Black Mountain (5 page)

As she left the city, the road to the Tablelands was at first flat and straight, lined with farms, mainly sugar cane and bananas, but these gave way as she came to the road cut in to the side of the mountain that wound its way upwards towards Kuranda and then on to Mareeba. Here she had steep mountain on one side and, in many places, a sheer drop on the other. Passing pristine rainforest, its lush greenery pressing close to the highway, she drove skilfully around the twists and turns on the familiar road until she came out on to the gentle rolling farmlands of the Atherton Tablelands.

After about an hour's drive she turned onto the road that led to their farm and, glancing at her watch, reckoned she would be in time for breakfast. Soon the familiar sight of rows of mango trees came into view and before long she turned in through the gateway to
Wanagura
. As she parked under the shade of a Yellow Flame Tree a large golden Labrador bounded out from the house to greet her.

‘Yo, Ben!' she called. The dog covered the ground in giant strides and was waiting for her as she left the car. Commanding him to sit she fondled his ears and then, as he dropped to the ground and rolled over, bent to scratch his chest.

‘So, looks like you missed me, hey?' she asked as she straightened and moved towards the house. Jumping up, Ben pranced beside her and was first inside as Elly opened the door, calling to her mother as she entered.

Beth appeared from the kitchen and Elly noticed the dark rings under her eyes, and surmised she had not slept well, as, indeed, she had not herself.

However when she spoke her mother's voice was cheerful enough.

‘Good, you've just timed it right for breakfast,' she told Elly. ‘And you can tell me what happened with Mitchell while we eat.'

Following her into the large, sunny kitchen Elly sat at the table as her mother dished up two serves of pancakes with honey and placed them on the table, accompanied by mugs of coffee. While they ate she recounted the events of the previous day after Mitchell had arrived.

‘So, we should be able to trace Jackson's entry into Australia and, hopefully, get some idea of why he's here and, possibly, where he is now,' Elly concluded as she pushed her plate away and sat back with her coffee.

‘Let's hope so. Is Mitchell coming here this morning, or will he just phone?'

‘He said he needs to see you, so he's coming here.'

‘Good.' Beth looked down at her mug and slowly turned it around. ‘This has all come as a terrible shock, of course, but it has made me see how selfish I've been since—' she took a deep breath, ‘—since we lost your dad. I've been feeling so sorry for myself I haven't thought about anything else. You've got on with your life, as he would have wanted, but I've neglected the business—and you. I'm sorry.' She looked up, and on her face Elly saw the signs of the grief that had aged it in the last year. ‘But that's all finished now,' Beth continued. ‘I'm ready to pull my weight again.'

Elly reached across, took her mother's hand, and spoke past the lump in her throat. ‘You've nothing to be sorry for.' She shook her head. ‘It's been a bad year, but we'll move on now.' She squeezed Beth's hand before releasing it. ‘And we can continue on from where we were before. If we can find the plant.'

‘And that's a big if.'

‘Dad found it. So can we. At least we know what we're looking for.'

Elly knew she sounded more confident than she felt.

Chapter 7

When Mitchell arrived later in the morning and told them he wasn't the bearer of good news, Beth insisted on waiting to hear it until she made coffee for them, then they all sat around the kitchen table to hear what he had to say.

‘Well,' Mitchell began as he sipped the strong brew, ‘it's very strange, but there's no record of him coming in to the country.'

Elly raised her brows. ‘What? Surely that can't be right.'

‘There's no-one by that name, which isn't such a surprise, but the database was checked against the photo, and it didn't find a match. Which is surprising.'

‘What does it mean?' Beth asked.

‘I'm not sure. We can only surmise that he's entered the country by some illegal means.'

‘You mean by jumping ship or something like that?' Elly asked.

‘Something like that. Though how he could have managed it, no-one can guess. It's caused quite a stir, believe me, because there are such strict controls in place. Everyone's so concerned about illegal immigrants these days.'

‘And we still don't know for certain if he took the journal or not,' Beth reminded them.

‘No, we don't,' Mitchell agreed. ‘Even if it is a very strong probability.'

