Stephen continued to retch almost unnoticed by the other three. They stood staring down in horror.
At last Graham spoke. “He’s dead alright. And you don’t need to be a doctor to see he didn’t drown,” he said.
“You’re right there,” agreed Peter, bending to look more closely, his face a mask of grisly fascination.
“Is that a bullet hole in his forehead?” Graham asked.
Peter bent closer. “Could be. Don’t know. If it is, it came out here, on the left side.” He pointed at the mangled mess Roger had already observed.
Roger eyed the evidence of violent death and felt nauseous. “How long has he been dead do you think?” he asked.
They eyed the man’s skin, all swollen and wrinkled from the water. The sight was so horrible Roger couldn’t take his eyes off it. The eyes of the dead man were still open - dilated but dulled.
“Can’t tell,” Peter decided. “There’s no blood.”
“Don’t bodies sink?” Roger queried. “At least till they start to decompose and the expanding gasses give them buoyancy.”
“Aah Roger!” wailed Stephen, who turned away to gag again.
The boys debated this for a while. Then Peter asked, “What will we do?”
“Get dressed first,” said Roger, who had suddenly realised he was shivering with cold. A glance at his naked body made him feel intensely self-conscious, and also very aware of his mortal frailty.
The boys were distracted from their problem for a few minutes while small hand towels were dug out of packs. Roger and Graham dried themselves and quickly dressed. Both found their teeth chattering involuntarily until they had begun to warm up.
“We’d better tell the police,” Stephen suggested.
“Yes, at once,” Graham agreed. “And we will certainly have to wait till they’ve interviewed us.”
“There goes our hike,” Peter said morosely.
“Looks like it,” said Graham.
“Is this trouble?” Roger asked.
Graham looked puzzled. “Trouble?” he replied. “I don’t see how it could involve us, other than being an unpleasant experience and an inconvenience.”
“No. I meant should we phone Captain Conkey?” Roger replied.
Graham thought for a moment, then reluctantly nodded. “Yes. He needs to know. It will annoy him if he finds out from someone else. We will tell the police at the same time. Who feels like a run back to the kiosk on the other side of the dam?”
Stephen put his hand up at once. “I’ll go,” he volunteered.
“I’ll go with you Steve,” Peter added.
Graham nodded. “Yes. Both go. Look, don’t tell anyone, just the police and Captain Conkey. We don’t want a crowd of tourists here.”
Peter nodded. “Right you are. Come on Steve.” he said. He set off up the track. Stephen needed no second bidding. He fairly sprinted up to the road and did not once look back.
Graham looked at his watch. Ten past twelve. “I reckon we’ll have a good half hour to wait, minimum.”
“Where’s the nearest police station?” Roger asked.
“Not sure. Atherton I suppose.”
“Should we search his pockets for identification do you think?” Roger asked. He walked to the other side of the body to peer at the man’s shoes.
“No. Definitely not. Just leave him for the police,” Graham replied.
“Should we cover him up?” Roger asked.
“What with? You can if you like. I think I’ll just move away a bit,” Graham answered. Then Roger saw him shiver. Graham trembled so much Roger worried he had taken a chill from the water.
Graham dug in his pack for his pullover and walked back up the track to sit on some rocks in the sun. “Come up here Roger. We can watch the road and it’s out of the wind,” he called.
Reluctantly Roger joined him. He couldn’t stop looking at the body. “Do you think he was murdered or did he shoot himself?” he asked.
Graham gave him a jaundiced look. “I wish you’d change the subject. How do I know? I’m not a bloody forensic scientist.”
“I wonder who killed him and why?” Roger speculated.
Graham kept looking along the road towards the dam. “The others should be back soon. Ah! Here they come now. No. No it’s not. It’s more than two.”
Roger stood up to look. A line of people walking in single file had appeared around the bend. “They’re Scouts,” he said.
Graham looked horrified. “Crumbs! We don’t want them to see this.”
