Down Among the Dead Men (Entangled Ignite) (11 page)

Chapter Eleven

The next morning, Caitlyn didn’t feel any better about what had happened with Dale. Feeling bruised, she sat at the office desk, trying to concentrate on anything but last night’s disastrous kiss.

“Josh and Max are installing your radiator,” Sally said as she placed a coffee on the desk. “And Josh is going to service it before you drive it to the pub tonight.”

“Excellent. I owe him one.” Caitlyn moved a pile of papers so she could slide the mug closer.

“No, you don’t. He’s happy to do it. Josh says Max is a great mechanic.” Sally sat down with her own mug. “It’s a pity she doesn’t have a chance of getting qualified here in Minagoona. With her trade papers, she’d be set up for a career.”

“I know. I wish I could do something about that.” Caitlyn frowned. “I wonder if I could convince her to come to the city with me when I leave.”

“I don’t know. It would be good if you could, but if she doesn’t want to go, well, she’s not your responsibility.”

“Yes, she is. She’s my sister. And I’d like to think we have a connection. I’m going to try to work something out, but I have no idea what yet. Thanks for this,” she said, lifting the mug. “I really need it.”

“Have you ever been inside the shed?”

“Which one? Between this block and the house block, Wally has more sheds than you can poke a stick at.”

“The one behind the house.”

“No,” she said, suddenly curious. “I haven’t.”

“It’s huge. It’s much bigger inside than it looks from the outside. It has a concrete floor.”

“So?”

“It has its own power and plumbing, too. Josh and I thought that if you and Max don’t mind, we could sort of set up camp in there instead of all four of us squeezing into the house. It will be basic, but that’s okay.”

Caitlyn nodded. “It’s not up to me. You should ask Max, but I can’t see any reason for her to object. Do you think you’ll be comfortable in there? I don’t even know if there’s a bed.” She slid further down in her seat, feeling weary. She hadn’t slept—in fact she suspected that she and sleep had parted company for good for the time being—on top of which the monotony of going through Wally’s paperwork was numbing her brain.

“We’ll move your father’s stuff into one corner out of the way.”

“What stuff?”

“Looks like garbage, actually. Building waste, or something. Boxes and boxes of rocks and rubble. I asked Max what it was there for and she said she never went near it because if she did, her dad would belt her. He sounds like a dead-set scumbag, your father. Hope you don’t mind me saying so.”

“Gutless,” Caitlyn muttered. “Rocks?” She jackknifed upright. “I can’t believe I never thought of looking in the sheds.”

“Looking for what?”

“Clues. Anything to explain what’s happened to Wally. Come on.”

She dashed out of the office, Sally following her. They entered the shed through a small side door for which Sally produced the key Max had given her. Masses of stuff lay around, both loose and in boxes, but the space was huge. Caitlyn started to poke through the piles of rubble.

Sally stood with her hands on her hips. “I’d like to help, but I don’t know what you’re looking for.”

“Neither do I. See if you can find anything that suggests where Wally might be, or what he’s been up to.”

Sally shrugged and joined in. After a short time she straightened and braced both hands against her back while she stretched. “I’ve got backache already,” she said. “What will I be like when I have a huge bump?”

“You’ll be sitting with your feet up, demanding to be waited on. I pity Josh.”

“Yeah, right. Look, I don’t think there’s a clue here. This guy must be a real hoarder. He’s kept the most ridiculous stuff. Old beer bottles full of stones—”

“What? Bottles?” Caitlyn darted over.

“Yeah.” Sally pulled a bottle out of a box, tipped the contents into her cupped hand, and held it out. Then she shrugged and went to drop the rubble into the box.

“Wait!” Caitlyn reached for one of the pieces of milky-white stone. It looked just like the raw opal Dale had shown her in his workshop, but as much as she turned it over, she couldn’t see any flashes of the telltale blue-green color. She grabbed another piece. Nothing.

“What are you doing?”

“I think…” She scanned the room, looking for something sharp. “That they might be opals.”

Sally’s jaw dropped. She stared at the stones in her palm with wide eyes. “My God. Do you mean to say I’m holding a fortune here?”

