Berry picked up her father’s notebook. She’d read it from cover to cover but still wasn’t any closer to an answer. She ran her hand over the black leather it was bound with.
Come on, Dad—what are you trying to tell me?
With a sigh, she opened the book again and flicked through the pages. There were scrawled notes about the gold, stories about Little Neddy and a dozen interviews with some of the older residents of Harlington. Berry had read over them a couple of times, and as far as she could see, there wasn’t any definitive proof that the gold ever existed. Perhaps this was just another one of her father’s wild ideas that never came to anything. Maybe the realisation that he’d spent months chasing ghosts helped push him over the edge that day—but she would never know.
It didn’t matter how much she wished it otherwise, maybe she needed to just come to terms with what her father had done. Logic demanded that no matter how she remembered him, he was still the same man who killed her mother and grandparents. There could be no absolution, the fact was that her loving father turned into a monster that day.
She turned to the back of the journal, where a couple of loose scraps of paper dislodged. She glanced at them, and though neither seemed to be particularly important, Berry noticed a small slit in the heavy cream endpaper. At first she thought it was a tear, but it appeared to be too precise. She ran her finger over it and thought she detected a thin lump, like something was hiding in it.
Berry hurried to the kitchen and placed the book on the bench. With the carving knife she carefully probed the paper slit.
It’s probably just a dead bug, she told herself but that didn’t stop the tendril of excitement growing within her.
She made the hole a little bigger and saw a corner of a folded piece of paper, which she carefully removed and unfolded. Berry’s eyes grew wide as she realised what she was looking at: a hand-drawn map of Stone Gully Farm. Past the paddocks and the dams, up to where that hard quartz reef ran through the property, her father had drawn a narrow gully. There was no X marks the spot but instead the word: Possibility.
Berry stared at it for another few seconds as she tried to take it all in. That’s all she needed: a possibility.
Nate was sitting at the kitchen table across from his dad. The house was quiet, with the girls at school and his mum off at lunch with friends. Nate always felt a slight awkwardness with his father, and usually his mum or sisters were there to buffer between them. However, today seemed different and Nate couldn’t put his finger on why.
They were eating roast beef and salad sandwiches, using up the leftovers from last night’s dinner. Nate had just taken another bite when his phone rang. He quickly tried to swallow as he got up from the table.
‘Senior Sergeant, how are you?’
‘Good, thanks. Listen, I just thought I’d give you a heads up. Worth has confessed to running Berry off the road and the graffiti. According to him, he panicked when he saw Berry driving back that night—he figured it was her because as he got closer he recognised her red car. He said that he didn’t want to hurt her, just wanted to scare her away without her realising it was him.’
‘So, running her off the road was the answer? Geez, you wouldn’t like to let me alone with him for a few minutes, would you?’ Nate asked.
‘Hmm, maybe that’s not such a great idea. Anyway, when I asked him why he wanted Stone Gully, he said that he’d made a deal with someone, and it was worth a lot to him.’
‘A deal—what deal?’ Nate asked.
‘Well, apparently he had a guaranteed buyer for Stone Gully, who was willing to pay premium price for it. His idea was that he could buy it for a low value, then on-sell it to his buyer. It would have made him a quick hundred grand.’
‘Really? Why would this buyer make a deal like that? Wouldn’t it have been easier to do it himself and not involve Laurie?’ Nate said.
‘Yeah, I know, it’s a bit strange. I guess this buyer, whoever it is, doesn’t want to be known,’ Rob Mendez explained.
‘Really? That’s crazy! Why would anyone go to such lengths to buy the place? There’s plenty of other real estate around!’
‘Yeah, it’s all a bit mysterious. So far, Worth hasn’t said who this buyer is, but I reckon I can get it out of him. Anyway, I just thought I’d let you and Berry know,’ Mendez said.
‘Yeah, thanks. I’ll tell her.’
‘Okay, great. I’ll talk to you later.’
