Free A Vintage Murder by Michele Scott Page A

retired superior who got him the job through a buddy who is now in Adelaide working as an investigator. It’s somewhat corrupt. The reason I’m having the video camera go in with me is to prove I’ve done everything I need to do. I’ll swab for DNA at the snakebite, see if we can’t locate how the beastie got in there. Oh damn, why didn’t I ask? Do we know if the snake is still in there?”
    “No,” Liam said. “Sucker slithered away and no one around here was going after him, except for Andy Burrow. The producer is saying that it’s his snake.”
    Detective Von Doussa brought his hands to his jaw. “Andy Burrow is here?”
    “Yes. He’s handling the animals on the set. One happens to be a brown snake, and the producer, Kane Ferriss, insists that it was Andy’s snake. Andy says there’s no way, and he’s gone to make sure that the snake is still secure.”
    Von Doussa took out a small notepad and scribbled something. He looked up to see another car pulling in. “There’s my CSE guy. Must’ve been nearby. Let’s get this done. Can’t leave the body for long. I need to get ahold of the pathologist at the state coroner’s office, but I’ll have to investigate first.”
    The third man joined them—redheaded with a red-head’s complexion of freckles and pale skin. He nodded a curt hello to everyone and a moment later followed Von Doussa and Warre into the RV. Nikki still had no idea what to make of all this.
    Liam sighed. “My friends, I have to apologize. Nothing ever happens here. Really. It doesn’t. Jack is one of two detectives here in the Barossa and we simply don’t get much crime.”
    “But everyone is saying it’s not a crime. That it was a snakebite. You do get those, don’t you?” Nikki asked.
    “Yes, of course. Brown snakes are common here. Enough so that a short jaunt down the road you’ll find the antivenom store. I only said ‘crime’ because, well . . .” He paused. “You know, I’m not sure why I said that. I suppose it’s because Jack called in all of his people to make sure he handles it appropriately. You know he’s right, it is all about covering your arse these days. The thing is, he doesn’t want anyone around town calling him an oaf or anything. For instance, say the pathologist were to call him next week and tell him she actually died from a drug overdose. He’d be the fool then.”
    “Is that possible?” Nikki asked. “Everyone insists it was the snakebite.”
    “Anything is possible. It could be she died from something else, I suppose, although doubtful. But say the snake bit her only an hour ago. Then she could feasibly still be alive and therefore he has to be sure that the bite is indeed the cause of death.”
    “What would it be like, dying from a snakebite?”
    “Not like what you think, unless she realized she’d been bitten, and if that was the case, we would’ve all known about it. I’m sure she would’ve come unglued and screamed like a banshee. But if you’re not aware, a brown snake can bite you and it may only feel as if you brushed up against something. What happens is that a person looks down to see what they’ve brushed against and, lo and behold, it’s a snake. They panic, the poison courses through them and if they don’t get the antivenom, they get very sick over the course of a few hours and die. The victim will ache, go into shock, become dizzy and confused, and nauseous. However, what likely happened here is she slept through it. We had a bit of a rough night after the party. Hannah, Lucy, and one of the crew crashed Grace’s car. They’d all been drinking. Everyone was okay, but we had a time of it. Grace hashed it out with the three of them. I had to calm her down. And now this. With . . . everything else that’s going on.” He looked at Derek, and something in his eyes made Nikki think that he’d said something he hadn’t meant to. Derek appeared to understand what he was talking about.
    Derek patted his shoulder.