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‘I didn’t read about it in the papers.’ Ellie lifted her gaze. ‘I saw it myself.’

‘Saw what?’ Puzzlement crossed David’s face.

‘The fracking. They’re drilling at the back down near the river.’

‘Already? The exploration licence hasn’t been approved yet.’

Ellie shook her head. ‘I saw a huge gash in the land when I flew over last week. The infrastructure is already in place. I went down there for a look and got escorted off the land.’

‘Jesus. What’s the point?’ David dropped his face into his hands again. His shoulders sagged and Ellie put her hand on his arm. ‘There must be something we can do.’

Kane leaned forward and his voice was firm. ‘If Fairweather wants your vote, she’ll be alive.’

‘Will she?’ David didn’t lift his head.

Ellie’s eyes filled with tears as they sat there quietly and she let everything that had happened run through her mind. Sordina’s murder, the fracking, Bill’s injury, the break-ins, Gina’s disappearance. Maybe she was on the wrong track with Heather.

‘Kane?’ She took a deep breath as she remembered Henry’s cold eyes. ‘That guy at the hangar today. I’m sure he has something to do with Gina’s kidnapping.’

Chapter 32

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.’