peephole had been installed.
‘How do the others feel about what happened?’ I asked.
Megan smiled. ‘I’m the heroine of the hour. They’re just glad the whole joint didn’t go up in flames.’
Margaret was businesslike with Hank, friendly with Megan. She used the phone to arrange a hire car and called for a taxi to take her to the depot. I’d given her a key to the house.
‘See you back there,’ she said, and was off.
‘Staying with you, is she?’ Megan asked.
‘For now. I don’t know what her plans are. She makes her own moves as you see. How’re you going with the quarries?’
‘Okay. I think I’ve got them all and I’m plotting them on a map. I’m most of the way to tracking down who actually owns them.’
‘And?’
‘Tell you when I finish.’
She was wearing a bandanna around her head. I pointed to it.
‘How’s the wound?’
‘Healing. My swim cap covers it and protects it neatly. Faint scar maybe. Doesn’t worry me. Could be sexy.’
‘Funny,’ I said, ‘I’ve never found that to be true.’
‘You’ve probably got too many.’
I went into Hank’s office and asked him what he was doing.
‘Cleaning up a few things and working on getting some inside dope on Tarelton.’
‘How?’
‘I’ve located the guy who installed their computer network.’
‘That’d be a shocking breach of confidentiality.’
‘Wouldn’t it? I like our client. She says she’ll back us all the way.’
I nodded. ‘Question is, how far will we get?’
‘Think positive. What’re you doing?’
‘Working on a hunch.’
‘Oh, yeah? Be secretive. Secretive is good.’
My notes had not looked wrong-headed in the morning. Rather the reverse. I phoned Josephine Dart.
‘Mr Hardy. I’ve seen the reports about Henry. Do you have any other news?’
‘I’m afraid not, but I’d like to see you. Today, if possible.’
She sighed. ‘I anticipated that. Yes, you can come here, now if you wish.’
I thought I might’ve been met with reluctance, but not so. She sounded almost relieved, and I had a feeling that perhaps I was making some progress as I drove to Dover Heights again. She met me at the door as before but her manner was very different. Defensive? Apprehensive?
The flat had the same appealing lived-in look with a touch of neglect at the edges. Josephine Dart was dressed as before, simply and elegantly, but with strain showing in her face. I wasn’t offered coffee. We stood in front of those
windows full of blue sky and grey-green sea.
‘You know, don’t you?’
‘I’m only guessing.’
‘I gave you something to guess with, didn’t I?’
‘Secrets are hard to keep and they don’t always do you any good. Just a few things you said had me wondering.’
‘It’s a relief, actually. So just a few words steered you in the right direction?’
‘Not really,’ I said. ‘When I sat down to think about it, Henry McKinley came across as just too good to be true.’
‘He was my lover.’
I nodded. ‘Did your husband know?’
She smiled. ‘Oh, so you’re only halfway there.’
She turned away from the window and walked across to a drinks tray I hadn’t seen on my last visit. She dropped ice cubes into two glasses and poured solid slugs of scotch. She held the drink out towards me in a hand that barely shook.
‘Have a drink,’ she said. ‘Yes, Henry was my lover and Terry knew because they were lovers, too. And there were others.’
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PART TWO
12
It all came out in a rush. The Darts and McKinley had been involved in a menage a trois with a difference, in that McKinley was the lover of both partners in the marriage. The arrangement had started almost ten years before, she said, and had continued happily right up until McKinley’s disappearance.
‘Are you shocked, Mr Hardy?’
‘Nothing shocks me except reality television and house prices.’ She smiled. ‘A man of the world.’ ‘You said there were others.’ ‘Yes, occasionally. Another man, or another woman.
I wasn’t going to have both hands tied behind
‘And no friction, ever?’
‘Scarcely ever, and then it was quickly overcome.’
‘I don’t mean between you three. I meant from the others.’
‘Only once. A few years back. A man Henry met somewhere. He joined us a few times but he became. . possessive.’
‘Of who?’
‘Of me. Terry and Henry persuaded him that his behaviour was unacceptable. I believe he protested but he didn’t persist.’
‘Do you know his name?’
‘Oh, no. No names. No real names.’
I looked around the flat. ‘Easy enough to find out who you were.’
‘You don’t imagine we had. . meetings here or at Henry’s place when there were others involved?’
‘Where then?’
‘Why?’
‘I need to know everything I can about Dr McKinley’s movements.’
‘Yes, I see. Well, at Myall on the lower north coast. A house there-leased in a false name. We were careful. What do you have in mind?’
‘I have to take a look at any place McKinley spent time at. He might have left things. .’
‘I suppose it’s possible. He went up there on his own from time to time. I’ll give you the address. You already have the key.’
I’d wondered about that extra key. ‘How long has the lease got to run?’
She shrugged. ‘About a year. We. . it was renewed recently. We never thought. .’
‘Are you planning to go there?’
She looked at me as if I’d uttered an obscenity. ‘No, never again!’
She gave me the address and saw me to the door.
‘So you’re going to keep working. Do you need money?’
I told her that Margaret McKinley was in Sydney and would finance the investigation. Her tiny hand flew to her
