140871101X

by Jane Harper

  ‘People can change, though.’ Beth spoke for the first time. ‘I have. For the worse and for the better.’ She was hunched forward, lighting the tip of a long straw of grass in the flames. ‘It’s all bullshit anyway, that astrology and destiny stuff. Bree and I were born three minutes apart under the same sign. That tells you everything you need to know about your destiny being written in the stars.’

  There was a soft laugh at that, from all of them. Later, Lauren would remember it as being the last time.

  They fell quiet, looking up at the stars or down at the fire. Someone’s stomach rumbled loudly. No-one commented. There was no point. They had managed to fill their water bottles partway with rainwater, but the food was long gone. A cold breeze rushed through, sending the flames dancing and all around, in the dark, invisible trees rattled and groaned in a collective chorus.

  ‘What do you think will happen to us out here?’ Bree’s voice was small.

  Lauren waited for someone to reassure her. We’ll be all right. No-one did.

  ‘Are we going to be okay?’ Bree tried again.

  ‘Of course we will,’ Beth answered her this time. ‘They’ll be looking for us by tomorrow afternoon.’

  ‘What if they can’t find us?’

  ‘They will.’

  ‘But what if they can’t?’ Bree’s eyes were wide. ‘Seriously? What if Alice is right? Forget having choices and being in control, what if that’s all bullshit? I don’t feel in control at all. What if we don’t have any choice in anything, and we’re actually all destined to stay lost out here? Alone and scared and never found?’

  No-one answered. Overhead, the stars looked down, their cold and distant light blanketing the Earth.

  ‘Bree, staying out here is absolutely not our destiny.’ Across the fire, Alice managed a small laugh. ‘Not unless one of us has done something really terrible in a past life.’

  It was almost funny, Lauren thought, how in the relative privacy of the flickering half-light, every face looked a little guilty.

  Chapter 17

  ‘That was uncomfortable,’ Carmen said.

  ‘Which part?’

  ‘All of it.’

  They were sitting in their car outside Lauren’s house. It had grown dark while they were inside and the glow from the streetlights gave the raindrops on the windscreen an orange sheen.

  ‘I didn’t even know what to say to Margot back at her house,’ Carmen said. ‘I mean, she’s right. What on earth is she supposed to do now those photos are out there? It’s not like she can get them back. And then Rebecca. That was shocking. No wonder Lauren’s so on edge.’

  Falk thought of the skeletal teenage girl and her nest of mindfulness bracelets. How much worry and stress was tied up in those threads? He shook his head.

  ‘So what now?’ He checked his watch. It felt later than it was.

  Carmen checked her phone. ‘The office has given the okay to visit Daniel Bailey at home, assuming he’s actually there, I suppose. But they say to tread carefully.’

  ‘Great tip.’ Falk started the engine. ‘They say anything else?’

  ‘The usual.’ Carmen glanced sideways, with a tiny smile. Get the contracts. She sat back in her seat. ‘I wonder if his son’s come home yet.’

  ‘Maybe,’ Falk said, but he doubted it. He’d seen the look on Daniel Bailey’s face as he’d stormed away from Alice’s house. Falk didn’t have to know Joel Bailey to know that he’d likely be lying very low indeed.

  The Baileys’ home was hidden behind an elaborate wrought-iron gate and hedges so thick it was impossible to see through them from the road.

  ‘It’s about Alice Russell,’ Falk said into the intercom speaker. The red light of the security camera blinked, then the gate swung open silently to reveal a long smooth driveway. Japanese weeping cherry trees bordered the way, looking like manicured toys.

  Bailey opened the door himself. He stared at Falk and Carmen in surprise, then frowned, trying to place them. ‘We’ve met before?’ It was a question, not a statement.

  ‘At the lodge. Yesterday. With Ian Chase.’

  ‘Yes, that’s right.’ Bailey’s eyes were bloodshot. He looked older than he had a day earlier. ‘Have they found Alice? They said someone would call if they found her.’

  ‘They haven’t found her, no,’ Falk said. ‘But we’d like to speak to you anyway.’

  ‘Again? What about?’

