Crackenback by Lee Christine

Author:Lee Christine [Christine, Lee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2020-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Eighteen

Ryder drove into the basement carpark to find Vanessa unloading skis from the back of her SUV. She turned and waved, a sunny smile lighting up her face. Ryder pulled in beside her car and lowered the window. ‘I’ll give you a hand.’

‘I meant to unload these yesterday,’ she said as he climbed out, ‘but I was so tired, I couldn’t be bothered. Who knew I’d find driving more tiring than ski patrol?’

She stepped in for a hug, and the tension melted away from Ryder as he embraced her. ‘Between the two of us we’ve covered some ground in the last few days,’ he said when they parted. ‘I gave Eva a call, but it went through to voicemail.’

‘Did you leave a message?’

‘No, we needed to get on the road.’ Ryder looked at the skis. ‘Which ones do you want me to carry?’

Vanessa pointed to two sets of skis propped against a wide cement column. ‘Those two?’

‘Sure.’

‘Be careful of the edges,’ she warned.

‘These are nice,’ he said, looking down at a black pair with a slight curve and a bright orange tail.

‘They’re racing skis. They don’t flex easily.’ She hoisted two pairs onto her shoulder with the practised ease of someone who’d spent years doing it. ‘They might throw you around a bit,’ she said with a grin.

‘I’d probably kill myself.’

They loaded the rest of the skis into the elevator and Vanessa pressed the button for their floor. ‘I don’t like leaving them in the car,’ she said. ‘Are you sure you don’t mind them being in the apartment?’

‘Provided you’re in the apartment, I don’t mind at all.’

‘Thank you.’

‘Want a beer?’ she asked when they were finally inside and the skis were stowed in the spare room.

‘I won’t say no,’ Ryder said, sliding open the balcony door. He stepped out into the city air, so much warmer than in Jindabyne. To his left, lights shone from an adjacent apartment building, illuminating the kids’ playground below. To his right, the Lane Cove River glimmered like a black ribbon in the darkness.

He turned as Vanessa stepped onto the balcony. ‘I’m sorry we missed each other,’ he said.

‘Me too. Never mind.’ She clinked her wine glass against his beer bottle and took a sip, her eyes shining at him over the rim. That was one of the things he loved about her, she never made anyone’s bad day worse.

They sat down in the big, circular cane chairs she’d bought the week after she’d moved in with him. I want to be able to sit outside, Pierce, she’d said. Before that, Ryder hadn’t bothered with outdoor furniture, but sharing a drink out here with Vanessa at the end of the day had become one of his favourite pastimes.

‘So, you think Gavin Hutton is back in the Snowy Mountains?’ she asked.

‘Honestly, I don’t know where he is.’ Ryder told her about the false sighting on the beach at Jervis Bay. ‘I still feel the most credible sightings of him were those along the Alpine Way this time last year.

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