A Perfect Likeness

by Renee Kira

  An ambulance came around too, but after a few minutes the paramedics left. I suppose it was a formality.

  I’ve never changed the locks on any house I’ve lived in. I’ve got friends who do it as soon as they move in. I’ve never bothered. If someone wants to rob you, they’re going to. It’s not that hard to break into a house.

  That wouldn’t be so bad. If someone broke in and took my jewellery, my laptop. Whatever. They’re insured. They can be replaced. This person wasn’t after my stuff. They wanted to scare me. And they are damn good at picking locks.

  ‘You want to call a locksmith?’

  I nod. I’m going to do more than call a locksmith. This place is going to be full of sensors and security cameras as soon as I can get someone around to install them.

  Stacey sits opposite me at the kitchen table. I don’t know what time it is, but it’s still morning. The light coming in through the back windows is still soft. She nods at her partner, directing him to leave. I hear his footsteps as he takes the stairs back down to the front door.

  ‘So, you didn’t know Veronica Hayes?’ She takes a sip of her own tea, which she’s helped herself to.

  ‘No.’ I look at my hands on the kitchen table, tracing the grain of the timber with my eyes. Why does any of this matter? I’ve already told the police this part.

  ‘You didn’t know her name? Or her face? Her photo is on a lot of For Sale boards around here.’

  ‘I lived in Melbourne for a long time. I moved here two months ago.’

  She nods. ‘You grew up in Cape Cross though, right?’

  ‘Yes. But I never met her. I never even heard her name.’ I lift my gaze from the table to the windows across the back of the house. Why is she asking me questions she knows the answer to? Someone broke into my house. Isn’t that the more pressing issue?

  ‘You said that.’ She opens a note pad in front of her and scribbles something. ‘Did you know she had dealings with your grandfather?’

  I didn’t know that. I knew from Liam she had asked around about him and me. ‘What kind of dealings?’

  ‘From what I hear, she wanted to sell the quarry he owned.’

  ‘The quarry? He sold that years ago. It was an off-market deal.’

  He made most of his money from mining the quarry, long before I was born. It had made plenty of other people money too, keeping them in jobs for years. When there was no rock left, he sold off the land to a developer. I don’t know anything else about it.

  Stacey Collins flipped backwards through her notepad. ‘It was four years ago. Two years before your grandfather died. And, according to Veronica’s family, she brought the buyer to him.’

  ‘She did?’

  ‘Did your grandfather ever speak to you about that? About who bought the quarry?’

  ‘No. We didn’t… we didn’t talk about things like that.’

  ‘Things like that? Money?’

  I nod.

  We did though. He used to sit me down on a Wednesday afternoon. Every week, my father would drop me off there after school and pick me up before dinner. Dad never came inside, always waiting out the front for me. He never spoke a word to his father-in-law.

  My grandfather taught me about compound interest and bad debt. He told me that if something is ever free, then you are the product. He lectured me on how I should live my life once I was an adult.

  ‘You need a real profession,’ he would often say.

  ‘Psychology?’ I said.

  ‘The world doesn’t need more head shrinkers. What about a doctor?’

  ‘I’ll never get in to medicine.’

  ‘Not with that attitude,’ he laughed. ‘It’s not the smartest that succeed. It’s the ones who keep trying.’

  It was him who later pushed me into law. He hired tutors for me when I was in my final year of school. He knew someone at the university. He lobbied them into accepting me and paid my fees upfront. Sometimes I wonder where I would have ended up if he hadn’t done that.

  Stacey Collins is waiting for me to comment. I’m not sure what she expects me to say.

  ‘Was Veronica angry?’ I ask.

  ‘About the quarry? I don’t know. Enough that people remember. Her family mentioned it right away.’

  ‘Do they want the commission?’ I ask.

  ‘Their only daughter is dead. They’ve just taken over the care of their grandson. I don’t think they give a shit about the money.’ Stacey says, her voice deadpan.

  ‘So, why are you asking me about my grandfather?’ I say. ‘What has any of this got to do with me?’

