Limbo (13 page)

She frowned at him and he laughed. ‘How about…your Girl Friday?’

‘That’s a bit fifties housewife, isn’t it?’ A lady and Girl Friday —
two
things Joy was not.

‘True,’ she said screwing up her nose.

‘What about Tonto?’

‘Screw that.’

‘I like Tonto.’

‘You be him then. I’d rather have an equal division of power if it’s all the same to you. I’ve got it,’ she murmured. ‘I’m…Rose to your Doctor.’

Dash nodded. ‘Oh yes.’ He quite fancied the comparison. And being a Time Lord. ‘Good thinking.’

‘Yeah,’ Joy said. ‘I figured you’d appreciate a television reference.’

The Night Owl complex came up on the left and Joy sat staring at the shop for a moment or two as Dash pulled up out front. ‘So what exactly are we looking for?’ she asked as she unbuckled.

‘I don’t know,’ Dash admitted as he too unbuckled. ‘It just helps to get an actual visual on things sometimes, to get a feel for it. You never know what may pop. Something that doesn’t add up or something that gives you that tingly, woo-woo feeling. And daleks, of course.’

Dash’s laughter followed Joy out of the car. The Night Owl looked even more nondescript in real life. Just like a hundred other small shops servicing suburbia she’d seen both here and in the States.

‘It’s been six months,’ Joy said as she looked around the half-full car park. ‘Won’t any kind of…irregularity have disappeared in the everyday comings and goings?’

He shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Let’s go and see what we can find out.’

Joy followed him to the front of the car, where he was standing on the footpath and looking up. She followed his line of sight. ‘There’s the camera,’ he said.

Joy looked at the black electronic device anchored to the ceiling, partially hidden in the eave. It didn’t look anywhere near as sophisticated as some of the three-sixty-degree domed ones that Joy had seen in the bigger shopping centres. It was only pointing one way, towards the entrance to the shop, and was certainly accessible to anyone who wanted to tamper with it.

There were five parking spaces that spanned the Night Owl frontage. Three were occupied.

‘So the Prado must have been in this space,’ Dash said, pointing to the spot where a red Corolla was currently parked. ‘And someone’s twisted the camera around the other way which is why we can see the Prado. Coincidence?’ he mused. ‘Just kids mucking around? Or was someone up to no good at the Night Owl?’

‘Wouldn’t they have noticed?’ Joy asked.

‘Not necessarily. Especially if it was something that had just happened that day or recently. Places like this can’t afford to have someone sitting on their butts watching the cameras twenty-four seven. They’re not casinos. It probably wasn’t even hooked up to a monitor, just taping. The cameras are there mainly as a shoplifting deterrent and for evidence after a crime occurs.’

Joy nodded absently as she looked around. To the left of the Night Owl was a newsagent, and to the right a liquor shop. Next to the liquor shop was a bakery.

‘Let’s go inside and see if the shop assistant from that night is on.’

Joy followed Dash in. It was no hardship. His well-worn jeans were soft and hugged his butt like a kid-leather glove and his loose-legged stride shifted things nicely inside them.

She had to admit, he looked good. For an old guy.

There were two customers in the store but he didn’t pay them any heed, instead making a beeline for the counter with the cash register and the tall, gangly, guy with very bad acne who looked about nineteen or twenty. His nametag proclaimed him to be Corey.

‘Hey,’ Dash said with that casual nod thing that men did so well and seemed to mean everything from ‘hi’ to ‘how you doing?’ to ‘what’s happening?’

‘Hey,’ the gangly guy replied.

‘My name’s Dashiell Dent.’ Dash pulled out a card from his wallet and handed it over. ‘I’m a private investigator looking into the abduction and murder of Hailey Richardson.’

Gangly guy looked at the card. ‘I thought they arrested her husband?’

‘They did,’ Dash confirmed with a brisk nod of his head. ‘But I’m looking into the missing child, Isabella Richardson? And it’s you I’m looking for,’ he said, tapping the nametag. ‘Unless there are two Coreys who work here?’

‘No. It’s me. I’m Corey. Atkins. I was here that night.’

‘Can I ask you some questions about it?’

Corey clearly wasn’t sure what he should do and he glanced nervously at Joy. ‘This is Joy,’ Dash said. ‘She’s my Rose.’

Corey frowned. ‘Huh?’

Joy rolled her eyes as she held out her hand to Corey and smiled. ‘Ignore him. He thinks he’s funny.’ Corey shook it and seemed to relax a little. ‘We’re just trying to find Isabella,’ she said. ‘Any information you can give us would be very helpful.’

