Deadly Secrets Read online

  Secrets

  OF WHITEWATER CREEK

  SARAH BARRIE

  www.escapepublishing.com.au

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Sarah Barrie lives with her husband and children in a rural area on the Central Coast of NSW. She divides her time between writing, being a mum and her position as editor of two Australian equestrian magazines. When she finds a spare moment or two, she enjoys spending time with her horses and the various other animals that call the farm home. Though her writing career has traditionally revolved around producing articles for various publications, her true passion lies in fiction and she enjoys writing contemporary romance, romantic suspense and paranormal romance.

  To family

  CONTENTS

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  CHAPTER

  1

  November, 2008

  It wasn’t quite summer, but even in the mountains, where the dams never dried up and grass stayed tinged with green even through drought, the heat, together with the blanketing humidity, was almost unbearable. Watching haze shimmer over ryegrass paddocks, Jordan Windcroft sat sweltering in the passenger seat of Joel Tanner’s delivery truck as they headed towards town.

  It had been a hell of a day; this morning’s delivery run had been full and the afternoon had been flat out at the shop. Joel had disappeared at lunch time, collecting the rest of his daughter Madi’s stuff — so she could get away from her bastard fiancé Sean Carter once and for all. As happy as Jordan was with that development, it had made for a hard afternoon. She figured that even with help from Joel’s other employee, Matt, she’d lugged at least a hundred bags of feed in sauna conditions, in the hot tin shed that was Tanner’s Produce Store.

  Matt had finally closed up the shop a half-hour ago and they’d shared a few beers, counting the minutes until Joel returned and Jordan could get a ride home. Then Joel had got back, had unloaded one of the boxes from the truck, and all thoughts of a cold shower and well-earned rest had flown straight out the window.

  And here they were.

  The truck’s windows were down in a vain attempt to battle the vicious burn of forty-plus temperatures glaring through the large windshield, and Jordan’s fingers were restlessly tapping the window ledge in time with what she considered pretty bad seventies music. She swiped her forearm across her damp brow. As her eyes slid down to the little sachet in her purse, to thoughts of what was sitting in the back of the truck, irritation turned to nervous tension.

  Of course, they’d known Sean was taking drugs; guessed he was playing around with a bit of dealing. But they hadn’t expected this: Joel had mistakenly picked up one of Sean’s boxes while recovering Madi’s stuff, and it had revealed a shocking amount of little blue pills.

  Thank God Madi was getting out.

  Now they were taking the stash to the police. The fallout was not going to be pretty, but to Jordan’s mind, justice was justice.

  On the other side of town, Madi Tanner sped blindly along the main road. As she drove, she played with her hands, peeling and unpeeling them from the steering wheel as she struggled to keep it together. The swelling around her left eye blurred her vision and the incredible pain coursing through her body made driving almost impossible.

  She’d been unable to stem the bleeding from her lip where her fiancé had lifted her off the ground in that first shattering attack, and other than the odd wipe with the back of her hand, she let it drip at will. Blow after blow she’d taken in the latest of Sean’s drug-induced irrational tempers. This had been the worst she’d endured.

  In the end it had been the bedside lamp that had saved her; she’d swung it hard, heard the crack of iron against bone. Even before he collapsed she was flying from the room, adrenaline blocking the pain and fuelling her body to flee. Now, as she maneuvered her ’98 model Honda Civic at breakneck speed along the winding country road, the moment played through her mind in a tireless rerun. Had she knocked him out? Had she killed him? She could feel herself shaking — felt hot swelling and crusting blood on her face. Just as the speedo pushed one-thirty, a blaring horn alerted her that she was heading onto the wrong side of the road. Swerving away from the oncoming van, she slammed on the brakes too hard, sending the car skidding sideways into the gravelled roadside to a jarring stop.

  Frantically, her fingers dug around in a cluttered purse, violently shaking off an old receipt that stuck to them, stuck to the blood, as she located her phone.

