The Singing Rocks

By Denise Kay

Dr Amelia Clamtrap, recently divorced and feeling lonely, travels from England to Merrindal station in outback Australia, seeking to reconnect with the only family she has left, her brother. The welcome she receives on arrival is unexpected and frightening as someone tries to kill her as she approaches Merrindal station. Her sister-in-law’s welcome isn’t much warmer and she suspects her brother wants her gone but does he want her dead?

Amelia’s never been one to back down and now she’s worried about her brother. The station was almost bankrupt when their father died but there’s a new house, a new overseer and Amelia’s suspicions are aroused when she discovers aboriginal artefacts are being stolen from the Singing Rocks and smuggled overseas but it’s what’s being smuggled in that could be worse.

Her brother murdered, Amelia struggles to find the truth and clear what’s left of her family’s name and in doing so, finds the love that she never had in her marriage

• Language: English
• Publisher: Denise Kay
• Release date: Jan 23, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301382132

Denise Kay

Denise Kay was born in Egypt of English parents and educated in England. Her short stories and poetry have won a number of commendations and awards since her arrival in Australia. She is a member of the Queensland's Writers' Centre, creator of The Lorry Loco children's books and author of My Father's Forfeit and SHARLAR: The Quest and the Consequence.

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THE SINGING ROCKS

Copyright © DENISE KAY 2013

Ebook Edition October 2013

Author: Kay, Denise.

Title: The Singing Rocks

Published by Denise Kay at Smashwords

Discover other titles by Denise Kay at Smashwords.com

Distributed as an e-book This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead is entirely co-incidental. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied and attributed in critical articles and reviews.

The author asserts her moral rights.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty One

Chapter Twenty Two

Also by Denise Kay

About the Book

Dr Amelia Clamtrap, recently divorced and feeling lonely, travels from England to Merrindal station in outback Australia, seeking to reconnect with the only family she has left, her brother. The welcome she receives on arrival is unexpected and frightening as someone tries to kill her as she approaches Merrindal station. Her sister-in-law’s welcome isn’t much warmer and she suspects her brother wants her gone but does he want her dead?

Amelia’s never been one to back down and now she’s worried about her brother. The station was almost bankrupt when their father died but there’s a new house, a new overseer and Amelia’s suspicions are aroused when she discovers aboriginal artefacts are being stolen and smuggled overseas but it’s what’s being smuggled in that could be worse.

Her brother murdered, Amelia struggles to find the truth and clear what’s left of her family’s name and in doing so, finds the love that she never had in her marriage.

***

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About the Author

Denise Kay was born in Egypt of English parents and educated in England. Her short stories and poetry have won a number of commendation and awards since her arrival in Australia.

She is a member of the Queensland’s Writers’ Centre, creator of The Larry Loco childrens’ books and author of My Father’s Forfeit and Sharlar, her first science fiction novel.

Chapter One

The distant peaks of the Great Dividing Range, shimmered in the sizzling heat, making it hard to define where the mountains ended and where that mystic world of the dreamtime began. Amelia had forgotten how infinite the outback was or how much she belonged to it. She watched the spiral of dust twirl its way towards them only to dissipate and the red earth become still again.

Merrindal’s family graveyard, enclosed with white palings, the few head stones, not far from the homestead. It was as if there was a need for the occupants to watch over Merrindal even from the netherworld.

The motley crew of ringers and jackeroos in ill-assorted garish ties and roughly laundered check shirts stood a little way off. With their battered hats held in callused hands they appeared awkward and uncomfortable in the presence of the law. Their tearless eyes, dull and devoid of any kind of emotion.

It seemed to Amelia that Laurie was not mourned by anyone, not even herself, the sister who had travelled so far to find the brother she had almost forgotten. Perspiration trickled down her back as she watched the coffin slowly being lowered towards the unknown.

A wave of tiredness swept over her, perhaps it was the incessant drone of the flies or the heat of the late morning sun. Amelia came to the conclusion it was probably the monotonous platitudes delivered by the well intentioned, if misguided the Reverend Oliver B Bright.

It was more than obvious to all after the first five minutes of the incongruous epitaph for her late brother that the Minister knew nothing about Laurie. Only that he had been a very generous benefactor when it came to donating funds for the restoration of his church.

She still knew little, if anything, of any consequence about her deceased brother Laurence, only the fact that he appeared to be guilty; of what exactly she was not sure. Without a doubt he had aroused the ire of the local constabulary and more than a passing interest of the extended arm of Scotland Yard.

She wanted so much to believe that Laurie was murdered because he refused to go through the deal of smuggling artefacts out of Australia; if he was involved as the police suspected. Amelia knew she could not and would not let it rest just because her brother was dead. She must find the answer for the sake of the Smithfeld good name but more so to redeem Laurie’s reputation in her own eyes.

Why Amelia wondered, ‘had Laurie left Merrindal to her, a sister he had not seen since childhood until a few days ago? Why had he not left his estate to his young widow?’

She tossed the questions around her weary mind, her thoughts resting in a valley in the hills. A valley that was guarded by two great monoliths the aborigines called The Singing Rocks. A sacred place that held many mysteries and somehow she knew she would find the answers she was seeking. If only she could find her way back through the labyrinth of rocks and mountain scrub that concealed the resting place of the spirits from the dreamtime.

***

The discordant rendering of Amazing Grace jolted her from her reverie forcing her mind back to the present and to wonder, was it right for Laurie to be buried so close to their father and the grandparents who had struggled against such great odds to pioneer and conquer this soul destroying environment.

They had given so much of themselves to this, their land, working with and not against its traditional people. Always respecting their cultures and their rights.

