She pushed the kitchen door, but it didn’t budge.
Locked.
Frowning, she pulled her keys from her pocket. It was Stonefish’s fault they had to lock the house now. Bastards.
The anger helped to push away her remaining sorrow.
But a locked door meant no one was home.
She unlocked the door and breathed in the slightly dusty, old house scent. The kitchen was empty and the building was silent. Georgie rubbed her arms. Her mother always had music playing, usually some eighties mix.
She flicked on the stereo and smiled as sound filled the room.
Her brothers and Matt would still be working on the station, but Ed, Tess or Amy should be around somewhere.
She didn’t want to be alone. That’s why she’d come here. “Ed!”
The last thing she wanted to do was interrupt her brother and his new girlfriend when they thought they had the house to themselves. Though she hadn’t seen his hire car outside, so maybe they’d gone into town, or down to the gulf for a swim.
“Ed!”
She wandered down the photo lined corridor, checking the lounge room first and then the bedrooms. No one.
In the room with twin beds she’d normally shared with Ed, his backpack was on the floor and a few clothes Tess had bought since she’d fled the scene of a murder were folded neatly on the chest of drawers. Despite the horrific circumstances, the event had led Tess to Ed, and the two were very much in love.
The love bug had bitten all her brothers. Brandon had married Amy a week ago, and Darcy was engaged to Faith. Georgie had no one, not even her parents anymore.
Was she destined for heartache all of her life?
She couldn’t even be happy the man behind the issues plaguing the Ridge was now dead. He would have someone mourning for him, and others would take his place.
Georgie scowled and tried to shake off the mood.
She headed back to the kitchen and filled the kettle, flicking it on through habit more than any genuine desire for a cuppa. She reached into the cupboard for the jar of shortbread and stopped short. Empty.
No reason it should be there anymore. Her mother had died months ago.
She shook her head to shake away the pain. Focus on something else.
They still hadn’t figured out why Stonefish Enterprises wanted to buy the Ridge. The police had discovered evidence they were searching for something on Retribution Island which lay just off the shore of the gulf near Ridge land, and Darcy and Matt had explored the new tracks they’d discovered, but they led nowhere of note.
Still no concrete answers.
Georgie’s steps took her into the laundry, and she opened the recently uncovered hatch to the cellar. There had to be answers in there.
She moved down the stairs and breathed in the musty scent of the room, which had been hidden for decades. One wall of shelves had been dusted since Georgie had last been out, probably by Amy. The old glass jars of preserves still lined them as the family hadn’t decided what to do about it all. Why the cellar had been hidden was a mystery.
She ran a hand over the surface of the wooden desk. Everyone had looked for secret compartments, but they’d found nothing.
Lara had reminded Georgie so much of Charlie with her excitement and theories.
Georgie hugged herself and sank onto the bottom step, rocking back and forth as her despair overpowered her. Charlie would have loved this place.
The grief and guilt she’d forced away earlier swept in with a rush.
It wasn’t fair Charlie had died at only twelve.
She squeezed her eyes closed. “I’m sorry, Charlie. I didn’t mean it.”
