Murrook Farm (Sam & Jody Series Book 2)

by Lois Kay

  Jody couldn’t suppress the shiver that ran down her spine. “Someone should know she didn’t. I mean, if…when her mother and brother… aren’t there investigations after fires? Surely, someone must have questioned Alice’s whereabouts when they didn’t find her remains.”

  “You’d think someone would,” Sam said pensively. “I really hope they’ll dig up information about that fire as soon as possible. I’d love to hear what the official report says.”

  “Well, I believe—.” Jody didn’t finish her sentence because there was a soft knock on the door. She lifted her head and shot Sam a quizzical look, before rolling off the taller body. She rubbed her eyes and breathed in deeply. “Come in,” she called out.

  The door opened, and Fiona’s head appeared. “I…um…I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…I could hear your voices and knew you weren’t asleep.” She paused for a moment and shot them a grin. “Unless you simultaneously talk in your sleep.”

  Jody chuckled and motioned for Fiona to come in. “Close the door behind you,” she said. “We don’t want to wake up anyone else.”

  Fiona stepped inside with her laptop firmly clasped in her hands. She stood just inside the room and seemed unsure whether to stay there or not.

  “Did you find anything?” Jody asked, eying the laptop.

  Fiona nodded. “I think I did, but I’m not sure. I’d like a second opinion, and I didn’t want to wait until the morning.”

  “Fair enough.” Jody pushed herself into a sitting position and scooted back until she was leaning against the headboard. She patted the area of the bed next to her. “Come here. Have a seat and show us what you’ve found.”

  Fiona walked to the bed and briefly hesitated before sitting down next to Jody. “I just want you to know I’m doing this for Alice because this is really weird,” she said.

  Sam chuckled. “What’s so weird about it?”

  “I’m sitting on your bed, with you and Jody in it,” Fiona said. She glanced at Sam. “At least you’re not…you’re wearing something.”

  Sam let out a soft laugh. “Don’t tell me you’re shy because that would be a first.”

  Fiona grinned. “No, no worries. It’s all about self-preservation. I really don’t want anything in my brain that has anything to do with any of my siblings doing anything else but sleep in their beds.”

  Jody patted Fiona’s back and sent her a smile. “Don’t worry. We won’t scar you.” Her finger tapped the laptop. “Show us what you’ve found.”

  Fiona opened the laptop and tapped a key. Immediately, the screen came alive with a picture she had enlarged. It wasn’t a great shot and zooming in had made it a little blurry, but when Fiona pointed at the center of the screen, both Jody and Sam gasped.

  “Doesn’t she look a lot like Alice?” Fiona asked, not able to hide the excitement in her voice.

  “She does,” Jody whispered, leaning closer. It was a picture of a girls’ soccer team, posing for the camera in what seemed to be a school picture. In the middle, surrounded by teammates and kneeling on the grass with a soccer ball in front of her was a girl who was the spitting image of a younger Alice. Her hair was shorter but just as blond. She was grinning from ear-to-ear and looked happy.

  “I assume you already figured out what team this is,” Sam said with a smile.

  “It’s a school team. Senior Secondary school, so in this picture, Alice is at least twelve years old. She looks quite a bit younger than she is now, so my guess is that she’s twelve or thirteen in this picture,” Fiona said. “As for the school, I was able to match the logo on the shirt to a public school, North Beach High School. Their team is the North Beach Bandicoots.”

  “Fiona,” Jody breathed. “That’s amazing. You’re amazing.”

  Fiona shrugged. “Only if this girl really is Alice. If not, I’ll have to keep on digging.”

  “How did you find the picture?” Jody asked.

  “It was a long shot, but I already knew Alice likes soccer, so I figured she was on a school team, because, I don’t know, she seems to be the type. I did a search for girls’ soccer teams in Perth and went through a couple of billion pictures until I found this one.” Fiona looked up and glanced at Jody and Sam. “Do you have any idea how many blondes play soccer?”

  “By the disgusted look on your face, I assume many,” Sam chuckled. “And before you ask, yes, I played soccer. That, and field hockey.” She reached out and ruffled Fiona’s hair. “I see a future in sleuthing for you. Did you—.”

