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‘We’ll see.’

Ellie gave a noncommittal grunt and headed for the stairs. ‘Make sure you lock the door and pull it shut when you go. Leave the keys with Jan when you get back.’ Normally she wouldn’t worry too much about security but the events of last night had made her more than a little nervous. ‘I’ve got three more flights to take up this morning and then I’m having lunch with a friend.’ She flashed Heather a big smile. ‘And then I’m going to Darwin to help Kane out with some family stuff.’

On the way back to the hangar, Ellie detoured around the pool, looking out for Gina and the two children. She wanted to ask Gina to have an early lunch but there was no sign of them on the lawn; she’d send her a text between flights.

The hangar was deserted; Kane wasn’t in the work bays or out on the tarmac. Ellie frowned. He’d checked both helicopters before the first flights this morning, but she wondered where he’d got to now. Her next flight wasn’t scheduled for another twenty minutes, so she logged onto the computer in the office to check her email in the browser.

Sixteen messages including one with a multitude of attachments from Emma. Ellie nodded with satisfaction as she whispered softly under her breath, ‘Thanks, sis.’

She’d known Emma would get straight onto it. Em, always the steady reliable one. Ellie knew she was the dreamer.

Ellie scrolled through the file names, not wanting to download them on this computer. She was keen to open the attachments, but she’d have to wait until tonight. Newspaper articles, parliamentary minutes and a file named Fairweather. She flicked an email back to Emma: ‘Thanks for the stuff. Did you ask Mum about the Gmail account? Busy day ahead for me. Love Els.’

She glanced at her watch and peered out into the foyer, looking for her next booking. The guy was running late. Passengers were supposed to arrive fifteen minutes before the flight time to complete the mandatory paperwork before they went up.

She was about to give up when the sound of the office door opening broke the silence.

A tall, well-built blond man strolled through the door and his eyes narrowed as he caught sight of her. Ellie had to force the welcoming smile onto her face. Sometimes you could just pick a difficult customer.

‘Henry?’

He nodded and she picked up her clipboard.

‘Just some paperwork to fill out and we’ll get going.’

You had to take the good with the bad in this job.

Ellie skirted around the pool again on her way over to the office. Henry had been one of the most difficult passengers she’d ever had. The questions about the R44 hadn’t bothered her; it had been his insistence on taking over the T-bar so he could ‘fly the bird’ that had made it a difficult flight. In the end she’d given in for a few seconds when he’d become unpleasant. She hadn’t liked the way he’d looked at her either. Cold and calculating. When they’d come back down, there’d still been no sign of Kane, and she’d hurried the guy out even though he wanted to stay and chat. He made her feel uneasy; being in the hangar by herself was not on, and it was probably against some safety regulation anyway. They’d have to sort that with Jock. She frowned as she headed towards the pool. Kane was rostered on and should have been there.

Gina was sitting in the shade on a sun lounge, looking cool and elegant as she watched her two small children wading in the nearby baby pool. Despite her pregnancy, she wore a red bikini with a sarong tied over her bump. A floppy straw hat and huge sunglasses completed the picture. Ellie waved and called out to her as she hurried past. ‘I’ll be back soon. Just have to drop the keys off to the office and then get changed.’

Gina put down her Kindle and waved back with a smile.

The reception area was busy so Ellie went into the back room and hung the hangar keys on the board.

Jock wandered in as she was about to leave. ‘Kane asked me to tell you he had to leave for Darwin earlier than he planned.’

Disappointment rocketed through Ellie. ‘Oh, okay. Thanks, Jock.’

‘He’s had to go away for a couple of days, so we’ll sub flights from today till the weekend. I’ve organised for the Cooinda engineer to help us out for a couple of days. I’m not prepared to lose the bookings.’

Ellie’s head flew up and her eyes narrowed. That explained why he hadn’t been around since her first flight this morning. Maybe he’d changed his mind about her going with them.

‘Anything wrong?’

‘Yeah, his mother’s been taken to hospital and he’s gone across to be with her.’

A weight descended on Ellie’s shoulders as she remembered how sick and lonely Susan had looked on Monday. She knew that Kane would be worried about her and she made a snap decision. ‘Jock? Can I beg a favour?’

He cocked his head to the side and stared at her. ‘What?’

‘There’s no more flights booked today. I know I’ve got this afternoon off, but . . . do you mind if I take tomorrow morning too? I need to help someone out.’

‘I do owe you for the extra hours last week.’ Jock looked down at the roster on the side of his desk. ‘You can have the morning. Be back on duty at four tomorrow for the afternoon sunset flight. You can do a short afternoon shift. I’ll get one of the boys from Cooinda to do the once-over on the birds in the morning.’ He looked at her curiously. ‘Is everything okay?’

‘Yes, I just need to be a friend.’ Ellie tore out of the office and hurried back to her apartment, hoping to catch Heather before she left for Jabiru. She’d need her car. She swung around the corner and stood with her hands on her hips, scanning the car park behind the building. Too late, her car was gone.

‘Shit.’ She’d have to wait until Heather got back before she headed to Darwin. She walked slowly back to the office and collected the keys from Jan.