Chapter Sixteen
Lee walked past Rodney into the lounge room and stood near the coffee table as Rodney clicked the door shut. This man was an unknown. Obnoxious and arrogant from what he’d seen and heard, but with no personal experiences, he wasn’t willing to make a firm assessment.
“Sit down,” Rodney ordered.
Lee stood, legs apart, hands in his pockets, casual and non-threatening. “I’m fine standing.”
Rodney puffed up as if to explode and then relaxed with a smile, his bluster and officiousness gone. “You’ve turned on Lucas.” Smooth and confident.
Interesting. Which was the real man? He had slid into this new personality with no effort.
Lee watched him. Who was Rodney actually working for? “I hear you planted the cannon at Steven’s place.”
Rodney raised an eyebrow. “Something had to be done with it.”
Should he admit to his ignorance? What did he have to lose? “Did you use Lucas’s boat to raise it?”
Rodney smirked. “I believe I should ask you the questions.”
“Just filling in a couple of blanks. Has Lucas spoken to you about the treasure?”
“You’re not planning to double-cross him?”
Not answering the question made Lee think Rodney’s surprise when Brandon had opened the backpack had been real. “Do I look stupid to you?”
“It looks as if you have a thing for Nhiari.” Some derision slipped into his tone. “She has a way of leading men on.”
Lee’s skin prickled but he made sure his fingers didn’t curl into fists like they wanted to. “In my case, it’s the other way around,” he said. “She’s smitten. I hear she’s quite picky about who she dates.”
His shot hit its mark, and Rodney scowled. Enough of these games. “Let’s get to the point, shall we? Lucas wants the treasure. He’s devising a plan to get it. Is his boat in the area?” If it wasn’t, there might not be enough time to get it into position.
“There are plenty of places along the coast we can take the treasure, so it doesn’t matter where the boat is.”
Perhaps he didn’t know or was holding his cards close to his chest. Rodney would have the facilities to track it and the plane down.
“So we wait until Lucas tells us what he wants?” Lee asked.
Rodney nodded. “I’ll travel with the treasure. What are Dot and Nhiari planning?”
Lee shrugged. “They’ve talked options but haven’t finalised anything. They’re waiting for Lucas to tell me his plans.”
“And will you tell them the truth?”
He chuckled. “What do you think? We’ll all be able to get away from this god-forsaken town.”
“How will you escape? The Stokes aren’t likely to let you go.”
“We’ll need eyes on the van at different points of the road. Nhiari and I can take one of those positions, and I can slip away from her easily enough.”
Lee’s phone rang. He glanced at the screen and then at Rodney. “It’s Lucas.” He answered, and Rodney strode closer so he could hear. “What’s the plan?”
“Coral Bay,” Lucas responded. “There’s an airstrip. The plane will meet us.”
“What time?”
“That’s where you come in. I need to know where the truck is at each moment. You’ll tell me.”
Lee frowned and glanced at Rodney. “Wouldn’t Rodney be better at that? He’ll be in the truck.”
“So will you.”
What did he mean? “They won’t let me into the truck.”
“I’ll get Rodney to say he’ll transport you to Perth in it,” Lucas said.
“That’s highly irregular. Do you think they’ll go for it?”
“He’ll have to make sure they do.”
Rodney’s lips pressed together.
“Call me when the truck leaves Retribution Bay. Then call again when you turn on to the Coral Bay road. I’ll meet you there.” Lucas chuckled. “We’ll kill any police riding with you and make our escape.”
“Except Rodney,” Lee clarified.
“As long as he doesn’t outlive his usefulness.” Lucas hung up.
Well shit. That wasn’t good, but Lucas didn’t know Rodney was listening in. This could all go badly if Rodney was loyal to the police. Lee would have to watch his back and somehow make sure Nhiari and Dot weren’t with the truck.
He cringed. His chances of achieving that were slim. What was Lucas thinking? It wasn’t a well thought out plan.
Lee looked at Rodney. This was awkward. “The Coral Bay airstrip is pretty barren. Not a lot of places to hide.” He’d investigated a lot of exit and entry options while he’d been up here. “We can tell the others Lucas is planning to take the treasure to the Coral Bay boat ramp,” he continued. “That way when we turn off the main road, they won’t be suspicious. They can lay an ambush at the boat ramp and we’ll turn off early.”
