Part 16 (2/2)

'Good. We met Grant Campbell out at Blinky Beach.'

'Ah yes, his favourite spot.' She laughed. 'Surfing was he? He wanted to be a professional, but not many people can make a living out of it, so he did the next best thing and took old Billy's job when he retired. That's life, isn't it? Making accommodation. Oh, and I have something to show you.'

She peeled off her gardening gloves and led me to the back door of the house and into the kitchen. 'You're probably thirsty after your ride. Would you like some homemade lemonade?'

'Thanks.'

She poured me a gla.s.s from an enormous fridge in the corner and told me to sit while she fetched whatever it was. Photographs as it turned out, taken at the party for the sailors from the yacht race. And there she was, Luce, looking pretty good, maybe a trace of shadow around the eyes, but still our Luce, smile fixed in the flash. I studied them all carefully, getting Muriel to identify the locals and the yachties. There were two pictures with Luce, one standing with Damien and the other with Marcus, an ironic smile on his face and a rotund man with a scowl on his other side.

'American, I think,' Muriel said. 'Or Canadian. From one of the boats. Can't remember his name. Quite taken with Lucy, as I remember.' The idea was grotesque. I felt her eyes studying me as she said that. 'I thought you might like to see these, but I wasn't sure ...'

'No, I'm glad you did, Muriel, thanks.' But my voice sounded odd.

'It's hard to know. After my sister died I couldn't bear to see pictures of her. Guilt, you see. She was living on the mainland, and I should have gone over earlier, but I put it off, and finally I was too late. The guilt stopped me grieving as I should. I think it's like that with a lot of people. We should have done more, or less, or differently, and now it's too late and we blame ourselves and can't bear to think about it.'

I nodded, eyes fixed on Luce's picture. 'That's right. I understand exactly what you mean.'

'But that's so sad, isn't it, being unable to remember someone for such a reason? It's very important to forgive yourself, Josh.' She laid a hand on my sleeve. 'Just remember how wonderful it was that she shared her life with you, if only for a brief time.'

'Yeah. Looks like a good party. Did you see Lucy the next day?'

She thought. 'I'm not sure. I think I remember waving to them all as they set off with Bob the following morning.'

'And after that, over the weekend?'

'I really can't remember, Josh.' She looked at me curiously. 'Why?'

I shrugged. 'Thanks for letting me see these. I'll tell Anna; she may want to have a look.'

'Take them and show her.'

At the door she put her hand on my arm again. 'You're not worried that she may have taken her own life, are you, Josh?'

I froze, staring at the floor. 'Er ... it's a possibility I've wondered about.'

'I'm sure she didn't. She would have left a note, wouldn't she?'

'I don't know.'

'Yes, I'm sure she would-for her father, if no one else. She was a very considerate girl.'

Anna was sitting on a sofa in a bathrobe with a towel around her head. She was staring blankly at a book in her hands. I noticed it was upside down.

'Good book?'

She gave a s.h.i.+ver and put it aside. 'Just thinking.'

I handed her the photos and sat down beside her. As she went through them I told her the names that Muriel had given me. I'd recognised one or two of them, wealthy Sydney businessmen. There was one of Damien and Pru Pa.s.slow, both laughing wildly. When she'd gone through them all, Anna returned to the picture of Luce with Damien.

'They don't look as if they've fallen out, do they? They look just like good friends at a party.'

'Yeah.'

'I've been thinking about your theory. If it's true, none of them-Bob, Damien, Marcus-will admit it, will they? We'd need to have evidence of some kind to make them, and there's really only one place where it could be.'

I turned away. I didn't want to hear this. 'The last place we know for sure where Luce was,' she persisted. 'b.a.l.l.s Pyramid.'

I shook my head. 'We'd never find anything out there now.'

'We won't know until we try.'

I looked at her in disbelief. 'Are you crazy? That is a seriously dangerous place, Anna. You saw it. They'd never agree to us going there.'

'No, I'm sure they wouldn't.'

'Oh no. Look, maybe-maybe if we told Grant Campbell, he might do something, organise a search out there.'

'When his best mate, good old Bob, tells him we're mad? Of course he won't, and neither will anyone else.'

'Sergeant Maddox?'

'Not without something more substantial than an obscure map reference that might mean anything or nothing.'

'I wish I'd had more time to note the readings that Owen entered into Carmel's log. I mean, we're a.s.suming that he put down false readings, but suppose he didn't? If he had a map reference for b.a.l.l.s Pyramid in there somewhere, then we would have evidence, wouldn't we?'

It was clutching at straws, but I wanted to deflect Anna. She had a gleam in her eye that I'd sometimes noticed in the old days, and which had briefly been rekindled in Orange. Next thing she'd have us stealing a boat and heading out across the open sea with ropes and magnifying gla.s.ses and las.h.i.+ngs of ginger beer.

'Shouldn't be that difficult,' she said.

'What?'

'To have another look around Carmel's office. There could be other stuff there about what they were doing.'

'What, break in?' I saw the look on her face. 'b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l, Anna, larceny's gone to your head. Remember what happened the last time.'

'We got what we wanted, Josh. Without it we wouldn't have come this far. But this time you can go in, and I'll keep watch.'

'I'll think about it.'

'Or I'll go alone.'

I sighed. 'All right. On one condition-that they don't have a burglar alarm. I'm not going through that again.'

'Fair enough.'

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