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Romy sat beside Stone, nervously tapping her foot under the round table covered with an assortment of maps, as she listened to the Stock Squad talk about their investigation.

It was almost like a production meeting.

Except the team leader, Finn, who was running this morning’s meeting, was a scary man, with muscles and tattoos that only added to his lethal blend of a big, tough, take-no-prisoners kind of cop.

She shouldn’t even be here. She wasn’t a cop. But no one said she couldn’t, and like Stone said earlier, this was a rare opportunity to see the inside of an investigation.

‘So, what did you two find yesterday?’ Finn asked, before taking a slug of his coffee.

Cowboy Craig put a plastic bag on the table. ‘Near The Vegan’s place, we found a security uniform, a lab coat with a swipe card, and a map of the hatchery. Stone and I think they were trying to set her up as a convenient suspect.’

‘You didn’t touch it?’ Amara dragged the bag towards her and inspected the contents through the plastic. ‘I should be able to get DNA off this.’

‘Stone wore gloves, and I taped him opening the bag.’

‘Did you put the footage in the cloud link I set up?’

‘Yes, Duchess, just like you taught us.’ Stone grinned at Craig like there was some inside joke.

Finn shuffled trough the pile of maps covering the table, which was big enough to fit a dozen people, and laid a smaller map on top. ‘Did you work out where the thieves’ vehicle went after they left Saltscale?’

‘They left the hatchery here and travelled down the firebreak to the far east gate.’ Craig traced his finger over an area of the map for everyone to see.

‘Doug said no one ever used that gate,’ said Stone. ‘Yet, it seemed like a well-used gate because the lock opened too cleanly, and the gate wasn’t sticky like you’d expect after the wet season we had.’

‘I agree.’ Craig nodded, keeping his finger on the map like a placeholder. ‘Those thieves knew where they were going when they left Saltscale, because they headed straight for The Vegan’s place. And if Stone didn’t know her, I would have assumed Raven was the culprit.’

‘Why?’ Finn’s question made Amara pause from taking notes on her tablet.

‘Raven has a van, similar to the one the crims drove. Before you ask, I checked out the van, there was nothing in there,’ said Craig. ‘But they got right beside Raven’s van. Successfully leading us straight to her like some sort of decoy.’

‘But they weren’t counting on Craig’s exceptional tracking skills,’ said Stone. ‘Which are supreme, brother.’

‘Thank you, brother.’ The two men bumped fists in a man-bonding moment.

‘Oh, brother, gimme a bucket.’ Amara rolled her eyes on the other side of the table.

‘If you two have finished brushing off each other’s egos, where did those tracks lead?’ Finn grumbled with that deep gruff voice.

‘Back to the main dirt road. But here’s the funny thing…’ Craig shuffled to the edge of his seat to drag his finger across the map. ‘They went a good twenty clicks through that Crown land, here, then turned right onto the main road, here, and headed back towards the crocodile farm.’

‘Why?’ Again, Amara paused from scribbling down her notes.

‘It’s got me beat, and I was talking the scenarios over with Izzy last night for hours.’

‘Hmm…’ Finn’s low tone was like the rumble of a lion. ‘So, what are we thinking? Did they get the key card from someone at the hatchery?’

‘Actually, we think they got in a different way, and stole the key card once they were in there. Romy can show you.’ Stone nodded at her.

That nod hit like a gut-punch, leaving her breathless—like she was dangling over a cliff with nothing but a thread to keep her from falling.

‘Go on, show them what you showed me this morning.’

‘Um…’ She swallowed hard, trying to flex the ice from her fingers.

‘I was filming with my drone and found this.’ She tapped on her laptop while convincing herself that this was just another production meeting.

Nothing more. And she’d done hundreds of them, for numerous films. So really, there was no reason to get all worked up over this teeny presentation.

It was silly. Which made Stone right about his theory of using this instance as practice. The clever man.

‘Duchess, can we let Romy stream to the big screen on the wall, so we’re not reading over her shoulder? It’ll be easier to spot the details, and you’ll see details, because the quality of the footage is pristine.’

Great, now she wanted to blush again.

‘Excuse me.’ Amara leaned over, and her fingers flew across the keys with precision, syncing Romy’s laptop to the big screen in seconds. ‘You’re on.’

‘You can’t share that footage,’ said Finn so bluntly Romy’s heart plummeted as the others shuffled in their chairs to face the wide screen. ‘I know you make documentaries, so there’s a confidentiality form you need to sign, before you leave this office, today.’

‘Okay.’ Not that she had a choice, because she had a feeling Finn wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

‘Good.’ Finn slightly nodded at Stone, who nodded back.

Did Stone say something?

How could he, when he knew how much this meant to her?

The need to sulk or get mad about not being able to keep her footage, was beginning to irritate her to no end. She wriggled in her seat as if to contain herself.

‘Is that going to be a problem?’ Finn’s dark eyes had no soul.

‘No.’ Liar. She shook her head, suddenly feeling guilty—when she’d done nothing wrong. ‘I want to help you guys find those stolen animals.’

Stone’s warm hand landed on her shoulder, giving it an encouraging squeeze that instantly put her at ease. So much so, she slipped into work mode and tapped a few keys on her PC to bring up her footage from yesterday.

‘Wow, that’s so clear.’ Craig’s eyes widened at the big screen. ‘Hey, there’s us. My hat looks good.’