“Dot will insist someone rides with the treasure,” Rodney said.
“So convince her it should be you,” Lee said. “You go with the driver. I’ll be in the back. You can insist on that, right?”
Rodney hesitated, which seemed out of character for him. “Nothing I’ve insisted on has worked with Dot. She’s tenacious.”
Was that a hint of admiration in his tone?
“Then I’ll take care of them while we’re in the back of the truck,” Lee said. “They won’t expect it. I can have them tied up before we arrive, and we can drop them before we get to the airstrip.”
He didn’t discount the fact Lucas might shoot them out of spite if they were still in the truck when they arrived at the airstrip.
“All right,” Rodney answered.
Lee narrowed his eyes. His agreement was too fast. What was Rodney’s end game?
He kept his gaze on the man, tension settling into his muscles. “Let’s get into the nitty gritty.”
“We should use Jasmine,” Sam said.
Nhiari glanced at him. They’d been discussing various options for almost an hour now, trying to decide where to place people depending on where Lucas wanted to do the heist. She suspected he’d want to do it close to Retribution Bay because he was there, and there weren’t many authorities left. The most obvious place would be around Coral Bay. “Jasmine?”
“The woman who spots whales and sharks for us when we’re running tours,” Sam said. “She’s still in town. She could take her light aircraft up and act as a spotter for Lucas’s boat.”
“That’s assuming he uses the boat, and not his plane,” Nhiari pointed out. Still it was a good option and if Rodney was indeed working for Stonefish, they couldn’t rely on backup from his department. Though maybe she should call Doug and let him know.
Down the hall a door squeaked open, and a minute later Rodney and Lee walked into the kitchen.
“Lucas rang.” Lee didn’t look at all frustrated. Nhiari couldn’t imagine being forced to spend an hour with Rodney and not wanting to punch something. But then again, Lee was male, and Rodney was working for Stonefish.
Perhaps they should have insisted on listening in.
“What did he say?”
“He wants to take it by boat,” Lee said. “I said I could convince you to let me travel in the truck and I’ll hijack it and drive to the Coral Bay boat ramp. He’ll meet me there.”
Nhiari studied him. It was in line with what they had thought, but he wasn’t telling her the whole truth.
“How are you going to take the truck?” Dot asked.
“I told him I’ll catch the driver and Rodney by surprise,” Lee said.
It was a weak plan. “And what are you going to do with whoever else is travelling in the truck?”
“You can’t both go,” Lee pointed out. “Someone needs to stay in Retribution Bay with Pierre, so at the most, there will be one in the truck.”
“Unless we insist on accompanying the treasure,” Brandon pointed out. “We did find it.”
Nhiari nodded, and while she didn’t want civilians involved, it was a sensible option.
“I can arrange for some colleagues to fly up,” Rodney said.
Lee shook his head. “Lucas will watch the airport.”
“So then they fly to Carnarvon and drive up. He can’t possibly watch every entrance.”
Interesting that Rodney was still pretending to be loyal. Could they rely on him to do what he said he was going to do?
Not likely.
Brandon brought up a satellite view of the area on his laptop. “This is all sand dunes.” He pointed. “We can’t stop anyone going to the ramp before the truck arrives because it will make it obvious to Lucas that we’re on to him.
“Anyone on the ramp when this goes down will be in danger,” Sherlock pointed out.
“Can we get Parks and Wildlife to do some random boat checks?” Dot asked.
“No!” Sam responded. “Penelope is not going anywhere near the boat ramp.”
Nhiari understood his panic. Penelope had already survived one run-in with Stonefish. “He’s right. Any sign of people in authority would make Lucas nervous. He knows we caught the PAWS Stonefish plants.”
“So we need someone on the ground who can clear civilians and people who can stop Lucas,” Dot said.
“The boat ramp shouldn’t be busy,” Nhiari said. “Not at this time of year.” She turned to Lee. “Did Lucas confirm he would be on the boat, or do we need to consider he’ll get picked up at a different location after the drop?”
