The Girl in the Hard Hat (42 page)

The squeal, however, had not come from these four men, the cars or the camp, but from a small brunette who had started picking her way across the risky terrain towards them. Annabel George was dressed immaculately in a blue dress, full make up and black wedges, wholly unsuitable for walking around in this sort of hazardous environment.

Wendy stared at her for a stunned second.
How does she
do
it?

Stumbling over fallen trees to get to them, Annabel’s face was flushed with delight.

‘Annabel, calm down,’ Chub called.

But she didn’t break pace. When she reached him, she leaped into his outstretched arms, throwing all her limbs around what she could of his ample form. ‘
You’re okay!
’ she cried. ‘I was so worried. I didn’t know what to do.’

‘Just upgraded my safe house, that’s all.’ Chub patted her back awkwardly. ‘To something a little cosier.’

‘Don’t joke about this.’ Her voice was muffled against his shoulder. ‘It’s not funny. You know, I’m supposed to be at work, but I couldn’t go. I had to come with them to see what had happened to you. But I must say –’ she lifted her head to eye ‘them’ over her shoulder ‘– they were very insensitive. They wouldn’t drive me. I had to go in the FESA vehicle!’

‘Really? How inconvenient.’ He kissed her swiftly and then placed her back on her feet.

‘I’m seeing it but I ain’t fuckin’ believing it.’ Carl eyed the couple, aghast, as he also joined the group.

Chub looked up quickly over Annabel’s head and cleared his throat. ‘How’re you going, Carl?’

‘A lot fuckin’ slower with your bloody girlfriend in tow.’

Chub turned an interesting shade of pink.

‘Girlfriend?’ Gavin murmured, slapping his large friend on the back. ‘You’ve been busy.’

Wendy tried to catch Chub’s eye but he refused to look at her. By which time, Dimitri and the FESA personnel had also walked over so she couldn’t question him.

‘You folks all right?’ one of the FESA guys asked and they all nodded.

Carl jerked his thumb over his shoulder. ‘We had to get them to escort us here. The roads are fuckin’ under water or covered in debris. We couldn’t go the usual way.’

Wendy nodded. ‘I’m just glad you came.’

‘Good to see you too, mate.’ Carl held out his hand to Gavin. ‘There’s been too many people fuckin’ worried sick about you.’

Gavin shook his hand. ‘Thanks, Carl.’

‘So where were you hiding?’ Dimitri asked. ‘The mess looks almost completely destroyed. Don’t tell me you were in one of these dongas.’

‘The storerooms behind reception, actually. They held,’ Gavin explained. ‘How about your school?’

‘Absolutely fine,’ Dimitri responded. ‘A few classrooms were flooded but nothing to be alarmed about. In fact, the men are getting restless. They’re dying to get back here and salvage the rest of their belongings.’ He grimaced. ‘Not that I think they’ll find much.’

‘What about the town?’ Wendy asked.

One of the FESA guys stepped forwards. ‘Not good, I’m afraid. Wickham was the worst hit and has been pretty much flattened and flooded. Karratha and Point Samson are not so bad. The cyclone lasted about seven hours, the eye taking almost forty minutes to pass over Wickham.’

‘Geez.’

‘So far, though, we haven’t received word that there has been any loss of life, which is very good news – seems like the locals took all the right precautions. ‘The FESA man’s tone seemed positive enough. But when he mentioned the word ‘locals’, something jarred in Wendy’s brain.

‘Did Lena and Dan make it back to the school okay?’ she asked.

Dimitri and Carl exchanged a look. Carl cleared his throat and Wendy had an awful feeling in the pit of her stomach even before he spoke.

‘No.’

She felt Gavin squeeze her hand before he asked, ‘Why were they away from the school?’

‘They were looking for you too,’ Wendy quickly told him. ‘In Karratha. We were trying to see if we could find Skinner’s green Mitsubishi. Thought it would lead us to where he was holding you.’

Gavin was pale. ‘I hope they never found it.’

An awful silence fell. It was Chub who finally broke it. ‘Well, let’s go look for them.’

‘We already have FESA people and the police on the job,’ one of the FESA guys informed them.

‘That doesn’t mean we can’t fuckin’ look for them too.’ Carl nodded to Chub.

The FESA guy protested. ‘It’s not really safe for you to be out touring the area.’

