‘It’s so great for Blinman, when we’ve got to rely so much on the tourist dollar.’
‘Dead right there.’
‘Guess I’d better be off,’ Jacob said. ‘I’ve gotta shift a mob of sheep before dark tonight. I’ll be back in with another load of wood tomorrow morning.’
‘Yeah, I’d better get back and help Reen,’ Eliza said. ‘See you later, Jacob.’
‘Catch you, mate,’ Chris answered, relieved to see his brother go. ‘Eliza, are you coming to the park tomorrow?’
‘Oh, Chris, I wasn’t going to. It’s school holidays, Reen needs me to help out as much as I can at the moment. Do you mind?’
‘Nah, not at all, just thought I’d check.’
Eliza started to move away, but abruptly stopped and looked back.
Chris quickly averted his gaze, hoping she hadn’t seen him staring at her. By the look on her face, he hadn’t been quick enough.
‘I just need to talk to you quickly about the girls.’
He sighed. ‘What have those little ferals been up to now?’
‘Nothing yet,’ Eliza laughed. Her expression was soft as she talked about them. ‘You’ve done such a great job of raising those kids, Chris. They’re lovely, and independent and self-sufficient. Smart too.’
A one-sided grin played around Chris’s mouth. ‘There’s a huge great big bloody “but” coming here.’
‘No,’ Eliza said, then paused. ‘Well, sort of.’
‘Come on,’ Chris said in a resigned tone as he put his arm on her elbow and turned her towards the shop. ‘Let’s get a coffee and you can tell me all about it.’
So they would have privacy, Chris and Eliza took their mugs of coffee back to the tennis clubrooms. As they sat in the cool darkness, Chris could see she didn’t want to blurt anything out, so he started talking about the cook-off last year and how many people had come.
‘This selfie trail you’ve got going is a great drawcard too. I don’t know why we hadn’t thought of something like that before.’ He hesitated. ‘Actually, I don’t really have a lot to do in the twelve months leading up to it. Reen and Mary are the ones who chase the sponsorship and pull it all together. Many of us just turn up in the two weeks beforehand and help out. I’m one of them.’
Eliza took a sip of her coffee. ‘So, what’s your job on the day?’ she asked. ‘Are you a fire boy too?’
Chris looked at her for a long time and then a wicked expression crossed his face.
‘Whaaaat?’ she asked.
‘I’d rather put the fire out than start it,’ he said in a suggestive tone.
Eliza’s eyes widened and she started to laugh. ‘Well, I probably walked into that one!’ She put her coffee cup down and looked at him, still smiling. ‘I didn’t know you had a depraved sense of humour!’
‘There’s a few things you don’t know about me,’ Chris agreed. He tried to hold eye contact with her, but a now-familiar uncomfortable expression crossed her face and he knew to stop. He wondered if it happened when she was with Jacob or if it was just when she was with him.
‘So, about these kids,’ he prompted.
‘Again, Chris, they really are such great kids,’ she said. ‘But, listen, they both came to me today and told me what was going on at the park.’
Chris looked down, his stomach dropping. ‘They weren’t supposed to say anything.’
‘No, but they wanted to tell me, in case I’d seen anything. Which I haven’t,’ she added quickly. ‘But what worries me is that they’re going to sneak out at night to try and see something.’
Chris felt shock travel through him. ‘Surely they wouldn’t do that.’ He stopped. ‘Actually, you know what, I can see them doing exactly that.’
A little laugh escaped Eliza. ‘Yeah, I could too. And as much as I think it’s funny, it’s pretty serious too. I’d hate for them to accidentally get in the middle of something they shouldn’t. Because you know what?’
‘What?’
‘They are the type of kids who’ll find something. They’re too clever for their own good. And they’ll get into trouble.’
Chris tried to quell his anxiety. He’d never thought about the possibility of the girls getting involved but he should have. Of course they weren’t going to stand back and let fauna be taken from their home. He’d brought them up to love this place. God, what an idiot he was. He shouldn’t have let them hear as much as they had when Dave had come by.
