Stockman’s Showdown (The Stockmen #4)

Thirteen

‘I’m so sorry, Charlie.’ Ryder held his hand over his heart, with Dex doing the same, as they stood before the cave.

‘Do you know what happened?’ Charlie dismounted, his legs shaky, with Bree quick to help him. ‘I’ve got it, kid. I’m okay. Stop fussing.’ He slapped her hands away.

Bree glanced back at Ryder. Now he understood why she’d asked him to watch over Charlie.

‘I’ve got him, Bree.’ Ryder approached Charlie.

‘Ash grabbed us some extra torches.’ Bree dragged them out of her saddlebags and passed them around. ‘Do you want me to come with you, Pop?’

Charlie stood at the cave’s opening, his neck craning back to face the escarpment. He looked so small standing before the towering wall of red rock that had yet to reflect the sun. ‘Would you?’ Even his voice was frail.

‘Absolutely.’ Bree hooked her arm through her grandfather’s, their boot steps heavy with Charlie’s spurs clinking against the rock hidden under the dust.

‘Aw bugger, Harry.’ The old man ripped off his large hat exposing his grey-white hair. ‘There you are, ol’ mate. Still in that snazzy hat you scored from Sydney that you said the ladies would love.’ Charlie slowly lowered himself to his knees and gently patted the skeleton’s shoulder as if greeting an old friend. ‘All this time you were right here, mate, when I’d thought you’d done a runner.’

The cave was eerily quiet as Charlie took a moment of silence, while Bree, Ryder and Dex removed their hats and waited.

Then Charlie cleared his throat as he stood, sliding on his hat to face Ryder. The grief had already begun, worn in the deep crevices belonging to a man who’d lived a long life under the sun.

‘Any guesses what happened?’ Charlie asked.

‘There was a cave-in. Hypoxia—which means they didn’t suffer in pain,’ replied Ryder, copping a nod of gratitude from Bree at that part. ‘The police will find out more. Harry left you that box of gold there. It came with that letter.’ Ryder lifted off the lid from the crate.

‘Struth. Gold, huh?’ Charlie rested his hands on the hips of his jeans, where his stockwhip was attached, and peeked inside the crate.

‘And that suitcase is full of old cash.’ Dex tapped at it with his boot.

‘How much cash?’

‘Dunno. Heaps.’ Dex pulled back the lid on the hard suitcase, where amongst the lady’s vintage silk underwear were thick wads of cash. ‘Did they rob a bank?’

‘Dex!’ Ryder scowled.

Dex shrugged. ‘Bree would’ve asked the same.’

‘That’s true,’ mumbled Bree.

It made Ryder pause, considering Charlie’s brother Harry was wanted for murder.

‘Is that cash still legal tender?’ Bree asked Ryder.

‘Sure. But right now, we need to leave it for the police. This is all evidence.’ Even though they might get into trouble for it, it hadn’t stopped Ryder and Dex from poking through everything, finding a few shotguns and a duffel bag with Harry’s clothes in it. ‘Have you read the letter Harry left you?’

Charlie shook his head, patting the envelope tucked into his shirt pocket. Taking in the scene, he slowly shifted his boots, their thick Cuban heels and spurs clinking against the rocky floor, to face the wall where the words Together Forever were etched in stone.

Bree rubbed her grandfather’s shoulder. ‘Are you okay, Pop?’

‘Um, I…’ Charlie looked lost.

‘Listen up, Pop.’ She stood right in front of him, getting really close as if to force her grandfather to focus on her. ‘Ryder is going to ride home with you. You need to show him the shortcut.’

‘Yes. Right. Um, we’ll cut through, cut through the—the…’

‘Scary Forest. Ryder will call the police. You’ll then unsaddle the horses and get the Razorback ready.’

‘Why not the chopper?’ butted in Dex.

Ryder would love to, but he couldn’t. ‘The dust and rubble is too fresh for the helicopter to come anywhere near this place. It’d cause a dust storm and may disturb this—’ He couldn’t call it a crime scene, or could he? ‘I’d hate for it to start another landslide.’

‘Yeah, yeah.’ Charlie nodded as if his mind was trapped in a fog. ‘I’ll get more torches, water.’

