Crystal Coffin Read Online Free PDF

let the big oaf lend us a hand.’
    â€˜No need,’ Locklin said. ‘I’ve got the Bedford and I’ve got my horse and believe me,’ he added, working the stiffness from his shoulder, ‘he did give me a hand.’ Only it was curled up in a fist.
    â€˜Hey what?’ Denny said, stunned. ‘How … when? I mean, aren’t you still in East Timor? You’re not due back until March, last I heard. Have yer got leave?’
    â€˜Technically no,’ Locklin said, making sure that his father’s old farm foreman had just enough facts that he wouldn’t get the old man into trouble when military police came to interrogate him. ‘I flew into Amberley this morning on escort duty — medical supply flight out of Dili. I’m just waiting for spare parts and supplies to come from Brisbane and then I’m going back with them tomorrow night.’
    â€˜Does Helen know?’
    â€˜Yes,’ he said, deliberately leaving out some of the story. ‘I just rang her.’
    â€˜So yer at Amberley?’ the Scotsman said, knowing the air force would rent him a bunk. ‘It’s only twenty minutes away. I could spit that far. Is that where yer were at five this morning when yer rang me? Yer should have mentioned it, lad. I’d have come and got yer in me old Renault.’
    â€˜No, I got in at 2am actually, and I would’ve let you and your old Renault sleep in even at five, except I needed Jack for something and I couldn’t find him.’
    â€˜You were here?’
    â€˜Right outside your window. The truck doesn’t come by itself when I whistle. Only I can’t explain now, Denny,’ he added quickly. ‘I’m running out of time and I need a favour, but before you say yes, be warned it’s a big one.’
    â€˜Don’t you go warnin’ me off like that, you young sprat,’ Denny scolded. ‘Yer dad and me went back a long ways an’ I owe him favours that I haven’t even begun to repay yet. He’s gone now and yer his son, so you just name yer price and I’ll pay it.’
    â€˜Take a holiday,’ Locklin said. ‘A day or two. Put me on as a temp to replace you and keep your mouth shut about it for a while until I say so.’
    Denny laughed, not sure what part of that sounded the funniest — him taking a holiday after thirty-five years working without one at the family’s property, Freeman, or him keeping his mouth shut for two or three days in a row about anything. Then he sobered, realising what the only son of his old boss had to be planning.
    â€˜You won’t be sniffing up any trouble that could be getting you into a plot beside yer old dad now, I hope?’
    â€˜Not if I can help it, Denny. Will you do it?’
    â€˜Well,’ the Scotsman said, rolling his r’s even more now that he was worried, ‘I guess me old mum could do with a visit up at Kingaroy. And I’ll be gettin’ out of helpin’ that mongrel neighbour into yer dad’s house today …’
    â€˜Maitland’s moving in today?’ Locklin said, distracted. ‘I thought he was in Singapore?’
    â€˜Today it is. Any furniture and things of your dad’s that he didn’t want was carted off to St Joseph’s yesterdee as a donation, and they got a truck up at the house now moving boxes in. Only who have you been talking to, to get that news? I only just heard that he was in Singapore when I heard his wife mentioning it to the removalist.’
    â€˜I’ve been busy,’ Locklin said, looking at the rolled-up towel on the floor, of the cabin. He didn’t have time to explain that he’d already been to the boathouse before dawn and overheard Maitland bitching about his travel plans to the pilot of a Cessna seaplane that they’d landed against Water Board Regulations on the lake. He checked the knot that held the towel around the only piece of evidence