by Lily Malone
CHAPTER
28
After Taylor dropped Abe at Larissa Palmer’s rooms, she caught up with Izzy and they walked the rescue dogs along the stretch of parkland not far from the vet clinic. It had been a while since Taylor had seen Izzy and, as always, the walk wasn’t long enough for everything they wanted to say, but Izzy didn’t have the luxury of Mondays off like Taylor did and, after forty minutes, Izzy had to get back to work.
Taylor tried Will’s mobile to ask if he wanted her to bring anything for their catch-up that afternoon, but the call went through to voicemail. She didn’t leave a message. She drove to a bottle shop and selected a bottle of wine, and then picked up some cheese, crackers and dip from the deli nearby.
On her way to collect Abe, she tried Will’s phone again. Again, his mobile went to voicemail, so she tried his office.
The receptionist answered and when Taylor asked for Will, the woman’s impeccably polite greeting got even more polite, if that were possible.
‘Mr Woods isn’t at the office at the moment, I’m sorry. Can Mr Porter help you?’
‘This is Taylor Woods, Will’s sister. I can’t get him on his mobile. Do you know where he is or when he’ll be back?’
‘Um, well … the thing is …’ The receptionist’s hesitation was enough to get all Taylor’s inner alarms jangling. ‘Will hasn’t been in the office for quite a few months now, Taylor. Are you sure you don’t want to speak to Alex?’
‘I definitely do want to speak with Alex, please.’
And, gratefully, ‘I’ll put you through. I’ll just explain so you don’t have to repeat everything.’
Taylor scanned about for a place to park so she could get out of traffic and concentrate, but she hadn’t found a spot before Alex’s smooth-chocolate voice oozed into the car.
‘Taylor! Been a long time.’
‘Very long time, Alex. Too long obviously. What’s going on with Will and you?’
‘He hasn’t told you?’
‘He hasn’t said anything to me about his work.’
‘Will is on a leave of absence. We both thought it was for the best.’
‘What leave of absence? Why? You guys are partners.’
‘We’re friends too. That’s why it’s just leave. He asked me for six months to sort himself out.’
Finally a space opened up on a side street and Taylor took it, reversing into a spot like a pro. Two young kids walking with their mum watched her and one of the youngsters pointed at her car. Kid had taste.
Alex kept talking. ‘Will’s been a different guy most of this last year. We talked about it. He lost confidence in his ability to do the job after what happened with his girlfriend ... bugger … I hope you know about all that?’
‘It’s okay. I know. You’re not breaking a confidence.’
‘He said he was the last person to be giving someone else financial advice, given what happened to him. Then, well, there was that thing with the business overdraft.’
‘What thing with the business overdraft?’
‘It’s nothing. We sorted it.’
Taylor pushed. ‘Alex—what thing with the overdraft?’
‘Will drew ten grand out of the working account. I asked him about it and, well, he said things were a bit tight. I wouldn’t worry too much about it. He’s paid the company back.’
‘Bloody hell,’ she swore softly. She guessed that was where her mum and dad’s ten thousand dollars went. ‘Did you ever meet Amanda? The girl he was seeing?’
‘We made plans to hook up a couple of times, but something always came up.’
That made sense. Amanda would have been about isolating Will from his true friends, not encouraging those bonds.
‘You’re being very good to him, keeping his job open. Thank you. We’re very grateful. I guess you’ll see him later this afternoon, then, for your squash game?’
‘Will and I haven’t played squash in months. I haven’t seen him. Not at all.’
* * *
‘I can hear you coming a mile off,’ Abe said, bending his head to get in as he opened the passenger door to Taylor’s car. He leaned across to kiss her cheek and scruff her fringe.
‘How’d it go with Larissa?’ She checked her mirrors and pulled out into the traffic.
‘She’s nice.’
‘I knew you’d like her.’
He stretched his legs in the foot well, and Taylor got a chance to study him while she waited for the lights to change so she could get onto the freeway to head for Will’s place.
‘You look different,’ she told him.
‘Nah.’
‘You do. More relaxed.’
