The Crocodile Nest (11 page)

Thursday morning was Ham’s last day off before he had to start working afternoons. His plan was to laze around all day. That suited Luke, as there were plenty of things he could do before meeting with Lora for the snorkelling lesson.

Once again Luke had breakfast by himself, before heading to the computers. He wanted to find out about card readers and how they could be abused by criminals.

It didn’t take long to find what he wanted. Only certified equipment could be connected to EFTPOS and credit-card systems, and anyone doing otherwise would lose the right to accept cards. If Chizza’s illegal machines were discovered, it could cost The Crocodile Nest a lot of business.

More research showed that the most common theft using card readers was called skimming. That needed a tiny video camera to record the PIN. The card reader recorded the information from the magnetic strip on the card. After that, a card writer was
used to make a duplicate. From then on, five hundred dollars could be taken from an ATM once every day. A couple of days’ work and the equipment was paid for; the rest was all profit.

Luke studied photographs of the equipment involved. One showed the sort of blank card used. It was identical to the one Chizza had given him, indicating that Chizza had a card writer. While Chizza might use it legally to make computer access cards for workers, Luke was willing to bet that he also made copies of credit cards.

The question was: where in the games room were the cameras that recorded the PINs? Luke glanced to the ceiling without seeing anything obvious. Unfortunately, other people were using the computers and he didn’t want to alarm them, so he decided to come back when the place was empty.

He spent the next half-hour visiting the bush chooks’ nest. Although it was almost ten o’clock, they were still there. Except, instead of their morning dig, they were prowling around the mound as if something was wrong. As Luke watched, one made a soft clucking noise and they both stopped dead, with their heads on one side as if listening. Next they were at the top of the mound, picking up twigs and dropping them over the side. It was tidy-the-nest time. Soon the top was mostly just loose dirt. Then they dug furiously until they’d formed a crater. After that, they stood on top examining their work, before climbing down and disappearing into the bush.

Luke returned to the games room to go over the room for cameras. Unfortunately, one computer was still being used. So Luke decided to research the bush chooks to find out why
their behaviour had changed. His card and PIN got him onto the computer all right, but the Internet wouldn’t open. Luke groaned in frustration.

‘It does not work,’ said the young woman beside him. ‘The Internet. It makes no connection.’

That seemed strange to Luke. He looked at her computer; she seemed to be typing an email. ‘Then how does the email work?’

‘It is not email. I am using a word processor. I will save it on this.’ She pointed to the memory stick plugged into the front of the computer. ‘I will come back when it is working.’

‘Are you staying here?’

‘No, I am at the backpackers’ nearby.’

‘Don’t they have computers?’

‘Yes, but it is much cheaper here.’ Her face spread to a grin. ‘And sometimes they forget to charge your credit card, so you get it for free. That’s what happened to my friend. She came here three times and never got charged. That is good! Yes?’

Luke agreed that it was good, but it had him puzzled. What was the point of having card readers if the cards were never charged?

While he was thinking about that, he tried the Internet again, without success. So he logged out and went to see Ellie in the office. ‘Did you know that the Internet is down in the games room?’ he asked.

She pulled a face. ‘It is down everywhere. A digger cut through the telephone line. We have no phone, no Internet, no EFTPOS. Soon it will be lunchtime and customers will not be able to pay for their food.’

Luke chuckled. ‘They’ll have to use cash. You know—real money?’

She did not appreciate his humour. ‘They won’t have cash! And they cannot get it, because the ATMs will not work. It is terrible.’

Luke left her to fluster by herself. He walked slowly back to the games room, thinking that something was wrong here. If the telephone line was broken, then how could the credit cards work on the computers?

A friend had joined the other woman. She was logged onto the computer Luke had been using. ‘Excuse me,’ he said. ‘Did you just log on?’

She looked at him as if he was stupid. ‘Yes, of course! How else would I use the computer?’

‘Did you log on with a credit card?’

She rolled her eyes. ‘Yes! That is the only way.’

‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘I’m just confused about something.’

He went to a computer on the other side of the room, and checked the cables at the back. There was a power lead and a network connection. Another cable went from the card reader to the computer, but nothing went from the card reader to a telephone line.