  ‘You lived in the same town. She had business with your grandfather at least once. You must have at least known the same people.’

  I sigh. She probably knew we had an ex in common too. Not to mention, a friend in common in Maya.

  ‘It’s a small town. But I never met her. Or heard of her. Or had anything to do with her before I saw her on that beach.’

  She presses her lips into a fine line and looks at her notepad. ‘So, what about you then? Do you have enemies?’

  ‘Enemies? No.’ There were certainly people who didn’t like me by association. But that didn’t count as an enemy.

  ‘What about Benjamin Smith?’

  ‘He’s my ex.’ His name still stings.

  ‘A recent ex.’ she adds, her gaze locked tightly on me.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Why did it end?’

  I see where she is going with this. ‘Ben didn’t break into my house.’

  Stacey raises her eyebrows. ‘Sometimes people do things we don’t expect. Things we don’t think they’re capable of. Especially when they’re placed under stress.’

  I shake my head at the suggestion. 'There’s no malice between us. It ended. We are both fine with that.’

  She seems to accept my answer.

  ‘And what about Liam Goddard? What’s your relationship there?’

  ‘There is no relationship.’

  Her eyes shoot up. My answer was too fast.

  ‘He’s not an ex-boyfriend as well?’

  I swallow hard. ‘An ex-boyfriend. Who I haven’t seen in years.’

  ‘You were seen drinking with him at the top pub last night.’

  I sigh. ‘Yeah. I ran into him. But there’s no relationship.’

  ‘Except when you hang out at the pub?’ She raises her eyebrows again.

  ‘For one drink.’

  ‘What did you talk about? The good old days?’

  Now I feel like she is mocking me. ‘No. I offered my condolences. I was there less than an hour.’

  ‘Condolences. Because Veronica is his ex-girlfriend?’

  I shrug.

  ‘You and Veronica have a lot in common for two people who never met.’

  This time I don’t say anything at all.

  ‘Do you think that’s strange?’ asks Stacey.

  ‘Yes.’

  She’s surprised. She was waiting for me to make an excuse. To tell her it was coincidence or the result of living in a small town. But I’m no fan of talking in circles. If she’s going to accuse me of something she needs to come out and do it.

  ‘I don’t know why we have all these things in common. Or why someone followed me in their car. Or why someone is leaving threats in my bedroom. Isn’t that your job?’

  ‘We will look into it. In the meantime, change your locks. Today if possible. You could always stay with a friend.’

  I nod.

  ‘Someone not involved with all of this, I’d suggest. Stay away from the case. Stay away from anyone who had anything to do with Veronica. It’s likely someone is trying to frighten you.’

  ‘Okay.’

  ‘That includes Liam Goddard.’

  ‘What? Is Liam a suspect?’

  She presses her lips together for a moment before she answers. ‘If I were you, I’d keep my distance from him and his son.’

  ‘His son?’ Liam doesn’t have children.

  ‘I’m talking about
Max Hayes. Liam is the father of Veronica’s son.’

  14

  Isobel

  Maya circles a spoon in her coffee. She’s dressed in wide-legged navy pants and a loose cream top.

  Her invitation had surprised me, but it wasn’t unwelcome. She’d sent me a text the day after the police had been at my house. I’d spent most of the day at home, looking out the window, watching for a white four-wheel-drive. Anxiety has settled under my skin.

  ‘You’ve got a beautiful place,’ I say, as I cast my eyes around.

  Maya’s house is fit for its own Instagram feed. Everything matches everything. We sit on deep navy armchairs at the back of the house. The walls are a pale grey and the plush carpet is charcoal. There are perfectly framed family photos on the wall. Her twin boys wear blue shirts in the pictures, as if to match the decor in the room.

  ‘That’s a nice big house up on the cliffs you’ve got yourself.’ She’s smiling, a look of glee in her eyes. ‘Exactly how much money did your grandfather leave you?’

  Her question is in jest and she doesn’t expect me to answer. ‘Not as much as everyone seems to think.’

