“Nice spotting.” Senior Constable Nhiari Roe slapped her brother on the shoulder. He grunted.
“I’ll take a look in a minute.” Dot made a note in her notebook.
Matt was the best tracker Darcy knew. He’d grown up learning the traditional ways of the area.
“They got tired of waiting and shot some,” Brandon added, pointing to the couple they’d found.
“You heard nothing?”
“Best we can figure it was the night of the thunderstorm,” Darcy said. “I was out here on Tuesday to fix the trough and Matt delivered extra feed on Friday.”
She made a note. “Stonefish haven’t contacted you again?”
“Nothing we haven’t told you,” Brandon said. “We’d hoped they’d given up.
“Or maybe they were lying low,” Darcy said. Some things were adding up. “Little things have been going wrong.”
“Why didn’t you mention it?” Brandon demanded.
Darcy held up a hand to calm him. “I’m just putting it together now,” he said. “I was sure I’d fixed that water trough last week and Lara agreed, but it was broken again this week.” He turned to Dot. “Might not sound like much, but we don’t have water to spare and a leaking trough isn’t something to ignore.” He ticked items off on his fingers. “The parts delivery which went missing last Monday. The windmill which blew down in the thunderstorm.”
“It was on its last legs,” Matt pointed out.
“Maybe.” He’d go over the remains later.
Dot sighed. “All right, make a list for me. Right now, let’s focus on the sheep.”
It took a couple of hours for Dot and Nhiari to document the site and take moulds of the tyre tracks. Darcy and Matt loaded a dead sheep into the back of the paddy wagon so Dot could search for a bullet. They found a couple of casings as well.
When they were done, Dot asked. “Where will you bury them?”
“Not sure.” They couldn’t be buried too close to the bores and he’d have to check with Matt’s family to make sure it wouldn’t interfere with them.
“Good luck. I’ll let you know if I find anything else.”
As she left, Darcy removed his hat and wiped the sweat from his brow. It was viciously hot now. This morning’s ride with Lara and Faith seemed like a distant dream.
“I’ll radio Danielle and ask if we can borrow their front-end loader.” Matt went over to the ute to contact their nearest neighbour.
Darcy glanced at his brother. “We’ve lost part of next year’s flock as well as this year’s.” Most of the dead ewes had been ready to give birth.
Brandon nodded. “We needed those funds.”
Darcy’s chest tightened, but then he remembered Faith’s offer and hope sparked. Maybe she could find a clause which would help them recoup their lost investment. He’d have to take the contract to pony club next week. “We’ll work it out,” he said, trying to be optimistic. “While we have the front-end loader, we can clear more space for the campgrounds.” And hope Amy performed a miracle at getting people in.
“Yeah. We don’t have any other option.”
Matt returned. “They’re using it today, but we can borrow it tomorrow.”
Darcy checked the time. It wasn’t ideal to move a flock of sheep at this time of day, but he didn’t want to leave them here where the smell would attract dingoes. “We should move the sheep.”
His friend sighed. “You’re right. Let’s get the horses.”
It would be a long evening.
Chapter 5
Faith arrived at the boat ramp as her father’s tour boat pulled up to its mooring. She let out a sigh of relief that she wasn’t late and then strolled down to the jetty while the tourists were transferred from the boat to the shore in a smaller inflatable dinghy. Her parents and their employees would stay behind to clean, and she’d get a lift out when the inflatable returned to pick up the second group of passengers. A couple of tour boats were already at the moorings and the sea breeze stirred the water, making them all bob.
