by Grace York
"Turns out he did hear Ivy scream. He was smoking pot behind the shed out in the back garden. He took his time getting into the house because he was busy hiding the evidence."
Addison watched Jason's face as he first sighed with relief, then got cross. She figured Louie might be off the hook for murder, but he'd lost his boss's trust.
"He also has an alibi for the night the laptop was stolen from the police station," Wilcox added.
That reminded Addison of why she'd been about to call him. She told him about her missing laptop.
"You're sure it's missing? You haven't just misplaced it?"
"We've looked everywhere," said Addison. "It's not here."
Wilcox sighed. "All right. I'm on my way."
Addison thanked him and ended the call. "Who's hungry?" she said. It was lunch time, so they might as well eat while they waited.
They were all tucking into sandwiches when Addison's phone rang again. This time it was Olivia.
"Hi sweetheart," she said. "I'm sorry I didn't send you that link—"
"It's okay, Mum," Olivia cut her off. "I found it myself. That's why I'm calling, actually. I found something you're going to want to take a look at. I've sent you an email. Can you open your computer?"
"Well that's the reason I didn't send you the link." Addison explained her missing laptop. Olivia said a word Addison couldn't repeat.
"You really need to take a look at what I found," she added.
Addison looked at the others. Adam, Amelie, and Jason were all staring at her. She had an idea. "Can you email the link to Adam?"
"Sure. Give me his email address."
Addison did so, and Adam raced upstairs to get his laptop. By the time he returned and set it up on the kitchen counter the email from Olivia had come through. He clicked on the link she'd sent, and a page came up that looked similar to the website they'd found last night. This one had a lot more words, though.
Addison asked Olivia to explain.
"From what I can make out it's a secret blog Patrick had been keeping. He hid it pretty well, he obviously didn't want anyone to find it yet. There are almost two weeks' worth of entries. You need to read them, Mum. It's about something from his past. A woman had conned some money from him years ago, and by the looks of it he'd found her."
Addison looked at Amelie, who appeared as confused as she was. She turned her attention back to Adam's screen. He was flicking through the entries, reading too fast for Addison to keep up.
"Holy cow," he said, pointing to the screen. "Read that."
Addison did so. A chill ran down her spine as the events of the last few days combined with this new information to paint a new picture.
A con artist. Stolen money. Missing laptop. Conversations in the garden. Suddenly everything made sense.
Addison took the stairs two at a time. She tried the door to Ivy's room, but it was locked. She crossed the hall to her own room, got the master key out of her jewellery box, and unlocked Ivy's door. The others crowded behind her as she flung the door open.
The room was empty.
27
"Mum! Mum, what's happening?"
Addison had forgotten about Olivia, who was clearly still on the other end of the phone clutched in her hand. She lifted it to her ear.
"It's all right, sweetheart. We'll figure it out. I have to go. I'll call you back as soon as I can."
Addison ended the call before Olivia could protest. She felt bad for cutting her daughter off, but she needed to think.
"It was Ivy?" said Amelie, confusion written across her face.
"Didn't you read Patrick's blog?" said Adam. "He recognised her. She was the one who stole his parents' money fifteen years ago. She'd just used a different name then."
"I thought that was a lie?"
"Evidently not," said Adam. He stepped into Ivy's bedroom, and Addison followed. It was as empty as the day she'd let it to the woman three weeks ago. Not a single personal item remained. Ivy was gone.
Addison's mind raced. How could Ivy have killed Patrick, then posed his body to make it look like suicide? She didn't look strong enough. Unless…
The vision of Ivy trying to get into the locked room came sharply into Addison's focus, followed by her brother pushing her aside and breaking down the door. Another piece of the puzzle clicked into place.
"It was both of them," she said. She left Ivy's room and walked down the corridor to Patrick's. The door was now closed. Addison turned the fresh handle Jason had just installed and pushed it open.
"What do you mean, both of them?" asked Jason.
"Ivy and Dan. They did it together. That's why we couldn't figure out how they got out of the locked room. They didn't."
"Yes they did," said Amelie. "They were outside with us. Weren't they?"
"I know what she means," said Adam. "They didn't get out of the locked room because the room wasn't locked."
"But… oh, right," said Amelie, finally catching on. "Ivy was the one who came upstairs to find him. She and Dan were the only ones who tried the door."
"That's right," said Addison. "They told us it was locked, and in the panic we believed them. Then Dan broke the door down before anyone else could try it." She bent down to look at the door knob. It had a lock that you turn on the inside, which released a small bolt into the catch on the door frame. It then required a key to open from the outside. "Is this the same kind of lock that was on the old handle?" she asked Jason.
"Yes."
Addison flicked the lock back and forward, which pushed the bolt in and out.
"What are you thinking?" asked Adam.
"Dan kicked the door in with a lot of force," she said. "I think he did that deliberately to make as much mess as possible, so we wouldn't notice it hadn't been locked. And when we all rushed in to check on Patrick, Ivy could have easily just clicked the lock on the knob like this to make it look like it had been locked. The rest of us were too focused on Patrick's body to notice her do it."
"Wow," said Adam. "That makes sense. So no need to hide in the wardrobe, then. They were right here with us the whole time."
