Claire McNab - Kookaburra Gambit

"I didn't know you'd been here before, Aunt Millie."

"Ken and I visited your mother when she was married to Colin and living here in L.A. I'm surprised you don't remember. You cried every time you set eyes on me."

"I wonder why," I said, hiding a grin. Obviously even at an early age I'd recognized a noxious relative.

My aunt sniffed. "Ken liked it here. Got carried away with all those film stars living nearby. Insisted on wandering around with a star map looking for their houses, until I put my foot down."

My mother contended that Uncle Ken had died to get away from Millie. I recalled being quite shocked the first time Mum had said this, but I had come to see it as a real possibility.

"How's Brucie?" I inquired politely. We might loathe each other, but he was family.

"He's doing all right." She glanced over at me with a fearsome glare. "You're not to put ideas in Brucie's head that you want him over here. He's like his father-a hopeless romantic."

I couldn't help smiling. Cousin Brucie didn't have a romantic bone in his body.

"Smile away, Kylie! Brucie's saving his money to buy a plane ticket."

My smile disappeared.

"He even had the hide to ask me, his mother, to fund his wild ideas. I told him, Brucie, your place is here in Wollegudgerie with your own kin, not gadding about with strangers."

For once, I felt the need to stand up for my cousin. "I'm his kin, too," I said.

"You're half American," snapped Aunt Millie. "Your father was nice enough to me, but he was basically unstable, like Yanks in general. It's no wonder you lobbed over here without a word to anybody. It's in your genes."

Now I was getting angry. She could criticize me all she wanted, but I wasn't going to hear anything against my father. "Please don't talk about Dad that way."

With a grudging nod, she said, "Fair enough. You're loyal. I'll give you that, Kylie."

Uh-oh. I held my breath.

"Loyal, except to your mother. You've been disloyal there, my girl, leaving her in the lurch that way, with the pub to run and Jack O'Connell being worse than useless."

"Jack and Mum are going to be married. It's a case of three's a crowd. I would have moved out anyway and probably left the 'Gudge for Sydney or Brisbane."

"I wouldn't bank on the marriage," said my aunt darkly. "Like most men, Jack's more trouble than he's worth."

"Mum's told you they're breaking up?"

"Not in so many words, but I know which way the wind is blowing. If Jack doesn't stop throwing his weight around, he'll be out on his ear."

"Mum told me she loves him."

"Love! In the long run it never leads to anything good. Addles your brains and ruins your common sense. I've no time for it."

She gave me her best piercing look. It made my skin tingle. "You're not in love, Kylie, are you? That's not what's keeping you here, is it?"

"Of course not," I said, thinking of Ariana's blue, blue eyes.

Aunt Millie grunted, a singularly nasty sound. "Of course everybody in the 'Gudge knows Raylene threw you over for that hairdresser, but I can't believe you're staying away just because of that."

"I inherited half of Dad's business here in L.A., Aunt Millie. That's what's keeping me here."

"Fifty-one percent, if I'm not mistaken. Controlling interest." Aunt Millie had always been sharp as a tack over anything financial. That gave me an idea.

"Aunt, why don't you help Mum with the Wombat's Retreat? You've always been terrific with anything to do with money."

Silence. I looked over to see why. Her face was squinched in a thunderous scowl. "Aunt Millie?"

"I offered," she ground out. "Your mother turned me down flat. I have no idea why."

I did.

The accommodation I'd booked for my aunt was a mid-range hotel off the Sunset Strip and deliberately not within walking distance of Kendall & Creeling, unless you wanted a long slog uphill.

I'd originally suggested a motel as a less expensive alternative, but my aunt had been convinced the odds were any motel situated near the infamously sinful Sunset Strip was likely to be a house of ill repute, frequented by individuals with corrupt sexual appetites. She wanted none of that, thank you.

I got her settled into the hotel and left her eyeing the mini-bar. Although she rarely drank alcohol, Aunt Millie was a great believer in the medicinal powers of brandy as a pick-me-up. I'd have mentioned to her brandy could also be quite a throw-me-down, especially when one was jet-lagged, but Aunt Millie never took advice, particularly from feckless nieces like me.

I'd hardly walked through the door at work before Melodie demanded, "Where's your Aunt Millie?"

"I left her back at her hotel."

"Bummer."

I regarded Melodie with deep suspicion. "Why do you want to know where my aunt is?"

Melodie blinked innocent green eyes. "No particular reason."

Lonnie came hurrying down the hall. I knew it was him before I saw him, because he favored one leg, just a little, so he had a very identifiable gait. "Is Kylie on her way back?" he called. Then he saw me. "Oh, hello. You're here." He gazed past me hopefully.

"Aunt Millie isn't with me," I said.

Usually Lonnie and I got on very well, but since I'd snarled at him on Monday because he'd gone and told Fran and Melodie about my singing during the meeting, he'd been rather distant.

"Kylie's left her aunt at the hotel," said Melodie.

"What's going on?" I demanded.

A sigh from Lonnie. "You might as well tell her."

Melodie tossed her head." You tell her. It was your idea."

"Oh, all right," said Lonnie. "We've got a bet with Fran about your aunt."

"What kind of bet?"

"Fifty dollars says Fran can't be civil to your Aunt Millie for longer than thirty minutes. Time starts the moment they meet."

"And Fran agreed to this?"

"Would you believe it, she did!" Lonnie cackled. "Silly girl thinks she can control her essential nature."

He gasped when from behind him, Fran snapped, "Watch it! This silly girl will take you apart."

"I'm out of here," said Lonnie, scooting back the way he'd come.

Melodie and Fran both looked at me. "The earliest you'll see my aunt is tomorrow," I said. "After her long trip, she's very tired."

"Does music run in the family?" Fran inquired with a wicked smile. "Does your Aunt Millie sing to herself, too?" Fran wasn't one to let things go.

To the best of my knowledge, my aunt was tone deaf. "Opera," I said. "Lovely voice."

"Another shipment of Oz Mob toys has arrived," said Bob, coming into my office and folding himself up like a paint easel into a chair. "Chicka called in a panic. You weren't here, so I spoke to him."

"More opals?"

Bob nodded. "The Kelvin Kookaburras are loaded with them. Same as before, Chicka says. Good quality black opals."

At our advice, the Hartnidge brothers had rented a unit in a self-storage facility and were keeping all the toys shipped to them in that secure location. We had some of the smuggled gems in our safe in the offices, but it was more than likely that undetected stones were still concealed in the little bodies of other toys.

"I've been thinking," I said to Bob. "Maybe we should set a trap. Get Alf and Chicka to bring some of the Kelvin Kookas into the Burbank office and leave them there. Then see who acts suspiciously. Lonnie could set up a concealed video camera, couldn't he?"

"Nanny cams," said Bob. "Parents install them to check that the nanny minding their children isn't abusing the kids when no one's watching. We've handled a couple of cases recently." He grimaced. "Very upsetting."

"Crikey," I said, "people can be gross, can't they? Anyone who touches a kid should be shot."

My phone rang. It was Alf Hartnidge. "All set, love? I'll be picking you up in forty minutes, OK?"