“And he told you this before you shot him?”
Matt cut in. “He told me, and I mentioned it to Georgie.” Crap, they were really bad at lying.
“We need to ID this guy.”
“His name is Clark,” Matt said.
“He told you that?” Nhiari asked.
“That’s what Lee called him.” He shifted, wanting the questioning to be over. “Could we get back to the homestead? Darcy will be keen to see us.”
Dot’s smile was a little predatory. “A few more questions.”
Matt stiffened. She wasn’t buying their lies.
The few questions lasted for half an hour as the two police officers double-checked their answers. He seriously wished neither of them was good at their job.
Finally Dot sighed. “Go, but don’t leave town. We’ll be in touch.”
Matt nodded and ushered Georgie back to the car.
As Georgie drove them away, she said, “That was harder than I expected.”
“They knew we were lying,” Matt said.
“So what now?”
“We can’t ask them to lie on their reports.”
“Can they charge us for making a misleading statement?” Georgie asked.
“Probably.” But they had limited choices. “We owe Lee to buy him as much time as we can.”
When they reached the bitumen Georgie turned towards town. “I need to return the car and explain why the police have taken the rifle into evidence. I really hope they don’t fire me.”
“Why would they?”
“Because I ran out of a training session, took the car and gun without permission and lost the gun.”
“Declan will understand.” He was a decent bloke, and Dot would smooth things when she got back to town.
“I hope so.”
Her concern made him pay more attention. They hadn’t discussed her job much. “Are you enjoying it?”
“Yeah, I am.”
“What about the ocean stuff?” It had been her dream for such a long time.
“There’s still potential opportunity with PAWS and I don’t want to live anywhere else. I’ll look at roles which involve studying animals up here, or that will only take me away temporarily.” She smiled. “It turns out I’m a homebody at heart.”
“We’d all support you if you wanted to move elsewhere,” Matt said. His life had always been about this land. Could he leave it to help her follow her dream? He thought so, but Georgie had thought moving to Perth would be epic and she hadn’t enjoyed the experience.
He had to consider it for the future—their future together.
At the PAWS office, Georgie handed Matt her car keys. “I hopefully won’t be too long.”
“Do you want me to come in with you?”
