He was exhausted. She could see it in his face-and she was none too perky herself. She’d worked very, very hard today.
‘It’s time we went to bed,’ she said, attempting briskness. ‘I’m sorry about the life-story bit.’
‘I asked.’
‘Yeah, people do,’ she told him. ‘And I’m usually not stupid enough to answer.’
‘I don’t think you’re stupid.’
There was a moment’s silence. A loaded silence. She stared down at her hand that had so recently lain in his. She missed the contact. The warmth. The strength.
She had to be sensible. She needed to be sensible.
‘You’ll go out again in the morning?’
‘I have more work to do.’
‘Us, too. We thought we’d attack the bedrooms in the morning.’
‘There’s no need.’
‘Call it payment for board and lodging. There’s only one more day before the train comes through and Karli and I are having fun.’
‘Fun?’
‘Yeah, it is.’ She smiled, moving on. ‘We’re enjoying ourselves. And…it’s time out before we face what we have to face.’
‘You know you’ll have paparazzi all over you the minute you get on that train.’
She stilled. ‘Pardon?’
‘They know you’re here.’
‘The press knows I’m here?’
‘I was talking to the Territory police today and there’s huge press interest. You could sell your story-’
He got no further. She was standing, her face blazing anger. ‘You told them. You radioed them and told them I was here. So I’ll have every newspaper reporter and every cameraman known to man in Karli’s face the minute I get on board that train. You toe-rag. You low-life, belly-crawling worm. You lying, cheating, dirt-bag.’
‘Hey, steady on,’ he said mildly, but she was in full swing.
‘How much did they pay you? How much have you embellished the story? And are you going to head out to your radio right now and add in what I’ve just told you for good measure? I thought I could trust you, Riley Jackson. I’m stupid, stupid, stupid. Of all the two-timing, low-down, bottom-feeding-’
‘You don’t feel you might just be being a teensy bit over-dramatic?’
She paused for breath. The man was looking amused. Amused!
‘Dramatic?’ She grabbed the first thing to hand-the remains of one sad chocolate cake-and threw it straight at him. It hit him fair in the chest. It rolled to the floor.
It bounced.
His lips quirked.
‘If you laugh I’m going to have to kill you,’ she said carefully and his lips quirked again.
‘Death by chocolate cake. I can see that.’
‘It’s nothing to laugh about.’
‘No, but it’s nothing to yell about either.’ He rose and retrieved the cake. ‘We ate some of this,’ he said, examining it doubtfully from all angles. ‘It looks like it’s turning to concrete. What do you reckon it’ll do to our insides?’
‘It’s a fine chocolate cake,’ she snapped, and the quirk of his lips turned into full-scale laughter.
‘Dehydrated eggs, no butter and flour milled last century…’ He lifted it up to the light and examined it some more before dropping it into the waste bucket-where it definitely bounced again. ‘It’s a fine chocolate cake,’ he agreed, still grinning. ‘Or a fine small nuclear missile, ready charged.’
She swallowed. ‘Do you mind? And stop changing the subject. I was in-’
‘Yeah. You were in the middle of calling me a low-life, belly-crawling maw-worm or some such.’ His tone was suddenly admiring. ‘You’ve been practising your insults. They’re very good.’
‘Luckily,’ she said scathingly, ‘I’ve had heaps of people to practise on.’
‘I guess you have,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘Nicole, Charles, Brian. The kid who sold your story to the papers. Others maybe. Jenna, I’m not like that.’
‘You told-’
‘I didn’t tell,’ he said, and the restraint in his voice was suddenly obvious. It was as if he were trying to placate a child. ‘You know the lady who was reading Karli a story when Brian came into the carriage to tell you that Nicole was dead?’
It was so unexpected a statement that it caught her flat-footed. She stared. ‘What’s that got to do with it?’
‘Will you listen?’ he said patiently. ‘It seems the lady wasn’t just any little old lady. Enid’s a chief magistrate of the West Australian court, retired. She’s one very astute woman and she wanted to know what happened to you.’
‘But-’
‘So Enid made enquiries,’ Riley said patiently. ‘As the train continued and she didn’t see you again she got more and more worried. By the time the train reached Kalgoorlie she’d instigated a search. When you weren’t on the train she forced the rail authorities to contact the police. Brian had to face a very uncomfortable interview, and then the police started searching the track. They contacted a couple of the people who collected goods from the train when it stopped here. One of the locals remembered I was staying here. He radioed me and I let the police know your whereabouts. After Enid’s fuss, if I hadn’t confirmed you were here you’d have had search parties out looking for you, planes doing overhead searches-the works.’
It stopped her in full flight. It shocked her to silence. She stood and stared.
‘So…we wouldn’t have died at the siding.’
‘You’d have had a bad twenty-four hours, but Enid would have got you help.’
‘I… I don’t know what to say.’
He grinned again. ‘Try an insult. I really like your insults.’
‘Shut up,’ she told him and his grin broadened.
‘You can do better than that.’
She glared and he grinned some more.
‘Hey, you accused me of telling the press. I’ve explained it wasn’t me. It’s me who’s supposed to be glaring.’
So why was she glaring? It was because he was smiling, she thought. It was because…she had no defences. She just had to look at this man and things inside her crumpled that had no business crumpling. She made a desperate attempt to haul herself together.
‘I’m sorry,’ she managed.
‘Think nothing of it,’ he said, his tone almost avuncular. ‘I enjoyed it. No one’s ever called me a low-life, belly- crawling worm before.’
‘I can’t think why not,’ she said, and he grinned again.
‘Ouch.’
His tiredness had receded, she thought suddenly. The fatigue that seemed almost part of the man had faded a little. She’d made him laugh.
She liked it that she’d made him laugh.
Oh, for heaven’s sake, this was dangerous territory and she had no business treading there. She needed to move on.
She needed to concentrate on Karli.
‘So… So you’ve told everyone that I’m here?’ she managed and his smile faded.
‘No. I told the Territory police. But the officer I talked to said there was huge press interest. They searched the train at Kalgoorlie, which created interest. Other passengers saw what happened and they’ve figured out who you are. The police sergeant said the press won’t be told exactly where you are, but everyone knows you got off the train somewhere along here. So if I was a reporter, I’d be waiting for you to get back on the train again.’
She stared up at him, immeasurably distressed, but there was no reassurance in his face. Riley was telling the
