‘How come you don’t let Stone land his helicopter here?He does have a badge.’
Mickey gave a gruff chuckle.‘Because if I did, I’d have every bloody muster chopper turning this airstrip into a dust bowl.That’s why the publican, God, bought that paddock out the back of the pub.Coz most of them station choppers only come into town for a grog run at the pub.If it’s an emergency, they’ll head to the hospital.’
He jabbed a finger toward the far end of the tarmac, where the red cross glowed brightly on the roof from the spotlights.Just likeStrong Arm of the Law, the retro mural painted on the roof of the police station, lit up by the floodlights still blazing.
It was that early.
Taryn ducked back into Mickey’s office.The folder he’d pulled out, sat fat and overstuffed on the long counter, with a whopping big radio set up at the end, beside a half-drunk coffee and a wooden stool.
She flipped open the binder and began digging through handwritten logs and carbon copy dockets, trying to remember the exact timeline from her own notes.
TheRough Stockcase…
That was it, their first case.
She dragged out her notebook and flicked back over her notes to the first interview and her finger paused on a diary scan of Amara’s notes:Morning tea with the Commissioner – buy new shirt for Stone!
She’d missed it.
But it had a date!
Flicking through Mickey’s folder again, there it was…
Same date.Same week.
A delivery docket in Mickey’s folder:
Delivered by Temp Roicks Pty Ltd.
Signed by SW.
Booked through Merc Topski Inc.
Well audit me sideways!
It was two names from her list of ghost companies.
Temp Roicks Pty Ltd held the quarry, where they’d set up holding yards with access to the airstrip.But according to the date on Mickey’s docket, they hadn’t officially secured the quarry land at that stage.
But the one booking flights in and out of the country through backwater airstrips was Merc Topski, a registered international livestock exporter.
Only now, she had a direct link between the two fake companies, with the Commissioner on board, passing through this small outback town.
Was Drew really that much of a bastard?Shaking hands with Finn and his team, congratulating them for their first win as the newly formed Stock Squad—while literally loading stolen livestock genetic material onto a flight right in front of them?
Arsehole.
The jet roared back to life, powering through its take-off, making the office windows shake.
Soon after, Mickey came back inside, grinning like a kid.‘That’ll wake the dead.’
‘Mickey, have you still got the flight records from this date?’She held up the folder.
He squinted at the page.‘Yeah…’ He groaned as he bent down to rummage through the bottom cupboards.
Taryn snapped a photo of the docket, her lips pressing into a thin line to stop herself from laughing like a loon, or hopping on one leg with hope.
But, come on.This was it.
