One week later
Daintree, North Queensland
When the wound on Ellie’s head had healed and her headache was finally gone, Kane travelled to Queensland with her. They’d waited until after his mother’s funeral and driven to the airport the next morning.
Ellie knew her own healing could not begin until she spoke to her mother and told her that she’d been right about the farm – about her father’s death, and about the men who had wanted to use the place for its resources. The news she had was not the sort of thing she wanted to deliver by email or over the phone. When she’d asked Jock for more time off, he’d understood, knowing the ordeal she’d been through.
‘I owe you, Jock.’ Ellie hugged him.
‘No, I think you’ve done me a big favour.’
‘How’s that?’ Ellie tipped her head to the side, wincing a little as the plaster caught on her hair.
‘I think we finally have another pilot who’s going to hang around a while.’ Jock grinned at her. ‘No ex-wife likely to turn up looking for Kane, is there?’
Ellie smiled back. ‘Not that’s he’s mentioned. I’d better check.’
They landed in Cairns in the early morning and Kane drove to their hotel. Ellie yawned as the beaches flashed past her window. ‘Why is it that every flight seems to leave Darwin in the middle of the night?’ She looked over at Kane as he drove through the city. His tanned arms held the wheel confidently and the haunted look had left his eyes. His mouth was relaxed but Ellie knew he still had a way to go before he healed.
He had talked more about his flashbacks and the stressful memories that he carried inside him. ‘When I think about you on the side of the helicopter in the river . . .’ He shook his head slowly. ‘I’ve got another reason to have a bloody flashback.’
Ellie shivered; it would take her a long time to forget the fear that had gripped her while she waited for rescue. She had blocked the memory of the crocodile taking that man. She reached over and put her hand into Kane’s, and he squeezed her fingers. The shiver left her as he lifted them to his lips.
Kane was staying at the hotel while she drove to Emma’s by herself. ‘It’ll be better if it’s just you and your mum and sister.’ Ellie appreciated his thoughtfulness. She was seeing more and more of the real Kane every day.
Emma and Mum lived in a small cottage on the river in the little village of Daintree, north of Port Douglas. Ellie hadn’t called to say she was coming because she knew she would have blurted out what had happened. Her involvement in the rescue of Gina Johnson hadn’t made the papers; the only person the journalist had been interested in was the heavily pregnant wife of the Chief Minister.
David had called them on Monday afternoon. Apart from the committee members, they were the first to hear that the vote for the mineral exploration on the edge of Kakadu National Park had been emphatically defeated. David had spent time at police headquarters telling them what had happened. Of course Russell Fairweather had denied any involvement, but allegations about the industrialist were being investigated by an independent corruption body. The email from Panos that Ellie had found in her father’s old email account had been filed as evidence.
‘Don’t let that blackfella talk you out of Russell’s deal, Pete.’
Panos had also bragged about the money.
‘A million dollars is nothing to Fairweather. We’ll all be rich, mate.’
David was resigning from parliament. He’d told Kane and Ellie when they’d visited Gina and little Ellie Rose in the hospital before they headed back to Darwin with the children. He’d been eager to get back for the vote. Bill Jarragah, mortified by Heather’s actions, had followed them in his old Land Cruiser. David and Gina had elected not to press charges against Heather but the relationship between Ellie and Heather had been tested, and although Heather was contrite and doing her best to preserve their friendship, Ellie knew it would be some time before she’d be able to trust her again.
The small town of Dalrymple flashed past and Ellie shivered as she passed the crocodile warning sign on the river bridge on the northern side of town. A few minutes later she turned off the main road and drove along the river into Daintree.
Ellie parked the car beneath a spreading tree covered in red and orange flowers. A small punt was moored at the old wooden jetty. The boat was attached to a rope that hung across the narrow arm of the river. It was the quickest way to get to Emma’s Crooked Cottage unless you took the winding dirt road up through Cooper’s Creek. Ellie looked straight ahead and tried not to think of crocodiles as the rope pulled her across the narrow river.
She tied the punt to the post and pushed the gate open. Tears filled her eyes as her beautiful mother rose to her feet from a chair on the front porch and turned towards the front door.
‘Emma, come quick.’
The door opened and a wide grin crossed Emma’s face. ‘Ellie! What on earth are you doing here? Why didn’t you call?’
Ellie reached for her mother and blinked back the tears as the frail shoulders pressed against her arms.
‘I have something to tell you, Mum. It’s going to be hard for us to deal with. But it will help us move on.’
Ellie smiled at Emma as she held the door open and they went inside.