The Crocodile Nest (6 page)

More was revealed about the scam on Monday. The bank, with the help of the police, uncovered most of the facts in the case.

Twenty thousand dollars was the maximum that could be transferred to another account under the TXTbak security system. It had gone to an account that had been opened three weeks before. Although the owner’s name was not released by the bank, they did say that he had provided a Romanian passport as ID, and a power bill as proof of address. Police called him the mule: he was the middleman who shipped the money on to the scammer. It now seemed that the power bill had been forged, and the passport was a fake, too. Neither would lead to the man.

However, to ship the money overseas the mule had to visit lots of money-transfer offices, as the maximum single amount was a thousand dollars. Eighteen withdrawals had been made using an EFTPOS card, each at a different office in Auckland. The police were now visiting those offices with the hope of getting a lead.

While the mule’s account had been locked down soon after the scam was detected, all except a few dollars of Beth’s stolen money had already gone. The bank was still debating their responsibility in the matter.

Beth made no comment when she got that news. All morning she’d sat in the lounge with her knitting. Most of the time the needles and wool had sat on her lap whilst she played with her wedding ring. Her plans to become a modern, independent woman had taken a body blow. She’d fallen for a scam that even her twelve-year-old granddaughter knew about.

Lora, on the other hand, seemed to be over the whole thing. Her welcome when Luke had arrived was almost warm. Luke couldn’t yet match the friendliness, but nor was he rude. And when she offered to use the Internet to set up some things on his phone, he accepted. After watching her for a while, Luke’s respect for her computer skills increased. While she’d never be as good as he was, she knew her way around places and could type like a pro. She was pretty clever for a girl who looked like something out of a Halloween movie.

Communication with Hamish continued almost daily throughout the week. After Luke had told him that Alice didn’t want any of his money, Hamish sent a relieved reply saying that if ever Luke needed a helping hand, then maybe they could work something out.

No more photos were sent, but Hamish did send the web addresses of several Cape Tribulation tourist ventures, including
The Crocodile Nest. It showed a large wooden building with open decks where people dined. All the trees and shrubs surrounding it were incredibly green. Of most interest was the menu page, which had a photo of the kitchen with a white-hatted Hamish filleting a large fish.

The second site was for a crocodile-viewing tour. Luke couldn’t help but voice his delight at seeing photos of the large animals basking on the roots of huge mangrove trees.

‘What’s that?’ asked Beth.

‘More crocodiles, I bet,’ said Lora.

A moment later, both were sitting next to him.

‘How close do you think they get to them?’ asked Beth.

‘Too close,’ replied Lora.

Luke smiled. ‘I read that if they eat a human, they don’t need to eat again for three months.’

‘Aarrgh,’ said Lora, shaking her body in disgust.

‘Have you got anything less scary?’ asked Beth.

Luke went back to the email and clicked on the next link. This one was for an ice-cream factory that used local tropical fruits to make a variety of products.

‘That’s more like it,’ said Beth. ‘I’d much prefer to go there than visit crocodiles.’

Luke didn’t agree, but he let them explore the site for a while.

From then on Lora took charge, going through all the links that Hamish had sent. It didn’t worry Luke, as Beth was looking happier than at any time since she’d found that her money had been stolen. It soon became clear that there was more to this than just a passing interest.

They were looking at a place that did tours out to the Great Barrier Reef, when Lora said, ‘I think we’ve got a brochure on that one.’ She stood and moved to the dining-room table, returning with a wad of tourist pamphlets. As she fanned through them, Luke could see that they were all for Tropical Queensland. It looked like the brief discussion of the previous week had now turned into a definite holiday.

Luke felt a stab of jealousy. Tropical Queensland was his place! It was
his
father who lived there. If he hadn’t found Hamish, then neither of them would have been interested in going there. Now this girl was using his emails to plan a holiday which obviously didn’t include him. The good feelings he’d been having towards Lora quickly evaporated, to be replaced by a bitter mix of envy and disappointment.

On Thursday night, everyone went to Kev’s for the promised possum shoot. Beth wanted to collect some possum wool. Luke’s suggestion that she take it from dead possums on the side of the road was turned down in favour of a night out with Kev.

The event was timed so that Alice could join them. She arrived after seven, carrying enough pizzas for all. With full bellies, they piled into Kev’s ute, now much tidier than before.

As they headed up the farm track towards the bush line, Kev tried to convince Lora and Alice why the possums had to die.

‘The things can cost farmers a fortune. They carry TB, and if they cough up on the grass it gets into the cattle. You get that in
your herd and you’re stuffed. Not only does it make the animals skinny and weak, you can’t sell them or send them to the works. They’re next to useless. You might as well shoot them.’

He concentrated on his driving for a while as they passed over a particularly rough patch.

