Outback Skies

Chapter 3-1

INDY STARED AT her phone, willing the messages from Patrick to disappear. No such luck. They stared back at her, his words swirling together to form a tangle of black and white on her screen. She hadn’t replied to any of them. The other night, up on the hill, she’d been too distraught, and other complications, such as the nighttime police search, had kept her preoccupied for the past few days. She sighed and glanced over at the main camp, where people were beginning to assemble, ready to relax after their long day in the saddle. Dinner was probably still an hour away, but Bindi had some cheese and crackers out for a snack. Indy had walked over to stand beside the little van Bindi used to cook in so she could examine her phone and think about what she wanted to say to Patrick.

What she should do, was ride back up that hill right now and fire off a message to Patrick to tell him it was well and truly over, and to leave her the hell alone. That she didn’t care if Sheila had left him, and he deserved to be alone and lonely. But it all felt too hard. She knew she would never go back to him. But…

She needed to think about something else for a while, before she let that prick overwhelm her thoughts.

The second thing top of her mind right now was Finn’s revelations about his wife and daughter, and that was just as much of a convoluted mess as her own life seemed to be.

He had a child. A little daughter. And she was so cute. When he’d showed her that picture, the knowledge had hit like a punch to the solar plexus. Why were all men so full of treachery? Not only was he married, but he had a kid. A responsibility. It complicated things even more. At least Patrick didn’t have any children. All Indy had wanted to do when she’d seen that photo was to ride away from Finn and never look at him again. Not let the pain of his betrayal show on her face.

But then Finn had opened up about his marriage to Chloe. How they’d lived separate lives for nearly three years. It didn’t sound like Chloe was coming back to Australia. And Finn had said his life was here. So where exactly did that leave their marriage? She didn’t think Finn knew the answer to that. She was glad she’d listened, and glad she knew the truth now. But it didn’t help disentangle her feelings for him. In fact, it just made them worse. She liked Finn. She had to admit she was deeply attracted to him. But neither of those reasons was good enough to get involved with a man and his complicated life. If she even wanted to get involved with another man. After her ordeal with Patrick, she needed something simple and carefree. The exact opposite to Finn Stevenson. Or should she call him Griff Carmody? Even knowing what to call him was confusing.

A couple of crows landed in the branches above her, cawing loudly, as if having an argument. Indy sighed and tried to ignore them. Even though Dale was vigilant about keeping this camp’s garbage well sealed, the black birds had seemed to grow in numbers over the past few days.

She turned her phone over in her hands and tried to decide if right now was a good time to ride up the hill and end this thing with Patrick. She had the time before dinner. She should just do it. Get it over with.

The cawing from the group above her became louder and so annoying she looked up. Some sort of crow dispute was going on up there. She could see half a dozen of them now, as she squinted into the tree, hopping from branch to branch. They all seemed to be chasing one particular crow, who had something in its beak. And they all wanted a part of whatever the first crow had.

Anger and frustration got the better of her. All she wanted was a few peaceful minutes to mull over her problems, and these birds wouldn’t leave her alone. Indy bent down and picked up a small stone.

Throwing it high into the branches, she yelled, “Scram!”

The birds flew up in a cacophony of angry cries. But as they went, something dropped to the ground at Indy’s feet.

She took a step backward. “Ew.” What was that? Bending down to get a closer look, she recoiled in shock. Oh, s**t. Was that really what she thought it was?

“Finn, Dale, get over here. Now!” she called. Not letting her gaze leave the thing lying in the dust, she called out again. “Finn. Anybody? Come and look at this.” Her voice rose to a tremulous squeak.

She lifted her gaze long enough to see Finn get up from his chair around the campfire and stride toward her.

“Look,” she said, pointing at the thing, her mouth twisted with revulsion. “Is that…is that what I think it is?”

Finn hunkered down on his haunches and picked up a stick, poking carefully at the glob of fleshy substance lying in the dust.

“Fuck.” The curse was so quiet, Indy almost missed it.

Dale appeared at her shoulder and peered down. “What’s going on?” he asked. “Oh, holy s**t. Is that…?” Dale reared back in a similar reaction to Indy’s when she’d first seen it.

“I’m afraid so,” Finn replied calmly. “It’s a human eyeball.”

“Are you sure?” Indy wanted him to be wrong. “I mean, it could be from a cow, or a… I don’t know, a kangaroo, maybe?”

“Nope. I’m pretty sure it’s human.” Finn stopped prodding the eyeball. “Where did it come from?” he asked, turning to look up at Indy.