‘In the end, what really matters,' Elly said slowly, ‘is that whoever stole it must know how valuable it is, and if they don't know enough to use it themselves, it won't be hard for them to find someone who does. But first they must find the plant.'

‘You don't have any idea where it is?' Mitchell asked.

Elly shook her head. ‘Not really.'

‘And without the plant the information is useless?'

‘Yes.'

‘Look, I'm a bit in the dark here. How did this all come about? That's if you want me to know about it, and to try and do something to help.'

‘Yes, we do,' Beth answered. ‘Elly, you tell him.'

‘Well, you know our family, but you may not realise that although the mangoes have always given us our living, Dad was a chemist and botanist as well as a farmer, and Mum is an aromatherapist. Put the two together and they started to produce cosmetics, in a small way, using the herbs and flowers they grow here as well as essential oils. But Dad was dead keen on some of the plants that grow wild in the rainforests up here, and he experimented with them. Many of them have been used forever by the Aborigines for therapeutic purposes, you know.'

‘Yes, we have Aboriginal stockmen on the station, and I've heard about their remedies. Damn good some of them are too, or so my mother says.'

Elly nodded. ‘Well, one day when he was out scouting around in the rainforest he met Della, an elderly Aboriginal woman, and he got talking to her. He met her several times after that and they became friendly. He was passionate about the plants, you see, and one day she led him to an out of the way spot and showed him this plant that he'd never seen or heard of, and when he checked his reference books later there was no reference to it in them, either. She told him it was rare and very special for her tribe and was used for healing. Apparently it was particularly effective on the initiation scars on the young lads. Well, to cut a long story short, he collected some and experimented, and found it was miraculous for rejuvenating aged skin. He and Mum planned to produce it commercially.'

Mitchell whistled softly. ‘Well, I can see why it would be worth a lot.'

‘More than a lot,' Beth cut in. ‘More like a fortune. It really is an incredible breakthrough, but it needed refining. And that was what he was working on when he died.'

‘And all his information is in that book?'

‘As far as he'd gone, yes.'

‘However,' Elly interrupted, ‘it's not all lost because I have my own notes. I was working alongside Dad too, and I kept my own records. And I've done some more research since he died too.'

‘Do you have enough to go on, to be able to continue and make the cream or whatever it is?'

Beth grimaced. ‘If we had the plant, we could continue with our experiments to get it perfect. We have various trial samples that he made from the plants he brought back with him but, as I said, it needs more work done on it.'

Mitchell rubbed his chin reflectively. ‘So … let me get this straight, whoever has the book would be able to go as far as you have, if they had the plant?'

‘If they also have the knowledge to follow his work, yes.'

‘So it has to be someone with a knowledge of chemistry?'

‘Yes.'

‘But no-one can do anything without the plant?'

‘That's right.'

‘Then it seems to me as if you don't need the book back as much as you need to find the plant. Do you have any idea where it is?'

‘Only that it's somewhere in the Daintree rainforest.'

Shaking his head, Mitchell drew a deep breath as he sat back in his chair. ‘I don't need to tell you how hopeless that is, unless you have more information.'

Beth bit her lip, frowning. ‘We've seen it, and we have a piece of it and a dried flower. Rob was quite excited because he believed it was a previously undiscovered plant, at least by the white man, and could be a very distant relative to the Gymea lily that grows further south, in New South Wales, because he was told the plants take several years to flower, similar to the Gymea. He nicknamed it, the
striplet
. It grows in a clump, with long strappy leaves and a tall central spike that has flowers all along it that finally produce brown seeds. The spike grows to a metre or two and it's quite distinctive looking, a bit like the old-fashioned hollyhocks, if you know what they look like?'

Mitchell nodded. ‘Yes, I remember my aunt used to grow them.'

‘It's growing in a very secluded spot. He was so excited that he never got around to telling me exactly where.'

‘And you didn't think to query him?'

