Poison Bay by Belinda Pollard

Author:Belinda Pollard [Pollard, Belinda]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Small Blue Dog Publishing
Published: 2014-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

33

“So, what are we going to do?” said Callie. They’d crawled back off the mountain of jungle-rubble, and huddled under the shelter of a large tree fern to regroup. Her legs still felt like they were made of rubber, and Jack looked a bit green. They both needed a nice hot coffee with lots of sugar in it. Callie found herself disappearing into a momentary daydream about the funky pottery mug on her desk at work, souvenir of a Tasmanian holiday, and its texture in her hand, its weight and warmth when it was full of coffee from the barista next to the office…

Jack’s voice hauled her back to Fiordland. “Well, there’s no doubt we have to tell the others now. And we’ll have to tell them about Sharon.” His face turned bitter. “If we’d told them sooner, would Adam still be alive? I’ve made so many stupid decisions the last few days.” He stared morosely at the river, still leaping with runoff, even though the rain had eased to mere buckets.

“So it’s somehow your fault that someone pulled out a gun and shot Adam, is it?” She shook her head. “I had no idea you were so wicked. Or so important, for that matter.”

He rolled his eyes, but his dismal mood did seem to lighten a degree or two. Jack could usually recognize the truth when it was pointed out to him, even in sarcasm. He sighed. “Well, it’s just that Adam had been stalked by crocodiles and stuff and lived. If he’d known there was a threat, he may have been able to avoid it. A bullet in the forehead! He must have walked right into an ambush.” He started scanning the riverbank upstream, and the opposite side of the steep valley. “I wonder if whoever did it is watching us now? And how close do they have to be to do it again?”

She searched her memory. “I’m almost certain that bullet wound is the kind you get from a small gun, up close. Which would mean, I think, that it isn’t a sniper.”

“Actually, that would make sense. The best sniper in the world couldn’t have shot him from a distance in that really heavy rain. So maybe we don’t have to watch the hillsides and mountaintops all the time. But I guess it doesn’t necessarily mean the shooter doesn’t have another gun. They might be equipped for both.” He sighed and rubbed his face with both hands.

Callie went very still. “You know what else it could mean? It could be one of us. A small handgun could easily hide in one of our rucksacks. It’s not as though we unpack them fully in front of each other every day.”

“I guess so. But why would any of us have come on this hike prepared to kill someone? Why would anyone come at all if they’d known what Bryan was planning? Or they’d need to have a separate agenda to Bryan’s, which seems even more unlikely.”

“I suppose it doesn’t make much sense.

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