Luke now knew why the credit cards could work when the telephone was down: the card reader had nothing to do with charging the credit card—its sole purpose was to get the credit card details
and
the PIN. There wouldn’t be any camera in the wall. It wasn’t needed. The computer recorded the PIN, not a camera. Nothing was ever checked with a bank.

To test his theory, Luke used the card and his normal PIN. It worked! He logged out, and then did it again using 1234 as the PIN. It also worked! He did it again using four random digits. Of course it worked! He was so excited about solving the mystery that he logged on over and over, using any four digits he could think of. It worked every time. He would have liked to ask the women to do the same with their credit cards, but that would surely have caused alarm. Before he made another move, a whole lot of thinking was required. If he got this wrong, then things could turn bad, very, very quickly.

Luke’s thinking led him to find Ham. It was time his father knew about what his ‘friend’ was doing.

Ham had just got up and was ready to eat. Lunchtime was normally the busiest time in the restaurant, but not this day. The sign at the door saying
Cash only
was clearly keeping people away. It showed that a restaurant wouldn’t exist for long if it couldn’t accept plastic money.

Over a meal of spaghetti and meatballs, Luke described how Ham’s email had led to the money being stolen from Beth’s bank account. Ham listened without comment, concentrating on the food, almost as if he already knew what he was being told.

When Luke had finished, Ham asked, ‘And you think Chizza is involved?’

‘I know he is.’

Without comment, Ham got to his feet and went to the bar. While he was away, Luke considered his father’s reaction. He
had expected a denial, even anger. But not this. It was very concerning.

Ham returned with a glass of beer. ‘Can you prove this?’

‘Not the spear-phishing scam,’ replied Luke. ‘But that’s not all he’s doing.’

‘Tell me.’

Luke did. Everything. By the time he’d finished, the meal was over and the table had been cleared. Ham had finished his second beer and seemed to be considering having a third. He looked around the room as if after a waitress, but it was Ellie he signalled to. She’d been standing by the door most of the meal, looking upset at the poor turnout for lunch. She rushed over, giving Ham a smile that suggested more than just relief for the distraction.

Ham pulled a chair out for her. ‘Ellie, who gets the money for the use of the computers in the games room?’

‘Chizza. He owns the computers and charges us nothing. In return he gets all the money.’

Ham nodded.

‘Why do you ask?’

‘Aw, Luke is good at computers and he’s thinking of making a career out of it. We were wondering if there was any money in it.’

‘I do not know,’ said Ellie. ‘He charges so little, there can’t be much money. But they do bring a lot of people here, because it is so cheap.’ Then she looked around the room. ‘But not today.’

She stood. ‘Sorry, I must check the phone line again.’

When she was out of hearing, Ham said, ‘I believe you. What are you thinking of doing?’

‘I thought of contacting the police in Cairns who were looking for Beth’s money. I can probably get a name from a guy in the bank.’

‘No,’ said Ham, quietly, ‘you can’t do that.’

‘Why not?’

‘I’ll lose my job.’

Luke shook his head. ‘Ellie just said that the computers are Chizza’s. Surely they wouldn’t stop the restaurant using credit cards because of what somebody else has done?’

‘It’s not that,’ said Ham, his eyes fixed on the tabletop. ‘It’s something else.’

‘What?’ Luke was beginning to get a sinking feeling in his gut.

Ham studied the table for a while longer, before looking up and nodding towards the desk near the entry to the restaurant. ‘Have you looked at those diplomas over there?’

‘Yes. The top one says you are a Master Chef.’

Ham’s eyes returned to the tabletop. ‘It’s a fake,’ he said so softly that Luke wasn’t sure that he’d heard right.

‘What?’

‘It’s a fake. I never went to the Sydney TAFE. Never been near a TAFE in my life.’

‘Then how did you get it?’

‘Chizza made it. That’s another thing he does. He makes fake documents, if you pay him enough. I didn’t pay him any money, but I’ve been paying for it in other ways ever since.’

Luke was getting angry. ‘Did you know about his computer scams, too?’

