Catherine Jinks TheRoad (78 page)

‘What have you
done
?’ Linda yelped. ‘Peter, weren’t you
watch
ing
?’

‘Lin, please, it’s not Peter’s fault,’ Noel warned, just as Peter himself made a discovery. Having reached Rosie first, he had been able to assess the situation, and had concluded that the blood wasn’t blood at all.

‘Look,’ he said. ‘It’s dirt.’

‘What?’

‘Look.’ He pointed. Where Rose had been digging, a kind of dark, gluey stuff was evident. Peter couldn’t tell whether it had seeped out of the earth or whether Rose had perhaps created it by mixing red dust with spit, or water.

Water, perhaps – not even Mongrel had that much spit in him.

‘You’re not hurt, Rosie?’ Noel demanded, hovering over her.

‘No.’

‘What have you been
doing
?’ Linda shrilled. ‘How did you
make
this kind of mess?’

‘I didn’t!’ Rosie’s bottom lip began to tremble. ‘It wasn’t me!’

‘You didn’t tip water onto the dirt?’ asked Peter.

‘No!’

‘I don’t like the look of that,’ said Ross, with decision. ‘That looks like it might be some sort of chemical.’

Linda gazed up at him fearfully. Blinking, Peter recoiled slightly from the dimples and gullies that Rose had dug, which were all slimy and sticky with – what? It looked almost like honey or golden syrup, except that it was the wrong colour.

‘A chemical?’ Noel asked, worried. He had left Col’s car, much as Ross had; the focus of attention was no longer on Col. ‘Do you really think so?’

‘What’s up?’ Del queried, apparently reluctant to abandon her post by the ute in case Col decided to speed off. ‘What is it?’

‘Some kind of stuff,’ Ross replied. ‘Seeping through the dirt.’

‘Some kind of chemical,’ said Noel. ‘Was there any mining out this way?’