Eliza shook her head. She still found it hard to understand how Chris could let young kids wander around in the bush and talk to strangers. That never would have happened in Jindabyne or out on the snowfields, no matter the time of the year. Even in the short time she’d lived at Blinman, she’d noticed the differences between the two places—everyone here was very laid-back and casual. There was a fiercely strong sense of community, independence, and everyone’s spirit was equally strong.
‘When I was a kid, Mum had a cowbell she would ring to get us to come back,’ Chris said. ‘We’d be miles away, out on the station, riding the horses or up to mischief of some sort, and we’d hear the bell and have to head straight home. She’d give us half an hour and if we weren’t back in that time and she had to come looking for us, Dad would tan our arses.’
Just as he finished, there was a clattering of feet and two small humans tumbled through the door, chattering over the top of one another.
‘Dad, we found a goanna’s nest!’
‘I found the goanna’s nest, not you.’
‘It’s over at the bottom of Bailey’s hill.’
‘No, it’s not, it’s more towards the creek on the other side.’
The babbling stopped as soon as they saw a strange woman standing in the kitchen.
Two sets of wide brown eyes looked curiously at Eliza, and wild, tangled hair tumbled out from dusty caps. Both girls were wearing sturdy boots, jeans and T-shirts.
‘Hello,’ the older one said. ‘I’m Heidi.’
Chris calmly pushed over the drinks and a plate of biscuits.
‘Hello, Heidi, I’m Eliza,’ she responded and put out her hand so Heidi could shake it if she wanted to. She was pleased when the little girl slipped her hand into hers.
Turning towards Tilly, she smiled at her inquisitive look. ‘Hello, Tilly, I’m Eliza.’
Shyly, Tilly extended her hand. Eliza assumed it was one thing to talk to strangers outdoors and another to have one inside her own home. A female stranger, at that.
Chris finally spoke. ‘Girls, Eliza is coming to give you a hand with your schoolwork.’
‘Ugh, Daaadd,’ Heidi groaned. ‘You know I want to be outside with you.’
‘I know, princess, but you’ve got to do your schoolwork if you want to be a park ranger too. I had to do mine when I was growing up. It’s a right bugger, but you have to be able to write to fill in all the forms and documentation there are.’
Heidi sighed before looking back at Eliza.
‘Are you a teacher?’
Eliza caught herself before she said yes and coughed slightly to cover it. ‘Sort of,’ she said. ‘I’ve worked with children, so I know how to help you with all of your lessons.’
‘Can you do maths?’ Tilly asked.
Smiling, Eliza nodded. ‘Although it’s not my favourite subject. What’s yours, Tilly?’
‘I like the singing and rhyming.’
‘I see from your book you’ve got a really interesting project coming up, about interviewing an older person. Who do you think you might talk to?’
‘My nana,’ Tilly said proudly. ‘She’s so old. Nana’s nearly ninety!’ she chanted and Eliza laughed.
‘Is she really?’
‘It’s a chant I made up. Is Nana nearly ninety, Dad?’
‘Not for a while yet, honey, but you’re right. She’s quite old.’
Eliza took a sip of the coffee Chris put in front of her.
‘Where are you going to sleep?’ Heidi asked as she pushed a biscuit into her mouth.
Eliza fought the urge to take her hand gently and ask her to take smaller mouthfuls.
‘I’m going to be driving down from Blinman a couple of days a week. Do you think that will be okay?’
‘I guess so.’
‘Tell me about this goanna nest you found,’ Chris said, looking at the two girls.
‘Oh, it’s really cool, Dad. I found it in a hollow log. I could see there were tracks going into it, so I had a look.’
‘Did you actually bend down and look in it?’ Eliza asked, trying to keep the alarm out of her voice. ‘Aren’t they dangerous? What about snakes?’
‘Only if you don’t know how to deal with them,’ Heidi answered scornfully. Then she looked at Chris and rolled her eyes. ‘It’s too cold in the early morning for snakes yet, but,’ she conceded, ‘it’d be a good place for them to hibernate during winter.’