  Joel’s mobile phone shrilled loudly over the chorus of Can’t Buy Me Love and he pulled the truck over to the side of the road. As the last remnants of cool died with the breeze and the dust from the roadside billowed up and threatened to choke them, Jordan bent for her water bottle, tempted to tip the whole thing over her head right there in the truck.

  ‘Madi?’ Joel listened. ‘Madi, love, calm down. Where are you?’ Jordan frowned, her attention now on the conversation. ‘Stay there, I’m on my way.’ Joel swore and shoved the phone at Jordan, his face a tormented mask of fury. ‘Call Harry. Tell him Sean’s had another go at Madi.’

  Jordan took the phone, dialled, tried again, then shook her head. ‘It’s cutting out. We won’t get a signal again until we’re clear of the pass. Where is she?’

  ‘She got away. She said she’s pulled over at the crossroads.’

  ‘We’re almost there ourselves…’ She grimaced as the man she knew to be calm, rational, careful, threw the truck sharply back onto the road.

  ‘Joel…’

  Joel risked a quick look in Jordan’s direction and noted the anxiety marring her lovely features. Although Jordan’s hair was a lighter shade of brown than Madi’s, and her eyes were blue to Madi’s brown, both were tall and slim and as close as if they had been sisters. Both were also two of the most precious people in his life. He ordered himself to take a breath and eased back on the accelerator as much as he dared.

  The two extra minutes it took to reach the crossroads seemed an eternity, but as they approached, they saw Madi’s car on the side of the road. ‘There she is.’ Joel breathed a sigh of obvious relief that she appeared to be in no immediate danger.

  Madi looked up and shakily climbed out of the car.

  ‘Oh no, Joel…’ Jordan trailed off as they got a good look at her.

  Joel slammed his hand against the steering wheel violently. Sean had really gone to town on her this time. ‘I’ll kill him. This time I’ll kill him!’

  ‘Um…speaking of…’ She pointed just ahead of them to the car heading at high speed from the road to their left.

  ‘He wouldn’t want to stop.’ Quite close now, Joel indicated to pull over.

  ‘Joel?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘He’s not.’

  Joel saw the direction Sean was headed and gasped in horror. ‘Hold on!’ He hit the accelerator again, desperate to reach his daughter before Sean’s speeding car did.

  Jordan caught a brief glimpse of Sean’s face as his car crossed onto the wrong side of the road, as he pointed his Commodore straight at Madi; the sneer, the concentration, the hate.

  ‘Get between them!’ Jordan leaned over and pulled hard on the wheel, sending the truck lurching violently sideways and off the road as it cut i
nto Sean’s path, blocking Madi.

  The noise — screaming, tearing metal — merged with the painful blast of impact as truck and car collided. Sean’s car reared up in front of them, a blur of glass and metal. A terrified face flashed in front of the windscreen for a moment, before the whole image simply disappeared under the truck as it moved endlessly forwards, sideways, dragging, shuddering, before tipping on its side and to an abrupt halt.

  For an immeasurable amount of time everything was silent and still.

  Then came the screaming.

  Madi, Jordan recognised hazily. ‘Joel…Joel, are you alright?’ She was leaning against him in the overturned cabin. The seatbelt was cutting into her hip, and every small movement of her head radiated glancing pain through her body.

  ‘Yeah…’ There was a pause as he mentally checked himself over, then, ‘I reckon. You?’

  ‘I’m — oh God. Joel, what just happened?’ She was already shaking, shock and reaction quickly setting in.

  ‘Madi?’

  ‘Is okay by the sound of her. We have to get out of here. Can you move?’

  ‘Maybe…if you get off.’ Somehow, Jordan found it possible to reply with a shaky laugh as she continued to wrestle with the seatbelt clasp.

  They climbed out through the shattered windscreen and, once free, stood and stared at the picture they were confronted with.