Ham looked up, alarmed. ‘No, Luke! I didn’t know.’ A pause. ‘I had suspicions, though.’

‘He’s a criminal!’ Luke said loudly.

‘Keep your voice down,’ hissed Ham.

‘Does anybody else here have
“suspicions”?
Does Ellie know?’

‘No!’ Ham said quickly. ‘Don’t you dare tell her, either.’

‘Somebody has to be told.’

Ham nodded slowly. ‘I know. Look, give me a chance to think about it. I’ll get back to you.’

Luke wasn’t happy, but he accepted that his father had some serious thinking to do.

As he was about to leave, Ham said, ‘Oh, by the way, we’re going crocodile spotlighting tonight.’

Immediately, Luke felt a lot more cheerful. ‘We are?’

Ham gave a little chuckle. ‘Yeah. I thought that might cheer you up a bit.’

‘How?’

‘Chizza’s taking us in his boat. He’s contacting your friends to ask if they want to come, too.’

Luke’s excitement dulled a little. He wanted to see crocodiles, but not with that man. Then he had a thought that brought a faint smile to his face. Maybe he’d get the chance to tip the man over the side. Feed him to the crocodiles. Now
that
would solve a lot of problems.

Luke met Lora at the sports hut by the beach alongside the Reef Sands Resort. To Luke’s disappointment, she was wearing a T-shirt and wrap-around skirt. He’d hoped to see her in a bikini. Suddenly he felt stupid wearing only his board shorts, with his puny chest bared for all to see.

This wasn’t helped when the attendant arrived, also barechested, but with muscles bulging everywhere. Luke draped his towel over his shoulders, wishing that he’d had the sense to wear a T-shirt as well.

After fitting them with snorkels, masks and flippers, the attendant took them to a map on the wall and showed them the best places to snorkel.

‘It’s nowhere the same as out on the Barrier,’ he said, ‘but you’ll see plenty of small stuff. Just don’t touch anything. And don’t stray down by the creek. There’s no reef down there anyway, but crocodiles have been seen around there. It’s unlikely
anything would happen, but hey, with crocs it’s better to be safe than sorry.’

‘What about stingers?’ asked Luke.

‘Not a problem: wrong time of the year. But there are other things that can kill you—have a look at those posters over there. Not all of those are found here, but you might see the odd cone shell, and maybe a lion fish or two.’

The first poster was about the blue-ringed octopus, which was about the size of a golf ball but could kill a person with its venom—there was no known antitoxin. Then came the stonefish and lion fish with their deadly spines; the numb ray that gave electric shocks; the cone shells that shot poisonous darts; sea snakes with venomous bites; followed by a whole range of jellyfish, collectively known as stingers.

‘You sure you want to do this?’ asked Lora, as they studied the posters.

‘Yeah,’ replied Luke, trying to act cool. ‘They just put these things here to scare us.’

‘Well, it’s working,’ she replied, softly.

Down at the beach, they sat on the sand to put on their gear. Lora removed her skirt, revealing that she was in fact wearing a bikini. She started to take off her T-shirt, before having second thoughts. She gave Luke an embarrassed smile, which made him feel a little better about his nakedness.

In the water, Lora taught him how to use the snorkel without taking in too much water; what to do when the mask fogged up; how a slow wave of the flippers beneath the water was better than flapping away at the surface. At first Luke found
the breathing scary, but after taking in a few mouthfuls he soon got the hang of it and shortly afterwards they were ready to go.

The next hour was one of the most amazing times Luke had experienced. They drifted over a wonderland of colourful fish, softly waving corals and anemones, scuttling hermit crabs, and darting shrimps. There seemed to be life in every nook and cranny. They saw only one animal from the posters—a lion fish that looked more scared of them than they were of it. If there were deadly octopi and electrifying rays, then they obviously had already eaten that day, for they showed no sign of themselves.

By the time they returned to the beach, Lora and Luke had lost their embarrassment with each other in the excitement of the experience. Lora took off her T-shirt, which was now almost transparent anyway, and lay on the sand to dry out. Luke studied her approvingly before lying down beside her, at what he considered to be the correct distance.