Eliza could almost hear her thinking Where did you find this one, Dad? She made a mental note not to question Heidi about any of her antics. Or at least not to show she was concerned.
‘There were a couple of eggs in the nest.’
‘Were there?’ Chris asked. ‘Are you sure they were good? It’s quite late in the season for them.’
‘I think so. Plus, the tracks were fresh, Dad. Why would they be going in there unless the eggs were okay?’
‘Good point.’
Eliza turned to Chris as she put down her empty coffee cup. ‘What time would you like me to be here?’
‘The lessons start about nine-thirty, so before then. I won’t be around. Tomorrow is the day I’ve gotta empty all the rubbish bins and clean up the camping sites.’ Chris made a face.
‘Ah, the glamorous life of a park ranger.’
‘Something like that. Usually, I take these two twerps with me, but,’ he turned to the girls, ‘you’ll both be head down, bum up, working really hard on your schoolwork, won’t you?’
Heidi rolled her eyes. ‘Okay, Dad. But you know I don’t like school.’
‘I know, honey.’ He reached over and ruffled her hair.
Tilly moved closer to Eliza. ‘I like school,’ she said in a quiet voice.
Eliza turned to her. ‘You and I will get along really well, then. I like school too.’
Chapter 8
Dominic stared into the fire, his fingers clenched around a glass of red wine. It was taking all his self-control to sit there like nothing was churning inside him, that he wasn’t burning with anger and hurt pride.
Taking another swig, he threw himself out of the chair and paced the length of the room. His eyes never strayed from the wedding photo that hung on the wall.
He remembered clearly how he’d told her she was his now and warned her never to try to leave him.
Damn! The small amount of love he’d felt for this woman had made him give her a hint of what could happen. He didn’t want to be in a situation where he had to hurt her, dammit.
‘Fucking hell, Ashleigh,’ he almost whined. ‘Why didn’t you listen to me?’
How had she managed it without him realising? Why hadn’t she been as frightened of him as she should have been? That was how he controlled all the people he needed. There was a skeleton in every closet, and skeletons, as he’d found, were very useful tools to have.
Ashleigh must have planned it, he’d decided. It must have been in the wind for some time before she actually left, but how was she surviving? And money? Staying hidden cost money. She couldn’t work, unless she had false papers. None of it made any sense to him. The money she had stolen from his top drawer wouldn’t have kept her going for very long.
He squeezed the glass tighter, then stared at it as it shattered in his grip. Blood and red wine mingled, and dripped from his fingers.
‘Bitch!’ exploded from his mouth.
He went to the kitchen, deposited what was left of the glass in the bin and rinsed his hand in the kitchen sink. Though the darkened window had spots of rain on it, he could see his reflection. He stared at himself, knowing how much he looked like his father.
His Italian heritage was strong in his features—wavy dark hair and eyes that were almost black.
The reflection stared back at him, the eyes never leaving his. He knew the coldness in them; he’d seen it before.
When he found Ashleigh, he would make her regret leaving him—that he was sure of.
When Dominic was growing up, he had idolised his father, Nunzio. It had been i
ngrained in him that he would take over Nunzio’s business interests once he became too old to manage them, or died. Much to Dominic’s ire, his sister had been installed as the caretaker of the business until he proved himself.
Having a devious streak, he’d explored options and businesses that had taken him in a different direction from his father’s. He would let nothing get in the way of building his empire. He was ruthless and had no problems breaking the law. In the old country, that was accepted.
To do that, he’d needed a beautiful wife at his side. After all, if he wasn’t married, people might wonder why, and being unattached also brought unwanted attention from single women. As an upstanding member of the community, it was useful for him to have someone to take to dinners and other events.
However, he needed a wife who was submissive, silent—and loyal. The only way Dominic knew how to make people stay true to him was to hold something over them. Ashleigh had been taught that right from the start but, to his surprise, he’d underestimated her.
For that, Ashleigh would pay.
He heard a knock and tore himself away from the window. Wrapping a towel around his hand, he went to answer the door.
Simon stood there, rain dripping from his hat. ‘G’day, Dom,’ he said, before stopping and looking down at Dominic’s hand.
