Body in the Gorge (Cockatoo Cozy Mystery Series Book 1) (8 page)

Emma was already heading for the house as we clambered into our car. I put Cracker in the back seat as it was quicker than taking him back to his cage. He went into the car with no fuss, he seemed to know we were in a hurry. Night was fast approaching, we all wanted to find Caz before dark. We drove slowly down the road eyes on both sides of the road looking for any sign of her. As we passed the Helicopter airstrip Cracker let out a squawk and flapped his wing at Becca, she slowed down even more and drove in but the place seemed deserted. I jumped out and banged on Jim’s door but there was no answer. We returned to the road which was still empty no sign of Caz except for an approaching dust cloud.

“Look a car is coming.” We watched as it got closer. Becca started waving. “Its a Ranger’s car.” We both waved our arms madly. The car stopped.

Troy popped his head out. “Hi you two I was just going to call in.” Becca explained what had happened. Troy picked up his CB radio and called it in to the Park Rangers Head office and asked them to call the police. He then leaned back out. “Becca you two drive on down this road past the Gorge turnoff, go as far as the Brown’s front drive, don’t go in, Emma will have rung them already, just check the road sides carefully and then head back to Emma’s place, it will be dark soon anyway. I’ll check out the side road back to the left, then I’ll head back to Emma’s too. We will have to organize a search from there.” He turned his four wheel drive around and called out as he drove off. “Watch out for Roos!”

Becca shook her head. “As if I haven’t already been driving carefully, the last thing we want is to run into a kangaroo. Its just like a male to take over, but I guess the important thing is to find Caz it doesn’t matter who takes charge.”

We scrutinized the road sides all the way to the Brown’s place and back, we saw only a few kangaroos grazing on the long grass in the drains, by the time we turned into Emma’s drive we could hardly see anything until we reached the farmhouse, all the outside lights were blazing, there were lots of cars and people milling about. We parked back beside our caravan. I put Cracker away in his cage, then followed Becca over to the house to find Emma. We found her sitting at the kitchen table tears running down her cheeks.

“Oh no! is there news?” Becca exclaimed.

Emma sniffed “No dear, but she must be hurt or worse if she can’t even walk home.”

Becca gave her a hug. “Don’t think the worst yet.”

I looked at the growing mound of bread and food on the table. “I’ll start making sandwiches, it looks like they have enough locals for the search parties.”

Becca stood up. “I will put the kettle on and make sure there’s plenty of hot water for drinks and the Urn is still outside from the party so I’ll fill that too and plug it in.”

Troy and the others came back at about 2am, all looked tired and dejected. Becca and I handed out yet more tea and coffee and sandwiches. Once everyone was fed Troy sat down at the kitchen table. Emma had moved off to the other room to sit in the armchair, she refused to go to bed.

Troy took a sip of his coffee. “Not much more we can do until it gets light. The Police and more volunteers from town will be out here then.” He munched on a sandwich.

Becca topped up his drink. “Does anyone know where Randall went after his fight with Caz?”

“I think the police are still looking for him.” Troy said as he rose. “I’m going to get a couple of hours sleep in my car, you two should get some sleep too.”

A Neighbour came bustling into the kitchen. “Yes he’s right girls you go get some shut eye, I’ll handle the kitchen for a while and I’ll look after Emma. She shooed Becca and me out the door. We were too tired to argue.

After a couple of hours sleep we were woken by more vehicles roaring up the drive.

I rubbed my eyes. “Did you get any sleep Becca?”

Becca groaned. “Not much I was dreaming about necklaces and earrings that kept disappearing then turning up in odd spots. I have a bad feeling about Caz’s disappearance.”

I pushed myself out of bed, “Come on I can hear the birds calling we’d better go and feed the animals I don’t think Emma will be up to it. We were wrong. We were surprised to find Emma in the shed preparing the feeds.