A car horn blew behind her, making her jump. The red arrow had turned green and she’d missed it, too busy checking out Abe. She stomped the accelerator too hard on take-off to compensate and the Redline jerked.
‘Steady on the gear change there, Doc.’
‘That’s enough comments about my driving, thanks.’
What she’d give for an open road right about now, green paddocks rushing by. Instead she had brake lights on the car in front, and the car in front of that. Nothing was moving up ahead and it wasn’t peak hour yet, and she had to get to Will’s.
She should have paid more attention to what her brother had been going through. She’d been so wrapped up with tracking down Abe … then meeting Abe. Helping Abe.
Just wrapped up in Abe.
The right lane flowed faster than the left. Taylor checked her mirror and changed lanes.
Not for long.
More red brake lights in front, and the right lane clogged to a standstill.
Taylor indicated to get back in the left lane. It took an age for a driver to give her a gap.
Abe’s hand gripped his seat. ‘Okay, Lewis Hamilton. How ’bout you stay in the same lane for a bit now you’re in this one.’
‘Perth drivers are the worst. No bugger ever lets you in.’
‘Maybe, Doc. But you’re driving a car like this, and driving it like the sort of prick everyone wants to see get stopped by the cops. No one’s gonna let you in. Why would they?’
Taylor changed gears again. They were crawling. In fact, if she got out of the car she could crawl faster!
She belted her palms against the curve of the wheel. ‘Come on!’
‘How do the tyres feel to you? I think they’re a little squishy,’ Abe announced.
The tyres? How did the tyres feel?
She looked at him, and he had that smile on his face—the one that never used to reach his eyes, but that reached his eyes now and made them shine.
‘I reckon they feel round,’ Taylor said slowly.
She got an even bigger smile for that.
‘I’m being a dickhead, aren’t I?’ she admitted.
‘Ease up on the road rage and you’ll be fine.’
She relaxed into her leather seat, put some music on and for the rest of the drive to Will’s they wound down the windows and sang with the songs they knew, and made up lyrics for the songs they didn’t know, and Taylor didn’t swear at the lagging traffic or another driver once.
That is, until she parked on the street outside Will’s place, and Abe said, ‘What’s that on the front step?’
CHAPTER
29
Abe kneeled to check the pathetic mass of fur on the bloodstained cement. He nudged it with his boot and flies lifted sluggishly from it.
‘Do you believe me now?’ Taylor demanded.
‘Could have been a cat. Doesn’t have to have been Amanda,’ Abe said, although he had to admit, it didn’t look good.
‘No cat dragged that here,’ Taylor declared. ‘Keeley had two rabbits. Annie and Albert. I bet you anything this is Annie. Or what’s left of her. She’s put it here as a warning, to scare Will. To scare me off too, probably.’
Taylor’s hands were clenched into fists. She looked like she could break the verandah post right now if she took a swing at it.
‘Amanda is not
going to strangle a bunny with her bare hands, Taylor. She’s not that sort of chick. Come on. She’d be more worried she’d break a nail.’
‘Keeley said one of the rabbits got out, ran on the road and got squished by a car. Amanda might not have killed it, but she’d have no qualms putting on a pair of gloves and sticking it in a plastic bag in her freezer till she needed it.’
‘You’re kidding, right? Think you’re clutching at straws.’
‘You still don’t get it. You can’t get your head around the fact a woman you’ve slept with—a woman you wanted to marry—could do something like this. This is about fear and power, control over Will, and she’d love that I know she did it. Especially after I saw her on Friday. She’d get a real kick out of that.’ Taylor blew out a blast of air that tossed her fringe. ‘Here, can we move it before Will gets home? It’ll freak him out.’
‘Move it where? I don’t exactly have a shovel to bury it. What about if we wrap it in newspaper and put it in your—’
‘There is no way on this earth you’re putting that in my car. Don’t even suggest it.’
‘I was gonna say put it in your handbag,’ he said, ducking out of the way as she tried to clout him.
Taylor glanced at the street. ‘Too late anyway. Here’s Will now.’