“He said he wanted to be part of it, because everyone else has been incompetent.”
That was good.
“We’ll need to be close to the ramp,” Brandon said. “If we can borrow a small fishing boat, we can be in the area and go onto the ramp when the truck arrives.”
Still it would put them at a disadvantage should anything change. They needed a car in the parking bay and people on the ground.
She studied the satellite image. Her parents’ place was a few kilometres from Coral Bay. They had a property and there were multiple shortcuts into the small tourist spot, one which passed the airstrip. It was private and they could easily anchor the police boat offshore, ready to give chase.
She studied it further. That’s what was bothering her about this whole thing. A boat was far too slow. Even if the police didn’t know what Lucas had planned, they could have a plane in the air in less than an hour. If they put a tracker in the bag of treasure, they’d easily follow the boat and call border patrol to pick it up.
The sensible option, considering Lucas had a private plane, was to land at the airstrip, do the transfer and take off again. He could be halfway to Singapore before they could get anyone to help.
There was also the small airstrip on her parents’ property in case they spotted the police’s presence.
“Nhiari, you all right?” Lee asked.
She nodded. “Just thinking about options.” She waved her hand indicating they should continue their discussions. She needed to call her parents anyway to tell them she was all right, and to return the missed call she’d had from them yesterday. They could tell her whether anyone had been scoping out their place recently. It was almost impossible to sneak around in a car with all the dusty tracks.
It took another hour and some phone calls to the Organised Crime division by Rodney to come up with a plan. Brandon and Lee would be in the truck’s rear with the treasure. Lee would be officially under arrest and being transported to Perth for processing. Dot would be on the ground at the boat ramp with a team from Organised Crime, and Sam and Sherlock would be seen with Oliver and his team in the gulf—out of harm’s way. They would be available, if necessary, to chase Lucas’s boat if it headed north.
Nhiari would stay in Retribution Bay with business as usual. Lee seemed relieved by the plan. Nhiari stood and stretched. “I need to call my parents.” She ignored Rodney’s grunt. “They’ll want to know I’m safe.”
She didn’t wait for an answer and instead walked outside and around the side to the small patch of grass and shaded trees. She dialled their number and her father answered. “Finally! I didn’t think you’d ever call me back.”
She smiled, pleased to hear his gruff voice. “Sorry. I’ve been conserving my phone battery. I’m at the Ridge and I’m safe.”
“You still with that Lee man?”
“Yes, he’s here. We’re hoping this will be all over by the weekend.”
“Good. I don’t like this business. I don’t feel as if I can trust any strangers coming around.”
Her interest peaked. “You’ve had strangers at the property?”
“That’s what I was calling you about. Yesterday we had a bloke drive in. Said he was interested in learning about our culture. Was real interested we had our own airstrip and wanted to know how big our community was.”
All her senses dinged. “What did he look like?”
“About my height, Asian guy, neat dark hair, wore a suit in this heat.”
Could have been Lucas. “Did he look at the airstrip?”
“Just asked how long it was and whether it was regularly maintained. When I asked why he wanted to know, he said he was a tourist operator, thinking of starting custom tours to this area from Singapore. Asked if I was interested in being part of it. Teaching people bush tucker.”
Had Lucas lied to Lee about his plans, or was Lee lying to them? “What did you tell him?”
“Well I didn’t trust him, but I said I’d be interested to read his official proposal and gave him my email address.”
“He might be part of what is happening here,” Nhiari told her father. “It might be worth you and Mum coming into town for a few days until this all blows over.”
“I’m not letting anyone push me off my land again,” her father blustered.
She winced, not surprised by his vehemence. “Will you promise me if anyone comes by on Saturday that you will leave them alone?”
“Not if they’re on my land.”
She sighed, keeping hold of her patience. “Dad, these people are dangerous. They’re likely to shoot you and Mum if you try to stop them.”
He was silent a long moment.
She glanced back at the house, but no one was outside. “I’ll come out,” she said. “Monitor things.”
“You think I’ll let my daughter put herself in danger and not protect her?”
“Think about Mum,” she said. “I can’t protect you both and stop the bad guys. I need you to protect her.”
He grumbled, but finally said, “Call me when you’re coming out.”
