Promise by Sarah Armstrong Read Free Book Online Page B

who can help you. Places you could go.’
    Gabby smiled but her voice was flinty. ‘Everything is fine. Maybe it’s
you
who needs help.’
    Anna felt her face flush. She turned and dropped the banana peel into the compost bin on the bench.
    Charlie tapped Anna’s hip. ‘Can I come over and play now?’ Anna could barely hear her. ‘Bring my castle?’ Her smile was stretched a little too wide.
    ‘Lay off it, Charlie,’ said her mother in a bored voice. ‘She’s got better things to do than play with you.’
    Anna crouched, trying to ignore Gabby. ‘I have to go to work now, unfortunately.’
    The girl gripped the last of the banana in her hand, and whispered, ‘Please.’
    Anna swallowed. ‘Maybe one day. If it’s okay with Mummy.’ Anna glanced up at Gabby.
    Gabby brushed crumbs from the front of Charlie’s tutu.
    ‘We’ll see. Let’s go, Chuckie.’ She gripped Charlie’s shoulder and steered her across the room and out the front door without looking back at Anna.
    •
    Her dad’s voice down the phone was matter of fact.
    ‘You did right. Just call FACS any time you’re concerned . . . I bet she’s known to them.’ He had the steady air of someone who’d dealt with this kind of thing before. ‘Just tell them what you saw. No interpretation.’
    ‘Alright. Thanks, Dad.’
    ‘Don’t be nervous about calling them. They deal with this stuff all the time.’
    Was her reticence that plain? ‘No, no. I’ll call if something happens.’
    ‘Good on you, love.’
    ‘I thought maybe I’d come out to see you one weekend soon.’
    ‘I’d love that, but not this weekend because it’s Bill’s seventieth birthday party.’ His voice lifted. ‘Unless you want to come?’
    ‘Oh, that sounds like fun, but I’d rather have you to myself.’
    Bill Malcolm had worked with her dad at Orange police station, and when her dad retired, they set up the self-storage business together.
    ‘How’s Red?’
    ‘Oh, well . . .’ He coughed. ‘Trevor thinks he might have a tumour. He’s going to operate . . .’ His voice trailed off.
    ‘Oh, I’m sorry.’ Anna had given the kelpie to her dad ten years ago. ‘When’s the operation?’
    ‘In a couple of days.’
    ‘I’ll try and come out the weekend after this one.’
    ‘That would be great, love.’

Chapter Six
    T he bus lumbered up Bondi Road and Anna turned back for a last glimpse of the dark ocean, and the creamy, nearly full moon. She was a bit drunk and a bit weepy. One of the few memories she had of her mother was holding her mum’s hand and stepping into the ocean at Bondi one summer. Anna had no sense that anyone else had been there, although the beach must have been full of people. The waves had sucked and pulled at Anna’s legs, and she still remembered how completely safe she felt with her mother’s hand around hers.
    The bus passed a row of apartment blocks where most of the windows facing the road were lit up. Anna used to look at windows like these and feel a nostalgic pang for the cosy homes she imagined inside. Homes where mothers made dinner and tucked children into bed. Now, she looked at drawn curtains and wondered what they hid.
    It was only ten days since she’d stood in her dark kitchen watching Harlan and his mate unload the removal van, and only three nights since Dave called the police. Harlan hadn’t been around, or at least not visible, but she’d heard Charlie crying at night, that thin babyish cry that went on and on, with no indication that Gabby got up to comfort her. That woman was laying waste to something so precious: the love between a mother and daughter. Anna and her mother had no choice, it was taken from them.
    The bus pulled over and picked up a couple of teenage girls who sat in front of Anna in a cloud of vanilla perfume. Anna had met her boss, Monica, for dinner at Bondi, and over the main course, Mon recounted a long, funny story about losing her suitcase in Turkey. Then Anna had brought up Charlie. She