To the Sea Page 12

  He knew that awful ache and emptiness that kept him awake at night and made him permanently sad after Amy left was a broken heart. He cried for too long, drank too much, stayed away from his friends and family, listened to way too much Eels and Jeff Buckley and he lost his confidence. If he could stuff it up so badly with Amy, he doubted he could get it right with anyone. And who would ever love him the way Amy had? Lila had got him back on the horse but now he was alone in the saddle again and had no idea which way to turn.

  He wasn’t lonely for Lila. He wasn’t even lonely for Amy. He was lonely for someone to give him strength at times like this when beautiful young girls went missing and he was supposed to find them and he didn’t know where to look.

  He was warm in bed now and his body loosened into itself as he lay thinking of Lila and Amy. His eyes closed under their own weight and, without thinking too much about it, he knew that he would fall asleep and that a few hours’ sleep wouldn’t hurt. As he drifted off, the image that filled his tired dreaming mind was of a blonde girl with summer freckles in a bright orange sundress, smiling down at him from under the wide brim of a straw hat.

  Narelle was at her desk when Tony arrived just before eight. Her eyes looked tired but Tony noticed she was in a different suit and her usually chaotic hair was piled up high on her head. She may not have slept but she’d at least been home and prepared herself for a new day. Paul would be in mid-morning. Tony had told him to spend some time with his family. Not many cops had marriages that lasted and most of the detectives Tony knew only saw their kids every second weekend. If they were lucky. Paul needed to look after what he had.

  ‘Morning, boss. Get some sleep?’

  ‘Couple of hours. What about you?’

  ‘Same. Don’t worry, I only got here ten minutes ago. I haven’t been here all night.’

  Tony flicked on his computer.

  ‘When I wasn’t sleeping, I had a few thoughts about this case,’ said Narelle, already in work mode.

  ‘Me too.’

  It was a day for decisions. He had to decide whether to advise the coroner and declare Zoe missing presumed dead. It was the most likely scenario. Informing the coroner was not something he could put off.

  The weather that had blown in so hard yesterday had blown itself out during the night. It was still rough but Bill could go out. Tony knew that if there was any realistic possibility that Zoe was out there anywhere and still alive, Bill would have gone out yesterday. He would have dived if he thought he could have saved her. But he wouldn’t risk his divers for a body retrieval. And Tony wouldn’t push him to.

  ‘I want us to go back to Garnet Point today and meet with the family again,’ said Tony. ‘We still have unfinished business there. What are you writing up over there? The interview with Eva Kennett?’

  ‘No. I thought you’d want to do that one but I’ll do it if you want.’

  ‘What was your take on that interview?’

  Narelle pushed her laptop away from her and looked across at Tony.

  ‘Well, everyone was right, Eva Kennett is a strange one,’ she said. ‘I actually found myself unable to take my eyes off her while she was talking. It’s not just that she is beautiful. I can’t quite explain it. It’s the way she moves, like a dancer, and the way she doesn’t. So intense and still. Her voice is hypnotic. I just wanted to sit in that armchair all morning and look at her and listen to her.’ Narelle looked over at Tony. ‘Do you know what I mean?’

  ‘I do.’

  Narelle picked up her notebook from the desk and flicked through the pages. Tony watched her and waited. He knew she’d say more. She usually let Paul lead, which was fair enough, Paul was her senior, but Tony wanted to see what she could do on her own. She was thinking about how best to proceed and frowned lightly as she looked at her notes.

  ‘I’m going to preface my comments by saying that I think Eva Kennett has some sort of mental illness. I don’t believe we can accept her comments as credible.’

  ‘Not just a loving mother in shock?’

  ‘No, sir.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Well,’ said Narelle. ‘I’ve met with a lot of grieving parents and they’re all over the place. Incoherent mostly. Desperate and choosing to believe any unrealistic scenario they can come up with. Eva Kennett was calm and very clear. She was consistent with her story even if the story was pretty unorthodox. She said, and I quote, “Zoe will come back to us when she is ready.” When you asked her how Zoe could come home after two days she said, and I quote again, “Zoe is safe but I fear she will be lonely out there. I know she was lonely here but we are the only family she has.” And that was as coherent as she got.’