Eliza laid a hand on his arm. ‘I’m sorry I’ve upset you. I just thought you should know.’
He covered her hand with his. ‘I should have seen it coming. Thank you.’
They sat like that for a moment, and then Eliza gently extracted her hand and walked over to the honour boards on the wall.
‘Recognise any names?’ Chris asked.
‘Only Mary and John Caulder,’ she answered. Her voice echoed in the gloomy room. ‘Oh, there’s Jacob. I didn’t know he played.’
‘He’s pretty good. Mary and John would always drag us to the tennis. Wasn’t something I got into. I much preferred the cricket.’
‘And Stacey and Mark.’
There were photos on the other wall as well, and Eliza moved over to look at them. ‘Mary was so beautiful when she was younger,’ she said softly.
Chris came up behind her and stood so close he could smell her shampoo.
‘See this picture here?’ he asked, pointing to a black-and-white photo next to Mary’s portrait. ‘I reckon you look so much like her, it’s not funny.’
Chris watched as Eliza turned to look. An emotion he couldn’t put a name to crossed her face and she reached up to trace the image of the woman in the picture.
‘You guys related or what?’ he asked.
Eliza shook her head. ‘I wouldn’t have thought so,’ she answered softly.
‘What do you mean you wouldn’t have thought so?’ he asked, puzzled. ‘Don’t you know?’
‘No,’ she answered softly. ‘No. I wouldn’t have any idea.’
Chapter 32
Dessie stopped to speak to a few people as he walked slowly down the main street of Blinman. There was always someone calling out to him and wanting his attention. Even though he was usually happy to give it, today he had other things on his mind. He was in turmoil and wasn’t sure what to do.
He noticed Eliza and Chris standing out the front of the tennis club, deep in conversation. He stopped and watched them for a moment and, as if she knew he was watching her, Eliza looked over at him. She gave him a small smile before turning her attention back to Chris.
A mob of galahs swooped down and flew through the main street, squawking loudly, before coming in to land in some gum trees on the outskirts of town. They’d come so close to Dessie that he had felt the air move above his head.
He smiled contentedly. He loved this place.
‘G’day, Dessie.’ The voice behind him made him turn. ‘Long time, no see.’
‘Dave! Good to see you.’ Dessie offered his hand.
‘Here for long?’
‘I’ll stay until the cook-off is finished, but then I need to head over Coober Pedy way. You been busy?’
‘Hasn’t been too bad until recently. There seems to be a bit of action in the national park that needs looking at, but the last big case I had was that rodeo money being stolen last year.’
They leaned companionably against the railing at the front of the shop and chatted for a while. Presently, Dave said, ‘I’m in a bit of a quandary, Dessie.’
‘Are you now, Dave? What seems to be the problem?’ You and me both, he thought.
‘I’ve got a report I need to put in but I’m sure it’s going to put someone at risk of retaliation. I’m an above-board cop, I always have been, but for some reason this particular investigation has made me feel something I’ve never felt before. It doesn’t seem right to put someone in danger. Of course, we as a police force can look out for this person—put him or her in protective custody, but that doesn’t sit
well with me.’
Dessie didn’t say anything, picking off some flaking paint from the rails.
‘I feel like this person has done a lot to change their life, and they should be given the opportunity to go ahead without fear or having to go into something as severe as witness protection.’
‘Sounds pretty serious.’ Dessie looked across the road. He never rushed speaking to people about their problems. He was content to let them talk and, while they did so, let his mind run over the scriptures. Usually the answer was in them; he just had to find the right one.
‘I think you have to do what you swore to do, Dave,’ he finally said. ‘And then keep an eye and ear to the ground and help protect whoever it is. I don’t see any other way. If you don’t put in the report, you’re breaking your contract with the police force, but when you do put it in, then within the limits of your job, you’ll be able to protect this person. But,’ he held up a finger as he looked at Dave. ‘You might need to call in reinforcements. You have to remember, you’re not a one-man band. You’re part of a group of people who work together to protect the community.’
