“Probably.” He typed a few things into the computer. “It was registered in December to—” He swore. “Stonefish Enterprises.” He looked at Brandon. “What’s this all about?”
Brandon showed him the document. Ed’s eyes widened as he read it. “Oh shit!” He typed again but shook his head. “It looks like it’s a bogus company.”
The unease in Brandon’s stomach grew and he shook his head. “No way Dad and Darcy would be swindled.”
Darcy came back in. “Matt knows nothing about any cattle.”
“It’s easy enough to put together a professional-looking website and trick people into thinking it’s a legitimate business,” Ed said. “Let me see if I can bring it up in the internet archive.”
“The what?” Darcy asked.
“The internet archive. It’s an organisation which crawls the internet taking snapshots to preserve it for future generations. They might have taken a snapshot of this site when it was up.” While they waited, Brandon filled Darcy in. The blood drained from Darcy’s face.
“No, it can’t be.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I checked all the details to make sure they were legit before I told Dad.”
“Here it is,” Ed said. The website appeared legitimate with a professional logo, contact details, an office address in Perth, plus lots of testimonials from satisfied customers. Brandon called the number but received a ‘this number has been disconnected’ message. “Nothing,” he told the others.
Ed typed the address into Google maps and the street view showed a high rise building in the CBD. “Why would Dad purchase the cattle without telling anyone?” he asked.
Brandon looked at Darcy.
“Maybe he wanted to surprise me,” Darcy mumbled, staring at the screen, his face pale.
The why didn’t matter. Brandon placed a hand on Darcy’s shoulder. “Is there anyone we can call to report this?”
“There might be some consumer protection.” Ed glanced to the door as Georgie yelled for him from somewhere in the house.
“Go,” Brandon said. “We’ll look into it and if we get stuck, we’ll call you in when you get back.”
Darcy looked up. “Distract my baby girl for a while,” he said. “She might seem OK on the outside, but she’s struggling.”
Ed nodded. “We will.” He left, yelling at his sister. “Hold your horses!”
Brandon smiled as a pang washed through him. It was so reminiscent of when they’d all lived at home. Someone was always calling out for something. He’d missed it. Missed his siblings. Now he was back here he couldn’t understand why he’d stayed away so long. Maybe if he hadn’t, things wouldn’t have turned out like this.
Darcy sank into the chair and lowered his head into his hands. “I’ve fucked all this up.”
The protective urge was strong. “You did nothing wrong, Darce. We’ll sort this out.”
No matter what happened, he was sure of one thing. Brandon wouldn’t let Darcy suffer the same kind of guilt he had suffered. This was all Stonefish’s fault and Brandon would stay until it was fixed. “Let’s figure out what we have to do next. What emails do we have about the transaction?” He clicked the email program open and waited for the latest messages to download.
The one at the top made him swear. He clicked on it.
Dear Darcy,
We were shocked to hear about Bill’s death. Please accept our sincerest condolences. We would still like to continue our discussions about purchasing Retribution Ridge and hope you will be in touch at your earliest convenience.
Yours sincerely,
Tan Lewis
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Darcy said.
Brandon agreed, but at least the email distracted Darcy from his guilt. “Let’s ignore it for now. Or maybe forward it to Dot.”
Darcy nodded and clicked the forward button. “We need to stop them.”
“We will,” he promised. Somehow.
