But would they still be the Stock Squad tomorrow?
Forty-one
Finn leaned against the open doorway, hands deep in the pockets of yesterday’s jeans.Before him, pale but alert, Lydia was propped up slightly in the hospital bed.
Nearby sat Brodie.Curled up like a border collie in the chair, one arm flopped across his middle.The many colours of his bruises highlighted by the fluorescent lights.
‘Well, it’s about time you showed up.’Lydia even smiled.
‘Been busy.’Finn dragged the chair to the other side of the bed to watch over the pair.Sitting slowly, every joint in his spine groaned like a stockwhip uncoiling after a long day’s muster.He rested his arms on his knees, worried he’d never get up again.
‘Go on, I want an update.We both deserve to know,’ she demanded.
‘Well, deemed flight risks, bail was refused and Red and Bob are being transported to Darwin prison this afternoon.’They were only waiting on medical clearance to move Red’s arse.
‘So Red’s…’ Brodie swallowed.
‘Fine.Just a bunch of stitches.’Pity he never got to give them to Red himself.
Brodie’s whole body sagged with relief.
Lydia squeezed his hand.Then asked Finn, ‘The charges?’
‘It’s close to eighty charges and counting, just on stock theft alone.’That raised some eyebrows.
‘And the rest?’
‘Vehicle theft, fraud, assault, deadly intent with use of a vehicle, domestic violence and murder.’
Lydia’s eyes flared wider.‘But I’m—’
‘Of Sawyer Dixby.’
‘The missing overseer?Seery?’
Finn nodded.Thanks to the tag-team interrogation of Taryn playing good cop, while Finn glared from the open doorway, Bob spilled first, and fast.
According to the gospel of Bob, he was going to rescue his cousin from Porter and Craig, who were closing in on Seery during that manhunt across Dixby Downs in the Hellhound.
After what Seery had done to Porter and Amara, he would have gone for attempted murder, assaulting police officers and everything else they could think of for what that prick had done to his team members.
Except Red knew that Seery would talk.Without a doubt.
So when Seery thought he was getting help, Red had picked the spot that even Bob never saw—the bulldust pit of death.
Red shot out the tyre of the quad bike, causing Seery to lose control.When the bike hit the bulldust and sank hard, pinning him beneath it, Red refused to let Bob out of the passenger seat to help his cousin.Instead, he slammed his fist into Bob, warned him he’d kill him too, and drove off, leaving Seery to drown in the dust.
‘Do you want to see him?’Finn asked Lydia.
‘I’d rather get a restraining order and frame it above the kettle.’Lydia gave a short huff over the man she’d once promised to grow old with.She straightened out her sheets, fussing over them like she did for others, but now it was her turn.‘I loved him, you know.’
Finn looked up, while young Brodie winced as if feeling her pain.
‘And he loved me.But he didn’t love all of me.Red didn’t like that I was smart.That I could run numbers faster, and read a beast better, than half the agents on the books.’
‘Is that why you only called yourself a clerk?And not the boss lady?Because we all know you’re a lot smarter than you let on.’
She gave a sly shrug.‘My fault, really.I let Red think I was smaller than I was.Didn’t want to shame the man by outranking him in the eyes of his mates.You know, every few years the stockyard’s lease is offered to me, I’ve always said no.’