  Narelle looked up at Tony. He was listening so she went on.

  ‘I’m no expert but I’d say she’s delusional. She believes Zoe is somewhere in the Southern Ocean in water where, according to the marines, people die from hypothermia at this time of year in under four hours, and that would be in ideal conditions. When we spoke to Mrs Kennett, Zoe had been missing for more than forty-eight hours in southerly storms with five-metre swells and strong offshore currents. The second night was dark with no moon or stars. And she believes that Zoe is just swimming around out there feeling lonely.’ She paused. ‘That’s way past shock or grief.’

  ‘Did you notice the husband’s response?’

  ‘His response confirms my view,’ said Narelle. ‘He knows this story. Eva Kennett didn’t just come up with it to explain Zoe’s disappearance to us. And she was critical of Sadie for calling us. If it were up to the parents, I don’t know that they would have ever called us. That’s weird.’

  Tony picked up his notebook and went back over some of the extraordinary notes he’d taken.

  ‘Mrs Kennett also said that she often went back to the sea when she was younger. That’s what she said, “back to the sea”.’

  ‘I’m sorry, sir, but we have to accept that Mrs Kennett is not a well woman. Zoe has either drowned or she’s missing from Garnet Point for one of the usual reasons people disappear.’

  ‘Do we think Zoe believes she can stay in the ocean for days at a time?’

  They were both quiet for a long time. They could hear others arriving and the usual din of the duty desk on the other side of the glass doors.

  ‘That’s what I was thinking about last night,’ said Narelle. ‘Could Zoe have deliberately swum out so far from shore that she wasn’t able to come back, in some deluded belief that she can’t drown?’

  ‘That’s where I got stuck too. But we don’t know Zoe well enough to be able to answer that yet.’

  ‘Interesting that none of the other family members thought to mention any of this to us,’ said Narelle. ‘They alluded to their mother being fragile but there was a lot they didn’t say. I can’t believe they haven’t heard her talk like this before. Is that what they’re not telling us?’

  ‘I don’t know, but I intend to ask them when we meet with them today.’

  ‘I think Zoe Kennett’s gone into the water and she’s drowned. This kid is not a runaway. The search is in the water.’

  ‘While we still can’t rule anything out, I think you’re right.’

  ‘What about suicide?’ asked Narelle tentatively. ‘Her room was spotless, her phone and computer are very organised. Could she have tidied up her life and swum out to her death?’

  ‘Maybe. I’ve left a message for Bill Watson at the marines. I want him, and as many boats as he’s got, down there again today. You got good sea legs?’

  ‘Afraid not, sir. Paul’s your man. He loves all that stuff. There’s still plenty needs doing on land. It’s time to push the brother and sisters. Find out what the hell is going on in this family. Why they all seem to know so little about Zoe.’

  Tony nodded his approval.

  ‘Did you hear back from either of Zoe’s friends?’ Tony asked.

  ‘I got a call from Annabel’s mother. She grilled me before she would agree to Annabel being interviewe
d. We can do a speaker phone interview if we want with the mother sitting in. I’ve held off following up Emily Carlisle. Her mother’s our favourite magistrate.’

  Narelle had faced Magistrate Carlisle recently over a Family Violence Order breach and Carlisle had dressed her down in open court about the police failure to make a legal arrest of the FVO subject. Emily could wait.

  ‘It’s almost the same story with the boys Paul followed up,’ Narelle continued. ‘Charlie Morgan was Zoe’s boyfriend for most of this year up until recently but his father is a lawyer and says he won’t let us speak to his son without him being present. What are the odds?’

  ‘Private school kids,’ said Tony, shrugging his shoulders. ‘I’ve already advised Mr Charles Morgan senior that I’m interviewing Charlie without a family member present. I’ve arranged for an AA to sit in. No lawyers. Charlie will be in at nine-thirty today.’