“What are you doing here?” Becca asked gently

Emma sighed. “I had to find a job to do, I couldn’t stand another person asking me questions or giving me sympathy, I had to come and do something useful.” After feeding all the animals Emma headed wearily back to the house and Becca and I had a quick shower before we also headed for the house ready to make more sandwiches or help in some way.

By the time they arrived back at the farmhouse Sergeant Grant was organizing different groups and allocating areas for each group to search. He turned to Constable Mathews. “Have you been able to get in touch with Jim yet, we could sure use the helicopter?”

Colin stopped to answer. “No sir he hasn’t been answering his phone, but I’ll go round there now and see if I can find him.”

Becca and I moved through the crowd and into the kitchen. Inside they found the local CWA (Country Women’s Association) had joined in and had organized an assembly line. Becca was put to work buttering bread and I was sent down to the other end to cut and wrap the finished sandwich. As the sun rose above the horizon they heard the sound of a helicopter which grew louder.

Becca tapped me on the shoulder. “I’ve volunteered to be a spotter from the helicopter with Jim. There are more then enough helpers in here.” She gave a hopeful thumbs up as she disappeared out the door. All the younger ladies also went out to join the search groups. By the time the sun was up fully, all the searchers had left.

I took a cup of coffee out to Sergeant Grant. “Here Sergeant have this and a muffin the CWA ladies baked them.”

Half a muffin disappeared in one bite. “Mmmm…… they’re good at times like this.” He mumbled through muffin crumbs.

I moved over to look at the map pinned to the side of the shed, it was divided into sections and each one had a number in it. Next to the map were a lot of lists each numbered and a group leader named and a list of volunteers in that group. The group leaders were obviously police, Rangers or Fire officers mainly. I spotted Becca’s name under Jim’s list as well as Todd, Emma’s youngest boy also a helicopter spotter too. Then I spotted Randall’s name on a list .

I turned still pointing at the name. “Sergeant you found Randall, where was he yesterday?”

The Sergeant walked over. “Yes he says he was in town all afternoon with his friend Jake, Jake’s Mother was there too.” Sergeant Grant pointed to the top of that list. “I have him in Constable Mathews group though so we can keep an eye on him.” I was relieved that at least some of our concerns about Randall had been noted.

The day wore on slowly with no word of Caz. Groups came back for rest breaks and food and drinks, then went out again. The day was getting hot and concern was mounting for Caz.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The clue

Early in the afternoon one of the ladies said from the refrigerator. “We’ve run out of butter, she turned to me. “You know Madge at the caravan park don’t you, it would be quicker to get some from there, it’s much closer than the shop in town. I’ll just give her a ring.”

I headed back to the ‘van for the car keys. Cracker was so excited to see me, I took pity and decided to take him with me. There was a large branch under the tree, I shoved it into the back seat so it was sitting tightly, then released Cracker from his cage and took him over to the car and settled him on the branch, he did a little dance, happy to be out of the cage. I just hoped Emma wouldn’t mind. I waved to a group of horse riders I passed as they were heading back for a rest.

I looked at Cracker. “We’d better hurry and get the butter they’ll run out of sandwiches soon.”

Cracker flapped his wing, but he kept his eyes on the road ahead. I thought, he seems to be searching like the rest of us. As they were coming closer to the national park Cracker let out a squawk and jumped onto the back of the front seat to get a better look. I braked hard as I saw something on the road. As I opened the door of the car Cracker hopped onto my shoulder and we walked around to see an Echidna shuffling along, not in a hurry to cross the road. He was more interested in trying to find some ants to eat. Cracker jumped down to greet the Echidna beak to snout.

“Do you know this fellow, is he one of Emma’s orphans?” Cracker bobbed up and down. “I guess that’s a Yes,” I surmised.

Cracker then tapped the back of the Echidna who immediately curled over and humped his back and his spines stood up presenting a very prickly barrier. The sun sparkled on something shiny, I bent over to get a closer look and gasped, it was an earring just like the pair I had admired on Caz yesterday. I unhooked it quickly as the Echidna uncurled and went lumbering on its way disappearing into the long grass on the other side of the road.

