Red Dirt Country

by Fleur McDonald

  Kit yelled out as the ute started to tip.

  Boyd couldn’t make a sound. His eyes were wide with terror as the view from the window went sideways.

  The first impact flipped the ute end over end, and then it rolled several times before coming to rest thirty metres below the road surface.

  Kit’s head bounced off the window and he smelled blood.

  When the vehicle finally came to a stop, he couldn’t work out where it had landed. He tried to turn to look outside but found his vision was blurry and his shoulder was screaming in pain.

  ‘Holy fuck,’ Kit gasped. ‘Holy fuck!’ Then he remembered Boyd. ‘Boyd? Mate?’

  His question was met by silence. He tried to turn his head and then realised he was suspended by his seatbelt looking down at the ground. The lower half of his brother’s body was beneath him, but his head and shoulders were outside the cab, trapped between the vehicle and the ground.

  Not wanting to see the grotesque scene, Kit shut his eyes and lapsed into unconsciousness.

  Chapter 38

  Dave slowed in order to conserve what little fuel remained. They could no longer see the cloud of dust ahead of them, so their reckless pursuit was over.

  ‘Lost them, Jimbo. What a bastard.’

  ‘Don’t reckon, boss,’ Jimbo said as they came to the top of a hill.

  Looking over at him, Dave said. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Reckon they’ve been … Yeah. Look there.’

  Dave was confronted by the bulk of a camel down on its haunches in the road ahead of him. Braking heavily, he was able to stop before they hit the beast.

  ‘What the hell’s happened here?’ he asked over the camel’s agonised bellows.

  The camel’s distress was evident as it pawed the ground with its front legs, but it couldn’t get up.

  ‘Been hit, boss.’ Jimbo looked around for the vehicle.

  ‘Can’t leave him like that,’ Dave said as he climbed out of the troopy and drew his Glock pistol. The single shot broke the silence as the camel slumped to the ground.

  ‘Hey, boss, look here.’ Jimbo had stepped out of the vehicle and was walking to the edge of the road. ‘Just like I thought. They crashed into that camel there and went over the side. But, for sure, we wouldn’t have known the ute was there if the animal hadn’t been in the middle of the road.’

  Dave ran to the top of the rocky outcrop that formed the western edge of the road and there below was the crumpled wreck of a white dual cab.

  ‘Shit,’ he said and ran back to the troopy. He grabbed the sat phone and hit the redial button.

  Bob’s voice come over the phone. ‘Dave? That you? Where—?’

  Interrupting, Dave snapped out his words. ‘Bob, get a pen. Suspects have crashed down an embankment and rolled. GPS coordinates are …’ He reeled them off. ‘Wanted to get them to you before I head down to check on them. It looks real bad, mate.’

  Bob read back the coordinates and Dave confirmed they were correct. ‘Get an ambulance out here as soon as you can and get the Royal Flying Doctor Service on standby. I don’t think they’ll be able to put down out here but find the closest place.

  ‘Reckon you might need the district boss notified because of the circumstances. I’ll head down and check on them now and ring you back.’

  He didn’t give Bob a chance to respond.

  ‘Jimbo?’

  ‘Yeah?’

  ‘You all right?’

  ‘Yeah. But I’m staying here.’ Jimbo sat on the ground next the troopy and looked down at the ground.

  ‘Good man.’

  Grabbing the first-aid kit out of the back, Dave picked his way down the steep, rocky embankment, holding on to the trunks of trees to get down without slipping, until he got to the car.

  At first glance, he saw Kit slumped unconscious in the passenger seat.

  He reached in to check for a pulse. There was one, but it wasn’t steady. Dave knew he needed to get Kit out of there are soon as he could.

  Looking past Kit, he saw the lower half of another male. Boyd. He hadn’t been as lucky. The upper half of his body was trapped under the vehicle.

  Swallowing down his horror, he got up and looked around to see if Kevin had been thrown further away from the vehicle.

  ‘Kev’s not here!’ he yelled back up to Jimbo. There was no answer and Dave didn’t want to push it, because he wasn’t sure what Jimbo would do. Their cultures were so different, and Kevin was the leader of their community.

  Dave started searching, looking under trees and in the treetops, but there was nothing. He went back to the car and looked in the back seat, trying to see if there was any blood.