‘There’s food in the fridge. You need to eat when you get home to keep up your blood sugar levels. And I packed a couple of snack bars in your saddlebags if you need it.’

Dammit. Did Charlie take his pills this morning?

They all knew the caretaker had a tricky heart, flatly refusing heart surgery. But it never stopped the old stockman, that at times Ryder forgot Charlie was in his eighties. But grief was a tricky beast that made people react in different ways. And this, well, this was something entirely different. How do you describe the shock of finding something so completely unsuspected, when they all knew Charlie had hoped for a happy reunion when he found his brother again.

‘Pop, look at me.’ She held her grandfather’s cheek, lowering herself to meet his eyes.

‘But—’

‘Right now, you need to go get the police. You need to focus.’

‘Yeah. You’re right.’ Charlie nodded, blinking the grit out of his eyes as if to clear his head. ‘Where are you going, kid?’

‘To finish this muster. Or do you want me to stay with you?’

‘Yeah—nah. There’s a muster to finish. The cattle are spooked enough as it is. Just be home in time for supper, eh?’

‘I’ll try, Pop.’ She hugged her grandfather. ‘I love you, Pop, and I’m so, so, sorry I ever doubted you.’ With a nod, she was gone.

Ryder wanted to go with her. ‘Dex, keep an eye on her.’

‘You don’t need to ask. I was going to anyway. My condolences, Charlie.’ Dex shook the old man’s hand, slid on his hat, and followed Bree into the sunshine.

‘Ready to go, Charlie?’ The sooner Ryder called the police the sooner they could get some answers.

Charlie paused to look back at the skeletons frozen in their embrace. ‘Harry didn’t deserve this.’

‘No one does.’

By the time they left the cave, the first cracks of the stockwhips echoed through the air. It was Bree, with Dex on the other side of the large herd of cattle that stirred the moving dust cloud away from Cattleman’s Keep. A place that finally had revealed its secrets.

Climbing back onto his horse, Ryder scoured the area to work out the best way to bring their vehicles in. That’s when he noticed the channel in the back, like an old forgotten track hidden by the small hill. ‘Charlie, how far away was it where you found Harry’s car in the Stoneys?’ The old Holden Bree called Pandora.

Charlie paused, high on the saddle to narrow his grey eyes back at the Stoneys that stood like stone soldiers on the outer edge of the valley. ‘It’s just on the other side of that gap. I didn’t think to look this side. We were working inland.’

‘You wouldn’t have found this cave, not before the landslide.’ A cave cleverly hidden behind the small hill Bree had used to make her stand against the stampeding herd. The silly woman! Damn, it was hard to get angry with Bree when he had to admire her grit at the same time. ‘What was your brother’s job on the station?’

‘Boundary rider.’

‘So he had a horse?’

Charlie nodded from the saddle of his stockhorse, Slim, which was steadily picking its way through the rubble and onto the grassy plains. He craned around in his seat, his grey eyes shadowed by the brim of his stockman’s hat. ‘Do you reckon Harry drove out here with Penelope to stash their gear in this cave, hid his car in the Stoneys to avoid attracting attention, and then pack or something?’

Ryder followed on his own horse, which he had yet to name. ‘That would’ve taken some planning—leaving the car in the Stoneys.’ Which was miles away. Yet from his preliminary search with Dex, it looked like the couple had been preparing for their escape for a while considering they had suitcases, a handwritten letter, and a box of gold.

‘But does that make my brother and Penelope murderers for killing Penelope’s husband?’

Ryder shrugged. ‘I’m not familiar with the case.’ It was a sixty-year cold case, after all.

‘Well, I know the murder involves weapons, and Bree told me you’re good with guns. I saw what you did with her shotgun— you understand them in a way most people don’t. And you’ve got Dex there,’ he said, nodding toward Dex, who was mustering the herd. ‘That boy’s good with numbers. Look, I know you and Dex are clever lads. D’ya reckon you could take a gander at that murder file for me?’

‘Haven’t you read it?’

‘Policeman Porter won’t let me. I know the lad means well and all, but aren’t you good mates with his boss, Sarge?’

‘Marcus, yeah.’ Ryder had helped Marcus a few times since coming to Elsie Creek, they became friends who shared a liking for top-shelf bourbons.