‘See, Duchess, that’s what a real hat should look like. What was that hat, a sheep farmer’s heirloom?’ Stone pointed at Amara’s hat that looked like some old bushranger’s hat.

‘It’s a slouch hat design, originally worn by Australian soldiers but also favoured by farmers and bushmen in the 19th century.’ Amara scowled at Stone for being a dick.

‘How about I take you hat shopping and bring you into the 21st century.’

‘It is good footage,’ said Finn in what felt like a rare compliment from the gruff officer. ‘Speak to the constable later about invoicing us.’

‘Told you so,’ whispered Stone to Romy. ‘Now, show the Bossman the hatchery, please.’

Romy tapped on the keyboard to find a particular scene. ‘This is the back entrance that Craig and Stone were talking about.’

‘There…’ Craig leaped up to the screen and pointed at the bird’s-eye view of the hatchery’s building. ‘That’s where they had their van parked on the side of the hatchery. It sat there, then moved around to the main doors on the south wall, before heading down to the back fence.’

‘What were you going to show us, Romy?’ Finn asked.

‘This. It’s the roof.’ She zoomed in, then tapped Stone’s leg under the table. ‘You explain it to them.’ She didn’t do show-and-tells. That’s what her footage was for.

‘If you insist. I’m not shy.’ Stone slyly winked at her and swaggered up to the wide screen.

‘If I had to break into a place like the hatchery, with its top-class security, I’d shimmy up this drain’s downpipe to the roof, here, then scramble my sweet butt across to one of these cut-out hatches, here.

’ He tapped at the screen that showed the outline of six simple square hatches in the roof, big enough for a manhole.

Finn rummaged through the documents on the table to bring up the floor plans of the hatchery itself. ‘One of those hatches would sit directly over the tech office. But it’s not on the plans.’

‘So that’s how they got in.’ Craig nodded, while rocking back on his chair.

‘It explains why they parked their van at the side. They would have used that to start their climb to the roof, then sneak in through the hatch, steal that swipe card from the tech office, and the lab coat in case security poked their head in the door.’

‘Wouldn’t they lock those roof hatches? And why have them when the hatchery is temperature controlled?’ Amara asked.

‘You can ask that when we go visit,’ replied Finn. ‘It still doesn’t explain how they got a security uniform or why the cameras didn’t pick up anything.’

‘Well, I have a theory about their security cameras.’ Stone tapped on the screen. ‘Romy? Can you show them your shots of the back pens?’

Wow, Stone actually said her name so formally. ‘What are we looking for?’

‘I’ll tell you… I saw it this morning over coffee.’

Romy fast-forwarded her footage, surprised that Stone got that far when he’d told her he was watching from the crocodile egg collecting phase. How many times did he watch her footage?

‘There, go right…’ Stone pointed at the screen. ‘I want you to zoom in on that electricity pole.’

‘What am I looking at?’ Again, with a few taps and a shift of the mouse, she zoomed in on the power pole.

‘Can everyone see that box?’ Standing beside the wide screen, Stone played teacher, pointing at a compact metal box mounted just beneath the crossarm of the power pole.

‘I’m guessing the thieves used technology to disable the alarms and cameras from this DIY cable box.

It’s not on any of the other poles along their outer fence line, just this one.

It’s subtle, I didn’t pick up on it at first, but—’

‘It’s just like the security box you put in at our place,’ said Craig.

‘What kind of security?’ Finn narrowed those dark eyes at the big screen.

‘We can access all the cameras set up at our place using this app on our phones so Izzy and I can check them any time. It’s handy for our driveway to know who’s coming into the quarantine station, in case we’re working on the back block. Or to check on the stock while in town.’

‘Can you tape it?’

Stone nodded. ‘If it was me, playing master thief, I’d tape the entire night before just to ensure the weather’s shadow patterns were consistent, such as the time of the moon’s rise and fall, and then let it replay through the phone app.’

Romy stared at Stone in awe. He was way more clued in than she’d realised.

Hold on , did Stone have the same system on at his house? He’d have to. Which would explain how casual he was about letting complete strangers stay in his house while he was away.

Oh, no, did he use it to watch her?

Noooo. She dropped her head, desperately trying to remember if she did anything embarrassing, like you do when home alone.

There was a knock at the door and she looked up to see Tanisha standing in the doorway, holding up two notes. ‘Finn, sorry to bother you, but Porter said you might want these.’

‘What’s up, Tanisha?’ Finn swivelled in his seat.

‘I’ve just received calls from two crocodile farms. The Mudlands Crocodile Park and Northern Tides Aquafarm.’

‘That’s the neighbours.’ Stone shuffled the maps across the table to show the team how close the farms were along the one stretch of the river. ‘Who happen to be Saltscale’s competition.’

‘Well, they just called and said someone has dumped some baby crocodiles into their yards.’ Tanisha passed the messages to Finn. ‘The poor babies had been hiding in their gardens and the staff don’t know how long they’ve been there.’

‘That explains why those thieves doubled back in that van with their haul,’ mumbled Craig behind his coffee.

‘Why didn’t they keep them, instead of calling us?’ Amara asked, with Romy nodding, also keen to know more at this unexpected twist in the investigation.

‘And risk pests and diseases getting into their carefully quarantined cold stock?’ Stone scowled at the map. ‘I bet those thieves were trying to set up Saltscale’s competition as suspects, like they did with The Vegan.’

‘Stone, you’re our cold stock expert,’ Finn said, ‘What does Craig need to set up a quarantine area to secure those crocodiles at his station?’