This was how Kelly was able to predict where the people of Dunton would normally be and how they could be manipulated to suit his purposes. He was tracking everyone in town, maintaining notes on their lives.

Jake flipped to the entry on himself.

Hunter, Jake. Station. Affair with colleague? Alcoholic?

Jake had told Kelly his one true vice—climbing—in their first conversation. The sergeant hadn’t believed him.

Ahh … That’s why Murphy was constantly prying, trying to piece together the details of Jake’s personal life. He wanted to ingratiate himself with Kelly.

Jake continued to search the lists of names. Significantly, Mason Campbell and Liam O’Brien weren’t there. Whatever Kelly knew of their routine and vices he had committed to memory.

In packing the folders away he accidentally knocked the rainmaker off the table. Picking it up, he noticed the wax seal on one end had partially come away. On closer inspection it looked as though it had been removed and replaced repeatedly since manufacture. The edges of the wax were wrinkled and worn.

Jake pulled the seal out completely and upended the tube over an empty glass.

Like a patter of fine rain, a cloud of fingernails caked in streaks of dried blood and gore trickled into the cup.

Jake held his breath for several seconds.

Slowly, his mind formed a scenario that could explain everything.

It was horrific.

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

Dunton, Tasmania

Friday, 7.47 a.m.

First thing—find Kelly. He wasn’t on a call. Jake knew what had come through the station overnight and there was nothing to occupy the sergeant’s time. So where was he?

Glancing at the writing pad on the desk, Jake remem­bered that the old tricks were often the best. He picked up a pencil and began rubbing the side of the nib lightly across the page.

A suicide note. Signed, Evelyn.

Jake ran from the room.

‘Maria? Maria?’

Kelly’s wife emerged from the kitchen. ‘Would you like that coffee now?’

‘Where’s Evelyn?’

‘Excuse me?’

Maria was a stickler for pleasantries.

‘Where is she?’

‘Aiden said that Murphy girl had called in wanting to talk to her. Something about closure, or some such nonsense. Evelyn’s gone to meet her.’

‘Where?’

‘The old girls’ school.’ Maria shuddered.

‘What is it about that place that disturbs you?’

‘I don’t … It’s fine.’

‘Tell me!’

‘How dare you speak to me in that tone!? Please leave, now. I’ll be speaking to Aiden about your behaviour.’

Jake bared his teeth. ‘Tell me why you don’t like the girls’ home.’

She pushed her nose in the air. ‘I find it hard to believe Evelyn could go back there, that’s all.’

Maria Kelly had just confirmed one of the more tenuous links Jake had pieced together in the wicked knot of lies, deception and mistruths surrounding the girls’ home.