I looked in the direction the Echidna had come from there was a very rough overgrown track leading off into the bush which you wouldn’t even notice unless you stopped right here.

I picked up Cracker and got back in the car. “Cracker we’d better have a look up that track Caz may have come this way to hide from someone or maybe she was taken here, we’ll just check it out. I’ll just take the car off the road and under this tree in the shade.” It was a squeeze to get out again because of the bushes and tall grasses. Along the track I pushed through more overhanging branches and prickly shrubs.

“I don’t think the horse came this way.” I said as I shielded Cracker from another branch.

The next step I stumbled over loose stones and dirt, I stopped and looked down.

“This looks like Echidna diggings to me maybe this is where the earring fell off.”

I jumped over the newly dug holes and pushed on down the track. The path twisted and turned and I noticed some large footprints in a muddy patch. I proceeded even more cautiously after that, then suddenly as we rounded a corner and saw a rough timber hut. I stopped and crouched down behind some bushes, thank goodness Cracker seemed to know when to be quiet. After five minutes we had seen no movement and heard nothing. I moved carefully from tree to shrub until I reached the back of the hut. It was a strange building as there were no windows, but the slabs of wood were very roughly cut and I found a crack to peer through. It was very dark inside because there were no windows, after my eyes adjusted I could make out some movement from the bed in the corner, there didn’t appear to be any other movement in the room. I moved around to the door, there was a shiny new padlock on it. Cracker fluttered over to an axe leaning against a tree.

“Yes that might do.” I cried leaving all caution behind just wanting to get into the shed. I swung the axe at the padlock again and again until it dropped off, I ran over to the bed. Caz lay there struggling to get out of the ropes tying her to the bed.

I pulled off the rag which was gagging her mouth. “Are you all right?”

“Just get me out of here before he comes back.” Caz coughed and spluttered.

I retrieved the axe from outside, lucky I’d only used the back of it to break the lock we now needed the sharp edge to cut the ropes.

As I sawed back and forth on the rope with the axe I asked Caz. “Who was it, who brought you here?”

“I don’t know my head is all fuzzy, I can’t remember.” Caz cried holding her head.

“Don’t worry about that now, lets just get you out of here first!” I said gently.

Once the ropes were cut we moved out of the hut, I pulled the door closed. With Cracker on one shoulder and Caz clinging to my other shoulder we stumbled off up the track. We just made it to the Echidna diggings when I heard the helicopter approaching.

“Come on lets hide under those shrubs we don’t know who is in the helicopter helping with the search.” I said as I pulled Caz under the bush. I didn’t mention Randall’s name out loud but he was on my thoughts. Caz was glad of the rest and her breathing slowed as we waited for the helicopter to move away. I was glad I had pulled the door shut so the hut would look undisturbed from above. Then I remembered my car, hopefully the tree I parked under would hide it. Finally the helicopter moved away, it was probably a very short time but seemed to take forever. We made our way to the car at last. I helped Caz and Cracker into the car and drove off quickly to get as much distance as possible away from the site of the kidnapping.

“I’ll take you around to the Caravan Park. Madge can look after you. We don’t know who this kidnapper is yet he is almost certainly out on the search right now so we don’t want to alert him, I’ll get in touch with the police.”

When they arrived at the campground it was very quiet, nobody around. I drove around to the back door of the private residence and helped Caz into the kitchen.

Madge looked up surprised her jaw dropped. “Caz.” She ran over and gave her a hug. Then lowered her onto a couch. “Where did you find her?” I gave her the whole story. Madge bristled. “It was a far worse situation than everyone thought, thank goodness you found her. Okay I’m going to call my husband to come back here, we need some back up. I was a nurse so I’ll look after Caz here for now. Chloe you go back with the butter they want and discreetly let Emma and the Police know. We need to keep her safe until they find this kidnapper. Off you go Emma must be frantic.”