‘Please.Like I’d miss you playing Little Miss Serious.’
‘You were flicking the lights and sirens on.’
‘Hey, when in Rome, Romy.’He patted the roof of the police van like a big kid.They’d probably never let him drive the police van again, but it was worth it.‘Don’t stress, I won’t be doing it when I collect those hatchlings.Go on, admit it, you wanted to do it, too.’
She flattened her lips into a line, looking everywhere but at Stone.
He nudged her arm.‘Admit it.It’ll be our secret.’
‘Okay.Fine.I did want to do it, too.’She grimaced at him.‘You’re such a bad influence.’
‘No, I’m not.’Stone craned his neck at the large hatchery’s roof.‘But it’s time to get our adult groove on… Bring your camera, shortcake.’He nodded at Finn saying something to Amara as they climbed out of Finn’s large four-wheel drive, the troopy, and headed to the corner drainpipe the thieves used to climb up to the roof.
‘Now that I’ve signed my life away on that confidentiality thingy…’
‘NDAs are standard practice, shortcake, especially when it involves confidential details for a police matter.’Stone not only witnessed Romy’s signature, but he’d also watched the paperwork queen, Amara, scan it onto the file.It was enough to put his mind at ease over protecting his privacy.
But Romy’s sigh tugged heavily on his resolve, as she dragged out her camera and clunky gimbal.‘Which means what I film today is for private police viewing only?’
‘And eventually the courts.You will get paid for it, shortcake.’
‘I know.’
‘Think of it this way.You’ll be creating a good working relationship with those within this industry to make it easier to get their permission to film later.’
‘Well, okay then…’ She clipped her gimbal into place and locked in her camera.‘Let the show begin.’
‘That’s my girl.’Stone patted her shoulder.With Finn and Amara busy gathering evidence from the side of the building, he headed for the hatchery.
Wearing her white lab coat, Lenora met them at the front entrance.‘Welcome back, Stone.Do you have any news on our missing stock?’
‘We may have located some, but we need more information on their nesting groups to help identify them.’
‘Sure.I have plenty of records, even DNA markings, all kept in the tech office.’
‘The stock numbers aren’t kept up at the house office for your dad?’
‘Dad’s hopeless with tech—doesn’t use the computer, and he wouldn’t even know how to open an app on his phone.Mum prints it all out for him.If you want the real numbers, ask her.We track it all in a database that starts here at the hatchery.’Lenora swiped her card and let them in.
‘Which makes sense if they’re hatched here… Lenora, I’d like Romy to take video footage of the brothers and sisters so we can identify their familial traits in their markings.’
‘Will I see it?’Romy checked over her camera settings, pausing to wash her boots in the sterilising section.
‘The way you look at things, shortcake, I’m sure you’ll pick it up in no time.’
Lenora led them over the raised gangway that ran through the middle of the segregated ponds.‘The stolen stock came from those four clutches.’Lenora pointed out the small groups of juveniles that moved over each other, their beady eyes and snouts pointed towards them.
‘How can you tell the difference?They all look the same to me.’Romy’s sweet lemongrass scent was lively, as she remained steady behind her camera.‘Are you looking for any particular shots in your scene?’
This may not be a movie, but Stone understood where she was coming from.‘Side profiles.Full body shots.Lots of underbelly markings if you can.I’m after the details in their patterning, the bridge between the eyes and the length of the snout, then the ridge patterns along their backs.’
‘That’s a lot of detail,’ said Finn, with his heavy boot tread rumbling along the gangway, with Amara loyally shadowing him.
‘It’ll help us identify if those other rogue crocs are the brothers and sisters.I can do that when they’re at Craig’s quarantine station, where I’ll have time to study them more.’Stone could already identify the different markers and pattern traits compared to the other crocodiles in the neighbouring pens, to tell them apart.But they’d need proof, and these images would help.
‘How did you get in?’Lenora asked Finn and Amara.
‘The team recovered this swipe card.’Finn flipped over the card, then slid it back into his pocket for safekeeping.He was such a tease.
