By the time evening fell, Avery had read the James Patterson novel she’d found tucked inside one of the cupboards, and played what seemed like fifty games of solitaire. She’d tried to entice Gareth to join her, but Sharon had brought him some paperwork from the station and he’d filled in his day catching up on work.
Lucky for some.
She’d even tried playing with the dog to pass the time, but the German shepherd seemed disinterested in tug of war and Gareth wouldn’t let them go outside to play fetch. Lying on her back on the top bunk, staring at the wooden slats above her head, Avery counted down the minutes until it was time to prepare dinner. At least then she’d have something to do. An electronic noise sounded, so abrupt in the quiet cabin that she flinched.
“That’s mine,” Gareth said, as if there were any doubt. He fished it from his breast pocket, touched the screen and raised it to his ear. “Wayland.” He listened for a moment, then extended his arm toward her, holding the phone out. “It’s for you.”
She grabbed it from him, too relieved by the distraction to care who it might be, and said cheerily, “Avery here. Please, whoever this is, tell me I can go somewhere or do something.”
A woman chuckled, and she recognized the raspy laugh as belonging to Adaline Rata. “Good news, Dr. Brown. You can go somewhere and do something.”
Avery’s heart lightened. “Oh, thank god. I’ve got to tell you, I’m not built for waiting.”
“I suspected that might be the case.” Rata sounded amused. “We’ve received a second soil sample. If you and Sergeant Wayland collect it tomorrow, you can run your tests as soon as you’ve organized somewhere to do so.”
“I’ll sort that right now,” Avery replied, grinning. “It won’t be a problem.”
“I’m glad to hear that. I’m sure you’re as eager as I am to see this case closed.”
“Absolutely.” The sooner the police arrested this guy, the sooner he could pay for what he’d done to that young girl, and to Avery. He needed to be made to pay. But still, she couldn’t help thinking that once her involvement in the case ceased, she’d have to figure out what to do and where to live. And how to move on.
“Avery…” Rata began slowly, as though turning over a thought in her wonderfully organized brain. “Can I call you that?”
“I’d like it if you did.”
“I hate to ask you this,” she continued, “but how are things with the sergeant? He told me the two of you have a past, and I want to make sure you’re comfortable with the situation. He was frank about it and didn’t seem concerned, but I’d kick myself if I left you with a man who made you uncomfortable for whatever reason.” She paused, allowing her words to sink in. “You’re going through enough at the moment without having anything else to worry about.”
The question had Avery scowling at the unpleasant recollection of the conversation she’d overheard, but she shook off her doldrums. Knowing that Rata cared for her well-being was nice. She didn’t make female friends easily. Most of the friends she had, she’d known all of her life.
“Thank you for worrying,” she said, meaning it. “But I’m okay. The sooner this is over, the better, but I’m not going to have a breakdown.”
She certainly wouldn’t have one just because Gareth didn’t see her in a romantic light. She had more self-respect than that.
“That’s a relief,” Rata said brusquely. “Go ahead and confirm the use of a laboratory, and I may see you tomorrow when you come by for the sample.”
“It’s a plan.” She hung up and handed the phone back to Gareth, who hadn’t stopped watching her for the duration of the call.
“They have the soil sample?” he guessed.
“They do. We can pick it up tomorrow.”
His brow furrowed in a familiar expression of caution. “The inspector is okay with you leaving the cabin?”
Avery held up a finger and clucked. “Oh, no. Don’t you give me that look. I’m taking this damn sample to a lab and testing the shit out of it. Rata isn’t worried about me braving the world beyond the cabin, so there’s no reason for you to worry. You can get any thoughts about stopping me out of that thick skull of yours. Come with me if you must, but I’m going either way.”
He folded his arms across his chest, his shirt straining over well-developed pecs. “You about done?”
She didn’t dignify that with a reply.
“We’ll go to whatever lab you can arrange,” he said, as though it was ever in doubt. “But we’re taking my cruiser and you don’t leave my sight at any time.”
She shrugged. She’d expected more of an argument. “Okay.”
