Page 37 of Bay of Plenty

When Janey died, I’d been consumed with my own grief and shock that she was gone. Returning here as an adult, I was beginning to fathom the agony he’d suffered. I clutched his shoulder, feeling hopeless.

“This can’t be the end of it.” He choked out a sob.

I hugged him. Did I think I could help at all? Was I confident I could do anything at this point?

“Only you can do this,” he whispered into my ear. My rattling self-doubts were replaced by a desperate determination. He was right. Because at midnight, twenty years ago, I’d watched from our kitchen as Janey skipped down our driveway, across the road, and over the grassy patch—to meet the one person who knew the truth.

I will find him, Janey. I will bring justice to you, your mum, and your poor, lonely father.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Dad:The daughter will never find the drugs. No way.

Me:She doesn’t ever quit. I reckon she’s one clue away.

That night in bed, I lay texting Dad about the mystery we were reading.

Dad:She’s bloody tenacious, alright!Did you notice how the father and daughter detective don’t ever say they love each other? You can see them thinking, oh bugger, I don’t have to say it, he knows, she knows. They are alike enough that neither of them can break that spell.

So many emotions were trapped in my throat. I thought about the moment before he headed up into surgery when we said, “I love you.”

I read further up the text chain.

Look at that. When he chatted about books, he was talking about me and him.

I smiled. A rubber band pinged in my chest. They were like little unintentional love letters from his life. I hadn’t treasured them. But now I would.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Day Four

I was utterlyfed up. London Isla, locked in her closet with her white shirts and black suits, was raging to be let out.

We surfed again with Snow that morning. He didn’t mention the winery once, never mind reveal anything that advanced our case.

Declan and I did agree on one thing—it didn’t add up that Snow spent all his time in the ocean—how did he run the winery?

Declan’s reaction was to wait and watch, his opinions in a steady holding pattern. This seemed contradictory to his time pressure of two weeks and desire to earn his promotion.

I was about diving in.

Hosing off our wet suits at the side of the house, I gritted my teeth. “It feels like we’re treading water,” I told Declan. “And we have such a short time to solve this. You didn’t get me in just to sit on the beach.”

He hung up his wet suit and gave me his full attention. It was slightly hard to focus with him in only swim trunks. He was getting tanner, which highlighted all his muscles evenmore. Water dripped a trail over his pecs… like my fingers itched to do. No, they didn’t. I was annoyed with him.

“I know this is challenging for you, but we must be patient. In my experience, we have to allow him to become complacent. He’s getting used to us, relaxing. He’ll make a false move, wait.”

I almost turned the hose on him. So. Exasperatingly. Reasonable!

To get some sort of forward movement, after visiting Dad, who seemed in good spirits, I popped into Ruby Dunes to try to convince CeeCee to invite us to dinner so we could check out their cottage, but she wasn’t biting. To make it look like I’d come in to shop, I splurged on a small pink backpack to tote my dad’s mystery novel and my notebooks to the beach.

But I didn’t back down on our walk to yoga. Mum and Rosemary were ahead of us, safely out of earshot.

“Finding Kingi is a priority,” I said to Declan. “I can’t leave Dad so soon after surgery, and I can’t leave Mum alone while Dad’s in hospital. But you could go.”

Seeing Kui setting up under the palm trees, I felt a pang of disloyalty. She didn’t want me tracking down Kingi, fearful I might lead the police to him. My stomach tightened. She didn’t want to involve the police, and she didn’t know Declan was police. I wouldn’t risk it only for a story, but it was a risk I had to take to rescue my parents.

“Kingi must know more than he’d revealed in the tip-off note,” I said. “Even if he doesn’tknowhe knows something. Snow has a helicopter. MaybeSnowpicked up the tip-off note from Kingi? Kingi and his mum communicate somehow, and if Snow is the go-between, he might have inadvertently told Kingi something useful.”

---