On his way to the kitchen, he peeked into Zoe’s room.
Having been given strong painkillers last night, she was out for the count, her body curled in a ball, holding Zoe in the cradle of her arms. His daughter’s head lay on her breast. Feeling all the force of what might have been—what ought to have been, had he not married Sharon—he gently closed the door again. No anchor, no chains pulling him under, and he thanked God once more that Elly had returned to his life.
He let Rick in the back door, and turned on the coffee machine while Rick closed the door to the dining area and hall. He didn’t need to ask to what he owed the honour of the early visit.
Rick turned to him, speaking in a low voice. ‘How is she? Is Zoe okay?’
The second question softened him. Rick’s fierceness was an imperfect cover for his deep loyalty to those he cared about—and he wondered whether they’d remained unmolested last night because Rick had watched the house. He refused to think of the other option. ‘You’re still engaged—but I’m sure she’ll expect a dozen kisses better, Prince Eric.’ They chuckled, dispelling the tension sure to return with his next words. To put it off, he made two coffees, and handed one to the friend he wanted like hell to trust.
‘Elly has concussion, and—’
Rick frowned, his eyes hard. ‘You can’t let her leave. She’d be a sitting duck out there.’
‘I know,’ he snapped. ‘I’ve been thinking about it half the night. She only stayed this long because Zoe asked her to sleep in her bed, and she promised to make her pancakes.’
‘Thank God for Zoe.’ Rick sipped his coffee, but his frown grew deeper. ‘Look through her luggage while she’s cooking. Take the one thing she couldn’t bear to leave behind.’
The insight took him aback. He swallowed a swig of his coffee to give himself a minute to think about it—about why it disturbed him that Rick, a born detective, would think about that, and he hadn’t. ‘Such as?’
The suspicion he couldn’t quite dispel must have been in his tone, for Rick stiffened. ‘You know her better than I do, of course. It’s just a suggestion.’ The words were calm enough, but some defensiveness simmered beneath. ‘It’s obvious she came here because of her memories of you. If she’s sentimental enough to seek out her childhood friend, she’s sentimental enough to have hung on to an item, a picture of her mother, or one of you. Or maybe she has a toy from her childhood?’
Damn clever. ‘That would be just like Elly.’ Yeah, she was bound to have something precious in her suitcase, or more likely some photos stuffed in the zipped pocket of her medical kit. She was certainly attached at the hip to the thing. Searching her bags might not be a kosher thing to do, but it would keep her safe—and that was all he could afford to care about right now. ‘I’ll do it.’
A sound came from down the hall. Rick drained his coffee at a gulp. ‘I’d better go.’
Adam shook his head, listening. ‘By the sounds, it’s Zoe. Elly had enough painkillers to sleep in until ten, at least. Stay for a bit, mate. I need to talk to you about what we’re going to do about Zoe.’ His eyes twinkled. ‘And I’m a coward. Zoe was pretty scared yesterday. She wouldn’t forgive me if she found out you left without giving her those kisses to make her better.’
Rick laughed, his body relaxing. He turned as the door opened, and held out his arms with a smile as a delighted Zoe leaped at him.
‘We’ve found another body.’
Jonas’s words sent a lightning bolt of shock through Elly, adding to the pain in her head, which had barely lessened overnight. Adam had brought her to the station as soon as she woke, well after ten, and had ushered her straight into the senior sergeant’s office.
Adam held her hand; his voice was grim. ‘Where?’
‘In a hangar in Charleville, Queensland. A Trevor Hammersmith. Apparently he flew you to Charleville just over two weeks ago, Elly. Is that right?’
She sagged in her chair, filled with despair and loathing. ‘Yes, he did.’
‘We think he flew Spencer there under duress. After he killed Hammersmith, Spencer somehow reached Broken Hill and slipped through the roadblocks.’ Jonas spread a newspaper before them. ‘We haven’t yet caught Jeremiah Spencer contacting Danny, but with the availability of burner phones, and his unlimited funds to hire people to pass messages, it’s all too easy. We know he must be keeping Spencer up to date on our operation.’ His kind face was creased with concern. ‘The deaths are escalating, and every killing increases Spencer’s sense of infallibility and power. Unless he’s killed anyone we’ve not yet found, his blood lust must be screaming by now. According to his former psychiatrist, the thrill of killing has probably become a sexual replacement for him. He thinks Spencer will be impotent until he’s killed someone.’