To be honest, she would have accepted a number of other conditions if it meant getting out of here. Being cooped up inside with Gareth and his sexy broad shoulders and the alluring pepperminty smell from the gum he chewed was more than she could stand for much longer. If he wanted to watch over her like a glorified bodyguard, so be it. At least she could interact with other people and do something productive with her time.
“We’ll need to stay elsewhere for a night, maybe two,” she told him. “I won’t get through all of the lab work in one day.”
His jaw worked, and he obviously didn’t like it, but he tilted his head in acknowledgement. “I pick the hotel.”
“Sure.” Their accommodation didn’t bother her in the slightest. She’d overnighted in a tent in Antarctica, spent three weeks in an open-sided shelter with one of the indigenous tribes of Mali, and lived for years in sub-par student housing. She could sleep anywhere. “Can I borrow your phone to call my friend Jesse to see if I can use his lab tomorrow?”
“Where is Jesse’s lab?”
“Dunedin.”
He nodded and passed the phone back to her. “Make sure he understands that it needs to be empty except for the people who absolutely have to be there.”
“I will.” Jesse’s lab was too small for more than two people, anyway. “Am I allowed to turn my phone back on to find his number?”
“No.”
“Fine, then.” She was too excited to let his inflexibility bother her. She googled the University of Otago’s chemistry department, called reception, and asked to be put through to Dr. Stone.
“Hi, Jesse,” she exclaimed, far too brightly. “It’s been ages! How are you?”
“It’s great to hear from you, Avery,” her friend replied. “What’s up?”
“I have some tests I need to run, time sensitive, and I’ve had some problems with my equipment. Any chance I can come down there tomorrow and borrow your lab?” She crossed her fingers. Often laboratories were booked out days or weeks in advance. She heard him check the booking diary.
“It’s just me in here tomorrow,” he said. “None of the work I need to do is on a tight deadline, so I can shuffle it back a couple of days.”
A triumphant grin stretched her lips.
“I wouldn’t do it for just anyone,” he continued, “but it’s not often the famous Dr. Brown deigns to visit my humble space. Say, I don’t suppose you’d be available for a guest lecture next month?”
“If you pull this off for me, I’ll be available for an entire week, if that’s what you want.”
“Done.”
“Thank you so much. I owe you one.”
“I’m going to hold you to that.” She heard the smile in his voice. Pictured his attractive, symmetrical features and the glasses that were always perched on the tip of his nose. He’d made it clear several times during the years that he was interested in her as more than a colleague, and she wished, not for the first time, that she felt the same way. Alas, while she had more in common with academic men, she was typically attracted to athletes and outdoorsy types. Probably her cavewoman instincts telling her they’d make a better provider, which was, in this modern day, frankly ridiculous. But she couldn’t control her biological reactions. Go figure.
“Bye, Jesse,” she said warmly. Perhaps she didn’t want to jump his bones, but she genuinely liked him. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“See you later, Brainiac,” he replied, ending the call.
“All set,” she said, putting the phone in front of Gareth, who sat at the table scrawling on a piece of paper. He added the paper to a pile then shifted the pile to a cardboard folder, which was labeled with a bunch of numbers and hyphens that presumably related to some type of filing system.
“What did Mum bring to eat?” he asked as he packed the folder into his duffel bag. Snookie roused herself from the corner and wandered over, nosing his leg, seeking attention. He stroked her head absentmindedly as Avery checked the other bags.
“There’s a vegetable stir fry, dehydrated mashed potato, and a ready-to-eat bag of rice. Or if you’d rather, there’s cheese, crackers, and a jar of Marmite.” She licked her lips. “Mama Sharon’s got good taste.”
“She did not pack Marmite,” Gareth muttered, brushing past Snookie to look for himself. “Well, I’ll be.”
His disgruntled expression drew a laugh from Avery. He’d preferred Vegemite to Marmite growing up, but no one in his family, or indeed, in their circle of friends, shared his preference. Marmite was a Kiwi staple. Vegemite was a second-rate Aussie substitute. Simple as that.
