CHAPTER 17

After Seb left Tom’s, he drove to the park across the road from the bay, then walked around the water’s edge, along the gravel and dirt that served as a path between the uneven edge of the road and the water. He opened the text Tom had sent him and rang Karen’s friend, Naomi.

‘Hello.’ A woman’s voice, thirtyish.

‘Hi, it’s Constable Seb Baxter from Bullford Point. Got a minute?’

‘What about?’

Seb sensed shutters swinging closed.

‘Your friend Karen Kemp. I assume you’ve heard the terrible news about her?’

‘Yeah.’

‘I’m very sorry about your friend’s death. Have any other police spoken to you?’

‘No, I found out from the news.’

No surprise. Homicide had their headlights on Joe. Why chase Karen’s friends in Sydney when they had their man up here?

‘That’s not good. I’m sorry about that. I’m the local police officer here, but other police were running the investigation. I was just calling to make sure you knew. But that should have been done earlier.’

‘Okay,’ she said.

‘Am I right in thinking you were in touch with Karen while she was at Bullford Point?’

‘A bit.’

‘She wrote you letters?’

‘A couple, yeah. Old-style.’

‘Why letters, not email, do you know?’

‘I think she was getting into the simple country living thing.’

‘Yeah, it’s a bit like that up here. Did you speak on the phone?’

‘Nah. Texted a bit.’

He could sense her softening a little.

‘Can I just ask, was there anything in her letters or texts that was unusual? Did she suggest someone disliked her? Did she seem anxious, or nervous about anything?’

‘The news said her murder was solved.’ Naomi sounded closed off again. ‘That guy up there she was seeing.’

‘It was, but he died of a drug overdose and we just need to cover off any other leads before we can officially close the case. It’s just a formality. That’s why I’m doing it rather than Homicide.’ The prepared lie came easily.

Silence. Then, ‘She said something about the court date she had coming up.’

‘Right. Yes.’ Seb had no idea Karen had to go to court. He should have backgrounded her before calling. ‘Sorry, which case was it?’

‘The stealing one,’ Naomi said matter-of-factly. ‘In Kaz’s last letter she said she was worried about it, but she’d worked out something that might make them go easy on her.’

‘Do you know what?’

‘Just that she was going to talk to the cops about some info she had. That’s all she said.’

‘Okay, thanks for that. If there’s anything else you think of …’ Seb gave her his number and rang off, then drove to the station, where he looked up Karen’s criminal record. She had been charged with stealing three phones and some AirPods from Bondi Beach, and Seb could see why she would have been worried. She had two priors for the same thing. Strike three is usually when jail looms. What was the information she had wanted to trade?