‘What was slovenly about him?’
‘Lazy. Drunk. Spent more time propping a bar up in town than he did out on the station. I hadn’t realised it was so bad until I got a call from one of the neighbours on the southern boundary. You can see from the map there that three boundaries border onto other stations and the northern one goes out onto Crown land.’
Justin nodded.
‘There were cattle out on the road and the neighbour had tried to raise Andrew numerous times and couldn’t get him. They’d driven to the homestead but nobody was at home, so they called me.’ He took a breath and continued. ‘I know it’s not unusual for cattle to be on the roads up here, just as in the Northern Territory, but I fence all of the land. I refuse to be responsible for my animals straying onto the road and causing someone’s death.’
‘That’s very responsible of you, Craig. I wish all station owners were like you. I’ve been to some terrible accidents where people have hit cattle and it’s not pretty.’
Craig paused and looked as if he was remembering something. ‘No. I won’t have it on my conscience. Anyway, it’s been a while since I’ve been over here, so I decided to come out for a look. I’ve got other holdings in the Pilbara and they take most of my time.
‘When I got here, Andrew was out checking waters. All fine,’ he gave a little shrug. ‘I was happy to see that because I’d got the feeling from the phone call I’d received that he wasn’t doing his duties too well. When we started talking I realised he was drunk. I sacked him on the spot.’
‘Fair call,’ Justin said, beginning to feel the story was going on for too long. ‘But I’m not seeing how I can help you. Being drunk at work isn’t a police matter.’
‘I understand and I’m getting there. After he’d gone, I decided to do an audit of the stock on the place. There should’ve been two thousand cattle there—cows and calves. I’ve established our numbers are down enough to warrant suspicion as to where they’ve gone.’
Silence.
‘How’d you do the audit?’
‘I’ve got musterers in the Pilbara. I brought them over because I trust them. I’m sure there are mustering companies here, but I don’t know them, so therefore I don’t trust them.’
‘You’re a pretty untrusting sort of guy,’ Justin observed.
‘I’ve been burned one too many times.’ Craig sat back and crossed his legs.
‘Do you think Andrew has stolen them?’
‘No. I don’t think he’s smart enough. He depends on the grog too much to be able to orchestrate something like this.’
‘Have you got any ideas as to who might have stolen the cattle?’
‘Not at this stage. But what I can tell you is that my guy took the chopper up to get this head count. I went with him to have a look at the country, to get an idea of what might need fixing since repairs and maintenance haven’t been happening the way I expected.
‘We flew the whole place and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary until we got up to the northern end.’ He fished around in his pocket and brought out some photos. Laying them out on the desk, he said, ‘See this area here?’
He indicated a brown, oval-shaped section of land. There was no fodder or trees or spinifex on it and Justin could see what he thought were wings on either side of the brown patch.
‘Portable yards and hessian,’ he said.
Craig nodded. ‘That’s what I’m assuming. And this area here,’ he used his finger to circle over the brown patch. ‘This is where the yards would’ve been.’
‘Did you land?’
‘Yeah, we could put down right on the fence line. Here’re the truck tracks,’ he pointed to another photo. ‘And this is the most damning of all,’ Craig said, picking up a photo of a cow and handing it to Justin. ‘This girl, she’s got a full bag of milk and she was bellowing, looking for her calf. If she was the only one, I’d put it down to the dogs getting the calf or it dying or whatever. But there’re about three hundred of them. Whoever was there, it wasn’t long ago.’
Justin let his breath out in a whoosh. ‘That’s some serious numbers.’
‘You’re telling me!’
‘And you’re absolutely certain that these calves weren’t just lost out in the Crown land?’
Craig looked at him as if he might have a screw loose. ‘I was in a chopper and we flew the area five or six times. I tell you, they’re gone.’
‘Righto, I’ll get one of stockies to come out and talk to you. How long are you going to be in the area for?’
‘I’ll be staying until this is sorted out. There’s too much at stake here not to.’
