Novels 02 Red Dust by Fleur McDonald Read Free Book Online Page A

accidentally – they could have just wandered through from the next station. Well, he'd just listen to what everyone had to say and see if he could make some sense of what was going on.

    The shed on Billbinya was a hive of activity on Wednesday morning. Garry's feet could be seen sticking out from under a ute as he serviced it and Bulla was loading materials and tools into the tray of his ute in preparation for the day. Jack received his allocated jobs and climbed onto the farm motorbike. He was putting on his helmet when he asked: 'Where's Gemma? I heard the ute take off in the middle of the night.'
    'She's with her father who isn't well.' Bulla said shortly, reluctant to reveal that she might be away for a few days, then clattered down the drive in his old yellow ute, with Jack heading in the opposite direction to start a stock run.
    Later, Garry was headed towards Hayelle when he passed Jim Carter. His two-way crackled to life.
    'Gotta minute to have a yarn, Gaz?' Jim asked.
    'Sure, mate.' Garry slowed and did a U-turn. Parked by the side of the road, the two men leaned against the side of the Billbinya ute.
    'How's it going?' asked Jim.
    'Not too bad, mate. What's happening with you fellas?'
    'Well, we've got a bit of a problem. There's some sheep gone missing off our place.'
    'What?' Garry said in surprise. 'How many you missing?'
    'About three hundred wether lambs. I know that isn't much by your standards, but I need every one of them with the wool prices being so low at the moment.' Jim scratched his head in a worried fashion and rubbed his hands over his face. 'Trouble is, I don't think this is the first time. Reckon I've lost lambs before but not realised it until it's too late, but definitely not like this – this time whoever took them is being really brazen. These lambs were in the yards for crutching and the buggers just came and loaded them out of the bloody yards. Can't believe it. Got over to the shed this morning to make sure everything was all ready and there's no sheep!' Jim shook his head. 'There are truck tracks in and no sheep tracks anywhere, so it's not like they've got out of the shed and walked out of the front gate onto the road. It's blatant theft. Never come across anything like this in my life!'
    'Bloody hell,' said Garry, shocked. 'Have you called the cops?'
    'Yeah, they're on the way out. But that's not the worst of it, mate. Sam Smith and John Kettle have had some stolen too – the same as me, straight out of the yards. They had theirs in for crutching too.'
    'You're kidding me? Who would know that all you fellas are crutching on the same day? It's not like that would happen often.'
    'I just don't know, Gaz. Look, if you hear anything let me know, all right? I'd better keep going and pick up Sam and John. The cops are going to meet us at our farm and then we're all going to drive around together and see what we can find.'
    'I s'pose you tried to follow the truck tracks?'
    'Yeah, we did,' said Jim. 'But it's all single lane bitumen roads from here back to the main drag, and you can see the tracks heading out the drive until they hit the bitumen but you lose them after that.'
    'Well, if we can do anything, you let us know,' said Garry. 'You know Gem was out late last night, she had to go to town unexpectedly – she may have seen something. I'll ask when I catch up with her next.'
    'Yeah, that'd be good. Thanks, mate.' Jim thumped Garry on the back and walked back to his ute.
    Garry drove on to Hayelle to check the stock. But really what he wanted to do was go back to Billbinya and talk to Bulla.
    * * *
    Bulla was checking the boundary fence when he saw from a distance a mob of sheep walking around a paddock. They looked like they had just been put there and they were checking out where the water was, and looking for the best tucker.
    Strange, he thought. T here shouldn't be anything in that paddock. He turned the ute around and headed back to the gate that was just off the one-lane bitumen