‘Do you think you could ask him?’

‘I won’t promise anything, Charlie, but I’ll try.’

‘Thanks. That’s all a fella can ask.’ Charlie nodded, digging his heels into his grey horse’s flanks and they began the trek across the plains.

As the massive herd shifted like a sea of white coats, their horses galloped across the open range, eating up the grassy plains beneath their beating hooves. They wove their way through the large thicket of paperbark trees that was part of the dried-out swamp, where rich terracotta soils contrasted against the pale trunks of the peeling paperbarks that stood beneath a pale blue sky.

The track wove across the plains until it approached a wall of trees. The red rock escarpment towered over them on the right, as the track dipped steeply to meet the creek. The temperature dropped, and the sky was hidden above a blanket of trees.

‘We need to walk through here for a bit.’ From his horse, Charlie led the way down to the small creek. ‘You can only get through here in the dry. In the wet season it’s all under water, making it prime croc country.’

Didn’t that make Ryder peer keenly from his saddle, scanning the rocky creek beds for any telltale drag marks and other signs of the man-eating predators.

‘Have you been through the Scary Forest yet?’

‘No.’ Ryder removed his sunglasses to crane his neck at the monsoon forest’s thick clusters of trees with their interlocking branches, tangled with vines, as swooping groups of colourful parrots screeched like an in-house alarm system.

With the jungle hemming in from all sides, it triggered a memory of slapping at mosquitoes with a team of men wearing camo gear. He did not want to remember. He did not want his mind to start playing tricks on him as he peered into the shadows of a thick monsoon forest. ‘Why the name Scary Forest?’

‘Bree’s mother named it Scary Forest when she was four. Beatrice was so small then, she’d sit on the front of my saddle with me, and we’d go check on our cherabin pots, or go to the waterhole to do some fishing, and check on the cattle.’ Charlie’s soulful sigh had his shoulders folding over to slouch heavily in the saddle.

Their horses sloshed through the creek, happy for the change of pace. Yet the air was thick over what Charlie was going through, finding his long-lost brother in a cave, and being reminded of how he’d lost his daughter to murder, it was enough for Ryder to try for a change in conversation—which he wasn’t known for.

He’d grown to respect Charlie since they’d bought the station. In that time the caretaker had become a friend you could ask anything, and right now, they desperately needed a change of conversation, so Ryder blurted out the first thing he could think of… ‘Do you know why Bree gave us our nicknames?’

What the hell was he thinking, asking Charlie that?

‘Pretty obvious, don’t you think?’ Riding side by side along the shallow creek bed, Charlie glanced at Ryder, his eyes heavy with sadness. Yet, the old man gave a nod of approval for trying to lighten the atmosphere on a day that was about to get heavier. ‘Stormcloud is for Dex because he was a walking storm of thunderous rage—until he met Sophie.’

‘The woman who started the stampede?’ It was enough to make Ryder scowl.

‘That young girlie is green, she’s never been out here before. She wouldn’t know the rules to mustering. Which is my fault.’

‘None of this is your fault, Charlie. I shouldn’t have let them come.’

‘But I wanted them all to come.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I don’t know how many musters I have left in me. I wanted them to feel the joy of camping out under the stars, to be in a place where people talked around a campfire and not stare at some small screen in their hands. I wanted you all to be in a place where people bonded like a family. Trust me on this, young fella, in a year or two, you’ll all laugh about how Sophie started that stampede. Mark my words.’

Ryder didn’t feel like laughing today.

‘Anyhoodle, Bree nicknamed Ash snowflake because he was a bit of a snowflake, always dodging his responsibilities and being a whiny man-child.’

‘That he was.’ Ryder chuckled, surprised to hear it echoing back at him from the thick forest, where all the trees had started to look the same. ‘But my little brother has grown up.’

‘It’s good to see, right?’ Charlie peered back at the high riverbank, thick with exposed tree roots, showing how deep this creek would get in the wet season. It was taller than Ryder, sitting on a horse that sloshed around in the ankle-deep creek.

‘I never got that chance with my brother to see him grow, like you do. To see Harry have his own family, like I had.’ Charlie’s voice was thick and hoarse as if the grief was cracking across the man’s shell. He cleared his throat, sitting straighter in the saddle once again. ‘Is that why you bought the place for your brothers?’