Corey nodded. ‘Sure. But I told the cops everything I know.’ A customer came to the check out. ‘Can I get this?’

‘Of course,’ Dash said. ‘We’ll wait.’

Two served customers and fifteen minutes later Joy and Dash exited the store no more the wiser then when they’d first entered.

‘That was illuminating,’ Joy said. ‘Not.’

Dash just nodded. The red Corolla had gone and so had the other car, which just left Dash’s Volvo in front of the Night Owl. There were two in front of the bakery, one in front of the liquor shop and none at the newsagent.

Dash strode out into the middle of the car park and turned to look at the shops. Joy joined him. He absently rubbed at his jaw as he stood there and seemed to be studying them. ‘Do you see anything?’ he asked after a while.

‘Like daleks?’ He chuckled and little goose bumps broke out on her arms. She liked the way he laughed. ‘Like what exactly?’ she asked.

‘Anything odd or unusual?’

Joy mimicked Dash, looking hard at the set of shops. Nothing stood out. They just looked like typical suburban shops to her. ‘Nope.’

‘Neither do I.’

Joy shook her head. Oh God, she really was Rose to his Doctor. ‘Did they talk to any of the other shop workers?’ she asked.

‘The newsagent and the bakery were closed. Only the liquor store was open.’

‘Well I know if I’d been Hailey with a screaming baby and a massive case of sleep deprivation I’d have headed straight for the liquor store and bugger the bread and milk.’

Dash turned his attention to the liquor store. ‘Hmm…good point. She was breastfeeding though.’

‘So?’

‘Well, you’re not supposed to drink when you’re breastfeeding.’

Joy gaped. ‘What? At all?’ This whole motherhood caper was sounding more and more crazy.

‘They don’t recommend it, no.’

‘Who are
they
?’

‘I don’t know. The people who decide these things.’

‘Men, I bet,’ Joy snorted. ‘Strikes me Hailey could have done with a little alcohol to smooth out her edges.’

Dash tapped his index finger against his mouth as he eyed the liquor shop. ‘Yes.’

‘Did the cops talk to whoever was manning the liquor store that night?’

‘Yes. There is a statement somewhere that I read but I can’t quite remember it off the top of my head. There was nothing remarkable in it though or it would have gone on the whiteboard. The guy denied seeing Hailey that night.’

‘Cameras?’

‘Only inside and she wasn’t on that footage.’

‘Well shouldn’t we talk to them as well?’

He nodded. ‘Sure. Let’s go see if we can get lucky second time round.’

They didn’t. A middle-aged woman with frizzy hair was serving at the front and a guy in his twenties was unloading beer cartons in the walk-in fridges at the back.

‘Sorry darl,’ she said, smiling at Dash as he handed over his card, looking at him as if he was her booze of choice. ‘You’re after Darryl. It’s his day off today. He’s back on the evening shift tomorrow night. Why don’t you call back then?’

Dash smiled at her again, his dimples flashing like bloody enormous diamonds. Joy refrained from making barfing noises. ‘Thank you, we will.’

‘Terrible though, isn’t it? So young. That poor baby girl.’

‘Yes, terrible,’ he murmured.

‘And to think her husband did it,’ she tutted, her frizzy hair bouncing with the action. ‘They should bring back capital punishment for the likes of him.’

Joy blinked at the sudden vehemence. ‘Just because they’ve arrested him doesn’t mean he did it,’ she said sweetly, plastering a pleasant smile on her face when all she wanted to do was smack the woman.

Hailey had wanted Isabella back with her husband. Surely she wouldn’t have if he’d been the one responsible for their abduction?

Unless she didn’t know? Unless
they
were a front for
him?

Joy thought back to Sunday. To how Martin’s face had crumpled when he’d seen Hailey in her coffin.

‘Hmph. It’s always the bloody husbands though, isn’t it?’

Dash glanced at Joy, one eyebrow quirked in an even-frizzy-woman-knows-that manner, a small smile on his mouth.

‘Anyway, I know Darryl feels right awful that it was going on right outside in the car park and he had no idea. He had to take some time off work to get over it.’

‘These things can have a lasting effect on everyone involved,’ Dash agreed.

‘He reckons if he hadn’t been so worried about the robberies he would have been paying more attention.’

‘Robberies?’