‘Give me your phone number and I’ll get someone to ring when they’re on their way out to you. My guess is they’ll be out tomorrow. We won’t want to let any evidence we can get to become any more compromised.’
‘You don’t have anyone on the premises?’
‘He’s out on another case at the moment. I’m going to give him a ring to see where he is. If not, I’ll see if I can get one of the other stockies from Toowoomba or closer. Happy with that?’
‘Yeah, good on you.’ Craig stood and offered his hand.
‘We’ll be in touch.’
Justin called Alan on the radio and asked him to come back in.
‘What have you found?’
‘I went and spoke to Highwaymen Mustering. Tough nut called Bulldust owns it. His real name is Ashley Bennett.
‘He’s got three people working for him, plus a few extra casuals when he gets a big contract—Chris Mooney, George Dellaney and Larry Jones. Chris is the chopper pilot and the rest are on the bikes or bull buggies. Oh, wait, that’s not right. Larry is the truckie. They supply a truck for their clients to get the cattle to the abattoirs.’
‘Did you get to talk to them all?’
‘Yeah, I spoke to them all separately and I got the same story. Bill was a troublemaker and a drunk. Bulldust cut him loose. Nobody has seen him or had any contact with him.’ Andy shrugged. ‘Nothing strange about their story.’
‘Where do they operate out of?’
‘A depot on the edge of town. Down next to the river. Looks like a pretty legit set-up to me—a good one at that. Everything is well maintained, not new, but kept up.’
‘Where’ve they been mustering lately?’
‘I got a list of stations and I was going to ring all the owners and check that was the case.’
‘Good. Now, I’ve got some interesting news.’ He held out the photos Craig had left. ‘I think there’s someone stealing cattle around here.’
‘What the fuck?’
Justin relayed the story Craig had told him.
‘Totally plausible,’ Andy said. ‘And look at this bit here.’ He pointed to scuffed dirt to the right of the yards. I’d say they camped overnight because that, to me, looks like ash. Campfire.’
‘What about if they were branding?’
‘Nope. If they were, the fire would be near the yards. The other thing about branding on the place you’re stealing from is, if you’re caught, how do you explain a truckload of cattle with the wrong brand on the wrong station. They wouldn’t do it.’
‘I would’ve thought a truckload of cleanskins would be harder to explain,’ Justin said wryly.
‘Sure, but they don’t ever intend on being caught, do they?’ ‘Hmm. Are there any other mustering teams around other than the Highwaymen?’
‘There’re a couple, but they’re run by older guys and they don’t do anywhere near as much as they used to. We’d have to rule them out, but …’ Andy stroked his face as he thought. ‘Another team might’ve come in that no one knows about. Or just because the Highwaymen smelled legit doesn’t mean they are.’
‘Have you had any other reports of cattle stealing? Even outside of our district?’
‘Actually, now you mention it, I have. Nowhere near here though. The Toowoomba crew sent out an alert probably a month ago. A roadtrain of bullocks were stolen from a property out of Rom
a, and then there were dry cows being held overnight at a place out of Warwick that were taken out of the yards. Long way from here though.’
‘Hmm. Any leads on any of those cases?’
‘I haven’t heard anything, which would make me say no. But, look, in this business someone is going to hear or know something. A wise man told me once that three people could keep a secret and that’s if two of them are dead. So if there’s more than one person involved, someone will talk somewhere.’
‘What are you saying? Get someone on the inside?’
‘Reckon we should think about it. We’ve got a body that could be related back to them.’
‘Circumstantial.’
‘I realise that, but it’ll happen quicker if we start working on it now, while we’re getting more intel.’
‘Have to talk to Brisbane.’
‘What say Bill’s death wasn’t an accident? What say he did something that upset Bulldust and he had him killed?’
‘Long shot.
‘Not really.’
Justin went around and sat down at his desk before entering his password. ‘What was his real name?’
‘Ashley Bennett.’
‘Don’t suppose you got a DOB?’
