“He didn’t. Not at first. I was meant to be eyes and ears only. My mission was to find the treasure,” he said. “But my goal even then was to end Stonefish. I made a lot of contacts during my years in the army. Some of those contacts went on to other roles and one of them, an Australian soldier, was an expert in tech. He went through my father’s online presence looking for anywhere he might have stashed the files but found nothing.” Lee stood and went into the tunnel behind the tent, retrieving the thick envelope he’d stashed there. He passed it to Nhiari. “When I introduced myself to Lindsay, she gave me this.”
Nhiari opened the envelope and scanned the contents. Her eyes widened. “Are these your father’s notes?” She traced his father’s signature, tapping on the full stop.
“Yes. He mailed them to Lindsay with instructions not to open them, but to give them to me if I ever showed up at her door.”
“That was risky, wasn’t it?”
“No one knew who she was except for me.” But he’d been stunned when he’d introduced himself to Lindsay and she’d flung her arms around him, hugging him and dragging him inside for a cup of tea. Then she’d produced the envelope and had said she would help Lee however she could. She’d won his undying loyalty that day as she’d shared stories of his father, and he had told her about his childhood.
Nhiari looked up. “All of this didn’t help?”
“All the passwords had changed, and the rest, while useful, wasn’t enough actual evidence to prove Lucas was behind it all.”
“When did you become more than eyes and ears?”
He hesitated. “Clark gave me a couple of tests—pulling down the windmill at the Ridge and killing the sheep.” Nhiari scowled and he continued. “The people he was blackmailing didn’t have the skills, and he wanted me to get my hands dirty. But it was after I shot Tan Lewis that I proved myself to them.” He had no qualms about shooting Tan. He’d threatened someone who was practically the Stokes’s family, and he’d quickly realised the Stokes were decent people. They didn’t deserve what had happened to them.
Lucas had thought he showed good initiative, particularly as Tan had brought police attention to Stonefish’s more illicit dealings.
“Will you tell me everything from the beginning?” Nhiari leaned forward a little, her eyes wide and beseeching.
He was a sucker for her eyes.
“From when you arrived at Retribution Bay,” she continued.
The quiet question, not a demand, not in her police tone, surprised him, but it could also be her way of manipulating him. If only she knew he would tell her everything, if it wouldn’t put her in danger. “It’s a long story.”
She smiled. “We’ve got plenty of time.”
The whole truth would come out soon. “All right.” He shifted to a more comfortable position. “When Bill and Beth refused to sell, Lucas ordered me to set up camp at the Ridge and find out whatever I could about the Stokes. He figured there had to be something he could blackmail them with.” Lee shrugged. “It suited me. I could monitor things, and search for the treasure while pretending to be a landscape photographer. The Stokes had no problem with me exploring the property.”
Nhiari scowled. “Who told Taylor to cut the brakes of Bill and Beth’s car?”
Lee’s gut clenched. “As far as I know, no one did.” He had to clarify. “By that stage, Clark had arrived in Retribution Bay to set up the animal smuggling.”
“Clark is Lucas’s son?” Nhiari confirmed.
“Yes. When he demanded to know the information I had gathered, I mentioned Georgie had invited Bill and Beth to go swimming with the whale sharks.”
“Who ran them off the road?”
“Clark.” He closed his eyes briefly, remembering the rolled car, Bill and Beth inside it. His stomach clenched. Such a loss. “I left the Ridge not long after they did with the pretence I was going to take photos on the coast, but I was going to show Clark some areas to set up his animal traps. I came across the accident. Bill and Beth had died instantly, but Clark was at the scene making sure.” Lee had wanted to kill the man right then, particularly when he’d smiled and said how pleased his father would be that he’d got rid of them.
Nhiari’s gaze darkened with anger.
He held up a hand. “If they’d been alive, I would have done what I could to save them, I promise.” He hoped she believed that much of him. “I told Clark to follow me and we hid the car in the ranges. It’s still there. I can take you to it.”
“You let him get away with murder and set up the animal smuggling?” Her anger showed in her clenched hands.
She would hate him for that alone. “I didn’t have enough information on Stonefish by that stage. I took some photos of his car at the scene and then later after he was gone, but that was the start.”
He continued, speaking about Lara’s kidnapping. “You questioned me afterwards.” It was the first time they had met. He’d seen her at Bill and Beth’s funeral, but it had been Dot who had questioned him after their accident. He’d been enticed by Nhiari’s buxom body and then enthralled with her intelligent mind. Lee hadn’t had to act the bumbling fool, because he’d been so enamoured he’d almost forgotten his cover. He’d wanted to see her again.
“Did you orchestrate running into me in town the week after?” Nhiari asked.
He shifted on the hard rock. “Yes. I needed to find out whether you suspected me and how much you knew about Stonefish.” He sighed as her expression shuttered. “But our date was the best night I’ve ever had. That wasn’t faked.”
“You played the awkward photographer. That isn’t who you are.”