“Stir fry and rice for dinner,” he announced. “You fire up the cooker and I’ll clean out the pan.”
They set to work, and before long they were sitting opposite each other at the table, each with a bowl of vegetables that were charred on the outside and hard on the inside. Neither of them had mastered the art of stir-fry. Avery tossed the rice through her veggies and ripped open a sachet of soy sauce, mixing it through. She was all about salty food, something they had in common. They ate in silence, then washed their bowls and each lay on a bunk, while Snookie curled on her rug.
Avery’s stomach was full, she was warm, and tomorrow she could make herself useful. For the first time in forty-eight hours, she felt okay. Not wonderful, by any stretch, but it felt like she’d been precariously balanced on a tightrope above a fifty-foot drop for the past two days, and finally there was a net beneath her to catch her if she fell.
“Can I ask you something?” Gareth’s voice came from above, because he’d been relegated to the top bunk again.
“Fire away.”
She expected him to query their course of action for tomorrow, or perhaps make generic small talk.
“Why did we never get back together? I always thought we would one day, but instead we grew apart.”
The question made her insides lurch as if she were on a rollercoaster. It felt like someone had stolen the net from beneath her tightrope. Squeezing her eyes shut, her breath whooshed from her chest and her hands fisted at her sides.
“Y-you never said,” she stammered, caught off guard.
Suddenly, everything tipped on its head. All of her assumptions that he’d taken the easy way out and broken up with her ostensibly because of the difficulty of a long-distance relationship when in actuality, he’d wanted someone else. Someone more feminine, shorter and curvier, less apt to act like one of the guys.
She swallowed. If he’d thought they’d get back together, then her assumptions had been flawed. She was floundering, trying to swim in water over her head, but no one had taught her how.
“I didn’t know you felt that way.” Avery never shied away from difficult conversations. Her friends would say she wielded her tongue like a blunt instrument, but that was only when she involved herself in other people’s problems. When it came to her personal life, she’d rather slam the door on all those old, unwanted emotions and pretend they didn’t exist. She didn’t want to admit the embarrassing truth.
“I didn’t think I had to say it,” he replied, oblivious to her distress. He couldn’t see her, so he didn’t know that she was praying for someone to set fire to the cabin right this minute so she could run out, throw herself into the lake and head for the opposite shore. Anything to avoid this goddamned awful conversation.
“We were so good together, I figured we’d settle down once we were both back in Itirangi. Assuming you ever came back,” he added as an afterthought.
“You thought…” She trailed off, stubbornly refusing to open her eyes, hoping by some miracle she’d fall asleep so she didn’t have to piece together the words that would form an appropriate response. With an effort, she corralled her thoughts, sat upright and rubbed her temples.
“People grow apart,” she muttered, not really knowing where she was going with this, but if she didn’t say something, he’d prolong the conversation. “We’re different now than we were in high school. I guess we don’t fit as well as we did back then.”
That sounded half reasonable. Somewhat distant, perhaps, but she’d rather he think her a cold bitch than know that he’d hurt her back then, far more than she’d ever let on, and she wasn’t prepared to let herself be vulnerable to him so he could take another shot.
“Maybe,” he said, noncommittally. “But I don’t think that’s it.”
When a minute ticked by in silence, she hoped he didn’t have anything further to say and relaxed, rolling onto her side and slipping her hand beneath her cheek.
“I’ve often wondered if you were the one who got away,” he mused, so softly that perhaps she’d misheard him. Shit. She could not be having this conversation. Just thinking of the promises he’d made back then had her breaking out in a cold sweat. All the pretty words about “forever” and “always” that she’d fallen for hook, line, and sinker, only to have the ground buckle beneath her. She uttered a snuffling sound, like a snore, then exhaled slowly and deeply, as if she were asleep.
He laughed quietly to himself. “Of course. I finally come clean, and you’re asleep. Sweet dreams, A-Bee.”
Curling tightly into herself, she tried not to feel deceptive or cowardly. This would be best for both of them, in the long run.