‘Mate, I’ve got written statements. What do you think I am? His DOB is 23 April 1950.’
Dave tapped on the computer and brought up the Instant Management System. ‘No priors. No warrants.’ He flicked over to the screen that said ‘Persons’. Justin loved this screen because it linked everyone who had ever had anything to do with the person they were investigating. There wasn’t much info there. Except …
‘Hey.’ Justin stabbed at the screen. ‘Look at that. Another bloke died six years ago and he worked for Bulldust.’
‘How he’d die?’ Andy got up and went around to look at the screen.
‘Hang on.’ He switched screens and read the report on the death. ‘Bar fight. Got stabbed. And, look, Ashley Bennett is interviewed here: same story—drunken waster, troublemaker.’ He looked up at Andy.
‘What do you think?’
‘Again, it’s all circumstantial. A good lawyer would wipe the floor with you on this.’
Andy just looked at him.
‘But you’re right, dammit. I’ve just got this feeling you’re right.’ Justin paused. ‘Let’s try to see what we can get organised. Maybe we can get someone on the inside.’
Chapter 17
Andy and Justin pulled into the driveway of Kildell Holdings. The sign on the fence, next to the cattle grid, was half the head of a windmill and on each blade the first letter of the name was painted.
Justin looked at the piece of paper containing the directions.
‘Homestead is about fifteen k off the road,’ he said. ‘But Craig is going to meet us at a track which turns to the north only eight ks in.’
Andy adjusted his speed according to the bumps in the road. It was clear there hadn’t been a grader over the driveway for a while.
To their left a single hill rose into the vivid blue sky. The small red-stone clusters that covered the surface would make it hard for riding ag bikes. Even hard for four-wheelers, Justin thought. He was sure they’d get stuck in the loose rock. Spindly gum trees with white trunks dotted the flat landscape, along with spinifex and mulga.
‘Funny how this land can look dead and as soon as we get a rain it bursts into life.’
‘Reckon the graziers are going to be pretty happy with the amount of feed they’ll have going into the next season. Cattle should be as fat as butter!’
‘They deserve a few good seasons. The last four have been rotters,’ Andy said. ‘You can see the optimism in the industry. I was at the saleyards last week and there was a buoyancy about everyone. You know, smiling was easy, laughing more so. Everyone was pleased to see each other, rather than grim faces and standing around talking with their arms crossed. I hate it when I go to the sales and you get a circle of blokes and they’ve all got their arms crossed and are looking at the ground talking. Things are crook when they all look like that.’
‘Look, there he is,’ Justin said, pointing to a Landcruiser on the edge of the road. ‘Yeah, I know what you mean. They kick the dirt as they talk and there’s no enthusiasm for what they do at all. I reckon even the auctioneers aren’t as loud in their calling as when there’s a good season around.’ He wound down the window. ‘G’day, Craig. You want to jump in with us or shall we follow you?’
‘I can get in with you.’ He locked his ute and climbed into the back seat of the dual cab.
Justin introduced Andy and then Craig asked, ‘Did you find anything?’
‘We’ve made a few calls to the meatworks around the state and none have killed any young beasts recently. It’s a bit early, isn’t it? There haven’t been any boats go out, so nothing happening there either.’ Justin grabbed hold of the handrail as Andy drove over a particularly bumpy stretch of road and they stopped talking for a moment.
Andy said, ‘I’ve rung all the stock agents in the state and put out an alert on anything that’s young. Difficulty is going to be that your brand and earmark isn’t on them. Whoever has taken them will have branded them as their own and, if they’ve got the right paperwork, we’re not going to get the alarm bells we should. I have to tell you, as hard as we’ll try, the chances of getting your cattle back are slim. The chances of catching who’s done it, however, are better.’
‘I understand that. I just want to see you get the bastards. The loss I can wear.’
‘You’re lucky. There’d be people who couldn’t.’
‘Oh, mate, I’m not happy about it, let me tell you. Take a left at this crossway.’
