‘Why the fuck would you tell them?’ Marty loomed above me, his face ugly and red.

‘What does it matter?’

‘It makes us look like bad parents.’

The guilt twisted inside me.

‘We are.’

FOUR YEARS AGO

MARTINANDLEXIEROSS.COM

We HATE Martin and Lexie Ross

More evidence is needed. If you know anything, post below.

Ding Dong: They deserve to die!!!!!!!

Bobbie: You can’t call them human. Pure evil.

Mercy: They should fry, mothafuckas!!!! That’s what we do in Texas.

Butterfly: What a sad excuse for a mother.

Crimewatcher: Why aren’t they both in jail?!

12 TARA MURPHY

12

TARA MURPHY

AFTER THE DETECTIVES HAD LEFT, TARA HUGGED JOSH HARD. An unexpected twenty grand. His grandfather had sold off shares and wanted to give some of the profits to the family.

Twenty grand. She could pay off one of the credit cards and re-enrol Zoe in swimming lessons. At a different school. The other place had been rude when she’d asked about a payment plan. Did she need to set some cash aside for the ENT specialist or would that go through Medicare? A new work suit. And new shoes. Maybe a new handbag—she’d been eyeing off Lexie’s brown leather Coach. What would that cost? Four hundred? Tara wouldn’t buy the same one exactly; she’d seen it in a nude colour where the logo stood out more. And a night at the Hyatt before she started work. A deluxe room with a balcony. Dinner at one of those fancy restaurants in the city, a taxi there and back so they could both have champagne. Pam could cope with the kids for one night. Or could they push for two nights and have a weekend escape up to the Gold Coast? Stay at the Sheraton. A school friend had gone there for a dirty weekend away last month and it had looked divine.

Then her big birthday in July. Fuck, if she had to turn the ripe old age of thirty, she’d do it in style. And her friends would be expecting that from an events manager. She’d call on some of her contacts and see who could do the better deal—the swanky restaurant by the lake or the hip one in the cool New Acton precinct. Swanky or hip? Which one should she be feeling for thirty? Anyway, by then, she’d be earning again so they didn’t have to save for that.

Josh interrupted her vision of hotels and parties.

‘Have we paid the electricity bill for last month, or did I see another reminder?’

Shit, she’d meant to pay it but she’d been balancing out payments across the four credit cards and the electricity bill had dropped to the bottom priority.

‘I’ll pay it now.’

‘Are we using Visa or Mastercard at the moment?’

‘Visa,’ she answered quickly and took her wallet with her to the computer in their bedroom.