‘You don’t have to do the washing up every night,’ Jax said to Frances as she slid a covered bowl of coleslaw into the fridge.
The telephone conversation with Jack two hours earlier was still running wild in her mind. It had only been sheer willpower that had got her through the evening rituals of feeding the animals and making dinner. She’d had to force down each mouthful of steak and salad. She hadn’t been asked out very often in her adult life, but the way Jack had asked fuddled her brain. He’d used that deep, velvety voice to tell her he wanted to help her over the steep parts of Sunset Mountain and illegally pick her a bunch of wildflowers.
The latter was easily the most romantic declaration she’d ever received.
She turned to the sink and smiled at Frances’s back. ‘Although it’s great that you do help out. Thank you.’
Frances glanced over her shoulder. ‘You don’t have an accoutrements holder.’
‘A what?’
‘A thing to hold the scourer and the dishcloth.’
An accoutrements holder? Where had she got that long-winded word from? ‘Would you like me to buy one?’
Frances gave one of her I-don’t-care shrugs but the entire, short conversation had Jax worried. The child never needed to be asked to clean up and she put everything neatly away, too neatly.
‘How did your afternoon at the stables go?’
‘Fine.’
‘What did you do?’
‘Nothing. Billy fed the horses and I watched.’
‘Was Billy friendly?’
‘He was all right. He showed me how the Bluetooth thing works in his car while we drove out there, and he’s got some okay music to play. But he only uses his own car when he can’t get the work ute. He says fuel’s too expensive.’
‘Billy’s got a good heart, Frances, but don’t get too involved with him. His older brothers are troublesome.’
‘Was it them who knocked your fence down?’
‘We don’t know. Probably not. More likely it was boys out joyriding and they’ll be long gone now.’ She still thought it was the Baxters, and so did Jack, but he hadn’t spoken to them as far as she knew. Why wouldn’t he have done that by now? Surely it was the first thing a police officer would do. Unless he knew something she didn’t.
‘Why does everyone have such a big issue about Billy being bad?’ Frances asked.
‘Everyone?’
Frances dried her hands on a small towel and folded it tidily before hanging it—precisely placed next to the tea towel—on the steel handle of the range oven. ‘Officer Donna. Jack. You.’
‘Jack?’ Jax’s heart skipped a beat. ‘When did Jack talk to you about Billy?’
‘He was at the stables just before I left. He did a police check on Billy’s car. Probably because it’s got so much duct tape on it to hold it together. He told Billy not to drive fast and that if he did, I was allowed to tell him off.’
It was a relief to know that Solomon, Donna and Jack were keeping an eye on Frances. It was also amazing that they were having what felt like a normal conversation. Except it wasn’t normal. There was something going on and Jax wanted to know exactly what. ‘Did Billy get you brochures from the youth centre?’
Frances squared her shoulders and faced Jax. ‘He didn’t get any for me. He didn’t even offer to. I lied.’
Jax couldn’t see any of the usual huffiness on Frances’s face, so why was she admitting this? ‘Why did you lie?’ she asked gently.
‘To annoy you.’
Or to make a statement about how she felt about having been dragged out here to live with a mother she didn’t know or want. ‘Frances,’ Jax said softly. ‘You could never annoy me.’
Frances seemed surprised by this.
‘Would you like to join the youth centre?’ Jax asked, wondering if she did have an interest in the place after all.
Frances shook her head.
‘Would you like to at least go see it, when there’s nobody there, and talk to the person who runs it?’
‘I’m going next week. Jack asked me.’
Jack again. Her heart gave a warning beat this time. Was he getting close to Frances in order to discover more about her? ‘What did he say?’
‘He wants me to read through a speech he’s giving about drugs, so I can tell him if it’s in our “kid” language or if he’s going to make himself look stupid.’
Jax pushed her fingers into her worn, faded, much-loved pink jeans. Jack would never appear stupid, and as a police officer he’d know how to handle young people and he’d know how to make them sit up and listen without going in hard.
‘You’ll have to drive me into town that day if that’s going to be all right,’ Frances said. ‘Or maybe Jack will come and pick me up.’