‘Oh nothing to worry about now,’ she flapped her hand dismissively at Dash. ‘There’d been a spate of liquor-shop hold ups-around the same time. Hazard of the job really,’ she shrugged. ‘Darryl was nervous though…distracted, just wanting to shut up as soon as he could. He was more worried about someone coming into the store than what was going on outside, you know? He blames himself.’

‘Well…that’s very nice of him but he shouldn’t. Something like this…there’s no rhyme or reason to it. It wasn’t his fault.’

The frizzy head bobbed in agreement. ‘That’s what I keep telling him but I guess it just really freaked him out.’

‘Will you be seeing him tomorrow?’

‘Yes.’

‘Can you give him my card and ask him to call me at his earliest convenience?’

‘Sure can, darl,’ she nodded. ‘Anything to help.’

They left the shop and headed for the car. Joy got in and buckled up. ‘What now?’ she asked as Dash started the engine.

‘How do you feel about a road trip, Rose?’

Joy frowned. ‘To where?’

‘To the spot where Hailey’s body was found.’

‘Near Rockhampton?’

‘Yes.’

‘That’s six hundred kilometres away.’

‘Yes.’

She glanced at his profile. ‘To get a feel for it? To see if something
pops?’

He grinned. ‘Hey, you’re a quick study.’

Joy snorted. ‘Oh yes. Very quick at picking up on the drive-places-and-stare-at-things school of private investigation. How are we getting there?’

‘Driving.’

She looked around her. ‘In this?’

‘Yes.’ He glanced at her. ‘Problem?’

‘Well I
was
hoping you were going to say the Tardis cos I’m not sure this piece of junk will make it that far.’

‘Hey this piece of junk is very mechanically sound.’

Joy sighed. ‘When?’

‘I need to make some phone calls and get a few things squared away but I can be ready to leave in,’ he glanced at the dash clock, ‘two hours.’

‘You want to go
now?
Don’t you have bad guys to tail or something?’

‘Nothing that can’t wait. And if we don’t go now I’m not going to be able to go until next week.’

Joy recoiled from that idea. She didn’t want that. Hailey had assured her that Isabella wasn’t in any danger but poor Martin’s future depended on them being able to find Isabella and whoever had taken her. ‘It’s going to be dark by the time we get there,’ she said. ‘We won’t be able to see a bloody thing.’

‘Yeah. We’ll crash in a hotel in Rocky somewhere tonight then go check it out first thing. But I have to be back by three tomorrow afternoon to pick Katie up from school. You don’t have to come. I just figured you had Friday off so you’d want to. I’m perfectly okay with going by myself.’

‘No.’ Joy shook her head. She didn’t know anything about this psychic game but maybe something
might
pop? Maybe some woo-woo tingles might happen? Maybe
Hailey
might be there? At the site of her murder?

‘I’m coming.’

He chuckled. ‘You make it sound like I’m driving you to your doom. Come on,’ he said, nudging her with his elbow. ‘It’s a road trip!’

Joy had spent two years of her life on one long road trip. She was over them. And it wasn’t like they were travelling Route 66. ‘Have you ever been to Rocky?’

‘No. But I’m hoping get a decent steak. They’re big on cows there, yeah?’

Joy nodded. ‘Oh yeah.’

There were plenty of cows in Rockhampton.

Joy smiled at the sign towering over the Good Shepherd Chapel as Dash drove past on their way north.

Free Wine every Sunday.

She liked Stan. Liked his irreverent sense of humour.

She’d never thought of religion and humour as belonging together. Growing up in a funeral home, religion always seemed to be intertwined with solemnity. Hushed tones, sombre ministers, people crying.

The place had always been so damn sad. It was why she’d read so much — to get away from the pervasive sadness.

But Stan seemed the kind of cool preacher that could convince a girl there was a lighter side. She couldn’t see herself getting down on her knees and wading into a blow-up pool of water to be baptised any time soon (like a singer she knew in the States had done) but she hoped Stan’s venture worked.

When she’d passed there this morning on her way to Dash’s she’d noticed he was starting a free breakfast on Saturday and Sunday for the homeless.

The cynic in her wanted to point out that Stan had figured out the way to a man’s immortal soul was through his stomach. But he’d seemed far too genuine for that.

He’d been called to minister. And that’s what he was doing.

They were out of the city and on the highway north in half an hour. Dash was in a t-shirt that sat very nicely against his belly, and jeans that pulled very nicely against his thighs, and the aircon on freeze. Joy snuggled into her Corb Lund sweatshirt.