Her voice shook, but she forced the words out. ‘So he’ll kill someone as soon as he gets here, before he sees me. He’ll need to, to feel like a man.’
She felt the shudder rip through Adam, but neither man denied what she’d said.
‘We have to be ready for him,’ Jonas said.
‘He’ll go straight to the hospital,’ she said, flat. ‘He will have looked up the town by now, and he knows that’s where I’ll be. You need to transfer as many patients out of there as you can, and cancel outpatient treatment. Send them to a private clinic for now.’
‘We don’t have one here,’ Adam said quietly. ‘This is a town of six thousand people, including the outlying areas. The hospital is all we have.’
‘Then send as many as you can home, or get the ambulances and the RFDS to transport as many as possible to the Mildura Base Hospital, or Goulburn Valley Health Hospital, Shepparton, or even Adelaide or Melbourne.’ She sighed. ‘I’ll talk to Dr Schumacher about setting up a home clinic—it will only be for the next few days.’ She shot Adam a defiant look, but he only smiled.
When she’d woken, she’d gone to her kit, and found two things missing: her mother’s picture, the only one she had, and a photo of her with Adam. She’d been thirteen and he, almost eighteen. They’d caught three big trout, and come home so covered in muck that Aunt Irene had insisted on their having an outdoor shower before coming into the house. Adam had negotiated with his grandmother: photos for showers. They’d been so damn proud of their catch. Fish and chips for everyone that night. It was one of her best memories of Adam’s grandparents.
Damn him, he knew she wouldn’t leave town until she had the pictures back.
The twin emotions of fury and a small, sneaking gladness roiling in her stomach, she pulled her hand out of his. ‘Have any outsiders been seen at the Indigenous communities nearby over the past few days?’
‘Only a priest for confessional yesterday,’ Jonas replied. ‘He goes every month.’
‘Whoever shot that branch down on us yesterday didn’t want us dead.’ Adam’s words were hard. ‘They left the car unmolested this time. They want Elly out of town—alone and isolated. I suspect it’s Jeremiah Spencer’s work, hiring people to run Elly out of town before Spencer junior gets here. Someone will be waiting for her car, and they’ll take her.’
Jonas nodded. ‘Well thought out, Jepson. We’ll need a list of suspects, so we can check their financials.’
She shuddered, but kept quiet, glancing at Adam. He looked so grim and angry as he discussed the manhunt. How does he do it? How can he switch off like that? Just like at the picnic: one moment, he was the lover she’d always dreamed of, confirming their marriage; the next, he was prowling the area with her phone and medical equipment as if she didn’t exist.
I do the same with my job, and my animals. Another way in which they were matched.
She started back to the present as she heard the senior sergeant say her name. ‘Sorry?’
Jonas was looking at her, his gentle eyes determined. ‘You’re holding back on us, Elly. Rumours about your past, especially the story about you drinking and killing a patient, are flying around town. If you know who wrote the note, your loyalty is commendable, but
it’s very foolish to keep their secret if it’s hampering our progress in the case.’
She fidgeted with the denim of her skirt, looking at it as if it held the secrets to life. But there was no choice now. ‘There was a pilot at a big cattle station who drank on duty, and when he was flying an injured jackaroo to the Moongallee Creek Base, he was inebriated enough to endanger every life on that plane. I had to report it. He was dismissed, and his wife, a cook on the property, left with him. He lost his pilot’s licence. They live in Macks Lake now, or somewhere nearby. I saw them my first day in town. I didn’t think they saw me.’
Adam grimaced. ‘They wouldn’t have to, Elly. Once you took care of that boy and the others in the hospital, the grapevine would make sure the whole town knows who you are.’
Jonas tapped a pen on the desk. ‘Their names?’
‘Wirrah and Lani Miraki,’ she mumbled. ‘I don’t know what she’s doing now, but he’s a stockman and ringer.’
Jonas’s brows rose. ‘From pilot to sheep shearer. He must be fairly upset.’
