Fall Girl (29 page)

‘Me? Bags?'

I run my finger over his face, pinch his cheeks. ‘Bags. And tired lines around your eyes. I think you need a holiday. A European holiday.'

‘Della,' he says. ‘This is something you should do on your own.'

I nod. He's right, I know, but I only just found him again. It isn't fair. ‘I'll ring you. When I get settled.'

He smiles and says, ‘I know.' He runs the back of his fingers down my throat, then with one arm pulls me close. ‘Della,' he whispers. ‘It's a lovely name.' Then he brushes my hair off my face and kisses me, arm around my waist, lifting me off the ground. It is an old-fashioned farewell from a time when air-travel meant something. I wind my arms around his neck and for a long time I think this trip is the worst idea I've ever had.

‘Della,' says Ruby, tapping me on the back. ‘It's time. You have to go through.

‘Right,' I say, and I untangle my arms as slowly as I can.

There is a disorderly queue forming in front of the sliding doors. In front of me the businessman, now finished with his phone call, cuts in front of the harassed mother and almost steps on one of the children. The child stares up at him, picking her nose. He gives her a look of disdain. The
Fortune
magazine is tucked under his arm and he's waving his boarding pass around like a fan. I can see the seat number: it's in the same row as mine, only a few seats away. ‘Della, wait,' says Daniel, and then he puts his hand in his pocket and brings out his wallet. ‘You'll need more money than that, surely, for when you get off the plane.'

I'm right behind the businessman now. His shoes are fine leather, polished, new. His suit, I think, is Armani. Silk tie, crisp shirt, solid cufflinks with the monogram of a gentlemen's club in the city. His wrist, the one carrying the briefcase, is heavy with a gold watch. Rolex. It sparkles under the white lights and even from here I can tell it is genuine. The businessman shuffles ahead in the queue. He runs one finger around the inside of his collar.

I smile back at Daniel. ‘I'll manage somehow,' I say.

Acknowledgments

This story was inspired by my long devotion to the work of the late Stephen Jay Gould, especially his books
Wonderful Life
,
Ever Since
Darwin
and
Eight Little Piggies
. I am also grateful to the real-life monster hunter Paul Cropper, whose patience with my questions and whose books
The Yowie: In Search of Australia's Bigfoot
and
Out
of the Shadows: Mystery Animals of Australia
were invaluable.

For information on the profession and lives of con artists, I relied on the the following fascinating books:
The Modern Con Man
by Todd Robbins,
Crimes of Persuasion
by Les Henderson,
Roger
Cook's Ten Greatest Conmen
by Roger Cook and Tim Tate,
Scams and
Swindles
by the Silver Lake editors and
The Art of the Steal
by Frank W. Abagnale.

For information on the life of the field scientist and the mind of the cryptozoologist, I'm grateful to
Lucy's Legacy
by Donald C. Johanson and Kate Wong,
My Quest for the Yeti
by Reinhold Messner,
Wildmen: Yeti, Sasquatch and the Neanderthal Enigma
by Myra Shackley,
Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science
by Jeff Meldrum,
Carnivorous Nights
by Margaret Mittelbach and Michael Crewdson,
The Origin of Humankind
by Richard Leakey,
Field Adventures in
Paleontology
by Lynne M. Clos, and
The Back Road to Crazy
edited by Jennifer Bové.

For their insight and generosity, I am indebted to my early readers Jess Howard, Michael Williams, Jane Sullivan, Kate Holden, Antoni Jach, Alison Goodman, Leah Kaminsky, Simmone Howell, Angelina Mirabito, Lyndel Caffrey, Matthew Hooper and Peter Bishop. For their support and assistance, many thanks go to Anna Nemes, James Reid, Simon Ramsay, Scott and Lee Falvey, Gabrielle Murphy, and to Vickie Lucas, who first made me think of emeralds. To Melissa Cranenburgh, who took me camping for a weekend yet still speaks to me: thank you. At Text Publishing, Michael Heyward and Mandy Brett were encouraging and inspiring, and their advice made this a much better book.

My own zoology studies, culminating in ZL321: Evolution and Zoogeography at the University of Queensland, were so long ago that we studied dinosaurs with live examples. Any errors in fact or theory remain my own, or Della's.