‘I’ll take you. I’ll happily take you.’ She took a breath. ‘You might be in town a bit more often actually.’ She pulled out a chair from the pine table and sat. ‘With Rachel gone for the next few weeks, I can’t let Rosie take all the responsibility for running the café.’
This got Frances’s immediate attention. ‘Are you going to tell me I have to work there? Because I don’t want to. I’ve met plenty of people now. I don’t need to meet any more.’
She sounded almost frantic at the thought. Were people staring at her? Asking her questions? ‘I wasn’t going to tell you that. There’s no need for you to get a job.’ In the future, yes, it would be good for her to get a part-time weekend job, but not now, when she had so much adjusting to do. ‘But I need to work,’ Jax said, putting emphasis on herself. ‘I’ll need to be at the café three full days a week. I can’t have you here on your own. Before you arrived, I started clearing out one of the small back storerooms. I’ve painted it and hung curtains on the window. It can be your room. Your own room.’ She rushed on with her explanation because Frances’s mouth had opened and her eyes were full of the wariness Jax didn’t want to see anymore. She didn’t want her child to hurt so much. ‘We’ll get a desk and a new laptop for you. And we can take Bella.’ She smiled encouragingly. Bella had stayed inside last night and when Jax had got up early to attend to the dogs this morning, she’d peeked inside Frances’s room and discovered Bella asleep on the bed. ‘She’ll have to stay outside the café of course. But there are animal areas at the back, so she’ll be fine.’ She stopped talking. That was it. That was the deal. Would Frances take it without a fight?
‘Are Kirby and Winston going to be sleeping on the verandah tonight like they were last night?’
‘Yes,’ Jax said. She’d tethered them both on long leashes so they could get up to pee on the lawn or sniff around before settling back on the dog beds. But they’d know if someone was sneaking around, and being tied to the house, they’d feel the need to protect and they’d bark.
Frances looked away, chewing on her lip. ‘They’re Bella’s friends.’
‘I know.’
Frances didn’t say anything else but Jax wondered if she was thinking about how nice it might be if all three dogs stayed friendly together, in the house.
She wasn’t going to push it. ‘We’re moving the bull tomorrow,’ she said, standing. ‘So we’ll need to be in town by eight o’clock.’
‘Can I go to my room now?’
Jax nodded, and let her go. Was she settling a little? She had made friends. Billy, and Jack. What else could she, Jax, do for her? The hairdresser was coming out for her monthly visit next week. Maybe Frances would like to get her hair done, and her nails.
She scribbled a note on a pad on the table, reminding herself to book it in anyway. If Jax asked for some support, Rosie might cancel her trip to Kalgirri and they could all three of them get their hair and nails done. Jax, Rosie and Franca—Frances.
Jax heard a dog barking outside and moved from the table to peer out the window from behind the curtains. Another dog gave a yip, then there was silence. Was there someone out there watching the house? It felt like it, but it didn’t feel uncomfortable. Was it Jack? Was he out there?
She felt instinctively that he’d visit her tonight to tell her again how much he wanted to see her smile at him.
It gave her a thrill that he found her attractive, more of a thrill than she’d ever felt about any other man. And she did yearn to be with someone for the rest of her life—someone to have and to hold, someone to share smiles with. But she had to decide whether she had the courage to tell him about Michael and about how she’d let Frances go.
Her mind was a clutter of advice. Positive: let someone in. Negative: you’ll get your heart broken. You could fall in love with Jack in an instant if you let yourself.
She wanted to heal all the pain, for herself and especially for Frances—more than ever for Frances—and Jack was here in town, so tall and strong. He’d listen and he’d help. He already was by befriending Frances …
It can’t be Jack.
Would she have accepted him if nothing had changed; if Frances hadn’t been wounded by Michael and Linda? Would she have opened her heart and taken that big bunch of illegal flowers and whatever else he was offering? Would she have met up with him sometimes, every few weeks or months, and slept with him? Is that what he wanted? A part-time lover; someone to get all sexy, even romantic with, then go back to work until the next time their paths crossed.
But then he’d leave the area altogether. He’d be shifted out of Kalgirri and go back to Sydney.
It was too far to go just for sex.
Jack was so full of rage he could hardly see straight. The light from the desk lamp glowed in the otherwise darkened office at the station, but his vision was blinded with images he didn’t want to see.