  Madi’s hysterical form was bent over in the gravel, staring at what was left of her dead husband’s broken body. It was gruesomely wedged half in, half out of the crushed remnants of his steamrolled blue Commodore, his lifeless eyes staring at them with a horrifically blank expression. Jordan shuddered at that, then shuddered again as she saw how close to Madi’s car the wrecked vehicles had ended up — how close she’d come to being killed, even with the collision. She guessed a similar thought was running through Joel’s mind as he moved unsteadily to his daughter and gently pried her away.

  A car came to a screaming halt not far behind and the driver jumped out, approaching at a run.

  ‘You guys alright? Oh my…’ Mary Riley took in the remains of Sean Carter and paled significantly.

  ‘Dad.’ Madi threw her arms around her father and wept a fresh tide of tears.

  Joel held on. ‘Come away now, love. Don’t look at that.’

  The truck’s engine exploded, sending everyone into a tangled heap on the roadside. Fire engulfed it and Jordan spun away, terrified Sean’s lifeless body would burn: an even more horrific image to be ingrained into her mind forever.

  Nausea washed over her, along with a lightheaded sensation that threatened to take her under. On a long, slow breath she fought it back. Her mind was working slowly, but as she sat there it occurred to her in some distant and surreal part of her working brain that this was going to cause a lot of trouble.

  Joel had just killed Sean Carter.

  Though technically she’d put the truck in his path simply to protect Madi, no one was going to believe that; because Joel was already on notice for threatening Sean only days before. Joel — the gentlest man Jordan had ever met — had stood over Sean Carter in a room full of witnesses and promised that if he ever laid another hand on his daughter, he’d kill him.

  And he’d done it in front of Sean’s stepfather, Hal Carter, a high-court judge with a shady reputation and a long-standing grudge against Joel. Hal had pulled some pretty heavy strings and had publicly issued Joel with an apprehended violence order. And now this. God…they’d say he’d done it on purpose. Hal would have him charged with murder.

  Through the shaking, through the pasty-white complexion of shock, Jordan’s eyes hardened into a glassy but steady reflection of the decision she’d just made. ‘Joel, take Madi and get out of here.’

  Joel blinked, looked at her profile blankly for a moment and attempted to comprehend what she was saying. ‘What? Jordy, don’t be stupid.’

  ‘No one needs to know you were involved.’ She took an unsteady breath, then another, and turned to Joel who was now shaking his head. ‘You can’t have been driving; it would just look like you came good on your threat.’

  ‘Harry will believe us.’

  She shook her head. ‘You make this more than a simple accident and it will be bigger than a local cop, you know that. Hal will make sure you’re locked up forever. For God’s sake, go!’ Her nerve was wavering; she needed to follow through quickly. ‘I was just taking the truck back to my place with some feed…Sean was high, came out of nowhere, hit me. It was an accident.’

  ‘She’s right, Joel.’ Mary had watched on silently, pretty sure Jordan was in no state to make a rational decision. But she knew the situation; had to agree with her, even as Joel shook his head slowly in objection. ‘Jordan’s right. I believe in the law but this is just one of those situations — it won’t end up right. Sean’s gone. We can’t change that. Madi’s been through enough. Take her home.’

  ‘Jordy…you’ve been drinking…in an accident. You don’t know what you’re doing.’

  ‘We don’t have time for this.’ Mary waved off a concerned passing motorist. ‘Yeah, cops are on their way, thanks.’ She turned back to Joel. ‘Take your daughter home and clean up. I’m calling Harry and staying with Jordy.’

  When Joel just continued to shake his head, Mary grabbed his arms and shook. ‘Joel, how are Carol and Madi going to cope if you’re locked up for the next twenty or more years? You take yourself and Madi out of the equation and this looks like a feasible accident. It needs to stay that way. Go home.’

  CHAPTER

  2

  September, 2012

  ‘That’s the last of them!’ Jordan opened the head bales, sending a red and white Hereford steer barrelling out of the crush and pushing his way into the centre of the herd.

  Matt sat on an overturned milk crate and took down the reading from the weight scales. ‘That cranky bastard came in at just over five hundred kilos!’

