The Secrets that Lie Within (Taylor's Bend, #1)

by Elisabeth Rose

  He wasn’t. When he’d refilled his own mug he said, ‘Detective Sergeant McGrath wants to talk to her again.’

  ‘Why? She already gave a statement last night.’

  ‘She rang me earlier.’

  ‘Why would she? Did you tell her you were suspicious,’ Abbie demanded. ‘Is she coming to arrest her?’

  ‘I told her exactly the facts as I know them. She has all your statements, she talked to you all yesterday. She probably wants to clarify a few things. It doesn’t mean anything one way or the other.’

  Abbie stood and began collecting the dirty plates. She took them to the sink for washing up.

  ‘I should find a place to rent,’ she said as she sloshed the dish mop about in the water, whipping up suds. Rupe stood next to her with a tea towel, taking the plates from the rack as she finished them.

  ‘Here?’

  ‘If I’m supposed to be staying around, yes. You’re probably right about it being easier to sort stuff out. I need to empty the house and see what I can save.’

  ‘You won’t be able to go in for a while now.’

  ‘I know. I’ll have to get a car first.’

  She pulled the plug.

  ‘Borrow mine if you need to.’

  ‘I don’t think so.’ That sounded rude. Too abrupt. ‘Sorry. Thanks but I can hire one for a while.’

  ‘Check with your car insurer. They might lend you one.’

  She dried her hands and stood helpless as the combined weight of all the recent events landed on her, crushing all thought, freezing her in place.

  ‘Abbie?’ Rupe said softly.

  ‘I don’t know what to do first,’ she whispered.

  He hesitated for a brief moment then his arms were around her, holding her close, soothing, comforting. She leaned against his solid bulk, eyes closed, an intense weariness draining her brain and body of energy.

  ‘Don’t do anything,’ he murmured. ‘Stay here until you’re ready. Stay right here.’

  She’d love to stay right there, nestled in his arms, closed off from the problems swirling about her, devoid of thought, devoid of responsibilities. It wouldn’t last. Reality always won. What appeared to be safe and secure and everlasting was, as she had twice discovered, an illusion based on false information and deluded, naive expectations.

  ‘I wish it were that simple,’ she said, easing herself from the embrace.

  ‘Isn’t it?’ He stepped away and leaned against the bench, arms folded.

  ‘Rupe … no.’ She shook her head. ‘Not until Georgia is cleared of this ridiculous suspicion and even then …’

  ‘Even then what?’

  ‘You didn’t believe her. Or me.’

  ‘Abbie, don’t you understand? I can’t categorically state that she’s innocent. I wasn’t there. I don’t know. Neither were you or Ben.’

  ‘We both know she wouldn’t do that.’

  He tilted his head with a little shrug. ‘It doesn’t matter if I think that or not. If I’m personally involved with the case, I can’t comment.’

  ‘Mum, leave poor Rupe alone.’ Georgia, rumpled pyjamas, face pale but with more colour in her cheeks than yesterday evening. She took a glass from the cupboard and filled it with water from the tap. ‘It’s his job and he barely knows me.’

  ‘Darling, good morning. How are you feeling?’ Abbie hugged her hard. Georgia succumbed for a moment then eased herself away.

  ‘Bit queasy but not too bad.’

  ‘Breakfast?’ asked Rupe. He filled the kettle and switched it on.

  ‘Just toast and tea, thanks. I can do it.’

  ‘Is Ben up?’

  ‘In the bathroom.’

  ‘DS McGrath has a few more questions,’ Rupe said. ‘Sometime today.’

  ‘Okay.’

  ‘Use my bathroom, if you like,’ said Abbie.

  ‘I’ll leave you to it.’ Rupe smiled from one to the other and headed for the office.

  Georgia found plates and cutlery then put bread in the toaster. She dropped a tea bag in a mug.

  ‘Aren’t you worried about what she’s going to ask you?’

  ‘No. Should I be?’

  ‘No, of course not. I just … it’s all such a mess. And things can go wrong. We both know that. The police can make assumptions and then …’

  ‘Rupe doesn’t.’