“I’ve no idea, but it’s possible.” Caitlyn found a broken blade that looked like it had once been part of a hacksaw and used it to scrape carefully at one edge of the stone. As soon as she saw a green gleam, she stopped. No point in going any further and damaging a potentially valuable stone.

Sally was watching intently. “What do you reckon?”

“Opals, although I could be wrong. How many bottles are there?”

Sally counted them in the box. “Six. There’s a lot of dust mixed in with the stones, though.”

“Even so, it’s a lot of opals. The thing is, Sal, they must be stolen. If they were legitimate, he wouldn’t have hidden them in here, would he?”

“Well, I don’t know. Maybe he was waiting for the right time to sell?”

Caitlyn shook her head. “Would you leave something like this in a shed, unprotected except for that flimsy lock? Doesn’t seem likely to me.”

“What shall we do? Go to the police?”

“No, we can’t do that.” Caitlyn sat on the edge of a wooden box. “Wally does have a legitimate claim of his own.” She shook her head, thinking. The solution was obvious, no matter how much she didn’t want it to be. “Dale would know what to do.”

Sally lifted an eyebrow. “Because he’s your go-to guy?”

“Because he knows opal miners. I’ll show him the bottles tonight and see what he says. Just hope my car doesn’t get broken into.” It would be the first time she’d driven it since she’d arrived. That might be a point in her favor—Baldy and Bushy wouldn’t recognize it as hers.

“Didn’t you say he was a lawyer? What if they turn out to be stolen property? Wouldn’t he have to report them?”

“I don’t think so, but I’ll have to take the risk. Sal, I don’t need to tell you not to say a word about what we’ve found, do I?”

Sally’s expression was indignant. “No, you do not.”

…

A few hours later, Brenda bustled into the pub’s kitchen. For a slight woman, she took up a lot of space.

“Hi, Brenda. What’s up? You’re not your normal cheery self.”

“Oh, ignore me, I’m a grump today.”

“Okay. But why?”

Brenda sighed. “It looked like we had a couple interested in taking over the pub, but they changed their minds at the last minute.”

“What a shame.” Caitlyn measured ingredients into a bowl while watching her from the corner of her eye. “Wouldn’t you be sad to leave if you did find someone to take over?”

“Of course I would, but with Bruce’s arthritis…” She shook her head. “He’s ready to retire. Anyway, like I said, ignore me.” She opened the door to the passage.

“Will you let me know when Dale comes in, please?” Caitlyn called after her. “I need to talk to him.”

“Oh, that’s what I came in for.” Brenda slapped her forehead. “I must be going senile. Dale left a message for you earlier. Hey, you two haven’t had a tiff, have you?”

Her throat tightened. “Why? What did he say?”

Brenda shrugged. “That he won’t be in for a couple of days, but if you need him for anything urgent you know where he lives.”

“Thanks.” Nodding, Caitlyn pretended to be distracted by a search for the right spices.

As soon as the door closed behind Brenda, she let out a sigh. He was avoiding her. She should never have let herself get carried away by Sally’s words. The kiss would never have happened if she’d been oblivious to any supposed sexual tension between her and Dale. As it was, she was probably the one who made the kiss happen, even if her memory told her that it was Dale who’d made the first move.

Whatever. It had been a mistake, and now it looked like he was pulling back. How could she manage to finish her quest without him? How could she manage…

Quickly, she shut down the thought before asking herself how she’d manage anything without him. Nevertheless, she did need him urgently—she couldn’t drive around indefinitely with a box of opals in her trunk—so she would take him at his word and go to see him tonight as soon as she finished at the pub. But from now on, kissing, touching—all of that stuff—was completely off limits.

…

The bottles rattled in the cardboard box cradled against Caitlyn’s side as she made her way to Dale’s front door.

His blinked when he saw her, then his eyes widened as she hitched the box higher on her hip and the bottles rattled.

“You’ve brought beer? Is this a social call?”

“Not beer. Opals,” she said quickly. “At least, I’m pretty sure.”

“What?”

She gave him a summary of what had happened that afternoon. He gestured her inside, then held out his hand for one of the bottles. After tipping some stones into his palm, he turned them over with his thumb, then funneled them back into the bottle.

“You’re spot on. They’re opals.”

