overdose and Doug says it’s all over the papers.’
Riley winced at that. ‘I’d imagine it might be.’
‘Doug’s saying it’s gonna be a big beat up. Dead rock star’s daughters missing in the desert.’
‘Mmm.’
‘There’ll be a fuss when they get on the train.’
‘Yeah.’
‘Anyway…’ Bill cleared his throat. ‘No business of mine. You tell the cops they’re okay and I’ll reassure the missus. It’ll keep everyone off our backs.’
‘Fine.’
‘Jackson?’
‘Yeah?’
‘Glad you bought the place,’ Bill said, a trifle roughly. And then, unexpectedly: ‘There’s about two hundred head of your cattle I sort of steered to my side of the boundary rather than let them die of thirst. I might steer them back now.’
Riley grinned. Well, well. ‘That’s good of you.’
‘What are neighbours for?’ Once more Bill hesitated. ‘Just…when this business is all over can you radio the missus and tell her what the hell this is all about? Otherwise I’ll never hear the end of it.’
Riley’s grin deepened. He knew Dot. The thought of a girl and a child stranded on the siding would be almost too much for her. She’d be wanting to get in the truck and drive back herself, and Bill would have his work cut out to keep her at home.
Bill’s dislike for socialising had just cost him two hundred head of cattle.
‘I’ll contact Dot personally,’ Riley promised, and then couldn’t help himself. ‘And I won’t even ask how long you’ve been “saving” my cattle for me, you thieving old poddy dodger.’
Then, as he heard Bill’s squawk of indignation he replaced the handset with a smile.
His grin faded. He lay back on his swag again for a few short minutes. Taking in what had been said.
He’d admitted Jenna and Karli were with him. He’d assumed responsibility for them. He was in no doubt now that if he hadn’t implied he was taking care of them, Dot would be here within hours, or, if not Dot, then the Territory police.
But he’d implied that things were under control.
And when it was over… He’d have to report to Dot.
‘How can I tell her what the hell it’s all about when I’ll never know myself?’ Riley asked himself, and then he sighed and reached for the radio again to contact the police.
To tell them things were under control.
Sort of.
Jenna and Karli worked for two days straight. They had a perfectly wonderful time.
And Karli bloomed.
Their times together in England had had their problems. Every chance she’d been able to, Jenna had fetched Karli home to her bedsitter near the hospital, but normally she’d only been able to manage twenty-four hours off duty. By the time they’d finished the long trip home, Karli had already been remembering she’d have to go back. She’d never completely relaxed.
She’d never treated Jenna as someone who might be permanent.
But now, in this incongruous setting, there was suddenly no end in sight. Sure, they were due to catch a train on Monday but that was with Jenna. Tomorrow Karli didn’t have to go back to school. Jenna didn’t have to go back to work. And now there was no Brian threatening, and no Nicole at the end of the journey, ready to gush or rant or ignore.
With such freedom, house-cleaning seemed an adventure to be savoured. Every time Jenna demanded rest, Karli put her hands on her hips, fixed her with a slave-driver’s look and said: ‘But there’s still more dust.’
There certainly was, but it didn’t deter them. They mapped out a plan and worked methodically through.
They blocked the two bedrooms off, judging the whole house was beyond their capabilities. The rest of the house they sealed. Apart from the doors and windows in the lee of the wind, they covered every broken window, they stuffed every crack and they sealed it so not one speck of dust could enter.
Then they cleaned.
They removed dust by the bucketload, Jenna sweeping it from higher surfaces to lower ones, Karli coming behind her and sweeping it to the floor. Then they mounded it in huge piles and whooshed it out into the yard.
All the furniture was dragged outside, Karli heaving as gamely as Jenna. With it gone, they filled bucket after bucket with the horrid bore water and they scrubbed.
Jenna would have stopped if Karli hated it, but Karli loved it. It was like a huge game, making an appalling house liveable.
They wore the clothes they’d worn from the train, judging them unspeakable already, and by the end of two more days they were truly disgusting. Jenna tied their hair up in rags so they looked like two aging charladies, and they giggled every time they caught sight of each other.
They certainly didn’t look like Nicole Razor’s daughters. If Nicole could see them she’d have kittens, Jenna thought, and the idea was enough to make her feel a real pang of sorrow. Nicole had missed out on so much, she thought as she watched Karli chewing her bottom lip in concentration as she tried to scrub her bit of kitchen floor really clean.
Living in five-star hotels might be fabulous for a while, but it wasn’t really living. It didn’t want to make you hug someone because you felt so good at what you were achieving-together.
And they were achieving. They worked all through Friday and slept the sleep of the truly exhausted on Friday night. They worked all day Saturday, and, to their shared amazement, as Saturday drew to a close they were starting to see the house as it might once have looked.
Someone had loved it. A long time ago someone had taken pride in this house.
The kitchen, under its grime, was painted a pretty pastel green. Hanging over the windows was a nondescript cloth, but when they washed it the cloth turned into attractive floral curtains that exactly matched the walls. The benches were washed clean and they’d scrubbed out the stove. Karli’s floor gleamed.
It was as if the house were a treasure, hidden for years under ugly camouflage. The heat was almost forgotten as they grew more and more excited with their project. By the end of Saturday they were pounding the furniture and starting to drag it inside again, and the house was starting to look…welcoming?
‘Enough,’ Jenna decreed at six on Saturday night. She’d climbed up onto the roof and banged nails into loose tin to stop it clanging in the wind, and that had been her personal limit. Her hands were scratched, she was exhausted and even the slave-driving Karli was looking a bit wobbly. ‘Enough, Karli, love. It’s time to hit the pump. We’ve done more work than two people should have to do in one lifetime.’
‘It’s really pretty,’ Karli said as Jenna sat down on the back step beside her. Karli had been supervising her roof-mending, and now she tucked her hand into Jenna’s in a gesture that was entirely proprietary. ‘I’m glad you’re finished on the roof.’
‘I stopped it banging.’
‘Yeah,’ Karli said with satisfaction. ‘And I polished the doorknob.’
‘We’ve done great.’
‘Do you think Mr Jackson will come home tonight?’
‘He might,’ Jenna said, trying to sound as if she didn’t care.
She did care. Which was…a problem?
Riley arrived just after sunset. He walked into the kitchen-and stopped dead.
Things had changed so much he had to blink to convince himself he wasn’t seeing things.
For the last two days he’d been driving along the vast boundaries of his property, across mile after mile of drought-stricken country. He’d checked and repaired bores, he’d checked dams, he’d cleared troughs and he’d taken endless inventory. The dust, the silence and the monotony had seeped almost into his soul, leaving him blank and empty. And all the time, in the back of his mind had been the thought of this derelict house in such desperate need