Andy followed the instructions and they wound their way through a deep creek crossing and came out onto open flood plains. The land was covered with ankle-high green grass and there were beautiful red, shiny cattle spread out grazing.
‘What a sight,’ Justin muttered.
‘Best in the world if you ask me,’ Craig said. ‘Certainly better than the shit seasons when there’s no feed, the girls are skinny and we spend every day feeding them just to make sure they hold their weight. No, these are the seasons that make what we do worthwhile.’
‘These cattle aren’t the ones who’ve had calves taken off them? They don’t look like they’re bagged up.’
‘Nope. They’re up a bit further. These ones, they’re the heifers. Last year’s calves. I don’t mate heifers. It’s okay for the southern states to do that when they’re out checking their cows every day. If there’s a problem they can get the vet or pull the calf themselves. The distances are too vast up here to check them every day. I like to let ’em grow out and mate at two going on three. By then hopefully there shouldn’t be any problems when they calve.’
‘Right.’
‘Do you know if there’ve been any other cattle stolen recently?’
‘Not in this area,’ Andy answered, his grip tight on the steering wheel. The corrugations were making the vehicle rattle loudly and hearing was becoming hard. ‘Like I said, I’ve spoken to all the other stock squad blokes and the stock agents across the state. If they get wind of anything, they’ll let me know.’
‘But there’s some gone? Where from?’
‘Much further south.’
‘Cattle prices are pretty good at the moment and that might be why something’s happened now,’ Justin took over. ‘Rural theft, be it stock or fuel or anything, is mostly opportunistic. I wouldn’t take this as a personal attack, more someone knew your manager wasn’t pulling his weight and saw a chance to get in there and grab some stock. If there’s no one around it makes it easy for them. They don’t have to worry about being seen or heard or anything. Just need to get the cattle off the place.’
Craig didn’t say anything until about half an hour later when he said, ‘Turn right here and about half a k away, you’ll see the area.’
Andy pulled the ute to a halt and they all got out. Justin had the camera and Andy
a tape measure, pen and notebook.
Together they got their bearings: ‘Can see the tracks coming in from here …’
‘Bike tracks here … Pushing the cattle towards the wings here …’
Andy walked into the churned-up dirt area where it was clear a set of portable yards had held stock. ‘Look, round yard here.’ He showed them a large circle. ‘They’ve drafted the cows from the calves and pushed the calves this way …’ He pointed and walked at the same time. ‘Then, here, see how it narrows down to about a metre wide, that’s the raceway to the loading ramp. And here …’ He walked quickly following the outlines. ‘Here was where the loading ramp was, and see the truck tracks there.’ He nodded. ‘Can you get pics of all of this? I’m going to take some casts of all the vehicle tracks, so if we find something we can compare.’
‘No problems,’ Justin answered.
‘Have you seen this?’ Craig called out from near the boundary fence, which backed onto the Crown land.
The men walked over. ‘That’s the campfire I could see in the photos,’ Justin said. ‘Boot marks and a few cigarette butts. Oh well now, that’s a bit sloppy! We might be able to get DNA from them.’
It took all day to process the scene and it was dark by the time Justin and Andy headed back to Nundrew.
As soon as they arrived at the office, they both hit the phones and the computers.
‘I need a UCO,’ Justin told his supervisor in Brisbane.
‘An undercover officer takes time. What’s the cause and case?’
Justin explained about the cattle duffing and the body. ‘I’d like to get someone on the inside of the Highwaymen.’
‘Not seeing enough justification here.’
‘I know. But I’m sure they’re dirty.’
‘Can you get me some more evidence?’
Justin paused. ‘I tell you what, if you start working on getting a bloke ready, I’ll work on more intel. I want to be organised if the shit hits the fan.’
‘Again, it takes time.’
‘We don’t have time. Is there someone who might be ready?’
There was a pause. ‘I think there might be,’ he said slowly. ‘You going to be his handler?’
Without a Doubt Page 12
