The Survivors(48)

Meaghan says the students are all devastated, Theresa wrote. SurfGirl93 had liked the post, along with thirty-nine others. Thank you, Theresa had commented, in reply to her own comment.

There were dozens of messages about Bronte. How she had covered the cost of someone’s coffee in the Surf and Turf when they’d forgotten their wallet. How she had sketched a lovely picture of a daughter’s new puppy on the back of a napkin and given it to her as they left. The compliments seemed sincere, Kieran thought, but superficial. No-one in Evelyn Bay had really known her much beyond the orange uniform and professional smile.

There were surprisingly few references to Liam. A good handful of posts mentioned ‘someone’ the police were talking to, but there seemed to be a general reluctance to throw the first stone. Kieran skimmed the entries as he scrolled. There was something more than loyalty to Liam going on, though, he decided. Reading through the comments in bulk, he could sense an almost collective need for it not to be the local boy. There were dozens of mentions of tourists, mainlanders, shadowy strangers. Apparently anything was better than it being one of their own.

Not everyone was so coy, though.

Liam Gilroy, wrote one anonymous grey avatar. Is anyone seriously surprised?

Why? several people had asked in reply.

Kieran scrolled through the whole chain, but the original commenter had remained silent.

‘There you both are.’

Kieran looked up. Mia gave a little wave as she walked towards them. She seemed a lot better than she had that morning, Kieran thought. As she leaned over the carrier to stroke Audrey’s head, he was relieved to see the bruise on her wrist had not come up as badly as he’d feared.

‘Everything okay at home?’

‘I think so. Your dad seems oblivious. Calmer, though.’

‘That’s good, I suppose.’

Mia reached in and wiped a trail of drool from Audrey’s mouth. ‘How was your morning?’

‘We saw Liam.’

‘Really?’ Mia looked up now. ‘Did he say anything?’

‘Yeah.’ Kieran filled her in on Liam’s account of Saturday night. ‘He reckons that was his car we saw racing by on Beach Road.’

‘Was it?’ Mia frowned.

‘He says so. Can you remember? It would have been a white Holden.’

She thought, then shook her head. ‘I really don’t know.’

As they turned in the direction of town, Mia’s eyes fell as Kieran’s had on what used to be the garden of Wetherby House.

‘Look at this place,’ she said. ‘What a shame. Is it still owned by Ash’s family?’

‘No. But you’ll never guess who lives here now.’

‘Who?’

‘G.R. Barlin.’

‘No. Seriously?’ Mia turned back to the home, a newfound appreciation for invasive landscaping dawning on her face. ‘How do you know?’

‘I met him. He was at the Surf and Turf yesterday morning too. The bloke with the laptop.’

‘Oh my God, of course,’ Mia breathed. ‘I thought he looked familiar. It was so out of context, though, I couldn’t work it out.’ She frowned. ‘He doesn’t look much like his photo anymore. I’m surprised anyone recognises him.’

Kieran smiled. ‘They don’t, apparently. You’ll probably get another chance, though. Mum and I ran into him last night at the Surf and Turf. And he just caught me and Audrey spying on him.’

‘Oh for God’s sake.’ Mia gave Kieran a gentle slap on the arm, but she was smiling, properly now. ‘Now he’s never going to want to be best friends with us.’

Kieran had to laugh. ‘I’m not sure that was on the cards anyway.’

‘Why not? We’re fun.’

‘We’re really not. Not these days at least.’

Mia smiled and peered at the house with its closed shutters. ‘I should have worked out it was him yesterday. He used to come here for summers.’

‘Yeah, he mentioned that,’ Kieran said. ‘How did you know?’

‘I took one of his writing workshops years ago. Remember? I told you.’

Kieran did remember now, but hadn’t put two and two together. ‘That was here? I thought that was after you moved to Sydney.’

‘No, it was here. Back when he was a nobody journalist.’ Her smile dimmed a little. ‘Gabby did the workshop too. It was that one not long before the storm.’

‘Right. Of course.’ Kieran leaned on the fence next to her.

Mia’s eyes were trained on the house, but the kitchen shutters remained stubbornly closed. ‘So what’s he like now?’ she said, unable to hide her curiosity.

‘Dunno,’ Kieran said. ‘Seems okay. Takes himself a bit seriously maybe. Ash clearly isn’t a fan.’

‘No, I suppose not.’ Mia picked a single leaf off one of the few remaining trees. It was earmarked for extraction according to the tape wrapped around its trunk. ‘This is actually pretty brutal. If Gabby were here she’d be so sad to see it like this.’

‘Really?’

‘Yeah. She loved walking past this place. Even more when Ash got going with it. You could see that the garden was full of little nooks and crannies and hiding places. We called it the fairy garden. Pretended it was magic.’ Mia shook her head. ‘And that’s obviously one of the many reasons we were so popular at school.’