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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.

Chapter 38

Gunumeleng, late October

Porter Farm

Ellie turned her car off the highway and drove into Kane’s farm. She tried not to think of it as the ‘old farm’ these days. It belonged to him now and although she still had her apartment at Makowa Lodge she’d been spending more and more time here. Kane had tried to convince her to move in, but she wanted to take it slow.

The wet season was not far off and the air was becoming more and more humid. Thunderstorms would build each afternoon and the showers were greening the land. The streams were beginning to run, and the dams filling. Kane had just caught the end of the dormant season. He’d purchased two hundred propagated mango plants and they had planted them in the front paddock. Together they’d dug two hundred holes and mixed fertiliser.

And laughed. And teased each other. And begun to move on from the losses of the past winter.

The machinery in the boundary paddock had been taken away and was being stored in a police compound in Darwin while the investigation into Panos’ murder and the inquiry into the illegal drilling were underway. Black Coal Holdings had been registered to Sordina. As far as they could ascertain, there was no evidence to link Russell Fairweather to the company, or to the murders of either Panos or her father. Mick Dawson – Henry as Ellie had known him – was the only connection, and he was dead. Fairweather had publicly expressed regret that one of his staff had been involved in the attempt on Ellie’s life. Again there was no concrete evidence to implicate him.

Ellie parked the car, climbed the new steps and pushed open the door of the house. Looking around with pleasure, she dropped the keys onto the kitchen table. In the end they’d decided not to demolish the old house. Too many of the memories were good ones. Kane had had the place gutted and it amazed Ellie how he’d been able to get local contractors to work at short notice. Kane’s demeanour had lightened and he was becoming known and well-liked around the district, as well as at Makowa Lodge where he still worked as the second pilot.

The kitchen, the bathroom and the main bedroom were finished and the other rooms were lined with drop sheets as the painters prepared to commence work. Mum and Emma and Dru were coming for a visit at Christmas, and as Kane insisted on telling her, there wasn’t room in her place at the lodge for all of them. Today, she had news for him. She’d told Jock she’d be giving up her apartment and moving back here. Kane was taking up the sunset flights this afternoon, so Ellie had offered to cook dinner and had called into the supermarket at Jabiru on her way home.

‘Steak and veg, please.’ He’d placed his order as she’d left him in the hangar and accompanied it with a long kiss.

‘You are such an Aussie bloke.’ Ellie smiled against his lips. ‘Steak and three veg it is.’ It was probably not professional, but there had been no one around to see when he’d lifted her shirt and placed his hands on her bare skin.

Ellie opened the fridge and put the groceries in before she headed to the bathroom for a shower. She heard the front door open as she was drying off.

‘You’re early. I haven’t even started dinner yet.’ Knotting the towel above her breasts, she pushed open the bathroom door.

A short, heavyset man in a suit was standing just inside the front door at the end of the long hall that ran down the centre of the house. Kane hadn’t mentioned any contractors coming this afternoon. Taking a step backwards, she pulled the towel together tightly. Cold dread washed over her as she recognised him.

‘I’m sorry. I wasn’t expecting you.’ Ellie forced a pleasant smile onto her face. ‘Please wait in the kitchen. I’ll be with you in a moment.’

Her skin rose in goosebumps when a strange smile crossed his face.

‘But Ellie, you must have known I would come for you eventually.’

‘Who are you? What do you want?’ Her whisper was soft as her heart began a slow heavy beat. Fairweather’s photo had been in the papers almost daily since the corruption inquiry had begun. But she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of letting him know she knew exactly who he was.

It wasn’t over, like they had thought, but she wasn’t going to play his game.

‘It seems I made a mistake in underestimating you.’ He took one step towards her and Ellie pushed back against the wall. ‘The same as I misjudged your father. And I never make mistakes. Do you know how much you’ve cost me?’

Ellie shook her head. If she could keep him talking, it wouldn’t be long until Kane was home. ‘Tell me. I have no idea. According to the papers, you have nothing to answer for.’

‘Ah. So you do know who I am.’

‘I do.’ She took a small step to the left and put one hand behind her back, feeling along the wall.