Free Gladiatrix by Rhonda Roberts

bush. He shut that expression down, and said, ‘You know the car park at the very end of the road, just before all the walking trails start?’ Cooper nodded. ‘You take the walking track from there and turn immediately right, across the front of the Dance Floor cave …’
    â€˜That’s where they used to hold the …’
    â€˜Yep,’ Des nodded, ‘that cave is on an old stock route and the settlers used to meet there. Kannon was found about ten minutes’ hike further down.’ He tapped the place, ‘Here.’
    â€˜Okay. What about the bushwalker? How did they check out?’
    â€˜Look,’ Des showed him the position of the cave again. ‘Kannon wasn’t found in the middle of nowhere. It’s close enough to the car park for anyone to come in by car, and carry her down there. And it was a weekday in the middle of winter, so there was hardly anyone around. The woman who found her was a Japanese tourist. She’d just arrived, and was doing the sights. No possible connection there.’
    Cooper pursed his lips. ‘A little unusual for a Japanese woman to be off by herself? Even that close to the road.’ He wasn’t buying it. ‘Most of them seem convinced they’re going to be attacked by snakes. What was she doing in that particular cave anyway?’
    Des and I exchanged a glance. Yuki had no fear. One look from her and the snake would’ve turned tail.
    â€˜The Japanese tourist checked out okay,’ Des snapped. ‘Believe me, I know. She was trying to findsome cave paintings. They were actually in the next cave down.’
    â€˜Okay, okay.’ Cooper wasn’t convinced, but said, ‘Well, what other leads did you follow up?’
    We all sat down again.
    â€˜That was the big problem. We had a child too ill to speak, and no physical evidence that took us anywhere useful. The cave floor had been swept clean with a tree branch. So there were no tracks. And whoever did that job knew what they were doing. The rope and wire used to bind Kannon were generic. And no-one had seen anyone near the cave. So no witnesses.’ He shrugged. ‘In the end, all we could do was use the media to circulate Kannon’s photo and her story. But no-one of use ever came forward.’
    Des leant forward, face bright. ‘But I now have an explanation for why this was the case.’ He slapped his thigh, a little too pleased with himself.
    Cooper scanned his face with sharp eyes, saying, in a carefully neutral voice, ‘So you have a whole new theory? From this new … er … information you’ve found?’
    I didn’t like his tone. He was drawing back from Des already.
    â€˜Yes.’ Des pulled out the photo of me and laid it in front of Cooper. ‘This is Kannon the day she was brought in.’ He put the photo of Celeste with her dog, next to it. ‘This is Celeste Dupree, a girl kidnapped two weeks before Kannon was found. She’s never been found.’
    â€˜Yes.’ Cooper picked up both pictures and considered them. ‘I see what you mean. They do look very similar.’ He put the photos down. ‘But why does a possible connection to this other girl’s kidnapping explain why there were no leads to follow?’
    Here was the big leap.
    â€˜Well, no leads here, anyway,’ Des qualified. ‘Celeste was kidnapped in the USA. In San Francisco.’
    â€˜San Francisco?’ Cooper’s expression was pained. ‘And why exactly was Celeste brought to Kanangra-Boyd National Park?’
    Des said gingerly, ‘That we don’t know. That’s why we’re here. We need your help to find out more about the Dupree case. Who would’ve wanted to bring her to Australia, and why.’
    Cooper picked the problem immediately, ‘Just to put her in a cave to die?’
    â€˜Look,’ I said with exasperation. ‘We know it seems a long shot. That all we have