Smoking Gun (Adam Cartwright Trilogy Book 1) (21 page)

The increasing rate that gold mines are being robbed is a worldwide phenomenon. There have been a number in the past few months in Canada, South Africa and Russia.”

Christine stopped sipping her coffee and commented. “But if the Commission do report the attempt on your life to the police it would be a step in the right direction, wouldn’t it?”

“Not necessarily. At first I thought that the downside was that the police would not take me seriously and write me off as an attention-seeker. But if the police do accept that an attempt had been made on my life they would then try to work out why I was attacked. They would probably conclude that the criminals believe that I know something that endangers them. Things might get a little complicated at that point.”

Christine was puzzled. “How? How could that complicate things?”

“Well, since I deny having any knowledge that would put the criminals at risk then the police might consider the possibility that I was lying. And why would I lie? The obvious answer being that I am an accomplice.”

“But if that was so then why would the criminals want to kill an accomplice?” She paused and snapped her fingers and answered her own question with a wide grin. “Because they don’t want to share the loot. Or they think that you might squeal to the cops.”

I couldn’t help myself, I laughed out loud. Christine had deliberately hammed it up with the references to ‘loot’ and the ‘squeal to the cops’. “I reckon that you’ve been watching too much television, but I agree with you. That’s exactly how I see it.”

She was definitely looking worried and asked, “So what will you do?”

I shrugged. “Nothing more than I am doing now. I am being more careful when I’m at the marina. Brian has provided me with webcams to monitor my yacht and living quarters at the mine. Both locations are set up with a siren that I can set off remotely if the webcam shows an intruder when I am not around.”

She laughed and then stopped abruptly. “Sorry. It just seems so funny, you and Brian thinking up all that spy stuff.”

I chuckled and tried to look offended. “Kate didn’t laugh. She said that we were acting like we were in a Hardy Boys adventure.” Then with tongue in cheek I added. “I thought that she meant it as a compliment.”

Christine laughed a bit longer this time. “I wouldn’t count on it.”

We both laughed. I looked at my watch, we had spent more than an hour talking over our coffee. It was time to get driving again.

***

On the last leg to North Sydney we talked about Christine’s upcoming interview for a position as a Paediatrician at the Royal North Shore Hospital and her need for accommodation
.
When Kate would move after the honeymoon my apartment would be vacant. Since I had no intention of renting it out again I offered Christine the use of my apartment rent free until I required it in about six months time. I argued that I needed a house-sitter and someone to drive my car from time to time. It had been a good deal for her and she was comfortable that the arrangement had no strings attached. It also meant that she would be next door to Kate and Brian.

I spent the night in the spare room of Brian’s apartment. Since it was time for me to move out I packed up all my belongings so that I could store them in the second bedroom in my apartment the following day.

***

We caught the ten twenty Qantas flight from Sydney the following morning, and arrived in Cairns at one thirty. I had booked Christine in at the Mantra Esplanade, a few minutes walk from the marina where I would be staying overnight.

After dropping her off at the hotel to check in, I continued on in the taxi to the marina to open up ‘Irish Mist’ and drop off my bags. On the way to my berth I had met up with some other boat owners and had chatted longer than I had intended. Most of the conversation was centred on the absence of damage to the marina arising from cyclone Abby’s near miss the week before. Just as I was about to disengage myself from the conversation one of them, a man called Roger Gray, asked me if my boat was for sale. I had shaken my head and said, “No. Why do you ask?”

Roger replied, “There were a couple of guys standing on the jetty looking at ‘Irish Mist’ about a month ago. As I walked past I thought that they looked a bit shifty so I asked them if I could help in any way. One of them responded by asking if your boat was for sale. I told them I didn’t think so but they didn’t even wait until I replied, They just left. It was all very odd. They didn’t look at all friendly. Strangely enough I think that I saw them a few months ago. They were giving your boat the once over from the jetty then too. I thought that they looked like they were police. But I’d be surprised if they are locals.”

As he was speaking Christine approached along the jetty and waved as I caught sight of her. I excused myself, picked up my bags and waited for Christine to reach me before I resumed walking to my marina berth. As I stood aside for Christine to walk past me Roger grinned at me and rolled his eyes. I think that he was acknowledging that Christine was a beautiful woman. I wasn’t about to argue with him.

***

Christine and I had already planned what was left of our afternoon. First we would spend a few hours sailing and motoring on board ‘Irish Mist’. Then return in time for a drive around some of the northern beaches before it got dark. 