  “Yes, I did,” Fiona interrupted. “I emailed Trishia and Peter. They can jump on this first thing in the morning.” Her fingers hovered over the keys, and she nibbled her bottom lip. “There’s something else I found as well,” she said. “Pure luck, really.” Fiona minimized the picture to reveal another window. “This is a very short article in the West Australian about a fire where a woman and son died.” Fiona cleared her throat. “It says the daughter wasn’t home during the fire. I thought it could be important because their name is Wilson.”

  *

  Trishia quietly closed the bedroom door behind her, careful not to wake up Lucy, who was still fast asleep. After they had returned to the guesthouse the previous night, they first had a refreshing shower, before crawling into bed. The day had left them drained, and the only thing they wanted was to snuggle close and sleep. Which is exactly what they did. When Trishia woke up and checked the time, she was happy to see she had slept, uninterrupted, for almost eight hours. She had slowly slid out of bed, glad to see Lucy was still asleep, had grabbed her phone from the nightstand and tip-toed to the door.

  As soon as she stepped inside the kitchen, Trishia tapped a new app Michael had installed for her. It was part of the new surveillance system. It was a program that logged and time-stamped every unusual activity. She tapped an entry from just before midnight, and smiled when a one minute video appeared of Sam walking around the house and checking the doors and windows. She was amazed by the clarity of the video and made a mental note to email Michael Jones and thank him again for doing such a fantastic job. There were two more short videos; one was a possum running up the tree, activating the camera and the other one was footage of two wallabies showing an interest in the flower garden.

  Relieved that the night had been quiet, Trishia put down her phone. She filled an electric kettle with water and pulled out the French press and coffee. It was still early, and Lucy would probably not wake up for a while, but Trishia wanted to sit on the small, screened-in veranda, sip coffee and relax before the rest of the world woke up. Ten minutes later, she sank in one of the comfortable chairs on the veranda and took a sip of coffee. She reached for her phone and after a few taps on the screen, her eyes scanned her email inbox. She frowned when she noticed she had received an email from Fiona. It was sent after midnight. She knew Fiona had still been engrossed in surfing the internet when she and Lucy had left. Her heart rate picked up when she realized that, maybe, Fiona had found something. She quickly opened the email. She chuckled at Fiona’s message: ‘Don’t thank me yet, I could be wrong (I know, that would be a first), but I might have found two things related to Alice.’ Trishia opened the first attachment and gasped when she saw the photo that popped up on her screen. Fiona could be wrong, but if she was, Alice had a doppelganger. She read the text Fiona had added: North Beach Highschool, Perth.

  “Holy shit,” Trishia whispered. She quickly opened the second attachment and read the one paragraph from the Western Australia. She looked at the date of the fire, and her heart did a double-take when she realized the fire had been a week before the first murder. “The teenage daughter was not home during the fire,” she read aloud. If the article did talk about the fire in which Alice had lost her family, it would be a welcome break.

  Trishia noticed Fiona had included Peter in the email and let out a soft laugh. At times, Fiona McDonnell could be a royal pain but damned if she wasn’t one of the smartest kids Trishia had ever met. She opened another app, selected Peter’s
name and quickly tapped a message. The response was almost immediate. Her phone rang, and Trishia quickly answered it.

  “Holy crap, Trish,” Peter said. “The kid’s a genius.”

  Trishia chuckled. “I know. Don’t tell her that, though, or she’ll be insufferable.”

  “I don’t care. If this is a substantial lead, I’ll make sure the boss knows, because she may have saved us a lot of time.”

  “I know,” Trishia said. “I guess our next step—.”

  “I already called Perth,” Peter interrupted. “Hey, I was up early, because of the twins, so when I found Fiona’s email, I hopped on the internet, looked up some phone numbers and made a couple of calls.”

  “Jeez, Pete, you make me feel like a slacker.”

  “No worries, Trish. I was awake, and you needed your beauty sleep more than I did,” he joked. “I haven’t heard back yet from the police station I called. The bloke I talked to said he’d track down the report and will give me a call when he has it. I told him it’s urgent and he was terrific about it. I left a message for the school and asked them to call you or me. I gave them your number as well.”

  “Good work, Pete,” Trishia said. “So, now we wait.”