"We'd better call Wilcox," said Addison.
"No," said Amelie. "He's already on his way here. You've got a more important call to make."
"To who?" asked Addison.
"Your bank. Dan accessed your laptop the other day, remember? They made you log into your bank account. And now your laptop is missing. Call the bank fast, Addison, and freeze your accounts. If Ivy and Dan are con artists, you could lose everything."
28
Addison was on the phone to the bank when Isaac arrived. She half listened as Adam, Jason, and Amelie hurriedly explained their theory about Ivy and Dan. Adam showed him the secret blog Olivia had uncovered.
By the time she'd finished speaking to the bank he'd called Short and every police vehicle in Queensland was looking for Ivy and Dan.
"How did you go?" asked Adam when she finally put down the phone.
"They'd made a transfer out of my account this morning," she said. "Ten thousand dollars."
"What? Oh no."
Addison held up a hand. "It's okay. The bank was able to reverse it, and they've frozen my accounts now too. But there's something else."
"What?" asked Isaac. They were all staring at her.
"It looks like they were trying to steal my identity to take out credit cards and a loan. They were about to put me into some serious debt."
"But the bank shut it down, right?" asked Adam.
"Yes, it's all okay. I called them in time. Thanks, Amelie. Your quick thinking just saved me a lot of money."
Amelie smiled. "I'm glad." She turned to Isaac. "You can't let them get away with Patrick's murder."
"They won't get far, don't worry," he said. "I'm sorry this has happened," he said to Addison. "I was on the wrong track with Louie."
"You were just doing your job," said Addison. "You have to follow the evidence. I understand why you thought it was Louie. He did
do something wrong."
"Are you charging him?" Jason asked Wilcox.
The detective shook his head. "I've got better things to do. I suspect having to answer to you will be punishment enough for him."
"Too right," said Jason.
"I've got to go," said Isaac. "Short has started the ball rolling to find them, but…"
"We understand," said Addison. "Is there anything we can do?"
Isaac shook his head. "No. It's up to me now. I should have looked closer at them before. I'm sorry it almost cost you so much."
"Almost, but not quite." She touched his shoulder. "Go find them, Isaac. Make sure they don't get away with murder."
When he'd gone, Addison and the others stood around the kitchen at a loose end.
"I feel like we should be doing something," said Amelie.
"Is it too early for a beer?" said Adam. He had half a smile on his face, and Addison realised he was only half joking. It felt a bit like that.
"How about we make some lunch," said Addison. "Amelie, help me to make some sandwiches, will you?"
"Not for me, thanks," said Jason. "I'm going to go find Louie. We need to have a little chat."
Addison was about to tell him not to be too hard on Louie, but stopped herself. Louie had done the wrong thing, and then kept quiet about it. If he'd been upfront about smoking marijuana on the job in the first place, Isaac wouldn't have wasted so much time.
"Thanks for fixing the door," Addison said, and waved Jason goodbye.
That left the three of them. Amelie started pulling sandwich fillings out of the fridge, while Adam went back to his laptop. Addison watched them for a minute. A week ago she'd had a houseful of happy boarders. Or at least she thought she had. Now one was dead, and another was on the run for murder.
Maybe she wasn't cut out for this.
"It's not your fault," said Adam, peering at her over the top of his computer screen. "Get that sad look off your face, Addison. You didn't ask for this."
"No, I didn't. I can't help but feel responsible, though. One of my boarders actually murdered another one."
"Ivy was never one of your boarders though," said Amelie. "Not really. We all came here because you advertised a happy house by the beach where we could live and work creatively. That's what you offer, and that's what we came for. But Ivy didn't come for that. She was obviously only here to steal your identity. That's not your fault."
Addison pulled slices of bread out of the bread bag. "I should have seen it coming, though. I should have been able to spot her for what she was."
"You can't blame yourself for that," said Adam. "None of us saw her for what she was. She had everyone fooled."
"Not Patrick," said Addison.
"Only because he recognised her," Adam argued. "Think about it – if she conned him fifteen years ago, then she's been doing this a long time. She and Dan are obviously a double act. After that many years, they'd be very good at it. It's not your fault, Addison."
Addison knew he was right, but it still stung. She prided herself on being a good judge of character, but Ivy and Dan had completely fooled her. Suddenly she wanted to read everything Patrick had written about them on his secret blog. She left the sandwich-making to Amelie and came around to peer over Adam's shoulder.
Half an hour later they'd slowly scrolled through the collection of posts and read every word, and Addison was in shock all over again.
Poor Patrick. He'd recognised Ivy immediately, as soon as he and Amelie had arrived at the beach house. Fifteen years ago he'd known her as Emma Ronson, and he'd fallen in love with her.
Patrick's sisters had been right to a point – Patrick had taken his parent's money. At Ivy's – Emma's – insistence, he'd managed to talk his elderly parents into signing over a large part of their savings to him so he could invest it in a scheme run by Emma's brother Nathan. Nathan – Dan, presumably – assured him it would double the money within five years. Patrick loved Emma, so he trusted them both with the money. He planned to return his parents' initial investment to them plus twenty-five percent, then use the rest to finance himself while he got his writing career started.
