Free Body in the Gorge (Cockatoo Cozy Mystery Series Book 1) by Lyn Walker Page A

muddy patch. I proceeded even more cautiously after that, then suddenly as we rounded a corner and saw a rough timber hut. I stopped and crouched down behind some bushes, thank goodness Cracker seemed to know when to be quiet. After five minutes we had seen no movement and heard nothing. I moved carefully from tree to shrub until I reached the back of the hut. It was a strange building as there were no windows, but the slabs of wood were very roughly cut and I found a crack to peer through. It was very dark inside because there were no windows, after my eyes adjusted I could make out some movement from the bed in the corner, there didn’t appear to be any other movement in the room. I moved around to the door, there was a shiny new padlock on it. Cracker fluttered over to an axe leaning against a tree.
    “Yes that might do.” I cried leaving all caution behind just wanting to get into the shed. I swung the axe at the padlock again and again until it dropped off, I ran over to the bed. Caz lay there struggling to get out of the ropes tying her to the bed.
    I pulled off the rag which was gagging her mouth. “Are you all right?”
    “Just get me out of here before he comes back.” Caz coughed and spluttered.
    I retrieved the axe from outside, lucky I’d only used the back of it to break the lock we now needed the sharp edge to cut the ropes.
    As I sawed back and forth on the rope with the axe I asked Caz. “Who was it, who brought you here?”
    “I don’t know my head is all fuzzy, I can’t remember.” Caz cried holding her head.
    “Don’t worry about that now, lets just get you out of here first!” I said gently.
    Once the ropes were cut we moved out of the hut, I pulled the door closed. With Cracker on one shoulder and Caz clinging to my other shoulder we stumbled off up the track. We just made it to the Echidna diggings when I heard the helicopter approaching.
    “Come on lets hide under those shrubs we don’t know who is in the helicopter helping with the search.” I said as I pulled Caz under the bush. I didn’t mention Randall’s name out loud but he was on my thoughts. Caz was glad of the rest and her breathing slowed as we waited for the helicopter to move away. I was glad I had pulled the door shut so the hut would look undisturbed from above. Then I remembered my car, hopefully the tree I parked under would hide it. Finally the helicopter moved away, it was probably a very short time but seemed to take forever. We made our way to the car at last. I helped Caz and Cracker into the car and drove off quickly to get as much distance as possible away from the site of the kidnapping.
    “I’ll take you around to the Caravan Park. Madge can look after you. We don’t know who this kidnapper is yet he is almost certainly out on the search right now so we don’t want to alert him, I’ll get in touch with the police.”
    When they arrived at the campground it was very quiet, nobody around. I drove around to the back door of the private residence and helped Caz into the kitchen.
    Madge looked up surprised her jaw dropped. “Caz.” She ran over and gave her a hug. Then lowered her onto a couch. “Where did you find her?” I gave her the whole story. Madge bristled. “It was a far worse situation than everyone thought, thank goodness you found her. Okay I’m going to call my husband to come back here, we need some back up. I was a nurse so I’ll look after Caz here for now. Chloe you go back with the butter they want and discreetly let Emma and the Police know. We need to keep her safe until they find this kidnapper. Off you go Emma must be frantic.”
    I felt grateful to have someone else take charge, I was still shaking from the whole ordeal.
     

     
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
    The hunt
    I arrived back at Emma’s place with Cracker and took the butter into the kitchen. The Ladies pounced on the butter and immediately started on making sandwiches again. Nothing much had changed