Issy looked at Meg for a long time, then sighed. ‘Come,’ she said, opening the door of her car, motioning for Meg to get in.
They sat side by side as Issy told her what Rosa said. That there was ‘an incident’ while Anna was living at their home. Slow, silent tears ran down Issy’s flawless cheeks as she spoke. The air between them felt heavy.
‘An incident,’ Issy said, softly. ‘Do you think … do you think he … raped her?’
Meg recoiled at the word, nausea rising up in her throat. ‘I don’t know.’ She took a breath. ‘Issy, I need to tell you why I’m here in Hartwell.’
‘It’s because of this, isn’t it? You knew.’
Meg shook her head. ‘I’m a journalist.’
Issy frowned, still staring straight ahead. ‘So the story you told me was a lie.’
‘Yes. I stumbled across Hartwell because my mum mentioned it. It’s true, what I said about her having dementia. She was confused. She thought I’d travelled from Hartwell to visit her. She called me Tina. When I tried to find out who she was talking about, who Tina was, I stumbled across the controversy about the Hartwell Gaol redevelopment. I pitched the story at work and they sent me down here to investigate.’
Issy turned to face her. ‘But thereisno story. We won the bid, did the redevelopment, and that’s that.’
Meg bit her lip, wondering how much to tell her. There was something childlike about Issy, innocent, which made Meg want to protect her from the truth. She thought of what Issy had told her the night before, about Spencer being an arsehole, her father not trusting her and Hugh muscling his way into Ashworth Property, probably at her own expense. Maybe the only way she could make Issy trust her was to tell her the truth. The whole truth. It was a risk, but what else could she do?
‘Well?’ Issy prompted.
Meg swallowed. ‘Issy, what I’m about to say will come as a shock but you need to listen.’ Meg told her about the rumours that Lindsay councillors had been bribed to approve the Ashworth Property bid, about Mayor Skelton’s twenty-five acres, which he bought shortly after the deal was done. She told her about the strip of houses on Barton Drive, which had been purchased through trusts they’d traced to Purcell Partners, run by Evan Purcell, who Hugh and Spencer seem to know. Meg showed her the photo on the yacht, and the tracking tile in her bag, and told her about Dean Morgan, who had visited her mother and possibly thrown a brick through Pete’s window.
She ended with the final piece of the puzzle, which Pete had told her just an hour before. That the factory, which was now decommissioned, had been bought through a trust on behalf of Ashworth Property. Pete had spent New Year’s Eve at a rooftop bar with Evan Purcell, who had loose lips after the three tequila shots Pete shouted him.
‘According to Purcell, they’re planning to bulldoze the lot and build a luxury golf resort,’ Meg said. ‘They’ve had it approved thanks to some help from friends in high places, even though it doesn’t comply with the zoning laws.’ Evan had mentioned the name of the State Government Minister for Planning. Turned out he went to university with Spencer and Hugh.
Meg waited for Issy to say something, anything, but she still stared out the windscreen.
‘Issy?’
She turned to Meg, her face wet with tears.
‘Do you believe me?’
Issy nodded. ‘I left something out when I told you what Rosa said.’
‘What?’
‘My parents did a deal with her, bought her silence in exchange for putting her three boys through Dalton Grammar. Her youngest is in year eleven. That’s why she won’t talk.’
Meg looked at Issy. ‘I’m the only one you can trust, Issy. We need to confront your father.’ She swallowed. ‘Ourfather.’
Tears pooled in Issy’s eyes. ‘I don’t think I can.’
‘Why not?’
‘You don’t know what he’s like.’
‘You’re right. I don’t.’
The words hung in the air between them.
‘Can I ask you something?’ Meg said. ‘Why did you do the DNA test?’
‘Because I felt like everyone was lying to me and I wanted to know the truth.’
‘You don’t get to choose the truth, Issy, just because you don’t like it. Please. Let’s tell him about the DNA results, and what Spencer and Hugh have been up to. Let’s tell him the truth.’
