Brodie swallowed hard, glancing down at Lydia with tears in his old eyes.
It was Lydia who spoke.‘Red and Two-bob Bob.But Red had told me earlier he was going to be away for a few days, last-minute job…’
Brodie jumped in, voice cracking.‘Red saw us.He came after us.We tried to get away, but I’m not good at driving, I—’
‘RED RAMMED US!’Lydia bellowed, using whatever energy she had to say it loud and clear.‘Red’s ute hit the side of my car while trying to make us stop.He hit us so hard we rolled into the gully.’ She whimpered, the tears trickling down her cheeks to mix with the blood matted in her hair.‘Brodie hit his head.’
‘I’m okay.I’m just worried about you.’But even Brodie’s voice was cracking from the fear and the pain.
Finn’s hands gripped the wheel tighter.‘Where?’he snapped.‘What road?What paddock?’
Brodie seemed somewhat dazed, the blood now seeping through the bandage on his head.
‘Don’t faint on me now, kid.Keep talking to me, Brodie.I need you both to stay awake, so talk to me.Where did this happen?Where did Red run you off the road?’
‘Um…’ The kid thumped his bad arm, to wake himself up.He shut his eyes to not scream, but when he opened them, they were clear.
The ballsy little bastard.
‘It was just this side of Boab’s Bend,’ Brodie said, his voice clear now.‘Along the far southern paddock of Warraga Downs.We were checking their back border fence because Lydia said the owners were away on some last-minute holiday in Darwin.’
‘What was Red doing out there?And why would he chase you?’
‘Red was there,’ she said in between pants for breath, that Finn strained to hear her.‘With Two-bob Bob.They had a—had a—’
‘A truck,’ butted in Brodie, hiding his pain as he spoke.
‘What kind of truck?’
‘A big one.Not a road train.But it was a livestock truck.Dusty green, canvas tarp over the back.They’d already corralled the cattle and were ready to load.The fence was cut, too.And they were on the wrong side of the fence, Finn,’ pleaded Brodie.‘They were stealing cattle.Plain as day.’
Finn’s grip on the wheel went white-knuckled.The quarry.The freight.It was happening again.
Had Taryn released her report?Giving Bob and Red the go-ahead to start lifting stock again?
Or was it just an opportunistic theft based on dumb luck and an open gate while the owners were away?
‘How did you end up with Red’s ute?’Finn asked.
‘I took it, after I hit him… I think I killed him,’ confessed Brodie, as his head heavily dropped to his chest.
‘What?’
‘Red pulled Lydia out of the car, and he was screaming at her.I had to drag myself out through the passenger side.I could hear Lydia’s screams and Red’s shouts, so I grabbed the first thing I could find.A stick.And I hit him.’
‘Did you see him get back up?’
Brodie shook his head.‘I thought he was going to kill Lydia, Finn.I couldn’t let him hurt her.I had to do something.’
Aw, hell.‘What was Red saying to you, Lydia?’
‘I told him I knew… That I was talking to the police and knew he was stealing livestock.I saw him stealing those cattle at Warraga Downs.Red-handed.’
The betrayal must have been the final straw for Red to lose it like that.
‘I thought Red was going to kill you, Lydia.’The kid clung to the only person in the world who had ever loved him.The woman who’d stood beside him in court and fought to get him out of his parent’s house.She’d helped cover the cigarette burns on his arms and gave him a job, clothes, and a purpose while teaching him how to read and write.
And now she was bleeding out in the back of Finn’s troopy, and there was nothing poor Brodie or Finn could do to stop it.
