Morgan's Law (16 page)

A quick scan of the room revealed nothing else out of place, but the uneasy feeling that someone had been in her room lingered. If they hadn't stolen anything—and they had their pick of expensive things to swipe—then what had they been in here for? Of course, she could be jumping to conclusions—maybe someone had come in and cleaned her room. But her bed hadn't been made, so that didn't make sense.

Double-checking the French doors before she went to bed, Sarah slid the table in front of them for good measure and placed her mobile on the pillow beside her. Maybe it was nothing, but it didn't hurt to be cautious all the same. Tomorrow she'd mention it to Tash, if she still felt uneasy.

Fourteen

As Sarah lay in bed the next morning, staring up at the intricate trims around the ceiling, she had to concede that, in the light of day, barricading her room last night did seem a tad excessive. Maybe she'd just let all this sleuthing stuff go to her head and it had spooked her. Or maybe, more to the point, she'd been here too long and her mind was searching for some form of entertainment. It seemed a little silly now that she was able to rationalise it. What would she have said to Tash? She had a
feeling
someone had been in her room? There was nothing actually missing, but she
thought
the urn had been moved from one side of the table to the other? What was Tash going to do about it? Alert the police? Put a guard on her room through the day?

After breakfast, Tash came searching for her and held out a handful of flyers. ‘Can you distribute these around town today if you're out and about?'

Sarah took the flyers and glanced at the headline. ‘You're having a public forum about starting up a co-op?'

‘Yep. Last night really got me thinking. We need to do something, and there are a lot of people out there who feel the same. We can't ignore this any more.'

‘That's great. Of course I'll deliver these for you. I'll help any way I can.'

‘Thanks, Sare. Knew I could count on you. Gotta keep moving, I'll see you later on.'

It was great to see Tash with so much enthusiasm— she had a bounce in her step this morning and Sarah was glad she hadn't mentioned anything about the mysterious moving urn.

The town was abuzz—everyone seemed interested in what this meeting might achieve. Sarah found herself as caught up in the anticipation as everyone else. There was a definite feeling of expectation in the air.

She pushed open the door of the little emporium, where three women were standing around the front counter deep in conversation. The guilty way they stopped talking gave Sarah an uncomfortable sensation she'd been the main topic of discussion.

She approached the women and forced a carefree smile. ‘Good morning.'

The women returned her greeting and she decided to ignore the looks they shot one another. ‘Would you mind if I left a few of these flyers on the counter for customers to pick up?'

The woman behind the glass countertop reached over and accepted the handful of flyers, quickly scanning the announcement as her two friends craned their necks to see what it said.

‘What does Tash think she's going to do to save the town?' the woman asked.

‘I think she's hoping that a meeting might generate a few ideas.'

One of the women on the same side of the counter as Sarah gave a half-hearted grunt. ‘Fat lot of good that's gonna do. We may as well pack up and move out now.'

‘Move where? With what? Who you gonna sell your house to?' the third woman asked, her tone harsh.

Sarah tried to guess the third woman's age and realised she was probably not that much older than herself. She stared down at her six-hundred-dollar designer boots and was suddenly conscious of the fact that she was overdressed, even in her conservative jeans and loose cotton blouse. Faded tracksuit pants and old sneakers seemed to be the standard dress code and she tried not to feel uncomfortable as she recalled the women's raised eyebrows as she entered the store.

‘Maybe you should come along to the meeting and hear what Tash and the others have to say before you make any decisions,' Sarah suggested.

‘Oh? They're going to tell us there's a mine opening up and all our problems will be solved?' the younger woman asked dryly.

‘I really have no idea what they're planning.' Sarah refused to drop the woman's forthright stare. She hadn't asked to be involved with this, but she hadn't done anything to deserve this woman's hostility either.

Or had she? For a moment Sarah tried to put herself in the other woman's shoes. Were those dark circles under her eyes caused from lack of sleep and too much worry? Did she have a husband who worked long hours with little reward? Did she have children she ran after day-in and day-out? What would someone like Sarah know about her life? The only person she had to worry about was herself.

How different their two lives were. Sarah wondered how it would have been to have married young and had children to a man in a small rural town like Negallan. If Rose had not left town, Sarah could easily have been this woman before her.

‘All I know is that Tash is really determined to find some solutions and she needs all the input she can get.' She gave a slight nod of farewell and turned to leave. The three women had resumed their whispered conversation before the door had even closed behind her and Sarah had the feeling she'd just given them plenty of fuel to add to the fire.

The CWA building was packed. People stood in the aisles and overflowed out onto the steps.

Sarah found a seat next to Edith and felt a smug self-satisfaction at finally wearing down the woman's frosty exterior. It was impressive that Tash had managed to pull this meeting together so fast and get so many people to turn up.

Tash and three farmers sat on the small stage area and conducted the meeting. They spoke to small businesses, the school, farmers and townspeople alike. Everyone would be affected if something wasn't done to turn the town's economy around—and fast.

‘Did you know that if they lose just two more kids from the school, the education department will close it down?' one woman announced, her voice shaking. ‘Can you imagine the devastating effect that will have on families in the area? At the moment all our kids who want to do the last two years of high school have to go away to board in Yarraville—do we really want to start sending off our younger kids as well?'

