Exiles (Aaron Falk #3)(40)

“So Kim was at least on her feet.” Naomi took a sip of water, her fingers trailing through the condensation as she put the glass back on the table. “She was pretty unsteady, but back then my friends and I were helping each other get home drunk every weekend, so it wasn’t much more than I was used to. I could tell she’d been sick so I was hoping she’d start to sober up. I got her onto the path, but something—” Her face hardened. “God, I don’t know. The whole thing felt wrong. I checked her clothes. Because with the vomit on her back it looked like she’d been lying down in it and her skirt was”—Naomi’s hands fell to her own thighs—“kind of rucked up. But her undies were still on and I remember feeling…” She stopped again, breathed out a sigh. “Relieved, I suppose, because at least they seemed fine. As far as you can really tell something like that, anyway. So I straightened her clothes, but to be honest I was freaking out myself by then because we were alone and I had a really strong—”

Naomi hesitated, touching a hand to her chest.

“You know that adrenaline sensation,” she said, finally. “That you just dodged a bullet? Like when you hit the brakes in time and miss that other car? Or slip with a kitchen knife on the chopping board but get away with it? Well, that’s what it felt like out there with Kim. Like I’d come along and interrupted—” Naomi could tell she didn’t need to spell it out. “Well, you can both guess as well as I can. Something bad.”





14


“Did Kim say anything?” Falk watched Naomi across the table. “Once you had her back on the path?”

A light breeze swept through, rustling the vines below the veranda. The sun came out from behind a cloud and Naomi slipped her sunglasses on again. It made it hard to read her expression, but her mouth was a firm line as she shook her head.

“She was past the slurring stage even, so no. I walked her home. Helped her get into her bedroom without her parents realizing the state she was in.” She drained her water glass. “I went around to see her the next morning, though, to check if she was okay. Ask her what had gone on. God, she was so hungover. She did remember some parts, like arriving at the party, Charlie being a dickhead and her being upset about it, but after that—” Naomi’s eyes flickered behind her dark glasses. “Not much. Not deciding to leave, or who she left with—if anyone. Not me finding her, not getting home.”

“A lot of blank space there,” Raco said, frowning into the light.

“Yeah. I told her how I’d found her, what it looked like, but honestly, she seemed embarrassed as much as anything,” Naomi said. “I know it sounds stupid, sitting here as adults, but back then…” She shrugged. “Kim didn’t want Charlie or anyone at school finding out. And what can I tell you? I was a teenager myself and I thought no real harm had been done.” Naomi gave a dry, humorless laugh. Underneath, Falk sensed rather than heard that faint false note again. “So I did what she asked. Never brought it up again, never told anyone.”

Falk nodded slowly. “Until when? Last year?”

“Yep.” The word was clipped and Naomi’s face was set. “After Kim abandoned her newborn in a public place and walked off alone to take her own life a hundred meters from where it had happened. So at that point—yes, big pat on the back for me for finally stepping up. I told Sergeant Dwyer, because I thought—I still think—it was relevant to her state of mind.”

They were all quiet for a moment.

“It’s not a cop-out to say things were different back then, Naomi,” Raco said. “We were all young. And the three of us can sit here now thinking the word assault and considering consent issues under the influence because we’re both police and you’re a GP and it’s twenty-five years on. But that’s not always how it was. And definitely not when it came to teenage girls drinking at a party.”

“I know. I do. And I believed Kim at the time when she said she was okay. But, Jesus—” Naomi took off her glasses and ran a distracted hand through her hair. “It’s just so bloody sad. I wish I’d done things differently, that’s all.”

“Did Kim ever tell anyone else?” Falk asked.

Raco and Naomi exchanged a glance and shook their heads.

“I don’t think so,” Raco said. “The first I heard of it was in the week after she disappeared, when Dwyer asked me if I could tell him anything. It was news to Charlie and Shane as well, I know. Even Rohan, I’m pretty sure?” he said, and Naomi nodded.

“Yeah, she hadn’t told him, either.”

“Are you surprised she didn’t tell anyone?” Falk could tell Naomi had asked herself the same question, probably a few times. Still, she thought about it again now.

“Not really. I mean, she never mentioned it again to me, so I could imagine she didn’t talk about it to anyone else. It was almost like it had never happened until—”

Naomi stopped as Rita put her head out of the door. “Sorry to interrupt, Father Connor’s car’s pulled up.”

“Okay, thanks.” Raco finished his water and made to stand.

“So that’s why you cataloged the party photos?” Falk asked him, pushing back his own chair. “Working out who was there?”