Wellington were too expensive but I found a cheapish Air New Zealand flight leaving at one o’clock the next day. It would have to do. I clicked on it and scrabbled in my bag for a credit card. What was Sunny’s rant about? Was there some deeper meaning to it? Was there something I was missing? I copied the credit card details into the box and clicked confirm, then I clicked through to obtain a boarding pass. So she was home Friday night by herself — big deal. Sure, I could see why she was pissed off about that, but I didn’t understand why she would bring it up in response to my question about her safety. What was that all about? Was I carrying any dangerous goods? Only my smart-arse mouth. I clicked no and waited while the website uploaded the information. Suddenly, a thought hit me. It was so clear I hoped one of those lightbulbs wasn’t beaming above my head. Neo’s attention was on his iPad. The door to the room Sunny had retreated into was shut. I flicked across to the main computer screen. It listed two hard drives and a backup. I clicked onto the main A: Drive. Folders scrolled onto the screen. This was obviously the company drive. I clicked on the Finder icon, narrowed the search parameter to folder name and typed in ‘travel’. Nothing. I stared at the blinking icon some more and then typed ‘flights’. I blinked as a folder labelled ‘Flights’ appeared. Too easy. Before I could question if what I was doing was ethical, let alone legal, I clicked it open and typed November 2012 into the search box. And there it was: a flight to Wellington on Friday 23 November 2012 for Justin Alexander Bachelor.
‘What the hell are you doing?’
‘Shit!’ I nearly jumped out of my skin. It was Anton, all two hundred-odd pounds of him. Instinctively, I flicked out of the A: Drive before he got too close to the desk.
‘Does Justin know you’re here?’
‘I left my jacket here the other day,’ I lied, indicating the one I was wearing. Neo stared at me, his jaw slack. His obvious fear of Anton helped improve my usually useless lying skills. ‘There was no one behind the desk so I was just calling myself a cab.’
Anton was still looking at me suspiciously as Sunny swung back into the foyer. She froze at the sight of him. I couldn’t tell if this was her usual response or if it was because his arrival was unexpected.
‘Thanks for the jacket, Sunny. I’m always leaving it.’
‘No problem,’ she said, circling around behind Anton. His body swivelled in my direction and his eyes never left my face as I made my way out from behind reception. Sunny held the entrance door open for me but avoided my eyes.
Once outside I thought over the significance of what I’d learned. As much as I loathed to have a conversation with Detective Inspector Aaron Fanshaw and loathed even more to tell him how I had unearthed the information, this was too important not to pass on. Justin had flown to Wellington on Friday night. This put him right in the middle of the frame as Karen’s killer.
Back at the townhouse, I left a long rambling message on Aaron Fanshaw’s voicemail. There was no sign of Ned; I could have done with company to take my mind off what I’d discovered. I opened the fridge. I closed the fridge. Anton would no doubt tell Justin I had been at the gym. I hoped it wouldn’t get Sunny into trouble. Neo’s fear and Sunny freezing in her tracks at the sight of Anton worried me. Failing to contain my nervous energy I put on my sweat pants and sneakers and headed out for a run.
Chapter 18
TUESDAY 27 NOVEMBER 2012
There is a perfect loop along Jervois Road, down the steps past the scout hall into Cox’s Bay, through the park and then up Richmond Road into Ponsonby Road and back along the home straight to Three Lamps. I reckoned I could run it in forty minutes. Not that, strictly speaking — or any other way of speaking, in fact — I could call what I do running. With my technique and fitness level it would better be described as an out of sync slow lurch. When I was a kid living in Herne Bay I dawdled this loop on my way home from school, greeting all the resident animals on