‘I needed a home. We all did.’ Ryder also needed to feel again, and not see the world as the enemy.

‘Do they know you bought this station for them?’

Ryder frowned as their horses climbed out of the creek bed to follow a leaf-littered track where soft ferns feathered along the sides. ‘Is that what you thought?’

‘No, I didn’t. I saw a group of brothers trying to make a home for themselves, which is why I said yes to you lot buying this place. It was Bree who pointed it out to me. She said your brothers would spend the rest of their lives trying to pay you back to become equal partner, but you didn’t care, you did this for them. Bree’s right, isn’t she?’

Ryder barely nodded.

‘Bree reads people well.’

‘I noticed. So why did she call me cupcake?’ He scowled at the thick jungle that hid the world from the sun. He hated that name.

‘You don’t know?’ The old man widened his grey eyes with something between surprise and amusement.

Ryder matched it with a scowl. ‘I’m asking, aren’t I?’

Charlie gave a devilish grin.

‘What?’

‘Cupcakes are Bree’s favourite food.’

Ryder cocked an eyebrow.

‘Everyone knows Bree loves her cupcakes. Cowboy Craig, Lenny, Policeman Porter, even her ex-husband, Finn, all know if you want Bree to do something for you, or you wanna get into her good books, you just get her some cupcakes. That kid’s baking them all the time. She’s even got this whole special cupcake prayer.’ Charlie’s chuckle echoed around them, making the birds pause from their squawking.

How the hell was Ryder supposed to respond to that?

Charlie shrugged, while loosely holding the reins. ‘I’m guessing she named you cupcake, coz you’re no cupcake.’

‘Hell, no.’

‘But you are part stockman and part soldier with a truckload of toughness you only get from living a hard life. I’ve heard them say you’ve got ice in your veins, but you’re also a decent fella underneath it, too. You're a bloke who takes care of his family and for that, I take my hat off to you.’ Charlie tapped the brim of his hat. ‘It’s what I tried to do for my family. But…’ He sighed heavily, regripping the reins of his horse as it steadily plodded along. ‘All I’ve got left is my granddaughter, and I’m truly blessed to have her around. Reckon you could do me a favour, Ryder?’

‘What’s that?’

‘When I go, do you reckon you could keep an eye on my granddaughter for me? Wouldn’t want her getting into trouble, is all.’

‘Isn’t Bree planning some holiday?’

‘Reckons she’s gonna do a road trip to the nearest international airport to catch the first plane out to Tahiti.’

‘Why Tahiti?’

‘Bree reckons they’ve got no dangerous animals there. No deadly spiders, snakes, scorpions and other whatnots like we live with. Even though they may have some stingers and sharks in their waters, they’ve got no crocodiles and Bree plans to do a lot of swimming in between drinking cocktails on the beach.’ Charlie chuckled, ducking under a low branch.

Again, Ryder scoured the sides of the creek bed for any sneaky swamp puppies, checking his rifle sitting neatly against the saddle.

He ducked low under a branch as the creek widened, and where the water was barely a trickle. ‘Wasn’t Bree going to some game’s finals?’

‘The Stanley Cup. It’s the ice hockey finals. Brutal game.’

‘How did Bree get into watching ice hockey?’

‘I dunno, for sure.’ Charlie shrugged his shoulders, readjusting his grip on the saddle. ‘She had her reasons for it.’

‘Which are?’

‘Well, at the end of the day, Bree would fill up her trough with water and ice to make this outdoor bath where she sits in front of the outdoor tellie. There, she’ll have her jug of gin in one hand and the remote control in the other, and that’s where she’ll watch ice hockey. I don’t think that kid’s ever seen snow or a live game. But, after working in front of that fiery forge in the smithy’s shed, hammering hot metals during an outback summer, you need something to cool down from that kind of heat, and them ice baths of hers have proven to be priceless. And then watching men skate around on ice must help her cool down some, too, like some trick of the mind or something?’ Charlie shrugged. ‘I prefer the footy myself.’

‘Have you tried those ice baths?’ Because Dex had put in the request for an ice machine in their new bar.

Charlie nodded. ‘Oh yeah. Coupla times. Especially after spending all day hammering out a new legacy brand, it did the trick, lickety-split.’

