The Survivors(42)

‘Bronte’s parents are due to arrive today,’ Olivia said suddenly. She’d been staring at the headstones. ‘They were stuck on a cruise so have had to fly back.’

‘Have you met them before?’

‘Once, when she first moved in. They’re both civil servants in Canberra. Quite high up, I think. Her mum was involved in that committee that tightened all the restrictions around seafood export, do you remember that? It caused a backlog and a lot of the fishermen couldn’t get rid of their catches for a while?’

Kieran shook his head. ‘Not really.’

‘Well, anyway. I told Bronte not to mention that too loudly around here,’ Olivia said. ‘Her parents seemed nice, though. Very … efficient. God knows how they must be feeling now.’

‘Any more from the cops?’

‘No.’ Olivia shifted uneasily. ‘But they were back at the house early this morning.’

‘Did they tell you why?’

She shook her head. ‘I heard they were checking the neighbours’ gardens. Going through their bins.’

‘Looking for something?’

‘Must be, but I don’t know what. I asked Renn straight out when he called last night to check how many sets of keys we had. He wouldn’t tell me. Just danced around it. Said it was procedure.’

‘Maybe it is.’

‘Maybe.’ Olivia picked at her thumbnail. ‘Ash says I should be careful. He reckons they think I know something I’m not telling them.’ She looked over. ‘I don’t. For the record.’

‘I didn’t think any differently.’

In the silence, Kieran could hear the seagulls calling.

‘If I did,’ Olivia said, ‘I would tell them. Bronte reminded me of Gabby a bit.’

‘Did she really?’ Kieran was surprised.

‘Yeah. Not physically, obviously, and not even in her mannerisms so much. More –’ Olivia thought for a minute. ‘They were both the kind of girl who felt they had to please people. It’s like this whole thing with Liam.’

‘What about it?’

‘I mean, Sean’s right –’ Olivia shrugged. ‘Liam and Bronte did get along okay. She never complained about him or anything. But she was quite sensitive to people’s feelings, and Liam can be … intense. Other girls might have told him to get lost, but Bronte would have worried about embarrassing him. She would’ve let him know she wasn’t interested, but it might have been pretty subtle.’ Olivia looked down. ‘And some guys don’t understand anything but a loud, firm “no”. Some don’t even understand that.’

‘Do you think Liam’s one of those guys?’

‘Yeah. I guess I do, a bit.’ Olivia’s mouth was a hard line as she considered. ‘Him giving Bronte a ride home bothers me. We live so close it was unnecessary, which kind of makes me suspect he insisted, which never feels great –’

Olivia broke off as her phone beeped with a text message. ‘Shit. It’s Julian again.’

‘What does he want?’

‘I don’t know. He says to call him.’ Olivia stood up. ‘I’d better get back anyway. Ash obviously isn’t here.’

Kieran wiped Audrey’s mouth and clipped her into the sling. ‘I’ll get going too.’

‘Are you heading down?’

‘No.’ He patted Audrey. ‘I’ll go on a bit further. Give her a chance to settle.’

‘When are you and Mia going back to Sydney?’

‘Next week.’

‘Lucky.’

They started to walk. ‘You thinking you’re going to have to settle in here for the long term?’

‘I don’t think I’ve got much choice. Not after what’s happened to Bronte. I can’t see that speeding up Mum’s recovery.’

‘At least you’ve got Ash.’

‘Yeah.’

When she didn’t say any more, Kieran looked over and Olivia gave a small laugh at his expression.

‘What?’

‘Nothing.’ He shrugged. ‘You guys are good, though, aren’t you?’

‘Yeah. We are. It’s just, if I stay here, it feels like –’ Olivia stopped at the cemetery gates and sighed. ‘I don’t know. Game over, or something. There’s no point finishing my Master’s. Or having worked so hard in Melbourne. Not if I’m going to settle down with Ash and bang out a few kids and send them off to Nippers training with Julian every Saturday while I go waitressing. I could have done that straight out of school if I was going to.’ A hint of a smile. ‘Not that I would’ve had anything to do with Ash back then.’

‘No.’ Kieran could hear the rapid rise and fall of his daughter’s breath. She felt warm and solid against him. ‘But everyone can change.’

‘Yeah, that’s true. And Ash is –’ Kieran waited as Olivia considered, genuinely interested what it was about Ash that had caught her eye twelve years on.

‘He can be a lot of fun,’ she said. ‘More than I remember. And he’s really good about Mum. I don’t have to explain things to him because he already knows –’ She waved her hand loosely. ‘– about everything.’