Underground

Chapter 6

Sam's shift only started later Friday afternoon. We sat on his balcony, eating leftover pizza for lunch. I told him about my chat with Celeste. Strangely, he didn't seem to care. He must have suspected I would go to see her at some point. I decided to try and pry more information out of my brother. He seemed to be in a good mood.

"Nobody seems to think much of Elliot Armstrong," I said. "Do you know him?"

"He's a good fireman," Sam replied, stuffing a piece of pizza into his mouth.

"Did his alibi check out?" I asked.

"Yeah. His boss said he was talking to him for a while after his shift finished. He went to the pub, had two beers and left around nine-thirty. He gave another customer a ride home, as it was on the way to the Kaber house. He said he got there around nine-fifty. Rebecca had told him she was staying there that night, but she wasn't there. He has a key, so he went in, had a shower and went to bed. She never got there."

"He didn't think that was weird?" I asked, pouring us both a glass of Coke.

"No. She was a little erratic. I think that was part of the attraction. He never knew what she would do next." Sam had a drink. "Can't say it would do much for me."

"Me either," I agreed. "Did he ever talk about other women?"

"I don't have much to do with him outside of work. If we get sent to the same accident scene, we don't generally talk about women." Sam smirked.

I turned back to my pizza and changed the subject. No point pushing my luck.

My alarm disturbed the most peaceful sleep I'd had all week. It was seven-thirty on Saturday morning, a week since I'd found Rebecca's body. This Saturday morning, I planned on hitting the beach at Maroochydore to talk to Jenna Kaber. After a bit of investigating, and a phone call to Marianne, I found out that Jenna and her boyfriend Travis were lifesavers. On Saturday mornings they watched over a group of young lifesavers-in-training. I pulled on my best beach girl clothes, accessorised with a light jumper. I jumped into the Landcruiser and followed a line of cars into Maroochydore.

I finally found a park near the library and walked back to the Surf Lifesavers Club. The wind nipped at my body through my jumper. I had no idea how anyone could go into the water at this time of year. I pulled my jumper tighter around me and jogged to warm up. At the beach, a group of rugged-up kids huddled together listening to a young man as he pointed to spots up and down the beach. Some of the kids grabbed witches' hats and marked the spots. The rest of the beach-goers were obviously tourists as they were already splashing in the surf. I shivered and turned my attention back to the kids. They picked partners and were practising what they had learned. I sat on my beach towel and pretended to read a book. I felt my mobile phone vibrating in my bag. I answered it. It was my mother.

"The police are looking for Janet. They think she's taken off." Her voice was shrill in my ear. I could barely hear her over the wind and crashing waves.

"Who?" I asked. My mind was on Jenna and Travis.

"Janet Cartwell, from B-Cup," my mother snapped.

"Okay, okay," I replied, not sure what else to say.

"It's not okay. No one has heard from her, and Sam says he doesn't know anything."

"And you think I would?" I asked.

"Sam won't look for her because it's not his area." She sounded frantic.

"Mum, maybe she's gone away for a while. I'm sure she'll be fine. She doesn't have to answer to anyone."