Body in the Gorge (Cockatoo Cozy Mystery Series Book 1) (9 page)

I felt grateful to have someone else take charge, I was still shaking from the whole ordeal.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The hunt

I arrived back at Emma’s place with Cracker and took the butter into the kitchen. The Ladies pounced on the butter and immediately started on making sandwiches again. Nothing much had changed here.

“Where’s Emma?” I inquired.

“She’s having a lie down, in her bedroom.” She pointed behind her with her butter knife.

I walked into the bedroom to find Becca handing Emma another cup of tea.

“I’m glad I’ve found you both here.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out the earring and dropped it into Emma’s hand.

Emma sat up “Have you found her, where is she?”

I sat down next to Emma and put my finger to my lips. “Yes I found her, she is okay but very dazed and bruised.”

Emma hugged me. “Can I see Her?”

I whispered. “Caz was kidnapped, we still need to find out who it was, so we need to keep it quiet, but I just had to tell you first.”

Becca broke in. “I’ll go and fetch Sergeant Grant he needs to hear this.”

Sergeant Grant seemed a little ill at ease interviewing someone in a bedroom but he listened to my news and added pertinent questions as the story unfolded.

He examined the earring and held it up. “Well this jewellery does seem to link in with the murdered girl and even if that is a slim possibility we have to take precautions, this could be a dangerous man. We’ll have to wait for him to come back to the shack you found. I’ll organize my men and we can use the Rangers too. Our main problem is we still have no idea who the suspect is.” He looked at Becca and me. “Even if you have your suspicions.”

Becca asked, “How are you going to talk to your men without the kidnapper getting suspicious?”

“I’ll call off the search a bit early most of the groups are back and it looks like a storm is on the way so we’ll use that as an excuse. I’ll call together my men and the Rangers, I’ll just say we are organizing tomorrow’s search.” Sergeant Grant headed for the door. “I can hear Jim’s helicopter that will be the last of the search parties back.”

I looked at Emma. “You’d better stay in here until everyone has gone, one look at your face and everyone will know we’ve found Carol.”

Emma put her hands on her face. “Oh yes, but I’m still worried about her what has she been through, I just want to see her.” I gave her another hug.

Becca walked back into the room and looked at Emma. “I just saw Sergeant Grant have a quiet word with the Doctor, he’ll go down to the Caravan Park and check Carol out, she’ll be fine and she is in good hands.” Becca turned to me. “Chloe, they need you to show them where the track to the hut is, so Troy and I are coming with you, we need to leave quickly before all the searchers start leaving to head home. We don’t want them to see where we are going.”

I followed Becca out the side door where Troy’s National Park Vehicle was waiting. We piled in the back

“Okay just to be on the safe side you two hide under the blanket. We don’t want the target getting suspicious.” Troy started down the drive.

A voice called out. “Where are you going Troy?”

Troy stuck his head out the window, but didn’t stop. “I have a tourist incident I’ve been called to, see you later.” Troy kept on down the drive and out the gate. Several people watched the car leave but then turned to Sergeant Grant when he called for attention.

“OK girls you can come out now.” Troy said

Becca pushed the blanket off. “Was that Randall who asked you where you are going?”

Troy nodded. “Yes but he wasn’t the only one to show interest.”

All was quiet at the airfield as we drove past, the helicopter wasn’t back yet. We drove on until I recognized the track and pointed it out to Troy.

Troy stopped the car. “I’ll just send the GPS co-ordinates to the police via our headquarters, then I’ll take you to the Caravan Park. Three of my Rangers are waiting for me there to help with this stakeout.”

“Oh we’ll miss all the fun.” Joked Becca. Troy frowned but before he could start a lecture Becca continued, “don’t worry I’m anxious to see Caz anyway.”

When we reached the Caravan Park the Doctor and Madge were enjoying a drink out on the deck.

Madge raised a glass. “To the heroine.”

I blushed. “Cracker and the Echidna are the true heroes.”

Becca interrupted. “How’s Caz, can I see her?”

The Doctor held up his hand. “No I’ve given her a sedative, physically she’s okay but she was confused and traumatized, so a good nights sleep is what she needs.

Becca and I joined them for a drink and nibbles which Madge brought out. Madge offered a barbecue but everyone was too tense to eat a meal yet.