  From where he stood it looked clean. None of the side windows were broken and all that could have happened was that Kevin was thrown out the front. It didn’t look like that had happened either.

  His heart rate kicked up a notch. ‘I don’t reckon he was with them,’ he yelled. Going to the front of the vehicle he yanked open the door, which thankfully hadn’t been stuck shut, and patted Kit’s cheek. ‘Come on, mate,’ he said. He leaned over to try and unclip the seatbelt. ‘Need to get you out of here.’

  Standing on the upturned vehicle, Dave pulled out his pocket knife and cut the seatbelt, releasing Kit from the car. Breaking his fall, he dragged Kit away from the car, knowing he could be doing more damage but also realising that there wasn’t any choice. Out here there weren’t any Jaws of Life; they just had to make do with what they had.

  Manoeuvring Kit’s unconscious body, he got him in the recovery position and, having checked his vital signs, made his way back up to the road and the sat phone.

  ‘One fatality, one touch and go,’ he said. ‘Can’t find Kev. I don’t think he was with them. He’s not been thrown from the car anywhere that I can find. They must have left him behind somewhere.’

  ‘Right-oh. The plane is on the way to you with a nurse and some coppers. There’s another lot heading out by road and I’ll go with them from here. Jackie and some of his boys are coming along to see if we can find him. We should be there in an hour or two.’

  ‘Thanks, mate. See you when you get here,’ said Dave as he slumped in the seat. Where was Kevin?

  It was the low thrum of an engine that made Dave lift his head up and check Kit again, before climbing up and running out into the middle of the road. He turned on his flashing lights in case it wasn’t Bob and his crew, not wanting another accident.

  The late afternoon heat and flies had taken their toll on him, and the adrenalin he’d felt chasing the two suspects had left his body, leaving him drained, exhausted and with an aching shoulder.

  Earlier, Dave had set up a tarp to provide shade from the afternoon sun as the temperature climbed into the mid-thirties and the humidity grew, and he’d sat next to Kit, waving flies away and checking his vital signs every fifteen minutes. Kit hadn’t showed any signs of waking up, and his pulse was still unsteady.

  Dave had talked to Jimbo about his taking the troopy to look for Kevin, but they’d decided it was better to stay together, so Jimbo had catnapped near the vehicle while Dave kept watch.

  Dave had found himself dozing, but his sleep was filled with images of Mel lying in a car, her face pale, with blood at the corner of her mouth. Bulldust was grinning and Bec and Alice were in the back crying. There was nothing he could do to stop him.

  ‘Mate,’ Bob said as he pulled up next to him. Glenn was in the passenger seat. ‘Plane landed about twenty ks back, on a flat stretch. Too many bloody ridges and gullies through here. Got Leah, the nurse, with us. And Glenn’s here to help. Need all the hands we can get.’

  ‘Where’s the patient?’ Leah grabbed her bag and ran from the car.

  ‘Down there,’ Dave indicated, brushing more flies away from his face.

  When she got to Kit, she set to work, administering a saline drip and assessing Kit’s injuries.

  ‘We’re going to need to get him out of here ASAP!’ she yelled. ‘How far
away is the ambulance?’

  ‘Probably an hour,’ Bob answered after calling in on the CB.

  ‘Might be too late,’ Leah told them. She climbed up to the top of the hill. ‘Can we shift him out of here in one of the troopys?’

  ‘Probably not,’ Glenn said. ‘Don’t think we’d get him in there.’ He looked ill as he glanced down at his friend.

  ‘Shit,’ she said, running her hands through her hair. ‘Yeah, you’re probably right—too rough to risk getting him back and doing more damage, without him being strapped in properly. This is when I hate isolated nursing. Fuck!’

  Bob pulled Dave aside from refuelling the troopy from jerry cans of diesel Bob had brought.

  ‘What do we think happened to Kev?’ Bob asked.

  ‘I’m not sure. I’m thinking they’ve stashed him somewhere.’

  ‘Can anyone confirm there was a body in the ute with Kit and Boyd? Glenn?’

