Honey Goes Down Under

Larissa smiled and wound up the throttle and because of the noise heard no more screaming. A hundred yards back along the road she stopped on the log bridge over the ravine she'd noticed earlier. She untied the helmet and threw it away as far as she could, hearing it hit rocks after the long drop. The then pushed the bike over, having no way of getting that out of sight but when she looked down Larissa saw no sign of it in the murky pool. Undoing the rope Larissa noticed with satisfaction there was no sign of rope marks on the riding boots.

Larissa now knew she faced the hard decision. If she weighed down Danny with a couple of rocks and the body was found, murder would be suspected. The rope would also be noted as missing from the ute. With great effort she dragged the unconscious Danny to the side of the bridge and aiming for the rocks below let him slide head-first. She turned away not wanting to she the result, placing her hands over her ears. A few seconds later Larissa looked down and saw the body slowing sliding down the side of a huge rock and disappear into the pool. She waited and the body did not surface. Job done.

There were a few patches of blood on the crude decking so Larissa cupped handfuls of dust over them. On the way back she dragged the rope over the motorcycle tire marks, just in case a search party came looking that way. But where would they look? She knew when Danny went riding he roamed anywhere over a hundred square miles. The searches would concentrate on his favored routes and she hoped this was not one of them.

Back at the crash site Larissa received the untouched medical kit and returned that to the back shelf of the ute. She then cracked the rope around the top of cargo box to remove dust and put the rope back in the toolbox and then continued with her chore.

On the way back, although feeling dreadfully remorseful, Larissa managed to wink at that lone fence post. She drove over the bridge without pausing, having no wish to remind herself of her dreadful deed. She drove on recalled when Jimmy had left the ranch. She'd given him two weeks before following him. He'd called their mom to say he still hadn't found a job. She saw him come out of a diner and called, "Hey Jimmy" and when he saw her she stepped back into the alley.

He came running and as he reached the alley Larissa shot him up close, through the head. She raced out of the other end of the alley carrying his wallet that contained his ID and drove eight hours through the night and when her mom awoke next morning she found Larissa in her bed. Her parents would never find what had happened to their son who'd been secretly selling off some of their hay supplies and doing underhand deals in selling their harvested grain and also claiming farm expenses from them he, as manager, had never incurred. He'd boasted about that to Larissa, warning he'd kill her if she told on him. Then he'd put his sister through that day of sexual terror from which she'd suffered several weeks of nightmares. Larissa had decided Jimmy was a rat and had to be exterminated.

Jimmy's murder was investigated, without success, with no witnesses and no ID because he's been robbed and not reported as missing. Police posted him as an unidentified murder victim but his parents never reported him as missing; they eventually accepted Larissa's story planted at the time that in leaving home Jimmy had turned his back on the ranch and on the family and they might never see him again.

The next day a search was on for Danny and when not found an even bigger search was on, involved almost a hundred people. Glen and Larissa flew with Flint, acting as spotters. Larissa was horrified just how easy it was to spot off-road vehicle tracks from the air and later, after comforting Glen until she fell asleep, asked Flint about that.

"Those are tire marks in soft terrain and that's the fucking difficulty. There are so many of them and no way of telling, even on the ground, which are old or very new tracks.

"Could he have fallen, hit his head and slithered into one of the reservoirs?"

"Not unless he and his bike could have gone through cattle fencing and that's very unlikely and they are seven-wire fences around the water. I did fly out and beyond our reservoirs on the first hours of searching before you joined us. Tracks are more difficult to pick up because of the nature of the terrain out and beyond reservoirs one, two and three but I took a peep out that way because occasionally I've seen Danny and others farther out to where there are some jumps amid sand hills – they prefer soft landings if they tumble off.

That evening three-quarters of the searchers pull out after learning on local radio that the police in Sydney were interested in talking to Danny about three complaints of assault of females and allegedly using stand-over tactics and three complaints from past employers he'd stolen money and a vehicle from. Larissa was interested to hear that but thought neither people and definitely not the police would accept that Danny's misdeeds and his mistreatment of her merited him being exterminated. It was difficult for her aware all of the money and manpower being spend on air and ground searches but the only way she could stop it would be to lead the police to the body and that didn't appeal. "Fuck, what a mess," she groaned.