  ‘He’s being overly cautious. It’s driving me nuts. He won’t even say he thinks you’re innocent when he clearly does.’

  ‘How do you know he thinks that if he won’t say?’

  Abbie exhaled out an exasperated burst of air. ‘You’re as bad as he is.’

  ‘But I could be guilty, couldn’t I? I was in there alone for a few minutes. You and Ben didn’t come in until later.’

  ‘Georgia, don’t even joke about it. I don’t think for a second you could do that.’

  ‘Thanks, Mum, but I’m not joking. You can’t change the facts and that’s what he’s going on. He should. We never thought Dad could do what he did.’

  ‘All right.’ Abbie held up her hands in surrender. ‘I give up.’

  The toast popped. Georgia poured boiling water into the mug and took her breakfast to the table where milk, butter, vegemite and marmalade still sat waiting.

  ‘I looked up Aaron’s name,’ she said. ‘I wondered why they pronounced it the way they did.’

  ‘I thought it was just some arty affectation.’ Abbie sat as well. ‘Being pretentious.’

  ‘I think it’s Arawn, a Celtic god of the underworld.’

  ‘Sounds about right. I wonder how he spelt it. I always assumed the normal way.’

  ‘Don’t know.’

  ‘I won’t come to Melbourne with you when you go. I should stay here and get myself sorted.’

  ‘Okay.’

  ‘It’ll be easier. Dealing with insurance and that sort of thing.’

  Georgia took a tiny bite from the corner of her vegemite toast. ‘Sure.’

  ‘You don’t mind?’

  ‘No, why would I? You’ll have heaps to do.’

  ‘I thought you … yesterday you seemed really happy that we could share a house. You wanted me to come to Melbourne.’

  ‘Yesterday was … we were all in shock. I wasn’t thinking properly. I’d just seen a friend die.’ Her eyes flicked up, read the reaction Abbie couldn’t hide. ‘She was a friend once … not that long ago.’

  Abbie nodded. ‘It’s horrible.’

  ‘I would like help when the baby comes,’ Georgia said. ‘But we don’t have to move in together tomorrow. Later. Whenever.’

  ‘Right.’ Second thoughts? Didn’t want her mother cramping her style?

  Georgia dunked the tea bag up and down then deposited it carefully on the side of her toast plate.

  Abbie’s head thrummed with things she wanted to say but couldn’t, not in the face of this shutdown. If she kept on, they’d end up where they were before. Not speaking at all.

  ‘Have you told Aunt Susan?’ Georgia studied her, piece of toast suspended on the way to her mouth.

  That was the last thing she expected to be asked, and calling her sister hadn’t entered her head as a course of action. Phoning the insurance company was on top of her list. That said everything about their relationship.

  ‘No.’

  ‘Will you?’

  ‘I hadn’t thought of it …’

  Georgia took a bite of toast. Impossible to tell whether her answer was acceptable or not. Too bad. Abbie stood up abruptly.

  ‘I need to get myself organised.’

  ‘Use my car if you need to.’

  ‘Thanks but this will be phone stuff.’

  ‘Ben and I are moving to the pub today. We fixed it up last night.’

  ‘Did Rupe tell you to?’

  ‘No. We want to.’

  Her expression didn’t invite questions.

  ***

  After a session with the insurance company during which Abbie discovered that they couldn’t do anything about
her house until it was cleared by the police as a crime scene, but that her car insurance did cover a replacement hire vehicle for a few days, she phoned Marlene to thank her for the clothes.

  ‘We have a room here if you need it,’ she said. ‘For as long as you like.’

  ‘That’s very kind, thank you, but I’ll need to find somewhere relatively long-term, I think.’

  ‘So you’ll be staying in Taylor’s Bend? That’s good news. We were wondering if you’d hightail it out of here back to the city. No-one could blame you if you did after what’s happened. Give Kylie a call. She said her neighbours are moving out soon. They’re looking to rent so you might be able to get in first. Not that there’ll be much competition. It’s across the road from her house. The white one with the dark blue guttering.’

  ‘Okay thanks. I will.’ Kylie from the book group. Abbie couldn’t recall the house but anything would do for a while.

