‘Oh God. Sorry, Karl,’ Zara apologised, feeling the dampness of the drink seep into her shirt and seeing a stain forming on his.

‘Shit, sorry,’ the man apologised from behind her. ‘Oh, it’s you. G’day, Zara.’

Zara looked up and saw Jack standing there, his face red with embarrassment.

‘Don’t worry about it,’ Karl answered, patting his shirt with a hanky.

‘You play footy too, do you, Jack?’

‘Sure do. Only just got here, though. Bit late tonight. Got busy.’

‘Doing what?’ Zara asked immediately.

‘Do you journos ever knock off? You’re not getting me that easily,’ Jack answered. ‘Anyway, it wasn’t work. Gotta get on, fellas. Have a good night.’

They watched as he walked quickly towards the door, stopping only briefly to have a word with another man. He yanked the door open and disappeared out into the night.

‘Jack seems a bit on edge,’ Ian said.

‘I reckon he’s real busy. I heard Dave talking to my old man yesterday, saying they had a heap of reviews and reports that had to be finished by the weekend. Got dumped on them unexpectedly.’

‘Freaking paperwork. Who’d work for the government?’ Karl asked.

‘I’m with you on that.’ Mark turned his attention back to Zara. ‘I know you’re the one supposed to be asking the questions, but I’m going to ask you a few.’

‘Fire away,’ Zara answered. She knew if she could establish herself with this tight-knit group of men, she would have a great deal of knowledge and resources at her fingertips.

‘No eyes in the sky, you reckon?’

‘Not that I saw, but I can check. He’s got motion cameras on the front gate as well. I think they record, so he can get numberplates from the footage.’ She waited, burning to ask some of her own questions.

‘And he hasn’t mentioned anything like a drone? I mean, I know he’s crook and all, so maybe he’s not taking much notice.’

‘He goes out with Mum as often as he feels up to it,’ Zara answered. ‘But that’s not very often anymore. The office and his cameras are how he checks everything. He’s still interested, of course, but his body isn’t working well. If he’d seen something, I’m sure he would’ve said. Where are you seeing it?’

‘The drone?’ Doyley asked. ‘Above farms. Flying out over the stocked paddocks. I’ve had two or three farmers mention it to me recently.’

‘How do you know it’s not someone who’s just got a new toy?’

‘Mate, it could well be, but I don’t like it when there’s an eye up there spying on my family. If it’s harmless, then piss off and do it somewhere else,’ Ian answered heatedly.

‘That’s the trouble with activists trespassing and the like,’ Zara said. ‘You’ve got no idea if this is innocent or not. And if it’s not activists, it could be people casing the place to steal things. It frustrates me that South Australia hasn’t got a Rural Crime Investigation Unit anymore.’