“They must be stolen, right? They must be connected with Wally’s disappearance.”

“Maybe, maybe not. There’s no telling if he pulled anything out of his claim.” He handed the bottle back to her. “What are you going to do with them?”

“What do you think I should do?” She wished the kiss had never happened, because then she wouldn’t feel so awkward asking for his advice.

“If you take them to the police, the truth about Wally being missing will come out.”

She nodded.

“I don’t like the idea of you keeping them at the servo, though. If they
are
stolen, someone might come looking for them.”

She nodded again.

“And if they’re not there, you can deny all knowledge. But if they’re found there, well, let’s say it places you in a more difficult position.”

“I know.”

He sighed and took the box from her. “I’ll lock them in my workshop until we’ve sorted out the truth about Wally. Then we’ll hand them over to the police, assuming that we discover they’re stolen.”

She nodded. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“For making you do this.”

“You didn’t make me.”

“No, but I guessed you would offer. I was counting on it, and that’s almost the same.” She hesitated, wishing things could go back to the way they were before the kiss. “Will you be at the pub tomorrow night?”

He shook his head.

“I see.” She turned toward the door, unable to keep the disappointment from her voice when she said, “I understand. You want to keep your distance. I won’t bother you again unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

He stopped her with a hand on her forearm. “Keep my distance? From you? Didn’t Brenda give you my message?”

“Yes. That you wouldn’t be in for a couple of days.”

“And you took that to mean I didn’t want to see you?” He frowned. “I’ll never understand the working of women’s minds.”

“Well, after what happened last night—”

“I told Brenda that I wouldn’t be in for a couple of days because I had a lot of work to do. Legal work for a case I’m helping with.”

“Oh. She didn’t pass that bit on.”

“I’m sorry, but this work can’t wait.”

“No, of course not.”

“If you need my help, you know where I am.”

“Yes. Thank you.” She paused. “And what happened last night—”

“Shouldn’t have happened. I’m sorry, Caitlyn, it won’t happen again.”

“Because you don’t want it to?”

“I didn’t say that,” He swallowed visibly. “Let’s just accept that it’s not a good idea for either of us, and never mention it again. Agreed?” His tone was resigned, but insistent.

“Agreed,” she said in a hoarse whisper. What else could she say? But as she drove away she was no clearer in her mind. Did he or did he not like her in the way that Sally had insisted? It didn’t look as if she was going to find out because the subject was out of bounds.

…

The next morning, Sally talked Max into a haircut and plunked a kitchen chair into the middle of the lounge room. Sally had just started work when a car door slammed outside.

“I’ll get it. You stay there,” Caitlyn said to Max, who looked like she’d rather be in a dentist’s chair getting drilled.

She opened the front door to see Sergeant Peterson and another officer standing between the house and the police car. She hadn’t seen him since he’d approved the repairs on the Valiant, but the fact that he wasn’t alone signaled that this was something serious.

“Good morning,” she said, trying not to sound wary.

He turned to face her. “We have reason to believe there’s stolen property on these premises. We would like to search the house and other buildings.”

Thank God she’d given the opals to Dale. Of course, it could be some other type of property, but assuming it was the opals, who knew about them other than Wally, and now Dale, Sally, and herself?

Their owner might suspect Wally of hiding them here. If so, the fact that he’d gone to the police was a good sign. Would he do that if he intended to mete out some gelignite justice? Not likely.

“Do you have a warrant?”

He hesitated. “No.”

“Well, shouldn’t you have one if you want to search the place?”

“Not if you invite us to look around.”

“What? Why would I do that?”

Sergeant Peterson raised his eyebrows. “Do you have something to hide?”

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. If she refused to let him search, she would only make him more suspicious than he was already. He wouldn’t find anything—nothing that she knew about, anyway, so she might as well agree. “Where do you want to start?”

“Inside the house.”

He and the other officer strode toward her. She hesitated for a moment, then stepped aside, and followed them through the door. “Please don’t mess the place up. It’s taken me ages to tidy it.”

Max looked up when they pushed open the door to the lounge room. “What’s going on?”

“Sorry about this, Max,” Sergeant Peterson said in a softer tone than he’d used for Caitlyn. “We have reason to believe there’s stolen property on the premises.”