‘Yeah, I know,’ said Darren, throwing up his hands. He walked a few steps down the track before coming back. ‘I’m sorry. I just thought it was worth a try.’

He pulled his own raincoat out and handed it to Eliza to slip over her hiking jacket. She slid her pack off, her heart beating fast from the remembered terror. She turned her back and let him help her into the raincoat. She looked into the bush, the heavy raindrops setting the leaves dancing. ‘We’ll come back another time. I’ll try harder. I promise.’

‘That’s all we can ask,’ murmured Darren. Thunder crackled in the distance. He looked towards where it had boomed, raising his free hand to test the wind. ‘Alright, people, time to get off this mountain. And in the meantime, I’ll call Detective Badenhorst and let him know what you’ve remembered.’

CHAPTER 18

CON

Con and Gabriella sat in a café off the main street of Limestone Creek, next to a bay window. The sun was shining, the street outside was wet with rain and slushy snow, and people walked around in T-shirts. Con supposed these locals were used to the changing weather. Or perhaps the drama was exciting enough to get them out of their houses.

Con and Gabriella had been discussing the phone call from Constable Darren.

‘Someone else was up there. We knew that from the head wound. The question is, who?’ said Con.

‘Maybe we just need to wait until Eliza remembers more?’ said Gabriella.

‘I hate waiting,’ said Con. ‘And this diary is less than useless.’

Spread across the table, between their coffees and Gabriella’s second bowl of nachos, were the photocopied pages of Georgia Lenah’s diary.

‘Don’t be petty. What were we expecting? That she’d write out the name of her killer?’ Gabriella picked up another page.

‘It’s not even a diary,’ said Con. ‘It’s just a notebook of ideas for her bloody museum.’

‘The museum was her life,’ said Gabriella.

Con put aside another sheet, which showed plans for an art gallery for Tasmanian artists. ‘Was this really going to happen? Did they have funding?’

‘Not all of it, but it was under way. When I talked to the mayor, she said that Georgia had supporters all around Tasmania and even on the mainland.’

‘Well, that’s impressive I suppose,’ said Con.

‘The thing is, here in Limestone Creek . . . Well, it’s a bit of a sore spot, these mountains, right? Kooparoona Niara– Mountain of Spirits. This whole area was significant, but the local industries don’t want to remind people of that. Georgia had to deal with opposition from the timber industry and the mining industry – both have interests in this area, and both of them have very smart businesspeople who recognise that a museum about the area’s Aboriginal history could lead to bad news for them.’