Romy raced up to him.‘I don’t think I should be here.’
‘Hey, Craig?Do you mind if Romy tags along?’
‘If I can interview rodeo bull owners with my wife as part of the job, your friend can come check out the croc farm.’Craig gave Romy a nod.
Her brown eyes lit up as if she’d won the lottery.‘If that’s okay with you, Lenora?’
‘Yeah, sure.’Lenora gave a heavy sigh, using her shoulder to shove open the meshed door.‘This way.’
‘Any idea how they got in?’Craig asked Lenora.
‘No.Like Dad said, we didn’t even notice that anything got pinched.’Lenora led with a light foot tread across the gangplank and pointed to the separated pens.‘The juveniles were in these four pens.’
‘How many are in here?’Craig asked the questions, while Stone stood beside Romy, who was biting her bottom lip as if to stop herself from speaking—or more likely the little filmmaker was struggling with the need to use her camera.Was there such a thing as camera withdrawals, the way some people were addicted to their phones?
‘We average sixty per clutch in our forty juvenile pond bays, and we try to keep the brothers and sisters together,’ explained Lenora.‘The thieves took ten hatchlings from that pen, ten from that one, fifteen from the clutch on the other side, and another ten from that group.45 juveniles in total.’
‘And the eggs?’
‘They took them from the nesting pods on the far side.6 nests—98 eggs.We’ve only got 9 of the 12 pods in use.’
Craig’s eyebrows rose.‘Do those nesting pods have key-card entry, like Stone used to bring us in here?’
‘Everywhere within this hatchery is key-card entry, and it all gets recorded up there.’Lenora pointed back to the tower.‘Bastion is pulling the data now for Dad.’
‘No forced entry?’
Lenora shook her head.‘We didn’t even know someone had been in here until Dad noticed the clutch numbers were down.’She pointed to the swarms of crocodiles that lay beneath them.They were constantly moving, swimming, crawling over each other, making it difficult to count.
‘Craig?Have you got any ideas?’He might be the pilot, but he’d back the Rowntree family—and their crocs—any way he could.
‘I think we need to go outside for the next part.’
Eight
The sun bore down like a spotlight, making Romy blink a few times as she followed Craig, Stone and Lenora outside.The temperature was a cool relief from the hatchery’s intense humidity and from the dramas unfolding inside.
Malcolm wasn’t the kindest person to meet, which was understandable considering the circumstances.But when Finn entered the room all stern and serious, the air got sucked out of the tech room.Stone’s boss was a big man—not just in height either.His glacial stare and tattoos were an intense combination for a seriously hot-looking man.
Romy skipped after Lenora, keen to ask a gazillion questions and maybe get permission to film the place.Of course, she wasn’t going to push it, because now was obviously not the right time.Still, she could play tourist.‘How many people work here?’
‘Twenty.My brother Jed manages the tannery team, Mum does the admin, Dad watches over the pen-keepers.And I have the hatchery team.’
‘Sorry, I know it sounds like a dumb question, but I never knew crocodile farms like this existed until today.’Oh, how she wanted to drag out one of her drones to swirl around the vibrant clusters of pawpaw trees that made up their long driveway, to then swoop over the low-lying structures as the introduction to the massive hatchery that towered behind them.Romy could picture every scene to show off this place to its fullest potential.No matter how much she wanted to, however, ethically it was the wrong time to ask.
‘I get it.’Lenora shared a soft smile.‘Normally we’re a lot friendlier, but this theft happened in my area.Poor Bastion is as devastated as I am.’
‘Bastion?’Craig turned around, and she couldn’t help but notice his blue eyes and deep tan were stunning with that white hat and blond curls.
‘Sebastion Sterling.He was the one wearing the lab coat, upstairs.’Lenora pointed back to the hatchery.‘Bastion is the hatchery’s head technician.Together, we watch over the eggs and hatchlings.We’re at all their births, sharing champagne while calling out the number of eggs being hatched.It’s well worth the watch.’
‘I imagine it would be.’Romy would love to leave a camera in a hatching bay, just once.
‘Can we get a map of the place?’Craig dragged one cowboy boot over the dry dirt, as if studying the soil.
‘I’ll radio Mum.She’ll have one in the office.’
‘Don’t sweat it, Lenora,’ said Stone, ‘the Duchess is quicker.’