The first part of our plan worked out perfectly. A crisp onshore breeze helped ‘Irish Mist’ hustle out towards the open sea and sail past the various beaches until we reached Double Island. It had been Christine’s first experience on a yacht and she loved it. Consequently we discarded the plan to immediately turn for home, and instead continued to head northwards. Eventually, somewhere offshore from Port Douglas, we gybed and headed back towards Cairns.

As we completed the turn and reset the sails I suddenly realised where we were. Without thinking I leaned forward and checked the GPS. Christine saw me look at the GPS and then glance around at the sea. “What is it?” she asked. Almost immediately her face clouded. “Is this where it happened?”

I nodded. “Sorry, I did not mean to even think about anything negative today.” I swept an arm to encompass the empty sea and the distant shore. “We are almost exactly at the spot where I climbed back on board.”

We were both silent for several minutes. All that could be heard was the soft murmur of water flowing past the hull of the yacht. The most relaxing sound for any yachtsman. It worked for me again. A few minutes later and my spirits lifted. Christine also seemed to put aside the negative thoughts and relax in the present.

Apart from the reminder of my long swim. it had been a pleasant, relaxing sail. Just enough of a breeze to keep us moving smartly without being strong enough to create a significant swell. When the breeze began to weaken, and the light was beginning to fade, I started the motor, dropped the sails and switched on the navigation lights.

It was almost ten o’clock when ‘Irish Mist’ eventually entered its berth and was tied up. Knowing that getting a meal downtown was a little problematical at that hour we opted for a meal of tinned soup and canned fruit while sitting in the cockpit looking at the stars.

Almost two hours later we walked back to Christine’s hotel and had a late night coffee delivered by room service. The main topic of conversation was the travel arrangements for the following day. I had driven my 4WD down to Cairns before I had caught the flight to Sydney on Christmas Eve. We would drive back to Red Rock tomorrow, departing at around ten o’clock.

As I said goodnight Christine gave me a hug, kissed my cheek and said that it had been a perfect day.

I agreed with her.

Walking back to the marina, I thought about the two men who had been standing on the jetty looking at ‘Irish Mist’. It had to be significant. I should have asked Roger for a description of the men. When I saw him next I would do just that.

***

It was around six o’clock on Monday morning when I stepped around the traffic barrier, waved to the gatekeeper and exited the mine site. The sky was rapidly becoming lighter as I headed towards the sun slowly rising above the horizon. There was a hint of mist in the air, and an energising chill that belied the hot day to come.

I clicked my GPS stopwatch and started down the road at a modest clip. It was my normal start to a day. I’d run out to the four kilometre mark, then turn around and come back. Eight kilometres at four minutes a kilometre, followed by ten minutes of stretching while I cooled down before a hot shower.

If this had been a normal day, in an hour from now I’d be queuing for breakfast and by seven thirty I’d be seated in my office checking on my to-do list for the day. But today was not a normal day. As soon as I was showered I would meet up with Christine who had been quartered in a donga near mine. We would then have breakfast together and get ready for a flight back to Cairns at eleven o’clock. We would have lunch in town before I would escort her to the Cairns airport where she would catch the three o’clock flight to Sydney.

We had driven up from Cairns the previous day. Even though my vehicle was air-conditioned it had still been a hot and dusty ride. After stopping at Mareeba for lunch we had arrived on site at two thirty. By three o’clock she had been issued with a photo ID card, a hard hat plus khaki denim work trousers and shirt. As soon as she was allocated sleeping quarters for the night she had dropped her bag off and got changed into her new work clothes. The rest of the afternoon was spent touring the construction site.

Christine was quite familiar with the general layout of the mine site due to her having logged in to the webcam feeds during the past few weeks. Like me she was keen to see the cutting and check if the rainfall runoff was still flowing. It was.

At this time of year, the summer wet season, even occasional showers would maintain the myriad of small streamlets across the catchment area. The flow through the cutting was now only about ten centimetres deep but quite small showers could markedly increase the runoff albeit only briefly.

Yesterday was a Sunday, the last day of the Christmas to New Year break. Consequently there were the minimum number of workers on site and we had few interruptions as we walked around the site.

Today was the first day after the Christmas to New Year break. The first big influx of workers was due to arrive on the first Fly-In-Fly-Out flight of the year soon after breakfast.

Even though it was not just another routine day my early morning run was at least one act of normalcy. But that was not to last for much longer.

