‘He’s not in on a Monday.’
‘Right, when is he in, then?’
‘Hard to say.’
At that point, Meg took a deep breath to avoid losing her temper. ‘How about tomorrow?’
In the end, the man wrote Adrian Gorecki’s email address on a piece of paper. Meg suspected it was only so he could get rid of her. She’d emailed Adrian while still sitting in the car park.
That was a few hours ago. She took a sip of her beer and checked her email. Nothing. She opened Messenger to check she hadn’t missed a reply from the admin ofSave Hartwell. Also nothing. She sighed.
‘G’day, love.’ Meg looked up to see Sue, a stack of glasses in one hand and a cloth in the other. ‘How’d you go with your meetings?’
‘Not great, actually.’
‘Ah, that’s no good, love.’ Sue leaned back, resting her bottom on a stool. ‘Why was that?’
‘One of those days where nothing quite went to plan.’
‘What did you say you were doing here again?’
‘Oh, I’m just having a look at the old jail. Fascinating history.’
‘You’re an academic or the like, are you?’
‘Yeah, something like that. Is there some controversy around the development? I saw the graffiti on the wall and I noticed there’s a Facebook group opposing it.’
‘Somecontroversy?’ Sue threw her head back and let out a throaty laugh.
Meg laughed along. ‘I’ll take that as a yes, then.’
‘I don’t know why they’re still at it.’
‘So you’re not a member of the Facebook group?’
Sue shook her head. ‘I don’t like to take sides. It’s bad for business. Besides, I’ve only been down here eight years. It’s the real locals who are most fired up.’
Meg paused, wondering if she could trust Sue. Her easy conversation put Meg at ease, but that didn’t mean she was trustworthy. She would go slowly. ‘I saw something a bit strange today, actually.’
‘Yeah?’
Meg nodded. ‘I was having lunch at the Apple Tree Café and Isobel Ashworth walked in—’
‘Well, thatisstrange!’ Sue said.
Meg frowned. ‘Why’s that?’
‘Reckon I could count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen anyone from that family in town.’
‘The owner of the café refused to serve her. She told her to leave. It made quite a scene.’
Sue laughed again. ‘Ah, good on her. She hates those Ashworths. Can’t say I blame her, given what they’ve been through.’
‘Really? What have they been through?’ Meg asked, hoping her tone was curious and casual, rather than nosy.
‘Long story, love.’ Sue stood up, wiped the table over and glanced around. ‘Better get back to it.’
Meg tried to conceal her frustration at Sue’s discretion.
