Force of Nature (Aaron Falk #2)(90)

‘According to this it looks like you did. At least once.’ Carmen passed the map over, her finger pointing to something written in Erik Falk’s handwriting.

With Aaron.

The words were written next to a light summer trail. Falk had never walked the full length of it, but he knew where it went. It followed the boundaries of the paddocks where he used to run around, blowing off steam while his dad worked on the land; near the spot at the river where his dad had showed him how to fish; along the fence line where three-year-old Aaron had one summer’s day been photographed laughing and riding on his dad’s shoulders.

With Aaron.

‘We didn’t –’ Falk’s eyes felt heavy and hot. ‘We never really walked that together. Not in one go.’

‘Well, maybe he wanted to. There are some others as well.’ Carmen had been looking through the pile. She passed him a couple more, pointing out the markings. Then a handful more.

On almost every map, in handwriting faded with age and becoming shakier over time, were the words: With Aaron. With Aaron. A chosen route for them to tackle together. His dad, stubborn in the face of flat refusal; the words a wish for something different.

Falk sat back against the bedhead. He realised Carmen was watching him and shook his head. He thought he might have trouble speaking.

She reached out and put her hand on his. ‘Aaron, it’s okay. I’m sure he knew.’

Falk swallowed. ‘I don’t think he did.’

‘He did.’ Carmen smiled. ‘Of course he did. Parents and children are hardwired to love each other. He knew.’

Falk looked at the maps. ‘He did a better job of showing it than me.’

‘Well. Maybe. But you’re not alone in that. I think parents often love their kids more than the other way round.’

‘Maybe.’ Falk thought of Sarah Sondenberg’s parents and the depths they had been forced to plunge for their daughter. What had King said? Never underestimate how far you’d go for your child.

Something again caught at the edge of Falk’s mind. He blinked. What was it? Even as he tried to grasp the idea it twisted and threatened to evaporate. The computer was still open next to Carmen, the gallery of photos still loaded.

‘Let me see again.’ Falk pulled the laptop over and scrolled through the photos of Alice Russell, looking more closely this time. Something in the little details nagged him, but he couldn’t tell what. He looked at her sallow skin, the way her jaw hung a little slack. Her exposed face was almost relaxed and she looked, in a strange way, younger. The howl of the wind outside suddenly sounded a lot like Margot Russell’s cries.

He kept looking. At Alice’s broken nails, her dirty hands, her tangled hair. The debris and stray rubbish strewn all around her. That flicker again. Falk stopped on that last image and leaned in closer. An old piece of plastic was trapped under her leg. The dirty remains of a torn food wrapper lay near her hair. He zoomed in.

A single torn red and silver thread had snagged in her jacket zip.

The flicker burst into flame as he looked at that torn thread. And suddenly he wasn’t thinking of Alice or Margot Russell but instead of another girl, so fragile she was barely there, fiddling constantly with something red and silver and knotted in her fingers.

A thread caught in a zip. A bare wrist. The haunted look in the girl’s sunken eyes. And the guilty look in her mother’s.





Day 4: Sunday Morning


‘Alice.’ Lauren stared at the other woman. ‘Who are you talking to?’

‘Oh my God.’ Alice put a hand to her chest. Her face was pale in the dark. ‘You scared me.’

‘Is there a signal? Did you get through to someone?’ Lauren reached for the phone but Alice snatched her hand away.

‘It’s too weak. I don’t think they can hear me.’

‘Call triple zero.’ Lauren reached out again.

Alice stepped back. ‘I did. It kept cutting out.’

‘Shit. So who were you speaking to?’

‘It was a voicemail. I don’t think it got through.’

‘But who was it?’

‘It was no-one. Just something about Margot.’

Lauren stared until Alice met her eyes.

‘What?’ Alice snapped. ‘I told you, I tried triple zero already.’

‘We have almost no signal or battery left. We need to save it.’

‘I know that. But this was important.’

‘Believe it or not, there are some things more important than your bloody daughter.’

Alice said nothing, but held the phone closer.

‘All right.’ Lauren made herself take a deep breath. ‘How did you get the phone without waking Jill, anyway?’

Alice almost laughed. ‘That woman slept through a thunderstorm yesterday. She was hardly going to stir because her jacket’s moved.’

Lauren could believe it. Jill had always seemed to sleep better than any of them. She looked down at Alice’s other hand. ‘And you’ve taken Beth’s torch.’

‘I need it.’

‘It’s the only one we’ve got that’s working.’

‘That’s why I need it.’ Alice wouldn’t meet her eye. The light from the torch bobbed in the gloom. The rest of the path was in darkness.