‘They are upset. I heard them talking about it. But I can’t believe they’d try to kill me.’
‘Tribal loyalty is a romantic notion,’ Jonas said dryly, ‘but don’t count on it to protect you, Elly. One thing I’ve discovered in my time out here is that Aboriginal people have much the same prejudices as anyone else, and hurt and kill each other with as much enthusiasm as any other people, with all the same excuses for their behaviour.’
‘I wasn’t speaking on any so-called “tribal” level, Jonas,’ Elly said, flushing. ‘I’m a doctor, trained to make assessments of others. The Mirakis resent my part in losing jobs that were quite prestigious and paid well. I’m sure they wrote the note. They might have made the threatening call to frighten me into leaving town, and set the rumours going, but the tree incident, the gunshot at the station, and the painted window at Adam’s house just aren’t like them.’
‘Why?’ Adam asked.
‘Wirrah’s brother, who worked with them on the property, is in prison. He got fifteen years under the “one punch” law, when he put another ringer in a coma. He’s had a rough time, been hospitalised twice in the year he’s been inside. Wirrah’s terrified of ending up in prison. I just can’t see him doing anything that would result in more than a caution.’
Adam nodded. ‘That makes sense. I’ll look into the Mirakis, check out their alibis.’ After a moment, he added, ‘Sarge, it seems too coincidental, their being here.’
‘I was going to say the same,’ Jonas agreed. ‘We’ll look into their financials, and that of their new boss.’
She had to say it. ‘Jonas, Rick warned me about trusting whitefellas, even Adam. He—’ She hesitated. Cop loyalties ran as deep as Indigenous ones.
The paternal pat on her hand startled her. ‘I know, Elly. His interest in you is too obvious to miss.’ He sighed. ‘Has he tried to touch you, or instigate a relationship?’
‘Both … I think.’ When both men lifted their brows at her hesitant qualification, she fumbled to explain. ‘He confuses me, really. He hasn’t pushed the touching, but his obvious resentment that I’m close to Adam, and his possessiveness of a stranger makes me nervous around him, even though he seems to want to protect me.’ She shuddered. ‘He keeps pushing me to trust him, to let him in, but his intensity frightens me.’
Adam’s hand gripped hers. She jerked away from him and paced the office, feeling trapped. What was it about her that created such fixation in men? ‘I didn’t encourage him,’ she flung at Jonas, unsure if she wanted to convince him, or herself.
‘I know, Elly,’ he replied gently.
Adam watched her with worry in his eyes. ‘He’s spoken to me, as well. He basically said she needs a man who understands her. He said, friend or not, he’d do grievous bodily harm to me if I hurt her.’
When her eyes flashed, Jonas shrugged. ‘Are you surprised, Elly? The level of feeling between you and Jepson is obvious. Mendham isn’t the only one who dislikes the notion of you forming a relationship. Jen Collins was in the vicinity at the time of the gunshot and the tyre slashing.’
‘So was Rick, and Elly found the painted message and fake blood within five minutes of his leaving my house the other night.’ Adam rubbed his unshaven jaw in frustration. ‘But it isn’t like him, Sarge, you know that. This is totally out of character. He’s one hundred per cent cop, and proud of his work as an Aboriginal liaison officer. He’d see such attacks as letting down his people—both cop and Aboriginal.’
‘You’re right, Jepson, but his pursuit of Elly is also out of character.’ Jonas sighed. ‘I don’t want it to be him, either, but he must be taken into account. The BB shot and the picnic attack weren’t pranks, though they’ve been made to look so.’
‘Rick would cut off his arms before risking injury to his coworkers, or letting down his people—and if he loves Elly, why would he frighten her? He’s not Spencer!’
Adam’s passionate belief in his friend calmed Elly’s fears, because she knew he would cut off his arms before risking injury to her. So she began to think with distance, and saw the truth.
Slowly, she said, ‘Rick—his intensity reminds me of Danny, yes—but it’s not the same. I can’t see him risking injury to Adam, or to Zoe—he adores her. I don’t think he’d hurt me.’
When Adam flashed her a grateful smile, she knew she’d done the right thing. She might not yet believe in Rick, but Adam did, and it was enough for her.