After a time, she rolled onto her side to study him. She didn’t seem disappointed with what she saw.

‘You’ve got funny stripes on your body,’ she said.

Luke looked at his chest. ‘It’s where I got sunburnt during the pig hunt,’ he explained. ‘My shirt was used to tie up Spock’s wound, and we didn’t put the sunscreen on evenly.’

They were silent for a while, remembering Spock and his horrible death. Lora broke the silence by asking, ‘Do you know that Chizza has invited us on a crocodile hunt?’

Luke nodded. ‘It can’t be a hunt, though, because we won’t be shooting things.’ Yet even as he said it, he wondered whether
that would be true. Chizza had a reputation for shooting things he shouldn’t.

‘He was fiddling with the computers this morning,’ said Lora. ‘Now they don’t have that screensaver, or the message about attaching them to your emails. Do you think that means he knows we’re on to him?’

Luke wasn’t sure what it meant. But it made him think that he should go to the police sooner rather than later, before Chizza removed all the evidence. ‘Have you found out anything else?’ he asked.

She shook her head.

‘I have.’ He went on to tell her about his discoveries that morning.

Lora listened in silence until he had finished. ‘We’ve got to go to the police,’ she said. We can’t let him keep on stealing from all those tourists.’

Luke took a deep breath. ‘It’s not as easy as that.’

Lora sat up. ‘Why not? We’ve got enough evidence.’

‘There are other things involved.’

‘Like what!’ She was showing signs of anger.

‘I can’t tell you.’

‘What’s so secret that you’ll let people get robbed by that crook?’

Luke looked away. How could he tell her that his father was also a crook? Sure, he might not steal from people, but he was prepared to cheat about his qualifications. That had to be illegal.

‘Well?’ demanded Lora.

Luke shook his head slowly from side to side. ‘I can’t go to the police yet,’ he said quietly.

She stood.’Then I’ll go!’

‘No!’ he yelled. ‘Then a little more quietly: ‘No.’

‘When then?’

‘I don’t know.’

She stared at him for a while. ‘Well, let me know when you’re ready,’ she sneered, before picking up her clothes and stomping up the beach. When she got to the path, she turned and pointed to the snorkelling gear. ‘You’d better return all that stuff to the shed, or we’ll get charged for it.’ After that, she disappeared into the resort, leaving Luke wondering how one of the best afternoons ever had so suddenly turned bad.

Andy was using the shower when Luke returned to his room. Laid out on the bed were some clean clothes. It looked like he was getting dressed to go somewhere.

He was, as he informed Luke when he exited the shower. ‘I’m going to the bar to keep an eye on that Cheeta. Don’t want him drinking too much before we go spotlighting.’

‘Are you coming, too?’ asked Luke.

‘Too right! I’m not letting him take people out onto that creek without someone keeping an eye on him. You never know what he’ll do.’

Luke thought for a moment. ‘Is that the creek where Crazy Hazel’s got her nest?’

‘It is, but we won’t be going anywhere near there. It’s best to
let her be. She’s crazy enough without humans upsetting her more.’ Then Andy saw his disappointment. ‘But I might be able to find you an old nest. Will that suit you?’

Luke said that it would, but really he wanted to see one that was being guarded by the mother, and, if Crazy Hazel was the only mother looking after a nest at this time, then that’s who he wanted to see.

While the others were in the bar, Luke went to the computers to see if the telephone line had been repaired. Obviously it had, because all but one of the computers were in use. Luke looked around the room, wondering which of the users would end up suffering because they’d used their credit card to get onto the computer. Again he felt like warning them, but instead resolved to do something about it. An email to Brian at the bank in New Zealand was the thing to do: find out the name of the police officer who had been working the case in Cairns. That wouldn’t be giving anything away that might upset Ham, and it might stop Lora from being angry with him.

He located Brian’s email address and created a message suggesting that he had some information that might interest the Cairns police. Could Brian give a contact? He sent it, thinking that there would probably be an answer in the morning. Then he’d have to sort out what to do with it. Sometime within the next twenty-four hours he would need to have another talk with his father, one that would sort things out for good.