Dave only just had time to react to the charge when Ross twisted away and broke into a run.
‘Fucker,’ yelled Spencer.
Dave took off on foot and chased him down the street. People scattered every which way until finally Ross started to slow and Dave, whose pace hadn’t changed, grabbed his arm and shoved him against the wall.
Out of nowhere Ernie appeared and helped hold him still while Dave got out his cuffs.
‘Bad move, dickhead,’ he puffed and slapped the cuffs on his wrist. ‘Cheers, Ernie. You make a great neighbour and helper. Glad I got to know you.’
‘And it turns out,’ Spencer yelled delightedly from across the bar, ‘Ross Pollard was paid on commission from HMA Mining. No sales, no money. I looked into his bank records and found that he’s in a bucketload of debt. Gambling, prostitutes. Turns out he was the one Narla spoke to us about the night we got called to the brothel; the one who was getting a bit rough with the girls. He would go in with a bundle of money and offer them extra to do perverted things.’
‘What the hell?’ Dave said.
‘Long and the short of it, he needed money. So he tried to scare people into selling.’ Spencer raised his beer. ‘He won’t be doing that again in a hurry!’
‘Here’s to Spencer,’ Dave raised his beer, and a cheer went around the room.
Everyone broke off into smaller groups and started talking loudly.
Dave went to Melinda and put his arm around her. ‘Who would’ve thought the case was going to end with a chase through the streets of Barrabine, hey? Just like the movies,’ he grinned. ‘Have you heard any more on Janelle?’ ‘She moved into her unit today. I went and saw her before I came here, but she’s doing so much better. Maddie, oh my God, she’s a pudgy, healthy little thing who just loves to laugh. She’s gorgeous.’
‘Good news all round,’ Dave said. Then he noticed she didn’t have a drink. ‘Do you want a drink?’
‘Well, actually, no,’ she said. She pulled his ear down to her mouth and whispered in it.
Dave blinked. ‘Sorry, what?’
‘I’m pregnant.’ Melinda was grinning from ear to ear. ‘I’m pregnant!’
‘Pregnant?’
She nodded. ‘That’s why I’ve been feeling so tired and squirmy.’ She squeezed his arm. ‘We’re going to have a baby.’ Dave took her face between his hands and kissed her. ‘Wow,’ he muttered against her lips. His hands found their way to her belly and he touched her gently, his mouth still on hers.
‘Come on, you two,’ Kathy’s voice filtered through the haze. ‘I’ll have to book you a room if you don’t stop that.’
Dave pulled away and put his arm around Melinda.
‘I’m going to be a dad,’ he muttered. ‘A dad?’ Then he let out a whoop. ‘I’m going to be a dad!’
Acknowledgements
Researching Fool’s Gold was illuminating to say the least. The brothel tour, museums and mine tours were incredible fun. It’s hard to visit the area and not to fall in love (as Detective Dave has done) with the landscape and dirt. And even though I find it hard to understand the drive of individual miners, searching for the elusive gold, I appreciate the need to keep prospecting until they find that life-changing nugget. It’s a hard and harsh landscape in the goldfields—hellishly hot, wild and untamed, a law unto itself—and these people continue to prospect, walking over hundreds of kilometres of land in the quest for gold. I’ve tried it and it’s certainly like looking for a needle in a haystack, or rather a five-millimetre piece of gold amongst millions of hectares. To all the prospectors who have inspired this book, I wish you luck.
‘A head full of fears has no room to dream.’ Lisa Bevere wrote that and it’s the truth. Writing and creativity is all about dreaming and scheming and coming up with ideas, so it can be quite annoying when fear crowds in and there is a deadline looming!
Special thanks to Gaby Naher, Tom Gilliatt, Annette Barlow, Christa Munns and Julia Stiles, who not only help me overcome those fears but polish a rusty piece of work into something shiny.
Carolyn and Heather do the same, but usually with a bit more ‘no nonsense’ attitude! (To translate: ‘Fleur, sit your arse down and write.’) S’okay girls, I know you love me!
I’ve said before, pulling a book together involves a whole publishing house, so massive thanks to all those behind the scenes: Klara, Matt, Tami, Andrew and anyone who I’ve missed.
To Kiri, from the Ora Banda Pub, and Tim—your generosity to the stranger who walked in through the door without any warning and asked for some stories, thank you. I hope you can recognise some of them in here, with a lot of poetic licence!
To Mick Dowie from the Major Organised and Crime Squad (Rural) in Queensland, thanks for the three incredible, informative and fun days I had with you and your team. Detective Dave is a lot more equipped to handle anything crime throws at him now!
Again, massive love and appreciation to all my ‘family who are not’: Carolyn and Aaron, Emma and Pete, Garry, Heather, Jan and Pete, Robyn and Scottish. I wouldn’t be who I am without your love and support. And to my canine support team—Jack-the-kelpie, Rocket and Beardog—love the way you keep my feet warm and don’t answer me back!
Rochelle and Hayden, love you long time. Follow your dreams, work hard and never give up.
To all who love Detective Dave: there is no possible way I could have known when I first created him back in Red Dust how much of a beloved character he was going to become. I hope you now enjoy his journey from 1997 to the present day—all of his good times, achievements and heartaches—I’m about to hit him with as many as I can!
AN ORIGINAL STORY
The Farmer’s Choice
It’s 1990 and twenty-three-year-old Dave Burrows has returned from agricultural college full of ideas and plans
