The Sentinels of Eden, Books 1-4

Chapter 80

Chapter 23

Sergeant Mick Loxwood thanked the sullen-faced waiter and sipped at his first coffee of the day, trying to ignore the existence of the vanilla slice in the cake counter. The Tarin Street bakery was famous for them, but there was no point in undoing all the good his early morning run had done. He was finding it harder to keep in shape this year. If he wasn’t careful he would be no good for anything other than office work and that was not what he’d joined the police force for. Even the ‘Tarin snot-blocks’ weren’t worth that.

Two young women at the next table disrupted his scan of the local paper when they began gossiping with far too much volume about the couple they had seen in the department store the previous day. They had been dancing in the aisles with a ‘totally hot’ dark-skinned guy following them around, singing and using sign language, which was apparently ‘kind of sexy’.

‘So different to when we were in school. They hated each other back then,’ one of the girls said, laughing. Her long hair framed a face with thin eyebrows and heavy makeup.

‘I thought he’d joined the army, and who knows where Lainie’s been for the last three years? I heard she just took off when Mrs Ashbree died. Didn’t even, like, stay for the funeral. Now she’s back, dancing through Target homewares with the guy who set her locker on fire?’ Her friend made it sound as if it was the most juicy secret she’d ever heard.

The sergeant paused, mid-sip. Did she say Lainie?

‘Do you think she knows about Noah and Tess? Imagine coming back and finding out that your high school sweetheart is married with a baby on the way.’

‘I’d give anything to see that reunion,’ the first girl replied. ‘Lainie was never one to hold back … Would she pick a fight with a pregnant woman? I mean, she and Noah were pretty tight. I was sure they would end up together, no matter what they said. What do you reckon, Jake?’

The waiter blushed, clearly having been caught listening in. ‘I dunno … Mum needs me out the back …’

As the young man managed to escape getting drawn in to the gossip, the policeman tried to focus beyond his suddenly racing heart. He needed to remember the dynamic between the four young people on the day he had interviewed them about the incident with Harry Doolan. They had all seemed friendly enough back then. If anything, he got the feeling they would have all remained loyal even if he’d tried to play them against each other for information. It had never come to that, but the unusual series of events at that time had left him with a lingering … unease.

A young mining executive had developed sudden onset amnesia after a violent altercation with Harry, and then Sarah Ashbree had died in a car accident, which was followed a few days later by Harry’s death from late-stage cancer, and then Lainie had disappeared. It had taken a fair bit of manoeuvring to keep the local paper from hassling the Ashbrees and Lily Gracewood. He had hoped that by keeping the pressure off them, someone might have relaxed enough to let something slip, some new direction for enquiry, but the run of dramas ended, and everything seemed to make sense—except perhaps for the unexpected way that Noah, of all people, had picked up Harry’s duties in the local Aboriginal community. And then there was the mystery of the blood on the knife …

The problem was, Mick knew it wasn’t the first time that family had scored more than its fair share of tragedy.

And now Lainie was back. Coffee scalded his throat as he gulped it down. Perhaps if he hurried, he could finish his paperwork at the station by lunchtime, and then pay a visit to the Gracewood farm. If he went during his lunch break, perhaps his staff wouldn’t ask where he was. Yes. Best to get it done today. He had some questions that had already waited far too long for proper answers.