Dave nodded slowly. ‘Yeah, you’re right. I knew you’d say that. I don’t even know why I’m questioning what I should do. Something just feels different about this case.’
‘Well, maybe you can delay putting the report in for a few more days? But is it really going to change the outcome?’
‘No. I need to put it in when I head back today. And probably not. Might as well just bite the bullet and get it over with.’
‘Good man,’ Dessie answered. He noticed that Eliza and Chris were now walking away from the tennis club, towards the fire pits in the creek. He had a thought.
The tennis clubrooms! Of course! Why hadn’t he thought of it earlier?
‘Would you excuse me, Dave?’
‘Yeah, no worries, mate. I’ve got to get on the road, so I can turn around and come back here again!’
‘Drive carefully, my friend.’
‘See you in a few days.’
Dessie crossed the road as quickly as his ageing body would let him and pulled open the door to the tennis clubrooms.
When his eyes had adjusted to the dimness, he gazed around, remembering the times he, Mary and John and Richard and Clara had sat here, watching others play, or playing themselves. There had been so much camaraderie within the community. Everyone was on a level playing field, experiencing the same thing at the same time.
Of course, there had been sad times. As he sat there, he recalled the time a local girl had started to complain of leg pains and how, shortly afterward, they had found a lump on her hip. He remembered how he had sat with her father day after day, while they waited for news from his wife and the specialist in Adelaide. In the end, the man hadn’t been able to stand it any longer and left late one night to drive down to the city. Dessie thought about how he had tried to talk him into waiting until morning, but had no success. So, as the next best thing, he offered to drive him.
At the hospital, they sat by her bed until early the next morning, when the specialist arrived to tell them the lump wasn’t malignant.
Together, they had wept at the good news.
When Dessie visited the stations and the owners were too busy to stop work, he’d jump in and give them a hand. He’d spent countless days in dusty yards, walking behind mobs of sheep and helping herd cattle. He found it a little harder now, but he still enjoyed stock work if there was something for him to do.
After receiving a call via the UHF radio that someone needed him, he would drive through the night to offer comfort and help. He’d buried the community’s loved ones, married them and christened their babies. He’d even been invited to a birthday party or two.
He loved his job, and there was no better place to do it than the Flinders Ranges.
He looked at the photograph of Clara for a long time, before the sound of the door opening and a beam of sunlight streaming in made him turn around.
Eliza was silhouetted in the doorway.
‘Oh, sorry,’ she said. ‘I didn’t realise you were in here, Dessie. I was just coming to . . .’ she trailed off.
‘No worries, Eliza. I was just resting my legs in the cool. It’s begun to get a bit warm outside.’
‘You’re not kidding!’ She stepped into the room and walked over to sit alongside him. ‘I knew it’d get hot, but the change has been huge, and so quick!’
‘It’s a changeable landscape,’ Dessie agreed. ‘And that includes the weather.’ He turned to look at her. ‘So, Eliza . . .’ He left the words hanging, to see if she would start to talk. When she didn’t, he asked, ‘Are you looking forward to the cook-off?’
‘Yeah, I am. It’s so lovely to be in a community where everyone works together and wants to help each other out.’
‘You’re liking it here in Blinman, then?’
‘I really am. The people are great, and the countryside . . .’ she shrugged. ‘How do you even begin to describe the beauty of it?’
‘Where were you before this, Eliza?’
‘Oh, here and there.’
With his years of experience, Dessie could tell she wanted to talk but wasn’t sure how to open up to him. ‘You like photography, so I’m told,’ he commented, leaning back in his chair and giving her his full attention.
‘It’s a new interest,’ Eliza said brightly. ‘How could you come here and not take photos? I’ve started selling them in Reen’s shop. Some are framed, some not. It’s pretty hard to carry around photos in frames when you’re camping.’
‘Have you got a favourite spot to go and take photos?’
She shook her head. ‘No. Just anywhere. I’ve got to admit, I love a good sunset and sunrise. The colours—well, I’m sure you’ve seen plenty!’
