BooksBarbecue
Back Dead Horse Gap
Chapters (58)
  1. COVER PAGE
  2. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  3. DEDICATION
  4. Prologue
  5. One
  6. Two
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Eight
  13. Nine
  14. Ten
  15. Eleven
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. Twenty-one
  26. Twenty-two
  27. Twenty-three
  28. Twenty-four
  29. Twenty-five
  30. Twenty-six
  31. Twenty-seven
  32. Twenty-eight
  33. Twenty-nine
  34. Thirty
  35. Thirty-one
  36. Thirty-two
  37. Thirty-three
  38. Thirty-four
  39. Thirty-five
  40. Thirty-six
  41. Thirty-seven
  42. Thirty-eight
  43. Thirty-nine
  44. Forty
  45. Forty-one
  46. Forty-two
  47. Forty-three
  48. Forty-four
  49. Forty-five
  50. Forty-six
  51. Forty-seven
  52. Forty-eight
  53. Forty-nine
  54. Fifty
  55. Fifty-one
  56. Fifty-two
  57. Fifty-three
  58. Acknowledgements

‘Thank you. I’ll phone you in the morning or come and see you.’

‘You do that, and drive carefully,’ he cautioned. ‘That road is dangerous at night.’

Sterling killed the call and put the phone in the bracket on the windscreen. Collins didn’t have keys to get into the house, but then neither did she, only to the rumpus room. Still, if a window had been broken to gain access, he shouldn’t have any trouble checking out the place.

Sterling turned on the radio, keeping the volume low as she began to drive again. So far so good. There wasn’t a single car on the Alpine Way.

section break

She was twenty minutes from Thredbo when Sergeant Collins called. ‘I’ve been around and had a look,’ he said. ‘They broke the laundry window and got in that way, that’s probably what woke you up.’

‘I think it was,’ Sterling said.

‘They left the laundry door unlocked when they left, so I was able to go in. I can’t tell whether anything’s missing, but they haven’t trashed the place. Usually, they’re looking for cash, jewellery and electronics. I’ll brush the place for fingerprints tomorrow, and get that window fixed. And I’ll call the Johnsons, see if they want me to get the locks changed.’

‘What about Rodney Garrett?’

‘I’ll talk to him too.’

‘I’m staying in the studio downstairs,’ Sterling said. ‘Did they break in there?’

‘No, I tried that bottom door. It was locked up tight.’

‘Oh, thank you, Sergeant,’ Sterling said, piling on the gratitude. ‘I wanted to do the right thing.’

‘Nah, it’s all good,’ he said amicably. ‘Look, this kind of thing isn’t out of the ordinary. We have break-ins now and again when people are away on holidays. Even though your car was in the carport, they might have thought it was a neighbour’s who’d been given permission to put their car in there.’

‘I hope you’re right, Sergeant,’ Sterling said.

‘Anyway, come in and see me at the station later in the day.’

‘I will.’

Sterling ended the call. She was ten minutes from Thredbo, climbing up towards Dead Horse Gap. A handful of Snowy Hydro maintenance vehicles had passed her, travelling in the opposite direction, and a logging truck hauling timber had made her think of Ethan Lorrimer. A few minutes later she was at the spot where Flowers had snowshoed down to Buchanan Hut. She’d like to come back here in the summer, to hike the mountain trails, visit the huts and maybe take a small boat out onto the Khancoban pondage.

A sudden longing bloomed inside her, a longing for her normal life, for the squad, for Ryder’s solid presence, Benson’s joviality, and Brown and O’Day’s dry humour.