“Fingerprint guys say the safe’s been wiped. No new prints. There’s a few of Will’s on there but nobody else’s.”
“Figures,” Hana said, keeping her tone level. “I’ve never touched it. No point. Will wouldn’t give me the code. Logan doesn’t really go in there. So whoever took the diaries covered their tracks.”
“How come?” Odering sipped his hot tea with care, observing Hana over the rim of his mug.
“Oh, I didn’t like what I read. It’s amazing how a little knowledge can be such a dangerous thing. I read four volumes in total, not in order but they were damaging enough.”
“In what way?”
“Mainly parentage. If I hadn’t already known that Reuben was Logan’s father, I’d have found out through the diaries. Other people had affairs and fathered children who’ve grown up thinking they belonged to someone else. Just one big mess really. I threatened to burn the one about the blonde drover and Will confiscated it. He put it in the safe and promised he’d catalogue it and leave it there.”
“Why that diary in particular?” Odering asked, making himself sound deliberately conversational.
“Not because of the drover, if that’s what you’re asking.” Hana smiled at Logan’s old adversary. “Rueben’s wife had an affair with the drover before he disappeared. Then she had a child. It was the ramifications of that which shocked me, nothing else. The child’s grown up thinking she was abandoned by her family, when the truth is that she arrived here because her birth mother couldn’t live without her.”
“But surely that’ll help her with closure?” The detective looked confused.
“It won’t, I promise.” Hana gave a heavy sigh and defeat stampeded across her face. “For every ounce of comfort that might offer her, it has to be balanced against the distress it’ll also bring.” Hana leaned forward in her seat and lowered her voice. “Because that child recently married her half-brother and is apparently blissfully happy.”
“And committing incest. I get it.” Odering set his mug on the table. “Ok. I understand now.”
“So do you promise to be careful with everything I tell you?” Hana asked with sincerity. “And I’ll refuse to disclose her name, whatever you do to me.”
Odering smiled. “I’m not gonna bloody torture you, Hana. Keep your secret, unless it’s relevant to the investigation. But this business about the drover that went missing is of interest. Don’t suppose you have a name for him?”
“No, sorry. That would have made life a heap easier because then Will and I could have looked for him and reassured ourselves. The trouble is, the diary only said he disappeared and his brothers came looking for him months later. It doesn’t say he was killed or who did it, just that he suddenly wasn’t here anymore. Phoenix had her suspicions but that was all we had to go on.”
“Ok.” Odering stood. “I’ll get one of my officers to take statements from you and the curator and for now, they’ll have to account for your odd comments to Doctor Seuli. Unfortunately your statement counts for very little as the wife of the suspect, but Will’s should help. I can’t clear Logan though, Hana. I hope you understand that. From what I’m already hearing, he had good reason to get rid of the deceased, more than most!”
“Thank you,” Hana breathed, her heart filled with foreboding. “If you could also find out who took those diaries - that would be a weight off my mind too. I have a very awkward conversation brewing with my husband that I’d really rather not sit through.”
Odering patted Hana gently on the shoulder and smoothed his slender hand across her back. “You’ll be fine sweetheart. Your husband’s not an idiot. He’ll understand.”
“Yeah.” Hana didn’t sound so sure.
She hauled herself out of her chair after Odering left, finding the short journey almost insurmountable. Will waved to her from the end of the ground floor corridor and she acknowledged him, both of them tired and overwrought at the latest development. The old man kissed the palm of his hand and blew it towards Hana with care and she struggled to prevent the ready tears falling. She raised a smile for his sake alone and continued on her journey, using the spiral staircase off the main lobby and arriving in the loft apartment puffing for breath. The space seemed airless and Hana felt lightheaded.
“Hey, gorgeous.” Logan sat in the lounge reading a bedtime story to a dozing Phoenix. He kept his voice low as her eyelids drooped and she cuddled into his chest, thumb tucked in her mouth and rosebud lips periodically twitching. “If I snuggle her up tightly and sit in the back, would you be able to drive home?” Logan whispered. “I think she might stay asleep then. The olds have gone to bed already. No stamina.”
