Before It Breaks by Dave Warner Page A

water in a tarp or something, pulled it up into the boat, drove to the middle and dumped him.’
    â€˜You don’t think he might have changed himself like you said before?’
    â€˜With the beating he took I doubt he could have got it off, and it would have been almost impossible to get that t-shirt on by himself. And there’s very little sign of blood on that t-shirt so the axe blow must have come first.’
    â€˜So the killer or somebody else re-dressed Schaffer?’ Clement was trying to bend the scenario to make sense.
    â€˜It fits.’
    Clement was now thinking through the rest of the action, how the body came to be in the creek. ‘The tourists didn’t mention hearing an outboard.’
    Earle said. ‘They could have been asleep.’
    â€˜Or there was no outboard in the first place,’ suggested Keeble.
    Earle didn’t buy that. ‘An experienced fisherman wouldn’t come to croc territory without one.’
    Clement said, ‘Well it’s not here. So I think either it’s in the creek or somebody took it.’ He asked Keeble, ‘One or more perps?’
    â€˜No idea. One person could have got him into the dinghy.’
    Clement’s brain was fuzz. ‘Was Shep a problem?’
    â€˜I told you, I can handle Shep. And Briony, one of the techs from Perth, is blonde and kind of cute so that got me off the hook.’
    â€˜Where is The Walking Complaint?’ asked Earle.
    Clement wished he’d taken him up on the last bun.
    â€˜Out at the creek. I called him right after I called you. The Fisheries blokes are there too, searching the creek.’
    â€˜Rather them than me.’ Lisa Keeble gave a little shudder at the thought.
    â€˜Oh well, you better get on with it.’ Clement headed to his car. ‘Call if you find anything important.’
    It was the sight of the chopping block and axe that stopped Clement in his tracks and had him cursing his own stupidity. It was located at the right-hand end of the veranda, with a small wood stack beneath the veranda for cover, a blue plastic tarp draped over the top as insurance against rain. Clement had missed it lastnight and the angle had been wrong to spy it from the veranda this morning. He advanced and checked it over. Nothing to indicate this was the murder weapon but he wasn’t thinking about this particular axe. The day before yesterday Mal Gross had been taking notes with that couple who claimed an axe had been stolen from their property. Of course it could be a coincidence but even so, Clement knew he should have thought of it way back at the creek. What the hell was happening to him?

9
    It took Clement a bit over an hour to drive to his flat down at the wharf. On the way he called Mal Gross, told him what had happened and took the details of the Kellys, the couple who’d had their axe stolen. He also fed him the details on the witnesses and asked Gross to check with Victoria if they’d been in any trouble before. Any hope he would enjoy a weekend with Phoebe was fading fast. The case was too ugly and there was no clear suspect yet. As he turned his car towards the wharf, Clement called Shepherd again even though he assumed he would have phoned if there were anything to report. Shepherd told him the croc guys and techs had dragged the bottom of the creek and got nothing but crap. They had assured them there was no croc around. A couple of the guys were suiting up ready to dive. He’d call if there was anything good. He also mentioned that he thought one of the techs fancied him.
    â€˜Briony?’
    â€˜How did you know?’
    â€˜Wild guess.’
    â€˜Did Lisa say something?’
    â€˜Stop thinking with your prick, goodbye.’
    A ute was in the space where Clement normally parked alongside the chandler’s four-wheel drive. There were no other vacant spaces so he parked in behind both cars, scrawled a note saying he would be back down in ten but