Read Kakadu Sunset for Free Online Page B

cheek towards her lips. She pushed him off with a grin. ‘Down, boyo!’
    ‘Missed ya, darlin’. Beer or a wine?’ Steve’s voice was pure Irish and his expression was cheeky. He hit on her every night and Heather had told her more than once that she was crazy not to take up with him, but Ellie had seen too many relationships go pear-shaped. Itinerant staff and good-looking tourists all out for a good time; it was a recipe for disaster – Mike was just the latest casualty.
    ‘Beer, please.’
    Steve turned to get the drinks. He was handsome, but she didn’t want to get involved in the casual sex that was often a part of this close-knit community of workers.
    Her job was her life. She clung fiercely to the security of her routine, and she wouldn’t risk it for any one-night stand. Maybe she
was
stupid and maybe she was missing out on some of the good times, but it hadn’t killed her yet.
    Chatter washed over Ellie as the cold liquid hit her throat.
    ‘How’s your mum doing?’ Heather touched Ellie’s hand and spoke quietly as the laughter and conversations continued around them. ‘Things as bad as Emma said?’
    ‘Worse, if it’s possible. The doctor’s changed her medication and she barely sleeps.’ Ellie stared out into the darkness as her throat closed up. The last of the light had gone quickly, and the tropical darkness enveloped the low forest surrounding the lodge. ‘She’s still hung up about Dad’s death. She just can’t accept that he took his own life. It’s killing her. She does nothing apart from trawl the internet or sit on Em’s verandah staring into space.’
    ‘Oh, the poor thing,’ Heather said sympathetically. ‘It must be hard for Emma too.’
    ‘Mum still swears that Dad got a big offer for the farm from some mining company a couple of months before he died. She thinks he was murdered to get him out of the way.’
    ‘Really?’ Heather shook her head. ‘She’s still on about that?’
    ‘She’s lost the plot. She’s stuck with her murder theory to justify Dad’s death to herself. Em and I even went through his papers again, trying to convince her to let it go. She feels so bloody guilty that she didn’t see how depressed he was about money . . . or the lack of it.’ Ellie swallowed, determined not to give in to the ache in her throat. ‘None of us did. When he got that bar job at the pub in Jabiru, I thought it eased the money situation and he still had time for the farm. He seemed happier that last weekend I saw him.
I
thought he was happy.’
    ‘Poor Dru got home from school just after your mum found him, didn’t she?’
    Ellie nodded and stared down into her beer. She still felt guilty about being away at the time – studying for her pilot’s licence in Darwin. It was irrational, but there you go. Her mother had been distraught, of course, and Emma had come home from medical school in Sydney and helped them deal with the paperwork, and the organisation of their father’s funeral . . . and Mum.
    Dru had been pretty much left to fend for herself and had gone off the rails in her last weeks at high school. The ‘after’ of Dad’s suicide had been hard on all fronts. Emma had left Sydney Uni and transferred to James Cook in Townsville so she and Dru could share cheaper accommodation when Dru took up her civil engineering course. But Panos buying the farm from Mum when he did had helped all three girls follow their dreams.
    ‘Els, come on. Stop stewing over it,’ Heather said, rubbing her thumb over Ellie’s wrist. ‘You’re home now and you can’t do any more to help.’
    The hollow ache moved down from Ellie’s throat and settled in her chest. ‘God, Heather, she’s aged so much since I last saw her. She’s thin and her face is so wrinkled, she looks like an old woman. And she’s not. I know I should spend more time over on the coast with Emma and help out, but I hate it there. I don’t know how Emma puts up with it. I couldn’t get back here quick