Morgan's Law (31 page)

‘What were they doing?'

‘Stealing copper and fuel.'

‘How long have you been working for them?'

‘A few months.'

‘Surely people notice if fuel is missing? How did you think you'd get away with it?'

‘It's not as hard as you'd think. A lot of times the fuel levels aren't checked regularly.' He gave a shrug. ‘I'd hear of someone going away to a sale and direct a truck over to pump out a tank. They'd be in and out before the sun came up. We were knocking off a few tankerloads a month and no one was any the wiser.'

‘But they're your neighbours, Trent.'

She saw his jaw clench and knew he wasn't unaffected by this; she felt a little relieved at that.

‘So there's big money in all this?'

‘Shit, yeah. The cost of diesel has skyrocketed. Fuel is something they can get rid of without much chance of being traced. That's where I came into it. I knew where I could find it, who wouldn't notice some missing, where I could find more.'

‘But what about copper? Surely there can't be that much money in scrap metal?' Sarah tried to imagine how the thin, delicate threads she'd seen inside wiring could possibly be worth risking a jail sentence for. And how much of it would you need to gather to make any money from it?

‘They were going to make three million out of this haul,' Trent said, nodding his head towards the shed where police were busy photographing and recording the bounty. With the area lit up like daylight, Sarah could now see that copper wire came in much larger bundles than the insulated strands she'd been picturing. The bundles were made up of all different lengths and thicknesses, some as thick as her arm. It was all crammed together and squashed into a crude semblance of a hay bale—obviously for easy handling and storage.

‘Are you serious?'
Three million?
‘But where do they sell it?'

Trent shrugged. ‘The Asian electronics market, I heard.'

‘How could you get mixed up in something like this, Trent? Surely you realised you could get caught?'

‘Let's just say when I had doubts about it and wanted to get out they convinced me it would be in my family's best interests to shut up and go along with it.'

Sarah clenched her hands together tightly as she tried to put herself in Trent's position. She could easily imagine the helplessness he must have been feeling once he'd realised how much trouble he'd gotten himself into.

‘Wouldn't your dad have been able to help you?'

Trent gave a harsh chuckle. ‘You
have
met my old man before, haven't you?'

‘Surely he would have helped you. You're his son.'

‘And I'd never have lived it down. He doesn't have a lot of patience for losers.'

‘You're not a loser,' Sarah said quietly.

‘Take a look around, Pommy. If it wasn't for me, we wouldn't be in this mess.'

They sat in silence for a little while and Sarah tried to absorb everything that had happened tonight.

‘I never used to understand how someone could top themselves, you know?' His voice sounded almost vulnerable. ‘I mean, you hear about it, but you don't ask too many questions because, well, it just isn't talked about. But I could never understand how someone reached a point where they thought there was no other way out of a situation.'

Sarah didn't move.

‘I was driving back from town one day and I passed a semi full of cattle. I remember thinking in the split second I passed it, how easy it would be to just turn the wheel. I probably wouldn't even feel a thing, it would happen that quick. That's when I understood.' He turned and held her with his eerily calm gaze. ‘They reach a point where they're just too tired to keep fighting. It gets too hard to keep it all hidden, to keep acting
normal
. It just gets too damn hard.' He let his head tip back once more against the headrest and let out a long sigh. ‘It scared the shit outta me. I turned the car around and drove straight to the cop station in Yarraville and turned myself in.'

‘Oh, Trent.' Sarah felt tears glistening in her eyes. It was hard to imagine someone so close to self-harm that the only alternative was to turn themselves in to the police. It was a brave thing to do, but such a crying shame to see a young life wasted in jail because of one stupid decision.

‘It was a relief. It was getting harder to look myself in the eye. I'm glad it's over now. At least I tried to make it right. I can live with that.'

The door opened and an officer beckoned to Sarah to get out of the vehicle. She glanced at Trent and managed a smile. ‘I'll do everything I can to help you get out of this. Don't worry.'

But he just shook his head at her and gave a tired smile.

