She watched a pelican land on the water, then met Jimmy’s eyes again.‘I guess because Maddie didn’t get to be,’ she said slowly, making sense of it for the first time.
‘Well …’ He leaned forward, reaching across the table and taking her hands.‘I think you’ve done your time, Nel Foley.’
She felt better after that, as though she’d let go of something heavy that she’d been unaware she was carrying.They’d stayed for hours, talking about everything other than Maddie.
She felt a little dusty the next morning, but she’d dragged herself to one of Lauren’s bootcamps.Nel generally avoided group activitiesof any sort, particularly ones involving exercise, but she actually quite enjoyed it.It was good to see her sister doing her job.She was good at it, which wasn’t surprising—Lauren delighted in bossing people around, so ordering them to do squats seemed like the ideal job for her—but Nel was surprised by how funny she was.Where had that sense of humour been hiding?For the next two days, Nel’s hamstrings were so sore she’d had to drop onto the toilet, but she assumed that was a good thing.
She was still worried about Sophie.She’d seen her on Sunday for the first time since she stole the pregnancy test, when she went to watch Leo play soccer.Sophie was standing with Ryan and Harvey near the canteen, a brown staffie by her side.Their eyes met briefly across the misty field, but Sophie had looked away quickly.Had she done the test, Nel wondered?What did it reveal?Another pregnancy would ruin any hope of leaving, surely.
Thoughts of Sophie and Ryan had whirred in her head that whole afternoon.She’d tried to distract herself by helping her mum go through her dad’s wardrobe, putting shirts and jackets and trousers in piles.One for Steve, one for Vinnies, one for the bin.It was hard—with each item they put on a pile it felt like he was disappearing bit by bit—but she hoped it would help her mum move forward.
Later that evening, Steve had stopped by with an update on the sale of the clinic.There were two interested parties, and he was optimistic that it wouldn’t be too long before they locked one in.It was the news Nel had been waiting for, but strangely she didn’t feel as relieved as she thought she would.It struck her that she would miss this place once she was gone.
Thankfully, there had been no more strange encounters with Ryan.Nel still felt herself looking over her shoulder, but there was never any sign of him.Hopefully it would stay that way.Maddiestill pulled at her of course, deep down, but whenever the questions threatened to draw her back in, she shook them off.It was better that way.
Even her body felt different, she realised, raising her shoulders and dropping them.Freer.
A beep from her phone pulled her out of her thoughts.A message from Poppy:
Just got another one …
There was a screenshot attached.
Nel stared at the phone, trying to make sense of what she saw.Still stirring up shit I see, the email read.Below the single line of text was a blurry photo of the front page ofThe Opal Coast Chronicle.She tapped the screen to enlarge it, but it was still too hard to read.
‘Do you have the papers, Dave?’she asked, heart racing.
Chapter 37
Nel’s hands shook as she picked up theChronicle.NEWERA FORLIGHTHOUSE WITHDARKSECRETS, the headline read, above a photo of her and Jimmy standing at the railing, dwarfed by the lighthouse behind them.She read the caption.
Nel Foley (left) and Sergeant Dimitri ( Jimmy) Galatas revisit the lighthouse lookout where sixteen-year-old Madeline Marshall was last seen in 2010.Foley was a ‘person of interest’ in the original investigation and the last person to see her alive.
‘Fuck,’ Nel whispered under her breath.She walked out of the cafe still holding the newspaper, straight to theChronicleoffice, a block and a half down Manning Street.She thrust open the door and stepped inside.
‘I need to speak to Trent Donohue,’ she demanded.
The receptionist looked up, startled.‘He’s in a meet—’
‘I don’t care,’ Nel said.‘I need to speak to him now.’
The receptionist seemed to realise objections were futile.She was getting up as Trent appeared through a door behind the desk.
His eyes widened when he saw her.‘Nel, what brings you here?’
She held up the paper.‘What the hell is this?’
He sighed.‘A story that people will read.’
‘You said you were taking a photo of the lighthouse!’
‘Itisthe lighthouse.It just happens to have you in the foreground.’
She glared at him.
‘Why don’t you come through?Let’s sit down and talk.’He held the door open.
Still trembling, she followed him down a dark corridor into a small office.The desk was cluttered with files and dirty coffee cups.He moved a pile of papers off a spare chair and sat behind the desk.