‘That I have,’ he said with a smile. ‘And, let me tell you, there are none better than anywhere in the Flinders Ranges. Except, perhaps, parts of the Northern Territory. But I think it’s the ranges that make the ones here so beautiful.’ He paused. ‘I think I like sunrises just slightly more than sunsets.’
‘Why’s that?’
‘Well,’ he crossed his arms over his stomach and closed his eyes as he thought about what to say. ‘I think it’s because it’s the dawn of a new day. Every day is a new start and it’s a gift. “A new day will dawn on us because our God is loving and merciful.”’
‘Luke 1:78,’ she said softly.
He looked at her in gentle surprise. ‘You know the scriptures, Eliza?’
She said quietly, looking down at her hands, ‘I thought I’d forgotten a lot of them, but I guess once they’re ingrained, they’re hard to forget. I was made to go to Sunday school, where we repeated heaps of verses, much to the joy of our teacher. Not so much the students.’
Dessie nodded. ‘Yes, they would be hard to forget.’ He looked at her for a long moment, trying to work out what he was feeling. Relief? Sadness? Joy? A mixture of all three? ‘You don’t have any family then, Eliza?’ he asked softly.
She sat there for a long while. He had begun to think she wasn’t going to answer, when she looked up at him, a strange look on her face. ‘No,’ she answered in a high, thin voice. ‘No, I don’t have any family. I was left at a church when I was a baby, only a few days old. There was no information on who my birth mother or father was. For a long time, I didn’t really care who my mother was.’ She took a shuddering breath. ‘Actually, to be honest, I always cared, but as she’d abandoned me, I thought she’d made her feelings pretty clear, so I didn’t think there’d be any point in looking. I never let myself think about her.’ Eliza looked down. ‘I thought I’d made a home with a man who loved me. Not having had a family didn’t matter. But it turned out I didn’t really know him and, suddenly, all that mattered to me was having a family.’
She stared at him intently. ‘I want to know who my mother was, but I can’t see any way of finding out. So, I’ll stay where I feel like I have a mother, and that’s here. In Blinman. Reen
is like a sister and a mother rolled into one. Mary and John are very kind, like grandparents, and everyone else is like my aunts and uncles. They’re interested in me and I’m interested in them.’ She took another breath. ‘Does that make sense?’
‘It makes more sense than you realise,’ Dessie answered from the bottom of his heart.
Chapter 33
Dominic sat in a darkened corner of the pub, nursing a whisky. It was his third day in Port Augusta and he hadn’t made any progress.
Simon slipped into the seat opposite him and shook his head. ‘No go.’
Pressing his lips tightly together, Dominic knew he had to control his anger in public, though what he really wanted to do was slam his fist into the table. He also knew he had to be patient. She would slip up, and when she did, he would be waiting. Ready to pounce.
‘Damn.’
‘I’ve got one more pawn shop to try.’
Dominic frowned. ‘Why haven’t you been there already?’
‘Everything takes time, Dom. When you’re in the police force, you realise that as much as you want to hurry things, you can’t. Then there are other times that it all falls into place so quickly, you’d think a bushfire is chasing it. This isn’t one of those times.’
They sat in silence, both staring out into the street. Dominic was sure he’d recognise her. No matter how dramatically she could change her appearance, she wouldn’t be able to alter her movements, her mannerisms or her voice.
That would be the real giveaway: her voice.
He ran his hands over his face and rubbed at his stubble. The five-day growth was a bit of a ploy too. If she could change her appearance, then he could change his. Dominic figured she would have no idea he had an inkling of where she was. He assumed Ashleigh had begun to relax, to feel safe, wherever she was.
Simon got up from the table. ‘Right, well, I guess I’ll go and have a chat to the bloke in this next pawn shop.’
Dominic threw down the last of his whisky. ‘I’ll come too. I might be a little more persuasive than you.’
Looking around the pawn shop, Simon marvelled at how much was crammed into one small area. A man sat on a stool, a newspaper spread across the glass-topped cabinet that acted as a counter. He looked at them over his glasses, which were perched on the end of his nose.
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