The Dry (Aaron Falk #1)(80)

On the very last page, under the yellowing plastic protector, was a photo of Luke Hadler. He was looking down, away from the camera, with a serene smile on his face. The picture was cropped close, but he appeared to be in a hospital room, perched on the edge of a bed. In his arms, he held a newborn baby.

The tiny pink face, dark hair, and chubby wrist peeked out from the folds of a blue blanket in his arms. Luke held the child comfortably, closely. Paternally.

Billy, Falk thought automatically. He’d seen a thousand similar photos at the Hadlers’ place. The name hit a dud note the moment it landed. Falk leaned in, over Gretchen’s photo album, rubbing his eyes, wide awake now. The picture was not a good one, taken in a dim room with a heavy flash. But the focus was sharp. Falk shoved the album under the tableside lamp, the mood lighting revealing the image more clearly. Nestled in the blue blanket, circling the baby’s fat wrist was a white plastic bracelet. The child’s name was written on it in neat capital letters.

Lachlan Schoner.





33


In the black windows, Falk could see his reflection warp and shift. Gretchen’s voice drifted down the hall. It sounded suddenly different to his ears. He grabbed the other album and flicked through. Photos showed Gretchen alone, Gretchen with her mother, on a night out in Sydney with her older sister.

No Luke. Until—he nearly missed it. He turned back a page. It was another bad photo, hardly worth including in an album. Taken at some community event. Gretchen was in the background of the action. Standing next to her was Karen Hadler. And standing next to Karen was Luke.

Over his wife’s head, Luke Hadler was looking straight at Gretchen. She was looking back with the same little witchy smile that she’d just flashed at Falk. He turned to the photo of Luke with Gretchen’s baby son. The son who, with his dark hair and brown eyes and sharp nose, had grown up to look nothing like his mother. Falk jumped as Gretchen spoke behind him.

“It was nothing,” she said. Falk spun around. She smiled, put down her cell phone, and picked up her wineglass. “Lachie just needed to hear my voice—”

Her smile faded as she saw the look on his face and the photo album open in his hand. She looked back at him, her expression a mask.

“Do Gerry and Barb Hadler know?” Falk heard the edge in his own voice and didn’t like it. “Did Karen?”

“There’s nothing to know.” She bristled, instantly defensive.

“Gretchen—”

“I told you. Lachie’s dad’s not around. Luke was an old friend. So he visited. Spent a couple of hours with Lachie now and again. So what? What’s wrong with that? It was a male role model thing. It was nothing.” Gretchen was babbling. She stopped. She took a deep breath. Looked at Falk. “Luke’s not his father.”

Falk said nothing.

“He’s not,” she snapped.

“What does it say on Lachie’s birth certificate?”

“It’s blank. Not that it’s any of your business.”

“Have you got a single photo of Lachie’s dad? One picture you can show me?”

She met the question with silence.

“Have you?” he said.

“I don’t have to show you anything.”

“It can’t have been easy for you. When Luke met Karen.” Falk didn’t recognize his own tone. It sounded distant and cold.

“For God’s sake, Aaron, he’s not Lachie’s father.” Gretchen’s face and neck were flushed. She took a slug of wine. A pleading note had crept into her voice. “We hadn’t slept together for—Jesus, it had been years.”

“What happened? Luke didn’t want to settle down with you, has one eye on the road. Then he meets Karen and—”

“Yeah, and what?” she interrupted. The wine sloshed against the side of her glass. She blinked back tears, and any earlier tenderness was gone. “OK, yes, it pissed me off when he chose her. It hurt me. Luke hurt me. But that’s life, isn’t it? That’s love.”

She stopped. Bit the tip of her tongue between her front teeth.

“I wondered why you didn’t like Karen,” Falk said. “But that would well and truly do it, wouldn’t it?”

“So? I don’t have to be her best friend—”

“She had all the things you wanted. Luke, the security, the money, at least what there was of it. You were here on you own. Your child’s father had moved on. Left town allegedly. Or was he actually down the road playing dad and husband to other people?”

Gretchen rounded on him, tears spilling over now. “How can you ask me this? If I had an affair with Luke while he was married? If he’s the father of my son?”

Falk stared at her. She had always been the beautiful one. Almost ethereal. Then he remembered the stain in Billy Hadler’s room. He remembered Gretchen raising her gun and shooting those rabbits down.

“I’m asking because I have to ask.”

“Jesus, what is wrong with you?” Her face had hardened. Her teeth were stained from the wine. “Are you jealous? That for a while I chose Luke and he chose me? That’s probably half the reason you’re here now, isn’t it? Thought you might finally manage to get one up on Luke now he’s gone.”

“Don’t be stupid,” he said.