‘On a farm like this, so close to the bush,’ he continued, ‘they could quickly put you out of business if you don’t do something about it. I come out shooting most weeks. Though I haven’t been out for a while, so we might get quite a few.’

The track petered out and, after passing through a gate, they were driving across a large paddock with bush on three sides. Kev stopped the ute and climbed out.

‘Luke and Lora, you need to climb up on the back to handle the spotlight. I’ll be up there, too, with the rifle. That leaves either Beth or Alice to do the driving. Who’s it going to be?’

The two women looked at one another, each waiting for the other to volunteer. In the end, Alice said, ‘I’ll do it first, and then Beth can take over halfway through.’

Soon they were on their way. Luke held the spotlight, which was connected to a battery at his feet. Kev had a .22 semiautomatic rifle with a telescopic sight. Lora’s job was to hold the wire to the spotlight so that they didn’t trip over it.

With Kev giving instructions to Alice through the window, they headed for the bush line. Luke scanned the spotlight at the trees. No eyes appeared.

‘Sweep it over the grass,’ suggested Kev. ‘They often come out into the paddock to feed.’

Luke lowered the beam and immediately caught a possum in
its light. It was sitting on its hind legs, staring at them with two orange eyes shining brightly out of a dark-brown face.

‘OK, Alice, you can stop here,’ said Kev. Once the ute had come to a halt, he slid the safety catch off, raised the rifle and fired. The report was more of a pop than a bang. Instantly, the lights of the possum disappeared, as it collapsed to the ground. Luke gave a cheer. Lora squealed.

‘Good shot!’ called Beth from the cab.

‘All right,’ Kev said. ‘Now drive up closer and I’ll get its fur. Do you want to help me, Beth?’

Beth certainly did, and, with Luke providing the light, Kev showed her how easy it was to remove the fur. It almost fell out. ‘It’s easy when they’re still warm, but let them cool and you’ll never get it out. They drop fur in defence. Any dog that attacks them ends up with a mouthful of fur, which gives the possum a chance to get away.’

Within a couple of minutes they had most of the fur in a plastic bag and were ready to shoot the next animal.

They continued in this way, getting another three possums. When they reached the fence line, Kev said it was time to swap around. Beth could do the driving, Lora could do the spotlight, and Kev would teach Luke how to shoot.

Luke hadn’t been expecting this, and he felt his heart skip a beat. This was a dream come true.

Before Beth took off, Kev showed Luke how to hold the rifle, take sight, and squeeze the trigger. Then Lora was asked to find something safe to shoot at. Using the spotlight, she located a big, juicy cowpat. ‘See if you can hit that,’ she challenged.

Luke was shaking as he released the safety and took aim. ‘Use the cab to support your elbow,’ said Kev.

That steadied things enough for Luke to take a shot.

‘You missed,’ said Lora next to him. She almost seemed happy about it.

‘Try again,’ said Kev. ‘Take in a breath, let it partly out, and then hold it while you fire.’

This time some of the cowpat splattered into the air. ‘I got it!’ yelled Luke.

‘So, do it again,’ said Kev. ‘Do several shots.’

Luke fired four shots, getting three hits and a miss.

‘All right,’ said Kev, ‘that’s the end of the lesson. Put on the safety and let’s find a possum so we can do it for real.’ He slapped the roof of the cab. ‘Take it close to the bush, Beth, and we’ll see if there are any in the trees.’

There was a graunch from below as Beth sorted out the gears. ‘Sorry!’ she yelled. ‘It’s a while since I’ve driven a vehicle with a clutch.’

She took off with a jerk, and then kangaroo-hopped across the paddock for a distance before she got it under control. ‘Sorry!’ she called out again.

As they cruised parallel to the bush, Lora scanned the beam through the trees. It didn’t take long to find one. This was a big black animal sitting on a branch near the top of a tree. Once again, Luke’s heart gave a stutter: he was about to shoot his first wild animal. It might not be a pig, but it would do for starters.

‘OK,’ said Kev, after the ute had stopped, ‘aim for the head, if you can.’

Luke raised the rifle to his shoulder and looked through the ‘scope. Now the animal’s eyes seemed so much brighter. It was looking directly at him, as if it knew something was about to happen, but wasn’t sure what. For a time the image kept moving, until Luke got his breathing right and pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened.

‘Take the safety off,’ said Kev.

Nervously, Luke slipped the lever to one side. Now the possum seemed to be wobbling all over the place. When he thought it was in frame, he fired.

This time he heard the shot, but the image through the ‘scope was unchanged. The possum was still sitting on the branch staring at him.

‘You hit the branch,’ said Lora. ‘I saw a bit fly off.’

‘Try again,’ Kev encouraged.

This time Luke aimed a little higher. Again he missed.