  ‘Why you were banging on the door of Alice Russell’s house a few hours ago, for starters.’

  Bailey went still. ‘You went to her house?’

  ‘She’s still missing,’ Carmen said. ‘I thought you wanted to see no stone unturned.’

  ‘Of course,’ Bailey snapped, then stopped. He rubbed a hand over his eyes, then opened the door wider and stepped back. ‘I’m sorry. Come in.’

  They followed him down a spotless hallway into a large, plush sunroom. Polished wooden floors shone beneath leather couches while low flames in the fireplace warmed the room gently. It was showroom neat. Falk had to fight the urge to remove his shoes. Bailey gestured for them to take a seat.

  A professional family photo hanging over the mantelpiece showed Bailey smiling broadly next to an attractive dark-haired woman. His hand rested on the shoulder of a teenage boy, all smooth skin and wholesome white teeth and sharply ironed creases in his shirt. Joel Bailey, Falk guessed. He hadn’t looked quite like that on Margot Russell’s phone screen.

  Bailey followed his gaze to the portrait. ‘I went to the Russells’ place to see if my son was there. He wasn’t, or at least I don’t think he was, so I left.’

  ‘Did you try to speak to Margot?’ Carmen said.

  ‘She was in there, was she? I thought she might have been. No, she wouldn’t answer the door.’ He looked up. ‘Have you spoken to her? Does she know where Joel is?’

  Falk started to shake his head when there was a movement in the doorway.

  ‘What’s that about Joel? Has he been found?’ a voice said.

  The dark-haired woman from the family photograph stood watching them. Like her husband, worry appeared to have aged her. She was dressed carefully, with gold jewellery gleaming at her ears and neck, but her eyes were slick with unshed tears.

  ‘My wife, Michelle,’ Bailey said. ‘I was just saying I went to Margot Russell’s looking for Joel.’

  ‘Why? He’s hardly going to be with her.’ Michelle’s mouth was rigid with disbelief. ‘He doesn’t want anything to do with her.’

  ‘He wasn’t there anyway,’ Bailey said. ‘He’ll be hiding at one of his friend’s houses.’

  ‘Did you at least tell Margot to leave him alone? Because if she bombards him with any more of those pictures or videos, I’m going to the police myself.’

  Falk cleared his throat. ‘I don’t think there’s any risk of Margot sending anything more. She’s very upset that they’ve ended up online.’

  ‘And Joel isn’t? He’s more upset than anyone. He’s so embarrassed he can’t even face us. He didn’t ask to be caught up in any of this.’

  ‘He asked for the photos, though,’ Carmen said. ‘Allegedly.’

  ‘No. He didn’t.’ Her words were brittle and hard. ‘My son would never have done that. Do you understand me?’

  Bailey started to say something but his wife waved him down.

  ‘Even if there was some sort of a mistake –’ Michelle’s eyes darted to the family portrait. ‘Even if they’d been flirting, for example, and he said something that Margot misconstrued, why would she send him something like that? Doesn’t she have any self-respect? If she didn’t want those pictures to end up online, maybe she should have thought of that before acting like such a little whore.’

  The words were barely out before Bailey had jumped to his feet and ushered his wife out of the room. He was gone for a few minutes. Falk could hear the muffled sounds of a firm, low voice and frantic higher-pitched replies. When he came back, he looked even more tense.

  ‘I’m sorry about
that. She’s very shaken up.’ He sighed. ‘She was the one who discovered the photos and videos. We’d got a new tablet for the family room and Joel’s mobile phone had somehow synced with it. Probably by mistake when he was downloading something, but it saved his camera roll and she saw everything. Michelle called me. I was already on my way to catch the bus to that bloody retreat – I had to turn around and come back. Joel was here with a couple of friends. I sent them home, made him delete the images, of course. Gave him a talking to.’

  ‘That’s why you were delayed getting up to the retreat?’ Falk said, and Bailey nodded.

  ‘I didn’t want to go at all, but it was too late to cancel. It’s a bad look for the boss to drop out. Besides –’ He hesitated. ‘I thought perhaps I’d better warn Alice.’

  Falk saw Carmen’s eyebrows rise.

