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

guess you mean Tia,’ Chris said as he closed the office door.
    Tia. Until now Max hadn’t even known her name. It suited her. He wondered what, if anything, it might be short for.
    ‘Yes. What do you know about her?’
    ‘Not a lot. Tia Walsh. She’s only just got her licence to drive the Cat 793. But she’s good. She’s got a trailer in the accommodation compound. Keeps very much to herself, I think. If you want I can get her personnel record.’
    Max was about to say yes, but caught himself. This wasn’t right. The girl … Tia … had done nothing wrong. He had no right to use his job to check up on her. No right at all. It would be an invasion of her privacy. Much as he wanted to say yes, he shook his head.
    ‘No. It’s fine.’
    ‘If there’s something I should know …’
    ‘Absolutely nothing.’ Max felt a pang of guilt. The last thing he should be doing was giving Tia’s boss any reason to doubt her. ‘Nothing at all.’
    Chris raised a questioning eyebrow which Max tried desperately to ignore. That and the knowing smirk that accompanied it.
    ‘I’m off,’ he said, making for the door. ‘See you around, Chris.’
    Walking back to his car, Max looked across the gravel car park towards the giant hole in the ground that was the source of the rare ore that had brought prosperity to the town. Some distance away from the office building, huge gantries clustered around the railhead, conveyer belts reaching into the sky like giant skeletons. A train was loading, and the mineral ore crashed down into the open ore wagons, sending a cloud of dust into the air. As he watched, another of the massive earth moving trucks appeared rumbling slowly up the path from the open cut working. It was huge. Every time he saw one Max was fascinated by the size of them. They towered over the mere men who worked the mine. The diggers that loaded the ore into the tray backs were even larger. He knew the enclosed cabs were air-conditioned and noise protected. The best possible hydraulics aided the drivers who guided the giants up and down the face of the cut. But still Max marvelled at the sheer size of these earth-eating giants.
    And he marvelled at the thought that a slender slip of a girl named Tia Walsh drove one. Perhaps that very one. Sunlight glinted off the glass cab. Max squinted. He could see a dark shape inside, but he was unable to tell who it was.
    He slid behind the wheel of his car, and backed out of the car park. At the gate, instead of driving forward towards the town, he turned right. The mine accommodation compound was a few hundred metres away. He drove slowly, the police car kicking up a cloud of dust that followed him. He reached the open entrance to the compound and pulled up, his motor still running. He could simply go inside. He was the town’s policeman. No one would query what he was doing. He would no doubt find the Harley parked beside her trailer. It would be a simple matter to take down her reggo and then enter it into the police system. He’d be sure to find out something about her that way.
    He gently tapped his open palm against the steering wheel. Then shook his head, his decision made. This wasn’t right. Using his job to check out a woman for no reason other than because he found her attractive. That was wrong.
    He slipped the car back into gear, dropped a U-turn and headed back to town.
    From inside her trailer, Tia watched the car disappear behind a cloud of red dust. She waited for a few minutes as the dust settled slowly back to earth. The cop was checking up on her, she just knew it. How much did he know? Had there been some sort of a bulletin from the east coast? Perhaps something to do with the hog? She shouldn’t have kept it. But when she walked away from Andrew Kelly, she had wanted to hurt him just as much as he’d hurt her. So she’d taken the things that mattered most to him. The hog was one of those things. Had he reported it stolen? She doubted that. He wouldn’t