  ‘And Mr Morgan let you get away with that?’

  ‘I can be very persuasive, DS Clarke.’

  ‘I’ll try and line up that call with Annabel while you’re talking to Charlie,’ said Narelle. ‘We’ll hopefully know a bit more about Zoe by the time Paul gets in. And then it’s back to Rosetta.’

  Charlie Morgan was a surprise. Tony had expected a handsome jock with the same attitudes of arrogance and entitlement displayed by the father, but Charlie was a different person altogether. He stood up and shook Tony’s hand when they met in the corridor. His messy dark hair was pushed back untidily and he was lanky, tall like all boys these days. But he was still a kid in his baggy shorts and old sneakers. Brand names, expensive but faded. He had worn his old favourites. Tony was confident Charlie and his dad had argued about the clothes. Not what a corporate lawyer would advise for a police interview. The boy’s faded brown T-shirt with a blonde Britney Spears lookalike on it had the words ‘everyone knew who she was but know-one could get close to her’ scrawled down it. Tony had seen another kid in this same t-shirt a few weeks ago.

  Once they were in the interview room, Charlie told Tony that he appreciated his dad being left out of it. Charlie had a quiet, honest confidence about him.

  Tony told Charlie that he was not going to be recording the interview. There was no need as there was no crime and he wasn’t being formally interviewed as a potential suspect or witness but simply to provide assistance in a missing person case. Tony told him that they would both sign off on Tony’s notes and that would be the only record. He wanted Charlie to talk freely. And Charlie could leave at any time.

  Tony introduced Charlie to Rob Parsons. Rob started to explain the role of the AA but Charlie interrupted.

  ‘It’s OK. My dad told me what an appropriate adult is.’

  ‘If it’s all right with you,’ said Rob politely but determined to run his own show, ‘I’d like to explain it myself.’

  Tony sat down and watched Charlie Morgan. He listened to Rob and nodded in the right places. He wasn’t fidgety or on edge. He didn’t look guilty of anything.

  Rob took his seat off to one side and Charlie sat down opposite Tony.

  ‘I don’t know where Zoe is,’ he started straight out of the box.

  ‘When did you last see her?’ asked Tony. Charlie was going back to the beginning regardless of where he wanted to start.

  ‘The day after the formal. A bunch of us got together at a mate’s place for a final party. Zoe was there.’

  ‘Do you remember what date that was?’

  ‘The tenth, I think.’

  ‘Did you talk to Zoe much that day?’

  ‘Not really.’

  ‘I understand that you were Zoe’s boyfriend.’

  ‘Yeah, I was. We broke up in October.’

  Tony recognised that tone of voice. ‘Whose idea was that?’

  ‘Zoe’s.’

  ‘And were you heartbroken or happy enough to move on?’

  Charlie Morgan sat looking at his hands lying on the interview table. ‘I wouldn’t say I was happy.’

  ‘How long were you two together?’

  ‘Five months.’

  ‘Good?’

  ‘Great.’

  ‘So what happened?’

  ‘One day, we had just come back from my shack at Orford and Zoe told me that we had to break up. I couldn’t believe it. She just said that I wasn’t the one and so we should end it.’

  ‘The one?’

  ‘Mr Right, I guess.’

  ‘Was there someone else she thought was Mr Right?’

  ‘Don’t think so. She said there wasn’t and I haven’t seen her with anyone,’ said Charlie with his head down.

  ‘How did you feel about Zoe when you were together?’

  Charlie looked up at him. He looked unsure either of the question or how he wanted to answer it. Tony couldn’t tell which.

  ‘Did you love her?’ asked Tony.

  ‘I guess.’

  ‘That’s one thing in life you don’t guess about, Charlie. It’s a definite yes or no situation.’ He sat looking at Charlie but the boy remained silent. ‘I’ll take your silence to be no. That’s OK, we don’t love every girl we go out with.’

