“Everything OK?” Amy answered.
“All good, Ames. Talk soon.”
Brandon peered in and whistled. “Gotta be Stonefish.”
“Why bury it here? They know you come down here regularly.”
“Easy to hide the fact a hole has been dug in beach sand,” Brandon said. “The plaque is a good marker as well. Maybe they didn’t think their guys could find it in the bush.”
It made no sense. If Stonefish could afford weaponry like this, they could afford a couple of GPSs to mark the drop spot. He took a couple of photos, focusing on the bag which sat on top of the weapons. It was nestled in there comfortably. Too comfortably. “I wouldn’t lift the bag.”
Brandon glanced at him and then crouched to get a better look. “You could be right. It’s too easy.”
“Trap?”
“Might be.” A good way to get rid of the Stokes or the police.
Speaking of which… Dot pulled to a stop a short distance away, a look of disgust on her face. “You ignored my instructions, didn’t you?” She stalked over, her senior constable, Nhiari Roe, right behind her wearing an equally annoyed expression.
Sam smiled. “Got the message too late.”
“Bullshit,” Nhiari said. “We saw you with the esky lid.”
They both peered into the hole and Dot swore. “Maybe this will be enough to get major crimes up here,” she muttered.
Nhiari took photos while Dot opened her notebook. “You know the drill by now.”
Sam let Brandon tell the story, though he omitted all references to the journal and looking for Clarke’s body. Instead, he simply said Lara had been digging in the sand and had uncovered it.
Sam’s stomach curdled at the thought of what could have happened if she had discovered it and unwrapped it without warning.
“What else?” Dot asked.
Brandon raised his eyebrows as if he didn’t understand.
“You must have thought it was suspicious if you called us and got the rest of your family to evacuate.”
“My fault,” Sam said. “It looked a lot like some weapons caches we uncovered on duty. They were usually booby-trapped.”
“Hence the esky shield?” Nhiari asked.
“Was all we had to hand,” Sam said. “But I think there might be a trigger under the bag.”
Nhiari’s eyes widened. “Why?”
He pointed. “It’s too snug. The rest of the weapons are stacked almost haphazardly, but not around the bag. They make a square for it to rest in.”
“How big an explosion?” Dot asked.
“Depends on what they’ve used. There’s danger of the ammunition exploding as well and that could hit anyone.”
Dot ran a hand over her face. “This is beyond what we can deal with. I’m making the call.”
She went back to the police car and got on the radio.
“Everyone was out here?” Nhiari asked.
Brandon nodded. “Georgie and Matt had ridden out with Darcy, Faith and Lara. Sam and I drove with Amy and Penelope.”
