‘I’m sorry,’ said Dan gently. ‘I don’t know the whole story. But don’t let your mother’s actions affect your life.’
‘Easier said than done,’ Zoe said.
The rest of the evening was taken up with Dan telling her what he’d been up to since high school. They both had travelling in common and talked about their favourite places in Europe they’d visited while teaching in the UK. Dan was easy to talk to, a lot like Alex. She felt comfortable in his presence and when he kissed her on the cheek outside Lillian’s front door and asked if he could see her again she readily agreed. She watched him drive away and walked into Lillian’s house with a grin on her face.
Chapter 29
Aroha walked into the chemist on Thursday morning. It was always busy, favoured by locals, not a franchise but owned by a couple in their late sixties. The bonus: no security cameras. It was the same place where she’d lifted the traitorous pregnancy test a couple of weeks ago. She wandered the aisles, avoiding eye contact. She found the cheapest thing in the shop, a pack of tissues for two dollars. At the counter she handed over a five-dollar note and accepted the change with thanks. Walking up the main street she put her wallet in her school bag, her hand brushing the Maybelline lipstick and compact that she’d deposited earlier when the woman behind the counter was serving someone else.
School had already started. Maths first. Not her worst, but she couldn’t be bothered with it today. She headed towards little lake, calling into the dairy on the opposite side of the road. Hiding in the aisle she pocketed three chocolate bars and a packet of lollies and paid for a steak and cheese pie.
Aroha ate her pie and two chocolate bars while sitting on a swing. There were no little ones around, mothers still dropping big kids off at school and kindy and going to the supermarket.
Is that what I’ll be doing soon? Changing nappies? Up all hours of the night with a shrieking kid? Stuck in Crawton forever?
She had no idea where she wanted to go or what she wanted to do, but knew for sure it was going to be something far away from Crawton. She still needed to tell him. He wasn’t going to like it. She knew that. But maybe he could help. And he’d keep her secret. It would be like it never happened. She just needed the guts to tell him. Saying the words out loud to another person made it real. In her head sometimes she could pretend none of this had happened. She could get on with her day and pretend she was just any teenager living in a dead-end town, going to school, hanging out for the weekend. But then, at night, when her dad woke her stumbling to vomit the contents of a bottle of Jim Beam into the toilet, that’s when the truth hit her. She was sixteen and pregnant and had no one.
She thought about who else she could talk to, and Ms Haywood came to mind. She was a teacher, so she figured she could be trusted. She was nice. She treated the kids well, not like some of the other teachers. If she was anything like Mrs Haywood, she’d do anything she could to help her out. But what if she narked to school or, even worse, her dad?
The other option was the doctor in town. But everyone knew the receptionist there was a gossip. Aroha could just imagine her snooping through her notes, glasses perched on the end of her nose, discovering that Aroha Kingi was pregnant and sending that juicy little morsel all round town. No, the doctor wasn’t going to work. The idea of an abortion made her feel even more nauseous. She had the idea of an alien-like creature being ripped from her body, abandoned in a bin. She shook her head to rid herself of the image. There was always adoption. Then the kid could live but would be out of her life and she’d be free to get on. Maybe he would want it. She smiled at the thought.
It was a massive secret but one she felt the need to unload. This is where a mother would come in handy, she thought ruefully. Just not necessarily my mother. Or good friends, she thought. All the girls at her school were so silly and immature. They were into the idiot high-school boys she had no time for. The ones who ogled her whenever she passed by them at school or in town. The ones who at parties would grope her and try and thrust their tongues down her throat, all because they’d fetched her a drink from the keg. Their thinking was if she was at the party drinking, she was fair game. Now she had a man, a real man, and she intended to keep him. He looked after her and treated her well.
But what about the baby, a voice whispered.
Aroha let out a noise, halfway between a scream and a growl and watched as two ducks flew out of the rushes in fright.
*
Aroha turned up at school towards the end of lunchtime, thinking she should make an appearance for the last two periods of the day. She was stopped by a group of girls. One of them was Tracey Ackerman. They’d started school together and had been in each other’s classes for the last ten years. ‘Hey, Aroha. You coming to Mike’s party tomorrow night? His parents are out of town. Should be good.’
