Chapter 41
Meg opened the door of her apartment, bracing herself for the sound of Jay’s presence.
‘Hello?’
Silence. She could smell him though. The stale smell from his room now permeated the hallway where the almost-dead peace lily had dropped leaves onto the floor.
It had been so late the night before, when Meg had finally arrived back at the flat, that she’d crept inside in the dark.
She’d slipped out again this morning without seeing either of her flatmates, nor the true state of the place.
She knew she’d need to face Jay soon, but right now, a confrontation was more than she could handle.
She hurried past his closed bedroom door, then past Gav’s open one, towards her own room, when she stopped suddenly and retraced her steps. Gav’s room was empty. Completely empty. There was no bed. No desk. No bike. Nothing at all, except some dust balls in the corners.
She fumbled for her phone.
Gav answered on the second ring. ‘Meg, I was just about to call you—’
‘What the hell, Gav?’
‘A room came up at a mate’s place—’
‘Were you planning on letting me know?’
‘It happened really fast—’
‘A phone call, Gav! You couldn’t find the time to make a phone call!’
‘I was going to call you this arvo. I just moved out this morning. I’ll pay you a month’s rent, Meg. I just had to take it. I can’t live with Jay anymore.’
She couldn’t speak. Fury pulsed through her. Her head felt hot. ‘Meg? I’m sorry,
Meg. I’m really sorry.’
She took a steadying breath. ‘Bloody Jay,’ she muttered.
It wasn’t Gav she was angry at. It was Jay.
And herself. She’d let this situation go on for far too long.
What the hell was wrong with her? She exhaled loudly.
‘What am I going to do, Gav? I need to kick him out, but he owes me a ton of rent.’
‘I reckon he’s got a stash of cash in his room somewhere. There’s been constant randoms coming to the flat. I’m pretty sure he’s been selling pot.’
It took Meg less than ten minutes to find a Quality Street chocolate tin on a high shelf in Jay’s wardrobe.
She counted the notes. Eighteen hundred and fifty bucks.
It was less than he owed her, but she’d call it even.
She would email the agent that afternoon to terminate the lease and sort out her own living situation later. She felt relieved at the thought.
She rolled the notes up and put them in her pocket, then she put the tin back on the top shelf and started back down the hall. A ripple of delight ran through her as she imagined the moment he discovered the tin was empty.
She barely dared to breathe until she reached Pete’s place.
‘Hunter, where the hell have you been?’ Pete asked when he opened the door, relief in his voice.
She hadn’t spoken to him since before she’d visited the factory. She’d sent him a long, garbled voice memo while she drove to Rosedale after getting the call from Michelle, explaining her theory. Since then, she’d been so busy she hadn’t returned his calls.
‘The Ashworths sent someone to visit Mum.’
‘What?’
He opened a Corona for her as she told him about the ear tunnels guy on the security footage, who she’d seen in Hartwell with Hugh Thorburn.
‘Bloody hell,’ he said when she finished the story.
‘Do you think Mum committed some sort of crime when she worked for the Ashworths?’ She’d told him all about Anna and Chrissy and the box of belongings with the locket and the pen after her disastrous Christmas Day.
He frowned, trying to make sense of it. ‘How would they know you have any connection to Anna?’
‘I don’t know.’ Meg sighed. ‘And even if they did, why would they care about something that happened so long ago? It makes no sense.’
Meg thought of all those years her mum had spent uprooting their lives every six months or so, paranoid, running from something. ‘Maybe Mum thinks it has something to do with her own past, but really it doesn’t. Maybe it’s about us, Pete. A way to scare us off the story.’
‘You think they know you’ve been poking around at the industrial estate? They could be trying to scare you off so they can get on with their dodgy deals.’ Pete rubbed his stubbly chin. ‘It’s a classic standover man tactic, I guess. Threaten a vulnerable family member—’
Maggie sat up suddenly and let out a low growl.
‘What’s up, girl?’ Meg stroked her, calming her again. ‘You’re okay.’ She looked back at Pete. ‘Did you find out anything more about the factory?’
Pete nodded. ‘I was just working on that. The industrial estate changed hands a couple of years ago, on the quiet. It was purchased in a trust—’
‘Any of the same names as the Barton Drive properties?’
‘No, I was hoping that too. It’s called Argus Investments.’
‘So we don’t know who bought it?’
‘Not at this stage, but it turns out that the Argus trust was set up by our friends at Purcell Partners.’
‘You’re kidding—’
There was a loud smash.
‘What the hell?’ Pete exclaimed.
Maggie ran down the hall, barking incessantly. They followed. Pete turned on the light as they went into his bedroom.
‘Oh my God.’ His voice was a low whisper.
The front window was smashed, jagged glass revealing the dark night outside. A brick sat on the carpet beneath the window, surrounded by shards of glass. He rushed to the window, head whipping one way then the other, looking up and down the street.
Meg’s heart raced. ‘It’s them, Pete.’
Maggie paced, whining.
Meg pulled her back so she didn’t step on the glass. ‘It’s them.’ Her heart hammered in her chest. ‘They must know we’re on to them, Pete. We need to drop the story.’
‘No.’ He turned to face her, shaking his head. ‘This means they’re rattled, Meg. This must be bigger than we thought. This means we need to go harder.’