Two hours later the CB radio came to life Madge ran over. “We’ve got him and only a few bruises, no other injuries, but we’ve got him.” Troy crowed.

Madge replied impatiently. “Well who have they arrested, over.”

“Oh I forgot to say, its Jim! Definitely Jim the pilot.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The Capture

Two days later we were being royally treated to a barbecue tea by Emma and Joe. Troy and Colin were also there and of course Caz was being given special treatment. She’d recovered quickly once she knew the threat was past and Jim was in jail having been arrested for kidnapping and murder.

Becca leaned forward. “Okay what did happen at the stake out of the hut and who nabbed Jim first, the Police or the Rangers?”

Troy looked at Chris, then Troy began. “Well by the time I had Pete drop us off and take our car away to park out of sight. Sergeant Grant had his men in place.”

Chris continued. “Yes we only had eight men altogether, three Rangers, three Police and two farmers. We were all determined to catch this guy, half of us have daughters so there was no way we were going to loose this creep.”

Troy took over the tale. “Us Rangers moved to the rear of the hut where the forest surrounded the hut. It seemed too thick to allow escape we didn’t have to go far into the bush to disappear from view.”

Chris next. “The volunteers were on one side, I was on the other side and hidden out front were the Sergeant and Constable Ben. Just on dark we were completely surprised to see Jim come sauntering down the track with a back pack. We’d put the padlock back on the door so it wasn’t until he got close the he noticed the break-in. Sergeant Grant gave a shout and we all raced in, but Jim took off past Chris towards the back and disappeared down a track which none of us had spotted it was so over grown.”

Troy interrupted. “I was closest to the track and managed to break through and ran after him, Chris caught up with me very quickly he’s certainly fitter than I am, and luckily we were both fitter than Jim because we both caught up with him in a little clearing and we both tackled him to the ground, by this time the others had arrived. He was not so brave when he was surrounded, I hope he goes away for a long time.”

Constable Chris grinned. “Well I think there is no problem with that, we searched his place and found hair souvenirs of three girls and two boxed sets of the matching earrings and necklaces unused.”

Becca cried. “Oh I hope one of them is not Amy Brown.”

Chris nodded. “It might be, unfortunately we have to wait for DNA tests, we will be examining that clearing behind the hut looking for another body too. Jim is not talking, still I’m pretty sure we have him for kidnapping and one murder that should get him a life sentence.”

A couple of weeks later we stood next to our car with the caravan hitched up.

Emma gave us a hug. “You’re ready to go, I’ll miss you and I can never thank you enough for what you’ve done for Caz and our family.” A loud squawk came from the aviary. Emma said. “Would you like to take Cracker with you? He certainly wants to go.”

I looked at Cracker who was doing a frantic dance back and forth across the cage. I looked at Emma. “I’d love to but won’t you miss him.”

“Yes I’ll miss him but I never have enough time to give him the attention he wants, he is very demanding and if you would like him I would be very pleased.”

I went over to Cracker and opened the cage. He hopped straight onto my shoulder and did a little victory dance. “I’ll leave the cage here, you’ll certainly need it for your future orphans, I’ll buy him a new one.”

I put him onto the branch which was still in the back seat, and climbed in next to Becca. We waved two arms and a wing as we left the farm for our next destination.

THE END

If you would like to read more of Chloe, Becca and Cracker’s adventures

The Cockatoo Cozy mystery series

Book 2 Body by the Beach

Book 3 Body in the Gardens

Sign up if you want to be notified of new releases to get discount offers.

Http://www.lynjwalker.com

If you enjoyed this book I would really appreciate a review.

Despite this book being copy edited and proof read some mistakes

may have slipped through please let me know by leaving a

comment on my website.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Authors Note

AUTHORS NOTE

This story is inspired by the Carnarvon Gorge in Central Queensland Australia. It is a beautiful tourist destination and I loved visiting it and hiking through it. The Moss Garden and ampitheatre exist but the story is fiction and we didn’t actually stumble on a body there. The people and local towns in this story are also fictional.

As it is an Australian story I have used Australian English which differs from the US in some of the spelling such as jewellery compared to jewelery. Another example of differences is caravan which is called a trailer in the US.

Do drop me a line or visit my website to get the latest news.

Http//:www.lynjwalker.com

I also do paintings and drawings of my book characters and scenes where the books are set so check them out on my website too.

Thank you for reading my book, I would love a review.