‘Well, no, I never thought to. After all, Rob knew where it was, that was his side of the business, and I never thought I'd need to know.' She thought for a moment. ‘Possibly it's within a day's drive from here, because most of his trips were day trips. Although sometimes he camped out overnight, or even for a few days.'

‘Then you'd better get busy looking for it, because that's one helluva lot of forest to search.'

‘And whoever has the book will be looking for it too,' Elly added.

‘Was there anything in the book to give an indication of the location?'

‘No.'

‘Then it'll be a race to see who finds it first,' Mitchell remarked.

Beth twisted her hands together. ‘We'll never stand a chance on our own. Will you help us?'

Again Mitchell shook his head. ‘I don't think you have much hope of finding it anyway, to be honest.'

‘I mean I want to hire you, if you'll try. And I don't expect it to come cheap.'

‘Even trying could take weeks, perhaps months.'

‘Could we try, for say, a month or two? After all, you grew up here and you know the area. With your help we'd have a chance.'

Mitchell frowned. ‘I suppose I could, if you're sure. But I don't want to take your money under false pretences. I have to tell you I believe it has a slim chance of success.'

‘I am sure,' Beth replied with an emphatic nod.

‘Then I'll do my best. If we're going to do it, we should start immediately. It's already building up for the wet, and that'll make it much more difficult.'

‘So that's arranged. Starting tomorrow, you and Elly will start looking for the plant.'

Elly was dismayed. There was no way she wanted to spend the next few weeks with Mitchell Beaumont. But she knew there was not much hope of avoiding it.

For the next few hours they pored over maps of the surrounding area. The fringe of the huge rainforest that stretched from south of Cairns for many kilometres north, as far as Cooktown and beyond, was not all that far from
Wanagura
. Although the forest was not all strictly the Daintree, as it encompassed several national parks, it was often referred to as a whole by that name.

They decided they would concentrate on the area closer to home for a start. Mitchell drew an arc in what he estimated to be within a couple of hour's drive, then they divided it into areas and decided to search each area thoroughly before moving on to the next, but elected to avoid any areas that attracted tourists, as Elly remembered Rob saying he had found the plant in a remote area.

After they'd finished they decided to use Mitchell's four-wheel drive Land Cruiser to take them to and from each search area, and resolved on an early start the next day.

‘Well, do you think you're up to this?' Mitchell asked her as he was leaving. ‘It'll be a hard slog, you know. On your feet all day. I hope you'll be able to keep up.'

Elly stiffened. ‘If you can manage, I'm sure I'll be able to.'

‘I hope so. This is costing your mother plenty. I'll want to move along and cover as much territory as possible every day. There won't be time to mollycoddle you.'

‘You won't need to,' she snapped. ‘I assure you I can keep up with you. Any day and every day.'

‘Good.' He frowned down at her city shoes with their high heels. ‘Don't wear those,' he added.

‘As if I would,' she told him through a clenched jaw. But he had already moved off towards his car, parked next to hers in the shade.

‘Self-opinionated pig,' she muttered. ‘I don't know why I ever thought he was attractive.'

***

As Mitchell drove away he found himself wondering why on earth he'd agreed to take on such an almost hopeless task. It wasn't for the money. He had other, more lucrative opportunities on offer down south. And it certainly wasn't because he was attracted to Elly. He remembered her from school, although she'd been a couple of years behind him—she'd always had a sparkle about her, something that made her stand out, even then. Not that she'd ever seemed aware of it. Yes, she was pretty, and charming when she wasn't in a bad temper at something he said, but he wasn't interested in any form of relationship with any woman, short or long term. No, he'd found out the hard way that looks and charm are all on the surface. It's what's inside that counts. And to find that out, you had to spend a lot of time with a person, and he didn't intend to spend any more time with Elly Cooper than was necessary.

No, this was a job that was close to his parent's home, where he was spending time during his recuperation, and because his mother had asked him to see what he could do to help her old friend, Beth, whom he remembered with liking from his school days. He was keen to help her if he could. As well, his curiosity was piqued to find out how this Jackson Lee, or whoever he was, had entered the country. His friends in the force would be grateful if he could find that out too.