‘It’s nothing,’ said Dominic, dismissing his inquisitive look. ‘Don’t stand out there on the street. Hurry, come inside. What have you found out?’ He shut the door firmly behind the policeman.
Dominic noted Simon looked nervous as he followed him into the lounge room, and how he stared at the glass fragments and blood on the floor.
‘Do you have any news?’
‘No. I’m sorry, Dom, there’s nothing. It’s like she’s disappeared off the face of the earth.’
Dominic straightened and sharply drew in a breath. ‘That can’t be. She can’t outsmart us.’
‘Every police officer in Australia knows she’s missing. They know not to approach her, just as you asked, because of her mental instability.’ He stopped for a moment. ‘Dom, I don’t know how you’re going to prove that, when you do find her. Ashleigh’s stable. There isn’t a doctor in this country who would say otherwise.’
‘I’ll find someone who’ll say that she isn’t,’ Dominic answered. ‘Our friend the local doctor should have already modified her medical records.’
Simon nodded. He took a breath, then asked: ‘Are you sure there isn’t any family she knows about? Somewhere safe she could have run to?’
‘I’ve told you. She has no one. I have personally gone back through her history. She was dropped at the church with nothing but her name. That was why she was perfect. No family, and her foster family don’t have anything to do with her. The mother is dead now, anyway. She was a loner. A few friends, but ones who wouldn’t be hard to get her to lose contact with; I made that happen. No one was going to miss her. The only information I found on her—her birth certificate—I’ve got under lock and key. Not that it will tell her anything. There’s no names on it at all.’ Dominic strode over to the bar and poured himself another glass of wine. ‘Want one?’ he asked, the bottle hovering over an empty glass.
Simon accepted.
‘What about some other identifying factor? A tattoo or jewellery, or something. Give me something else I can look for. It’s easy to change your appearance, but not tattoos or birthmarks. Not without money.’
Dominic stared into the fire, his mind racing. ‘Do you think she was smart enough to change her appearance?’ he asked.
‘Yeah, I do. If there was anyone around who even slightly resembled her, there would have been a sighting somewhere. We get sightings of people all the time and it turns out just to be someone who resembles the person who’s missing.
‘I really thought we were going to be able to follow her when the cops from Cooma reported her refuelling. If she’s clever enough to change her numberplates, she’s certainly clever enough to change the way she looks.’
Dom’s eyes narrowed at the thought he’d been outsmarted. He whirled around to face Simon.
‘Okay, do a composite drawing of her with different-coloured hair, shorter hair, longer hair. Fatter, thinner. That sort of shit. Whatever it takes.’
Simon shrugged helplessly. ‘I can’t. You’ll have to go higher than me if you want to do that. It’s been over two months, Dom. You know the search has been scaled down. We’ve been through everything—her computer, her phone records, bank accounts. She obviously knows to use cash wherever she is. I’ve investigated the option that she was talking to someone online who may have helped her, but that hasn’t paid off. She can’t be working unless it’s for cash or she’s got false papers, but no one I know who makes false papers has heard of her. It was another dead end.’
‘I’ll pay for another TV appearance.’
‘You can try. But it won’t make any difference to the police department.’
‘Then I’ll pay for a private investigator and more investigative work than you can do. He can work without restrictions.’ Dominic knew he sounded desperate but he didn’t care.
Simon nodded. ‘You can try that too. But whoever you get won’t have as much pull as I do. They won’t have a badge. But, sure, he can knock on doors in other towns. I can’t, because I have to be here.’
Dominic couldn’t hold back his anger anymore. He threw his glass at the stone wall. Flames hissed and flared as the drops of alcohol splashed onto the hearth and fuelled the fire.
‘Fucking bitch, how dare she? She’s brought my name into disgrace.’
Dominic spun around, his face still red with fury. He could feel the blood seeping from the cut on his hand, but he didn’t take any notice.
‘Jewellery,’ Dominic rasped, so furious he was barely able to speak.
Simon waited.
‘She has my mother’s engagement ring. It’s an heirloom and very distinctive.’
