LITMIR.BIZ

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you from then,’ he told her as he shook his head, but Grace knew he was lying.

      She just didn’t know why. Did he think he was above her now that he was a surgeon or was it for a more personal reason? He’d been perfectly pleasant to Connie. Not warm exactly but he was her surgeon and he certainly hadn’t brushed her aside like he’d tried to do with her.

      His dark brown eyes challenged her to say something more and for a moment she was tempted to but something stopped her. She couldn’t have said what it was, and it was most unlike her to back down from an argument, but she had a sudden sense that she would regret the words that were itching to come out of her mouth so she bit down on her lip and kept quiet.

      And Marcus turned and walked away.

      Clearly the conversation was over and this time she didn’t follow him. For some reason he seemed to have an issue with her. She didn’t want it to be personal but, whatever it was, she wouldn’t let it lie. But it would wait for another day. She returned to her office and collected her bag before heading to Billi’s Bar.

      As usual the bar was crowded with hospital staff. It was just across the road from the hospital and the staff kept it well patronised. She waved to Gary, who was serving customers, but made her way through the crowd, searching for Lola. She hadn’t intended on calling into the bar tonight but she needed to vent her frustration. She wasn’t sure why she was frustrated and that only made matters worse. Why did she care that Marcus was lying to her? Why did she care that he said he didn’t remember her?

      She found Lola towards the back of the room. She smiled in greeting but was looking over Grace’s shoulder.

      ‘Who are you looking for?’ Grace asked.

      ‘I thought you might bring the hot doc with you.’

      Grace didn’t need to ask who Lola was referring to but it had taken less time than she’d expected for the conversation to turn to Marcus. Was he all people could talk about? First Connie and now Lola.

      ‘I’m the last person he would want to have a drink with.’

      ‘Why? You haven’t upset him already, have you?’

      Lola’s comment was not without merit. Grace knew she’d upset people before with her quick temper and tongue, but in Marcus’s case she couldn’t think of what she could have possibly done to make him behave so distantly towards her. She sighed and dumped her bag on the table then retrieved her phone. She needed to keep it handy as with so many surgeries scheduled for tomorrow she couldn’t afford to miss a call. ‘No,’ she replied, ‘but I don’t think he likes me.’

      Lola frowned. ‘How can he not like you? He doesn’t even know you.’

      ‘So he says.’

      ‘What does that mean?’

      She pulled out a stool and sat down. She needed to debrief. ‘He grew up in Toowoomba. He went to school with Lachlan and Hamish but he says he doesn’t remember me.’

      Lola laughed.

      ‘What’s so funny?’ Grace’s nerves were already frayed and having Lola laugh at her only irritated her more.

      ‘You’re upset because he doesn’t remember you.’

      ‘No, I’m upset because he’s lying to me. He lived just around the corner from us. I used to walk past his house every day.’

      ‘Was he there?’

      Grace actually had no idea. She remembered walking past his house because it had always spooked her. The memory from years ago was still vivid in her mind but Lola was right. She couldn’t actually remember if Marcus had been in there. She shrugged and admitted, ‘I don’t know.’

      ‘Was he friends with your brothers?’

      ‘Not really.’ From what she could remember, he hadn’t really been friends with anyone. She couldn’t remember seeing him with friends. She thought he had played rugby but she could be imagining that.

      ‘So maybe he really doesn’t remember you. When did you see him last?’

      ‘He left when I was about seven, so he would have been twelve. I haven’t seen him since.’

      ‘That’s years ago! You can’t blame him if he’s forgotten you.’

      But Grace didn’t think she was wrong. She was certain he remembered her. There was something she couldn’t put her finger on but she knew he wasn’t telling her the truth.

      ‘Where did he go when he left Toowoomba?’ Lola asked.

      ‘I have no idea. He just disappeared.’

      ‘The whole family?’

      Grace shook her head. ‘No, just him. His father was still there.’ Grace realised she hadn’t thought about Mr Washington for years and she couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen him either. Was he in a nursing home? Dead? She wouldn’t have been surprised. Marcus’s old house had been bulldozed after Grace had moved to Sydney and a new one was now in its place. With another family in it. But she had no idea what had happened to Marcus’s father.

      ‘So he left with his mother?’

      ‘No. I never knew his mother. She disappeared years before.’

      Lola leant forward, resting her elbows on the table. ‘So his mother left suddenly, and then him? That sounds intriguing.’

      ‘I really don’t know much about it.’

      There had been plenty of rumours about the family. Grace had grown up hearing them and then when Marcus had disappeared as well, the rumours had only intensified. The most popular theory amongst the kids at school had been that Marcus’s father was responsible for the disappearances. They’d said he’d killed his wife and then he’d killed Marcus. As a seven-year-old that had frightened Grace immensely, and because of those stories it was unlikely she’d ever forget about Marcus Washington. The story of his disappearance had become an urban myth. The kids had been fascinated by it and Grace’s imagination had led her to not only believe the stories but to embellish all sorts of gory details.

      Her parents had told her and her brothers that Marcus had gone to live with his aunt but at the age of seven she’d put that story in the same category as the one about the fate of their pet roosters. Her parents had told her that the roosters were sent away to live on a farm because they were happier there, but her brothers had gleefully informed her that they really ended up in someone’s pot with their heads chopped off. Grace feared Marcus had met the same fate and that her parents were lying to protect her because, surely, if he had gone to live with his aunt he would still come back to visit his father. And he never did. In Grace’s seven-year-old brain this meant the rumours must be true. Marcus was dead.

      It wasn’t hard for her to believe the rumours and to imagine that Mr Washington had somehow played a hand in the disappearance of his family. When they were never seen again that story made sense. And, in Grace’s young opinion, Marcus’s father was a strange man. Walking past Marcus’s house had always spooked her and after his disappearance things had only got worse. The house had been untidy and unloved. Paint had been peeling off the woodwork, the iron roof rusty and the front garden overgrown with weeds. If it hadn’t been for the fact that Mr Washington had often sat or slept on an old sofa on the front veranda you would have thought the house had been abandoned. He’d always looked dishevelled and, if she saw him on his feet, unsteady.

      She’d had to walk past the house on her way to and from school and after Marcus’s disappearance she had always crossed to the opposite side of the road just in case Mr Washington was out the front. Lachlan, who was then twelve, had told her not to be ridiculous. He’d insisted that if Marcus’s dad had killed him he’d be locked up, not wandering the streets, but Grace had remained wary for many years until she’d been old enough to understand Lachlan’s logic and recognise the rumours for what they were.

      Later she’d understood that

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