  ‘Even though you’d already deleted the photos?’ she said.

  ‘I felt it was important.’ There was a hint of martyrdom in his voice.

  ‘And did you manage to? Warn her?’

  ‘Yes. On that first night of the retreat, when we went to the women’s campsite. I’d tried to phone her from the road but hadn’t been able to get through. By the time I got to the retreat, the women’s group had already started walking.’

  Falk thought of their own mobile signals, dwindling to nothing as they approached the ranges.

  ‘But why the urgency?’ he said. ‘You said the photos had been deleted, so why not tell her after the retreat? If at all?’

  ‘Yeah. Look, personally I would have been happy to wipe the images and for that to be the end of it but –’ He glanced at the doorway where his wife had stood earlier. ‘Michelle was – is – very upset. She knows Margot Russell’s phone number. While I was driving up, I started to worry that Michelle might, I don’t know, feel the need to say her piece. I didn’t want Alice to come out of the retreat three days later and find a string of messages from Margot complaining about my wife and Alice knowing nothing about it. She’d have legitimate grounds for a complaint in that.’

  Falk and Carmen looked at him.

  ‘So what did you tell Alice?’ Falk said.

  ‘I thought she probably wouldn’t want everyone else to know, so I took her aside.’ A ghost of a tight smile. ‘To be honest, I didn’t want everyone else to know. I told her that Joel had some photos of Margot but they’d been deleted.’

  ‘How did Alice react?’

  ‘At first, she didn’t believe me about the pictures. Or didn’t want to believe me.’ He glanced at the doorway where his red-eyed wife had stood. ‘But perhaps that’s to be expected. She insisted Margot wouldn’t do something like that, but when I said I’d seen the photos myself, her reaction changed. She started to take it in, asking if I’d shown them to anyone else, or if I was planning to. I said no, of course not. I think she was still trying to understand. I couldn’t really blame her. I was having enough trouble with it myself.’ He looked down at his hands.

  Falk thought of Jill Bailey, frowning. It’s a family matter.

  ‘Did you tell your sister what had happened?’

  ‘On the retreat?’ Bailey shook his head. ‘Not all of it. I told her I was late because we’d discovered Joel with some inappropriate photos. I didn’t mention Margot was involved. I thought that was a decision for Alice to make as her mother.’ He sighed. ‘I had to tell Jill after the retreat though, when Alice didn’t make it out.’

  ‘How did she react?’

  ‘She was angry. She said I should have told her the whole story on that first night at the campsite. Which maybe I should have.’

  Carmen sat back in her chair. ‘So how did the images manage to get out? Margot said they’d been online since yesterday.’

  ‘I honestly don’t know. I drove down yesterday as soon as I heard about it from Michelle. She’d heard it from another mum.’ He shook his head. ‘For what it’s worth, I really don’t think Joel would spread them about. I spoke to him for a long time about respect and privacy and he really did seem to take it in.’

  Daniel Bailey, Falk thought, sounded a lot like his wife at that moment.

  ‘Joel had had a couple of friends with him when Michelle discovered the files,’ Bailey went on. ‘I think in the chaos, it’s most likely one of them copied the images.’ He turned his own mobile over in his hands. ‘I just wish Joel would answer his bloody phone, so we could get this straightened out.’

  For a moment, the only sound was the crackle from the fireplace.

  ‘Why didn’t you mention this when we spoke before?’ Falk said.

  ‘I was trying to respect the kids’ privacy. Not make things worse for them.’

  Falk looked at him, and for the first time, Bailey couldn’t meet his eye. There was something else. Falk thought about Margot standing, childlike and alone, in her mother’s kitchen.

  ‘How old is Margot in those pictures?’

  Bailey blinked and Falk knew he was right.

  ‘If someone looks into the dates those were taken, are they going to find she was only fifteen at the time?’

  Bailey shook his head. ‘I don’t know.’

  Falk was certain that he did. ‘How old is your son now?’

  A long silence. ‘He’s eighteen, but only just. He was only seventeen when they were seeing each other, though.’