Lora let out a noisy sigh. ‘You were too high this time.’

Luke thought of telling her to try and do better, but kept it to himself: she just might take up the challenge. This was going to be his possum, not hers.

‘OK, we’re a bit far away.’ Kev tapped on the roof. ‘Move in a bit closer, Beth.’

Luke lowered the rifle to his side.

‘Put the safety on,’ said Kev.

Before Luke had a chance to do so, Beth let out the clutch—far, far too sharply.

Then lots of things happened very quickly.

The ute lurched forward, throwing them all back towards the
tailboard. The rifle juggled in Luke’s hands. He grabbed at it, to stop it dropping over the back, but as he grabbed the stock, a finger slipped under the trigger guard. The gun fired. Lora screamed and fell to the deck.

Beth heard the scream and jammed her foot on the brake. Again, it was much too sharply. Those on the back were thrown forward, smashing against the cab. Another shot was fired, but this time there was no scream from Lora. She lay quietly without moving, jammed up against the battery. The spotlight sat on top of her, its light now as black as her clothes.

They sat in Kev’s lounge, heads bowed, eyes staring at the carpet, each blaming themselves.

Beth was the worst affected. Her wedding ring had not stopped moving since she’d sat down. Kev was beside her on the two-seater, looking just as miserable. Alice sat at the dining table, chewing furiously. If she looked up, it was to check on how Luke was making out.

Luke was feeling miserable. The word sorry was going around and around in his head. He’d said it so many times that he felt that the word would stay there, repeating itself forever. If he’d just killed the possum with his first shot, then everything would’ve been all right. Instead…

Only Lora looked relaxed about the whole thing. She lay on the sofa snuggled beneath a blanket. The lump near her temple where she’d hit the deck of the ute was starting to go down. She’d been unconscious for almost a minute while everyone
thought she was dead. She had no memory of the event, other than being thrown against the tailboard.

‘Cheer up everyone,’ she said. ‘I’m not dead!’

‘You could’ve been,’ cried Beth.

‘Well I’m not, am I?’

‘How’s that bump?’ asked Alice.

‘It hurts a bit still,’ replied Lora, touching the lump with her hand. ‘It feels the size of an egg.’

‘Are you ready for a piece of pizza?’ asked Kev.

‘Yes, please!’

Kev went out to the kitchen.

‘Bring out several plates, Kev,’ called Alice. ‘I think we all need to eat.’

Soon they were munching on the leftovers from dinner; even Beth accepted a small slice.

Lora finished her piece first. As she reached for another, she said, ‘Gran, when are you going to tell them about what we decided last night?’

Beth finished her mouthful. ‘I don’t think this is the best time, Lora. I’m not sure that I want to do it anymore. Not after what’s happened.’

‘Aw, Gran! We have to. All that’s happened is I’ve bumped my head. That shouldn’t stop us.’

All eyes turned to Beth. ‘All right, I’ll tell them.’ Her face brightened a little. ‘We’re off to Australia next school holidays.’

‘Which part?’ asked Kev.

‘Tropical Queensland. Cairns, and up to a place called Cape Tribulation.’

Luke sat very still. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Alice giving him a questioning look.

‘What’s the interest up there?’ asked Kev.

‘I want to look at some of their tourist things,’ replied Beth. ‘See what they’ve got and how they do it.’

‘And…’ prompted Lora.

Beth looked at Luke. ‘We thought you might like to come as well.’ Then she quickly added, ‘That’s if Alice doesn’t mind.’

Now Alice was the centre of attention. She looked as startled as the possums caught in the spotlight earlier in the night.

She recovered enough to demand, ‘Why do you want to do this?’

Beth’s shoulders slumped at the reaction. ‘I thought Luke might like to visit his father,’ she said softly.

‘Maybe I don’t want Luke to visit him,’ said Alice, angrily. ‘That man gave up all rights to his son the day he walked out on me. I don’t see or hear from him in over twelve years, and now he’s interfering with my life again. Well, I’m not going to let him.’

A tense silence followed. Kev was the one who finally broke it. ‘I gather you’ve located Hamish, Luke?’

Luke nodded, pleased to take the attention away from Alice. ‘Yeah, at this place called Cape Tribulation. He’s a chef up there.’ He then went on to tell the whole story. As he spoke, he kept an eye on his mother, hoping she was calming down. It was hard to tell. She was sitting perfectly still, with her head resting in her hands.

When he’d finished, Beth spoke again. ‘I thought Hamish
might be a good contact to find out about tourist ventures. It’s likely he knows lots of the people up there.’

Alice lifted her head. ‘So, really you’re offering to take Luke because it suits what you want to do?’

Beth shook her head sadly. ‘It’s not like that at all. I like Luke, and I know that he wants to meet his father.’

