Page 43 of Stockman's Showdown

‘I want Monet to file a complaint, but I’d like you to keep it off any official police action just for a bit.’ Ryder knew he’d get Monet to comply, but Marcus was another matter.

‘Why? You know I have a job to do, mate.’

‘I still haven’t worked out Leo’s endgame, but I know he’s up to something. He’s been trying to block us with his lawyers—’

‘But he’s takingpot shots at planes!’

‘Bree does it here if Ash’s drone gets too close to her backyard.’

Marcus chuckled, defusing the heavy mood. ‘Bree would.’

‘And Leo could argue he was just protecting his property.’

‘Leo doesn’t own the airspace.’

‘Look, I found some leaf debris twisted around Monet’s landing gear, and how she pilots her plane—’

‘Pushing it to the limits, you mean.’

‘I’d say Monet flew that plane too low, and likely breached some Civil Aviation Safety Authority regulations. Leo could use that against her.’

‘Ah. Right. I see…’ Marcus paused. Something squeaked in the background, like he was rocking in his chair behind his desk.

Ryder inhaled before broaching his next sentence. ‘Have you spoken to Finn lately?’ Finn was involved with the Federal Stock Squad and had helped them catch the cattle rustlers and recover their stolen cattle.

‘No. Why?’

‘Finn mentioned he was going to do some digging about Leo. At the fights he mentioned that he knew who Leo was.’

‘I must have missed that conversation. Do you want me to reach out to Finn?’

‘If you could.’ Not that Ryder wanted to contact Bree’s ex-husband, but it’s all he had. ‘Finn told me that Leo works for some southern gang who smuggled drugs and other goods into the country through the docks.’

Whack!It had to be Marcus, sitting up in his chair. ‘I definitely missed that conversation. And you’re only telling me this now?’ In the background, Marcus shuffled paperwork across his desk, probably looking for Finn’s number or an email address. ‘What else did Finn say?’

‘That Leo had only gained the property from a debt that had to be paid. The thing is, Leo is cunning enough to trick a personinto creating that debt in the first place. But Finn seemed to believe that Leo wasn’t here for the lithium mine.’

‘What do you think Leo is here for?’

‘Not sure. But we must be getting close if he’s shooting at planes. But it’s also not like Leo to be so clumsy like this, by drawing attention to himself. Leo is usually a lot more calculating than this.’ Ryder believed it.

‘Did Monet see anything?’

‘No.’

‘I know we didn’t see anything when Finn used the drone over the property.’

‘You guys were looking for cattle, and you used a heat-seeking drone.’ But he was going to get Ash to use his favourite toy to take another look.

‘Don’t do anything foolish, Ryder.’

Seventeen

At the open doorway of the newly renovated boys’ boardroom, Bree hesitated. She couldn’t believe she was about to do this. All day, she’d been avoiding the Riggs brothers—helping Charlie, sorting out orders, and trying to figure out why Leo was stealing water from the dam.

She’d assumed Monet had already told them about the gunshots. Letting them stew over that for a few hours had seemed wise, especially if she was about to add fuel to the fire by mentioning the sneaky pipeline.

Even though Bree was used to handling problems on her own, they needed to know.

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