He followed her gaze. The road was a normal, unmarred bitumen road, no pot holes, no kangaroo carcasses… “No skid marks.” His father would have braked if he was trying to avoid a ’roo.
Dot nodded. “I remember your father giving me a driving lesson out on the station. Healwaysdrove to the conditions and under the speed limit when the wildlife was most active.”
Brandon blinked. He’d forgotten about those lessons. He’d been driving around the station since he was old enough to reach the pedals, but Dot hadn’t been confident, so he’d invited her out to practise where there was little she could crash into. His father had been happy to help.
That was the kind of person he was. “Could Dad have had a heart attack or something?” It was the only thing that made sense.
“Dad was the fittest of us all,” Darcy said.
“They’ll do a post mortem to check,” Dot told him.
But if it wasn’t a heart attack, or avoiding wildlife on the road, what else could cause his father to lose control of the car? The horizontal lines on the front of the car came back to him. “Did Mum or Dad have an accident lately?” he asked Darcy. “Something that scratched the front of the car?”
Darcy shook his head. “Dad cleaned it the day before and it was sparkling.”
“There are marks on the front.” He moved forward, but Dot placed a hand on his chest.
“Where?”
“Front driver’s side panel.”
“Stay here.” She waited until he nodded and strode over to look, calling one of the crash investigators to her side. They had a few words and then Dot returned. “They’ll investigate it.”
“You think something side-swiped them and didn’t stop to help?” Darcy said. He didn’t look surprised.
“We can’t jump to conclusions yet. Leave this to the experts and I’ll call you as soon as I know more.”
What the hell was going on here?
“When they’re finished at the site, John will tow the car into town,” Dot continued. “He’s busy helping tourists who got stuck out at Yardie Creek but he said he’ll come as soon as he was needed.”
The local mechanic had been a good friend of his father’s. Everyone in the town was.
“Go back to the Ridge, Darcy,” Dot said.
Brandon wanted answers from his brother. “Come on, Darce.” He placed a hand on Darcy’s shoulder and he immediately shrugged it off.
“Make sure you call me,” he demanded. When Dot nodded, Darcy strode back to the car.
Brandon followed more slowly, mulling over what he knew. Someone must have clipped his parents’ car while passing them, or maybe swerved to their side of the road, and then hadn’t bothered to stop when the car had rolled.
“I don’t like this,” Darcy said.
“Why don’t you think it was an accident?”
Darcy didn’t answer and Brandon’s gut clenched.
“Who would want to hurt Mum and Dad?” The silence stretched. “Darce? What aren’t you telling me?”
“We’ve been getting hassled to sell,” he finally said.
Like that would ever happen. The land was family. “Who by?”
“Some company called Stonefish Enterprises. Dad told them he wasn’t interested but they kept increasing their offer.”
It wouldn’t matter how much they offered. “Did Dad explain to them the land has been in the family for generations?”
Darcy nodded. “But—”
