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CHAPTER SEVEN
DALE SAT MOTIONLESS in his seat. Completely paralyzed. The words were like rocks being thrown at his head, but he couldn’t move to dodge them. No. It couldn’t be true. This was some sick hoax. He wanted to stand up and shout, to refute the words; tell his mother to take them back. To make it not so.
Daisy turned toward him, her eyes huge, seeming to swallow her entire face.
“No,” he whispered. “That can’t be true.” Her hand landed on his arm, as if to steady him, and that’s when he noticed his own hands were shaking. Oh, Jesus. Poor Karri. She couldn’t be dead. Could she? He put his head in his hands, no longer able to look at Daisy. What did this mean for him? For the resort. For his mum and Steve?
People were firing questions at Daniella and Steve, talking over the top of each other.
“How?”
“When did this happen?”
“Are you sure she’s dead?”
“Who found her?”
They were all valid questions, and Dale raised his head slowly. The rest of the Stormcloud team seemed as shell-shocked as he was. Wazza hung his head, hiding his face behind his hat, both hands clenched into fists at his sides. Skylar and Bindi clung to each other, tears quickly replacing astonishment on their faces. Sally stood a little apart from the other two women, washing her hands together in agitation. He should go to his sister and comfort her. He caught her eye, and she shook her head in disbelief and then glanced over toward Daniella. He should also go to his mother, offer her his support. But his legs seemed to be made of lead. He couldn’t make them obey him.
While Dale struggled to stand, Steve seemed to regain some of the implacable stoicism he was famous for, and took two steps toward Daniella, slipping a hand around her waist, offering her his moral and physical comfort. Daisy’s hand landed on his arm, and he covered it with his own. The human connection was good, a beacon of light in a suddenly pitch-black room. It kept him grounded to this moment, otherwise he felt as if his brain might implode.
“We’ll try to answer all your questions,” Steve said, his voice echoing through the rafters. “This is a tremendous shock to us all. If you’ll all please sit down, we’ll tell you what we know so far.”
Most of the people who were standing sat down slowly, their faces white and pinched.
But IT Man and his wife remained on their feet. The man’s face was going an interesting shade of purple. “I don’t want to sit down. I want to go home. This is atrocious. I need to get my wife out of here. We are not staying one second longer.”
“You need to sit down, sir.” Steve let go of Daniella and strode toward the tables. “No one is going anywhere. At least, not for a while.”
The man looked like he was about to argue, pointing his finger at Steve’s chest.
Daniella spoke above the growing murmurs. “Senior Sergeant Robinson will be here soon, and he wants to talk to all of us. He’s flying in by helicopter, while his senior constable will be arriving soon afterwards by car. We need everyone to stay where you are until he gets here.”
“Why does the senior sergeant want to talk to us all?” Patricia asked from the rear of the room. “You’re making this sound as if we’re all suspects or something. I agree with Thomas, here.” She pointed toward IT Man. “I want to go home as soon as possible.”
“I’m really sorry, but you can’t leave yet.” Steve stood a little taller, projecting his voice to the back of the room, so there would be no confusion as to what he was saying. Dale was impressed at Steve’s steadfastness, because he knew he was too shocked to move, let alone try and calm their equally shocked guests. Steve probably had more time to process this news, he and Daniella had obviously known for a while. “The police have been very blunt about what they require from us. They have a protocol they need to follow. We have no choice in the matter.”
“Thomas, sit down.” IT Man’s wife tugged on his sleeve. “Like Steve said, they have little choice.” Thomas sat ungraciously, shaking his head and muttering loudly, something about what kind of shithole resort do they think they’re running here?
“Jesus Christ, listen to all these people. A woman is dead, and all they’re worried about is themselves. All they need to do is answer a few questions, then they can get back to their selfish, little insulated lives,” Dale whispered.
When Daisy didn’t answer, he glanced over at her, noting she hadn’t moved beside him since Daniella had declared the police were on their way. His hand still covered hers, the connection warm and real.
Daisy didn’t seem to hear him. Her eyes flickered around the room, as if looking for an escape. “No! I can’t,” she whispered back. She got to her feet and took a step toward the door. Everyone turned to look, and she seemed to realize people were staring at her. Dale grabbed her hand and tugged, gently coaxing her to return to her seat.
“Sorry, you can’t what?” he asked gently, keeping hold of her hand.
“I can’t talk to the police.” Her green eyes, which were large to begin with, seemed to take up her whole face. She chewed frantically at her bottom lip and he could see her jaw muscles working as she ground her teeth. What was wrong with her? Was she another one of these selfish people who cared more about their own lives than that of a dead girl?
“Why not?”
“Oh, God.” Her wandering gaze finally found his, and he saw naked fear swimming in their depths. What was going on? Was she afraid of the police? There was only one reason Dale could think of for someone to not want to talk to the cops. But Daisy wasn’t in trouble with the law. Was she? So what could her problem be? He was at a loss for how to help her.
Unless…
No, that was plain stupid. Daisy had nothing to do with Karri’s death. That was an absurd idea. As far as he knew, she’d never even met the dead woman. It was uncharitable of him to be thinking such things, just because she was an outsider. A newcomer to the area. It was mere coincidence Daisy had appeared on the scene the day Karri went missing. He pushed all those thoughts away.
“What do you mean? What’s wrong?”
