Little Girl Lost by Janet Gover Read Free Book Online Page A

echoed to the sounds of families. Of mothers and children. It was wrong to simply let it rot.
    By the time he’d finished his spaghetti, he had a picture in his mind. He knew what the timber wanted to be.
    There was a sketchbook on the bench, but he didn’t bother making a plan. He could see the image so strongly in his head he didn’t need one. He drank the last of his Coke and picked up a plank. He weighed it in his hand for a few seconds, feeling its weight and its strength. Then he set it into a vice and picked up a plane. He slid the tool along the side of the wood, feeling the first layer of weathered timber flake away to reveal a darker, richer colour underneath. He was quickly engrossed in his task. He worked until the small hours, bringing that piece of wood back to life. Just as he went to bed, around one o’clock, the Harley roared through town in the direction of the mine.
    He couldn’t begin to guess where the girl had been or why. In fact, he knew nothing at all about her and that wasn’t good enough. He wanted to know more. He would even be happy to hear some gossip about her from Trish. Not that he listened to gossip, of course. But Trish always seemed to know everything about everyone. She knew what was happening in the town. Sometimes before it happened. And she was seldom wrong. But despite several visits to the pub this week, he’d learned nothing at all from Trish. In fact, Trish had been remarkably silent on the subject of the Creek’s newest resident. That was unlike her. If he had a suspicious mind, he would think Trish was up to something.
    His interest in the girl was work, he told himself as he settled himself for sleep. It was his job to check out any newcomers in town. Especially newcomers who might cause a problem. And if anyone was likely to cause a problem it was a good-looking redheaded girl on a Harley in a town full of single miners. Or, even worse, the FIFO workers who had left their wives behind.
    Max had never planned to come to Coorah Creek. His honesty had brought him here. Well, that and a youthful tendency to speak without thinking. He winced as he remembered his words and the look on the commander’s face the night Max had arrested a powerful man who had been driving home late at night, weaving all over the road. Max hadn’t needed a breathalyser test to know the man was drunk. It would have been easy to let him go with a warning. Easy, but not honest. Three days after charging the man, Max had been reassigned to Coorah Creek, a promising career brought to a pretty abrupt halt.
    He had no regrets. He’d done the right thing, although perhaps gone about it in the wrong way. And he had come to love Coorah Creek and its residents. He appreciated their community spirit. He loved the colours of the sunset. He loved the smell of the first drops of rain as the wet season arrived. He was happy dropping by the pub occasionally for a beer. If this was punishment, he was happy to accept it. There was plenty of time to reboot his career in the future, if he wanted to.
    But if he prided himself on his honesty in his work, he was going to have to be honest with himself too. His desire to find out a bit more about the red-haired girl wasn’t entirely work. There was a personal angle as well. He hadn’t been able to get her out of his head. She was a beautiful girl … woman. Coorah Creek seldom saw the likes of her. But it was her haunted air that kept him awake at night. That and her late night rides on a very noisy motorcycle.
    He had to know more about her.
    Next morning, Max drove to the mine.
    Chris Powell greeted him as he entered the office. ‘What brings you out here? I hope one of my boys hasn’t been causing trouble?’
    Max shook his head. ‘Not this time,’ he said. ‘Actually, it’s a woman I’ve come to ask you about.’
    Chris raised an eyebrow and indicated that they should go through to his office, away from the interested ears of the general office staff.
    ‘I