“When she didn’t come back…” He swallows hard. “She wouldn’t have left us, Minnow. Not for good. Not like that.”
I lower my head, suddenly weak and bone-tired. I’m glad Jessie is in my arms. I’m that little girl again, staring at the front door. Waiting, always waiting, for my mum to come back. To come home.
“Do you think he killed her?” I choke out.
Dad.
Yes, he did.
No, he didn’t.
What will hurt worse?
Because if Dad didn’t do it…who did?
He grabs my shoulder, and I cling to it. His nod falls heavy, final. “Yes,” Heath breathes. “I do.”
I exhale loudly, blowing all the air out of my lungs.
“And you think someone killedhimfor it?”
Heath swipes his eyes. “Either that or he fled after. I honestly don’t know.”
“Did you ask Terry if he did it?”
“He says he didn’t.”
“Do you believe him?”
Heath leans back on his elbows, and we watch the sky darken, watch the seagulls bob upon the whitecaps. A boat skims hard over the waves, picking up speed as it races to shore. A raindrop hits my collarbone. My eyebrow.
“Youdothink Terry killed Dad.” The wind picks up, pushes my hair into my mouth. “You think he did us a favor.”
“Didn’t he?”
The boat rushes past. The whitecaps look sharp enough to slice through its hull.
“Min.” Heath pauses. “Were you the one who found Mum?”
I’ve been dreading this. After Chris and I found her body, he was the one who called the police. I told him to keep my name out of it, and he agreed.
I think of Donny Granger and his young son. My throat closes up, my hands shake. I’ve never told a soul about what happened on Soldiers’ Road. I’ve danced around it with Chris, but I wouldn’t admit the whole truth. Couldn’t.
“Yeah…I found her,” I confess. “But it wasn’t Mum I was looking for…”
I dig my phone out of my pocket, bring up the photo of Donny Granger. “Did you ever see this man?”
Heath takes the phone from my hand, peering hard at the screen. “No…who is it?”
“He went missing around the same time as Mum. Supposedly he was last seen in Warrnambool, but that’s not true.” Heath passes my phone back. “I saw him here. With Dad.”
Heath’s mouth is a grim line, and for a moment I feel my body stiffen. In this town, silence is their first language. Us. Them.
Whose side is he on? Whose side amIon?
“Dad took him to the Wicked Woods?”
“Yeah.”
