn for a while. ‘Again, what I don’t understand,’ he said slowly, ‘is why you’re being so down on Kev and the situation. What’s your reasoning?’

  Glenn regarded both men then leaned forwards and put his elbows on the desk. ‘It’s like this,’ he said. ‘Boogarin has been a nice quiet town for a while now. Seems to me the community out at Spinifex Downs are stirring up trouble. They’re pointing the finger at some of the other station owners. That type of thing doesn’t make for good relations. I don’t want any trouble up here. You boys have got no idea what kind of problems this might cause.’

  ‘So, what, you want to sweep it under the carpet?’ Dave asked, just as Bob said, ‘Yeah, I understand. No one wants to think cattle stealing is going on in their backyard. But I don’t think you can say “the community”, do you? You know as well as I do, it was Kevin who made the report. And, hell, you were the one who got him to do it, or have you forgotten that?’

  ‘Nope, I have not. But I didn’t think it was going to keep on going. Thought you blokes would come up here and get everyone settled down and life would go back to normal. Doesn’t sound like that’s going to happen now. And, no.’ Glenn looked at Dave. ‘No, I don’t want it swept under the carpet, but I don’t want any unrest either.’

  Dave frowned. ‘Sorry, going back to your point about accusations. I think I’ve missed something here. I wasn’t aware anyone had pointed the finger at anyone. Who’s Kev claiming has done it?’

  ‘His neighbour.’

  ‘I think you’ve taken that conversation out of context. He hasn’t named anyone, but his cattle have been stolen, and it’s clear cattle have gone from his place through Deep-Water Station. To me that isn’t accusing Kit Redman.’

  ‘Yeah, well, it’s yet to be shown the stock have even gone. By the time I got the photos and went out there, all the evidence was unusable. You said so yourselves; we can’t be one hundred per cent certain that’s what happened, can we? Sure, we got a report, but that doesn’t mean it’s actually happening.’ Glenn shuffled a few sheets of paper around on his desk and then looked up at both men.

  ‘You’re kidding me, right?’ Dave got up and paced the floor, disbelief in his voice. ‘Surely you remember how hard it was for Kevin to make the decision to talk to the coppers? And the trouble it’s putting him in with community—they aren’t happy he’s done that, are they?’

  ‘Maybe the Elders know better than he does. They’ve been around longer. I wonder if Kev’s not making trouble for trouble’s sake. Maybe he’s trying to cover up bad management.’

  ‘Bad management?’ Dave spat in disgust. ‘You’ve been out there! You’ve seen how well that place is run. Kev’s caught flak from his own community by reporting this and your inaction only reinforces their views about the police. I think you’re scared of what the outcome might be!’

  ‘Okay, okay, fellas, let’s just calm down a bit here,’ Bob said, frowning at Dave. ‘Look, Glenn, I understand your concern and your thought process. You need to know, that’s not what we’re seeing here. Don’t forget we’re stockies and we’ve been on heaps of different stations and farms and seen differently managed places. There’s something else at play here—we just need to find out what that is.’

  ‘Well, I’ll leave it to the experts,’ Glenn said. ‘Keep in mind t
hat uneasy relations between station owners make for hard policing up here. And that there’s been bad blood with these two stations before.’

  ‘We’ll be sure to remember that, Glenn,’ Bob said, getting up. ‘Thanks for seeing us today.’

  ‘Where are you headed now?’

  ‘Spinifex Downs to begin with, then we’ll work out where after that.’ Bob turned towards the door.

  ‘How long do you reckon this will take?’ Glenn asked, standing too.

  ‘Who knows. Long as a piece of string, this type of investigation. Just got to see where it takes us.’

  ‘Boys,’ Glenn said, ‘I want my patch to go back to the way it was before this all started. You know, I got blokes coming in from the communities and stations, having a few beers at the pub and then getting hot under the collar. I haven’t had to break up a fight here for years and suddenly there’ve been two in the last few weeks.

  ‘It’s pretty hard for me to run a tight ship when I’m on my own. And let me tell you, it’s not going to be long until we have a full-blown brawl.’