The other girls nodded in agreement. They were nice, but Aroha had distanced herself from them for the last year. She hadn’t meant to, but she had slowly drifted away from the girls who spoke of parties and teenage boys as if that was all there was in life.
‘I don’t think so,’ she said.
‘Busy with your boyfriend,’ another girl teased.
‘We never see you anymore,’ Tracey said. ‘I’ve heard you’re seeing someone. Someone older.’ She raised her eyebrows, looking for some goss.
Aroha grinned despite herself. ‘Yeah, maybe, and he isn’t into high-school kids’ parties.’ It’s not like they have any idea who he is, she thought, enjoying the shock and envy on their faces. Walking away she heard the whispers and giggling starting up. They didn’t know anything. Tracey was always fishing for information. If Tracey knew anything it would be around the school in ten seconds flat.
She found a spot under the oak tree close to the hall, away from all the whispering cliques.
‘Aroha?’
Aroha looked up. ‘Hi, Ms Haywood.’
‘How are you?’
‘Good.’
‘Mind if I sit?’
Aroha shrugged as though she didn’t care, but her stomach knotted. I can tell her now.
There was a silence that made Aroha uncomfortable, but Ms Haywood didn’t seem to mind. She was looking into the distance with a small smile on her face.
‘You teaching here for good now, Miss?’
‘Good question. I’m not sure, to be honest. I’m not sure if I’m ready to come back to Crawton.’
‘I’d get out of here as quick as I could if I was you,’ Aroha said.
‘You sound like me when I was your age,’ Ms Haywood smiled and turned to look at her. ‘And why are you desperate to get out of here?’
Aroha wasn’t used to being the centre of someone else’s attention. ‘I don’t know. Too quiet. Nothing going on.’ She picked at the grass, avoiding the teacher’s eyes.
‘Some people like that, though. You did well in class the other day. I was impressed.’
‘Thanks.’ Aroha smiled, pleased with the compliment. Those were few and far between in her life.
‘You like science?’
‘Yeah, I do.’ She let the grass fall between her fingers to the ground. ‘You remind me lots of your mum.’ She couldn’t work out the look that crossed Ms Haywood’s face, promptly replaced with a tight smile.
‘Thank you.’
‘You didn’t get on?’ Aroha asked, ignoring the bell that reverberated throughout the school grounds calling them all into an afternoon of drudgery.
‘You’re very perceptive for a sixteen-year-old.’ Ms Haywood stood up and wiped the seat of her dress pants. ‘No, to be honest, we didn’t. I left Crawton and Lillian when I was eighteen and never came back. Until now that is.’
‘Lucky.’
‘I don’t know about that,’ Ms Haywood said. ‘We’d better get to class.’
Aroha watched Ms Haywood walk away, realising her chance to speak was g
one. For now.
Chapter 30
Zoe sat on Lillian’s front steps with a cup of coffee. She stared out past the driveway to the houses across the street, thinking of Dan and last night. She found herself looking forward to the next time she would see him.
‘Earth to Zoe, come in Zoe.’ She looked up, startled and smiled at Alex who was making his way over from Pam’s. ‘I’d love a penny for your thoughts.’
Zoe smoothed back her hair, embarrassed, but determined not to let Alex see it. ‘Bloody students,’ said Zoe, sipping at her coffee.
‘Ah, are they getting you down? Give me names. I’ll sort them out.’
‘What have you been up to?’ Zoe asked, changing the subject.
‘Fixing Mum’s dishwasher. Jeff’s not really the handyman type.’
‘And you are?’ Zoe raised her eyebrows, disbelieving.
They both turned as a car pulled into the driveway. Faith, dressed in black knee-high boots, a red miniskirt and a black fitted T-shirt, got out and walked up the path to them. Zoe glanced at Alex, curious to see if he recognised her.
Faith offered up a wide smile, a totally different woman to the one Zoe had seen two nights before. ‘Alex,’ she said, amused, waiting for the penny to drop, obviously not minding Alex’s staring.
After ten seconds of uncomfortable silence, Zoe rescued him. ‘You remember Faith, don’t you, Alex? Part of our trio for a short but memorable time.’
‘Obviously not that memorable,’ Faith said, lighting up a cigarette.
