‘What relay box?’Lenora asked.
‘It’s on the firebreak, tell them to drive round and find us.’Finn then whispered to Amara, ‘Constable, be sure to do a background check on all staff.’
‘How far back, sir?’
Finn looked up at the hatches.‘Six months.’
Maybe this was an inside job after all.
Nineteen
Seated on the backseat of the police van Amara busily tapped away on her tablet, beside her sat Romy, while Finn occupied the front, with Stone driving them along the fence line.
‘We’re here, kiddies, welcome to the north pole.’Stone pointed to a simple power pole, that was just like all the others.
Romy wanted to ask questions, but didn’t even know where to begin, except follow instructions.
As they climbed out of the police van, Doug, the security guard, rolled up in his buggy.His passenger jumped out, wearing a beaten cowboy hat where the sweat had created a salt line circling above his hatband.The guy’s rolled up shirt sleeves showed off his deeply tanned arms, looking more like a stockman who dealt with cattle, than crocodiles.
‘Hey, Stone, did you speak to The Vegan yesterday?’Doug hitched up his uniform trousers, his belt hidden under his protruding belly.
‘I did.Why?’
‘She’s gone.’
‘What do you meangone?’Finn’s gruff tone was enough to get everyone’s attention.
‘I mean packed up camp and skedaddled.’
Finn glanced back at Stone in a look that made Romy step back.
‘Don’t worry, Bossman, I know where she went.Raven didn’t do this.She’s flat out using her mobile phone to answer a text message or forgets that the red light in her van is for checking her oil.’
‘Whatever you did,’ said Doug, patting Stone’s shoulder, ‘I should have gotten you to do it a while ago to give me some peace.’
‘Why?Don’t you two have a love-hate relationship?’
‘Crazy woman nearly killed me with her paint bomb.Gave me a mongrel of an asthma attack, it did.When I’ve never reacted like that to paint before.’
‘You’re okay now, aren’t you?’
‘Yeah.And I hate to admit it, but Raven was good.She drove me to the hospital straight away and stayed there until Celeste showed up with my boy.Raven even volunteered to watch him, but Celeste took good care of us.You should’ve seen Raven dobbing herself in to the police, holding out her wrists, telling Policeman Porter to arrest her.You know,’ said Doug, rubbing the back of his thick neck.‘Raven was more worried about my health than the boss.She even baked me cookies and everything.’
‘Are you aware that Raven’s cookies come with a warning label, right?’Stone murmured quietly, just out of earshot of Amara and Finn.
‘Celeste warned me.’Doug gave a low chuckle, as Romy pursed her lips together.
‘But then we had to put up with Malcolm complaining about paying your medical bills and the time off to recover,’ said the guy who’d arrived with Doug.
‘Who are you?’Classic Finn.No hello.No small talk.Just straight to the point.
‘Sorry, fellas, this is Griffin McBayne.Griff’s the fella who put in the hatches in the hatchery roof.’
‘Roof traps, I call them.Jed helped me, with his father, Malcolm, supervising, of course.’Griffin folded his arms over his chest to lean his hip against the buggy.‘I’ve been meaning to put in a handle.Bastion’s always complaining about getting burnt lifting them.’
‘Now, shortcake, if I know Finn, he’ll want you to film the next part of this daytime tour to the dead zone.’Stone dragged out Romy’s drone case from the back of the police van.‘Bossman?Where do you want us?’
‘Constable, park the police van as close to that power pole as possible.Romy, get your bird in the air.Stone, you’ll come with me.’