  Bob nodded understandingly. ‘We’ll do our best to get it sorted as soon as we can, Glenn.’ He opened the door and bright sunlight streamed inside. ‘Oh, and one more thing, can you tell us who has a fixed-wing aircraft around here?’

  ‘As in personally owned?’

  ‘Well, anyone really. Company, if there is one. Yeah, and private.’

  ‘The company up here is called Ocean Air. I think they’ve got two—they do tourist flights and so forth.’ Glenn hitched up his pants and went over to a filing cabinet. Picking out a manila folder, he read through. ‘Kit Redman has one, flies it himself. Dylan is a pilot too and owns a chopper, but not a plane.’ He ran his finger down the list. ‘All of the other ones are well outside the area that you’re looking at. Like hundreds of kilometres outside.’

  ‘Can I get a copy of that list?’ Bob asked.

  ‘Sure.’ He took it out, put it on the photocopier and pressed a button.

  ‘How did you get this information?’ Bob asked.

  ‘When you’ve been up here as long as I have, you learn to keep notes. I’ve got information on things no one else would have, because they wouldn’t have ever thought it was important. In fact, I can tell you what year Greg and Dorothy Janson got married and when they had their first child. The fact that Stella Grace had her fiftieth birthday at the pub and her ex-husband Murray turned up, got drunk and started a fight with the new husband, Jeff Grace. That was the first year I arrived.’

  ‘That’s fantastic to know, Glenn. Nothing like a bit of local knowledge. That sort of thing helps us outsiders a lot.’

  ‘That’s why I’m telling you that they might be causing trouble just for trouble’s sake.’

  Bob nodded and held his hand out to Glenn. ‘We’ll certainly keep all of that in mind. Thanks again.’

  In the troopy, Dave pulled on his seatbelt and snapped it into place, a sneer on his lips. ‘What the hell was that about?’

  ‘I think that’s one frightened copper,’ Bob answered, putting the vehicle into gear and reversing out.

  ‘What, ’cause he’s got someone leaning on him to get us to go away?’

  Bob gave a laugh. ‘Dave, Dave, Dave, just because you discovered a dirty copper in outback Queensland doesn’t mean you’re going to find one in outback Western Australia. Don’t judge everybody by Joe, son.’

  ‘Well, seriously, what the hell was all that “covering up bad management” shit?’

  ‘That is plain ignorance. He’s frightened about things getting out of control in his town and someone getting hurt. Think about it, one bloke and five or six big strong men from out on the stations? He’s not going to have a huge amount of control if a fight gets out of hand, is he?’

  Dave fiddled with the air-conditioner. ‘I guess not.’

  ‘How would you feel if you had to break up something like that without back-up?’

  ‘Yeah, not too good, I guess.’

  ‘So cut him a little slack.’ Bob swung the car onto the highway and headed towards Spinifex Downs. ‘But I will give you a little piece of advice. You’re going to have to be careful with old Glenn now.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘He’s going to think you’re against him, since you gave him a bit of a tune-up in there. I was trying to get your attention to shut up, but you didn’t seem to be getting the message.’

  ‘I was pissed off.’

  ‘That was obvious. Next time take the hint and pipe down. If he thinks we’re suspicious of him, we won’t be able to get him to talk to us, and we’re going to need his inside knowledge without giving him all the info we’re learning in the investigation.’

  Dave knew that Bob was right, but he was still pissed off. ‘Yeah,’ he said and turned to look out the window.

  ‘Tell you what, can you get on the laptop before we lose mobile range? Let’s do a little poking around on who owns Deep-Water, Cassia Plains and Paperbark Valley. Just because we think we’ve met the owners, doesn’t mean we have. Family set-ups and all.’

  Turning around, Dave got the laptop off the back seat. ‘What do you think we’re looking for?’ he asked as he turned it on.

  ‘Who knows until we find it but, when we do, we’ll know.’ Bob smiled, staring straight ahead. ‘Don’t worry, we’ll know.’

  Pulling in at Spinifex Downs, Dave could see the effect that the last lot of stealing had taken on Kevin.

  His shoulders were a little more stooped than they’d been before, and his eyes were bloodshot, no doubt from lack of sleep.

