Page 7 of Lawless (Dauntless Island #2)

NATTY

B utton John was going to be jealous as fuck when I told him I’d talked to the new copper before he did.

He was also going to tell me I was an idiot for offering to work for the guy, because nobody on Dauntless liked coppers and when Red Joe Nesmith had said we were getting one, nobody had been happy about it.

We had our own way of doing things on Dauntless.

I walked around to Short Clarry’s old house, which looked the same as always except for the blue “Police” sign that was now hanging on the front door, and knocked.

The last copper we’d had on Dauntless, Senior Constable Chambers, had been tall and skinny like a stick insect.

Bald like one too. He’d been in his late forties, probably.

He’d only come over from the mainland every couple of weeks.

To begin with, he’d tried to talk to people, but he gave up after a while and started to bring his camera gear instead.

Me and Button John had once followed him around all day, because we hadn’t had anything better to do, and we’d spent hours lying on our bellies on the bluff above Seal Beach, squinting down at the copper while he took photographs of the fur seals.

Most boring fucking day ever.

When this copper came to the door, he wasn’t old and he didn’t look like an insect.

He looked like he was in his twenties. He had dark hair that was longer on top than on the sides, and the bit on top was gelled up and then smoothed back.

He had thick, expressive brows, and brown eyes.

He was clean-shaven, and had an olive complexion you didn’t see very often on Dauntless Island.

There were a couple of freckles on his cheeks, and a mole on the left side of his neck, just above the collar of his blue shirt.

“Hi,” he said, raising his eyebrows in a way that made his expression look open and welcoming. “I’m Dominic Miller. I’m the new police officer. How can I help you?”

I wasn’t expecting someone young. Or someone handsome.

“Natty Harper,” I said, lifting my chin. “I’ll clear your yard out for two hundred dollars, and fifty a week after that to keep it neat.”

From behind the copper’s shoulder, Eddie Hawthorne waved at me.

I liked Eddie, even though he was an outsider.

He’d arrived on the island when I was still at school.

Then he’d come back, even after Short Clarry tried to murder him.

He was Red Joe’s boyfriend and lived up at the lighthouse with him.

Red Joe had been best friends with Nipper Will—growing up, it was like I’d had two big brothers instead of just one—but he hadn’t been over to our place in a while.

Now that Will had the boat and Red Joe was the mayor, neither of them had much time to just hang out.

“Um,” said the copper.

“Take it or leave it,” I said. “But nobody else will offer to do it for you.”

The copper shot a look at Eddie, and Eddie wrinkled his nose and nodded.

“Yeah, okay,” the copper said. “That sounds good. When can you start?”

“Later,” I said. I needed to grab some tools from Big Johnny’s shed, but he wouldn’t miss them. Most of the ones I’d seen yesterday were old and rusty as fuck, and clearly hadn’t seen sunlight for years. “I’ll come back then.”

“It was nice to meet you!” he yelled after me as I hurried back onto the road, and I heard Eddie laughing.

I hoped Eddie wouldn’t tell anyone I’d be working for the copper.

He’d told me his name—Dominic Miller—but I didn’t want to think of him by his name. Bad enough that he was young and good looking and not what I’d expected at all. He was a copper .

I headed along the waterfront, past the statue of Josiah Nesmith, and turned left after the tourist information centre.

I went to Mavis’s shop and bought a Coke and some salt and vinegar chips.

Mavis watched me count out my money in twenty cent pieces, her mouth pinched up like a cat’s bum.

At least this time next week I’d have some decent cash, instead of resorting to smashing the piggy bank I’d had since I was a little kid.

I went by Button John’s place, and Addy said Button John was out already. She told me to kick him up the arse and send him home when I found him, because he’d said two weeks ago that he’d build a new frame for the beans before they needed planting out, and he’d done fuck all yet.

I lied and said I would, and Addy rolled her eyes at me.

I found Button John at the old radar house.

It was one of the few buildings in the village that wasn’t made of sandstone bricks.

It had been built by the Americans during the war, and it was a demountable wooden building with a tin roof that—full credit to the US military—hadn’t fallen down in the seventy-odd years it’d been here.

The actual radar station, which was a concrete bunker with a curved roof like an aircraft hanger, was about halfway up the hill behind the house, and had been overtaken years ago by nettle trees.

“Hey,” I said when I found him sitting on the floor with his guitar. He couldn’t play it for shit, but that didn’t stop him from trying. “Addy said you’re supposed to be building a frame for your beans.”

