It Takes a Town by Aoife Clifford

Author:Aoife Clifford [Aoife Clifford]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ultimo Press
Published: 2024-01-27T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 17

It took twelve minutes and thirty-five seconds to walk to Vanessa’s cottage. It was a bloody steep hill. She hadn’t seen a single pedestrian and only a handful of cars had gone past.

Puffing, she stared at the empty house and then turned to look at Lonnie Langridge’s gate. No one home. Every instinct told her that Barton knew more about Vanessa’s death than he was letting on. Sheridan too, for that matter. Here was the place where she might find answers.

Turning, she crossed the road to knock on the door of the house directly opposite Vanessa’s.

Janet Ross wasn’t home either.

It was like a ghost town.

Carole needed a moment to catch her breath, so she sat down on the stairs to work out her next move. It was a nice part of the world around here, lovely views of the mountains and deathly quiet neighbours. Pulling out her phone, Carole scrolled through to see if there were any rentals in the area. She was sick of staying in the motel.

There was a unit in the middle of town, a few blocks from where she was sitting. Perfect except for no backyard and ‘strictly no pets’. The next was a villa in a development on the outskirts that was so close to the neighbours you would be able to hear them sneeze.

But then she saw an old-style brick house, two bedrooms, back garden, that had potential. She saved it to do a drive-by after her shift today.

A photo came up in her memories. It was of a much younger Lexie, smiling so broadly that you could see the full set of wonky teeth and gums, a pre-braces picture. Next to her was an empty milkshake glass. It would have been caramel, no doubt – her favourite.

Lexie and Jaz would have got on like a house on fire. She remembered when her stepdaughter sent through a link about the two young climate activists who had thrown soup at Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans.

Carole had replied with the only pertinent question: What flavour?

Surely it had to be tomato. It would be disappointing if it was pea and ham or cream of mushroom.

Would you charge them?

It was a game Lexie liked to play, sending Carole ethical dilemmas.

The truth was she would charge them in a heartbeat because a society without laws and consequences scared her as much as climate change did. Let them have their day in court. It was what they wanted, after all: attention for their cause. They could make a rousing speech from the dock and hopefully the judge would have enough of a sense of humour about it to sentence them to community service in a soup kitchen. But that was too long to put in a text, so she had sent back a thumbs-up.

Lexie must have anticipated her response because she had a meme ready. Rise Up Before the Sea Does. Carole still found it funny.

Jasmine Langridge was someone who enjoyed the limelight. It didn’t make sense for a person like that to disappear willingly.

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