I was about two kilometres into my run when I first became aware of the sound of a vehicle approaching me from behind. I was not concerned as I was running on the right hand side of the road so as to face any oncoming traffic. Even so I shifted as far to the right as I could to give the driver the maximum road width possible. It was a reflex action as, although it was now quite light, the driver’s vision might be impeded by the rising sun.

I later recalled idly wondering who the driver might be as early morning traffic from the mine site was uncommon. But I was not curious enough to look around to see who it might be.

Moments later the sound of the approaching vehicle abruptly increased in volume and the vehicle seemed to be very close and rapidly getting closer. Suddenly it was almost on top of me. I did not stop to think. I threw myself off the road shoulder into the rocks and scrubby bushes alongside the road. It all happened so fast that it was impossible for me to remember the exact sequence of events. But I was aware of being struck and propelled through the air narrowly avoiding landing in a dry watercourse leading from a culvert a few metres ahead of me.

It is said that sometimes the difference between life and death, or between a few bruises and serious injury, can be measured in millimetres. If that is so then I was grateful for those millimetres. I had thrown myself blindly without seeking a favourable spot to land. I hadn’t had the time to finesse my dive. The road surface was about a metre above the surrounding countryside and I hit the ground hard.

My first instinct was to look up at the fast disappearing vehicle. It was a dun coloured 4WD partly shrouded in a cloud of dust that prevented me from reading its registration plate. It hadn’t slowed down, it was continuing to head eastwards at breakneck speed. There was no possibility that it had been an accident. Someone had deliberately tried to run me down.

I gingerly flexed my limbs while still lying on my back amid small rocks and dust. Nothing seemed to have been broken. Even more gingerly I rolled over and slowly stood up. Standing there rather unsteadily I looked down. I immediately noticed was that my left running shoe was gone and that I had grazes on both arms and down my right leg.

As I stood there I looked around, searching for my missing running shoe. But it was nowhere to be seen, so I scrambled up the small embankment to the roadway and began hobbling eastwards searching for the lost shoe. It didn’t take long to find it. It was laying on the shoulder of the road about ten metres from where I had been struck. Hopping along the road I picked up the errant shoe and examined it. There was an indentation on the back of the heel which I speculated was due to being struck by the edge of the bull bar or a mudguard. I had certainly been lucky. I could not have been more than a few millimetres away from having being seriously injured. Once I got my shoe back on I set off jogging back towards the mine site.  I did not expect the hit-and-run driver to return for a second attempt but all the same I kept making frequent glances behind me just in case I was wrong.

Apart from a degree of stiffness in my left ankle I was able to move quite easily. When I got back to the mine site I asked the gatekeeper what the vehicle was that had exited the mine site ten to fifteen minutes earlier. To my surprise he said none. That no vehicle had left the mine site. Seeing my reaction he held up the log book to show me. He was right. There was no record of any vehicle leaving the site after seven fifteen the previous evening.

I had just reached my quarters when I saw Christine sitting on a bench seat near the swimming pool in an area of lawn fronting the row of dongas that we occupied. She stood as soon as she saw me and waved a greeting before commencing to walk towards me. As she approached her smile changed to concern as she saw the grazes and scratches on my arms and leg. “What… what happened? Are you all right?”

I shrugged and grinned a little sheepishly. “I had a fall. I’ll have a quick shower and come and see you in your room. I’ll tell you about it then.”

“No. I’ll wait here. But are you sure that you are all right? Those grazes look like they should have some attention.”

I shook my head and said, “It’s okay for now. Perhaps I’ll go along to the first aid station later.”

Ten minutes later I was showered and dressed. Christine was still sitting on the bench seat and still looked concerned. Gesturing for her to remain seated I walked across the lawn and joined her. Giving her a kiss on her cheek I said, “Good morning. I hope that you had a good night’s sleep. And sorry for my lack of greeting earlier, I was a little distracted…”

She turned towards me, grasped my left forearm with both hands and said anxiously. “Adam, something has happened. Please tell me.”

I had already decided that I would not keep secrets from her and replied, “You are right. Something has happened.” Putting my right hand on top of hers I paused before continuing. “Someone tried to run me down as I was jogging along the road. They very nearly succeeded.”

She was literally speechless, so I proceeded to describe the events in as much detail as I could.

Breakfast was a fairly sombre affair with both of us lost in our thoughts. Finally after a prolonged silence I spoke. “I am glad that you’re leaving this morning. I’d never forgive myself if you were harmed when someone had another go at me. I’ll be much more relaxed when you are back in Sydney.”