‘When I start fuckin’ touring, I’ll let you fuckin’ know,’ Carl snapped at him and then turned to Wendy. ‘I want you and Chub back at the school though. I need people there to organise post-cyclone procedures. Craig and Sharon have made a start but they’re not up to speed with what you had planned.’

‘Not a problem,’ Wendy agreed, even though she would rather be out looking for Dan and Lena too. After all, it was her fault they were missing. They never would have embarked on this risky adventure if she hadn’t opened her big mouth and told everyone what was going on.

Gavin released her hand. ‘I’m going with Carl.’

She could have predicted he was going to say that. But the implications of his words still had their bite. They had just come through the cyclone together, miraculously safe and sound. So now he wanted to go off chasing murderers.

Wonderful!

Not to mention the fact that last night she had given herself to him body and soul and they still had not spoken one word about it.
Maybe he doesn’t
want
to speak about it.

After all, what had changed? He’d been telling her for months he didn’t want to go down that road. Maybe he was keen to pretend it never happened. She looked away guiltily as Carl addressed Gavin again.

‘I could definitely do with the company and maybe a bit of an explanation.’

Gavin inclined his head. ‘Sure. I should also give my case manager, Janet, a call.’

Janet!

To her further shame, the relief she felt at hearing this woman’s position was greater than when she’d heard the FESA ‘all clear’ sirens.

If nothing else, at least she was the only woman in Gavin’s life.

‘You’ve got a fuckin’ case manager? A
police
case manager?’ Carl gawked. ‘Mate, you’ve got a lot of explaining to do!’

‘I’ll do it in the car.’

It was soon agreed that the FESA vehicle would escort them all back to the school in Karratha. From there Carl, Gavin and Dimitri could drive off to search Karratha – at their own risk – for Lena and Dan.

Chub, Wendy and Annabel got into the back of the FESA vehicle. Neither Chub nor Wendy seemed inclined to talk much but Annabel was more than happy to give a running commentary about Cyclone James and all that had transpired since he had arrived.

Wendy felt every minute of the monologue. Particularly with the rolling picture of devastation and destruction out her window to illustrate it. Several times where the road was blocked with debris or flooding, they had to pull off and drive around the obstacle. Wendy began to bite her nails. The off-road journey was very hard going and she was surprised they hadn’t burst a tyre yet. Perhaps they should listen to the FESA guys. Should the boys really be combing Karratha now?

You’d rather leave Lena and Dan out in the cold? When they helped you look for Gavin?

No, that wasn’t an option either.

They finally reached the school and the FESA vehicle drove away as soon as it dropped them off. The state emergency staff had much more pressing matters to attend to than construction workers who wouldn’t listen to reason.

Carl wound down the window of the Barnes Inc ute to wish Wendy and her companions a brief goodbye. The men weren’t even getting out of the ute before taking off. Wendy resisted the urge to stall them. What for? To throw her arms around Gavin’s neck for another desperate hug? Better not to slow them down.

It didn’t help that as they drove off she turned around to find Chub also wishing Annabel goodbye. Passionately. They finally broke apart and Annabel tripped happily off to her car, which was parked not too far away. She was off to Nickol Bay Hospital to assist with the injured.

About bloody time.

‘Something you want to tell me, Cobber?’ Wendy demanded as Annabel’s car left the scene.

A red stain flooded Chub’s face. ‘What can I say?’ He winced. ‘That night at Point Samson when I drove Annabel home she invited me in to try one of her ANZAC biscuits.’ He held up a hand in reverence. ‘They are to
die
for! Honestly, I must have eaten five or six of them. Didn’t leave her place till after midnight.’

‘Midnight? It took you that long to eat six biscuits?’

‘Well, she’d also just bought this new TV but didn’t know how to set it up. So I stayed and did that for her.’

‘Ah-hah.’

‘I didn’t mind.’ He shrugged. ‘Didn’t mind when she called me the next day because she needed some help hanging a painting either. She made me tiramisu afterwards.’

Wendy raised an eyebrow. ‘So I take it that was the second date?’

‘I guess so.’ Chub rubbed his chin thoughtfully. ‘On the third date, I mowed her lawn for her. We had the most gorgeous lemon slice together when I was done.’

‘You do realise she’s just using you as her on-call handyman.’