  ‘Word is they were a couple of drug addicts on the rampage. Terrible to think people like that are roaming about.’ Marlene was back with Kaelee and Aaron, not Kylie’s neighbours.

  ‘Oh! Goodness, I’m not sure they were drug addicts …’

  ‘Well they must have been on something to attack Rita and do what they did to you. Then turn on each other. Drugs do that to young people, you hear about it all the time on the news—cracked ice, that what it’s called, or something like that anyway. Terrible, simply terrible.’

  ‘Yes.’

  Abbie put the phone down after the call with a mixture of relief that the grapevine hadn’t figured out there was a personal connection and astonishment that the gap had been filled with drugs. She opened her bedroom door and headed for the station office at the front.

  Rupe was alone, sitting at his desk working at the computer. He looked up with a smile.

  ‘How did it go with the insurance?’

  She filled him in on the details. ‘I’ll ask Georgia to take me to Wagga to collect the hire car. Marlene offered me a room for as long as I like. She’s so kind. Everyone is. Do you know the word is that Kaelee and Aaron were a couple of drug addicts gone on a crazed ice rampage?’

  Rupe smiled. ‘What did you say?’

  ‘Nothing except that I didn’t think they were drug addicts. No-one knows the real link.’

  ‘They won’t ever hear it from me.’

  ‘I know. Thank you.’

  ‘It will come out though. The press will be onto it pretty fast.’

  ‘All the more reason for me to move into my own place. Imagine what they’d make of me being here.’

  ‘You’d be a sitting duck on your own somewhere. They have to go through me if you stay here.’

  ‘Rupe, they’ll drag up our past. All that horrible mess … I won’t be able to look anyone in town in the eye ever again. They’ll all know I’ve lied to them all this time.’

  ‘You haven’t lied.’ Rupe stood up and moved to where she stood by the door. ‘You’ve kept your private life private. Who knows what personal secrets people have in this place. You have friends here who’ll stand by you.’

  ‘Maybe I should tell them. First—before it comes out in lurid detail in print.’

  ‘You could. But wait a bit until the case is closed.’ He touched her cheek gently. ‘You might be surprised, Abbie. People don’t like outsiders coming in and asking prying questions about their friends and neighbours. Especially if it’s about someone they like and respect.’

  ‘But they gossip about everyone.’

  ‘But that’s within the community. It’s different if outsiders come in and start poking about.’

  Was he right? Had she been here long enough for that to apply? Time would tell.

  ‘Marlene said Kylie Jackson’s neighbours are looking to rent out their house soon.’

  He nodded. ‘The Groves. I heard Bill got a job in Albury. A year-long contract.’

  ‘A year? That would work for me if I bulldoze and rebuild.’

  ‘Will you?’

  ‘It’s the only option if I stay in town. I love my block of land.’

  ‘I guess so.’ Was that a pleased glint in his eye? He turned away. ‘I have some information here for victims of crime and trauma.’ He picked up a little bundle of pamphlets. ‘For all three of you. You might not want it now but later. PTSD can creep up on you.’

  Abbie nodded and took the papers.

  The main door opened.

  ‘Good morning.’ DS McGrath walked in followed by her faithful second-in-command. ‘We have the fingerprint results from the knife.’

  ‘That was quick,’ said Abbie.

  ‘This is a murder investigation. Would you ask Georgia to join us, please?’

  Abbie went to knock on the bedroom door but Ben and Georgia were already in the doorway.

  ‘Good morning, Georgia, Ben. I need to ask you some more questions,’ DS McGrath said. ‘But I can tell you that Georgia’s prints were found on the handle of the knife along with those of Aaron and others as yet unidentified. Georgia, can you tell me how you held the knife, please, when you picked it up?’

  Georgia stepped over to Rupe’s desk and picked up a pen with her thumb and forefinger, dangling it tip down. ‘I held it by the end of the handle but it was slippery and a bit heavy and I dropped it when Ben said to.’

  DS McGrath shared a glance with the other detective. ‘I see. Thank you. The way the prints lay in connection with the blood on the handle gives a clear indication of who held the knife to stab with it.’

  ‘It wasn’t me.’

  ‘No.’

  ‘So you believe us now?’ demanded Abbie.