‘Nah, there's nothing you can do. She'll be right.'

With a heavy heart, she watched as the police car drove away. She felt tears begin and she sniffed, searching her pockets for a tissue. Through blurry eyes, she saw one appear from over her shoulder and she turned to say a teary thank you, only to gape at the person standing there.

‘Tiny! What are you doing here?'

‘I could ask you the same question. Do you realise you almost blew an eighteen-month undercover investigation? Are you hurt?'

Sarah stared dumbfounded at the man, then shook her head. ‘I don't understand. What investigation?'

‘I'm part of a taskforce working on rural-based crime.'

‘But you work on the railway . . .'

‘I used to, which came in pretty handy with this particular case.' Tiny shrugged. ‘But no, I'm a cop.'

Sarah dabbed at her eyes and blew her nose. ‘I can't believe any of this is happening.'

Tiny gave her a kind smile and led her over to a dusty red ute. ‘I can imagine it's been a little more than you were bargaining for when you arrived in town.'

‘Just a tad.' Gran certainly had a lot to answer for. ‘So, what? You've been spying on everyone this whole time?'

Her accusation made him grimace, but he didn't deny it. Tiny might be the good guy here but it still felt like a betrayal to discover he wasn't who she thought he was.

‘I'd prefer to say I was quietly observing the situation.'

‘And all those early morning coffees? You were really just trying to get information from me?'

‘Your arrival turned the whole place upside down. I had to figure out where you fitted in.'

‘It was you who broke into my room at the pub, wasn't it?' said Sarah, feeling more than a little disconcerted.

‘I was just doing my job. But you must have eyes like a damn hawk. Either that or I'm losin' my touch.'

‘Why did you have to pretend to be a railway worker?' she asked.

‘Because we knew that everywhere a maintenance team had been situated over the last eighteen months, a string of criminal activity followed. We just haven't been able to catch them with the stuff and prove it, before Morgan came forward and volunteered to get us the evidence.'

‘I can't believe Trent is mixed up in all of this.'

Tiny gave a slow nod. ‘He got in way over his head. Unfortunately, desperate times will bring out some pretty unusual behaviour in people.'

‘Will he go to jail?'

‘I don't know. It's likely,' Tiny said honestly. ‘But without him coming forward we wouldn't have been able to catch the ringleaders. He took a big risk making sure all the players were here in one spot tonight. We only managed to piece all this together because of him. So that will count in his favour.'

‘He tried to protect me,' Sarah said quietly. She was amazed that the cousin she'd believed to be nothing more than an antagonistic pain in the neck had probably saved her life. No wonder he'd been so uptight—he'd been under an enormous amount of pressure.

‘Lucky for you he was here. The guys in the plane have a pretty nasty record and they don't play nice. You wouldn't have made it out of this alive if they'd caught you first.'

Sarah felt the colour drain from her face. Patting her hand awkwardly, Tiny started the engine and took her back to town.

Once she'd given a statement to the police the next day, her part in this would most likely be over, although Tiny did warn that there was a small chance she might need to appear as a witness at the trial. He seemed convinced, though, that they had more than enough evidence to prosecute the case without her. She hoped he was right, but if coming back to give evidence helped Trent, she'd gladly do it. After all—he was family.

Twenty-Nine

Sarah hoped she could escape to her room without bumping into anyone, seeing as she was a mess, covered in bruises and scratches and still feeling very shaky, but it wasn't to be. Tash was waiting for her, having been ringing around looking for her since she'd failed to turn up after dark.

‘Where have you been? Adam called, looking for you.'

‘You wouldn't believe me if I told you,' Sarah said with a weary sigh as she stepped into the light.

‘Oh my God, Sarah. What happened?'

There was no way she was going to be able to fob Tash off now, so she gave her a brief outline of the night's events.

‘And I'm really sorry about your car. I'll see Bruce in the morning and take car of any repairs. The police said they'd get him to tow it back to town later tonight.'

