She looked away. She couldn’t let her guard down. Another thought occurred to her. “Is he working for Stonefish too?”
Lee sat across from her. “No, but Lucas knows about their history. He’ll do what he can to manipulate them both, depending on the information Andrew feeds him.”
“And you expect me to sit here, knowing all of this, and do nothing to help Dot?” Her hands clenched.
“No, I expect you to sit here, go through all the information with me to see if there’s enough for a case, and help devise a plan to draw Lucas out so we can stop him.”
She released her fisted hands. That she could get behind. “Let’s get to work.”
Chapter Six
Lee’smusclesrelaxedatNhiari’s acceptance. They were finally on the same page. He’d expected her to be gone when he’d left to make the phone call to Martin, but seeing her sitting there, waiting, had given him such a rush of relief. She’d stayed. Her reasons didn’t matter right now, only that she was there, and he’d have time to convince her he wasn’t the absolute villain she thought he was.
“Before we start, I want to check the searchers have moved on,” Lee said. “Do you want to come with me?”
“Where are we going?”
“To the top of the ranges.” He put two bottles of water into his daypack, checked he had his phone and a gun, and slung the pack onto his back.
She cocked her head in question but followed him to the back of the cave. He paused. “It’s a tight squeeze. Will you be all right with that?”
She studied the gap. “How far is it?”
“About a hundred metres, but you can use the walls to help you climb.”
She nodded. “I’ll manage.”
He moved slower than he normally would, conscious that climbing around in hot, musty caves took a different level of fitness and Nhiari would be doubly disadvantaged with her ankle.
It took ten minutes to reach the opening. He paused, listening for any further calls from the searchers.
Some birds singing and insects chirping, and in the distance the wash of the waves against the shore. He peered out and scanned the surroundings slowly, looking for movement, shapes or colours which were out of place.
Clear.
He moved further out, scanned again, and then helped Nhiari to sit on a large boulder before retrieving the telescope he had hidden in a nook.
Nhiari gave a low whistle. “That’s a pretty techie device.”
“Allows me to see what’s going on below.” He set it up, pointing to the east, and scanned the ranges, taking particular notice of the canyon his camp was in. Some orange-clothed SES workers at the far end, moving their way out of the canyon.
Good.
He adjusted the focus and scanned further, looking towards the bottom of the gulf where the shipwrecks were. He smiled as he spotted Sam’s boat anchored off Retribution Island. That meant Andrew was in town.
The telescope picked up people on the island. It was too far away to identify who they were, but he recognised the police boat pulled up to shore. They were picking up rubbish on the island. A blue barrel.
“Good,” he murmured.
“What?” Nhiari asked.
“Dot’s found the drugs.”
“What drugs?”
Lee stepped away and gestured for her to look for herself. “It was another of Clark’s side-projects.”
“Doesn’t Stonefish already have a drug operation set up?”
