Burning at the Boss (A Johnny Ravine Mystery) by Roth Martin

Author:Roth, Martin [Roth, Martin]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2012-05-30T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY

“What’s the point of living in the Yarra Valley if you don’t enjoy the wine?” said Debbie, refilling glasses with a local chilled chardonnay. I wondered if this was a dig at me. I was sticking to lemonade.

She had met us at the door of her home with a half-empty glass in her hand and quickly escorted us onto a backyard patio with spectacular forest and mountain views. “It’s not every Saturday morning that I have three handsome men arrive on my doorstep,” she had declared. “I might not allow you to leave.”

Now we were discussing Pastor Reezall’s death. “That was really scary,” she said. “People say that the house burned down in minutes. And took a lot of trees with it. We don’t like to hear about that kind of thing around here.” Whitney Houston sang from The Bodyguard soundtrack over a pair of mounted speakers on the patio.

“It was deliberately lit,” said Rad. “I helped put it out. Someone poured petrol around the house.”

“It’s still scary.” Debbie was a straw-haired thirty-ish tax accountant, driving forty minutes to Melbourne’s eastern suburbs each day for her work and relishing the country lifestyle at weekends. She lived alone in an old home on land surrounded by young trees.

My journalist friend Rohan was also with us. When I told him about my meeting the previous day with Rad’s mother he had insisted on tagging along. He spoke: “Now, the point of our visit”—his deep baritone engendered impressive authority, as if he were delivering a speech at the United Nations—“we believe you’re one of the lucky winners of the Go-Go Greene carbon offset bonanza.”

She smiled. “I think everyone in town is involved. Everyone who owns property. You don’t pass up a chance like this. Make money for doing nothing. So long as you don’t chop down your trees. Which no one is doing anyway. People like me move out here because of all the trees.”

Somewhere in the distance, near the mountains, I spotted what was likely an eagle or a hawk.

“Let me confirm,” said Rohan. “The local council has passed some kind of new regulation declaring that you are allowed to clear your land, chop down all your trees, whatever, whereas previously you couldn’t.”

She shrugged. “I leave all the small print up to Go-Go. But I believe it’s something like that.” She had a winning smile. I wondered how come Rad’s mother hadn’t hooked her up with Rad. Possibly something to do with all the wine she was consuming. She was wearing a low-slung blouse and I could see a large red rose tattooed on her upper back.

Rohan sipped his wine. “You have some kind of document from the council? Something that changes the designated use of your land? That says you’re now allowed to cut down trees?”

“I don’t have anything like that myself. Go-Go Greene, he handles all those details. He says it’s all arranged at the council.”

“So what do you get?”

“There’s a whole lot of forms to fill in. Then I think I have a certificate that shows I’m a participant in the program.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.