Tash waved off her apology. ‘I couldn't car less about the damn car as long as you're okay.'

‘Yeah, I'm fine. Nothing a good shower won't cure. I'll fill you in on the rest when I come back down.'

‘Of course, go have a shower.'

Beneath the stream of hot water, Sarah was finally able to release the dam of emotion she'd been struggling to hold back all night. It was just shock, she kept telling herself as sobs racked her body. It wasn't every day you came close to ending up dead, got caught in the middle of a police raid and discovered people you thought you knew had been hiding behind lies the entire time.

Feeling better after her shower, and scrubbed clean of dirt and grime, Sarah came back downstairs to the courtyard to fill Tash in.

‘So Trent was arrested along with those other guys with all the tattoos?' Tash asked, after listening attentively and with growing alarm and surprise.

‘I guess so.'

‘Wow, an undercover sting in Negallan!'

‘Sting?' Sarah asked doubtfully. ‘I think you might have watched one too many cop shows.'

‘This is unbelievable. All this time and it was Trent who was stealing around here. It's gonna suck to be him once this gets out.'

‘He
did
go to the police and turn himself in. He tried to fix it.' It was strange to feel defensive on Trent's behalf, but seeing him tonight, without the burden of guilt and lies he'd been living with, she'd caught a glimpse of the real Trent, and he wasn't so bad.

‘Wow, someone's changed their tune. After all the crap he gave you, you're going to defend him?'

Sarah sent her friend a sad smile. ‘He was trying to fix his mistakes. I can't imagine how alone and scared he must have felt.'

‘So, what happened out at Burrapine? I called to see if you were there when it got late. It seemed a little unsettled out there.'

Sarah could imagine. And after tonight's events, things were only going to get worse. Poor Carmel and Keith, she thought sadly. The possibility of losing their son to jail was going to be a terrible blow.

‘Sarah?' Tash prodded gently.

‘Sorry, it's been a long day,' Sarah said wearily. ‘Albert and Ruth confirmed everything about Bluey and Rose. It doesn't make me feel any better, but I now understand why she left.'

Rose would have grown up hearing the same family legend of James and Anita, but then history repeated itself with her father's bigoted attitude towards William's lack of social status. Heartbroken, and hurting that William hadn't fought harder against her father, it wasn't too hard to see why Rose had turned to a man like Bluey.

Sarah had no doubt that Bluey Jenkins had forced himself on Rose. The knowledge sparked a fierce burn of outrage against the man who was her grandfather. There couldn't be any other explanation—not when she knew how deeply in love Rose had been. Why would she save herself for William just to give it away to someone like Bluey? It wouldn't have mattered how heartbroken and furious she'd been with William for breaking off their relationship—Sarah knew in her heart, Rose wouldn't do that. She felt sorry for the teenage Rose—a young woman who'd inadvertently set in motion a chain of events that would have far-reaching consequences for everyone who knew her.

‘Maybe Rose just wanted to end the family legacy. Look at James—he wasted five years making sure he created the perfect lifestyle for Anita, and for what? They had a few measly months together to enjoy it.
Five years!
' Sarah said, looking sadly at Tash. ‘I guess Gran decided she wasn't going to get caught up in all that.'

‘It still doesn't explain why she stayed away so long. I can understand not wanting to come back while her father was still alive, but he's been dead for years. Why do you think she never came back afterwards?'

‘Maybe she knew coming back would just complicate everything. William was still here, and presumably married, by the time Patrick died. I don't think she ever got over William—she never married. Coming back here and knowing he was married to someone else and was raising a family with her . . . And she had Mum . . . I guess she felt she couldn't come back and face all that.'

Sarah tried to imagine how she'd feel if she ever came back here and saw Adam with a wife and kids in tow. Shaking off the image of a woman who looked remarkably like Kelly Morgan, Sarah dismissed her wayward thoughts. ‘Times have changed, thank goodness. All that outdated class nonsense is irrelevant. Nowadays Burrapine is just another property struggling to keep afloat.'