5.30 am Saturday
Makowa Lodge
‘We’re missing something.’ Ellie put her head down onto the table. ‘There’s nothing here that incriminates Fairweather.’
While they had waited for morning to arrive, David had stared at his phone but it had remained silent; there was no further contact from Fairweather. Ellie had opened her email, and she and Kane trawled through the files that Emma had sent over until the first rays of light tinged the eastern horizon.
Sordina’s early connections to the shadowy figure of Russell Fairweather had become increasingly obvious. They Googled both names together and came up with even more connections. In the Darwin social pages. At the races. A game of golf. Early newspaper reports of their association came to an abrupt halt about the time that Ellie’s father had died and Sordina had bought the property. The file Ellie’s mother had labelled ‘P_Sord’ was a series of photos of Sordina and Fairweather that were six years old. There was no indication of any association between them after Sordina had been elected to parliament. Strangely, not one hit on the search engine. And there was nothing to explain why her mother had even included them with all of the articles on fracking.
‘It shows us there was a connection between Sordina and Fairweather,’ David said.
As they’d pulled up each report, parliamentary committee minutes and newspaper article, they were confronted by evidence of the dangers of hydraulic fracking; the amount of water alone needed for each drilling operation had astounded Ellie. With the wet season in the Territory dumping metres of rain each year, it was easy to see why Kakadu was such an attractive location for the process. In most areas, water had to be trucked in with tankers; in Kakadu it fell from the sky. Her mother had listed links to hundreds of articles on the carcinogens and toxic chemicals that had to be pumped into the wells.
‘The contamination of the ground water would spell the end of Kakadu.’ Ellie stared at David as he yawned and put his hand over his mouth. Exhaustion was evident in every line of his face and his eyes were bloodshot. He’d spent the night alternating between sitting at the computer with Kane and Ellie, and resting beside his sleeping children. Twice they’d had to convince him not to go tearing out to search for Gina. He’d gone back to the apartment and collected some clothes and toys for Andrew and Binny.
Ellie tried not to stare at the red scarf he’d brought back with him and now held in his hand. His fingers played with it as he sat beside her.
‘Look at this one. Fracking even causes minor earthquakes.’ Ellie pointed to the link on the screen.’
Kane’s deep voice interrupted her. ‘Look, there’s no doubt that your mother has done a lot of research into this. She obviously believes there is a connection between Sordina and Fairweather but there’s still nothing here to incriminate either of them. We’ve spent hours and we’re no closer to any information about your old place than we were when we started.’
Ellie dropped her head into her hands. ‘I know.’
‘Could you talk to her? Find out what alerted her to Fairweather in the first place?’
Reluctantly, Ellie lifted her head and looked at him. ‘I guess I’m going to have to talk to her about it, aren’t I?’
‘After we find Gina.’ Kane folded his hands on the table and the authoritative tones of his voice filled the room. ‘So this is what we are going to do. How many of the staff here do you know and trust, Ellie?’
David went to speak but Kane raised his hand. ‘We have to involve others. The park is way too big to try to do it ourselves. You want to find your wife. We need help.’
Ellie thought for a moment. ‘You’ve met most of them. There’s Terry and Steve. Jan, Jock, Amanda. Roscoe and his two boys.’
‘Are you sure you trust them all?’
‘Absolutely.’
‘What about Bill?’ Kane stared at her.
‘I would trust him with my life. He’s always been like a second father to me.’
‘Okay, this is what we’re going to do. David and I will go up to the farm. The house is empty and they, or he or whoever, might have taken Gina there. They’ve already got their thugs up there guarding the place.’ His jaw was set as he fired instructions off. ‘Ellie, can you get someone to look after the children this morning?’
She nodded.
‘What time do the guys start work at the lodge?’
‘They get together for a cuppa and plan the day’s work over at the workshop about seven o’clock.’
‘I want you to go over there and speak to the group you can trust. See if they can think of anywhere that Gina could be hidden around here. An old shed, an abandoned farm. Anything. Get them to keep a look out as they travel around.’
David shook his head. ‘I’m not sure about this. What if it gets back to Fairweather?’
‘Do you have a better plan?’
‘No. I guess I’ll just have to trust your judgment.’ David glanced down at his watch. ‘It’s almost six-thirty.’
‘I’ll ask Jan to come and babysit and then I’ll make us some coffee.’ Ellie turned to the laptop. ‘Wait a minute, there’s one email I haven’t opened.’ The message had come in last night but she’d left it as there were no attachments. She clicked on the subject and scrolled down. ‘Yes! I asked Em to see if Mum knew the password to Dad’s Gmail account and she’s sent it to me.’
‘Daddy!’ David pushed his chair back and went over to the sofa as Binny stirred.
Ellie watched David gather the little girl into his arms and the lump that had been stuck in the back of her throat all night came slamming back. The email was forgotten as she watched David hold his daughter close. Ellie swallowed and caught Kane’s gaze, not surprised to see a sheen of tears clouding his eyes.
‘Where’s Mummy?’ Binny asked.
David caught Ellie’s eye and the anguish in his expression tore at her. ‘She’ll be back soon.’
‘With our new baby?’ Binny climbed down from her father’s arms. ‘I’m hungwy, Daddy.’
‘I’ve got some breakfast cereal and long-life milk in the cupboard.’ Ellie moved the laptop to the benchtop in the kitchen as David carried the little girl over to the table. She pulled out some bowls and put it all on the table for David, and then went back to the computer.
The quiet voices of the children were forgotten as she successfully logged into her father’s email account.
‘How sad is this.’ She sniffed and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand as Kane gently squeezed her shoulder. ‘Emails to Dad. Still being sent five years after he died.’
It took a few minutes to scroll back through pages and pages of newsletters and ads covering the last five years. ‘Look, there’s a few emails from Panos to Dad, just before he –’ Ellie took a quick breath and narrowed her eyes as she leaned closer to the computer. ‘Oh my God. Read this.’
She turned to Kane and a huge grin crossed his face as he read the email open on the screen in front of him.
‘We’ve got him, David. We’ve nailed the bastard.’