‘I’m relying on you to know your limits,’ she said. ‘But I pulled some strings, and I’ve managed to get Detective Tran onto the taskforce, from Hobart. Out of her long service leave early. I’m sending her along too.’

‘Melinda Tran?’ said Con. ‘Good. Good idea.’ He hadn’t met her, but knew her by reputation, a detective from Hobart who was great with cases in the bush.

They ended the call and he wiped the sweat off his forehead and went back down the hall, catching Gabriella’s eye. ‘I’m sorry, but Detective Pakinga and I need to go. Thank you for your time. We’ll be in touch if we have any more questions.’

Con saw himself out, Gabriella close behind.

‘What is it?’ she asked once they were in the car. ‘You look sick.’

‘They’ve found a body,’ said Con.

‘What? Whose?’

‘They don’t know yet,’ said Con. ‘They’ve spotted it from the chopper, but the bush is too dense to land: they’re sending a crew in overland. The commander asked if I wanted to go down there —’

‘Want me to go?’ she said instantly. ‘I’ll go instead. You stay and chat with these two, see what else you can find out.’

‘No,’ he said. ‘I’ll be alright.’

She watched him a moment, then shrugged. ‘Okay, then I’m driving.’ She nudged him out of the door, climbing across the console to take the driver’s seat.

Con walked around the front of the car and took a seat on the passenger side. A second later, he pounded the dash. ‘Shit.’

‘You don’t owe this job anything, you can quit whenever you want to,’ said Gabriella. ‘Just remember that. You know if the wound was outside and not inside, you’d be a lot kinder to yourself.’

He didn’t respond. He focused on his breathing, tried not to think about what seeing the body of a dead teenage girl would bring up for him.

So much for solving this case before anyone got hurt.

CHAPTER 12

CON

The chopper circled above the cliffs of Devils Gullet, a deep basalt canyon just off the western end of the Tiers. It swung back around for another pass and Con peered down through the window. The old SES pilot, Dicky, sat beside him and over the headset intercom he spoke to him about the search so far.

‘All these volunteers, they’re more a curse than a blessing. Will you shut down that video that girl posted?’ said Dicky. ‘Feels like all of Australia’s showed up to the search site.’

‘It’s not that easy to get a video taken down,’ said Con. ‘These huge companies are a nightmare. The video is on lots of different platforms now anyway.’

‘Crazy, mate, it’s bloody crazy. The world’s gone mad.’