‘Okay. That’s a good idea,’ the policeman answered calmly. ‘We probably should’ve looked at that first off.’ He paused. ‘I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t be wearing it, though.’
Dominic clenched his fists and drew a deep, fuming breath.
‘But,’ Simon continued, ‘she might pawn it. Have you got a photo? I’ll alert the pawn dealers across the country. Hopefully, she hasn’t done it already.’
‘I’ll find one.’ Dominic stomped off to his office. There was a photo in the safe for insurance purposes. ‘She’s got to be living off something because I made sure she didn’t have any money of her own except for shopping. I invested her savings in shares in both our names so she couldn’t touch it without my approval.’
Dominic entered the code and pulled out a fire-safe box, then flicked through the photos and documents inside it. He stopped as he came across one of Nunzio and himself on his twenty-first birthday. It was taken only a week before his father was killed in a car accident, although Dominic knew it wasn’t an accident. It had taken four years for him to track down his father’s killer and avenge his death. It had been a slow and agonising punishment, with Dominic using pruning shears to chop off his toes one by one. He was about to start on the man’s hands before he got an admission that he had killed Nunzio. But the man’s confession hadn’t saved him. It hadn’t been hard to pile the body parts into a hollowed tree and pour acid over the remains. This was Dominic’s first murder.
It had all been done deep in the Kosciuszko National Park. The killer’s body had never been found and Dominic slept easily at night. After all, it did say in the Bible, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’
Now, though, he paid people to kill for him instead.
His mother, Maria, had died when he was three. His father had loved her so much he’d never looked at another woman, and had put all his efforts into raising the strongest son he could. He raised his daughter to be strong too, but Dominic preferred not to think about that.
His only aim was to keep making his papa happy, but
things hadn’t worked out the way he’d thought they would.
Now his chest tightened as he looked at the photo of his father. They were smiling, arms around each other’s shoulders, and Dominic knew how proud Nunzio was of him that day.
‘My boy,’ he’d said when they were alone in his office, ‘my boy, you are the image of me and my father. You have honoured our family tradition by being proud and strong. You will succeed in anything you try. I am more than satisfied with you.’ He’d clapped him on the shoulder and handed him the pocket watch that was always pinned inside his suit coat.
Dominic’s throat tightened at the memory. That had been before his sister had interfered.
His fingers searched through the box for the pocket watch. He kept it there, away from prying eyes. That was the trouble with living in a tourist town. There were plenty of people with light fingers.
He liked to hold the watch every so often and think of his father. It calmed him and, by hell, he needed calming at the moment.
What? It should be in between the share documents and birth certificates.
Wrinkling his brow, he searched again.
It wasn’t there.
Dominic reached inside the safe, pushing aside the gun and bullets. There was another box towards the back that held more family heirlooms.
He came up empty.
‘No,’ he muttered quietly. It was one thing to run from him, but another altogether to steal from him.
With a roar that brought Simon running, he emptied the safe onto the ground and searched through it.
‘That fucking slut,’ he snarled as he held up her engagement and wedding rings. ‘She’s taken my pocket watch and left her rings. ’
He looked up at Simon in shock. It was the final ‘fuck you’.
A thought hit him like a lightning bolt. He grabbed the box and started rifling through the papers in it. Ashleigh’s birth certificate, which he’d hidden for the past two years, had gone too.
Chapter 9
Maureen shut the door of the general store, locked it and gave a huge sigh. Her body ached and she was bone tired.
She hadn’t been able to believe her luck when Chris had brought Eliza in after she had crashed her car. Eliza’s help, in return for minimal board, meant Maureen could rest every afternoon. Her inability to get through a day without feeling like she needed to curl up and sleep was frustrating. At only forty-five, she still wanted to be out playing netball and walking, but that was only a distant dream. Maureen dragged her useless body over to a chair and sat down. Sometimes, during her darkest moments, when her body hurt more than she thought she could endure, she wished she’d just been killed in the car accident, along with her husband, Mike. Then Hamish would smile at her and all those thoughts would disappear.
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