He’d discovered what Michael Fellows had possibly been up to with a sixteen-year-old girl who worked at his accounting firm. It was a dog’s breakfast of a situation for the police. There was nothing incriminating to go on, just a few text messages with nothing solid to show real intent. But instinct would suggest to experienced police officers and officials that Fellows had been grooming the girl for sexual contact.
Given that instinct, and even though Fellows had got away with it, Jack wanted to know that the man was at least being observed, which is why he’d called an old friend, Vicky Lucas, a detective now working with a child protection squad in Geelong.
‘And?’ he asked after she’d filled him in on what had happened to Frances.
‘Jack,’ Vicky said patiently. ‘It’s not as though you haven’t seen a lot worse.’
He didn’t care. This was little Frances, the kid with the funny haircut and eyes like her mother’s. This one was personal.
‘Once Fellows thumped her unconscious he came out of his rage, according to a number of eyewitness neighbours and also the cops and the paramedics at the scene. He was all over the child, frantic at what he’d done.’
Jack didn’t give a shit. He’d done it.
‘Neighbours confirm the other man started it. He was pumped, and yelling over the fence that Fellows was a pervert. Fellows obviously didn’t see his daughter behind him and she copped a punch.’
To the head.
Fortunately, there’d been no long-term damage, other than concussion and five stitches to a cut on her forehead.
‘We followed it through ourselves,’ Vicky said, ‘but no witnesses wanted to give a statement. They didn’t want to be involved, so both men got a disorderly for fighting, and that was that.’
Jack already had that information from the check he’d run. It was information on Frances that he wanted. ‘Then what happened?’
‘Due to the text messages the parents contacted the police about, and then this incident, he was questioned thoroughly. We had his full cooperation. His record is clean; he hasn’t done this before—’
Except he had. With Jax. Undoubtedly. This is who had hurt her. Michael Fellows.
‘—or at least, we don’t know that he’s done it before,’ Vicky continued. ‘We can’t take it any further.’
‘You’re watching him?’
‘He punched his kid—you bet we’re watching him.’
They wouldn’t have someone on his tail 24/7 though. They didn’t have the resources. They’d only be watching for any alert that might come up on the system if he stepped out of line again. ‘Where is he now?’
‘Queensland. He upped and left his wife and kid without a backward glance.’
‘Then the step-mother didn’t want the kid either,’ Jack said, ‘and Isabelle Brown got custody of her daughter.’
Vicky sighed. ‘I can’t say too much about that. Although I’m guessing you’d like me to.’
‘No. It’s okay. I don’t need to know.’ He’d find out for himself.
He knew all there was to know about Fellows, but not about Fellows with Jax, or how he’d taken Frances off Jax. He was sure Jax had been coerced and ‘persuaded’ into giving up her baby. She couldn’t have been more than a few years older than Frances was now. Just the thought of what had happened, and how she might have got pregnant in the first place, near enough killed him.
‘Thanks for taking my call so late,’ he said to Vicky.
‘How’s life in the red dust?’
‘Easy. I might stay.’
She laughed. ‘Are you going back to Sydney?’
‘I appreciate everything you’ve told me, Vicky.’
‘No problem,’ she said. ‘But really, when are you heading back?’
‘I’m not. I’ve got it all here.’
Vicky laughed again, presuming he was joking.
He finished the call and snatched a breath. There was so much noise in his head, but a second after he put his mobile down, the sound of a door opening outside in the hallway had him alert and on his feet. It was almost 1 am. Everyone ought to be off shift.
When his office door opened, he grabbed his pistol from where he’d left it on the desktop.
‘Jesus Christ!’ Will said, stepping inside. ‘You scared the shit out of me.’
Jack might have said the same. He put his pistol onto the desk.
Will holstered his Glock. ‘What the hell are you doing at the station this late?’
‘Had something I needed to tend to,’ Jack said steadily. ‘How come you’re still on duty?’
‘Burglary. Farm equipment. Out at RDO 7845. It’s a hundred clicks north. We’ve been out there since 8 pm.’
