Exiles (Aaron Falk #3)(66)

“Yeah.” Was the word of a teenager stronger than a solid chain-link fence? Falk wondered. Probably not, no matter who it was.

Eva sighed dramatically, hot and losing patience. “Can we stop investigating and go on a ride now?”

“What do you reckon?” Raco said to Falk, who nodded.

“Yeah, Eva. Let’s go,” he said. “I think I’ve seen what I needed to see. Thanks for your help, mate.”

“No worries,” she said, skipping ahead a little as they turned away from the exit. They headed back into the heart of the site, the music and laughter growing louder as they neared the rides. Falk glanced over at Raco, keeping his voice too low for Eva to hear.

“What about cars? Ones with on-site access. Could someone have driven her out, maybe hidden in the back seat or trunk? A few hours later, when it was quiet?”

“There’s access through the main exit, but it’s only for emergencies during festival hours,” Raco said. “I checked with Gemma last year, and she says no vehicles entered the grounds at all during the actual festival that night, and there would’ve been almost none moving about. Too many pedestrians and kids to do it safely. Vehicles could technically have driven in later, but it would’ve probably been after Kim was discovered missing. In which case, where was she during the initial search of the site?” He gave a shrug. “I’m not saying it couldn’t have happened, but it wouldn’t have been easy.”

Falk walked on for a minute, running scenarios in his mind. “Doesn’t really feel right, either,” he said at last. “How would it work? Drag her into a vehicle, even with people around?”

“It’s easiest if she’d gotten in willingly.” Raco’s voice had dropped so low it was hard to hear. “But that raises a whole lot of other questions. I mean, whose vehicle? And does that mean it was a mentally sound decision? Because if so, why not also decide to leave Zoe with someone she trusted?”

Falk thought about that. He pictured Kim, with her new baby tucked up in her stroller, and tried to play it out in his head. His eyes fell on Eva, running in front of them, and something dark slowly crept into his thoughts.

“There’d be one easy way to make Kim get into a car. Or to hide somewhere. Do anything, really,” Falk murmured. He nodded at Raco’s daughter. “Threaten her child.”

Raco blinked. Long and slow, his face instantly tight. He didn’t respond, but his eyes locked on Eva as she picked up pace and ran a few steps ahead.

“Eva!” Raco’s voice was unusually sharp and she turned, hurt.

“What? I can see Mummy.”

“Oh.” Sure enough, a little farther up the path stood Rita. She was holding Henry against her chest, her hair falling down her back as they both craned their necks up. The little boy lifted a chubby hand to the sky, marveling at the ferris wheel creaking and clanging above them.

“Wow, can we go on that?” Eva called, running toward her mother, who broke into a smile as she saw Raco and Falk following.

“How did it go?” she asked.

“As expected,” Raco said, and Falk nodded. They came to a stop on the path by Rita, and Falk looked up himself.

“Whereabouts was her carriage?” he heard Raco ask quietly, and Falk pointed.

“Right near the top. Around where that one is, or the one next to it.”

Raco tilted his head back and shielded his eyes. Falk watched the top carriages move and thought, yet again, about those few seconds a whole year earlier. He tried to slow the scene down, freeze it in his mind to examine it more closely.

What had he seen? There had been the stroller bay, near the base of the ride, where Zoe Gillespie would be found alone two and a half hours later. The path ahead. Gemma had been there, of course, talking to Naomi—the whole reason Falk had stopped walking at all. He’d seen Rohan, too, underneath the ride, talking to those Queensland tourists before looking up. Falk gazed up at those carriages now and wished—not for the first time—that he had focused a little longer when it had mattered. If he’d been less distracted, would he have seen something that would have made a difference? Any clue as to what had been going through Kim Gillespie’s mind, in those final few hours?

“Dad.” Eva was pulling at Raco’s hand. “Can we please go on this one?”

Raco was still squinting up, his face hard to read. He nodded slowly. “Yeah, Eva. Let’s go on this one.”

They bought three tickets and joined the queue, waiting among couples and families until the attendant directed them into a carriage of their own. Falk sat on one side and Eva and Raco on the other as the attendant locked the door behind them, enclosing them safely in the capsule. The wheel started to turn and Eva shifted in her seat, making the carriage sway gently as she pressed her face to the vertical safety bars.

“Here we go,” she called as they lifted into the air.

Falk leaned against the bars himself, watching the view change as they glided upward. They were nearly at the top when the ride slowed and shuddered to a halt to let people on and off below. Not far from where Kim and Zoe’s carriage had been, Falk guessed, when he’d seen Rohan wave from the ground.

Had Kim hesitated at all before waving back? Falk really couldn’t be sure. But gazing down, he could understand why she might have. It felt even higher up here than it appeared from below. The people seemed small and much farther away than he’d expected. Falk could believe it might take a moment to notice what was going on.