‘Yes,’ Chub agreed with a sigh. ‘But I’m determined to build on that. Turns out we have a lot in common.’

‘
Like what?
’ Wendy’s tone was disbelieving.

‘You know, brownies, pancakes, shortbread, muffins, scones, cake, biscuits. She loves to cook ’em and I love to eat ’em. We’re a match made in heaven. She had me at “coffee or tea?”’

‘Seriously?’

He grinned. ‘Look, I know you think she’s a fruit. But I like fruit. Especially mangoes dipped in caramel. Delicious!’

‘You could do better.’

‘Maybe. Maybe not.’ His expression turned serious. ‘Wendy, she needs me and is willing to go to great culinary lengths to keep me around. She’s kind and beautiful and seems to like spending time with me. Plus,’ his blush deepened, ‘she’s a nurse. She’s been talking about exercise – you know, so I can keep eating but get a bit healthy. She really cares. That’s enough for now. I’ll work on the other stuff later.’

‘If you say so, Cobber.’

They entered the school gymnasium to a deluge of questions from all directions. Wendy wished she had a loud speaker so that she could just talk over the top of them because they basically all wanted to know the same thing.

‘When can we leave?’

The thing was, she didn’t want to release busloads of men only to destroy vehicles and score more injuries through their own eagerness to get back to a camp which in itself was riddled with unsafe areas. Sure it needed cleaning up, but that would be done in a safe and orderly fashion. She glanced at a clock on the wall. It was eight am. The men had been cooped up for a while now since the ‘all clear’ had been given.

Sharon and Craig came stumbling forwards.

‘Man, is it good to see you!’ Sharon exclaimed. ‘I don’t know if I’m on my head or my heels. Are you okay? Where’s Gavin? Did you find him?’

Wendy quickly gave them an update on everything that had transpired. While she was doing so an idea occurred to her. ‘Does this school have a PA system?’

‘I think so.’ Craig pointed at a couple of speakers high on the walls. ‘The mike’s probably in reception.’

‘We’ll have to break it to the boys that they’re not getting out any time soon,’ Wendy explained. ‘But I also want to give them some good news. Let’s go talk to the chefs.’

It turned out the school cafeteria had no power, but the chefs did have several portable gas-burning barbeques and crates of sausages. The boys would be getting hot dogs for breakfast. That, at least, would cheer them up.

The phone lines were dead too. But another representative of FESA turned up about an hour later with a map of the district. He showed Wendy the most significant areas of damage. Places to avoid at all costs. He also told her that the airport would be re-opening the next day, so if she wanted to fly some personnel home, that would soon be an option.

As it was very unlikely that everyone would be able to go back to the camp, and it would be a while before work started on the wharf again, it definitely seemed like a good plan. The school couldn’t accommodate this many men indefinitely. There was no news yet on the state of the wharf. She guessed at this stage no one was game enough to visit the work site when they were still salvaging their homes.

The FESA representative stayed for about an hour, talking with her about plans for the town’s rehabilitation. It was information overload but she tried to retain as much as possible – taking notes on her own maps.

It was very difficult to concentrate when her mind was never far from Gavin and what he may be doing. Had they found Skinner? She hoped they had notified the police first. Perhaps taken a few officers with them. Her chest tightened every time she pictured them meeting the druglord again.

In the meantime, however, she had her own dangers to counter. She sent men around the building to check for gas leaks. There were some classrooms behind the gymnasium that had flooded. She asked the guys to remove any appliances from these rooms, such as televisions and radios, and put them outside to dry or throw them out if they seemed dangerous.

Chub came to see her while she was still issuing orders. ‘Little mate, where are your things? You should get changed into some dry clothes before you get pneumonia.’

She glanced down and realised how terrible she must look. With everything going on, she had completely forgotten about something as mundane as clothing. ‘You’re right.’

She found her bag in the gym where she’d left it what seemed like eons ago, and headed for the ladies’ toilets. They were now being used by men as well.

One of the guys standing in the line saw her approaching and yelled out, ‘The Sergeant’s here. Stand aside, guys.’

They nodded wordlessly at her and, to her surprise, one man held the door open for her butler-style as the two occupants quickly finished up and scooted out. Perhaps she
had
climbed a long way in their esteem since she’d arrived.