‘One of us scouts around in this,’ Wyatt said, patting the steering wheel. ‘Just another farm vehicle. If she doesn’t come back, we’ll know it’s not safe.’
‘She?’
‘There’s a woman.’
Snyder didn’t say anything. He looked at Wyatt, and Wyatt could sense his mind working, but he didn’t speak.
A minute later Snyder said, ‘Getaway vehicles?’
‘There’s this ute, a bike, and the truck we use to transport the van.’
‘That’s the bit I don’t like, carting the van around on a breakdown truck. We’ll stick out like a sore thumb.’
Wyatt explained about Brava Construction. ‘They’ve had four wheel drives, low loaders and earth-moving equipment all over this area for weeks now. People are used to them. We disguise ours with Brava logos and a bit of paint, throw a tarp over the van, and no one will bother us.’
‘The guards, the driver?’
They can stay in the van. If there’s a tarp over it they won’t see where we’re taking them.’
‘I tell you one thing,’ Snyder said, ‘it won’t be me who wastes them.’
‘No one’s wasting anybody. I’ve got a.38, that’s all we need, and I don’t intend to use it unless I have to.’
Snyder said nothing. He sat forward in his seat again, taking note of their route. A short time later they came to the Belcowie short cut. Wyatt slowed the utility and turned into it.
‘Here?’
Wyatt nodded. He drove for two kilometres and stopped where the road plunged steeply down into a dry creek bed. The road was narrow, loose and shaly.
Snyder leaned forward and grinned. ‘Couldn’t have picked a better place myself.’
‘The truck parks here at the edge of the incline,’ Wyatt explained. ‘Our man stands in the road, looking down, scratching his head like he doesn’t know if he can make it. The van comes up, sees that it can’t get past, and stops. They’ll be wary, they always are, but it will look genuine enough. They might even wind down the window, offer to help. If they call their headquarters, it won’t do them any good. You’ll have the radio jammed.’
‘What if he backs up and turns around?’
‘See those wattles? We hide back there in the ute. As soon as the van is in position we box it in.’
‘Local traffic?’
Snyder was asking all the right questions. ‘We put up road-closed signs at both ends,’ Wyatt said.
Snyder was still leaning forward in his seat. He was a solid form in white and Wyatt could smell Old Spice aftershave on him. There was a series of cracking sounds. Snyder was popping his knuckles.
TWENTY-ONE
Tobin was the last to arrive. They heard him before they saw him. The sky that Monday evening was vast, still and cloudless, carrying clearly the roar and snuffle of the truck as Tobin negotiated the bends and washaways and shifted gear. They stood on the verandah of the farmhouse to watch. Eventually headlights appeared in the distance.
Wyatt walked down the track to open the gate. Behind him, Snyder and Leah talked in low voices. Wyatt had been watching both of them in the hours since his arrival with Snyder. If anything, Snyder seemed to be a little amused by Leah’s presence. Wyatt supposed that was better than hostility. Apart from some eye-rolling about the basic food supplies and the house dirt, Snyder was acting pleasant and relaxed. Snyder had done jobs like this before. He knew about being stuck in other people’s company. For her part, Leah made an effort to talk to Snyder. She seemed to know that Wyatt had nothing to say to him. But in a snatched moment she’d revealed to Wyatt that she’d never leave her daughter alone with Snyder. If she had a daughter.
Wyatt reached the road gate and waited. When he was sure about the truck, he opened the gate and stepped out into the road, flashing a torch. The truck’s headlights flashed back at him.
When Tobin was through the gate, Wyatt closed it and climbed onto the running board below the driver’s door.
Tobin grinned at him. ‘The others all here?’
‘Yes.’
‘The woman?’
‘Forget about the woman. Tell me about the truck.’
‘Pinched it this afternoon. The plates are off a wreck.’
‘Tomorrow we paint it. When that’s done, we wipe off our prints. After that we wear gloves.’
Tobin shifted into second, muttering aggrievedly, ‘You make me feel like this’s my first time or something.’
‘Your feelings don’t interest me. We’ve each got a job to do. Part of mine is to make sure nothing gets overlooked.’
Tobin scowled. The headlights were picking up the sheds, tankstands and farmhouse by now. Leah and Snyder were on the verandah, shading their eyes.
‘Drive into the long shed there on your right,’ Wyatt said. ‘I’ll close the doors behind you.’
He got off the truck and watched. When it was done, he led Tobin across the yard to the house and introduced him to Snyder. Tobin also greeted Leah, throwing his arm around her and grinning. ‘We meet again.’
He held her for a beat too long and she grimaced. ‘So we do.’
‘Yep,’ Tobin agreed, still grinning.
The atmosphere got genial after that. They went into the main room of the house, where Wyatt and Leah had laid out the supplies and set up a two-ring camping stove. While Snyder toasted slices of bread on one burner, Leah heated a saucepan of tinned stew on the other. Wyatt got out plastic plates and cutlery and poured mineral water into enamel cups for each of them. Tobin, on the floor with his head on a football he’d taken from his overnight bag, said, ‘You giving us poofter drinks?’ He grinned at Leah and Snyder, looking for a reaction. Leah smiled at him absentmindedly. Snyder ignored him. So did Wyatt.
Tobin crossed one ankle over the other and clasped his hands together behind his head. ‘What about the sleeping arrangements? Leah, where do you sleep?’
Leah jerked her head towards a door at the end of the room. ‘In there.’
‘Right, right,’ Tobin said. He paused, weighing up his words. ‘I suppose women in one room, blokes in another?’
‘We each get a room,’ Leah said.
‘No doubling up, kind of thing?’
‘No.’
Wyatt watched all this. Everything about Tobin was loaded. He was saying he liked Leah’s looks and might act on it and what did you others intend to do about it?
Separate rooms had been Leah’s suggestion. Wyatt could see the sense of it. He realised again how every job was ten per cent work and ninety per cent psychology. If there was any waiting involved, the problem was compounded. He’d always known about the emotional baggage people carried around with them, even when they should have been concentrating on a job. He knew all about hidden grievances, attacks of nerves, insanity and boredom. He didn’t want to add sexual jealousy to that. He didn’t want Snyder and Tobin smouldering away in the darkness while he shared a room with Leah. And he wasn’t worried about Leah. She knew how to handle herself.
‘Been a long day,’ Tobin said, closing his eyes and stretching. ‘Reckon I’ll sleep like a baby tonight. Give us a call when tea’s ready.’
A small table topped with green linoleum had been left behind at the house. Wyatt dragged it to the centre of the room, set it with the disposable plates and cutlery, and unfolded four canvas and wood director’s chairs. Like everything else, the chairs were chosen for easy disposability.
He thought about Snyder. Wyatt never judged whether or not he liked the people he teamed up with. He was interested only in their skills and where the cracks were. Snyder hadn’t made a good first impression but once he’d known what the job entailed he’d put his mind to it. Snyder was helping with the domestic work too. That mattered. It meant he knew about teamwork. Somehow Wyatt didn’t think they could expect that sort of support from Tobin.
They ate at seven o’clock. No one felt inclined to do anything after that. They sensed the huge darkness and silence outside, while here in the house the lamplight was too meagre to encourage reading, card-playing or talk. They were all asleep by nine o’clock and no one moved until dawn on Tuesday.