  ‘OK. Yes,’ said Charlie quietly.

  ‘And what about Zoe?’

  ‘It felt like she did. But I guess she stopped.’

  ‘That day in October you were up at your shack?’ continued Tony. ‘Were your parents up there too?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Other friends?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Just you and Zoe?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Do you sail, Charlie?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Surf?’

  ‘A bit.’

  ‘So, you didn’t go up to your shack to sail. It’s too cold to swim in October. Not much surf at Orford. I’m guessing you didn’t drive for an hour just for the view? So what did you and Zoe do at your shack?’

  ‘You know,’ said Charlie trying hard to sound relaxed, ‘just hung out.’

  ‘Did you have sexual intercourse with Zoe that day?’

  ‘Sexual intercourse?’ Charlie looked up from his hands at last. He looked incredulous and, like every kid who has ever been sprung, he couldn’t stop a nervous grin spreading across his reddening face. ‘Jesus, do people really say that?’

  ‘Detectives do.’

  ‘Are you absolutely positive my dad is never going to hear anything I say in here?’

  ‘I can’t absolutely guarantee it but I can assure you that I will not tell your father anything and, unless you are required to testify in court, this conversation will remain confidential.’

  Charlie thought it all through.

  ‘Are you going to write my answer in the notes? My dad is going to want to see those, I reckon.’

  ‘No. Whether or not you and Zoe had sex two months ago doesn’t need to be in my notes but I need to know.’

  ‘Yeah, we did,’ he said. ‘That’s why we went to the shack.’

  ‘Was that the first time you and Zoe had sex?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘When was the first time?’

  ‘About a month after we got together.’

  ‘Had Zoe had sex with anyone else before you?’

  Charlie was still a kid. He sat up straight and looked around the room. Recalibrating. He looked over at Rob but Rob was looking away to give Charlie the space he needed.

  ‘Jesus, man. This is all pretty personal. How does this help you find Zoe?’ said Charlie.

  ‘I need to know who Zoe is before I can find her,’ replied Tony. ‘Not many people seem to know Zoe very well so I need to find out as much as I can from those people who do know her.’

  ‘I was the first person Zoe had sex with.’

  ‘Are you sure about that?’

  ‘Yes, I’m sure,’ replied Charlie tersely. ‘And if you must know, she was the first for me too.’

  The three men sat in silence.

  ‘Please tell me that’s the last question about sex,’ said Charlie, ‘becau
se I really don’t think I’m going to tell you anything more.’

  ‘Fair enough,’ said Tony. ‘So, you come back from a nice afternoon at your shack and, out of nowhere, she tells you that you are not the one and breaks up with you?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Nothing unpleasant happened between your time together at the shack and then her dumping you?’

  ‘No. I was blown away when she said it. I absolutely did not see it coming. I was really looking forward to the summer holidays when we could see each other all the time. And then when I was dropping her off, she just said that I wasn’t the one and that she couldn’t be with me anymore. I tried to talk to her about it but she said there wasn’t anything to talk about. Then she left.’

  ‘And you didn’t talk to her about it any other time?’

  ‘I tried but she wouldn’t speak about it,’ said Charlie. His arms were resting on the table and he had a look of bewilderment on his face. ‘It was just over. She said we could still be friends and I’ve been trying to do that but it sucks.’

  ‘You know you can’t?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘You can’t be friends with a girl you love. Don’t waste your time trying. You think your heart can only break once but that’s not true. It will break every time you are near her trying to be her friend and just wanting her to love you.’

  Charlie looked at Tony.

  ‘Been there?’

  ‘Yep.’

  ‘And did you ever get to be more than a friend?’

  ‘What do you think?’

  Charlie didn’t want that answer.

  ‘Do you know if Zoe had any boyfriends before you?’ asked Tony.

  ‘No. She said I was the first. And we’ve been friends since grade seven and I’ve never seen her with anyone.’

  ‘I’m surprised other guys didn’t try,’ said Tony. ‘Zoe is a very beautiful girl.’