Fifty Fifty (Detective Harriet Blue #2)(38)

‘You tried to enlist him as a tourist attraction,’ Bella retorted.

‘A what?’ Snale asked.

‘I tried to get his help on the leadership program,’ Dez said. ‘Bella is convinced I was being racist.’

‘You were.’

‘I run a program every year with kids from the surrounding towns,’ Dez explained to me. ‘Anyone can apply for it, and I liaise with the teachers to find out who the best candidates are. Who has the most potential. I take three or four kids out into the desert, and we do exercises. I thought maybe Jed could help me out, with some of his cultural knowledge. As part of the government reconciliation program, Jed’s people were given native title for a lot of land out there beyond the town limits. I don’t know that he makes much use of it. There’s nothing out there. But he legally owns it, and he could exclude us from it if he ever desired. I thought maybe he could take us around, you know? He’d know things. Desert sustenance, for example. The importance of certain landmarks and animals to the Aboriginal people of this area.’

‘ Racist.’

‘Bella!’

‘What? It’s racist,’ she insisted. ‘You’re making a whole host of degrading cultural assumptions. You assume this guy must be some sort of mystical Aboriginal tracker just because he’s got Indigenous heritage.’ She waggled her fingers like she was doing a magic trick. ‘He’ll talk to you about the rainbow serpent and how the kangaroo got its tail and he’ll just forget about all the rape of his native land stuff. All that unpleasantness is in the past, right?’

Dez covered his eyes.

‘Even if this guy did have loads of really interesting cultural knowledge, why would you assume he’d want to share that knowledge with you?’

‘Why wouldn’t he?’ Dez shrugged.

‘You’re right.’ Bella sipped her wine. ‘Of course he would. He’d be so pleased to be of assistance, to be invited to be a part of the town.’

‘What do you suggest I do with him then?’

‘Don’t do anything with him,’ Bella said. ‘He clearly wants to be left alone. Leave him alone. The guy doesn’t want to connect with the people of this town because he doesn’t like them. You can’t make people like you.’

‘How could you not like us?’ Snale said. ‘We’re lovely.’

‘Someone’s trying to kill you all, Vicky,’ Bella said. ‘You can’t be that nice.’





Chapter 50


DEZ STARED AT the ceiling. He seemed to be looking for an escape hatch from his daughter’s accusations.

‘Let me show you one of our albums,’ he said. He went to a nearby cabinet and fished out a photo album. I put the book between Snale and me and started flipping through the pictures. Gangly teenagers, all lanky with knobbly knees and big smiles, crouched on rocks before the sheer edge of Last Chance Valley. Some were climbing a huge rock formation in the desert. Some stood pointing towards the horizon. Bright faces, sunburned girls and boys sitting in the light of a fire.

‘What sort of leadership stuff do you do with the kids out there?’ I asked.

‘Navigation, emergency survival techniques, a bit of endurance and adventure training.’

Kash had perked up beside me.

‘That sounds awesome!’ he said. ‘How’d you develop the program?’

‘Oh, I’m an old reservist, myself.’

‘ That’s great.’ Kash downed his Scotch quickly. ‘I’d love to know what techniques you’re using. Do you get them into any self-defence tactics?’

‘Well, I would, but I don’t have much experience in –’

‘Oh, wow.’ Kash pulled his chair in, sat upright like an obedient German shepherd. ‘I have some great drills for young people. Leadership stuff, like you’re looking for. I got my certification as a recruit trainer a while back. I could definitely assist.’

The two fell into conversation. Bella appeared in a couple of the photographs, hanging out at the edge of the frame, fiddling with her bag or staring at the fire. She was watching me from across the table, one leg drawn up so that her elbow rested on her knee, pushing food restlessly around her plate.

‘Did you go on many of the expeditions?’ I asked.

‘A few,’ she said. ‘It was usually me behind the camera.’

Snale looked at an image of Dez leading a bunch of kids through a search-and-rescue drill, four of them carrying another on a stretcher. Bella seemed the only person not interested in the photos.

‘So who killed Theo Campbell?’ Bella asked idly, with a mouth full of beans. I had to draw myself away from the adventures before me.

‘You tell me,’ I said.

‘I think he was into some tricky stuff.’ She smiled. ‘He was starting to get a bit loose with the rules by the time I was ready to leave here for uni last year. Around that time he caught a bunch of us on the south ridge hanging out, smokin’ weed.’

I looked to Bella’s father to see if he’d react to his daughter’s admission. But he was busy talking to Kash.

‘ Chief Campbell didn’t do anything,’ Bella continued. ‘Didn’t even take it off us. Just stopped and chatted for a while. I half expected him to ask for a toke. Guess he was getting old. Didn’t care anymore.’