“A crow dropped it.” As soon as she said the words, she knew how crazy they sounded. “It’s true,” she said, rounding on Dale with beseeching eyes. “I was just leaning against this tree and the crows were fighting over something, so I threw a rock at them, and this landed on the ground.” She couldn’t help the way her mouth twisted with distaste.

“If it really is human, then where did it come from?” Dale asked the question that was hovering on all their lips.

A few of the crew began to wander over, wondering what all the commotion was about.

“You’d better keep them away,” Finn said to Dale. “This might be another crime scene. We don’t want people messing with it.”

“What?” Dale blinked and looked up, as if trying to clear the image of the eyeball, all gory and covered in dust, out of his mind. “Oh, yeah, right.” Dale turned to the approaching crowd and waved them all back. “Go back to the camp, guys. I’ll fill you in soon.”

Indy stood as if rooted to the spot while Finn took over, yet again. This was becoming an all-too-common occurrence. She shook herself and tried to get her mind into gear.

“I’ll go call Nash on the sat phone,” she said decisively. “But I’m not sure he’s gonna believe me,” she added, taking one more look at the human organ lying on the ground. She shivered. Where the hell could that have come from?

She met Finn’s gaze, and it was as if he read her mind. He looked up into the sky to where the flock of crows was still circling. As if on cue, the birds took off, winging their way toward the repeater hill. Narrowing his eyes, he watched them disappear into the late afternoon sun.

“I think we need to find out where those crows are going.”

Dale looked at him sharply. “What do you mean?”

“Crows are carrion birds, aren’t they?” Finn asked.

“Yes. They’re renowned for eating roadkill or dead cattle. Anything they can get their disgusting little beaks into.” Dale shuddered.

“Well, maybe they found a different type of carrion.” Finn stood and put his hands on his hips, still watching the birds, which were fast turning into little black dots on the horizon.

Indy turned to follow his gaze. Could there really be a dead person out there somewhere? Another dead body? What were the chances? Then she turned to stare at Finn. A lot of things she’d never thought possible had happened in the past few days. And if Finn were here to uncover a clandestine drug ring, then perhaps anything was possible.

“I want to go after those birds,” Finn said.

“I’m coming with you,” Indy shot back.

“Wait.” Dale held a hand up. “Exactly what do you think you’re going to find?”

“I don’t know,” Finn replied. “But we’ve only got around an hour of sunlight left, so I say we need to get going fast, whatever we do.” He stared at Dale, waiting for an answer. Indy could see how agitated Finn was, but if he were to keep his undercover persona intact, he had to defer to Dale, who was supposedly his boss. If only Dale knew the truth. “It’ll be well after dark by the time the cops get here. They won’t be able to do anything until morning,” he prompted, when Dale still didn’t answer.

Dale’s broad shoulders seemed to straighten as he came to a decision. “Righto. I want Mack to go with you. Take a sat phone and UHF radios. And if you haven’t found anything by nightfall, I want you back here. Agreed?”

“Agreed,” Finn and Indy said in unison.

Finn sprinted toward the fire to tell Mack what was up, and Indy headed for the mess tent and the sat phone to call Nash. Less than five minutes later, they were on their way, the rest of the muster crew staring after them in bewilderment. Dale would fill them in soon enough. He was still standing guard over the eyeball, making sure nothing or no-one touched it before Nash got there.

Finn had wanted to take his motorcycle, but when both Mack and Indy insisted the horses would be better over the rough terrain, he’d conceded and saddled up Sahara. Indy had tossed up whether to take her dogs, but had left them tied to their kennels. They might help them sniff out whatever it was they were looking for, but she wasn’t sure what they’d find out there, and instinct told her to leave them safely tied up. The trio followed the trajectory the birds had taken, and in less than fifteen minutes, they’d crested the low saddle of the hill over a small rise. Finn reined in Sahara and they all stopped to stare at the country opening up on the other side of the hill below. Squinting into the distance, Indy let her gaze drift over the dry countryside, not sure exactly what they were looking for. The floodplain was very similar on this side as it was on the camp side. Open country, dotted with the odd bottle tree, interspersed with clumps of acacia, and stands of gum trees. The last swathes of grass, brown and desiccated, ran in patchworks around the trees and followed ravines and other low contours in the gravelly ground.

“Over there.” She extended her arm to point at a haze of birds circling in the air around a mile away, over the top of a line of trees that was perhaps following an empty water course.