‘Which reminds me… How much do you want for our station’s branding iron?’ He’d assumed buying this station that they’d get the cattle brand that went with it, yet somehow the crafty master brand maker had ownership of the Elsie Creek legacy brand.

Charlie grinned. ‘It’s not for sale. But I’ll make sure Bree brings it down for the next draft. But there’ll be no more pound work for my granddaughter in them there drafting yards. I promised her that. You should send in Ash to man the gates or get a young jackeroo to jump the rails… It’s good you’ve got Harper learning the sticks, and Mia working the muster dogs. Give either of them girls a few years and they could start working on the drafting calls.’

‘And you’ll be on the top boards, teaching them.’

‘Nah.’ Again he sighed with his shoulders drooping. ‘You’ll want Bree doin’ them calls. She’s got a better eye than me. Always did, from the time she was nine, manning them gates, when she could barely reach the chest height of some of them cattle.’ He snorted out a chuckle. ‘It fair dinkum used to upset my wife, it did. But not that kid. Bree was fearless in that pound. Still is.’ He gave a wry grin, rolling his shoulders that seemed to fill with pride. ‘I know the kid lets me think I’m in charge, but she’s the one who knows the cattle better. She’d make a helluva head stockman, or a stock inspector, if she wanted. But she likes working as a blacksmith these days.’

‘Didn’t you say that Bree went away for a while?’

‘She did—when she married that devil, Finn.’ Charlie’s tone sharpened as he continued. ‘He’d been working here for a while, and he was a good stockman, too. But, like most men who were starting a family, he wanted to own his own land. Finn’s mob were from Queensland, so Bree went with him. First Queensland, then Victoria for a bit, too.’ Charlie scowled at the path ahead, his grip tightening on the reins. ‘But then I ended up in hospital. And just like that, Bree showed up with her son, telling me she was moving back in with me. She took care of me, Darcie, little Liam, and this station.’

His expression softened as he added, ‘Boy, were Darcie and I glad to have Bree back home, too. Darcie adored her like a niece. He would’ve liked you and your brothers.’ Charlie gave Ryder a firm nod, a glimmer of approval in his weathered eyes.

‘Is that why you sold us the station?’

‘And that you’d agreed to maintaining the caretaker’s caveat.’

That caveat had the caretaker living in the best house, which overlooked the prettiest paddock on the property like it was a separate farm.

‘You said Bree came back to run things again . Was Bree running the station before?’

‘You could say that.’ Charlie grinned wryly, patting down his chest, that again seemed to fill with pride. ‘Of course, she had us two old fellas mentoring her, letting us think we were in charge. But that clever kid was pulling the puppet strings her way, and everyone prospered.’

‘Hmmm…’ That sneaky redhead never let on. She refused to call herself a stockwoman, even though she was a bloody good one who never interfered with them running the place. But running a station meant a lot more than just managing men and herd.

All of Ryder’s brothers had consulted with Bree more than once when it came to the station—it had irritated him that Bree knew more about what was going on than he did, when he was the one paying the bills!

‘Darcie and I figured the reason Bree came back that last time was because she was having marriage problems, is all.’ Charlie shifted easily in the saddle as his horse navigated the thick leaf litter along a wallaby track that crossed yet another creek bed. The place was like a maze, with each turn looking the same as the last one. ‘We only saw Finn a coupla times, showing up on that noisy bike of his. But whenever he did make an appearance, he always got that big hug and kiss that’d make a grown man blush.’

Ryder had hated seeing Bree kiss another man—only to later learn it was her husband. The sight had put him in a foul mood that lasted a week, until he found out she was actually divorced from Finn. But that still didn’t explain the reunion scene he’d witnessed.

‘Why do you hate Finn?’ Which was rare, when Charlie liked everyone and got on with everyone—except their neighbour Leo, and Finn.

‘I never used too... But when their son got sick, Bree left Finn countless messages, that bugger never answered.’

‘Some jobs you can’t call people or up and leave. I know from my time in the Army, I was restricted from contacting anyone outside the mission.’ It was a reminder that he needed to make time away from work to take in the places that his property had to offer. Except jungles. He wasn’t keen on jungles. And he had the Army to thank for that.