  ‘You sure you don’t want to sell these now?’ Joel wearily slipped the backpack of cattle drench from his back and rolled stiff shoulders. ‘They’re already finished perfectly.’

  Jordan jumped lightly down from her perch on the crush railing and ran her eyes over Matt’s records. ‘Nope,’ she decided, though her smile was satisfied. ‘They can put on a bit more yet. I want these boys to make top dollar.’

  ‘Assuming the market stays strong,’ Joel reminded her, kicking over the now vacant milk crate and tossing in their equipment.

  ‘Course it will.’ Picking up the drencher, Jordan wandered back toward the shed with the men.

  Matt sent Jordan a hopeful smile. ‘Ah…beer o’clock?’

  Jordan checked her watch. ‘Not if you want to stay on Madi’s good side.’

  ‘Madi…’ Matt ran a hand through his untidy brown hair and looked, to Jordan’s mind, adorably anxious. ‘What time is it?’

  ‘Almost five-thirty.’

  ‘Five…I’m gone.’

  She watched with an affectionate smirk as he loped back to his car with a wave. ‘That’s sweet.’

  ‘Sweet my butt.’ Joel shook his head as Matt revved the ute’s engine and reversed, before heading down the driveway in a cloud of dust. ‘Madi won’t talk to him for a week if she misses that movie.’

  ‘Nah, she’s crazy about him. It’s nice.’

  Joel nodded in agreement. ‘Matt’s a good man.’ He didn’t say ‘unlike Sean’; he didn’t have to. ‘You got much else to do?’ He dropped an arm over her shoulders as they walked back to his Land Cruiser.

  ‘Not a lot. I should play with the stud stock for a while…they’re not exactly halter trained.’

  ‘Want a hand?’

  Jordan shook her head. ‘I would never have got all that drenching and vaccinating done by myself, but I can handle the rest. So thanks.’ They stopped by his car, and she got up on her toes and gave him a kiss on his cheek. ‘You’ve got your own work to do. And thank Carol for the muffins.’

  ‘Thank her? I damn near killed her — t
hey’re my favourite.’

  She laughed. ‘And they’ve gone to a very good home.’

  A loud, far-off rumbling warned them the weather was about to close in. Both looked to the horizon; saw the line of black touching the mountains. ‘Of course, I might not be doing much with those cattle after all.’

  ‘Call it a day.’ Joel climbed into the driver’s seat and wound down the window. ‘Those steers look great. Between those and the stud cattle — especially that bull of yours — you’re going to get the money you need to pay out the bank.’

  ‘I’m counting on it.’

  Joel hesitated, then said, ‘Your probation. That’s nearly done too, isn’t it?’

  ‘Two weeks after the sale.’

  ‘Best start planning the party.’

  ‘Oh, I’m on it.’ She smiled and waved. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’

  ‘Right. Take it easy, love.’

  As Jordan headed for the house, her smile fell. She wished she had Joel’s confidence about the cattle. It would be a relief to reach the end of her probation, to put it all behind them once and for all…but there wouldn’t be much to celebrate if she lost the farm. And without a good sale, that’s exactly what was going to happen.

  She looked around. The large, sprawling house with its long verandas and pretty cottage windows desperately needed a new coat of paint, the veranda decking needed re-staining, the railings replacing. The native gardens surrounding the house still looked good, though she had to admit her mother had had the real knack for that and precious little had been added over the years.

  There was nothing like that view though. More than a decade of debt and neglect had not — could never — diminish the view. The long stretch of paddocks, ancient shade trees and the sparkling creek, the ageless, forested mountains, would always be the same. This place belonged to her, and her to it — and she’d be damned if the bank was going to take it from her.

  She lifted her head to the sky as a flock of black cockatoos screeched noisily overhead, fleeing the oncoming weather that would shortly put paid to anymore outdoor work, at least for the day. With a tired sigh, she headed for the veranda steps.