‘I could do it.’Doug nodded eagerly.‘Just tell me what to look for?’
Finn nodded at Stone.
Stone scrolled open his phone and showed Doug the screen.‘For this security setup, there’s only one app that works with it.I’ll download it to your phone so you’ll recognise the icon.They might change the name, but the app image stays the same.’
‘Yeah, okay.’Doug handed over his phone to Stone.
‘Here, you can check my phone out.’Griff tugged free his phone from his belt.‘I’ve got nothing to hide, and I know how upset Lenora is over losing those crocs.I’d do anything to help recover them.’
With Stone guiding Doug, the security guard scrolled over Griff’s phone, comparing the apps.‘Nothing.’
‘Let’s hope for the sake of the rest of the staff that you don’t find it,’ mumbled Finn.‘It’d kill the morale in this place.’
‘You know, Bossman, they’d have to shut down the power to put that box in… Know of any recent blackouts, Doug?’
‘We get them all the time,’ butted in Griff.‘Like most properties out here, this place mostly runs on generator and solar power.Sometimes we forget to fill the generator tanks, especially with the weather cooling down, and how the hatchery draws down a lot more power just to keep it warm.’
‘For a self-described dogsbody who built the roof hatches, you seem to know an awful lot about the hatchery’s power load.Don’t you?’Amara gave him a polite police smile.‘Do you have an electrician’s background too?’
Amara’s question had Romy keenly listening in for the answer, as she packed away her drone.
‘Only the basics, like most people do when growing up on a cattle station.But then,’ Griff said, with his easy grin widening, ‘you pick up a thing or two when you’re dating the boss’s daughter, and Lenny’s favourite subject is that hatchery.’He gave a sweet smile.‘Heck, that woman would move her bed in there if she could.’
Aww, Griff was in love.
‘Right, let’s go children, Daddy Stone has a batch of baby crocs to collect before lunchtime.’Stone opened the back door of the police van for Romy.‘All aboard the outback’s crocodile express.’
Twenty
‘Is this some outback junkyard?’Romy’s voice carried over the headphones as Stone landed his helicopter in a back field.‘Or is this a place where old boats come to die?’She never stopped filming, including the roofs of rusty cars and broken boats resting among the tall spear grass.
Stone had to admire Romy’s passion for filming, and how she saw the world with so much appreciation of both big and small wonders.He’d heard her soft sigh at the way the sun’s dappled light would dance across a leaf, and then how she’d follow that same leaf’s fall and float on the breeze to land in the soft dust, all from behind her camera.It was easy to see it was a passion for her.
Stone flicked the various switches to shut down the chopper, creating a sound vacuum, like a heavy silence, that made him take that deep breath before removing his headphones.‘Ready for the next adventure?’
‘Where are we going?Do I need the drone?’
‘Not at the moment.’He started down the crooked dirt path, the surrounding grasses up to his shoulders.
Romy tugged on the back of his shirt.
‘Why do you do that?Tug on my shirt.’
‘Sometimes when filming on set, I can’t speak and need to get the director’s attention.Sorry, is it annoying you?’
He folded his arms over his chest, trying to work out if it was annoying or not.‘That depends?Are you going to film more of my butt as we walk through here?’
‘Stop.Please.’She dropped her head to hide her smile.‘I didn’t mean to.’
‘I think you did.I think you like my arse.’
Now both hands covered her face, leaking the sounds of her sweet laugh between her fingers.‘You can be such a dick.’
‘It’s okay, I know I have a great arse.’
‘There’ll be no breathing space shortly, the way your ego is consuming oxygen around here.’
‘It’s about time you got with the bantering program, sister.’He hooked his arm around her neck to give her a chummy cuddle, but she was so close, he brushed the hair free from her face, tucking it behind her dainty ear.
