She nodded.“I dived to assess the damage.Not much of the boat is left, just the metal stuff.”
“No treasure?”He raised his eyebrows in hope.
“Don’t tell me you’re buying into the hype as well,” Dot said, but smiled to lessen the bite in her words.“Anything down there is the property of the government.If anyone asks, there is no treasure.”
Which reminded her she needed to get the real treasure out of Retribution Bay.Her queries with the local banks had been unsuccessful.They couldn’t arrange appropriate transport.“Where are Martin and Pierre?”
“Some issue out at a PAWS campsite.Someone down there saying they paid for days they didn’t get because of the storm and wanting to stay now.”
She sighed.She’d had to warn people about the approaching storm and advise them to leave.Asking those who’d thought they could ride it out for their next of kin details had convinced them the situation was serious and they’d stopped arguing and left.She could appreciate they wanted to return to the stunning location, but the sites were often booked out for months in advance.
“Where’s Rodney?”Colin asked.
“He got called to Carnarvon.He’ll be back tomorrow.”She had to organise his accommodation.“I need to do a few things in my office.Let me know if anything comes up.”
She debated shutting her door, but left it open so it didn’t give the impression she was hiding something.After messaging Rodney where he was staying that night, she opened her backpack and discovered the drone inside.She’d forgotten about it.
She might as well review it while she had it.Smiling, she withdrew the memory card from the drone and slid it into her computer.Quickly she copied the data onto her hard drive and then returned the card to the drone.
She packaged and addressed it and put it on her desk for the mail run.
Then she clicked on the first video.
Two boys about five and seven years old ran around, shrieking as the drone rose in the air above them, and behind them an older girl, maybe ten, stood with her arms crossed.Dot frowned.Those kids looked familiar.She’d definitely seen them around town.
Colin moved past the door and she bit her lip to stop from calling out and asking him if he recognised them.No one could know she had the footage.
She paused the video at a place which showed their faces clearly and took a screen shot.She isolated the girl as well as she could and took a photo, sending it to Darcy.Do you recognise her?The girl was about Lara’s age.
While she waited for an answer, Dot opened another program and searched to see if anyone had reported a missing drone.Two hits.
One person had lost the device in a strong gust of wind and was hoping someone would find it.The others were the Hamiltons, who had reported their drone stolen from their car.Darcy’s answer came through.Natasha Hamilton.Lara’s nemesis.Faith had mentioned the girl a couple of times when they’d spoken about pony club.She lived to put others down.Her mother, Kristy, wasn’t much better.Faith said she was constantly flirting with Darcy despite being married.And it wasn’t harmless flirting.
Dot watched the video on double speed, but it was only a long shot of the beach from the ocean.
The next shot was a few days later, taken from one of the car parks on the top of the ranges.The drone flew through the valleys and dips as if searching for someone.
The shot after that was taken from the lighthouse and the drone soared north, over the ocean where whales were frolicking and theOceanidwas nearby waiting with passengers on board.Kristy was in control of the drone and from the time stamp, the kids would have been at school.Then a killer whale appeared, and the drone recorded the hunt of the whale calf and its mother.
Dot paused, her finger poised to click the next video.She checked the dates of each one and then compared those dates with the police reports.
Her heart rate increased.
She went back to the first video.When the drone reached its peak, it did a very slow three-sixty-degree rotation.In the distance, towards the south, she spotted a boat.The police boat.It was the date she and Nhiari had been called back early because of a domestic disturbance at Kristy’s house.The call had come in only five minutes after this video was taken.
The video of the ranges was the day Matt had been kidnapped.
Coincidence?
Not likely.
Dot clicked on the next video.This time it was a man in control of the drone and with him was Kurt, Gretchen’s ex.As it rose off the beach, she recognised the island where she’d found the hideout.The drone flew south, over Retribution Island, and hovered high above the beach where the Stokes family were swimming.Gretchen and Jordan were there, as was Arthur, and they were playing in the water.
This was how Stonefish spied on the Stokes.This video was dated after the drone had been reported stolen, but Dot was certain the man holding the controls was Kristy’s husband, Steven.It was hovering high enough that it wouldn’t have been heard.
The Hamiltons owned a silver dinghy.
She exhaled.What was the best way to deal with this?She couldn’t go after them without giving away she’d seen the footage.But she could monitor them.Their domestic disputes were legendary, but no one had ever been injured.Dot clicked on their file, lining up the dates.They’d started around January, right when the trouble with Stonefish started, and they always occurred in time for her team to be dragged away from investigating Stonefish further.