Alice turned to Luke. ‘Do you?’ It was an accusation.

‘Yes, Mum. I really do want to meet him.’

Silence returned. This time everyone waited for Alice’s decision. Eventually, she said, ‘All right. But there are conditions.’

Beth and Luke nodded. Lora gave a little smile.

‘I don’t want you to keep on giving him things. He has to earn them. He’s to work for you for the rest of the year without payment. Is that clear, Luke?’

Luke nodded eagerly.

She turned to Beth. ‘You can pay his airfares and accommodation until you get to this Cape Tribulation place, but then his father has to take over. He has to pay for everything to do with Luke until you come back home.’

‘That’s reasonable,’ said Beth. ‘I’m sure we can work something out.’

‘And Luke, when you’re with your father, you’re to have nothing to do with guns. He’s sure to have some, and he’ll probably want to teach you how to use them, but I won’t have that. I’m not going to have a repeat of what happened tonight. I don’t want guns in your life at all. You’re going to have to promise me that you won’t touch them while you’re over there.’ She glared at him, waiting for his response.

Luke gave his promise. Meeting his father now meant everything to him, and right at that moment he didn’t care if he never touched a gun again. Anyway, the promise wouldn’t stop him going pig hunting, because Ham hunted with dogs and a knife.

Friday morning, Luke went into Whitianga with Alice. He was determined to get a full day’s work done so that Alice had no reason to change her mind about the Australian trip.

He spent the first part of the morning digging in the back yard where Beth wanted to grow a few vegetables. Just before nine, the others left for the doctor’s to get Lora checked for concussion. After that, they were going to the travel agents to make the Australian bookings.

Two hours later, Luke was ready for a rest and a drink. It was a timely move, for as he walked inside the phone rang. Brian from the bank had the latest news on the hunt for the scammers. The police had now established that the same person had visited all eighteen of the money transfer offices. The ID presented in every case was the fake Romanian passport used to open the bank account. One office had even photocopied the passport so that they now had a photo of the mule.

Another line they were following was the destination of the money, as this could lead to the mastermind behind the scam.

‘This seems more hopeful,’ said Brian. ‘All the money was sent to offices in Australia, somewhere in Queensland.’

Suddenly, Luke’s gut tightened.

‘Do you know where?’ he asked, trying to keep his voice normal.

‘Is that important?’ Brian responded.

‘I don’t know,’ said Luke, ‘but Mrs Anderson might want to know.’

‘OK, hang on a bit. I’ve got a fax here somewhere.’ There was a noisy shuffling of paper before he returned with, ‘Yeah! Here it is. Um, looks like they’re all either in Cairns or in surrounding towns.’

Luke’s gut got tighter.

‘Anyway,’ continued Brian, ‘the Australian police have established that all the money was collected within a couple of hours of being sent. The ID used was an Australian driver’s licence, but that seems to have been a fake. The police there are continuing their enquiries. We might hear something more or we might not.’

After they’d hung up, Luke sat for several minutes, processing the information. Was it coincidence that Hamish lived near Cairns, and so too did the scammer? It had to be: there was nothing to link the two together. Anyway, Cape Tribulation was more than a hundred kilometres away from Cairns. Still, it was strange that the money was taken in the same week that Hamish…

That’s when Luke’s gut really started playing up. Something that had been gnawing away in the back of his mind came to the surface. Lora’s P2P program was not the only one to be installed when the firewall was down. There was another one: Hamish’s photo-viewing program—CapeTribView.exe. Either
could have installed the Ratspyz trojan. So which one was it?

He turned on the computer and waited impatiently for it to boot. Then he sat there, not sure if he wanted to continue. In the end, he decided to test the P2P program first. After turning off the virus-checker and firewall, he located the installation file and ran it. Within a minute the P2P program was up and running just the way Lora had used it. Next he ran the virus-checker. This took longer, but he knew before it had finished that it wasn’t going to find the Ratspyz trojan.

Should he go on? Did he really want to know for sure?

Yes, he did. He went into his emails and found Hamish’s attachment. He checked just that file for viruses. Nothing. If the virus was in there, then it was masked in a way that made it invisible to virus-checkers.

He ran the file. As it had the previous week, it took a while before the first image appeared. However, this time Luke got no pleasure at seeing the crocodile attacking the pig. He was too upset to find any of the pictures interesting.

Once again the virus-checker was run, and once again it took its time. But, as feared, it
did
find a virus. The Ratspyz trojan virus. It had been unmasked and was ready to work.

Luke sat for ages, trying to think of an explanation other than the obvious. He couldn’t: he had his answer. It
wasn’t
a coincidence that Hamish and the scammer both lived in Tropical Queensland. It was perfectly logical, because Hamish and the scammer were the same person.