‘It’s obvious his feelings for you run deep—and that’s out of character for him, to dive in so fast. You know that, Jepson.’
Adam watched his boss’s frown deepen as he said, ‘He’s too smart to believe Elly would like him more if he scared her, Sarge.’
‘Yet still he’s doing it,’ Sarge said slowly. ‘And he’s been taking time off for headaches the past few days. That’s also out of character—and he’s been to that picnic place with you.’
‘Macks Lake is a small town. Everyone takes an interest in each other. A thousand people could have found out where I go for picnics, just through someone passing us on the road.’
‘True, but still … you know how hard he takes things. Remember what he was like after Teri left town?’
Adam sighed, remembering the mess of grief he’d pulled Rick out of after his beautiful, faithless girlfriend skipped town with his electrical appliances and an itinerant shearer. ‘Yeah, I do. But he was on shift yesterday—’
‘As you said yourself, Jepson, most of the attack was set in advance—and he went home before lunch with one of his headaches.’
Something in his chest jerked. ‘No. I’m telling you, he wouldn’t hurt Zoe, or Elly. I can’t believe he’d hurt me, either.’
Sarge said nothing, and Adam felt his boss’s unspoken doubt in an uncomfortable mirror of his own unwanted suspicion. ‘He can climb like a cat,’ he mumbled. ‘He got Zoe’s kite out of a gum tree that size a few weeks back, at the same picnic site. But I still can’t—no, I won’t believe he’d put Zoe at risk. I just can’t. He loves her. He’s family to us both.’
Sarge picked up the phone, punching numbers. ‘The way we’re handling this case isn’t working. It’s time to get full backup. It’s best for Elly. We haven’t been able to hide the fact that she’s here. An Indigenous female doctor in the country’s so rare, people will remember her and talk about her to anyone who asks.’ Sarge spoke into the phone. ‘Sir? It’s Senior Sergeant Albright at Macks Lake. Re the Danny Spencer case, we need reinforcements now. We’ve had another attack on Dr Lavender, and her property. We suspect Jeremiah Spencer is paying our suspects to create diversions, and we have an officer who’s behaving—well, erratically. Our Aboriginal liaison officer, Senior Constable Mendham. The situation’s beyond us. Great. I heard … Does he? So do I, sir … I agree, I was about to put it to Dr Lavender. Thank you, sir.’
Sarge looked at Adam as he hung up the phone. ‘Commander Albertson wants Elly to go into hiding today, befo
re our reinforcements arrive.’
‘I agree, Sarge,’ he replied with relief so palpable it almost hurt.
Sarge nodded. ‘Good. We’ll hide Elly’s car in my garage, and she can head to Alfie’s shack out on the Murray tonight—’
‘How does my going into hiding help anything now?’ Elly asked, meekly enough, but Adam could feel the anger taking her over. ‘Too many people already know I’m here. If Danny comes and I’m not here, he’ll attack others to get me to come back.’
Sarge shook his head. ‘Albertson believes that with enough reinforcements, we can take him in quietly, and I agree.’
‘Well, I don’t. I know him. You’ll be risking innocent lives unnecessarily.’
‘Why isn’t your life innocent?’ he asked quietly, and saw her blink. ‘Why is your life worth less than anyone else’s? Are you responsible for Spencer’s mania? Did you ever encourage his violence?’
She rolled her eyes. ‘Of course I’m not, and of course I didn’t, but …’
‘But?’ he asked, when she couldn’t finish. ‘Well?’
‘Don’t confuse the issue, Adam. I–I just know this is wrong. I have to be here when he arrives, or he’ll hurt someone else, take someone hostage. You don’t know …’
‘No, I guess I don’t. I’m just a cop,’ he said dryly, and saw her flush. ‘I don’t know much about hostage situations with unstable people. Cops don’t deal with situations like this on a regular basis, and don’t have protocols in place for possible hostage situations.’
She blushed still more, and bit her lip. ‘You don’t know Danny,’ she said, too softly.
Sarge spoke. ‘Elly, your presence will only escalate the situation. We’ve done this before. Your presence will make him hope he can get what he wants, and get away with it. Your being here will only make things worse.’
Beneath the Skin Page 21
