“It’s about this letter,” I said, spreading it out in front of the grate. He would have to lean forward and look through the steel grating to look at it, and it would be difficult for him to read from that angle. But I was willing to hand it in as evidence if need be. I’d already taken a photo of it with my phone. I was surprised the police hadn’t already taken it off me for evidence.
Sergeant Wells never gave much away. On that day, his face was as blank as ever.
“That’s been looked at,” he said simply.
“I know,” I said. “But it needs more than just looking at, doesn’t it? It requires some sort of action!” I hadn’t meant for my tone to get heated, but I just didn’t know what it was going to take for the police to do something about it. Maybe I would actually have to yell, if that’s what it took to get results.
He raised his eyes a little and stared at me. Both hands were laced in front of him. He wasn’t a huge guy in terms of height, but he had bulging biceps. And with his face of steel, he could look intimidating for sure.
For the first time, there was a hint of expression on his face—and it was one of disdain. “We allocate resources to things that require it. This is a stretch,” he said, “since there is nothing we can do.”
“Well, can’t you at least dust it for fingerprints?” I asked. “Even after fifty years underground, there must still be some kind of evidence on it…”
“I can assure you, Miss Foulkes, that we are taking that letter with as much seriousness as it warrants.” He unlaced his hands and folded his arms across his chest instead.
I knew what that meant. I folded it up and put it back in my pocket. At that stage, I was feeling so angry and frustrated that tears were welling up in my eyes. “Don’t say I didn’t try to warn you… You will be sorry for this, you know.”
His eyes followed me as I walked out the door.
5
Alyson
“Surprise!” ten different people shouted at me as I entered the door of Matt’s house.
I dropped the bouquet of flowers I had brought for Mum and Dad and watched them crash to the floor. It looked like I had brought about eight bouquets less than I needed to.
I was shocked. Speechless. This was a full-on Foulkes reunion. Not just my mum and dad like I had been told, but all my aunts and uncles who lived in England and Europe and several of my cousins. And of course, Matt and J were there as well. Matt had a sneaky grin on his face—not a look of shock and surprise like I must have had.
“Did you know about this?” I asked Matt, who was busy handing around finger food to all the guests. No wonder he had been so nervous about impressing everyone. I thought he was worrying far too much about what Mum and Dad thought about the state of the carpet. I just couldn’t figure out how everyone was going to fit in his house overnight. He only had the one spare room, not including J’s room.
“Mum!” I ran over and hugged her so tight that she let out a little yelp. Mum and I had always been extra close. She would never admit this, but I was her favorite child over Matt and Maggie. “I have missed you so much!”
“It was such a hassle getting everyone on the plane and organizing all the tickets.” Mum said. “So sorry we missed the time capsule opening.”
I felt like the letter was burning a hole in my pocket. “Ah, don’t worry, there are still plenty of birthday celebrations all week!”
There was, as well. Even though the big party and the time capsule had all been two days earlier, the actual centenary celebrations were taking place over the whole two weeks. There were still several BBQs and activities and even a football match the following day that the entire town was invited to take part in. And even though it was not my thing at all, I knew that Mum would like the special exhibit at the museum that was showcasing one hundred years of history of Eden Bay. Maybe I could convince Matt to take her to that one.
“So?” Mum asked. “What do you think to see everyone here again?”
“Wow.” I was a little overwhelmed to look around and see so many familiar faces. Well, familiar in the fact that their faces were literally familiar. Foulkes tended to have big noses and freckled skin and I could see a lot of those around. But some of these cousins and aunts I had never actually met in person before.
My Great Aunt Daisy, who I had not seen since I was a baby, reached out and gave me a warm embrace as though no time had passed at all. “And you still have these ringlets!” Great Aunt Daisy had been living in England since just after I was born. She was one of the relatives that Mum and Dad had originally gone to visit. I just never thought they’d bring these relatives back with them in their luggage!
Matt got out the photo album and we laughed at a photo of me when I was seven years old with German Measles and had missed out on a school outing and was looking very sorry for myself. And one where Matt was looking like a little drowned rat when I had pushed him into a river during a family camping trip. He looked a little embarrassed as he turned that page. Even though he was my older brother, and had always been bigger than me, I had somehow found the strength to push him into the water.
“Come on, J. Come and take a look at your Uncle Matt when he was your age!” I called out, waving her over. But she just shook her head and went back to playing a game on her phone, which she was not supposed to do at certain hours after school including this one. I shot Matt a look to ask, what is going on with her?
“I think J is just a little overwhelmed,” Matt said. “All these people claiming to be family, most of which she has never met…”
I suddenly realized what must have been bumming J out. Poor kid. Here we all were taking part in a family reunion, but her own mum was not there. Mum had pulled me aside when I’d arrived and said that Maggie’s flight had been cancelled.
But my mum promised J that she would be there later on in the week. I’d thought that would cheer J up, but she only got more sullen after that.