Shortly after handing over the money, Emma called Patrick to say Nathan was in trouble. He'd made an investment on behalf of a biker years earlier, which didn't pan out, and the biker's gang was after him. Emma told Patrick that she and Nathan had to disappear for a while, for their safety, but not to worry. His money was safe, and she'd be in touch in a few months when things had settled down.
That was the last Patrick had seen of either of them, until he arrived at the beach house two weeks ago.
According to his blog, Patrick had been ashamed that he'd fallen victim to con-artists. Addison remembered Marilyn saying her brother had been naive when he was younger. If Ivy and Dan had been as convincing fifteen years ago as they were now, Addison wasn't surprised they'd managed to fool Patrick.
"So what happened once Patrick recognised Ivy?" asked Amelie, who said she couldn't bring herself to read it in Patrick's own words just yet.
"According to this she tried to con him all over again," said Adam. "She told him the bikies were really persistent in their pursuit of Nathan, so they changed their names and went into hiding. She wanted to contact him, but said it was too risky. Eventually she figured he would have moved on with his life."
"But what about Patrick's parents' money? What did she say happened to that?"
"She told him they'd had to use it to pay off the bikies," said Adam. "But they had other investments now that were about to mature, so they could pay him back with interest. He just had to wait a few weeks."
"Patrick didn't believe her, did he?" asked Amelie.
"No," said Addison. This was the part of the story that had warmed her heart when she read it. "He told her he did, though. He figured they were up to something, and this time he wasn't going to let them get away with it. So he went along with her story, and realised they were trying to steal my money. He was gathering evidence against them and recording it all here on his secret blog."
"They must have figured it out, though," said Adam. "So they came up with their plan to kill him and make it look like suicide."
"They didn't do a very good job," said Amelie. "The police knew he'd been strangled."
"It was probably the best they could come up with," said Addison. "I suspect they're just con-artists, not murderers. They only resorted to killing Patrick once their secret was threatened. I'll bet they've left a string of unhappy victims in their wake. Patrick threatened to unravel all of that."
"So why didn't they disappear as soon as they killed him? Why stick around?"
"That's easy," said Adam. "They're greedy. They hadn't finished stealing Addison's money yet."
Addison shuddered at how close she'd come to losing everything. "Let's hope Isaac can find them before they find their next victim."
29
Ivy and Dan made it almost all the way to the Queensland-New South Wales border before the police caught up with them. They were arrested and taken to Brisbane, where Isaac made the trip down to be part of the interviews. He had quite the story to tell when he returned to Getaway Bay.
"They weren't even brother and sister," he told the group assembled in the backyard of the beach house that Friday evening. Olivia had arrived home earlier in the day, and now she, Addison, Layla, Adam, and Amelie were joined around the barbecue by Isaac, Mrs Jones, Jason and Kendall, and Hazel and her husband Martin. There were drinks all around as Isaac told the tale of the two con-artists.
"So they were lovers?" Addison asked.
"At one point, yes. It seems she wanted to settle down and start a family, but he was having too much fun ripping off innocent people. He was addicted to the thrill of the con, and had also managed to acquire a costly cocaine habit. He wasn't even close to settling down."
"Ivy told you this?" said Addison. Isaac had explained that Ivy and Dan Hathaway were only the latest in the string of names the pair had
used. Patrick had known them as Emma and Nathan Ronson fifteen years ago, but those were fake too. Isaac had mentioned their real names, but Addison couldn't stop thinking of them as Ivy and Dan.
"Yes. As soon as Ivy realised the evidence stacked against them, she told us everything. She blamed Dan for Patrick's death, of course. She said it was his idea, he was the one who strangled Patrick, she just helped him cover it up."
"She's not going to get away with it, is she?" asked Amelie.
Isaac took a sip of beer and shook his head. "No way. It was premeditated murder. Not to mention all the people they've conned over the years. They're both going away for a very long time."
"Good," said Amelie.
"What about the family he told us about?" asked Layla. "Annette, and those two kids?"
"They don't exist," said Isaac. "At least not in his world. It's all part of the con. They play a persona, these people. They invent a full life. The more believable it is, the more chance they have of fooling you."
"Well they certainly fooled me," said Addison. She was still embarrassed at being taken in by them. She'd really thought they were a nice brother and sister.
"Aww, Mum, don't feel bad." Olivia put her arm around Addison. "They sound like professionals. And I like that you always see the good in people."
"I'll drink to that," said Hazel, raising her glass. They all followed suit, and Addison found herself grateful once again for the lovely friends she'd made here in Getaway Bay.
"Didn't you do background checks on all of us once you realised Patrick was murdered?" asked Adam. "How come you didn't pick up that Ivy and Dan weren't who they said they were?"
"They'd done enough groundwork to make their story hold up," said Isaac. "There really is a cyber-security company in Cairns run by Dan Hathaway – the real Dan Hathaway. He has a sister named Ivy, a wife called Annette, and two children. That's what they do – find real people to impersonate, in case any of their marks get suspicious and check them out."
"Wow," said Layla. "That's commitment."