  Glenn walked over and rubbed his cheek. ‘I’m sure I could see something large on the back seat of the other vehicle, when we buzzed them, but I couldn’t swear to it in court. Certainly looked like a body with a bag over its head. I had the binoculars on them.’

  ‘Do you know where the other ute was parked?’ Bob asked.

  Dave shook his head.

  Jimbo came to stand alongside them. ‘I reckon I know, boss.’

  They all turned to him.

  ‘Where, mate?’ Bob asked gently.

  ‘Back where I said the tracks had stopped. They must’ve turned off just before that. I was watchin’ them tracks real close and I pulled you up pretty much straight away.’

  Dave leaned over and clapped Jimbo on the shoulder. ‘Good job. Come on, let’s go.’

  ‘Hey, I need some assistance here,’ Leah called.

  Glenn blanched, then said, ‘I’ll stay and give a hand.’

  Jimbo directed the two-car procession back the way they had come. Forty-five minutes later they approached the hills where Jimbo had lost sight of the tracks. They had stopped several times for Jimbo to ensure the distinct wiggling track made by the damaged front wheel on the Land Cruiser ute was still visible.

  ‘It should be real close,’ Jimbo said and Dave slowed the vehicle to a crawl.

  ‘Stop here,’ Jimbo said.

  Dave stopped the troopy and Jimbo got out, followed by Bob. Scanning the surface of the road, he pointed out the brush marks made by the leaves and followed them until they stopped. He dropped to his haunches and touched a couple of branches on a bush.

  ‘Yeah, look here, tracks been swept with a bush, look here and here, and they go off the road into here.’

  Dave and Bob squatted and looked to where he was pointing.

  ‘Shit, I can actually see that,’ Dave said, amazed.

  ‘Yeah, but not at one hundred kilometres an hour, boss,’ Jimbo said with a grin.

  ‘Geez, I’m glad I had you with me!’

  ‘And here too.’ Jimbo pulled out some branches that had been broken off and used to cover the opening. Their leaves were now wilting in the late afternoon heat.

  Dave could make out a rough track that headed up the hill away from the road.

  ‘I’ll go bring the car up,’ said Bob as Dave started up the track at a jog. He needed to find Kevin. Surely they were running out of time.

  It was uphill and stony, and Dave slipped several times as he ran, grazing his knee, but he didn’t care. Rounding a slight bend, Dave saw the tray of a vehicle ahead. He tried to run faster, but he slipped again.

  ‘Fuck! Kev?’ He got up and powered on, reaching the ute. ‘Mate?’

  Yanking open the back door, he saw Kevin’s body, a bag over his head.

  No! He was too late. ‘Don’t come any closer, Jimbo,’ he called out.

  Jimbo stopped.

  Dave got out his pocketknife and cut the tape securing the linen sack. The material was caked with dried blood. Kevin was face down with his arms trussed with tape at his sides. His legs were also bound with tape over his tracksuit pants.

  With trepidation Dave reached out and rested his fingers on the unconscious man’s carotid artery. The faint pulse sent a wave of relief through Dave’s body.

  ‘He’s alive!’ Dave called out to Jimbo. ‘He needs the nurse though. Go tell Bob to get up here quick!’

  Chapter 39

  Bob and Dave were driving to Spinifex Downs for one last visit. In the back was Kevin and he was heading home.

  ‘Can’t thank you blokes enough,’ he said through the partition of the vehicle. ‘I thought I was a goner there.’

  ‘We thought you were too,’ Dave said with a grin that hid the anxious worry he’d felt over the past few days.

  When they’d found him, Kevin had been severely dehydrated, with a head injury. Leah had left Kit’s side to attend to Kevin and, once again, the situation had been touch and go. She’d been worried they wouldn’t get him airlifted to a hospital in time to stabilise him. So Dave and Bob had loaded him onto the back seat of the troopy and driven him to Boogarin at high speed, leaving Glenn to finish cleaning up the scene once the ambulance had picked up Kit, and Boyd’s body.

  ‘I still can’t work out why Boyd hated us so much,’ Kevin said.

  ‘Tara gave me some of Old Man Redman’s diaries yesterday,’ Bob said. ‘Kit and Boyd’s father, Nick Redman, was a vicious man, which he in turn learned from his dad, George Redman. Seems George stole cattle from your community for many years. You blokes didn’t have your own stations back when George’s generation was about, but your community was living on Deep-Water. The Elders used to be his stockmen and they were treated like second-class citizens.