As Matt and I were cleaning up later that night—well, he was doing the dishes, I was just supervising—I had to ask him something that had been bothering me all evening. I’d tried not to let it, but I just had to ask him. “Did you think it was strange that Mum and Dad sat at opposite ends of the couch while we were looking at the photos? And when we were eating, they didn’t really look at each other.”
Matt looked puzzled. “I didn’t notice anything was off. I think all these mysteries that you have been solving have gone to your brain. You need to stop being so paranoid.” He ruffled my hair the same way he used to when we were kids.
“You’re right. After six months traveling together, they were probably just enjoying the company of other humans for a change!”
I told myself that nothing was the matter. But when I left a little later that evening, after J had gone to sleep, I noticed that the present that Mum and Dad have given her was still sitting there, unwrapped, on her dresser.
I was having a very pleasant dream where I was winning a grand surfing competition. There were clear blue skies, an ocean that extended into infinity, and a roaring crowd cheering my name as the medal was wrapped around my neck. I was not only best surfer of the day, or best surfer of that year, I was best surfer of all time. The man who wrapped the medal around my neck—he didn’t really have a face—shook my hand firmly. “This includes every planet in this galaxy.” I was just standing there on the podium, thinking, I knew it.
But then there was a banging coming from the waves and I couldn’t figure out why my brother Matt was calling me. I looked out over the surf and worried he was drowning or caught in a rip when I couldn’t see him.
Then I was awake.
I glanced at my phone charging by my bed. There were nineteen missed calls from Matt. And now a banging on my door.
My stomach was lurching as I ran toward the door. Something was up. I tripped on one of the uneven floorboards and lunged right toward the door right as it opened. I fell right on top of Matt. He must have finally used the spare key he had. Must hav
e taken a while for him to find it.
I’d only just managed to not fall and hit my face, but Matt didn’t care about that.
“J is missing. I thought she would be here.”
“W—what?” I called out her name and raced through the apartment, but there was no sign of her.
Still in my pajamas, I ran back to Matt. “What do you mean, missing?” She’d been there when I left. I’d seen the unopened present and her sound asleep.
Matt was racing through my place, searching, just in case I’d happened to miss her. “She was there when I went to bed. I stuck my head into her room like I always do, at about ten-thirty. But then when I got up to get a glass of water at around two, I saw that the front door was open. And J wasn’t in her room.”
Okay. Right. This would have been a reasonable time for me to go into a complete and utter panic. I could feel it rising in my chest. Matt was already there by the looks of it.
But when one person is in a panic, it is up to the other person to stay calm. You can’t have both people panicking or nothing would ever get done. I felt a sense of calm come over me as I thought about what to do next. At the very least, I had to try and calm Matt down. He was still pacing, checking under cushions. J was small, but she wasn’t that small.
“She couldn’t have gone too far,” I said, sounding sensible, even though inside I was thinking about just how far she could have gone. She was a smart kid. She could have skated down to the bus station and caught a bus to anywhere. She could be on the other side of NSW by then, for all we knew. And that was if we were lucky.
“Well, Mum and Dad are in the motel,” I said. Matt only had one spare room, and in the end, he had given it to our Great Aunt Daisy, since she was the oldest and it seemed like the right thing to do. Mum and Dad said they had been traveling and staying in motels so long that a few more nights weren’t going to hurt them. “She might have just gone to visit her grandparents. Have you called them to ask if anyone has seen her?”
Matt shook his head and glared at me like that was a stupid idea. “I don’t want to frighten them.”
I sighed. “We have to phone them, Matt.” Yes, it might scare them. But finding J was more important. I pulled out my cell phone.
But it was almost 3 am and none of them were picking up. That meant we had to hurry on over to the Dolphin (F)Inn in person. I pulled a robe on over my pajamas and shoved on a pair of sneakers while Matt phoned the police on the way.
Mum and Dad had given him their room number, so he searched for it while I used the flashlight from my phone to guide us. I felt massively creepy, like I was trespassing. There was no security at the motel and anyone could just walk into the parking lot and access any of the levels. We went up to the second and by the time we reached the top, I was still surprised that no one had stopped us.
I shone the light on the room number that Matt had stopped in front of.
Matt asked me if he should just knock.
“Of course you should!”
But he was still concerned about frightening them for some reason. “It’s not like J could have snuck into one of their rooms,” he pointed out. “And she’s not here outside.”
“Don’t underestimate what J is capable of,” I said, stepping past him so that I could bang on the door myself.
Mum appeared at the door in a bathrobe. “What is it?”
Then the door next door opened, and my dad was standing there in the doorway. “What on earth are you two doing here at this time of night?”
I just stared up at Matt in shock. Mum and Dad were in separate rooms.
Matt put his phone away. “They want us to come into the station right away and give them a photo of her. The police have already listed her as missing.”
But I had a better idea. “I think I know where she might be. Can you trust me?”
Matt hesitated for a moment before nodding. “Yeah, okay.”
