3. Kim.
4. Kim, Naomi,??
Falk searched through the photos until he found the ones numbered three and four. Number three showed Kim sitting alone on the picnic blanket with her beer. In four, Kim was in the same spot but had been joined by Naomi, along with an unnamed teenage boy with cropped hair and a bottle in each hand. He was leaning over the girls, his arms heavy on their shoulders. Both girls’ faces were fixed in tight, dutiful smiles, but neither looked particularly happy about it.
Falk shuffled through the rest of the pictures. From the clothes, he could tell they’d all been taken on the same evening. A party around a campfire, almost everyone holding drinks. He didn’t recognize most of the faces, and flicked back and forth to the list.
15. Me and?? Maybe Wade’s cousin?Raco had written against a photo of himself, laughing like best friends with a tall bloke whose name he obviously could no longer recall.
16. Shane, Jen C., Charlie,??Shane, huge next to Jen C., was bending down to plant a drunken kiss on her cheek. Her eyes were bright, and she was pink-cheeked with what looked like pure delight. Charlie was grinning at the camera, his arm snug around the waist of an unnamed girl who was decidedly not Kim.
Falk paused. Raco may not know the girl in the photo, but anyone could recognize the flirtatious energy in the shot. How had Kim felt about that, Falk wondered, if she’d even been aware? He workedthrough the images again, more slowly this time. He could find none of Charlie and Kim together.
He paused at shot number nineteen, though, labeled in Raco’s neat handwriting:Dean, Rohan, Gemma.
The scene was badly lit and Falk had not recognized her immediately, but he could see it now. She looked softer and very young, but so did everyone. He looked from her to Dean. If there had been any hint of the romance that would blossom, it was derailed quite neatly by Rohan, bang in the middle of the pair and tipping a beer to the photographer, his face flushed. He wasn’t alone in that. Every one of them looked worse for wear.
Falk continued, through faces and names that meant nothing to him. At the end of the list, Raco had added a few names that didn’t seem to correspond with any of the images:
Dean’s friend, short, dark hair, from Warrnambool.
Kyle.
Ryan S.
Tania’s cousins × 3
Falk checked the back of the photos and the envelope for any further explanatory notes from Raco, but there were none. Another question to add to the algae reports and the AGM minutes. He leaned back against the headboard and briefly considered texting Raco, but immediately decided against it. Whatever it was had waited this long, it could wait until the morning. Tired now, he sorted the pictures back in order, looking at Gemma’s face for a moment longer than the others, then slid them back into the envelope and turned out the light.
Falk had kissed Gemma under the awning at the corner of the dark Melbourne laneway until the rain had passed. They’d taken each other’s hand as they’d stepped back out onto the slick pavement and headed through the city toward Flinders Street Station, where the trams and trains went to a lot of different places. Falk’s flat in St. Kilda, for example.Gemma’s hotel in Richmond as well. Falk wasn’t quite sure what might happen next, so instead he concentrated on what was happening right then. Walking along together, the city lights shining, her hand in his.
At the station, they both hesitated on the footpath outside.Stay or go?Then Gemma glanced over his shoulder to the late-night newsagent near the ticket gates.
“I need to top up my travel card,” she said.
“Right.” Was that a signal for him to say goodbye and leave? Falk wondered. But then she’d smiled.
“I’ll be back in a minute.”
“Okay. Great.”
Even as he spoke, Falk felt his phone buzz in his pocket, and he pulled it out as she disappeared inside the shop. He stood near the door, his shoulders hunched against the wind, scanning a long string of work messages and tapping out a few fast replies.
“Hey.”
He glanced up at Gemma’s voice as she came back out of the news agency. She looked happy to see him. Falk put his phone away.
“So, this was a complete impulse buy, but I actually got you something.” She had her travel card in one hand and was holding something out to him with the other. “Here.”
Falk looked down at the gift. It was a week-to-week office diary with a blue ballpoint pen.
“And it’s really so nice of you to try to look grateful.” Gemma laughed as she caught his expression. “But, seriously, the most organized person I’ve ever known gave me this tip.”
“A paper diary?”
“Yeah. It’s good when you’ve got a lot on. Does the same as a phone calendar but without beeping at you all the time with meetings and things. The idea is that you feel a bit more in control of the day because you check it when you’re ready, not the other way around.”
“Does it work?”