  ‘By the time the government handed Spinifex Downs over to your community, George was dead and Nick didn’t like that he’d lost his entire workforce. He plotted a way of getting back at you by taking your cattle.

  ‘It was nothing but pure spite that made George and Nick continue it on: stealing your cattle, then hurting a member of your community to make sure you all kept your mouths shut. A mob of cattle and one person. Every time. They reckoned you’d never go to the police. Old Man Redman probably had a deal with the copper back then to look the other way. Kit and Boyd didn’t know any different so they kept going.’ Bob scratched his head and looked out the window as Dave drove.

  ‘There was never enough cattle to make Kit’s place viable. I looked at the books and they couldn’t make ends meet. Free cattle meant more profit without the cost.

  ‘Jackie and the other Elders, they knew it was the Redman family, but just couldn’t bring themselves to trust in white man’s law to report it. And rightly so,’ Bob continued. ‘Back then the coppers probably wouldn’t have listened. I hope we’ve changed your mind about our white man’s law.’

  ‘I think you’ve changed Dad’s.’

  Dave turned to Bob. ‘What happens about all the skeletons in the bunker?’

  ‘They stay there, don’t they, mate? Unless the bigwigs in Perth say otherwise.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Kevin said. ‘They’re resting now. Don’t need to disturb them without reason.’

  They arrived at the community, with little kids running around the car, yelling and laughing, the women crowded around the vehicle, big smiles on their faces.

  ‘Looks like you’re a celebrity now, Kev,’ Bob said with a chuckle.

  ‘Nah, just need to get on and do what I need to do to help my people,’ Kevin said.

  They slowed to a stop and all got out. Jackie was waiting on the steps of the house. He walked forwards and offered his hand to Bob. White man’s gesture of thanks.

  ‘Thank you.’ Jackie bowed his head and nodded.

  ‘I’m real glad we could help,’ Bob said.

  Jackie nodded, walked over to Dave and did the same. For once, Dave was tongue-tied.

  ‘What happens now?’ Jackie asked.

  ‘Once Kit is recovered enough, we’ll charge him with a heap of offences. Don’t you worry, Kev, Kit will go to prison for a bl
oody long time,’ Bob said.

  He didn’t mention how cut up Glenn had been to find out the truth about his friend. Everyone in the shire was reeling from it. People found it hard to believe Kit had been involved, but with her husband safely locked inside a hospital, Tara had come forward and told of the longstanding abuse she’d suffered at his hands, and Digby had spoken of Kit’s threats to ensure the stock sales went through easily and quickly.

  Still, some people couldn’t accept the truth. Dave and Bob had heard that Mae from the pub had started a petition to stop Kit from going to prison.

  ‘Won’t do them any good,’ Bob had said. ‘I’m going to make sure he stays behind bars for a long time.’

  A shadow passed over the sun. Thunderclouds were rolling in.

  Jackie came and stood in front of Bob and Dave. ‘You are welcome to visit us any time,’ he said.

  ‘Yeah, we’ll drop past when we’re up here next,’ Bob said with a grin. ‘Hopefully it won’t be for a while. Not that we don’t want to catch up, but we don’t want any more cattle going missing. Now, look, we’ve gotta head off and take this boy home to his family.’ He clapped Dave on the shoulder. ‘He’s a new dad!’

  The women cackled and made rocking movements with their arms and Dave smiled.

  ‘Hold on,’ he said. ‘We’ve got something for all the kids.’ Dave went around to the back of the troopy and pulled out a large string bag with ten footballs and five netballs inside. ‘Have fun with these,’ he said as he handed them to the children who were milling around.

  A loud crack of thunder brought more cries of delight, and a few fat drops hit the dry ground.

  ‘Might be the Wet arriving,’ Bob said.

  Kevin looked skyward. ‘We can hope.’

  Shaking hands with Kevin one last time, Dave and Bob got back into the car and turned south when they hit the main road.

  ‘What do you think you’re going to find when you get home?’ Bob asked after they’d driven an hour in silence.

  ‘Who knows,’ Dave answered, looking out the window.