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Hux looked relaxed about answering that one. ‘I don’t think that’s the way it works, Loretta. If I find anything, I’ll be the one sharing that information with the police. My interest in the investigation is focused on finding out who Dave is, so we can identify where he’s from and find out if he’s managed to return there. If he’s not watching the news or listening to local radio, he might not even know he’s being searched for.’

Someone else from the media called, ‘Gavin, is it true you and Charlie are in business together?’

‘Yes, it’s true. We started up Yindi Creek Chopper Charters when we’d earned enough money from mustering to buy our own helicopter and we’ve been in business ever since. I’m only involved part time now, because writing has pretty much taken over, as you can imagine, but I work the tourist season every year when we’re busy enough to have two choppers in use. We have a perfect safety record, and we’re proud to run one of the finest charter companies servicing Western Queensland. Charlie’s not just my business partner, of course. He’s one of my oldest mates. He’s also married to my sister.’

‘Was your father at the wedding? Because I heard he accused Charlie of holding up the investigation into your sister when she went missing.’

Jo was trapped behind Biographies & Memoir, but she snuck a look through a space in the shelves and saw that Hux’s look of writerly benevolence had disappeared.

‘Charlie was seventeen when Jessica went missing. About the same age as the kids in this front row who are writing an article for a student newspaper. You reckon a kid that age should shoulder the blame for anything?’

‘I’m asking if your father was at the wedding, and you’re not answering.’

Jo handed a sandwich to a woman wearing a pretty scarf around her head, then took a detour between the huge rack of books reserved for Bestselling Aussie Romance and the seated audience, holding out the platter of sandwiches and a little tower of serviettes for anyone who fancied one, so she was right in the thick of the group intake of breath by the audience when Hux answered, ‘And I’m saying you’re trying to stir up trouble for no reason other than getting a clickbait headline. How is that news?’

A plastic chair scraped against its neighbour as a man got to his feet. He wasn’t tall, but he had the look of a local about him. He also had skerricks of dark red-brown showing through his thinning grey hair.

‘That’d be me you’re talking about, missy,’ said the man. ‘Ron Huxtable. I’ve known Charlie Cocker since he was in a nappy and I can tell you he was a loyal friend to my Jess.’ The man turned to Charlie, who was looking as roo-in-headlights as everyone else in the room. ‘You’re a bloody good son-in-law, mate. Sal’s lucky to have you.’

The applause began as a scatter, then grew as Ron Huxtable stepped forwards to shake his son-in-law’s hand.

Hux was grinning and a hugely pregnant woman sitting in the front row with a kid beside her and a toddler on her knee was crying into a hanky that the woman next to her had given her. Huxtables, both of them, by the looks of all that dark red hair. As was the next woman along, who had twin girls sitting beside her looking totally uninterested in being there. The library seemed to be teeming with them.

Bernice, the librarian, materialised from somewhere behind the Cookbooks & Craft shelves and stood at the front of the room, calling for everyone’s attention.

‘Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes this evening’s library event. I’d like to thank everyone for attending, and I’d especially like to thank Charlie Cocker and Gavin Huxtable—excuse me, Gavin Gunn—for giving their time this evening. Gavin’s books are all out on loan at the moment but you’re welcome to get on the waitlist for them, and I believe we can expect to see hisClueless Jonesminiseries on the television next year. Can everyone join me in a last round of applause?’

Jo propped her now empty platter on a True Crime & Self Help shelf while she joined the clapping, then caught Luke’s eye and tilted her head at him.

He came over.

‘Want to help clean up?’ she said as the voices around them increased as people started milling around for a chat.

He gave her a totally fake face of regret and held up the little dog. ‘I’ve already got a job, Mum.’

She smiled. This was his night, after all. ‘All right. I’m going to be a few minutes tidying up the kitchen then we can go back and have some proper dinner at the hotel, okay?’

‘Cool.’

She was elbows deep in suds, listening to the sounds of the library grow from a roar to a hum as the crowd dispersed, when she felt a person move in beside her and pick up a tea towel.

Hux.

‘I’ve got this,’ she said.

‘Too bad. You don’t get to hog all the brownie points around here. Bernice will skin me alive if she doesn’t see me helping after the mess we’ve made of her library.’

She couldn’t stop a chuckle from emerging. ‘How did it go? I was out here most of the time, refilling the sandwich plates for the hungry hordes,’ she asked, handing him the platter she’d just washed.

‘Good. Mostly.’

She plunged her hands back into the hot water and tried to put together a sentence that didn’t sound like she was angling for some clickbait. ‘I’m sorry about your sister, Gavin. I never knew about that before. You know, when we were …’

‘Together?’

She looked at him then wished she hadn’t, because he was looking down at her. He had a spare tea towel over his shoulder and the hat was gone, so he was looking like her Gavin again.

Gavin Huxtable.