Roger bit his lip and nodded. “I’ll go and warn them,” he said. Without waiting for an answer he strode off along the road to meet the advancing column, now some forty or fifty in number with several Scout leaders.
The four friends were also Senior Scouts and as Roger walked to meet the Scouts he vaguely remembered hearing that there was a Scout gathering this week at Camp Barrabadeen but as it wasn’t for Seniors he hadn’t taken much notice. Then his face broke into a smile as he recognized the tall, thin man with the moustache and glasses leading the line. It was ‘Silver Wolf’, the leader of their troop.
The two greeted each other with a Scout salute, Roger a bit self-consciously in his army uniform. He fell into step beside the Scout leader and quickly appraised him of the problem.
‘Silver Wolf’s’ eyebrows rose. “The body is on the beach and visible from the road. Hmm! Oh blast! Another car.” He stopped and shrilled a whistle. The line of Scouts all stopped and stepped to the side. The car roared past. “Well, road safety comes first. We will just have to hurry them past. I’ll just have a word to ‘Brown Owl’.” He called to a solid man in his fifties who walked up to them.
The man’s cheerful smile died at the news. “Oh well. We will just go on,” Brown Owl decided.
“I’ll stay with these lads till the police come if you don’t mind,” Silver Wolf said.
Brown Owl nodded. He blew his whistle and waved the Scouts on. When they reached the little path Roger and Silver Wolf stopped. Graham joined them. The body was clearly visible, but only if you looked. Roger turned his back on it to talk to the boys to distract them. Some he knew, so he could make smart comments.
The plan half worked. Some of the young boys saw the body and pointed and the rumour ‘accident’ went along the line but most were too hot and footsore from their hike to care.
As the last boy went past, Silver Wolf turned and led the way down to the body. Roger felt very relieved that they now had an adult there with them.
The Scout Master pursed his lips as he bent to examine the head wound. After a careful look he stood up. “He’s certainly been dead a while and shot for sure. But I’m sure I’ve seen him before. He looks like the old man who drove up to Platypus Lookout yesterday morning. We were just leaving on a nature walk when he arrived. He was driving an old blue car, a Datsun I think it was.”
Roger looked up. “Here are the Police.”
A police car had pulled up on the side of the road. Out of the back climbed Peter and Stephen and from the front two uniformed policemen. The group waited while they walked down.
Both Roger and Graham were surprised to recognize the senior of the policemen. It was Senior Constable Grey, although now he wore the rank of sergeant.
Sergeant Grey grinned at them. “G’day young Kirk. G’day Tubby. I just knew, the moment I heard that if four kids on a hike had fished a body out of the lake, which four it would be. How are you?”
He shook their hands and they mumbled hellos. Roger was nettled by that ‘Tubby’ and kept back a bit.
Graham gestured to the three chevrons on the policeman’s rank slide. “Have you been promoted Sir. I mean Sergeant,” he asked.
Roger looked at Sergeant Grey and shuddered. He had vivid memories of their earlier meetings during some adventures on the Kuranda Railway two years before.
Sergeant Grey nodded. “Yeah. The powers that be finally realized what potential they were missing,” he replied. He turned to Silver Wolf and introduced himself and the constable with him. “This is Constable Widmark. Now let’s have a look at this stiff.”
They moved over to the body. The policemen examined it for a few minutes and Sergeant Grey questioned the boys on how they had discovered it. When told Roger had swum out and towed it ashore he gave the Roger an appraising look. That nettled Roger even more with its implication that Sergeant Grey probably thought him fat and soft.
The constable searched the body then stood up. “Nothing Sarge. Not a thing in any of his pockets.”
“Looks like it was murder then. Any labels or name tags on the clothes? Look inside the shoes too,” Sergeant said. Then he turned back to the boys. Roger and Stephen both kept staring as the constable peeled the coat from the corpse.
