Unknown by Unknown Read Free Book Online

her for who she was was Maude—but, then, Maude was biased when it came to her daughter.
    'Aren't you going to share?'
    'I was just looking at the trees...marvelling at how green they look here in the middle of the desert. Where does the water come from? I read that Coober Pedy gets hardly any rain.'
    'That's right.' Mitch shrugged and appeared uneasy.
    'You don't like trees?' Elizabeth asked, watching him closely, but when he turned to smile at her she realised she must have been mistaken.
    'I like the landscape out here. The average rainfall is about five millimetres per year. The locals water the trees using "grey" water—reusing every single drop they can. Still, some of the trees don't survive.'
    'You don't classify yourself a local?'
    He shrugged again, his previous humour returning. 'I've only been here just over a year. Maude, on the other hand, is definitely a local, even though she still has that posh accent you Brits sport. How long has she been here?'
    'Twenty-eight years. She came to Australia when I was one.'
    'She obviously didn't bring you with her.'
    'She managed to get me as far as Sydney before the authorities caught up with her. She apparently had to stay in Sydney while the custody battle with my father raged on. Eventually, he sent a nanny to collect me and I was flown back to London. Naturally, I don't remember any of this.'
    He pulled up outside Maude's house. 'So you grew up without your mother.'
    'Yes.' She looked down at her hands, wondering whether to say anything more or whether she'd already said too much.
    'I take it your father's a bit of a control freak?'
    'No,' she replied defensively, and looked up at him. Then sighed. 'Well...yes. I guess you could call him that. He's...' She shrugged. 'He's just the way he is. He likes to have everything neat and ordered and controlled.'
    'Maude's told me a bit about him. Not in great detail,' he added quickly. 'Just sometimes When things have come up in conversation.'
    'You've known her a while?'
    'Since I arrived. She was friendly.'
    'A lot of people weren't?'
    'Ah...it pays to be careful. I guess I liken Coober Pedy to the American Wild West. Out here sometimes people don't have much respect for the law and take matters into their own hands. It's not as bad now as it was in the opal mining heyday of the sixties but the stories are still told and although the tourists love them, it's also a sort of warning to any newcomers.'
    'Stories? You can't just leave me there, Mitch.'
    He smiled. 'I guess not. Why don't we go inside for a coldie and I'll tell you a beauty?'
    Elizabeth looked tentatively at her mother's front door but Mitch was already out of the car and headed in that direction. 'Besides,' she mumbled as she gathered her bag and climbed from the ute, 'Maude's home, so it's not as though you'd be alone with him.'
    Mitch knocked twice on the door and tried the handle. Maude wasn't home but he knew where the spare key was kept. Before Elizabeth had walked over, he'd opened the door, switched on the lights and kicked off his shoes before heading to the kitchen.
    'Want a coldie?' he called. 'Very refreshing after a hard day's slog with the patients.'
    'Yes, thank you.' She smiled at his words and he reappeared a moment later with two bottles of ginger beer in his hands.
    'Here you go.'
    She took the bottle. 'You certainly know how to make yourself at home.'
    'Maude knows I like the stuff and keeps a few bottles here for me. I think I might have converted her.'
    'Converted? From what?'
    'From real beer to ginger beer.'
    'You don't like real beer?'
    'I don't drink alcohol.'
    'There's a story there.'
    'There always is.' He shrugged and sat on the lounge without further explanation. 'Take a load off.'
    'Uh...' Elizabeth had also left her shoes by the front door and now felt strange, walking around in bare feet in front of him. 'I just want to see Maude first.'
    'She's not here.'
    'She's not?'
    'No.'
    'How do you know?'
    'Because the door was locked.' He