“Iknowyou don’t remember,” Shanna continued. “But anything you know about that time would help.”
Holly deliberated, then opened the door wider. “Come in.” She led them to a bright living room overlooking the bay and gestured for them to sit. “You say twenty years ago?”
Shanna nodded.
Holly squinted, looking at the top left corner of the room. “That was before I met Liam, so I would have been living with a roommate over in Newtown. Oh, it’s weird.” She wrapped a lock of hair around her finger. “I remember living there, very clearly. And something tells me I had a roommate, but for the life of me, I can’t remember her. I remember things—events at the pub, going to the cinema, the insane number ofLord of the Ringscostume parties that sprang up when those movies came out. But I can’t remember her face or her name.”
“Do you remember when that roommate left?”
Holly pouted. “Maybe around 2002? Ah, yes! I had to move because I couldn’t find a new roommate, and the rent was too high for me. That’s how I met Liam, actually …”
“That would have been shortly before Mom died,” Shanna said to Simon.
“Died?” Holly repeated.
“Yes. I was hoping to find her grave and … well, any traces of her.”
“Well, she could have died soon after. I wouldn’t know,” Holly said. “But I don’t think she died in Wellington.”
Shanna frowned at Simon, and they both looked at Holly.
“What do you mean?” Shanna asked.
“I wasn’t left alone because my roommate died,” Holly said. “I remember, because I still had the travel prospects she left with me as I moved apartments. Yes! I don’t know what she did, or where exactly she went, but she quit her job to travel.” Holly leaned back, smiling, as if proud of herself for untangling this mystery. “She was going to chase adventures on the South Island.”
Chapter 9
Shanna munched on chips as she and Gran sat in front of the TV, watchingBelow Deck. “Maybe I should go work on a ship. Travel from place to place. Seems fun.”
“And who’ll take you, dear?” Gran mused. “You don’t cook that well. And I’ve never seen you make your bed in your entire life.”
***
Leaving Holly’s place, Shanna, Simon and Chris retraced the route previously taken; if for no other reason, because their thoughts were too preoccupied to think of another way back to the hotel.
“What do we do now?” Chris asked as they were hiking back up to the rose garden.
Whatdidthey do now? What didshedo now? Shanna had assumed finding her mother’s last whereabouts, and especially the whereabouts of the onyx bracelet, wouldn’t be easy; butMom’s “adventures on the South Island” still felt like a major wrench in the plan.
Wellington was right at the bottom tip of New Zealand’s North Island. Not too far from its South Island—but that one was larger and wilder, with tall mountains and impassable forests hugging its western side. If Mom had been chasing adventure, she could have gone anywhere in there.
If they were to pursue her long-forgotten steps, it would take a lot more time, and Simon was already reluctant about coming here.
“We have the rest of the postcards,” Simon said. “Is there a chance those were sent from her adventure trip?”
“You mean the order has been reversed?” Shanna reached for the postcards in her bag. Gran had said Wellington was the last stop, but she assumed that from the dates on the postcards, not any spell or divination. Mom could have sent them in the wrong order, except Shanna had no clue as to why she’d do that.
“Either way, she’d been to those places at some point,” Simon said. “It wouldn’t hurt to check them out. It’s the best we’ve got.”
Shanna scoffed at herself. Of course, Simon wasn’t excited to go on a full sightseeing tour of New Zealand. He wanted their bond resolved.
They grouped together, and Shanna flicked through the cards.
“This one is easy.” Chris pointed to the postcard with an image of a fjord and pulled out a tourist brochure with an almost identical image on the cover. “Milford Sound. It’s a fjord way down south on the west coast.”
“Where did you get that?” Shanna asked.
“I took it from the plane.”
