‘I don’t need to think about it. I’m not going back. I’m not interested in business, and I have no intention of ever using a degree. I’m going to bed. Love you.’
It was no use; she knew her daughter well enough to know the more she pushed about this, the more Savannah would dig her heels in and argue.
There was nothing as frustrating as standing on the sidelines and watching your kids make decisions that you just knew were going to end up hurting them.
The sun was out and Jenny admired the beautiful cloudless sky above. There was something special about a crisp winter day when the sky was so blue. She crossed the main street and noticed a couple coming out of the bakery, recognising them from the pub. George and Sharon. She’d forgotten all about asking Nick how the tour had gone, then realised it was odd that he hadn’t mentioned it either. But then she remembered that he’d had to get off the phone quickly and she’d been asleep by the time he’d called back.
As she neared, the man looked up and Jenny saw that he recognised her as well, and offered a smile as she drew closer.
‘Hello. It’s nice to see you’re still in town. Did you decide to stay a bit longer?’
‘The people we’re travelling with had some engine trouble in their motorhome, so we decided to set up camp for a few more days until they get back on the road,’ George said.
‘Did you get to look around the pub?’
‘Yeah. The young fella behind the bar let us take a bit of a squiz,’ he said.
‘Apparently the owner didn’t know anything about it,’ Sharon said, pointedly.
‘Really? That’s strange. Susie, the lady you thought was someone else, was supposed to pass along the message,’ Jenny said, feeling a need to point out she’d done her bit.
‘Seems she didn’t. Although I didn’t make a mistake. When I knew her, she went by Nicole. She wasn’t as hoity-toity as she is now, of course, but I recognised her straight away.’
‘Are you sure it’s the same woman? She seemed to think you’d gotten her mixed up with someone else,’ Jenny said doubtfully.
‘Oh, it was her all right. And she knew exactly who I was. We were good friends for a time till she disappeared without a word.’
Why would Susie ever have had a different name?
‘You don’t believe me?’ Sharon challenged and Jenny realised the uncertainty must have been showing on her face.
‘It’s not that … Well, not really. It’s just— I mean she said this was her first visit out here.’
The woman gave another scoff and Jenny was a little irritated now by her outright rudeness. If Susie said she didn’t know Sharon then why was this woman so certain she was lying? Jenny wasn’t sure when she’d decided to become an advocate for Nick’s sister, but this woman was beginning to get on her nerves.
Sharon began digging through her oversized tote bag and withdrew a mobile phone. She started swiping madly. ‘It’s been bugging me ever since seeing her, so I had my daughter dig through some old photo albums at home and send me this,’ she announced, triumphantly holding up the screen to show Jenny a photograph. ‘Tell me this isn’t the same woman.’
Jenny groaned silently. She really didn’t want to get mixed up in all this … Then she looked harder. The image was of a young man and woman, possibly in their late teens. The boy was leaning against a fence railing, smiling, while the girl, dressed in a pair of cut-off denim shorts and a T-shirt, looked at the camera with a surprisingly familiar expression. There was a strange air of—Jenny wasn’t sure how to describe it—almost arrogance?
She’d seen that exact expression more than once since meeting Susie. Sharon was right. The girl in the photo wasdefinitelySusie.
‘Who is she with?’ Jenny asked, taking in the smug look on Sharon’s face.
‘That’s my cousin, Matthew.’
Jenny noticed the pub in the background, in all its pre-renovation glory. Susiehadlied. She’d said this was her first time in Barkley. Then Jenny noticed the girl had her hand resting on something. The photo was a little shiny; it looked like Sharon’s daughter had snapped the shot directly from the photo album, under its plastic cover. But as Jenny peered closer, she suddenly realised it was a pram Nicole was holding and in it, the blurred image of a sleeping child.
‘And that baby,’ Sharon continued, as though reading her mind, ‘that was their child that she abandoned when she took off and left town a few days after that photo was taken.’
Jenny’s heart sank.
‘I saw her again, you know,’ Sharon said, taking back the phone. ‘The other day, after I saw her at the pub. I was sitting at the cafe over there.’ She nodded at the small takeaway shopacross the street. ‘She walked past and I tried to talk to her, but she got all hysterical and threatened to call the police.’
‘Why would she do that?’ Jenny asked.
‘Becausesheknowsweknow the truth.’
‘About what?’