Jack suddenly realised he hadn’t checked that all officers had signed off shift when he’d let himself back into the darkened station. After seeing Rosie, he’d read everything on the system about Fellows and had then gone to the studio flat above the newsagent’s to give himself time to figure out how to handle Jax. How to approach her. He’d changed out of uniform into jeans and a shirt and let himself back into the station, waiting it out because he hadn’t been able to get hold of Vicky that early in the evening and he’d wanted to speak to her while at his desk, in his office, so he had police access to anything he needed to see.
‘Next time you fancy popping into the office while off duty,’ Will said, ‘call me. Send me a text. Tweet me! I got the fright of my life!’
‘Will—’
‘Thought someone had broken in and all the alarms had been disabled.’ Will tilted the mic on his shoulder. ‘Stand down, Davidson. It’s Jack.’
‘Right, Sarge. Jesus. This is a first.’
‘Come on in and sign yourself out.’ Will let his mic go. ‘Jesus, all right,’ he said to Jack, his frown so deep any natural humour and likeability in the man was cloaked in adrenaline. ‘Davidson was out the back, weapon drawn.’
Jack gave him a few seconds to calm down. He was steady, disciplined and knew just about everything there was to know about policing. No wonder Luke trusted this man. Jack was about to do the same. ‘Will,’ he said again. ‘There’s a situation with the drug trafficking. Make sure Davidson signs out and leaves and I’ll tell you all about it.’
Instinct told Jack he needed backup, and he needed it here, on the ground, not from Kalgirri. The op wouldn’t treat any town issues with a priority, not wanting to blow cover while they pursued Bivic, but Jack was sure that trouble was on its way for Mt Maria.
Ten minutes later Will thumped his desk with his fist. ‘I knew it!’
‘Don’t go hysterical on me,’ Jack said.
Will eyeballed him. ‘Does Luke know?’
‘He knows I’m undercover, but not why. He suspects we’re looking for a drug ring though.’
‘So why are you telling me? Bloody detectives,’ he added, narrowing his eyes. ‘Coming in and taking over. Thinking they know it all.’
‘It’s not what I intended.’
‘But you didn’t think Luke and I could handle it, did you?’
Jack didn’t flinch from Will’s glare. ‘Not true.’
‘Does this Operation Blue Tongue lot know you’ve told me?’
‘No.’
‘So you’re going behind backs.’
‘Yes.’ That should give Will enough information to appease the situation to some degree. Detectives often put uniformed officers down, thumbing their noses at those who walked the streets, sometimes in danger, often in the firing line for any flak. Jack had never done this, at least he’d tried to keep it to a minimum, but he’d seen it happen, and sometimes it happened in a derogatory and aggressive manner.
‘And the trouble you’re here for—undercover—is now in our town,’ Will said. ‘Am I right?’
The first thought in Jack’s head was about how Will had called it our town, which meant he was including Jack in the ownership. But he didn’t have time to wrangle with that one just yet, or with his supposed decision that he was never going back to Sydney or maybe even to Kalgirri.
‘That DUI we sent back to Boondurra,’ he said to Will. ‘I want you to look into the theft of the two cats and the ram.’ His gut was telling him the stolen animals and the graffiti-style drawings were somehow connected to the drug dealing. ‘I want you to look at any thefts in the Northern Territory that might correspond to the gear we found, and ask about any recent known drug trafficking.’
‘I was told the detectives in Kalgirri are concentrating their search area around WA and South Australia.’
‘Yes, but you think the bull came from the Northern Territory—’
Will nodded. ‘There could be a connection. But are you bringing me in fully on this one? Whatever it turns out to be.’
Jack only had to think for a beat. ‘Yes,’ he confirmed. ‘But don’t say I told you so.’ He needed someone at his side, because Jax was undoubtedly in the firing line somehow, even if only on the sidelines of whatever was going on.
‘Great. You’re putting me in exactly the same position you put Luke in a few months ago,’ Will said. ‘I have to take orders from you, but I’m not allowed to let anyone know that I too am now working undercover. For a bloody detective.’
‘Sorry.’ He nearly added, ‘and it’s ex-detective, maybe ex-cop’ but didn’t want to explain to Will. Only to Jax. It was a new thought for Jack Maxwell too.