  “That’s all we can do now, mate. I did email the boss lady with the information Fiona found. I’m pretty sure she’ll be calling one of us soon.”

  “I’m sure she will.” Trishia took a sip of coffee. “I can’t wait to hear back from the school. The article said the girl wasn’t home during the fire. If it’s Alice they’re talking about, why hasn’t she been listed as missing?”

  “That’s exactly what I’d like to know.”

  *

  When Fiona stumbled into the kitchen, rubbing her eyes against the bright sunlight that was streaming in through the large windows, the first thing she noticed was the steaming cup of coffee that was sitting in front of Alice.

  “Oh, I need one of those,” she grumbled.

  “Really, Fiona?”

  Fiona looked up to see her mother shoot her a disapproving look. “Um…good morning?” she said with an apologetic smile. She grinned at Alice, who sent her a smile and whose gaze was traveling between Fiona and Joan.

  “Sorry, Mom.” She walked over to Joan and gave her a quick hug. “The swelling in your face is gone,” she said. “How does it feel?”

  “Not too bad. Except for the bruise, I’m back to normal.”

  “You’re not going to work tomorrow, are you?” Fiona asked with a worried frown.

  “I’m not sure yet.” Joan walked to the counter and grabbed a mug, filled it with coffee and handed it to Fiona. “I don’t think I’ll provide a welcome sight for our guests. They may reconsider their stay at The Reef when they have to check in with someone who looks like she just stepped off the rugby field.”

  Fiona eyed her mother carefully. “You could conceal it with makeup.”

  Joan softly snorted. “Honey, I never thought I’d live to see the day my youngest daughter would give me beauty tips,” she teased.

  Fiona chuckled. “Hey, no fair. I don’t use the stuff and probably never will, but that doesn’t mean I live under a rock.” She added a dash of milk and three spoons of sugar to her coffee. “I have ears and eyes. You’d be surprised what I learn from my female classmates.”

  Joan smiled. “I can only imagine.”

  “Do many of your classmates use make-up?” Alice asked.

  Fiona took a sip of her coffee and nodded. “A lot of them are all about their looks, and they’re into boyfriends and dating and stuff.” She wrinkled her nose. “Not my thing.”

  “They sound mature for their age,” Alice said. There was a hint of surprise in her voice.

  Fiona shrugged. “Well, they are seniors, after all.”

  “Seniors?” Alice looked from Fiona to Joan and back again. “You’re a senior? I thought you’re fifteen.”

  “I am,” Fiona said with a shrug. “I skipped a class.” She took another sip of her coffee. “Twice,” she added with a grumble.

  Alice leaned back in her chair, and her eyes held a sparkle Fiona had not yet seen. “That explains a lot about you,” she said.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Fiona asked, but she was grinning. It was nice to see Alice relaxed.

  “She means you’re a smartass and way too wise for your age,” Sam said as she stepped inside the kitchen. She winked at Alice and patted Fiona’s head when she passed her.

  “Listen who’s talking,” Fiona shot back. “Miss overachiever.”

  “Is that meant to be an insult?” Jody’s voice sounded behind Fiona. A hand landed on her shoulder, and a kiss was dropped on top of her head. “I know you can do better than that, Red.”

  Fiona laughed. “Are you giving me permission to harass your wife?”

  “Like you need my permission,” Jody quipped. She stepped toward Sam, who was holding up a cup of coffee and she took it with a grateful smile. “Besides, Sam can hold her own.” She leaned against the tall body next to her and smiled when an arm wrapped around her waist.

  “I can see you two are still in your honeymoon phase,” Fiona teased, looking at the cozy picture Sam and Jody presented.

  “I hate to bring it to you, short-stuff, but that’s a phase I plan on being in for a long time to come,” Sam said, emphasizing her words by kissing Jody’s cheek.

  “Of course, you are,” Fiona muttered. “Maybe we should fit the two of you out with an alternative version of a cow bell, so we know where you are at all times. It would prevent me from walking into situations that can scar me for life.”

  Sam let out a soft laugh. “And where’s the fun in that?” She turned to Alice and sent her a warm smile. “How did you sleep?”