Sergeant Grey said, “Now, tell us what you were doing here. I’ll have to get full statements from each of you and I will have to do that with your parents or a solicitor or some other such adult there.” He looked up at the Scout Master. “Could you do that Sir?”
Silver Wolf assented. Sergeant Grey thanked him and went on, “I can take notes now but they need to be typed up and checked and so on.”
Roger pulled a long face. He didn’t like the policeman and this would surely spoil their hike.
Sergeant Grey glanced at him and saw his expression. “Why so glum? What’s the matter?” he asked.
“Because we are on our five day expedition for our Duke of Edinburgh badge and this will ruin it,” Roger replied.
The boys then explained why they were there. Sergeant Grey nodded. “Yes, I see what you mean. Look, don’t get distressed. We’ll try to get it done as quickly as we can. This case is out of my hands anyway. As a Homicide or Suspected Homicide it’s CIB stuff. There’ll be some Detectives on their way here by now.”
“Where from Sergeant?” Peter asked.
“Mareeba for sure. Maybe Cairns.”
The boys did the calculation in their heads. “That’ll be hours!” Roger said.
“’Fraid so.”
Graham looked at his watch. “Can we go, or do we have to stay till they get here?” he asked. Roger saw that it was now twelve twenty five.
“I want you to stay. I’m sorry. While we wait I’d like you to help me get your stories down on paper,” Sergeant Grey said. Then he looked up and frowned. A car full of tourists had pulled up and people were getting out. “Widmark, tell them to push off,” he ordered. “Stay up there and keep people away.”
The constable stood up and hurried up the track. The tourists were ordered to move on.
“This road is pretty damned busy,” Sergeant Grey growled as two more cars went past, kicking up clouds of dust.
“It’s the school holidays Sergeant, so there’s more traffic,” Stephen explained.
Sergeant Grey gave a sarcastic laugh. “You don’t have to tell me!”
Stephen flushed and looked away.
Sergeant Grey then asked if they wanted him to contact their parents.
“Oh no! Don’t do that!” Roger wailed. “My mum will take me home and that will mean no hike for me.”
Silver Wolf spoke up. “I’m sure their parents would be happy for me to witness their statements Sergeant. They’ve been in my troop for years.”
Sergeant Grey nodded. “That’ll do. We’ll get handwritten statements today and they can come in with their parents to sign typed copies after their hike.”
The boys brightened up at that. Sergeant Grey went to the police car and returned with a plastic folder and writing paper. He then had each boy in turn sit and give his story while Silver Wolf listened. Constable Widmark was told to cover the body and to chase away some more curious sightseers.
While he waited, Roger was a bit amused to see that Stephen kept casting nervous glances at the now shrouded body every minute or so. It gave him some satisfaction after all the jibes Stephen had flung at him over the years. He noted that Stephen looked so pale that his freckles were much more noticeable.
An hour went by. The boys became a bit bored and restless.
Roger felt his stomach grumble. “I’m hungry. Can we have lunch?” he asked.
Stephen looked at him with a shocked expression on his face. “Roger! How could you possibly eat near a ... near a..” he tailed into silence.
Sergeant Grey thought it a good idea. He told them to collect their gear and move it up to the edge of the road and to have lunch.
“More like afternoon tea if you ask me,” grumbled Graham. “It’s nearly two o’clock. We’ve lost nearly four hours.”
Peter was the last to be interviewed and he had just joined them when two more police vehicles arrived; a car and a Landcruiser.
Three men in suits, obviously detectives, emerged from the car. The police photographer and fingerprint man emerged from the Landcruiser. An ambulance arrived and stopped. More tourist cars began stopping but were moved on.
The boys sat on a rock and watched while Sergeant Grey explained things to the leader of the Detectives. He was a thin man of medium height with a hatchet nose, bristly moustache and close cropped black hair. Sergeant Grey pointed at the boys and Roger saw all the faces turned to look. That made him feel as though he wanted to hide.
