Page 55 of Nothing Without You

I’m just going to call in on my two-way. There’s no need to say where I am. I’ll just say I’ve picked you up. I’m sorry Evie, but you’ll have to come back to the station with me.’

‘She’s not going anywhere,’ Matilda interrupted him. ‘She’s safest here with me.’

‘I know that Mum, but they’ll just keep looking for her. The police will want to question her. She can say she wasn’t home, but instead she was staying out here with you. I guess you’re her alibi. We’ll say Evie got here at eight o’clock. Well before the explosion.’

‘Is the shop and the flat still there?’ Evie asked.

‘It burned down. All of it. I’m sorry Evie, but it’s all gone.’

‘And Bob?’

Baker’s big dark eyes looked into hers. ‘I’m sorry. He’s dead. They retrieved his body last night, but it was too late. They’ve already arrested two men. Someone down the street saw the car just before the fire. These fellas are known to us. We’ve been watching them for a while, and your Bob.’

Although last night Evie had a feeling that Bob was dead, to be told that he actually was, was another thing. ‘How?’

They found him in the bathroom. He must have been taking a shower.’

A cold feeling swept through her. Bob. Dead. The man who had wooed her with his hippie charm and music, then taken her away from her mother and her childhood. She put her hand on her face, remembering the sting from his slap. No tears came though, only a cold, numb feeling.

‘You’re lucky you ran when you did,’ Matilda said.

Baker shook his head. ‘I hate to think what they would have done if they’d seen you there. If we go with the story that you were here at Mum’s because you felt sick and couldn’t go to work, sooner or later, that’ll filter back. You can ask the police to ring the resort to verify you rang in sick. It’ll stop everyone looking for you, and the word will go back to the gang that you were out here. We need to stick to that story because, sad to say, I don’t trust some of the coppers down at the station. If you go in for questioning, I’ll make sure I’m there also. After that, we can work out where you’re going to go.’

Evie looked up at them both. ‘Where am I going to go?’

Baker placed his hand on her shoulder. ‘We’ll help you work that out. For now, we need to get you to answer some questions for our paperwork, and then we’ll decide how to get you away from here.’

The plan had gone just as Baker intended. By the time she’d had a shower and cleaned up, she looked like she had simply spent a relaxing night at her friend’s place.

‘Mum and Evie have been friends for a long while,’ Bob said to the constable, as they sat around a table at the police station. ‘When she rang in sick for work, she didn’t want to stay at the flat by herself, so she went to Mum’s.’

‘How did you get there?’ Constable Lyle asked.

Evie kept her voice level and emotionless. ‘I walked. I’ve always walked there. I often go to Matilda’s to get out of the house.’ She wanted to add that she wanted to get away from Bob. But she heeded Baker’s advice. In this small town it was hard to tell who was friends with who.

By the time she told her story, she was starting to convince herself about where she had been last night when the explosion and subsequent fire happened.

She had feigned shock and disbelief at Bob’s death, and the loss of everything she owned. The constable, who she often served in the shop, was genuinely sympathetic, and by the time she finished talking, she knew her story was sound. He leaned over and patted her hand. ‘I’m sorry for your loss, Evie. Of Bob, your house and the shop.’

‘I’ve got friends in Perth. I’ll make my way over there. They’ll look after me.

The questioning was lengthy, with numerous papers and documents to read and sign. Constable Lyle was kind and told her he was relieved she hadn’t been at the party or her house when everything went down. ‘This crime is a big one for this town. A double murder, and arson. We’re arresting quite a few more of the men this morning. We’ve brought in all those who were at the party. You’re very lucky you weren’t there.’

‘I never went to any of those parties. It wasn’t my scene.’

‘You’re also very lucky you didn’t have contact with Bob after he left the party. Otherwise, there’d be a whole lot more questions to ask.’ He shook her hand and turned to Baker. ‘I’ll be out to take a statement from your mum, today or tomorrow. At least we can wind this part of the enquiry up. There may be more interviews or questions in the future, but we’ll deal with that as they come up. As long as we have your contact phone number, or a new address if you move, everything’ll be okay.

Baker drove Evie past the burnt-out building. As she looked out of the open window at the charred and smouldering remains of what had once been her entire life, she felt like someone had been looking after her last night. If she had remained even one minute longer to grab more clothes, or gone back for a torch, her body would have been in there with Bob’s, amongst the ashes. She shuddered and wound her window up. ‘Thanks, Baker. I’ve seen enough.’

Neither talked as they drove along the narrow road that led back to Matilda’s. When they pulled up outside the house, Baker turned to her. ‘You did well at the police station. Real good. Mum’ll stick to the story. You can trust her.’

Evie laughed. ‘I trust both of you with my life. I just keep thinking about what would’ve happened if I hadn’t run when I did. I nearly went back to get a torch.’

Bob’s face softened. ‘You know, if circumstances were different, I’d ask you to stay. You know my feelings for you.’

‘You’re a good man, and I have feelings for you too, but my life’s a mess. I need to get away from here.’

‘I know. Have you got any idea where you can go?’

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