  ‘We needed to be sure. Now, I do need to ask Georgia to clarify some more details.’ Her tight little professional smile was expectant, waiting. Abbie knew when to take a hint. She nudged Ben out the door with her as she left.

  Chapter 21

  Just as Rupe expected, the media arrived in force with cameras and questions and pushy reporters surmising in all directions about motives and what had gone on in the minds of the two deranged young people. Inevitably the connection was made with Abbie’s husband but the interest lay more in the tragedy of their short lives, with Aaron emerging as the villain and Kaelee the victim, once again, of male perversion.

  Abbie gave one short interview to the media with Rupe beside her on the steps of the police station, speaking softly but clearly of her sadness with the way events had transpired and that she held no bitterness towards either Kaelee or Aaron despite having lost her home because of them. She was far more forgiving than he was. What they’d done to her and Georgia infuriated him.

  ‘It was just a house. They both lost their lives,’ she said in her statement. ‘And it shouldn’t have happened. They needed help.’

  When she said that, he had to grit his teeth to stop from adding his opinion. She was right of course, the help should have come when Kaelee was a child and in an ideal world that would have happened. But it didn’t because the world was a cruel place for many children. And it didn’t excuse what she’d done.

  What was really upsetting was that Abbie readily forgave Kaelee but was still unwilling to forgive him his reluctance to voice immediate belief in Georgia’s innocence? Why could she forgive that pair but not him? Maybe time would make the difference.

  Georgia and Ben escaped to Melbourne early on Saturday morning, avoiding the bulk of the invasion, and when Georgia called that evening she reported no-one had turned up on her doorstep wanting an interview.

  Then, after a couple of days, it was over and by Monday Taylor’s Bend had resumed normal life while the nation’s interest turned to more scandalous behaviour by politicians in one of the major parties.

  Abbie had taken Rupe’s advice and remained at the police station, but at breakfast on Tuesday she said the inevitable.

  ‘I have to move out, Rupe.’

  He’d been expecting it but hoping she’d let the situation linger on. Having her in the house had brightened his life regardless o
f the reason. She’d only been in his spare room for a few days but to him it seemed as though she’d been there forever, a fixture in his home and his life. He liked eating meals together, liked seeing her in the mornings. Liked her around. Wanted her to stay. It wasn’t just the company, it was her company.

  ‘You don’t have to,’ he said.

  ‘I do, Rupe. There’s no need for me to be here now. If I stay longer it’ll look as though …’

  ‘What?’

  ‘As though there’s something going on between us.’

  ‘Is there?’

  ‘No, but that doesn’t stop the speculation.’

  He couldn’t stop the smile. ‘We could give them something …’

  ‘No.’ Abbie pushed her chair back abruptly, a frown creasing her forehead. ‘No.’

  ‘Joke. Sorry.’ Bloody idiot, stomping in with two left feet.

  She remained where she was, didn’t stand up. ‘You know I find you very attractive, Rupe …’

  He didn’t wait for the ‘but’, if he didn’t jump in before she spoke her words would make her unspoken thoughts true. Fact. He spoke fast, barely thinking, letting the words tumble onto the table between them. Words he hadn’t known were ready to be voiced.

  ‘When Rita interrupted us that day … when I kissed you, it was the first time I’d really wanted to kiss a woman since my wife died. I’ve wanted to kiss you again ever since but then … well …’ He grimaced.

  ‘Yes,’ she murmured.

  She hadn’t left the room in disgust so he continued, but slower, more thought filtering into the sentences. ‘Anyway. Having you here … in my home. I’ve loved it. The other morning I watched you painting for ages before you stopped. I couldn’t interrupt, didn’t want to break the spell.’

  ‘I didn’t know.’

  ‘I know you didn’t but that’s not the point, Abbie.’ He leaned forward wanting to reach across and take her hand. Not daring to try.

  ‘What is the point?’

  ‘The point is I think I’m falling in love with you. No, wrong. Sometime in the last few weeks I have fallen in love with you.’

  Her silence crippled the words forming in his mind. Her expression was blank, unreadable. Terrifyingly so. His pulse thudded in his ears.