  She rolls her eyes. ‘Your Mum must have pissed him off to get written out of the will.’

  ‘I don’t know what happened. They spoke to each other, but only a little. She would never visit him though; she still doesn’t come around to the house now. My grandfather never approved of her marrying my father.’

  ‘God, why can’t someone leave me a house? I’m up to my eyeballs in debt with this place.’

  It’s not just the house he left me either. There’s also a trust fund that matured this year, on my thirty-second birthday. I’ve never told anyone about it, not even Ben. To be honest, I’m not certain how much is in there. There’s a lot of paperwork that arrived on my birthday that I need to sort out.

  Maya isn’t trying to be unkind, but I hate when people react like this. It makes me feel guilty for having something I didn’t work for but I didn’t ask for either. I wish no one in this town knew my business and I could just live my life.

  ‘Anyway. I love your house,’ I say. ‘You’ll have to come around to my place and give me some decorating tips.’

  ‘Thanks,’ she gives a small smile. ‘We try to keep it nice. The boys are rough on it though. I feel like I’m cleaning up a lot of the time.’

  ‘Are they at school today?’

  ‘Yeah.’ She nods. ‘They’re in their first year of primary school.’

  The same age as Veronica’s son. Who could be Liam’s son as well. Was Stacey Collins telling me the truth?

  ‘Maya, can I ask you a question?’

  ‘Of course.’ Her eyes meet mine.

  ‘It’s about Max.’

  ‘Veronica’s Max?’ Her voice lowers. ‘What about him?’

  ‘Yes.’ I nod. ‘Is he Liam’s son?’

  Her eyebrows shoot upwards. ‘Who told you that?’

  ‘There was a cop at my house. Stacey Collins. She asked me a heap of questions about Veronica. And she claimed that Max was Liam’s son. It was weird though. It was like she was trying to gauge my reaction when she said it.’

  ‘That is weird. Why would she go out of her way to tell you that?’ She looks past me, towards her kitchen. There’s a sound at the front of the house.

  ‘I don’t know. It’s not true?’

  ‘No. It’s true. But he hasn’t been in Max’s life for a few years.’

  ‘Really?’ It’s a surprising revelation. When we dated, Liam used to talk about having kids all the time. He wanted a family. I can’t imagine him not being in his child’s life, no matter what the circumstances were.

  Maya tilts her head to one side and takes a moment to consider it. ‘By the time I became friends with Veronica, her relationship with Liam was strange.’

  ‘Strange? So they were on bad terms?’

  Maya shakes her head. ‘When I first met Veronica, Max was a baby. They were together then, but Liam was stuck in Melbourne for work. He wanted her to move there, she wanted him to come here.’

  ‘He didn’t want to leave his career,’ I say.

  She shrugs. ‘Something happened a couple of years in and they ended things. They didn’t have much contact. She went out of her way to avoid him.’

  ‘You think the distance got in the way?’

  ‘She didn’t like to talk about it.’

  Maya reaches forward from the couch, placing her empty coffee cup on the table. She starts to speak again.

  ‘I did wonder a lot about it. But I never knew if it was Max she was trying to keep away from Liam or herself. Anyway, why are you asking?’ She leans back into the couch.

  ‘No specific reason,’ I say. ‘Just the cops asking me questions. They’re trying to figure out something.’

  Her face falls. ‘They’re trying to figure out who hurt Veronica.’

  ‘It doesn’t seem like they’re doing that in a direct way. They asked questions about people that don’t matter.’

  And they seem to think I know the answers to those questions.

  ‘You said they came to your house? Did they tell you they were coming?’

  I haven’t mentioned the car following me or the newspaper on my bed. Instead of answering, I shrug the question off.

  ‘Do you think Liam is a suspect?’ I ask.

  She shakes her head. ‘There’s been nothing between them for a long time.’

  ‘Did she have a boyfriend?’

  That gets a small smile out of her. ‘No,’ she answers.

  Well, maybe it wasn’t about love then. I push my only other lead.

