SEVENTY

8.40 A.M.

Only good manners that she hadn’t realised she possessed had kept her away from this address for the last twelve hours. But there were very few single parents with two children not up and functioning by this hour.

And so it was that Joanne Deary answered the door with her jacket already on.

‘May we have a?—’

‘Not right now. I have to get this one to school,’ she said, pushing a young boy out of the door. ‘And we’ve already had a drama about odd socks. Can it wait?’ she asked, reversing the pushchair out of the door.

‘Not really,’ Kim said.

She hated lingering questions, and this one had been off and on all night.

‘Are you walking?’ Kim asked as Joanne did a three-point turn with the buggy.

‘Of course.’

‘We’ll tag along,’ Kim said, not being one to interfere in any child’s education.

‘So, your uncle, the one that suggested using Seekers, is Eric Lane?’

‘Yes,’ Joanne said, giving nothing away.

‘You were close once?’

‘I suppose so,’ she said, checking to make sure her boy wasn’t walking too far ahead. ‘He kind of stepped in when I lost my parents in a car accident. I was nineteen, so it’s not like I needed full-time care or anything, but he just checked on me and stuff.’

‘Yeah, I’ve seen photos of you all celebrating the little one’s birthday.’

Joanne seemed surprised, as though she couldn’t think how that would have happened.

‘Instagram,’ Kim clarified. ‘Nothing recent though,’ she added.

‘Not seen them for a while,’ Joanne said, stopping to wait at a crossing.

‘Why’s that then?’

‘Just busy, I suppose,’ she said as they reached the other side of the road.

‘I’m gonna be honest here, Joanne, and stop you before you tell me any more lies.’

‘I’m not tell?—’

‘Your aunt’s expression says otherwise. I won’t even tell you what she called you.’

‘I can imagine. She’s never liked me. She’s strange. Her whole focus is on people related to her by blood. She tries to rule that family with an iron fist.’

‘Still not buying it,’ Kim said. ‘Not liking you is out of proportion for how she reacted when I mentioned your name.’

‘Okay, if you must know, I got a bit too close to one of her precious sons.’

‘Your cousin?’

Joanne coloured as she nodded.

Kim tried to picture the young mother and studious twenty-something Boyce together. It wasn’t so much the age difference but more that they appeared to be at such different stages of their lives.

‘That’s why she hates me. Now please just leave me alone.’

Joanne rushed away as Kim’s phone began to ring.

Having established it had nothing to do with the case, Kim felt there was no point running after her.

She was surprised to see it was the station calling.

‘Go ahead, Jack,’ she said, heading back towards the car.

‘Just heard something you might be interested in.’

‘Go on.’

‘Request to attend an address in Hagley for a woman who hasn’t turned in for work.’

Kim’s hopes faded. She could think of a hundred reasons for the late arrival.

‘Thanks, Jack, but that’s not quite?—’

‘Had I finished yet?’

‘Go on,’ she said, rolling her eyes.

‘It’s being reported by her colleagues, who insist she would not have been late for work today of all days.’

‘Jeez, what is she, a brain surgeon?’ Kim asked.

‘Heart surgeon, actually, kids, and she has a case being admitted today.’

The words she’d read what seemed like days ago jumped into her head.

You will not miss the first, but you will miss the next.

‘Give me the address,’ she instructed as the speed in her step found another gear.