Abe pushed himself straight and followed Taylor towards the car that swung in off the street. Unlike Taylor’s red demon, Will’s ride looked like something an accountant would drive. Toyota sedan, silver/grey, just the one exhaust. Didn’t idle like a tractor.
Taylor’s brother got out of the car, looking a bit surprised to see them.
‘You didn’t forget we were coming?’ Taylor said, leaning in to give Will a hug. ‘I tried to call you today to see what you wanted me to bring. I couldn’t get through.’
‘Yeah. Nah. Sorry. Busy day. Didn’t we say six?’
‘We said five, Will. You said that would work with your squash game with Alex.’
There was a weird note in Taylor’s voice, but Abe put it down to the dead bunny on the doorstep and let it go. He took his first real look at Taylor’s younger brother.
The guy was a redhead like his sister, but with more freckles. He was taller. Leaner. Either his t-shirt was big for him or he’d lost weight. He was dressed in everyday civvies: jeans, a leather bomber jacket and he reached back into his car for a sports bag that he slung over his shoulder.
Guy didn’t look like a loser. Didn’t look like someone with a sign on his back that said ‘Scam me’.
He seemed like a regular guy, albeit a skinny one. Abe took some satisfaction in that.
‘Will, this is Abe.’ Taylor introduced the two of them and he shook Will’s hand.
Will checked him up and down. ‘You the other sucker?’
‘Will,’ Taylor said.
It was hard not to bristle, even though two seconds ago Abe had thought exactly the same thing.
‘Good to meet you, mate,’ Will said. ‘One sucker to another.’
‘That’s probably enough of the “sucker” thing, but yeah, you too.’ Abe nodded, then he added with a sweep of his hand towards Will’s front step, ‘Looks like a bunny decided to die on your doorstep. Not the greatest thing to come home to.’
He paled so fast, it was as if all the freckles on Will’s face took one look at the scrap of grey fur and ran away. He glanced up and down the street.
Automatically, Taylor and Abe checked the street too. Abe saw parked cars, trees, light poles, letterboxes. A kid on a skateboard way down the end. A car coming from the south. Nothing to warrant the fear riding Will’s face.
‘Did you have a good game of squash? Did you beat Alex?’ Taylor asked. The plastic bag in her hand, the one with cheeses, crackers and dips, crackled in the breeze.
Abe caught that tone in her voice again. He didn’t know who Alex was, but when Will said, ‘Yeah’, Taylor’s mouth tightened.
‘He was the better player is how I remember it. You must have lifted your game,’ she said.
‘He’s still pretty good,’ Will said, moving towards the house, picking out his key. He stepped over the squashed rabbit. ‘I’ll get rid of that. You guys go inside. Excuse the mess. Would you take this for me, Taylor?’
She took the sports bag from him. ‘Blimey. What’s in this? Bricks?’
‘Nah, just a couple of books.’
Taylor hefted the bag to her shoulder. ‘Shall I put the kettle on?’
‘If you want tea or coffee, sure. I think I’ll have a beer,’ Will said, and he walked around the corner of the house. A few seconds later, Abe heard the noise of a latch on a side gate.
He followed Taylor. Inside Will’s place, the blinds were shut and the stuffy smell gave him the sense the windows hadn’t been open for a while. Taylor had the same sense too because she put Will’s bag of books on the floor and systematically moved through the front room and kitchen, pulling the blinds wide, letting light stream in. It cheered the place faster than a bunch of daffodils in a vase.
It was simple enough inside, if you didn’t mind tiled floors, countertops laminated with a veneer that was supposed to make it look like stone and neutral colours everywhere, and it was tidy rather than clean. It gave Abe the feeling that everything might have been shoved in a cupboard in honour of their visit, and if he opened a cupboard door, the mop or a broom, or towels or sheets, would come tumbling out.
Will’s shadow passed by the kitchen window, head down, shovel in his hand, heading back out towards the street.
Taylor filled the kettle and hunted for cups, sugar, tea, a plate for the cheese she’d bought and a cheese knife.
