“But you think she will be here?”
“I hope so.”
Alyson was always telling me that J had a terrible habit of pretending to have her earbuds in while she was playing a game on her iPad, but really just having it on silent and listening to what the adults were doing and saying, and that was what she was doing that night, much to Matt’s horror when he realized she had been listening to the whole conversation.
J was red-faced and looked like she was about to throw a tantrum. “Why don’t you just butt out of my business, Matt! You don’t know anything!”
I gulped a little and looked at Matt to see how he was going to react. I wished I was anywhere but that house at that moment, with two hot bowls of spaghetti burning my hands, unsure of which way to turn or run.
Matt tried to chase after J as she fled the kitchen. “Your mum will be here, J!”
She stopped and turned around. “But I don’t want her to!”
Matt and I just looked at each other as it suddenly dawned on each of us what J’s bad mood had really been about all this time. It wasn’t that she was upset that her mum wasn’t there. It was that she didn’t want her mum to come back.
“Everything will be different!” J cried out.
Matt placed an arm around her. “Nothing will change, J.”
“So I will still live here with you?” She looked up for reassurance. I noticed she didn’t say, “and also at Alyson’s,” but I wasn’t sure if that meant anything or not. She was distressed.
“If that is what you want.” Matt was still kneeling. “No one is going to make you live anywhere you don’t want.”
After a bit more reassurance and once the tears were dried, J finally ate her spaghetti and even agreed to go to bed at a decent time. I thought the tantrum had worn her out.
Matt looked wiped.
I took another chug of wine as we sat down on the sofa. “I think this is why I don’t have kids.”
“Aww, come on, you’ll be great at it,” he said with a grin. He reached over and sort of patted my leg a little bit. I didn’t know if it was the wine, or the fact that I had just seen him be so great with J, but I suddenly really, really wanted to kiss him. I shot him a long, lingering look that told him that I didn’t want him to move away from me; in fact, I wanted him to move closer.
He reached out and stroked the back of my neck before gently pulling me toward him. Then all of a sudden, I was kissing my best friend’s brother.
Uh-oh.
10
Alyson
Claire rang me to tell me again that it was no big deal. That I shouldn’t worry about it. Live my life, be free. Let it go. I hung up on her again. I didn’t want to hear it.
Sure, I could just let the whole thing go. But I was starting to get angry about it. Whichever way you looked at it, it was just a rude thing to do during the town’s birthday celebrations. This town had been through enough recently with the various shenanigans—murderers on the loose, shipwrecks, movie sets, a new construction site that was ruining the look of the town. Couldn’t we just have one week to celebrate everything wonderful about the town? Instead, we had this letter to deal with.
Hmm. Claire had actually sounded pretty strange on the phone when I thought about it. It wasn’t like her to tell someone else to just chill out and go with the flow. It was almost like she was hiding something. Anyway, I was sure she hadn’t been up to anything too salacious. She probably just got an exciting new shipment of hardback books into the shop and that was getting her all riled up.
Concentrate, Alyson.
I was back at the scene of the crime. It seemed fitting that it was a rare overcast day as I walked back to where the earth was still raw from being upturned. The hole had been filled in, of course, in case any children were running across the park and fell into it, but you could see the spot of fresh earth where the time capsule had been. I knelt down and ran my hand through it and shivered, almost like I was running my hand over the top of a grave.
The park was pretty empty because everyone was in town for the drawing of a raffle competition held by a local radio station that was being drawn in front of a shop on the main drag. First prize was a trip to Bali, and second prize was a meat plate with three hundred dollars’ worth of meat from the local butcher. Most people were probably more interested in the meat plate. After all, we already lived on the beach.
I frowned as I looked down at the ‘grave.’ It was strange. There was another spot a few feet away that also looked as though it had been dug up—or attempted to be dug—and there were little deposits of dirt all around it even though the original hole was filled in. Rabbits?
“Yes, I thought it was a little unusual too,” a gravelly voice called out and I jumped to my feet and spun around.
It was one of the men—the very old men—who Claire and I had shoved out of the way on the day the time capsule had been opened. He introduced himself as Clive. Oh, I thought, that was where I recognized the voice from. He hosted the golden oldies program on the local radio station. He played a lot of gospel music. Claire refused to listen to local radio, but I enjoyed it.
“Was this like this even before the time capsule was dug up?” I asked, pointing at the ground at the two spots, just to clarify what he was talking about. For all I knew, he could think anything about modern life in general was strange.
He frowned and leaned forward on his cane. “Yes. I remember thinking to myself that it was strange, as though the earth had already been pre-dug for us, that someone had come in and done the job for us. I felt a little patronized, to tell you the truth. I was perfectly capable of performing the task!”
I stopped. Actually, that made sense, right? Those two guys were old, it would make sense that someone would loosen up the soil first so that they would have an easier time. But there was something else I had to clarify.
“So, hang on… Not only was there this attempt at a hole here—” I pointed to the other one and kept my words slow so that he could keep up with me. Then I saw the look on his face and realized I was patronizing him. Which he hated. “But someone had actually dug up the spot where the capsule was?” Hmm. Almost like they’d been looking for it but missed it on the first go.