‘Faith! Of course.’ Alex went in for what was going to be a handshake but turned into an awkward hug, with Faith holding her cigarette away from his body.
‘Where have you been hiding?’ he said, recovering.
‘I’m down in Wellington. I work in hospitality.’
Faith had said she worked as a waitress and was ‘paid shit’, so Zoe wondered why she had chosen to embellish her career to Alex.
‘And you? Zoe said you were a counsellor.’
‘Yeah, was never quite the plan, but I’m happy.’
‘Zoe and I did a bit of reminiscing the other night,’ Faith said.
‘Oh yeah, we had some good times, didn’t we?’
‘We did,’ Faith said, eyeing him up while deeply inhaling.
Zoe could tell that Alex wanted to ask Faith why she’d run off but knew he wouldn’t. This wasn’t the time or place. And Zoe couldn’t betray Faith’s confidence and let him know what happened: that was Faith’s story to tell if she wanted to.
‘I’d better go,’ Alex said. ‘It was good to see you, Faith. The three of us need to get together for a proper catch-up.’
Faith raised her eyebrows with a small grin.
When he had crossed back over to Pam’s, Faith stubbed her cigarette out on the concrete path. ‘He hasn’t changed a bit.’
‘No, he hasn’t.’ But where Zoe thought that was a good thing, it sounded as though Faith wasn’t overly impressed with adult Alex.
‘I was supposed to go back to Wellington yesterday but I’ve rung my boss and asked for more leave. It’s paid leave and I’m owed a shit-load of it. I never take annual leave. No place to go, nothing to do.’ She shrugged. ‘So I’m here for another two weeks and I’ve decided I want to help.’ She walked past Zoe and into the house.
Zoe got up off the step and followed her. ‘Help?’
‘We need to find Megan and …’
‘Tania,’ Zoe reminded her.
‘Yeah. So you went to the cops, right?’
‘Of course, but Max Vincent — do you remember him? He’s—’
‘Crooked as a dog’s hind leg,’ Faith finished for her.
Zoe was shocked. ‘Well, yeah, turns out he probably is. But how did you know?’
‘When I was living here I was at the little lake one night with a few other kids from school. One of them had managed to score some dope, and, of course, I was all in. We were well hidden away. It’s not like we were hanging out on the swings or anything. Anyway, Max Vincent came across us. We totally freaked out and tried to hide what we were doing but it was pretty obvious.’
‘What did he do?’
‘Not a damn thing, not even a warning. Just gave us a wink and took Rachel Hardy into the toilet block. She came back ten minutes later with a cheeky grin on her face.’
‘You’re not serious! She would’ve been, what, sixteen? And he must’ve been mid-thirties.’
Faith raised her eyebrows. ‘It’s not like Rachel didn’t want it. You remember her, right? She was the town bike, everyone had had a go.’
‘Jesus, Faith, that’s not the point. He was an adult, a cop, someone to be trusted.’ Zoe thought back at the parties Max had turned up to, turning a blind eye to what was going on, giving kids rides home. It all looked so different now.
‘Anyway, he’s always been dodgy.’
‘When I went to see him about Tania and Megan,’ Zoe said, ‘he fobbed me off, in the nicest possible way. It didn’t feel like he was dismissing me at the time. He answered my questions. Put my mind at ease while at the same time — again, very nicely — telling me that Lillian had pretty much lost it. Plus Lillian mentions that he knows this Garth and Tai from the Crawton Tavern quite well.’
‘Who else have you told about what you found in Lillian’s notebook?’
‘Alex and Max. Not all the details, just some of it. Mostly because I don’t trust Max and I don’t want Alex to think I’m crazy. And I’ve told no one about what you told me.’
‘Good. Don’t tell anyone.’ Faith’s guard had gone up again. Her mouth was set into a firm line, and she crossed her arms.
‘Of course not,’ Zoe reassured her.
‘You sure you didn’t tell Alex? I know you two have picked up where you left off. Best mates. But leave him out of it. He wouldn’t get it. He’d probably think I brought it on myself.’
Zoe noted the acid in Faith’s tone and left it. ‘I told you, I haven’t told anyone about what happened to you. I promise. That’s your secret to tell.’
