After the Smoke Clears by Kylie Kaden

Author:Kylie Kaden
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pantera Press
Published: 2023-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

LOTTI

‘Murder? Are you joking?’ I blurted to Becca as we perched on the ugly bedspread of my cheap pub room. I was still processing the story around Otto not being Augie’s real son, hadn’t even started on losing him at the drive-through – now this?

Becca wasn’t kidding. Her face wasn’t just sunken, her eyes not just mum-tired. She was scared. Scared for her brother, mostly, but also for August as it sounded as though they were both in as deep as each other.

I knew anyone was capable of killing, under the right (or wrong) conditions, but my mind reached back to quiet nights in the van with August, the compassion in his eyes when I’d share my schoolyard dramas, the way he listened to Otto’s needs – that man was incapable of killing. ‘That’s not possible,’ I said.

Small crow’s feet appeared as she squinted at me with a look that said I was as naïve as that comment sounded. ‘Ah, need I remind you, he did lie to you about other things hon, so, you know …’ Did she mean about being Otto’s dad, or something more?

It scared me when I realised I had no idea how well this woman knew him. Perhaps she was his ex-wife. He was the most closed-off person I’d ever met but maybe he was different with her. Maybe it was me he didn’t trust? And, in that case, what did she know that I didn’t?

August was a contradiction – he could fly off the handle, not hesitate to get physical with deadbeats at the pub that threatened those he cared for, but also the type of man who rescued a nest of abandoned baby birds found at the P&C working bee and fed them with an eyedrop just to show Otto that every life was precious. Even the ones no one seemed to care about.

‘How is he meant to have killed someone? You mean, like in a car crash, an accident?’ Something like that could happen to any of us.

Becca rubbed tired eyes. ‘I tried putting the heat back on my cousin to find out – I’ve got enough dirt on that family to put them away for a long time, but Troy wouldn’t say much. Uncle Graham – his dad – bought that land around the dam they’re developing, and I reckon he’s trying to keep it all under wraps, so it doesn’t slow them down if someone claims it’s an Aboriginal burial site. No one’s talking about it yet. But he said he wants to question me too, which makes this all about something from when we were kids, back when I … knew Gus. Troy wouldn’t let me speak to either of them so I’m trying to piece it together.’

‘Margo said something about a fire,’ I said.

Becca rolled her eyes, leaned on the door frame. ‘Which one?’

My brain spun. Otto was sound asleep beneath the fan. I wasn’t getting any rest tonight with all these questions in my mind demanding answers.

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