Chapter 7 #2
“I’m different.”
“Prove it.”
We were close enough that I could smell him—soap, leather, and something underneath that was just him—and I hated that I noticed it right now.
I made myself take a step back. “Fine. You want to make this about Bob. Let’s make it about Bob.” I started counting on my fingers.
“Frank Branson, your father, has been missing for weeks. Yet no one filed a report. Edith Branson, your mother, vanished from this property twenty years ago. No body, no closed file. Doug Walker, died in a flash flood, with nothing left of him but a boot sitting on a rock with its laces tied and bloody clothing. Three people. All missing on Koolaroo. And on top of all that, the Henderson brothers light a fire that nearly kills your sister and her partner. Again, no report filed.”
I stopped.
Kayden watched me with the look of a man who was doing rapid calculations behind his eyes.
“That’s just what I’ve stumbled across in twenty-four hours. One day, Kayden. Whatever your family is hiding, I am going to find out. That’s not a threat. That’s my job.”
He said nothing.
“I don’t give up. I never have. Stand between me and the truth if you want, but it won’t end well for you.”
He let out a short, hard laugh. No humor in it at all. “Yeah.” His voice dropped. “I remember that about you.”
The words found a gap in my armor that shouldn’t still be there. I raised a finger. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what? Don’t remember you?” His voice dropped. “I’ve been trying to forget you for ten years. I haven’t managed it yet.”
My damn heart skipped a beat. “You chose this land.”
“You chose the badge.”
“That’s not how it happened.”
“That’s exactly how it happened.”
We glared at each other while the cicadas in the grass around us screamed their heads off.
My phone buzzed in my pocket.
I pulled it out and glanced at the screen.
Unknown number.
I took two steps down the bank away from Kayden. “Senior Constable Delaney.”
A breath rasped. “Sapphire.” The voice was high and thin and cracked in the middle of my name. It took me a second to place it.
“Lyle?”
“Yeah. It’s me. I, I umm ...”
I’d dealt with Lyle Henderson maybe twenty times in four years.
Drunk and disorderly. The occasional bar fight.
A handful of nights sleeping it off in the lockup.
The worst time was when he’d tried to ask me out while he’d been clutching onto the prison bars, glaring at me with his dopey eyes.
My skin still crawled thinking about it.
He always sounded like a man trying to be as bold as his brothers and never quite pulling it off.
This wasn’t that voice, though. He was scared.
“Lyle, what’s going on?” I kept my tone easy.
Kayden cocked an eyebrow at me.
“Bruce and Wayne didn’t come home last night,” Lyle said.
“Okay.” Nothing alarming about that. “They probably had a big night at the Rusty Swagman, and they’re sleeping it off.”
“No. It’s not that.” His voice tightened. “They weren’t going to the pub. I’ve been ringing them since this morning, and it just rings out. Wayne always answers my calls, even when he’s completely smashed.”
Kayden had moved to the creek’s edge, and crouching, he picked up a flat stone and turned it in his fingers, pretending not to listen. He wasn’t fooling me.
“Where were they going?” I asked Lyle.
Lyle paused, maybe deciding how much to give me.
“Lyle. Talk to me.”
“Bob called Bruce yesterday.”
The hairs on the back of my neck lifted. Bruce. The man who’d taken a swing at me in the station. The man Bob had released without a charge sheet an hour later.
“The Sarge called Bruce? What for?”
A longer pause.
“Lyle. You’re clearly scared for your brothers. So, you need to tell me everything you know.”
He made a noise that sounded all wrong. “Bob made them go to some house in Winton. Said he’d pay them cash for a job.”
“What house? What job?”
Kayden stood and turned, frowning as he read my face. He took a step closer.
“I don’t know. Bruce never tells me nothing. Just said he had a job to do, and they’d be back before dawn.” His voice cracked. “They’re not back.”
“What was the job, Lyle?”
He released a deep exhale. “They had to get Frank Branson. Bring him in.”
My jaw dropped as I looked at Kayden. I closed the distance between us and held a finger to my lips to shush him, then I switched the phone to speaker.
“Did you say Bob sent Bruce and Wayne to get Frank Branson?” I asked.
“Yeah. That’s what Bruce said. Bob told him where to go and what to do.”
“And your brothers haven’t been seen since last night?”
“No.” The fear in his voice was raw and unguarded. I’d never heard a Henderson sound like that. They were the kind of family where showing fear got you punched in the nose. “Something’s wrong, Sapphire. I can feel it.”
Kayden turned the stone still in his hand, but his eyes were fixed on me.
“Do you have an address for this house?” I asked Lyle.
“No. Just that it was somewhere in Winton. That’s all Bruce said.”
“What time did they leave?”
“After dinner. Around seven, maybe seven thirty.”
“How did they get there?” Both Bruce and Wayne’s trucks had been written off.
“They took my truck.”
“And where are you right now?”
“In Winton. I took Dad’s truck, and I’ve been driving around looking for them for the last two hours.” His voice broke slightly on the last word.
Kayden pegged the stone into the creek.
“Lyle, pull over. Don’t keep driving around. Go to McDonalds and get some food. And stay there.”
His breathing was ragged on the other end.
“Lyle, listen to me carefully. If Bruce or Wayne call you, you ring me straight away. You understand?”
“Yeah. Okay.”
“And don’t talk to Bob. Don’t talk to anyone at the station. Just sit tight and wait for my call.”
Kayden dragged his hand over his jaw.
“Where are you?” Lyle asked.
“Out of town. But I’m coming.” I looked at Kayden, pleading with my eyes. He nodded and moved toward the bank, ready to climb.
“You’ll find them, Sapphire. Won’t you?” His tone was edged with panic.
“Yes. I’ll find them.” And I meant it. Though the rotten feeling settling into my stomach told me I might not like what I found. “Stay put, Lyle. I’ll call you soon.”
I hung up.
The creek burbled over the stones, and somewhere upstream a bird called once and went quiet.
I looked at Kayden. “Do you know a house Frank would use in Winton?”
“No.” He scanned the bank, looking for the fastest way up.
I took one last look at the boot sitting on that rock in the sun. Evidence. Sitting out here for weeks while Bob had done nothing. I made myself leave them and ran to Kayden’s side.
We hit the incline hard. When it got too steep, Kayden reached back and grabbed my hand, hauling me up without breaking stride. At the top, we ran for the chopper.
“Told you Bob was crooked,” Kayden said.
“I hope you’re wrong.”
“You know I’m not.”
I had a terrible feeling he was right, and that scared me almost as much as what might be waiting for us in Winton. Because Bob being crooked was one problem, but Bob sending the Henderson brothers to bring in Frank Branson was something else entirely.
Frank wasn’t a man who would come in easily.
We pulled up at the chopper, both breathing hard.
“Kayden.” I turned to face him. “I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I think we both want the same thing.”
“Yeah?” He pulled the door open. “What’s that?”
“The truth.”
He looked at me for a long moment. Whatever fight had been left in him down on that creek bank was gone. Something had shifted. Not trust exactly, but perhaps the beginning of it.
He gave me one short nod. “Get in.”
We climbed into the chopper, and as he pressed buttons and flicked switches, I said, “Glad we’re on the same page. So, while you’re flying me to Winton, you’re going to tell me everything you’ve been holding back.”
He nodded, then lifted the chopper off the ground.
It wasn’t much. But from Kayden Branson, it felt like it was everything.