Christine smiled. “When I woke up this morning I decided to ask if I could stay on here for a few more days. But now I have been wondering how to suggest to you that you would be safer back in Sydney as well.”

I smiled wryly. “Before the attempted hit-and-run I would have very much welcomed the thought of you staying on for a few more days. But not now.”

“So what are you going to do about the hit-and-run? Are you going to report it to the police?”

“I don’t know yet. As soon as we finish breakfast, I’m going to check the webcam feed that covers the main gate to see if there was any traffic that was not recorded by the gatekeeper.”

Christine shook her head. “No, Adam. The first thing after breakfast is for you to get those grazes and scratches attended to. When will the first aid station be open?”

“The attendant will be on duty from eight o’clock.”

“Good. We’ll go there straight after breakfast.”

***

The first aid attendant, a young woman, was on duty when we arrived. When she was told that Christine was a Doctor she immediately offered to step aside and let Christine do what was needed. First I had to remove my shirt and singlet so that the grazes on my arms, and scratches on my back, could be washed with some antiseptic and daubed with mercurochrome. The grazes on my legs and my right hip were more of a problem. I would not have bothered to have them looked at but Christine, wearing her Doctor’s hat, insisted that I remove my trousers. I grinned and was about to make a jocular comment until Christine, having read my mind, waggled her finger and shook her head.

Nevertheless I couldn’t resist feigning extreme embarrassment while standing in the middle of the treatment cubicle wearing nothing but my briefs and my socks. But once Christine inspected the wounds her demeanour soon convinced me to take the situation more seriously. After treating the injuries with antiseptic wash and dabbing them with mercurochrome she placed some adhesive bandages over the more significant of the wounds and gave the first aid attendant some instructions for ongoing treatment. After we left the first aid station we went to my office and I logged onto the site webcam that included the main gate in its field of view. Winding it back to just before six a.m. we watched as I left the mine site and started running along the road. About twenty minutes later I could be seen returning and stopping to talk to the gatekeeper. No vehicles had entered or exited the main gate during that time. Christine looked at me enquiringly. “This doesn’t make sense. The vehicle had to have come from somewhere.”

I agreed and said, “The only explanation is that the vehicle had been driven onto the road somewhere between the main gate and the two kilometre mark.”

“But when we drove here yesterday, I didn’t see any intersecting roads for the last twenty or so kilometres.”

I thought for a moment. “No, you are right. But there are a few tracks leading into the countryside along that length of road. If we’re lucky it might have been captured on the webcam.”

It was worth checking so I restarted the video from the time that I left the mine site. I figured that we only had to view the first six minutes at the most, and I was right. We were lucky.

About four minutes after I started my run there was a shape that looked like a vehicle moving through the scrub and rocks towards the road from the south. It seemed to be near a point where the road disappeared from view behind a small hill. We had missed seeing the vehicle the first time we played the video because it was very hard to see and we hadn’t actually been looking for it. We had been focussed on traffic through the main gate.

Thinking out loud Christine said, “The question now is; when did the vehicle arrive at that location.”

I grinned in appreciation. “You’re right, since none of the tracks in that area go anywhere then the vehicle must have approached along the road to the mine site. Even better, that someone had driven to that spot sometime before six o’clock this morning. In that case they would almost certainly have used their headlights and…”

Christine finished the sentence for me. “And the headlights would probably have been picked up by the webcam.”

After rewinding the video to midnight I began running it forward at four times the normal speed. Knowing approximately where to watch made it easier. Again we were lucky. After about thirty minutes, around two a.m. on the video, there was a flicker of light in about the right location. I then rewound the video for a few minutes before replaying it at normal speed. A vehicle’s headlights could be seen moving from the road apparently along one of the tracks towards the south for a few hundred metres before turning to face the road before being switched off.

I turned to Christine and asked, “Well, what do you think?”

She shrugged and said, “It looks fairly conclusive to me. Someone had driven to a spot off the road at two a.m. and lain in wait for you.”

I responded, “That’s the way it seems to me also, but just how convincing will that explanation be for others. They might argue that it was just a courting couple who had dropped off to sleep. Then when they awoke at daybreak they had panicked because they should have been somewhere else and been speeding to get there as quickly as they could. They might not have seen me at all. Or perhaps they had decided to play a prank and give the jogger a fright. They didn’t stop because they either didn’t think that they had hit me, or else they thought that they had hit me and fled the scene.”