He nodded. “That’s right, dear.” He almost sounded like he was having to slow down and patronize ME.
“But who would have done that?” I asked
He shrugged a little, still leaning on his cane with both hands. “I suppose it was just someone from the council, trying to help out. No one has owned up to it, but I suppose they just don’t want to make me feel old and useless.”
I took a step toward him. “You’re not convinced, are you?”
He paused for a moment, then shook his head. And I had my answer. I’d still ring the council to make sure, but this was a real kick in the guts. Princess was right. Someone had tampered with the time capsule in the days before it had been officially dug up. Someone had put the letter in there recently. Not fifty years ago.
I pulled out my phone, about to tell my best friend about the horrible truth. But then I put it away again. I wasn’t quite ready to admit to Claire that she was right.
Maybe because I still wasn’t willing to admit it to myself.
11
Claire
I lay awake, staring at the ceiling. I checked the time again. 5am. I may as well just get up. Not much chance of any sleep now.
I just knew that I could never ever tell Alyson what had happened. This was going to have to be a secret I would take to my grave. Maybe I could write her a letter and put it in a time capsule and wait fifty years for her to dig it up. In fifty years’ time, her anger might die down. Oh, who was I kidding? She would still kill me.
I checked my phone. No new text from Matt. What had I been expecting? I put it away again and tried to close my eyes, hoping that some sleep would come.
But Nancy O’Malley was always up with the sparrows and when I heard bacon crackling in the pan, I couldn’t res
ist sticking my head into the kitchen. Oh my goodness. She had also made fresh hash browns. Not even frozen ones, but actual potatoes. I could see the peel in the sink. “Plenty to go around, dear!”
I gobbled up my hot, greasy breakfast—food was going to have to be my substitute for sleep that morning. And coffee. She filled me up a second cup and I gulped it down.
“Now look, I don’t mean this to come off the wrong way because I love having you here, dear, but when do you think you might feel safe enough to sleep in your own apartment again?”
I nibbled on a slice of sourdough bread toast and didn’t answer. Well. It all depended. If Alyson was right, and that letter really did come from fifty years ago, then I was probably fairly safe. I had decided that the most recent letter was probably just a copycat one. But if I was right, and the time capsule letter was a recent one, well, then that meant there might actually be some kind of psychopath on the loose.
Either way. I could probably go back to my apartment. Security at the Turtle Dove was pretty tight. And there had been no further threats. But I wasn’t quite ready yet.
“I think I might need another night or two. Just until the police give me some kind of reassurance…”
Nancy reached over and squeezed my hand. “Of course, dear, stay as long as you need,” she said, then got up to clear the dishes. But I could see her reflection in the window as she turned around to switch on the dishwasher. She was grimacing. Just a little. I was outstaying my welcome.
But where else could I go? There was no way, absolutely no way in the world, that I could stay at Matt’s house now. That bridge had been well and truly burned. Ha. Could you imagine showing up at the door of a guy you had kissed for the first time the night before and asking him if you could move in? There really would be a psychopath on the loose then—me.
I knocked on the door. My bags were slung over my shoulders. I just hoped that I was doing the right thing. It would be uncomfortable, but it was better than staying at Nancy’s and feeling unwelcome.
But Alyson welcomed me into the room. She was actually, literally jumping up and down with excitement. She’d already told me it was going to be exactly like the sleepovers we had when we were twelve years old. I hoped not. If I ate that amount of candy these days, I would puke.
“You can have J’s room!” she said brightly, even though it wasn’t really a ‘room’ as such, just a corner of the loft which was divided by a room divider for a bit of privacy. Then she turned to me and looked a little apologetic. “It’s not as nice as Nancy’s place, hey?”
I shrugged as I put my bags down on the floorboards and heard the floor creak. Well no, but nowhere was as nice as the Turtle Dove. It would be a real shame if I had to leave the place for good and start apartment hunting all over again.
Once the excitement had worn off a little, Alyson seemed a little distracted. But when I asked her about it, she said it was just family stuff. I nodded and hoped that she wouldn’t want to talk about it—Alyson’s family was kind of the very last topic I wanted to talk about on that day.
But Alyson did want to talk about it. She was upset about something that J had said. In fact, it was the reason she had spare space for me. “J wanted to stay at Matt’s all week,” she said with a sad little shrug. “I suppose that is fair enough with all the upheaval…”
But I was sure that it would have hurt Alyson’s feelings. As much as she was the fun cool parent, she loved J more than anyone in the world. J was like a little carbon copy of her. That must have been rough to hear.
I tried to turn the conversation to her favorite topic. “I was wondering if maybe we should track down some sort of writing expert. You know, to give us some clues about who might have written the letter.” I’d had a few ideas, actually. “And maybe we can door knock a little, show the letter to old people who would have been around at the time. See if the handwriting looks familiar to any of them.”