Will scoffed. ‘At least you’re including me,’ he said in a conciliatory tone, then lost the sarcastic look altogether. ‘That burglary out at RDO 7845. They hadn’t been using the tractor; it had been stored. They only noticed it missing when they discovered tonight that they’d had a dog taken. Someone snuck in and stole a puppy Bullmastiff.’
Jack paused. It wasn’t unusual for dogs to be stolen, especially certain breeds or certain types. ‘What else was stolen?’
‘Nothing. They could have taken a lot of expensive computer and sound system equipment from the shed where the mother dog and her pups were housed, but they left it. Just took the fattest little pup.’
‘There’s something weird going on, Will.’
‘Tell me about it. Bring me up to date on what you know and don’t leave anything out.’
‘I’ll switch the coffee on.’ Jack got up and went to the other side of the office, filling Will in on everything he knew about Operation Blue Tongue, the drug trafficking and Bivic, as the percolator brewed fresh coffee.
The association of the Baxters with Bivic gave him cause for concern. Bivic was known to have a mean sense of humour. ‘Someone’s been on Jax’s property,’ he said as he came to the end of the tale about the operation. ‘It could be the Baxters pissing about, but it might be Bivic, looking for some additional fun.’ He’d once kidnapped the girlfriend of a man who owed him 200 bucks, hacked into her social media accounts and posted disturbing, naked photos of her. For a laugh.
Jack took another sip of his coffee then put the mug down. It suddenly tasted bitter. ‘The Agatha Girls are involved somehow, too.’
‘Surely not,’ Will said. ‘They’d have told us if they’d come across anything dubious. Mrs Arnold might be a pensioner sleuth, but she would never stand in the way of the law.’
‘Maybe.’ But something was amiss with them. Mrs Frith in particular seemed to want to say things that Mrs Arnold felt were out of turn. ‘It’s Jax and Frances I’m really worried about. Solomon is too. He’s doing a night watch.’
Will’s eyebrows rose. ‘Is he armed?’
‘Don’t know.’ Both men stared at each other, then looked away, silently acknowledging the probability that Solomon was armed, and neither wanting to know. He was ex-Commando; they might need him again, as Luke had needed him when all the troubles for Rachel were brewing. Regardless of how much the man had pissed Jack off, he couldn’t help but feel a genuine trust in him.
‘I want you to keep an eye on Jax’s place in the day,’ Jack said. ‘I’m going to pair you with Donna.’
‘You’re bringing her in too?’
‘No. I’ve already gone too far telling you. We’ll just let Donna know the facts, not that I’m undercover.’ She’d police as she was supposed to. She’d also be watchful of her friend. ‘Until we know what this connection is between the animals and the drug trafficking, I don’t want any felon unnecessarily alerted.’
‘You think they’re hiding the drugs in the animals?’ Will asked, his features etched in disgust.
Jack shuddered. ‘I don’t think so. I bloody hope not.’ He took his focus off the images that suddenly appeared in his head. ‘I don’t know what’s going on, but somehow, the trafficking, the stolen gear from those two on curfew, and all the incidents concerning animals are associated. Although I get the feeling they’re sidelined, not one and the same.’
‘Bivic’s doing? Something on the side? For fun?’
Jack nodded.
‘What do we tell our officers?’
‘Let’s give them minimum info. Enough to have them keep their eyes peeled. We’ll play everything as normal. Tomorrow I’m supposedly on a rostered day off.’ Except he wouldn’t be. From now on he was on shift 24/7. ‘Let’s make people think that’s exactly what’s happening.’
He stood, shut down his computer and picked up his Glock, shoving it into the back waistband of his jeans. He’d said nothing to Will about Michael Fellows because that wasn’t an official issue, but there was one more thing he needed to police tonight and Jax was the only one who could give him information.
‘Where are you going with that weapon?’ Will asked.
‘Jax’s place.’ To have the conversation she didn’t want to have. ‘I’ll take the station mobile. Shut down the office, would you?’
Will stood, fronting him. ‘You can’t take that pistol. You’re not on shift.’
‘I’m undercover, Will. I’m still a detective. I can do what I want.’
Outside the cop shop, he pulled out his mobile and rang Solomon who he now knew was doing a night-time vigil at Jax’s place. ‘I’m heading out to see her. As soon as you see me arrive, you can piss off.’
He cut the call and got into the wagon.