Each item bumped or clanked on the countertop. She’d been on edge on the drive out here but he thought he’d got her to chill out. The rabbit had upped that edge another notch.
‘That bunny’s gonna stink if the bins don’t get collected for a few days,’ Abe said.
‘All bins stink. You want a coffee?’
‘I’m good, thanks.’
They sat at a white-painted pine kitchen table with legs about as chunky as his thigh, and Taylor pulled out the box of crackers and opened a tub of dip. Something sticky caught his arm, butter or jam maybe, and he got up to rinse a cloth under the kitchen tap and give the table a quick wipe.
‘What was all that about the game of squash? Who’s Alex?’ Abe asked her.
Taylor leaned forward as she peeled plastic wrap off a wedge of brie. ‘Alex is Will’s business partner. I talked to him today and he said—’
The front door opened and closed and she stopped talking.
Will entered the kitchen, brushing his palms together, heading for the kitchen sink and a pump bottle of sanitiser.
‘Offer you a beer?’ he said to Abe.
‘Guess it’s beer o’clock somewhere. Sure. Thanks.’
Will went to the fridge and took out two beers. He shoved a worn stubby holder on his bottle, then one on Abe’s and handed the bottle over. Then Will sat and took a long drink.
No one said anything.
‘Cracker?’ Taylor said, pushing the plate towards Will.
‘Thanks.’ Her brother took a handful. Picked the dip off the plate and scooped one cracker after the other through the mix, shovelling it in his mouth and using the other hand to catch crumbs.
Least he didn’t double dip.
‘Hungry, mate?’ Abe said.
‘Sorry. Yeah. Long time since lunch.’
‘Will?’ Taylor interrupted his eating.
Will washed crackers down with beer. His eyes slid away.
‘Will, come on. This is crazy. What’s going on?’
He raised his hands, now cracker-free, and his voice was brusque. ‘What?’
Across the table, Taylor met Abe’s gaze. Her shoulders tightened and her chin came up the way it did when she had something important to say. Abe held his breath.
‘I rang your office today.’
Will froze. ‘Checking up on me now?’
Taylo
r pushed it. ‘Not checking up on you. I was trying to get in touch with you about coming over tonight. You weren’t answering your mobile so I tried the office. I spoke to Alex and he said you haven’t worked there since July. He said you don’t play squash on Mondays anymore. Haven’t for months.’ Taylor’s voice softened. ‘What have you been doing with yourself every day, Will? Mum and Dad and me, we’re so worried about you.’
‘Do you want that I, ah, leave you both to it?’ Abe said. Neither gave him an answer, and he wasn’t sure if they’d even heard. He took a sip of his beer and stayed where he was.
Defiance leaked from Will as if it drained from his shoes.
‘Will?’ Taylor said again. ‘What are you doing with your days?’
‘I dunno.’
‘Well, what did you today? Concentrate just on today. Where did you spend today?’
‘At the library.’
The library? Abe couldn’t think of anything worse. The dentist maybe.
‘Okay, well that’s good. That’s a peaceful place to be. Do you like spending time there?’
How easy she slipped into doctor-mode.
‘It’s quiet. I read. I bring books home.’
‘How are you paying your bills, Will? Have you been to Centrelink since you stopped work?’
He winced. ‘Hate that place.’
‘Nobody likes Centrelink, but we all have to pay our bills. We all have to eat.’
Will tapped his heel on the foot of the bar stool and said nothing.
‘I know you borrowed money from Mum and Dad. What did you do with it? Has that all gone?’
‘I used it to pay the company. I’d borrowed from the business overdraft.’
‘Do you promise me you didn’t spend Mum and Dad’s money on Amanda?’
‘Yes, I promise,’ Will said, staring at some point on the wall.
Taylor’s shoulders relaxed a little. ‘This can’t keep going on, Will. We need to get you help. You need to talk with someone.’
‘I’m not going to Centrelink.’
‘I don’t mean Centrelink. I mean a counsellor.’ She strove to meet her brother’s eyes, but he’d cocked his head to the street. ‘I think you’re depressed after what happened with Amanda, and now not working. We need to get you help.’