The sun was starting to rise by that time, and we were back at the park that overlooked the beach. I took a deep breath. Neither Mum nor Dad had seen J, and I had stormed out of there before they could try to explain to me what the two separate rooms thing was about.
“I’ll text them an image,” Matt said, following me. Luckily, Matt had been the one to speak to the police because I might not have been so polite after my earlier encounter with them. And I didn’t see a single police car out that morning helping to search. Once again, it was up to me to get things done in this town.
“There!” I said, pointing to the skatepark. “Does that look like it could be her?” I hoped it wasn’t just wishful thinking.
There was a J-like shape sitting on the top of the half-pipe.
“Oh, thank gosh,” I whispered as we ran toward the skatepark. It was still a little dark and I tripped over a tree root as I ran, passing a woman walking a dog in the early morning—the dog barked at me wildly as I ran past. I probably looked quite the sight, fleeing through the park in my rocket pajamas with my robe flapping wildly behind me.
I had to climb up to the top to reach J. She saw both of us approach but pretended she didn’t. “What are you doing here J?” I tried to keep my voice calm, as though I might scare her away again if I spoke too loudly or crossly, but my brother didn’t have quite the same idea.
Matt gave her a big lecture about how he trusted her and how terrified everyone had been after she ran off in the middle of the night like that. “I expected better from you, J.”
But J just pouted and stared at the ground, her legs dangling over the edge of the half-pipe. She didn’t say anything.
It looked like it was up to me to play good cop. “She’s your responsibility now,” Matt said throwing his hands up. “I am due at work in half an hour. With almost zero sleep, by the way.”
J just glared at him as he walked away.
“Come on, champ,” I said, helping her to her feet. “Matt is just grumpy because he missed his morning cartoons,” I said, smiling. “So, do you want to tell me what you were doing out here all night?”
J shook her head. Then shrugged. “Just felt like it.”
Yeah, well, I just felt like laying around on the couch and eating cereal all day, but it didn’t mean I actually did it. Well. Sometimes I did. But that wasn’t the point. What J had done was dangerous, and she didn’t seem to even realize it. Maybe Matt and I did go too easy on her at times. Especially me. Matt was more of the strict ‘parent’ and I was more of the fun one, the one who never had the heart to punish her. But it had been hard ever since Maggie had gotten ill and Matt and I had been left to raise her. Fun parent was the best I could manage sometimes. But sneaking off at night was pushing my good nature too far. This time, I was going to have to give her some kind of punishment.
“Do I have to go to school today?” J asked. She looked up at me and yawned for good measure.
I sighed. Considering she had been up all the night without any sleep, she wouldn’t exactly be in the best state to learn anything. But I didn’t feel like letting her get the day off school was a good idea. It was only rewarding bad behavior.
“Yes.”
She pouted and ran away across the park. “I hate you!” she called out. “No one cares about what I want!”
“J, come back!”
I had to chase her across the park. Oh, she was definitely going to school that day.
6
Claire
The clock was ticking. “Four days to go,” I murmured, staring at the calendar. It had come out so absentmindedly that I hadn’t even noticed I’d uttered it. Outside there was music coming from a street busker, and there were still balloons and signs hanging from most of the shop fronts celebrating 100 years of Eden Bay. Even though the crowd had been a little horrified and amused by Alyson’s letter at the time, most of the people in the town had forgotten about it by then. Just as I had tried to. But it was a funny thing when you tried not to think about something—it only made you think about it more.
“Till what?�
�� Maria asked, bumbling past with a box full of donated books that I was unhappy about having to store. Most of them would have absolutely no resale value so I told her to put them all in the library bin where people could take books for free. I’d kind of stuck my nose up in the air when I did so and then sneezed at all the dust that came flying up from the box.
But Maria thought we were performing a community service.
“Um, four days to go till my next hairdresser appointment,” I said, not wanting to sound too insane. Except that I’d just made myself sound insane by counting down to a hair salon appointment. Maria knew about the letter, of course. Everyone in the town knew about it. It was just that no one was taking it seriously except Alyson Foulkes.
Yet why was I so focused on the time that morning?
“It looks like you have your hands full with those books, Maria,” I said, trying not to sneeze again, wishing I had never allowed her to bring them into my shop. “I might have to duck out for a bit of fresh air I think, while you dust them off!”
I made a mental note to return to the bookshop with some scented candles.
Normally, Alyson is one of the most vibrant and youthful-acting people I know. We are the same age, but most people would think she was a few years younger. But on that day as I approached her on the shore, her hair was limp against her back and there were dark wrinkles under her eyes. Strange. She almost looked old enough to have received that time capsule letter for real.
“You look terrible!” I said, shocked by how tired she looked.
“Thanks,” Alyson muttered as she pulled on her wetsuit and kind of tried to stand up before sitting back down again. I glanced around at her collection of half-painted surfboards. Alyson worked as a surfboard designer. Her paint box hadn’t even been cracked open that day. It didn’t seem as though she had done any work at all.
A Time for Murder Page 3