‘We need to take action now,' agreed Tash, ‘before it's too late. I want to assemble a progress committee to look into creating a cooperative society for our town with the express goal of buying the old Negallan gin to begin producing cotton again.'

‘You have no idea how much work and money that's going to take,' a voice called from the rear of the hall and Sarah glanced over to see a familiar face.

‘Keith, you'll get your chance to talk in a minute,' one of the men on stage told him sternly.

‘You're making all these grand plans and getting people's hopes up for nothing,' shot back Keith, undeterred.

‘We're not doing anything of the sort, Keith,' Tash snapped. ‘All we're doing at this stage is organising a group to look into this to see if it's a worthwhile venture. We won't have a community here in a year if we don't.'

‘We've survived worse than this in the past.'

‘No one said you have to join, Keith,' said Tash. ‘This is simply a community meeting to discuss ideas. If you have a better suggestion, then by all means put it forward. Believe me, we're open to anything.'

This seemed to shut Keith up because there was no comeback, just a grumble of discontent from the back of the room where he sat with a few of his cronies.

There seemed to be a definite divide in the room. There were those who were eager to look into new ways of bringing money back into the town, and those who seemed resistant to any changes. However, there was a distinct undercurrent of desperation in the room. Most locals, it seemed, were ready to try anything if it meant a chance to save their town.

There were more general questions, most of which would have no firm answers until it was established whether forming the co-op would be a viable proposition, and so eventually the meeting was called to an end and another meeting to give a progress update organised for a week's time.

As people milled around and discussed the evening's events, Sarah quietly picked her way through the crowd and down the front steps to the footpath. She would wait for Tash out here—it was stuffy inside and she wasn't really a part of all this.

‘I heard this was your doing.'

Sarah turned to find Adam behind her. He spun his hat in his hands as he watched her. She knew it was pointless trying to control her reaction to him; her heart started to beat faster whenever he was near. ‘How come I always get the blame around here?'

‘You're a troublemaker,' he grinned.

‘And yet you continue to hang around?'

His grin slipped slightly and his gaze darkened. ‘I like trouble,' he told her and the low deep timbre of his voice sent a scatter of goosebumps along her arm.

‘Apparently. How is Kelly anyway?' The instant the words came out of her mouth she regretted them—why did she feel this constant need to rile the man? Seeing his face tighten, she quickly held up a hand. ‘Sorry. I take it back. That was uncalled for and none of my business.'

‘Damn it, Sarah, that's what I've been trying to tell you—there's nothing going on between Kelly and me. Apparently small-town life is too boring for her and she feels a need to stir things up when she's back.'

‘Like I said, it's nothing to do with me.'

‘I've known her since she was a kid.'

‘You don't have to explain anything, Adam.'

‘Yes, I do. She did a good job of making you think we were together and it's not true. It's the bloody principle of the matter, Sarah. I'm not the kind of bloke who'd lead a woman on while I was in a relationship with someone else.'

‘You two have
never
been in a relationship?'

This direct question seemed to take him back a little but he collected himself quickly. ‘Relationship would be too strong a word for it.' Letting out a long breath, he ran a hand through his hair. ‘Look, we had a thing . . . once. More like a one-night stand really—nothing came of it.'

Put like that, he did have the right to be a little annoyed. It was easy to believe Kelly was nothing more than a spoilt brat with time on her hands. ‘Okay, Adam, I believe you. I'm sorry I thought there was something between you.'

There was silence for a moment, then Sarah changed the subject. ‘So you've been busy?' she asked.

‘Yeah, we've got sales coming up, so lots to do. I've also been out patrolling our boundaries most nights.'

‘What for?'

‘It's just a precaution really. A few neighbours have had their properties broken into lately.'

‘That's terrible. Have you told the police?'

‘Yeah. Thing is, most farmers don't bother reporting the little stuff, so we've got no idea if it's a one-off or not. Not much they can do about it anyway, so we'll just have to wear the cost and forget about it for now.'

Sarah was annoyed on his behalf. The community was so close-knit that it didn't seem possible someone could be stealing from their friends or neighbours.

‘I didn't see you in there tonight. I thought maybe you hadn't turned up.'

‘You were looking for me then?' he asked with a raised eyebrow.

‘I was hoping Tash would get a decent turnout; she's been working really hard the last few days to pull this all together.' She decided to ignore his attempt to provoke her; after all, what was she going to say? Of course she'd been looking for him—she'd been a nervous wreck all evening at the thought of him showing up with Kelly. The fact that Kelly hadn't shown up either hadn't helped her overactive imagination any.

‘It's a great turnout,' he agreed. ‘They've got their committee nominated and the ball is well and truly rolling.'

‘I hope it all works out for everyone.'

‘Let's hope things stay optimistic. After this latest kick in the guts with the railway pulling out we could use some good news.'

Sarah let her gaze wander over the crowd beginning to filter out of the hall at last. She noticed a few smiles directed her way and hoped that this was a turning point in their attitude towards her.

‘Come for a drive with me?' Adam said unexpectedly.

‘Where to?'

‘There's something I want to show you.'

It was barely eight o'clock—what else was she going to do? Sit in her room and twiddle her thumbs?

Fifteen

They headed across the street, now lit up with car headlights. There were more people and traffic than she'd seen in the entire time she'd been here—probably more traffic than the town had seen in at least a few decades.