They were called down and introduced.
“This is Detective Inspector Sharpe. He will be in charge of the investigation,” said Sergeant Grey. Inspector Sharpe looked at each in turn and had each state their name. When Roger’s turn came he stuttered from concern.
Inspector Sharpe frowned irritably. “What’s that? Speak up boy!” he snapped. Roger looked into two hard black eyes which seemed to reach inside his skull and he shivered. With an effort he swallowed and cleared his throat. “Roger Dunning Sir,” he said.
“You swam out and pulled the body ashore?” Inspector Sharpe asked.
“Yes Sir.”
“That was a brave thing to do. I think these boys have done a very good job, don’t you Bob?” He turned to a burly Detective Sergeant beside him, who grunted assent.
Raised voices on the road attracted their attention. Roger looked and saw that Captain Conkey, still in civilian clothes, had arrived. The constable allowed him to park his car and then join them. As he walked down Captain Conkey looked at them with a mildly annoyed expression.
“I didn’t even have time to get home before I hear you are in trouble,” he said.
“Oh sir!” Roger expostulated.
Captain Conkey introduced himself. He obviously already knew Silver Wolf and Roger thought he detected a degree of reserve between the two men. That made Roger feel even more uneasy. Over the last year or so his own interest in Scouts had declined as he had risen in rank in the army cadets and that bothered his sense of loyalty.
Twenty minutes went by while the situation was again explained and Captain Conkey decided if they could go on with their hike. He asked Inspector Sharpe, who agreed.
“Can we go now Sir?” Graham asked.
“If Sergeant Grey and DS Crowe have all the details, yes. Where are you boys off to?”
“Platypus Lookout to look for a clue,” Graham answered, glancing at Captain Conkey as he did.
Inspector Sharpe raised his right eyebrow. “Clue?”
Captain Conkey explained their hike, then concluded: “So they have to go there to search for a clue which tells them where to go next.” He looked at his watch and added, “And if you don’t mind, I will fly. I have to go to a dinner tonight in Mareeba and before that I will need to phone and incident report to the army HQ in Townsville; and I’ve now driven here twice today.”
“By all means Captain. We will be in touch if we need you,” Inspector Sharpe agreed.
Captain Conkey looked at the boys. “Now you lot stay out of trouble and I will see you on Friday. Good luck and take care.”
“Yes sir,” they chorused as he waved farewell and hurried up the track to his car.
Graham looked at the sky and said. “We should make it to Platypus Lookout before dark if we go fast.”
Inspector Sharpe nodded and asked, “Would you like a lift?”
Graham and Peter shook their heads. “No thanks Sir,” replied Graham. “We have to walk the distance.”
“Where will you be camping, in case we need to ask you something?” Inspector Sharpe asked.
“At one of the campsites. We’ve got a permit,” Graham replied, tapping his map pocket.
Silver Wolf then interrupted. “You just reminded me. I’m sure I saw this man at Platypus Lookout yesterday morning.” He described what he had seen.
Inspector Sharpe listened intently while the Detective Sergeant jotted notes. “We will have a look there later. If you boys see anything there don’t disturb it and let us know,” Inspector Sharpe cautioned. Then he turned back to Silver Wolf. “Do you want a lift Sir?”
“No thanks. I’m only going to Camp Barrabadeen.” He pointed across the arm of the lake to a timber clad headland. “I’ll walk with the boys. It’s only a couple of kilometres to the turnoff.”
The boys moved off up the track, Stephen leading. Roger came last. Graham took off his pullover and packed it while the others pulled on their basic webbing and packs. Silver Wolf joined them. At a call from Inspector Sharpe the ambulanceman went down with a stretcher.
“The body looks more spooky under that blanket than it did just lying on the beach,” Roger commented.
Graham and Peter both looked but Stephen kept his face averted. “Shut up Roger!” he hissed.
“Let’s go!” Graham ordered emphatically.