If Laurie was guilty of what the police suspected then he would have all but destroyed the family’s reputation and the name that had been so proudly carved into the history of Merrindal Station by their forefathers.

The homestead was only Laurie’s by right of birth because he was a Smithfeld yet if proven guilty, he would have desecrated that very name and by doing so would surely have forfeited any right to join their illustrious ranks.

***

As the coffin came to rest, boyish laughter echoed in the corridors of her mind and through the haze of lost years she could see a skinny girl running across dusty cattle yards, long titian pigtails streaming out behinds her and there, chasing behind, tall and already displaying obvious signs of manhood, Laurie the elder of the two and the happy one.

It was her brother’s laughter Amelia remembered above all else. When he was not merrymaking, or if life’s fortunes took a downturn, he still remained buoyant with a cheerful optimism that was the luxury of youth.

But the Laurie that now lay cold and still in Merrindal’s family plot was not the boy she remembered. She looked across at the three policemen. Brad, the resolute one and his young Constable already with doubts about his chosen vocation etching lines across his sun reddened face. Then there was the Inspector, a man whose eyes sent shivers through her, although the sun had by now reached its zenith and mercilessly beat down upon the small knot of mourners.

There were no wreaths as even the most hardy of blossoms would have withered before the day drew to a close, only a bunch of lilies from Merrindal’s man-made lake. ‘Ironical’, she thought, ‘that she should be placing lilies from the lake which Laurie prided himself was his greatest achievement, that cost him thousands of dollars and probably his life, for the money certainly never came from cattle.’

She felt the Inspector’s suspicion penetrating through his dark glasses. ‘Did he believe she had killed her brother?’

She sensed that was his opinion and what of Brad? Sergeant Brad Murphy. Did he also believe she could do such a thing and what of her motive? Surely not Merrindal? Yet it could be well argued the homestead was a prize and to some, a motive.

***

Amelia watched Dorinda, noting that she made no pretence of weeping, probably because she was too concerned about her mascara running or perhaps Laurie’s mendacious wife no longer considered it necessary to play the grieving widow. It would be obvious to a blind Freddy, it was more than just platonic and certainly not an employee and employer relationship that gave Reg Carter the right to hold his late boss’s wife’s hand and if it was plain to Amelia, then all could deduce their enamour.

‘Strange’ Amelia thought, ‘that Laurie had not left Merrindal to Dorinda, it was as if he knew he was being cuckolded by her. Then if that was so, why hadn’t Laurie fired his station overseer, who was the other party to the adulterous deception? Perhaps Reg Carter knew something about her brother’s affairs that made it impossible for Laurie to sack his wife’s lover, who now stood flaunting his affection for the new widow for all to see?’

Maybe Carter had killed her brother, unaware Dorinda would not inherit Merrindal Station. He certainly did not look the type to risk all just for the love of a woman, although she reasoned, looks were often deceiving, as in the case of the Inspector from Scotland Yard. Nicholls had intimidated them all, except for Sergeant Brad Murphy who remained as strong and unchanging as the Dividing Ranges that were part of his vast beat.

Had she not seen for herself the cold, unfeeling looks exchanged by her late brother and his wife, looks that bordered on hatred, she would not have considered Dorinda capable of pulling the trigger but then Dorinda may have wanted her freedom at any cost. Amelia’s mental analysis of the situation brought her no closer to the answer.

***

Finally the funeral ended and the po-faced, inappropriately named Reverend B Bright, turned and spoke to the deceased’s wife. Hands clenched behind his back, he rose slightly upon his toes each time he paused for breath as if to emphasise his sincerity or perhaps to relieve his own boredom.

Dorinda responded, fluttering a forest of mascara lashes at him while patting a small lace hankie to her nose, no doubt believing that was the decorous way to emulate the grieving widow. The minister blushed and shook the proffered red tipped hand then hastily departed from a situation he did not quite comprehend, let alone approve of.

He headed across to where Amelia stood, still with her eyes fixed upon the rapidly filling grave, thinking that the last resting place of her brother was as hot and barren as hell. Perhaps God would forgive him and lift Laurie into a more hospitable domain but she could not forgive him. Not because of his sins but because she, his sister and only relative, was denied the love she was so desperately seeking.

Will you be staying on at Merrindal?

Amelia looked into the pale, watery eyes that were as lack-lustred as they were insincere and disliked the man of God even more so on closer inspection.

Dr Clamtrap, the late Mr Smithfeld’s sister, I do believe? He articulated as the calling of his cloth dictated, holding out a soft, pudgy hand to Amelia.

His eyes reminded her of a dead cod. She took the hand, wondering if the man was really alive, for the hand remained cold and clammy although she believed the temperature must be registering somewhere near 40 degrees.

The Reverend Bright cast a glance across to where Reg Carter was assisting the new widow across to the only funeral car. The dead fish eyes flickered as they spotted Carter’s hand pass over the shapely curved posterior protruding from the vehicle as Dorinda Smithfeld climbed into the car and sat down.

Mrs Smithfeld tells me she will be returning to Sydney. A great loss for you both. He tut tutted several times, waiting for Amelia to reply. He was a man that did not like to be kept waiting or in the dark, in regards to whom his next benefactor would be. He regarded her anxiously.

She decided to oblige and so out him out of his misery with a tongue-in-check reply.

The police have advised me not to leave Merrindal until my brother’s murderer has been apprehended Reverend Bright. I am, if you will pardon the cliche, helping them with their enquiries. After that, I don’t really know. I shall have to see.

"If there is anything I can do Dr Clamtrap to ease the pain of your loss you must be experiencing, please don’t hesitate to call at the manse. I do hope our gallant constabulary are expeditious in their handling of the matter, for all our sakes. It is