In town early next morning when Larissa was in the post office and the woman serving her mentioned missing Danny, Larissa said idly she wouldn't be surprised if he'd taken off knowing the police were hot on his trail. She was astonished to hear that theory being voiced on local radio at midday when it was announced the search had been abandoned, leaving it to his friends riding out to keep an eye out for any bike down.

"How will you guys get on with one mechanic down?" Larissa asked Flint.

"A retired mechanic has come back to fill in until we attract a replacement and that may take weeks, even months."

Larissa colored and almost said sorry to have put you guys to so much trouble. Well, at least the threat of Danny to the Jackson family pilots was no longer a worry for her. Perhaps she should apply to the Australian Government for a posting as an assassin rather than a post to assist hearing-deficient children in the remote area around Kara?

"Don't think like that you stupid bitch," she muttered. Danny on the sofa opposite reading about the search progress in the local newspaper asked, "What was that?"

"Um, oh I was thinking perhaps I should try for another type of job."

"Try the police – they are short-staffed." He laughed, "But don't expect to be dealing with serious crime out here in the sticks. No, kids like Candy need you darling."

"Would you still love me if I ever went to prison?"

"What for, having big tits?" Flint chortled. "Of course I would continue..."

The phone went and Flint jumped up to take it because his parents were out the back looking at new chickens.

"It's for you – Bert Fowler, school principal.

The others trooped in as Larissa finished the call. She looked radiant and Larissa said, "Funding for my engagement as an area teacher for children with hearing disabilities has been approved. My qualifications checked out okay and the education authorities will seek to have my visa upgraded to provide for permanent residency one year after my arrival, providing I enter a contract for three year's service. I'm to go to Sydney in a fortnight to work alongside a similar specialist and to attend lectures on the educational objectives in this state."

"That's marvelous darling," Ella said. "I'll fly you to Sydney a couple of days early and we'll go shopping."

"Oh great, I'd love that Ella. May I suggest we take Glen as she's on a bit of a down now she's free of that jerk?"

Glen blushed. "Um, not thanks. The new vet Daniel Jones has asked me out on Saturday night and the next Saturday we are going to Dubbo for his best friend's engagement party."

Jack growled, "Thanks for holding out on us Glen."

"Dad, we'd decided we should keep in quiet in case people thought I was being disrespectful for Danny in case he's out there, dead."

"Ha, that jerk is probably down in Victoria now looking for more women to hassle. I wonder why he didn't assault you."

"My new friend Daniel thinks perhaps Danny was waiting until the time was right to steal an airplane."

The family looked at Glen in shock.

"That freak. He was always looking at my tits," growled Ella. "It made my uneasy. What about you with your outstanding figure Larissa?"

"If he'd touched me I would have killed him," Larissa said softly.

Everyone laughed.

"Well Flint, get off your bum," Ella said. "The women of young children will want Larissa permanently retained in this district. You'll have to marry her and I want you to do that before we lose her to some other swain from another family."

"Yes Flint, where's your proposal," Larissa said, cheeks flaming.

All eyes were on Flint. He coughed and said, "Well if I'm to make a speech could someone fetch me a beer?"

"Sit down everyone," Ella said. "I'll get everyone a drink. This is going to be so entertaining. Make him work for it Larissa."

"Oh, I didn't come all the way from America to here a three word proposal," she laughed. "This will be a real test of his manhood."

"Hold it," Ella said. "Glen call Anna and Tom to get down here with the children who won't be in bed yet. "Candy is talking about Larissa as if Larissa were her mother. She is bound to want to be a flower girl in a pretty dress and I bet she'll want Larissa to chose it for it."

"Larissa AND her mom will chose it," Larissa said firmly. "The new word for Candy to learn this evening is wedding. Please call them Glen."

Flint's fixed grin at Larissa made her wonder was he suffering lockjaw.

THE END