Fifty Fifty (Detective Harriet Blue #2)(36)

‘Do you know much about her brother’s case?’ Bella asked Snale, leaning around me.

‘Bell, really,’ Snale sighed.

‘Hey, everybody’s got skeletons in their closet,’ the girl said, playing with her fork. ‘I don’t think you’ve got anything to be ashamed of, Harry. Our people slaughtered the Indigenous inhabitants of Last Chance Valley when they settled here. They banished the survivors to the desert. Two centuries later there’s only one of them left, loitering out there in the badlands like a stain no one can get out.’

Dez sighed at the ceiling. ‘Do we have to talk about this?’ Bella was watching me carefully, waiting for a reaction. ‘People think they called it Last Chance because of all the desert,’ she said. ‘Your last chance for food and shelter before the big barren nothingness in all directions. But it’s not true. The Destro family turned up, and told the natives to get out. And when they wouldn’t, they gave them one last chance before they came down the mountainside with their guns.’

‘Bella!’ Dez thumped the tabletop. ‘Go into the kitchen and check on the roast.’

The girl sauntered away, leaving tension and embarrassment in her wake.





Chapter 49


‘THIS IS WHAT you get when you send your children to university.’ Dez ran a hand over his receding hairline, made a stiff tuft of the dark orange hair that remained. ‘They come back critical thinkers. Ready to question everything.’

‘Is she right?’ I asked as Bella brought out some small plates of an entree. ‘Did your ancestors kill off the Indigenous population of the valley?’

‘The history is not as concrete as Bella would have you believe,’ Dez said. ‘The Destro people kept diaries and logs, and there are things we can infer from their letters back and forth to England. But it was mainly the womenfolk doing the writing, and they didn’t note that sort of thing down. Certainly there were fatalities. But we don’t know if that’s because there were accidents when the Indigenous people tried to help the Destro family settle or what. Jed’s ancestors were nomadic, as I understand it, so I don’t see why our people wouldn’t have just moved them on if a disagreement occurred.’

‘ Last Chance Valley is an anomaly out here,’ Bella said. ‘As you’ve likely noticed. The soil is different. It holds water. It’s sheltered. The high rock walls make hunting easier. This is the best place for a settlement for hundreds of kilometres around. I wouldn’t give it up without a fight, if it were me.’

‘Well, it’s not you, darling.’ Dez smiled stiffly and patted his daughter’s hand. He continued. ‘Whether some were killed or not, the majority of the Indigenous residents resettled outside the valley and then moved on. Now, only Jed remains. I’ve tried to bring him back into the fold but he’s not interested. He’s a stubborn man.’

‘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.’