“I will. And if you see this man again, call me.”
She hung up and started making a few plans of her own.
Rodney argued hard to take Lee into custody before he left. Perhaps he wanted another chance to talk to him alone and consolidate Stonefish’s plan, but Lee was relieved when Nhiari argued it was too much of a risk.
Rodney also wanted to take the treasure into town where it could be kept more securely at the police station. This time it was Brandon who gave a definitive no. He wasn’t letting it out of his sight until it got to the museum.
They didn’t mention they didn’t trust Rodney not to steal it.
Rodney had to think they still believed he was working for the good guys.
So he had left and now they had almost a day to kill before the truck arrived from Perth. The rest of the Stokes had returned from their swim, and Tess and Ed were making dinner.
Faith, Lara and Jordan were seeing to the horses and everyone else was busy doing their own thing. With so many people it seemed almost impossible they weren’t tripping over each other, but no one seemed to get in each other’s way.
A cohesive family.
Something Lee had never had. The longing was so strong and he pushed it down.
All he got were looks of suspicion.
Which he deserved.
The expression he liked least was on Nhiari’s face as she met his eyes. Her uncertainty pained him and he would hurt her again before this was finished, but he couldn’t let her get anywhere near Lucas. Lucas wouldn’t hesitate to kill anyone who got in his way, particularly when he discovered Lee had been playing him.
Far better that Nhiari hated him and was alive.
During dinner they spoke about the farm and what Lara and Jordan had been doing at school. Both Darcy and Gretchen had decided to keep the children away from school for the next couple of days so they couldn’t be used by Stonefish as leverage again.
Instead the Stokes were battening down the hatches, and keeping everyone they loved close at hand. Faith had adjusted any appointments she had booked, and both Georgie and Penelope had arranged to take the day off. Only Sam and Sherlock were heading back to town with Oliver and Dot in order to complete the expedition tomorrow and get the university students out of town.
The university had wanted the students to travel with the cannon since the car they’d driven up in hadn’t been repaired yet, but Dot and Oliver had vetoed the idea. Instead they would fly back and Oliver would arrange for the equipment to be taken in the truck.
A much safer option.
Dot and Nhiari had spoken together before Dot had left and when they were done Nhiari turned to Amy. “Is there a room free in the shearers’ quarters?”
Amy nodded. “There’s a couple.”
Nhiari glanced at Lee. “We’ll only need one.”
Matt shot her a suspicious look. “You can’t guard his room on your own.”
Lee bit back a smile. He could imagine Matt’s reaction if Matt knew they’d slept together. His hand went to his throat, which was a little tender from the earlier attack.
“I can handle it,” Nhiari said.
Brandon looked at them both. “Matt, you can help guard the treasure.”
He looked as if he was going to argue, but Georgie squeezed his hand. “Nhiari’s a big girl. She’s been handling Lee all week.”
Matt shot Lee a look of disgust and then nodded. “Fine.”
He was one person who wouldn’t accept Lee into their group if he managed to escape gaol. Lee couldn’t come between Nhiari and her family.
Brandon showed him into the bathroom so Lee could have his first proper shower in weeks. Before Brandon left he said, “She trusts you.”
Lee nodded.
“I don’t.”
“Noted.” And he was happy Nhiari had so many people around her who would take care of her when he was gone.
As he showered, he noticed a shadow outside the window. Someone was guarding the exit and someone would be guarding the door as well.
After Nhiari had cleaned up, they went to the outbuilding which was built to house shearers at shearing time. The room was small with only a single bed in it and a small sink and wardrobe. Brandon dragged in a second mattress from the room next door, but made no comments. After Brandon left them, Lee gestured to the bed. “You take it.”
She shook her head. “I’m on guard duty, remember?”
He glanced at her. “I won’t escape.”
“I know.” Her assertion wasn’t convincing.
He wanted to take her in his arms and tell her everything would be all right, but he couldn’t. Nothing would be right after Saturday and though he wanted a last night holding her in his arms, he couldn’t. Not when he was already lying to her and someone might check on them. They had a game to play.
He lay on the bed, and she turned off the light, but it was a long time before either of them fell asleep.