  ‘Glad you’re here,’ Kevin said to them both, shaking their hands.

  ‘How did you go with the muster?’ Dave asked as they walked up into the office.

  ‘Boys and I went around that paddock five times. There were supposed to be one-fifty in there, but there’s only ninety.’ He pushed the weigh bills and a pile of other notes in Bob’s direction. ‘I got everything you asked for, Sergeant. And we shifted the heifers in around the community here. Then I decided to post the boys on lookout, so they’ve all been out in the bush, watching and waiting, but we haven’t seen or heard anything since.’

  ‘Let’s go back to the beginning—the noise that you heard was definitely a fixed-wing plane?’

  ‘Yeah. Choppers make a different noise. Like a whoop, whoop sorta thing, but planes, they drone on, only time they really change tone is when they’re altering speed.’

  ‘Okay, and when you mustered last you put one hundred and fifty Brahman heifers into the paddock that sixty are missing out of now?’

  ‘That’s right.’ Kevin put his hands in his pockets. ‘Sergeant, I bought some security cameras. Put them up on the windmills and gates. There’re only three and I can’t cover all of the boundaries, but I had to do something.’

  ‘Great idea, mate,’ Dave said before Bob could answer. ‘We would’ve done that if you hadn’t. Have you had any hits yet?’

  ‘Nah, only the occasional roo.’

  Dave wrote the information down, then while Bob was still quiet, formed his own question.

  ‘Have you ridden the paddock boundary? No sign of a fence being pushed over where they could’ve wandered away into a different paddock?’

  Kevin went to the wall and poked his finger at the map pinned up there. ‘This is the paddock the cattle were in,’ he said. ‘You can see it’s two paddocks inside the boundary that backs onto Deep-Water. If they were real thirsty or being mischievous, they’d still have to get through another three fences before they were off our place.’

  ‘And you’re going to tell me you’ve been around those paddocks, aren’t you?’ Dave said.

  ‘Yep. Three times. On bikes and in utes. The sixty cattle we’re missing from this paddock, plus the other two hundred, aren’t on Spinifex Downs. They’ve disappeared.’

  Chapter 27

  ‘We’ve got about an hour before it gets too dark to set up camp,’ Bob said. ‘I think we should swing past Deep-
Water. We’ve got time.’

  ‘This late?’

  ‘Yep, this late. They won’t be expecting us at this time of night. Let’s just head over there and see what we see.’ He put the troopy into gear and pulled back out onto the road from where they had been parked under a tree, writing up their notes after talking to Kevin.

  ‘You still think it’s him?’ Dave said. ‘The local celeb?’

  ‘No, I’m not saying that at all. You’ve always got to keep an open mind, which you’re not doing about this bloke ’cause you decided you liked him and he was helpful. I’m being the balancing voice here.’

  Dave held up his hands in defeat. ‘Okay, I’m hearing you. I’ll be on guard this time.’

  ‘Tell me again who owns this place?’ Bob asked, concentrating on the road.

  ‘It’s in the name of C.G. and T.J. Redman. Christopher Geoff and Tara Jane. They trade as Deep-Water Pty Ltd.’

  ‘Wonder where Kit comes into it then.’

  ‘That’d be his nickname, wouldn’t it? Christopher can be shortened to Kit.’

  ‘Really? Sounds bloody stupid to me. Why don’t they just call him Chris?’

  ‘Who knows. I’m not Glenn King who keeps notes on everyone,’ Dave said.

  ‘Okay.’ Bob turned back to the issue at hand. ‘Kit and Tara are both partners together and there’s no one else involved. That’s good to know. Sometimes when there’s families, there’re brothers in partnership with brothers and it all gets a bit messy tracking everyone down. No extras in this lot. And the trading name is Deep-Water. It’s not unusual to keep the same trading name as the generation before. Buyers know the quality of cattle they’re going to get from each trading name. Does that make sense, son?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘And has either Kit or Tara got any priors?’

  ‘Not that I could find. Not even a drink-driving charge.’

  ‘And what about the others?’

  ‘As in Dylan and Ethan?’