Read Starlight Peninsula for Free Online

stage.’
    She remembered arguing, ‘But they’re looking for clues. Why go searching up the mountain if it was an accident? Do you think someone hurt Arthur then ran up there?’
    ‘We don’t know.’
    The blonde woman detective and her partner drove Eloise away from Arthur’s flat and into Central Police Station. She was distracted by the woman detective’s odd-coloured eyes: one blue, one brown.
    ‘After he died everything was terrifying. I was afraid all the time. I went back to living in a flat my father owned. I got burgled. Or someone broke in, anyway. They didn’t take anything.’
    ‘That’s bad luck.’
    ‘It was bad luck. I knew that’s all it was, but it made me even more scared. I met Sean and he seemed so solid. That’s what attracted me, he was all wholesomeness and muscles and honesty, like a big strong bodyguard. Honesty, so I thought. I didn’t know at first that he was rich, that he had family money. That’s how we got the house so quickly. Which we now have to sell. We got married quite quickly. I blotted Arthur out. We were close, happy. And now my marriage, all that I built up between me and ruin — it’s gone.’
    ‘So you have to confront the past. It hasn’t gone away.’
    ‘It might kill me.’
    Nick topped up her glass. ‘It won’t kill you.’
    ‘You think?’
    ‘No, it’s good to look back. Helps sort out the present and future.Stop walking the earth and confront the situation. I’ll tell you something, when my ex and I broke up, I was depressed, couldn’t sleep. I was angry. She told me to see someone about it, and I ignored her. Maybe I shouldn’t have.’
    He splashed a large helping into his own glass, leaned back and put his shoes up on the glass coffee table. ‘You know, the dog that howls, the one you think is a wolf.’
    ‘Yes?’
    ‘See, it may just be a husky.’

FIVE
    Something had wormed its way into her chest and was pinning her down, making her writhe like a speared fish. It was early morning, and it was foggy. She was in her bedroom, the glass door to the upstairs deck was open, the white curtain not stirring. Silence, no wind. The dog park was shrouded in mist, the city buildings a grey blur on the horizon. It came back to her, how much she’d drunk, how much of herself she’d given away. To someone she didn’t know.
    Oh God, she’d made a fool of herself with the wine and the fright of the police raid next door, and then the brandy tipping her over the edge. The vile taste of it now rose in her throat and lit up her chest with a miserable sick heat. The memory swam up: walking back to her gate with Nick, raising her voice. ‘They asked you to look for the other half ofsomeone? The police wouldn’t invite search and rescue volunteers into a crime scene.’
    ‘They do, we’ve been trained. We follow their lead, don’t touch, just look. If we find something we call them over.’
    And her repeating, ‘It can’t be true.’
    Remember what Sean used to say, When you’re drunk, Eloise, you’re like a dog with a bone .
    Nick standing straight, looking down at her. ‘You calling me a liar?’
    ‘A crime scene. I don’t know …’
    Later she’d said, ‘Anyway, you think a husky. Not a wolf?’
    He said, ‘If you’re going for a walk tomorrow, why don’t we look for your wolf together?’
    Going for a walk. That so didn’t cover what she’d been doing. Had she said no to his offer to come along?
    One thing she was sure about: no more drinking. Not for at least two days.
    She walked out onto the deck and stared at the white world. There were banners of mist hanging around the trees and in the east the obscured sun was a silver disk, surrounded by a ring of light. It was going to be hot. Silence and stillness along the peninsula. The fog muffled sounds. Two shapes, a man and a dog, crossed the bridge to the park, disappearing into swirls of air. She watched the vapour rearrange itself behind them.
    It was impossible to see if the tide was