Button John made a sound in the back of his throat like a dog trying to throw up. “She’s so bossy.” He wrinkled his nose. “How’s Will?”

Yeah, we could talk about bossy older siblings for-fucking-ever, though Addy was nowhere near as bad as Will.

I sat down beside him and opened my chips. “Same as always.”

Button John hummed sympathetically and helped himself to a chip.

“Guess what?”

“What?”

“I got work.”

Button John’s eyes went big. “What? Where?”

I paused, building the moment, and then said, in as casual a tone as I could, “The new copper. I’m gonna do all his yard work.”

“The...” Button John’s jaw dropped. “Holy shit !”

“Two hundred upfront, then fifty a week after that to keep it neat,” I said.

“Holy shit !” Button John exclaimed again.

And yeah, it wasn’t fishing boat money, but it was more than either of us was getting from odd jobs.

Me, because of Nipper Will, and Button John because, well, he was a disaster and never lasted more than a few weeks at the same job.

I once overheard Big Johnny say Button John could start a fire in a full water tank, which was funny—and also somehow true.

“The copper though,” Button John said, and sucked a breath in through his teeth. “What’s he like then?”

I tilted my head back and stared at the roof.

There was no ceiling, just rafters and the tin roof.

The roof had rusted over the years, holes appearing, and shafts of sunlight stabbed through to the floor.

There was a ragged nest on one of the rafters, and tattered old spiders’ webs hanging down to catch the dust.

“He’s hot,” I said at last.

“What?” Button John sat up straighter. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah, he is nothing like the last one,” I said. “He’s young, and he’s hot.”

“How hot?”

“Like...” I chewed my lip for a moment. “Like, I don’t know. He’s just hot. He’s got dark hair, and he’s not old, and he’s... he’s not built , but he’s not scrawny or anything. He’s just right.”

“The three bears’ porridge of hotness,” Button John said with a knowing grin.

“Fuck, it’s Dauntless,” I said. “He’s young, he’s in good shape, and he’s not related to me. That’s the holy trifecta, right?”

“I think it’s a trinity,” Button John said. “But I get it. He’s a copper though.”

“Yeah.” I crunched a chip. “That doesn’t mean I can’t look.”

“True.” Button John’s eyes lit up. “Hey, do you want some help cleaning up his yard?”

He was about as transparent as a pane of glass, but I laughed. “Maybe.”

He grinned.

“I’m going over there later,” I said. “I have to raid your shed for tools though.”

“You going to tell Will?” he asked me, squinting.

Guilt twisted in my gut. “No. I mean, he’ll find out anyway, probably, but no. He’s always gone at dawn and not back until dusk, so it’s not like he’ll see me there. Anyway, it’s a good job! I’ll be right next door if Mum needs anything.”

“Yeah, but he’s a copper .”

“Yeah.” I sucked my finger and stuck it in the bottom of the chip packet to get all the crumbs, and then sighed. “He’s a copper.”

Which, on Dauntless Island, was less welcome than the devil himself.

* * *

A ddy looked suspicious when we got back to Button John’s place.

“What are you two up to?” she asked, peering through the shed door at us.

“Making the frame for the beans,” I said.

So then we had to do that too. Which wasn’t hard or anything, but of course Button John still managed to nail his shirt to one of the frames.

Better than his thumb, at least. When we were finished with the frames, we went through the shed and grabbed what tools we might need for the copper’s yard: a couple of shovels, some saws, a rusty pair of shears, and a rake.

It wasn’t much, but it would be enough to prune back the oleanders and dig out the worst of them before they swallowed the house.

We made it back to the copper’s house without being seen—well, without anyone obviously seeing us, which wasn’t at all the same thing on Dauntless.

It wouldn’t be very long until someone found out I was doing the copper’s yard, and then the whole island would know inside of five minutes, but so what?

I had to work to get money, and if I wasn’t allowed on the boats, then what the hell else was I supposed to do?

If people didn’t like it, that was their problem, not mine.

At least, that’s what I told myself as Button John and I arrived at the copper’s house just in time to see Robbie Finch leaving.

Robbie gave us a look like we’d busted him sneaking out of a brothel while the rest of his family was at church, but then he took note of our gardening tools and his shoulders relaxed.

“I think this is what’s called mutually assured destruction,” Button John said, giving Robbie a wave. “He won’t tell if we won’t.”