‘Oh, just one thing—what did he say about the fire?’ Nate asked.
‘He says he had nothing to do with that, but I’ll get to the bottom of it.’
‘So, what was that about?’ Sam Tarant asked as Nate sat down again.
‘Oh, Laurie Worth has confessed to writing paint all over Berry’s door and driving at her.’
‘Why?’
‘Because apparently he was working on a deal with some mysterious buyer that would make him a shitload of money,’ Nate explained.
‘Really? Did he say who?’ Sam responded.
‘Well, if he had, it wouldn’t be a mysterious buyer, would it?’ Nate said.
‘Yeah, right.’ Sam said and then asked, ‘Hey, but what about the fire, did he own up to that?’
Nate frowned. ‘Police reckon it wasn’t him.’
‘Do you believe that?’
‘Not really.’
Sam nodded. ‘Me neither. It could have just been some stupid kids, but it was more than a campfire gone wrong, wasn’t it?’
‘Rob Mendez believes that it was intentional,’ Nate said.
‘Then I wonder who would do such a thing. Unless Laurie just doesn’t want to own up to it because he thinks he’s in enough trouble.’
Nate was about to answer when his phone rang again. He gave his dad an apologetic smile before silently mouthing Berry. Sam waved his hand as if to tell him to go ahead and Nate disappeared through the kitchen door, but he wasn’t gone long.
‘That was Berry, she wants me to go over once I’m finished here,’ Nate said as he slid back into his chair and put his phone on the table.
‘Anything important? Nothing else has happened, has it?’ Sam asked quickly.
Nate shook his head. ‘No, she just thinks she might be onto something,’ he explained. ‘She going out to check it out—told me to give her a ring when I come over so she can tell me where to find her.’
‘That sounds intriguing,’ Sam said as he glanced at Nate and gave him a slight smile.
‘Nah, probably not. I keep saying that the whole gold thing is just a fairytale. But at least it will give me some more time with Berry,’ he said.
Sam stared at his son for a moment too long. Long enough to make Nate a little uncomfortable, as if he were being studied like a bug under a microscope.
‘You really like her, don’t you?’ Sam said quietly.
‘I do,’ Nate replied. ‘Is that a problem?’
‘No, it’s not,’ Sam said before changing the subject. ‘Listen, I know that you want to get over to Berry’s but could you do me a favour first? Could take a run up to Bendigo for me? There’re a couple of outdoor lights that have blown and we need new ones.’
‘Which lights?’
‘The motion-detector ones. There’s one that isn’t working outside the stable and another near the back of the house. Now, I think Laurie Worth is responsible for the fire, but if we’re wrong, then I don’t want anyone messing around our horses, especially Constantine. You know, sometimes it’s good to play it safe.’
‘No, you’re right. If I leave now, I’d probably be back by three,’ Nate said.
‘Sorry to do this to you,’ his father added. ‘I just think it’ll be one thing that we don’t have to worry about.’
Nate got up from the table and carried his plate over to the sink. He turned around and said, ‘I’ll take off now. How do I know which ones to get?’
‘I put one of the empty boxes on the shelf by the back door so I wouldn’t forget,’ Sam said.
‘Great, I’ll get going then,’ Nate said as he gave his dad a wave and headed towards the back door.
Sam sat there for a moment and looked down to where his son had been sitting. Nate’s phone was still on the table. He heard the back door close and after another minute or two Nate’s ute firing up. There was still time to tell him that he forgot his phone but instead Sam sat there, finished his coffee and said nothing.
Berry took a few minutes to throw some items into her backpack. She packed a foldable spade she’d found in the shed, a torch, a mini first-aid kit, a sandwich, banana and a bottle of water. She didn’t know how long she’d be gone but she wanted to have some sort of a plan. Grabbing the map, her phone and her sunglasses, she turned and walked out the back door.
The gully that her father had drawn on the map was right up past the far paddock. It was going to take her quite a while to walk there.