Hana slumped into the chair opposite. “There’s no point me driving us up the mountain tonight. Odering wants to talk to you. Now.” Hana’s body language was defeatist and Logan’s eyes widened in alarm.
“What’s going on, babe?”
“He’s letting me talk to you first. Then he wants you to go downstairs. He’s using the family lounge to take statements.” Hana found it hard to look at her husband. She exhaled and tiredness swamped her. “I tried to help negate the stupid comments I said to the doctor a few weeks ago. He’s made a statement to the cops saying I appeared scared for my life. He’s reported that I claimed you got rid of people who got in your way. It puts you squarely in the frame for killing Sylvia.” Hana’s voice stayed monotone as she struggled through the speech she prepared on the way upstairs. “I didn’t say you specifically at the time, I said the Du Roses. But there was a reason why I thought that and I should have shared it earlier. I read in your grandmother’s diary about a blonde drover who had an affair with your Aunt Antoinette. She had a child, a baby girl who was very obviously his. She had bright blonde hair and...it doesn’t matter anyway, but the child arrived here when she was two and Reuben allowed it. When your aunt died, he brought the girl up...”
“Caroline?” Logan’s wide grey eyes registered horror. “Geez, that’s...weird. But it still doesn’t explain why you thought I’d kill you.” He looked hurt.
“Because the blonde drover disappeared mysteriously and nobody ever saw him again. Family came looking and went away disappointed. Phoenix thought someone on the property disposed of him.”
“You should have told me, babe. Bloody diaries. I never wanted the damn things opened.” Logan shook his head, his eyes dulling with sadness. “So Odering wants me now?”
Hana nodded. Tears sprung from her eyes. “Yes. Will went to get the diary to show Odering why I said that comment to the doctor. And I went to see Odering to explain. But...” Hana’s voice adopted a frantic note and a sob escaped. Logan’s face softened and he stood up, laying Phoenix down on the chair and swaddling her up in the sweater he yanked over his head. He took a stride towards his wife but she held up her hand to halt his progress. “Someone broke into the safe and stole all the diaries. So now I can’t show him and he’s only got mine and Will’s word for it. So instead of making things better for you, I’ve just made it worse...”
Logan ignored her resistance and with one stride, scooped her into his arms and held her tightly. “Shhhh,” he whispered, supporting her with his hands in the small of her back. “It’s gonna be ok. None of this is your fault. Don’t cry, Hana, please. We’ve both shed enough tears over this family.”
Hana’s breath came in stilted gasps as the weight of her misery buried her underneath its cloying fingers. She tried to speak but nothing sensible came out. Logan kissed her damp cheeks and ran his thumb under her eyes, smoothing the delicate skin with gentle strokes. “I’m going downstairs now,” Logan said, sounding more confident than he felt. Stress raised the livid scar under his right eye, making it look white against his bronzed complexion, but Logan smiled at Hana and tried to infuse her with love. “Babe, can I just ask you one question?”
Logan pushed Hana away from his chest, keeping her upper arms in a firm grip. Her face was blotchy and puffed from crying, snot and tears dotted around her cheeks and chin. “What...?” she sobbed.
“Do you think I killed Sylvia?”
“No!” Hana’s face expression changed to one of incredulity. “What a stupid question!”
Logan laughed. “That’s my girl. I can face anything if you believe me.”
Hana shook her head. “Idiot! Of course I don’t think that. Sylvia was leaving. She’d done her worst. If you were going to bump her off, you’d have done it when she first arrived or when our marriage hit the rocks.”
“Oh, so not complete exoneration then? Just bad timing.”
“You know what I mean,” Hana sulked and hiccoughed from her crying. “I’m just saying.”
Logan shook her gently. “Fair enough. Right, I’ll go down and see my mate Odering now.” Logan let go of his wife’s hands and leaning in, gave her a last, smouldering kiss. “I love you, Hana Du Rose.” His smile was tight.”
“We’ll wait here for you,” Hana whispered.
“Might be a while,” Logan shrugged as he walked away from his wife, glancing back once over his shoulder with a wan smile.
“I’m praying it won’t be,” Hana answered and slumped into the chair as her husband stepped down the stairs, his cowboy boots clicking on the treads. “I’m really praying it won’t.”