  “I slept through the night,” Alice replied with a happy sigh. “I hadn’t done that for a long time.”

  “That’s great to hear,” Jody responded with genuine happiness. She turned to Sam, gave her a quick kiss and took a seat at the table. “Did you girls have anything to eat yet?”

  “Not yet, Mom,” Fiona responded with a laugh.

  “Hey, I’m your big sister. I’m allowed to fuss.” Jody’s eyes were sparkling when she sipped her coffee. “By the way, I’m surprised Yarra’s not here yet.”

  “She texted me this morning. Her parents are gone for the day, so she’s taking care of the animals first,” Fiona said. “I’m sure she’ll be here soon.” She leaned her elbows on the table and looked at Sam. “You know, you should consider adding a few houses to your property since we’re here all the time anyway. At least, that way you and Jody can have some privacy.”

  Over the rim of her coffee cup, one of Sam’s eyebrows arched and Fiona heard Jody chuckle. “We might do that one day,” Sam said. “When Jody and I are old and tired, so you and your…husband…or wife… could take care of us.”

  Fiona almost choked on her coffee and started coughing. She was aware of Alice’s eyes on her and was glad her new friend would most likely think that her red cheeks were caused by her coughing. Jody’s hand gently patted her back, and after a few minutes, Fiona could breathe normally again. She scowled when she noticed Sam’s smug smile. “You almost killed me.”

  Sam laughed. “With what? The husband? Or the wife?”

  “Both,” Fiona said, glad her cheeks had returned to their normal temperature and color. “I’ve told you before; I’m steering clear from all that.”

  “You keep telling yourself that, Red,” Sam said. “All I am saying is: I can’t wait.”

  “There’s one fabulous advantage of having lesbian daughters; I don’t have to worry about unplanned pregnancies,” Joan said unexpectedly, causing Fiona another coughing fit.

  Jody and Sam were laughing out loud, and Alice was chuckling. Again, Jody helpfully patted Fiona’s back, until the coughing subsided. She took a swig of her coffee and shot her mother an accusing look. “Next time, don’t say things like that and expect me to survive.”

  “I’ll try to r
emember that, dear,” Joan replied with a twinkle in her eyes.

  Fiona turned her attention to Alice, who was looking at her with a mixture of amusement and curiosity. “Yesterday you asked me if I could show you some of my math homework to figure out what year you’re in at school. Do you want to do that now?” Fiona knew it was evident to everyone present she was using Alice to escape, but she didn’t care.

  Alice nodded and sent Fiona a knowing smile. “Sure, that would be great.”

  Fiona pushed back her chair and looked up at Sam. “Is it okay for us to use your dinosaur? My laptop is updating some of my software, and it may take a while. My homework is online.”

  “No problem,” Sam smiled.

  Fiona could tell by the amusement in Sam’s eyes that she was not off the hook yet, but then, when was she ever? It was a game between them, but since her mother had decided to join, Fiona needed an escape. “Let’s go to Sam’s office.” She walked toward the hallway, knowing Alice was following her. She ignored the temptation to look back.

  As soon as Alice and Fiona had left the kitchen, Sam threw her head back and laughed. She pulled out a chair and took a seat next to Jody. “Joan, that was priceless,” she complimented. “I don’t think I’ve seen Fiona that flustered before.”

  Joan smiled. “I know she’s a big tease, so I thought it would only be fair to let her know I can dish it out, too. Maybe that will keep her on her toes.”

  “Do you think Fiona’s gay, Mom?” Jody asked.

  “I have no idea, honey,” Joan said. “Most of the time, it’s hard to tell what Fiona’s thinking. For all her bravado, she’s a classic introvert. I just want her to know that I’m okay with whatever.”

  Jody smiled. “I’m so glad you’ve freed yourself from all the prejudice and hate Dad surrounds himself with. Michael said that when he found out about Lucy and Trish, he almost blew a gasket.”

  “After he blamed you,” Sam chimed in.

  “Well, I didn’t expect anything else.” Jody shrugged and made a face. “I’m an easy scapegoat and, in all honesty, I couldn’t care less.” She turned her attention back to her mother. “Wouldn’t it be incredibly weird if Fiona’s gay as well? I mean, statistically?”