‘I have an idea,’ Faith said, abruptly changing the subject. ‘I know going to the police is out, for now at least. Who knows who Max has on-side? But why don’t we go to Megan’s flat? We might find something.’
‘You know where she lives?’
‘No, I just figured you would.’
‘Hang on,’ Zoe said, going to Lillian’s handbag which had been sitting underneath her desk the whole time Zoe had been there. She hadn’t looked in it yet. ‘Old people have address books, right? Bingo,’ she said, pulling out a hardcover notebook adorned with roses. She looked under ‘H’ for Harper. ‘Well, that was easy. 12 Clyde Street, Flat 2.’
‘Let’s go,’ Faith said. ‘We can take my car.’
‘I guess so.’ Zoe was excited at the prospect of getting somewhere, finding something out, but was worried about Faith’s state of mind. She had no idea what they were going to drag up, and sixteen years on it was obvious her abduction had never left her.
They pulled up to Megan’s small flat ten minutes later. ‘How are we supposed to get in?’
‘We’ll manage,’ Faith said, getting out of the car.
Zoe followed, wondering what ‘We’ll manage’ consisted of.
They looked in the front windows and saw a shadow moving around inside. ‘Shit,’ Faith said.
‘Can I help?’ A woman came out the front door wearing a navy-blue suit and the name tag ‘Patrice’ on her lapel.
‘We were just looking for Megan,’ Zoe said, thinking she might as well be as truthful as possible.
‘She’s not here.’ Patrice’s frosted pink lips disappeared into a thin line. ‘We look after the flat on behalf of the owner. Her rent was due three weeks ago. I came to give her another warning — this isn’t the first time this has happened — but she
’s gone.’
‘What’s in the trash bags?’ Faith indicated the bags at the door.
‘I’ve been gathering all her stuff together. Clothes, shoes, make-up. She didn’t take much when she ran, that’s for sure.’
‘Because she didn’t run,’ Faith murmured.
‘What makes you think she’s done a runner?’ Zoe asked. ‘She could be in danger.’
‘Danger?’ Patrice snorted. ‘She’s the dangerous one. She was nothing but trouble. I regret taking her on. Her rent was always late, I’m always hounding her and I’ve threatened to evict her. I’ve heard from people around town she’s into drugs, plus has had a drink-driving conviction. No, she’s gone, believe me.’
Zoe and Faith walked away without another word, waving in agreement as Patrice yelled out for them to get in contact with her if they tracked Megan down.
‘Now what?’ Zoe said, back in the car.
‘We know she didn’t run, yeah? She left everything behind. She was taken.’
Zoe nodded.
‘How about I take you where they held me,’ Faith said, staring forward.
‘Are you sure?’
‘Of course. Maybe they’re still using the same place. It was up past the big lake, a few nice houses up in the hills but further past that, just farmland and this abandoned house.’
‘If you’re sure, then. We might as well.’ Zoe was glad of someone in support of her theories. Even if they didn’t find anything it might gain Faith some closure.
They drove past Lake Waitapu and around the western side. Soon the lake disappeared as they wound up a narrow road with dense bush on either side.
Faith was playing with the hem of her skirt, picking at a loose thread. ‘You OK?’ Zoe asked.
‘Yeah. Just haven’t been up here since—’
‘I don’t know if this is such a great idea.’
‘Turn right here,’ Faith said, ignoring Zoe. ‘I don’t know where the actual entrance to the house is but if we park here I can find it.’
They had turned into Mosely’s Hill Reserve as the sign at the open gate had stated. It was a beautiful spot. Large oak trees sheltered a scattering of picnic tables, and beyond, wooden signs directed people on bush walks. Zoe had been out here on a history school trip in her first year of high school. The land at the reserve had been bought from local Māori in the late 1800s by a wealthy English settler, David Mosely. He built a magnificent house, and the opulent gardens were often opened for locals to walk through. Twenty years later, with his wife and only child dying from influenza, he sold the house and land to the government and it was then made into a tuberculosis sanatorium; after that it was used as a convalescent home for returning serviceman from World War I. None of this was obvious now, except for one structure without windows or a door which, the plaque said, was one of the cottages used by soldiers returning from war.
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