“I’m listening,” Chaz replied, her curiosity piqued.
“I didn’t tell you everything the last time we spoke.”
“That’s okay. You don’t have to.”
“Yes, I do.” Finn hesitated. “I don’t know where to start. So, I guess I’ll jump right in.”
“That’s probably a good approach.”
Finn inhaled a slow breath, then began. “Your mother was always a troublemaker.”
“That sounds about right.”
Finn laughed. “I don’t mean in the sense that she was a criminal or anything like that. But if someone didn’t tell the whole truth, she would poke and prod them until they gave in and confessed. If there was a mystery, she’d get to the bottom of it. She didn’t much seem to care who was hurt or inconvenienced in the process. She only wanted to know everything. I think that more than anything, she was a curious person.”
“It’s hard to think of her that way. She didn’t seem particularly curious to me.”
“By the time you were old enough to notice, she’d changed her ways. It’d brought her nothing but trouble, so she’d learned to keep her curiosity quiet.”
“You told me she witnessed Mary Brown’s murder.”
“Yes. Mary was babysitting her, and they were playing hide-and-seek. When Helen was hiding in a closet, she saw Mary killed.”
“Did she ever tell you who she saw?” That wasn’t something Finn had mentioned, and Charmaine hadn’t pursued it earlier. But clearly, she wanted to get something off her chest, and Charmaine was desperate to know the truth.
Finn nodded slowly. Charmaine gasped. “Who was it?”
“Well, she didn’t exactly tell me who it was, only clues to finding out their identity. I’m not sure I should tell you what I know. The knowledge has cost my family a lot. I don’t want you to have to carry that burden.”
“Okay.” Frustration itched along her spine. She should know the truth. It was her mother’s secret, and she’d taken it to her grave. Keeping that secret now benefited no one.
“I mentioned that she found something the last time we spoke. The thing that she found — it was jewellery. I saw it, she showed me a necklace, a bracelet, and a ring. The necklace and bracelet had diamonds, but the ring didn’t have a jewel in it—looked like it’d fallen out. Also, they were kind of dirty and old-looking, so I didn’t understand how valuable they were when I saw them. But Helen told me she thought they would be worth a lot.”
Charmaine’s heart thundered in her chest. Did Finn know that she had the jewellery? Did she suspect? Charmaine wasn’t sure who she could trust. The promise of easy money changed people. “Did she get the pieces valued?”
Finn’s eyes were bright. “No, she didn’t want to tip anyone off that she’d found them. Something like that, worth so much money—it’s got to have people looking for it.”
“You’re probably right.” The only person Charmaine had been worried about was Sean. But perhaps there was someone else looking for the jewellery, someone who suspected she had it. If they discovered she was Helen’s daughter, her life could be in danger like her mother’s had been. “It’s a shame. We’ll never know if it was valuable or fake.”
“Helen said she found it in a box hidden under the sand in a cave. I wasn’t sure if she made that part up to protect herself. Maybe she stole the jewellery from someone and didn’t want me to know. But whatever the truth was, she was scared. That part I’m certain of.”
Sweat trickled down Charmaine’s back, and her head pounded. Her mother had found the jewellery hidden in a cave. It had to have been the same cave where they’d followed Betsy that day and found the loose diamond in the sand. What had Betsy been there to find? Did she find what she was looking for? And how had the diamond ended up where it was?
“That was when the harassment started. Whoever had owned the jewellery knew she had it, or at least suspected it. She was spooked and left town. But they continued harassing us, breaking into our house and tossing the place for years afterwards. Just when we thought it was over, they’d do it all over again. It drove Mum and Dad crazy. I feel terrible when I think about what they went through — as well as losing their daughter that way.”
Charmaine stood to her feet. “Do you mind if I freshen up in the bathroom?”
“Of course, honey. It’s down the hall to your left. I think I hear Ed’s car in the drive. Dinner’s ready, so wash up and we’ll eat.”
After dinner, Charmaine slowly pedalled her bike back home in the dark. She’d politely declined Ed’s offer to drive her home. After a lovely dinner of roast pork, crispy potatoes, and freshly roasted vegetables, she was stuffed full of food and feeling much better about everything.
Ed and Finn had four children — the twelve-year-old who’d turned out to be a girl, plus three teenagers, two boys and another girl. All of them were lovely, polite children who showed a quiet interest in their new cousin. They’d chatted her ear off after a while, the reserved façade gone in short order when they discovered she was as proficient at gaming as they were. She’d spent enough hours playing against her brother over the years. At least the effort had been good for something.
What she wanted now was some time with her thoughts, and the bike ride home gave her that. She didn’t feel spooked riding on her own along the road late at night. She left her bike lamp off to allow her eyes to adjust to the darkness, and the moon shone bright overhead, lighting her way. There were no cars at this time of night, and her bike was virtually silent as she cruised down the narrow, winding road.
An owl hooted in the distance. Stars twinkled in a blanket of light above her head. She’d never get over how beautiful the night sky was on Coral Island. There was very little light pollution, and the number of visible stars were many times more than there had been in the city.
The only sounds were the hush of waves lapping gently at the nearby shore and the fossicking of nocturnal animals and birds as they went about their nightly search for food. She loved Coral Island. She loved the birds, the animals, the ocean, the sky—everything about it felt like home. It’d become a part of her soul in such a short space of time. She couldn’t imagine ever leaving.
