“I saw Naomi,” Zara said suddenly, as though reading his mind. That desperate note was back again. “Her property borders the reserve, a bit farther up.” She pointed away from the festival. “She walked home this way. I was standing here, and I noticed her myself.”
Falk didn’t reply. He heard Joel shift his weight.
“So if you’re thinking someone down there wouldn’t necessarily be seen,” Zara said, “I’m telling you they would have.”
“Zara’s mum didn’t come this way, anyway.” It was the most Joel had said since arriving and he shrugged when they both looked over at him. “I was working near the east exit. I would’ve seen Kim. I didn’t.”
“So I hear.” Falk watched him. “Tell me about that.”
“There’s nothing to tell.” Joel’s voice was quiet, but his eye contact was solid. “I was stationed at the first-aid tent. I was there for two and a half hours, no break. Kim didn’t come past. That’s it.”
Falk waited, but Joel said no more. As if that really were it. “You would have seen a few people come through, though?” he asked, finally. “On their way out.”
“Not many. That exit’s hardly used. Naomi came through, like Zara said. That was around 9:30 p.m. She said bye to me as she passed. That she was heading home. Viv and Graham Marsh, they live on the property next to Naomi’s. They left pretty early, after the kids’ fireworks. They had their grandsons with them. The little one was having a meltdown.”
“Who else?” Falk said.
“Like I said. No one. No adults, anyway.” Joel glanced at Zara. “Just kids heading here.”
Falk nodded. “You didn’t want to join them?”
“No.” The answer came fast. Joel looked faintly troubled by the suggestion. Falk just waited and eventually the boy took a breath.
“The festival week’s a bit—” Joel stopped. No eye contact now; instead he frowned out toward the water. “It doesn’t matter. I just don’t get involved in it. But Gemma—she’s my stepmum—she’s the director and a couple of first aiders had called in sick and legally they need a certain ratio. I’ve done the training, and she was stuck, so I said I’d help her out. She got them to put me in an easy spot, just to make up the numbers.”
Falk still said nothing, and Joel shrugged, his shoulders tight and hunched.
“Look, my dad was killed by a car.” Joel didn’t bother trying to hide the edge in his voice. “Six years ago, during festival week. So I don’t know what to tell you. When I say Kim didn’t come past me, it’s not some stupid bloody joke to make things harder for everyone.” He jerked his head in the direction of the Drop, a tiny controlled movement. “I mean, my dad died right there. I know what that feels like.”
Joel’s face was dark, and Falk followed his gaze out through the bushland to the water glinting below.
“I’m sorry, mate.” Falk looked down at the Drop. The danger spot, Raco had said. Everyone knew it. “Do you mind if I ask what happened?”
Joel shrugged. “Dad used to come down here most days to walk Luna—” The dog perked up at her name, and he reached down to rub her head. “Early, like six thirty in the morning. But on that day, Gemma and I were having breakfast and it was nearly 8:00 a.m. and he wasn’t back, which was”—he swallowed, frowned—“weird. So Gemma was texting him, to see if he’d gone into town or something, and then Shane called—Shane McAfee, he works with Zara’s dad,” Joel clarified, and Falk nodded. “Anyway, Shane had been jogging around thereservoir and said he’d found Luna on her own, barking and stuff. The safety railings around the Drop were smashed, and so he’d tried to call my dad and couldn’t get through.”
Joel’s hand rested on Luna’s ears.
“The festival had opened the night before, and the cops always did breath tests on the highway in the mornings. They’ve closed off the track to cars now, but you used to be able to drive along there, skip a section of the road. They reckoned someone over the limit used it as a shortcut to miss the testing.”
“Right.” Where Gemma’s grief had seemed worn in, Joel’s still felt raw and jagged. “I’m really sorry to hear that, it’s—”
“Yeah. I know. Thanks.” Joel waved the condolences away, embarrassed. “The point is, my dad was knocked into the water and they didn’t find his”—a tiny hesitation—“his body for five months and nine days, and that was—” Joel cleared his throat. “I dunno. A really shitty five months and nine days. And Sergeant Dwyer’s never managed to find out who did it, so it’s still pretty shitty, to be honest. So yeah, I know what everyone thinks. That I’m full of it, or wasn’t watching the exit, or I’m saying this for attention or whatever, but I’m not.”
“Okay, mate.” Falk nodded as Joel crouched to stroke his dog, conveniently hiding his face. “Understood.”
Zara’s eyes slid from Joel to Falk and back again, her expression morphing from sympathy to frustration.
“But don’t you think that’s all a bit of a coincidence?” she said, her gaze zeroing in on Falk. “I mean, his dad not being found for months? My mum is still missing. This is not a big town. How often does something like this happen? Don’t you think it’s at least possible there’s a connection?”
There was a silence, and Joel stood again. They were both watching Falk carefully, waiting for his response. They looked abjectly miserable, and Falk felt a wave of compassion, deep and complex. Zara was only seventeen now, and Joel couldn’t have been more than twelve or thirteen when he’d lost his dad. Formative ages to go through something like that. Standing there in the bushland, Falk had a sudden sharp flashof cancer clinics and the disinfectant smell of the respite care home and the sun shining hot and harsh overhead at his father’s funeral. Losing a parent was pretty formative in its own way at any age, really.
He looked from one to the other. “Okay,” he said. “Tell me.”
“Well, I mean, there are lots of similar things,” Zara said. “My mum and his dad knew each other. Our parents have all been friends since school. What happened to them both happened around the opening of the festival, at the reservoir—”
“But you reckon Kim didn’t even come down here,” Falk said to Joel, and caught the look that passed between the teenagers. Interesting. They at least acknowledged the cracks in their theory.
“Well, what I’m saying is that Kim didn’t come through the east exit.” Joel’s voice was firm.