  ‘But now he’s not.’ Carmen leaned in. ‘Now, he’s legally an adult who has allegedly distributed sexual images of a girl under the age of consent. I hope you’ve got a good lawyer.’

  Bailey sat on his expensive couch next to his crackling fire and raised his eyes to look at his smiling son in the glossy family portrait. He nodded, but he didn’t look happy.

  ‘We do.’

  Day 3: Saturday Night

  Alice had been gone for a while before anyone noticed.

  Bree wasn’t sure how long she’d been staring at the flames when she realised there were only four of them sitting there. She scanned the clearing. There was little to see. The front of the cabin glowed orange and black, its angles creating sharp shadows in the light of the fire. All around, everything else was in perfect darkness.

  ‘Where’s Alice?’

  Lauren looked up. ‘I think she went to the toilet.’

  Across the campfire, Jill frowned. ‘That was quite a bit ago, wasn’t it?’

  ‘Was it? I don’t know.’

  Bree didn’t know either. Time seemed to flow differently out there. She watched the flames for a few more minutes, or possibly many more minutes, until Jill shifted.

  ‘Actually, where is she? She hasn’t gone so far that she can’t see her way back to the fire, has she?’ Jill sat up straighter and called out, ‘Alice!’

  They listened. Bree heard a rustle and a crack from somewhere far behind her. Possum, she told herself. Other than that, all was still.

  ‘Maybe she didn’t hear,’ Jill said. Then, very lightly: ‘Her bag’s still here, isn’t it?’

  Bree got up to check. Inside the cabin, she could just make out the shapes of five backpacks. She couldn’t tell which one was Alice’s, so she counted them again, to make sure. Five. All accounted for. As she turned to leave, a movement through the side window caught her eye and she stepped up to the hole where glass should have been. A figure was moving by the tree line. Alice.

  What was she doing? It was hard to tell. Then Bree saw the telltale pinprick of light. She sighed and went back out to the fire.

  ‘Alice is over there, around the side.’ Bree pointed. ‘She’s checking the phone.’

  ‘But her bag’s still inside?’ Jill said.

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Can you get her?’ Jill squinted into the dark. ‘Please. I don’t want anyone to get lost in the dark.’

  Bree looked around as a rustling came from somewhere in the trees. It really was just a possum, she told herself. ‘Okay.’

  It was darker out of view of the fire and Bree stumbled on the uneven ground, the image of the flames dancing in front of her eyes
whether they were open or shut. She took a breath, and made herself stop and wait. Gradually, the distinctions started to become clear. She could see the moving figure at the tree line.

  ‘Alice!’

  Alice jumped and turned at the sound of her name. The phone glowed in her hand.

  ‘Hey,’ Bree said. ‘Didn’t you hear us calling?’

  ‘No. Sorry. When?’

  Alice had a strange expression on her face and, as Bree got closer, she thought the woman might have tears in her eyes.

  ‘Just before. Are you okay?’

  ‘Yes. I thought – I thought for a second I had a signal.’

  ‘Oh my God, really?’ Bree almost snatched for the phone. She stopped herself in time. ‘Did you manage to call someone?’

  ‘No. It disappeared straight away. I haven’t been able to find it again.’ Alice looked down. ‘I don’t know. Maybe I imagined it.’

  ‘Can I see?’ Bree reached out, but Alice stayed just far enough away.

  ‘There’s nothing there. I think maybe I saw what I wanted to see.’

  On the screen, Bree caught a glimpse of a name. Margot. Last number dialled. She hesitated. It was Alice’s phone, but they were all adrift in the same miserable boat. That changed the rules. Bree took a breath.

  ‘We should only use the phone to call triple zero.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘I mean, I realise it’s hard. Everyone’s missing home and thinking about their families, I totally understand that but –’

  ‘Bree. I know. I couldn’t get through.’

  ‘But even trying to call uses up the battery and we don’t know how long –’

  ‘Jesus, I know all that!’ Definitely a glint of tears. ‘I just wanted to talk to her. That’s all.’

  ‘Okay.’ Bree put a hand out and rubbed Alice’s back. It felt a little awkward, and she realised they had never shared anything more than a handshake before.