‘Two drinks?’
‘He came to the counter one timebeforethe time we saw him with Chloe,’ Fry said. ‘Ordered one drink, alone at the bar. Two trips, two drinks. Pays with cash. Never appears on the cameras again.’
‘Anyone in the beer garden remember him?’
‘No.’
‘The girls who served him at the bar?’
‘It was the same girl both times. I’ve taken her statement, but she knows you’ll want to speak with her.’
‘What was Chloe working on?’ I asked. No answer. ‘In your door-knocks, did you come across anyone in town who knew she was coming? Anyone who expected to meet with her?’
‘No.’
‘Where are her laptop and phone?’
‘Both the laptop and the phone lost signal at approximately 11.41 p.m.,’ Dodge read from his phone.
‘Who told you that?’ I asked.
‘I’ve been working with Gail Caplan, trying to get into Chloe’s accounts,’ Dodge said. ‘About fifteen minutes ago, she told me Apple sent her through some information. Not all of it. Not everything we want. But they triangulated the phone and laptop when the signal went out, and gave us a time.’
‘Where were they located when they blinked out?’
‘In Redbelly.’
‘You got nothing more specific than that?’
‘No,’ Dodge said. ‘They were only able to pinpoint the signal using one mobile phone tower and one satellite. So it’s vague. Looks like he turned both devices off as soon as he killed her.’
‘Or she turned them off before she went to sleep,’ Lee suggested.
‘Young people don’t turn things off,’ Fry said.
‘The accounts,’ I asked. ‘When do we get access?’
‘Superintendent Caplan said she’d let both you and I know “the very millisecond” they come in,’ Dodge said. ‘Her words.’
I let a long silence fan out. Lee and Kalowski and Knowles and Fry and Dodge were all looking how I wanted them to look: pissed off, under-appreciated and tired.
‘Motive,’ I said. ‘We don’t have a motive. That’s a problem. Whoever did this wanted Ms Lutz dead.Ms Lutzspecifically, and no one else. No one more easily available. Because Ms Lutz was hard to get to. She wasin her room. Okay? You fuckers listening? Chloe Lutz was behind at least two locked doors, and getting to her without being seen going up those external stairs would have taken patience and immaculate timing. We need to understand why ithadto beher. Why the risk was worth the reward.’
No one spoke.
‘Whoever did this,’ I said, ‘they eitherknew herand wanted her dead, ordidn’t know herand wanted her dead. Whether it’s the first or the second possibility, the attack was deliberately targeted. So, let’s run down the idea that theydidn’tknow her. That this was a chance meeting. Her sitting out in the beer garden like that, working. It’s a spectacle. You wouldn’t look twice at a young woman working on her laptop while she eats dinner at a pub in Sydney. But this is a rural pub. Everyone else there last night was having a good time. And there she is, ignoring everyone, tapping away, in her own little world.’
‘That’s most likely why the boys noticed her.’ Dodge nodded. ‘It was an odd sight. And maybe you’re right, maybe it was anupsettingsight. I can imagine being one of the local labourers from around here: you’ve spent all day hosing out someone’s septic tank or clearing the dead rats out of their horse stables so you can rub a couple of pennies together to buy a beer. Then you have to sit there while you have that beer watching this cute city kid with her book smarts and her laptop.’
‘Knowing she’s probably earning five times what you do,’ Fry added. ‘And even when someone’s tried to be friendly to her, she’s brushed him off. Maybe that annoyed someone. Maybe it annoyed Branchy—Mr Branch, I mean.’
‘I’d brush Branchy off.’ Kalowski’s mouth twisted. ‘He gives me the creeps.’
‘What?’ Lee’s voice was high. ‘Ole Branchy? You’re kidding. He’s all right. He played Santa Claus at the Maroota Fair last year.’
‘Case in point.’ Kalowski shuddered.
‘You’re crazy.’
