Page 94 of Stockman's Showdown

He also knew Bree was scared of what was happening between them, when it felt so right. It was Bree who was holding back, making excuses to not trust her own feelings.

But if there was a way, or some gesture, to show her there was nothing to be afraid of, they wouldn’t need to sneak around like teenagers after dark.

Ryder escorted Bree and Charlie to the boardroom, where two uniformed police officers were waiting. Marcus sat beside Porter at one end of the large boardroom table. Ash, Cap and Dex sat along the sides. All the monitors were turned off.

‘Smell that coffee.’ Charlie inhaled deeply as he took his seat at the head of the table.

‘If you have a coffee now, you’ll give your poor heart a workout it doesn’t need, Pop.’ Bree poured two glasses from the water cooler that stood by the door, and sat beside her grandfather, saying the usual hellos to the two policemen at the table.

‘What’s going on, lads?’ Charlie steepled his fingers, with his elbows resting on the table he’d made by hand.

‘Go ahead, Porter.’ Marcus gave the young officer a nod.

Porter nervously cleared his throat as he flipped open a folder. ‘Um, Charlie. We have news on Harry. It’s about the cave-in, and the murder.’

The smile fell from Charlie’s face as he leaned back in his seat. Bree gripped his hand and gave it a squeeze.

‘We’ve discovered, that, um…’ Porter tugged at the collar of his police uniform, clearing his throat again, to clutch his glass of water and drink deeply.

‘Come on, Porter, spit it out, mate,’ said Dex. ‘The suspense is killing us.’

Porter’s empty glass hit the table with a clunk. ‘Harry didn’t kill Jack Price, it was the other way around.’

‘Come again?’ Charlie cupped his ear like a horn.

‘We’ve had forensic specialists go over the reports and the scene, and they concluded that the cave-in was deliberate, caused by a blast, trapping Penelope and Harry inside. That first blast made the area unstable, resulting in that landslide easily occurring after the stampede.’

‘How do you know that?’ Bree asked Porter.

‘From a blasting technician who works for the mining companies. Using the images from Ash’s drone, the techie was able to prove from the cave and surrounding debris layout that the damage was done with dynamite. On his PC, he showed me this really cool 3D terrain model that he uses to plan all his mine blasts. He was able to show me the likely points those dynamite sticks were laid and everything.’

‘Dynamite?’ Ash and Cap glanced at each other across the table.

‘Last week, Ryder and Bree discovered a stash of dynamite and blasting caps in one of those old oil drums. We found Price’s DNA on them. There’s no way to prove it, but we think it’s the same dynamite that was used to cause the cave-in, trapping your, um...’ Porter cleared his throat, leaning closer to Charlie. ‘On the evidence the original investigator had collected, we’ve been able to use modern forensic technology—’

‘Like you said you would, when you first started this case, even giving it a new file name,’ muttered Charlie.

‘Operation Stoney Silence,’ muttered Dex.

‘Charlie,’ blurted out Porter, shifting to the edge of his seat. ‘There’s more. There was also a weapon found inside one of the oil drums that was a part of the crime scene. There was one expended shell casing and one full.’ He went on to explain all the evidence they had found, and the conclusions they had come to.

Charlie tilted his head, his brow ruffling. ‘Are you saying Jack Price shothimselfin the back?’

Porter nodded. ‘I also believe Price deliberately caused the cave-in to trap Harry and Penelope. Then Price hid Harry’s car in the Stoneys, where you found it after that sandstorm, hoping everyone would think that Harry and Pen had run away.’

‘Is that how Price had that chalk piece to write that message?’ Bree asked.

Porter nodded, flipping over pages in the file. ‘It’s a match for the same rocks collected from the area Harry’s car was found.’

‘Why would Price do this?’ Charlie asked the police.

‘Despair. Anger. Pride. Revenge. Who knows,’ replied Porter, nodding at his sergeant.

‘So Price decided to point the finger at my brother? I don’t get it.’ Charlie scratched the side of his head as if trying to make sense of this conversation.

Porter nodded grimly. ‘Sorry, Charlie, but we believe Price blasted that cave as payback for Harry running away with his wife—who wasn’t even legally married to Price. They could have blown his cover, and I think Jack suspected it even before the cave-in. But here’s the thing: Jack didn’t realise until after the blast that everything he needed—his money, his real and fake IDs, even his so-called marriage certificate—was buried in that cave. Without them, he couldn’t escape the people who were after him. And with no way out and the promise of dying a horrible death at their hands, Jack decided to go out on his own terms. To make it worse, he blackened Harry’s name in the process. It’s sickening, really.’

‘So my brother was innocent? Harry and Penelope were the ones murdered by Price, not the other way around?’

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