  ‘Did she tell you anything about her selling the quarry?’

  ‘The police asked me that. I don’t really remember much about that. She was a good person, but sometimes she could be stubborn. Especially with work stuff. She pissed a lot of people off. And people pissed her off as well.’

  ‘That happened a lot?’

  ‘I wouldn’t say a lot. But once or twice a year she’d get into some kind of squabble or fight with someone. She didn’t dwell on it. Not usually.’ Maya was looking over my shoulder again. I couldn’t tell if she was staring into the distance or waiting for her husband to walk in the door.

  ‘Not usually?’

  ‘She brought up your grandfather a few times after the fact. That whole thing with the quarry was a while ago. She did mention him to me recently. And she asked if I knew you.’

  That’s the second person Veronica asked about me.

  ‘What did she want to know?’

  ‘Where you were, mostly. I said you were working in Melbourne. That we were friends back in school. She asked if you had a good relationship with your grandfather and I said I had no idea.’

  ‘Do you know why?’

  ‘No. She often asked a lot about people. Knowing what was going on in town was part of her job. She hadn’t mentioned the quarry in a long time. She was busy with something, a new project she mentioned.’

  ‘What was the project?’ I ask. Was there another bad deal she got mixed up in?

  ‘You know that old hospital that got closed down years ago? Some developers were after it, wanting to build townhouses. Whoever owns it wanted to keep the whole thing quiet, so it was happening off the market.’ She pauses for as a moment. ‘I wonder if that will go through now.’

  ‘Why would she keep it quiet? Wouldn’t she want her name out there? That’s how real estate agents get business.’

  ‘The owner might have wanted it quiet.’ Maya shrugs. ‘You’re really trying to figure this out?’

  ‘When I saw her on the beach that morning, she reminded me of myself. It was… I guess it upset me. But now it feels like it’s closer to me. Like she’s not a stranger at all. I keep finding more coincidences. All these signs that our lives were linked.’

  ‘Linked?’

  ‘Linked is the wrong word. But we have all these things in common. I tried to stop thinking about it. As soon as I move on, somethi
ng new comes into my path.’

  ‘Who do you think did it then?’ Maya asks. ‘Do you have a theory?’

  ‘I have no idea.’

  She sighs. ‘I’m not sure either. The police like Liam for it. I mean, it’s the easiest target. It’s always the disgruntled boyfriend. Maybe they’re not looking at other options. They’ve put blinders on.’

  ‘You don’t think it was him?’

  ‘No,’ she says quickly. ‘I don’t. But if they’ve got nothing else, I can see why the police would be looking closely at him.’

  ‘Maybe,’ I nodded.

  Maya walks over to the other side of the room where the television is switched off. It is positioned on a low-lying entertainment unit, with drawers for DVDs. She opens up one of the drawers and pulled out a thin, grey laptop.

  ‘Take it,’ she says, holding out the laptop to me.

  She places it in my hands and I wait for an explanation.

  ‘It’s Veronica’s.’

  ‘You have her laptop?’ I ask, surprised.

  She nods.

  ‘This needs to go to the police.’

  ‘I don’t trust them,’ she says. ‘I’ve been through it and there’s nothing I can find. Unless I’ve missed something. You have good intentions. If I want her laptop in anyone’s hands, it’s yours.’

  I nod. I decide to take it. I could look through it and then give it to the police, if I decided that was the right thing to do. Or not.

  The sound of a loud crash and the slamming of a door echoes from the hallway. The excited chatter of children follows. I can see how this place could go from peaceful to disaster fast.

  ‘Take your shoes off!’ Maya calls, shaking her head.

  ‘Mum!’ calls a child’s voice. ‘Dad says we can have one treat from the jar.’

  The echoes of footsteps tumble down the hallway. The two boys appear at the end of the couch. Both had the same dark blonde hair, left long but cut well.

  ‘Where’s Dad?’ Maya asks.

  ‘He’s in the garage, he said he will be in soon.’

  ‘David’s been running the boys around for me the last week,’ she says.