I was surprised that for once she didn’t want to talk about the letter. Usually, I couldn’t get her to shut up about it. “Maybe you were right,” she said. “Maybe we should just leave it to the police to deal with.” She put a pillow in a fresh pillowcase and then placed it down on the bed for me.
I noticed that her shoes were covered in dirt and jokingly—well, kind of jokingly—I asked her if maybe she wanted to remove them and place them by the front door.
She didn’t seem to think muddy shoes were a big deal. “Eh, it’s just from the park.”
“You were down at the park?” I asked. Not too much of a big deal, it was just that it wasn’t usually a spot she spent much time in.
“Yeah, just, ah…lost an earring down there.”
Yeah, right. Alyson didn’t even have her ears pierced.
Seemed like there was some sort of ghost haunting the park that evening. A very old ghost with a cane. The night was misty, which meant that we were going to have a clear, sunny day the following day. But in that moment, I shivered.
I used the flashlight on my phone and shone it right into the ghost’s eyes. Right. I did recognize him. He had been one of the two men digging up the time capsule. But what was he doing skulking around here at this time of the night?
I took a step closer and saw all the upturned dirt that was surrounding the time capsule hole. And then I saw what seemed like a second hole a foot away from the first one.
“Your friend was down here yesterday.”
I jumped for some reason when he spoke. I think I hadn’t expected for his voice to be so deep. “Was she now.” I just shook my head, shining my light onto the ground. “And did she see these two holes?”
He nodded. “Oh yes…” His voice became less deep and more shaky as he told me all about what he’d said to her.
I would have been annoyed if it wasn’t too expected. So typical. No wonder Alyson had been acting so weird. Now she knew that the letter wasn’t fifty years old, and she didn’t want to admit that she was wrong, even if it meant I was actually in danger. But it wasn’t just that—I actually doubted it had even occurred to her that this put me in greater danger. It was also the fact that she continuously held out on me like this, like she liked to hold the secrets over me. Like she was competing with me for who could solve the mystery the fastest. What was the point of even working together if that was the case?
The man, who told me his name was Clive, told me that he had been having grave misgivings about the time capsule since it had been dug up. He’d suspected what I’d believed all along. That foul play had been involved. He was here for the same reason I was—trying to find more clues.
“Why haven’t you told the police anything about this?” I asked, suddenly turning my anger toward him. “Someone tampered with the box. That means that the letter that was placed inside there was fresh, not fifty years old…”
“Oh, as if they will believe a doddering old fool like me,” he said bitterly. Now he was sounding angry at me. I wondered just how agile with that cane he was. Was I about to get a hit to the skull? “They will think I am just misremembering it or making it up.”
I sighed. He may have been right to have that fear. It wasn’t as though Sergeant Wells was particularly open to theories from the public. But now my life was in danger and we had to let someone know that the box had been opened recently. “You need to tell them.”
But even Clive didn’t seem to be convinced. He was scratching his head and second-guessing himself. The more he tried to remember what he saw, the less he seemed to remember anything.
“There was no lock on the box when it was dug up, was there?” I asked him, stepping forward.
He had to think for a moment, but on this fact, he was pretty sure. So was I. I had thought it was unusual.
“No. There wasn’t. Very strange.”
I had no idea if he would remember anything from fifty years ago if he was struggling to remember anything from last week, but I tried my luck anyway. “When the capsule was first buried, was there a lock on it then?”<
br />
“Oh, yes,” he said, nodding firmly, as sure as I had ever seen a man. “My dear, my short-term memory may not be worth a dime, but my long-term one is as clear as crystal. That box was locked up when it originally went into the ground.”
“Thank you, Clive. You have been a big help.”
I was going to have to confront Alyson about what she knew.
12
Alyson
I mean, I knew I’d made myself the black sheep of the family at the picnic. And well, on multiple other occasions. But I never expected J of all people to turn her back on me. She was little mini-me. The one person who always had my back. But now Matt was telling me she wasn’t coming out of her room. I knew she wanted to stay at Matt’s for the week and I wasn’t going to push her on that. I’d just asked if she wanted to come over for an afternoon snack and some board games.
“What do you mean she doesn’t want to come over to my place at all?” I was on the phone to him with the board games already set up on the coffee table. I’d never been able to beat J at a game of Monopoly. I didn’t know how she did it. Some sort of secret system. She was always the car.
Matt was caught in the middle. It wasn’t his fault. He was just getting the brunt of it. “Alyson, this isn’t anything personal. There is stuff going on…” he tried to explain.
But I hung up on on him and headed down to the beach to clear my head.
But I couldn’t escape my family, even at the beach. I had my surfboard under my arm as my mum approached me and I turned away as though I hadn’t seen her, almost hitting her with it. Oops.
“Sorry,” I muttered. I was about to take off into the surf, but Mum wasn’t going to let me get away so easily.
“How about I buy you a sundae?” she asked. I still had my back to her but when I heard the word sundae, I peeked my head around my shoulder. Just a teeny bit.
Hang Ten Australian Cozy Mystery Boxed Set Page 33