Chapter 12 #3
Bazza took the money and got the hell outta town. Never saw him again. No investigation into how he lost his leg. No questions. No consequences. Just a bloke with one leg and a fat bank account, and me still runnin Koolaroo like nothin happened.
Turns out when you got a wall full of cash and nobody keepin track, it’s pretty easy to help yourself.
That damn fool politician who wanted to put a runway on our land? Cash.
The tax auditor who came knockin? Cash.
The asshole who didn’t wanna renew my driver’s license ‘cause of my eyesight? Cash.
Bob’s money made issues disappear. And he never knew a fuckin thing. It was a double-edged blade, though. All that cash, and I couldn’t put it into Koolaroo. Not with Declan running the accounts. That dipshit wants everythin by the book.
How fuckin ironic, that Koolaroo is richer than it’s ever been, yet we can’t spend a cent of it.
Just like the mountain of cash I nicked before I took off. Can’t spend it. Don’t know what I’ll do with it. But when I figure that out, the whole world’s gonna know who Bob Ackerman is.
Wish I was gonna be there to see that.
So, here’s my lesson for you boys.
Every problem’s got a price. The trick is makin sure someone else pays it.
“That’s it,” Sapphire said, lowering the note.
Cassidy held out her hand. “Can I read what he wrote about me?”
Sapphire passed the note across the table.
“Can I ask,” Bella said, from the end of the table. “Did you find Frank at that house?”
“No.” Sapphire glanced at me. “You want to tell them what we did find?”
“No, you can,” I said. “Are you going to sit?”
Sapphire pulled out the chair I’d offered her earlier and finally sat. She opened her hands on the table and let out a slow breath. “When we arrived at William’s house, we found two bodies on the kitchen floor.”
Bella gasped and pressed her hand to her mouth, but the following beat of silence was absolute.
“Who were they?” Mitch asked.
“Bruce and Wayne Henderson,” I said.
Cassidy let out a short, hard sound that wasn’t quite a laugh. “Good.” She put the note down flat on the table. “Those bastards lit a fire that nearly killed me and Xavier. Good riddance.”
“Cass,” Mitch said.
“Don’t.” Her tone was so toxic it could strip paint. “Don’t Cass me, Mitch. They tried to kill us. Both of us. I’m not going to pretend I’m sorry.”
Xavier’s hand found her shoulder. She let it stay.
“Who killed them?” Mitch’s gaze swept between me and Sapphire.
“We haven’t completed a thorough investigation, so I can’t make a definitive—”
“Frank or Bob?” Mitch cut in. “Just tell us.”
“We don’t believe Bob was the perpetrator,” Sapphire said.
Mitch eyeballed Sapphire. “You think Frank killed them?”
“We believe so, yes.”
“Bloody hell.” Declan scraped his hand down his beard. “Frank’s done a lot of shocking things, but murder?”
“I know.” I raised my hands. “Here’s what we know,” I said, pulling the attention off Sapphire.
I took them through all of it. Lyle’s call out at the creek.
Flying to Winton. How we found the bodies.
The knife in Bruce, and Wayne being hogtied.
Bob destroying evidence. Bob’s phone call about the bounty on Frank.
Bob shooting at us. All of it, in order, without softening any of it.
Nobody spoke. Nobody moved. Even Cassidy sat completely still, which was damn rare.
Footsteps sounded along the hallway, and Rose stepped into the dining room carrying a tray of sandwiches, which she set down at the end of the table.
Bella stood. “Would everyone like drinks? Beer, coffee?” She looked directly at Sapphire.
“A cup of tea would be great, thank you.”
“Beer for me,” I said.
“I second that,” Cassidy said.
Rose handed a plate to me.
“Thanks, Rose,” I said. “I’m starving.”
She patted my good shoulder. “Want me to bring the first aid kit in?”
“I’ll get it later, thanks.”
Rose nodded and left the room.
As we passed around the tray of food, and Bella ferried the drinks in, I leaned toward Sapphire. “You okay?”
“I will be when we sort this out.” She looked at my bloody arm. “You’re not, though. You need that wound looked at. You might need stitches.”
“I’ll get it checked later. This is more important.”
Once everyone had a feed, and Bella returned to the table, I told them about Bob taking off in his car, and how we’d gone back into William’s house, and the bloody mess in the bathroom.
“So, you think Frank’s wounded?” Declan said.
“That’s our guess. And pretty bad, too. There was a lot of blood.”
“Maybe he’ll go to a hospital,” Charlie said.
“Doubt it,” I said. “We think Frank’s come back here.”
“What the hell? Why?” Cassidy said.
I gave them our theory about Frank and Bob wanting to kill each other. Then I looked at Sapphire, then at the Chivas box.
Sapphire opened the box and pulled out the next folded note, then looked around the table. “I came out here this morning as Bob’s cop. I’m not anymore. Bob is corrupt. I witnessed that with my own eyes, and I’m absolutely shocked by that. I trusted him. Believed in him.”
She swallowed hard. “He fooled me, and I hate that he did. But I guarantee this, he will not get away with what he’s done, and neither will Frank.
” She let that land for a second, her gaze moving around the table.
“I need you to know that my only job right now is finding Frank and stopping Bob.” She paused. “I’m asking you to trust me.”
She looked at each of them in turn, the way she had this morning, except there was no chirpy smile this time, and no jotting notes in her notebook.
“I could’ve taken this box of evidence straight into custody.
I didn’t. I brought these notes here because I need your help.
I’m hoping that shows the trust I’m putting in you, and I hope you know you can trust me. ”
“She’s right,” I said, glancing around the table. “Every single thing she just said.” I looked at Sapphire. “And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry it took me this long to say it.”
Mitch leaned forward, pressing his hand to the table as he met my gaze. “I believe you. I also trust you. You have my word that we will help you, but I can’t guarantee what will happen when we find Frank.”
Mitch was right. After everything we’d discovered since Frank had disappeared, every one of my siblings had a reason to want Frank dead.
And once they’d read his confessions, we’d probably be fighting over who would kill him.