‘Yeah, nah.’ Charlie shook his head, wearing a deep scowl. ‘Finn wasn’t in no Army. He was a Queensland stockman, who was gone for almost a year in Victoria. What job stops a fella from contacting his family for a year?’

‘Finn knew Bree is an independent woman who is quite capable of looking after herself. Most military wives are the same.’

‘But he left Bree to deal with little Liam’s illness all on her own, with no word from him for ages. And when my great-grandson passed away, that mongrel finally shows up three weeks after the funeral.’ Charlie huffed, his jaw locked as if seething with anger. ‘But I saw it that day my granddaughter buried her son, she buried her soul with him, and Finn knew it, too.’

‘You know Finn was away for work.’ Ryder couldn’t help but defend Finn, who’d been working undercover. But because Charlie couldn’t keep a secret, no one had told him. ‘And sometimes work—’

‘No man should ever put their career before their family !’ Charlie’s stern words echoed around the forest, once again silencing the birds and the buzz of insects, leaving only the soft tread of their horses on the leaf-littered path, which released a rich, earthy aroma. ‘I understand a man has to work to provide for his family. But they should always remember it’s only a job. A man should never put their job, or money, before their family, especially when they needed them the most.’

As a self-made billionaire, Ryder fully understood how money changed a person, having seen it in those around him. It’s why he never showed off that he had money, and why he never talked about money or how he made his money with his family. But he sure as hell made sure he provided for them. No matter the cost.

‘But then the idiot gets so angry, he punches out this high-ranking copper and ends up in prison for assault. When Finn, that flamin’ fool, should’ve been helping Bree get through her grief, or at least go through it with her.’ Charlie wore such a pained expression as he tapped at his chest. ‘That’s what family does. Even if it’s just to put the kettle on to make a cup of tea, while you sit quietly in the corner, you’re there. Like Bree is always there for me, tinkering in the garden, helping me to go riding in the mornings, or stoking up the forge for me, or agreeing to come on this muster with me. When I lost my grandson, I know I grieved for that boy, just like Darcie did, because that small boy brought so much joy into our world, but I don’t think Bree ever fully dealt with it.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Bree never packed up Liam’s room in the cottage. She locked it up and went straight back to work, choosing to let our guests crash on the couch instead.’

‘So, the caretaker’s cottage has three bedrooms?’ Even though Charlie had offered him the spare room, Ryder had never set foot inside the place he owned.

But then it clicked—that spare room must’ve been Liam’s!

No wonder Bree was furious at the thought of him taking over the cottage.

‘The caretaker’s cottage has three-and-a-half bedrooms. The smallest room was a nursery, when I moved in with my wife. I made it into a walk-in storeroom for my rodeo gear. Now it’s full of junk. I think Bree would love to turn it into a pantry and renovate the kitchen.’

Again, Charlie sighed, craning his neck at the leafy canopy where the sun sent down it’s rays in between the gaps. ‘Not long ago, right before he left, Finn was in Liam’s room. You could see the fella was broken over it. Bree let him take what he wanted as a keepsake, then waved off Finn, locked the door to Liam’s room again, and went back to work.’ Charlie shook his heavy head once more, with his voice softening as he said, ‘Bree might be tough, but that kid is worried about me leaving her.’

‘Bree is very protective over you.’ It was admirable.

‘Because I’m the only one who’s never abandoned her. That kid got abandoned by her father, who did the most terrible thing to a child. No child should ever witness their mother getting murdered by the person who was meant to show her love and protection. Then, as a grown-up, Bree’s husband abandons her for his career and then prison, and then her son. When I go, well…’

The silence was as heavy as the thick humid air that clung to the sturdy tree trunks entangled with vines, as their horses criss-crossed another series of creek beds.

‘I’ll be there for Bree, Charlie.’ Even if Bree wanted nothing from Ryder, he was damn well going to be there if she needed him. He would have done that anyway, without question.

‘Thank you.’ Charlie gave an affirmative nod. ‘It’s all a fella can ask.’ Their horses climbed a steep sandy track to break through the trees and into open daylight. In the distance the solar panels lining the roof of the caretaker’s sheds sparkled under the sun. ‘We’re home.’ And they raced across the field to phone the police.