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Dawn was out the front door before she remembered her van was still at Lisa’s and Ryan was her ride for the day. Impatiently she waited for him to unlock the car so she could get in.
‘Isn’t Michael still with her?’
‘No. She’s at work. Abby is at school. He said he would keep an eye on them though.’
‘She went to work knowing whoever she saw dumping Jessica’s body might still be looking for her?’
‘I know. I tried to convince her to stay at home, with Michael, but she said they would have come after her already if they thought she knew anything and, according to her, she didn’t. She never saw who dumped Jessica’s body. They knew her, but she didn’t recognise their voice when they called her name.’
‘Where’s her work?’
‘She works at a holistic health clinic in Helen Street. Up the road from the library.’
‘Okay. You check in with your sister, then we need to get back to the library. We never did go through the microfiche, and we might find something in there we missed in the minutes.’
‘Okay. But I want to go straight back to Lisa’s afterwards and rip those minutes apart. We are missing something. Something that ties this all together.’
‘You know this might have nothing to do with Tracey Warren’s murder.’
‘I know, but my instincts and ten years on the job are telling me they are connected.’
Dawn pointed to a sage green and bluish grey weatherboard building with turned posts and traditional fretwork over the veranda.
‘That’s it.’
‘What is she, a naturopath or something?’
‘Lisa was always a free spirit, but she went full hippy on me the year Mum disappeared.’
‘It must have been hard. Losing your mum like that.’
Dawn shrugged.
‘Let’s go.’
She opened the car door and stepped out, slamming it harder than intended. The last thing she wanted was to off-load on Ryan about a past she wanted to forget.
He joined her as she pushed the clinic door open. A tinkle of soft bells chimed above her head as the scent of musk and lavender wafted on the cool air.
Soft Indian temple-style music played in the background. A young woman with dreadlocks, emerald-green eyes and a nose ring glanced up and smiled.
‘Welcome to Cooktown Wellness. How can we help you?’
‘I’m here to see Lisa. It’s quite urgent.’
‘She’s busy with a client right now. She’s nearly done though.’
‘We’ll duck over to the library. If you could ask her to call Dawn as soon as she is done.’
‘Dawn. Like her sister Dawn?’
The girl’s business-like manner evaporated.
‘The one and only.’
‘No way.’ The young woman hopped off her stool and ran around the desk, arms wide. ‘I’ve heard so much about you. I’m Emily. Lisa never stops talking about you.’
She enveloped Dawn in a tight hug. Dawn sighed through it.
Why does everyone want to hug me?
‘Oh, wow. You’ve got so much negative energy. I can sense it.’
The woman continued to squeeze. Dawn tried to wriggle free.
‘A hug should last at least thirty seconds. We can share energy this way.’
‘I’m not into sharing.’
Dawn pulled away. Emily studied her a moment, nodded like she read Dawn’s mind, or chakra or whatever it was health gurus did and floated back to her desk,
‘I’ll tell Lisa as soon as Mrs Nelson is done.’
‘Thanks. I’ll be over the road.’
Ryan held the door open, a grin from ear to ear.
‘Not a word.’ She waved her finger in his face as she stepped back out into humidity. It was less oppressive, but still stickier than she cared for after so many years down south.
‘Microfiche then.’
Ryan crossed the road as Dawn’s phone rang.
‘Detective Grave speaking.’
‘Dawn. I’ve found something.’
‘Michael?’
Ryan stopped outside the library, listening while Dawn put the phone on speaker.
‘You’re on speaker. Where are you?’
‘After I dropped Lisa at work I came back to the house and started going over the minutes again. Thought I might find something we missed earlier.’
‘Don’t you have something to do?’ Ryan teased.
‘I’m on leave. But I found something.’
‘So you said.’
Dawn slapped the detective on the arm. ‘Shut up and let him talk Ryan.’ His grin widened.
‘What did you find Michael?’
‘The principal attends a lot of these meetings, but there’s one in particular, where Jessica is questioning the grant funding again, he’s present and further down, during open questioning, your friend Ronnie has recorded a conversation discussing grants from years ago, when Tom Fletcher was actually secretary of the P & C.’
‘Interesting. Did he have kids at the school?’
‘I don’t know. Like I said, when I went back to do Year 12, he was principal.’
‘I’ll get a background check done on him.’
‘Okay. Not sure it’s relevant but thought you might need to know.’
‘Keep digging. Let me know if you find anything else interesting.’
‘Will do.’
Dawn hung up and pointed to the library.
‘Luckily we happen to know someone who can probably tell us why Tom Fletcher was on the P & C.’
‘This time we check out the microfiche though. I’m not taking the old lady’s word for it.’
‘Deal.’