“Have there been any updates on Dean, by the way?” Rohan asked quietly as he lifted a chair down from the stack, and Naomi paused. “Every time I talk to Rob Dwyer these days, it’s about Kim, and I forget to ask.”
“Not as far as I’ve heard,” Naomi said, and beside her Charlie was also shaking his head.
“I think technically they’re still looking for the blue car,” he said. “But it’s been—how long now? Six years. Doesn’t feel like anyone’s holding their breath.”
“Bullshit, isn’t it?” Rohan put down the chair with a clatter and rubbed his eyes with his finger and thumb. His voice had changed, and taken on a hard edge. “Dwyer’s a joke.”
Naomi hesitated. “I suppose—” she started, but Rohan shook his head.
“He is.”
The barn swallowed up noise, but Falk saw Charlie glance toward Zara and Zoe. They were still chasing the bubbles, and didn’t seem to have heard.
Rohan exhaled, deep and heavy. “Sorry.” He took a breath in, then cleared his throat. His voice sounded closer to normal. “Sorry.”
“No, Rohan, we get it.” Naomi put a hand on his back. “We—”
They looked up at the sound of a car crunching to a stop on the drive. A moment later a door slammed and Henry’s babble floated in through the open barn door.
“That sounds like your godson.” Rohan smiled at Naomi. “Thanks. I’m fine. Go and say hello.”
Naomi just looked at him, then put her arms up and drew him into a long hug. Charlie turned back to the chairs, his face hard to read.
“I know it’s difficult,” Naomi said as she pulled away. “We all feel the same.”
Rohan nodded, and she gave his hand a final squeeze before walking over to greet Rita at the door and scoop Henry up into her arms. Eva weaved past her mother’s legs, making a beeline for the bubbles. Outside, a car lock beeped, and a moment later Raco appeared.
He headed over, waving an arm at the work they’d done around the barn. “Wow, this is looking very—”
“What’s wrong?” Charlie cut him off immediately. He put the chair he was holding down with a sharp tap against the floor, and frowned at his brother.
If Raco had a professional fault, Falk thought, it was his lack of a poker face. The guy wore his emotions all over him. Despite his smile, it was as clear as day that he was still thinking about their discussions at the festival.
“Nothing’s wrong.” Raco glanced at Falk, who’d had a few more years to perfect the art of inscrutable neutrality, then at the other two men. “Why?”
“Has something happened? You’ve been at the site, right?” Rohan was already reaching for his phone. “Has something come from the appeal?”
“No.” Raco shook his head firmly. “Look, no, mate. I’m sorry. If there was anything, we’d hear from Dwyer.”
Rohan’s face tightened at the mention of the sergeant. “Yeah, I suppose,” he said, as he breathed out slowly and put his phone away. His eyes found his daughter and rested there for a long minute. Eva was encouraging Zoe to chase the bubbles now, holding out her hands to help the little girl balance. Finally, Rohan frowned and turned back.
“Hey, has Dwyer asked any of you to go over your statements from the night?” He blinked as Charlie shook his head, then looked to Raco and Falk. “No? What about Shane? Naomi?” Rohan glanced to the barn door, where Naomi was still talking to Rita.
“I don’t think so,” Charlie said. “Not that I’ve heard.”
Rohan gave an odd reflexive laugh. “Just me, then.”
There was a silence.
“He can ask the rest of us anytime, though,” Charlie said. “We’re always around.”
Rohan didn’t look convinced. “I suppose so.”
“Can I ask what he wanted to check?” Raco said.
“Mainly things I thought we’d already gone over,” Rohan said. “A few times. Like, why didn’t Kim and Zoe come to dinner with my parents and me?”
“And what did you say?”
“The same.” Rohan watched the girls playing and lowered his voice. “That Kim and my mum didn’t always see eye to eye. I mean, nothing serious, they got along okay. But Kim wasn’t keen on dinner with them, not on the first night. Which was fine, because it wasn’t really a social thing, anyway. I wanted to talk to my dad about the tests he’d been having. Recovery, care implications, stuff that’s a lot easier in person and without a baby dominating things.” He shook his head. “But Kim could have come. Of course she could have, she was my wife. She was the one who said she didn’t want to.”
Raco nodded. “Maybe—”
“I should have questioned it,” Rohan cut across him suddenly, as though Raco hadn’t spoken. “I didn’t, though, did I? Because it was easier for me if she and Zoe weren’t there. But I should have.” He pulled a hand down his face. “Jesus. Kim always held her cards so bloody close to her chest.”
Charlie made a soft noise in his throat, and Rohan looked up sharply.
“You don’t agree, mate?” His voice had barely changed, but somewhere in there, Falk heard a blade-fine edge.
“No, I do, actually.” Charlie’s voice, too, had the faintest undercurrent. He pushed a chair in, and it scraped against the concrete floor. “Of course I do. We’ve all learned stuff about Kim over the past year.”
“Like what?” Rohan was watching him closely now.
“Mate. You know what.” Charlie didn’t meet his eye. “Like why she completely avoided the reservoir for the best part of twenty years.”
Rohan’s face went still for a moment, as though processing. Confusion crumpled into a frown. “What are you talking about?”
“Jesus, Rohan. Come on.”
“You mean—？” The man looked genuinely lost. “What Naomi said? About what happened at the opening-night party back at school?”
“Yeah, of course.” Charlie glanced toward their daughters, and dropped his voice. “And don’t pretend Kim had told you about it, either, because I bet she hadn’t.”
“No, but—” Rohan was still staring at Charlie. “But—sorry. What do you mean she avoided the reservoir?”
It was Charlie’s turn to stare. “I mean exactly that. Kim never went down there. Ever, really. She didn’t make a big deal of it, just always had some excuse. The weather, or other plans, or she wanted to go the long way. Stuff like that.”
“But she lived here for years.” Rohan sounded incredulous. “Everyone goes down there.”
“Before the night of that party?” Charlie said. “Yeah, then. But not after. I can’t think of a single time. I mean, did she go down there with you?”
There was a silence, and Falk could almost see the memories flickering behind Rohan’s eyes.
“No. But we didn’t live around here when we were together,” Rohan said at last. He looked disturbed. “Have you told the police?”
“Yeah, of course. I told Dwyer at the time that Kim must have been in a seriously bad state to”—Charlie concentrated for a long moment on straightening a chair, cleared his throat—“do what she did, because normally she never went near the reservoir.”