‘To check the nests, not that there’s likely to be anything left in them. Go round the back, will you, and help Sophie. When I sing out “hang on”, make sure you do.’

‘Okay.’ No wiser, Tilly did as she was bidden. She heard Luke yell, ‘Now!’ and the ladder jerked suddenly in the two women’s hands, then Luke was there with a second rope, tying the lowest rung to the ball of the towbar at the rear.

‘Right. Secured front and back. We should take the chainsaw too, boss. If there’s a chick left, we won’t reach it. The nests are usually at least a metre down inside the tree.’

‘Get it then,’ Sophie replied, then turned to Tilly. ‘There’s been wildlife traffickers working the place. Luke found some vehicle tracks out near Blooms Rock and we followed them. Whoever it is has been trapping black cockatoos and God knows what else. If they had birding nets—’ She was as angry as the young ranger, Tilly saw, her lips compressed and a hard light in her eyes.

‘But – cockies?’ Tilly was incredulous. ‘Who would want . . .? Can’t you just buy them? And black ones aren’t even that special.’ There were droves of them in the north. She saw them every day, winging home above the river, their harsh discordant calls a feature of evenings at Binboona.

‘They’re protected, and worth anywhere up to forty thousand dollars a pair overseas on the black market,’ Luke said tersely.

‘Forty thousand!’ Tilly blinked. ‘But, I mean, they’re a big strong bird. How—’

‘It’s breeding season,’ he said. ‘They’ve chicks in the nest. The smugglers use a ladder and carry a net to cover the hollow. Then they bang on the trunk and the parent bird panics and goes straight up into the net. All they have to do then is hang about until the bird’s mate turns up and catch him too. Then they bugger off and leave the chicks to starve.’

‘That’s dreadful! So where are they now – these men?’

‘Long gone,’ Sophie said briefly. ‘We can’t spend time chasing them if we’re to have any chance of saving the chicks. And we need to work backwards from the first nest we found – there could be more.’ She pulled the door open as Luke also got in. ‘See you later, Tilly.’

‘Right.’ Bemused by the rapid turn of events, her own worries temporarily subsumed in this new concern, Tilly watched them speed off. Sighing, she returned to the house to hang the washing.

Chapter Sixteen

It was late in the afternoon before Sophie and the young ranger returned. Matt, who had spent the day grading the back roads, beat them home by just five minutes, and was hearing about their discovery when Tilly cocked her head to listen. ‘Here they come now.’