Nat did as she was told. She had no idea what she was waiting for, but her heart was pounding and a trickle of sweat ran down her back. Considering how cold it was that made no sense at all.
A small group of men approached the cafe as the doors opened and Jacob and Eliza stepped out. Coffee cups in hand, they were smiling and laughing together.
‘Dogs,’ Hannah hissed.
They stopped as the men approached them, their smiles fading quickly. Jacob glanced around, dropped his coffee and ran. He wasn’t fast enough. One of the men chased him and tackled him to the ground. Within seconds he had his hands cuffed behind him.
Eliza didn’t run. She retained her coffee in her hand and allowed one of the men to guide her by the elbow to the street, where two black four-wheel drive vehicles waited. Jacob was helped into the back of one and Eliza the other. The doors shut and the vehicles pulled out into the traffic.
‘Holy shit!’ Nat turned to her sister. ‘You knew that was going to happen, didn’t you?’
Hannah nodded. ‘The police came and spoke to me last night and talked me through what to expect. The text was from them, telling me to leave the cafe. They’ll be in touch with both of us later this morning to get statements. Now come on, let’s go back to the cafe and have a coffee, or something stronger if they’ll serve it this early.’
They walked in silence, and once inside Nat sank into a seat while Hannah ordered. She came back to the table with two shot glasses and passed one to Nat. ‘I don’t know about you, but my legs are shaking so hard right now. I’m probably going to need a few of these.’
Nat took the shot and threw it back, the whisky burning the back of her throat.
‘Coffee’s coming, but do you want another?’
Nat shook her head. ‘No, I want an explanation. What the hell has been going on, Hannah? Or should I say Suze?’
Hannah sighed. ‘I’m sorry, okay? I had no idea you were Lia to start with. We’d been chatting for quite a while before I realised. When I did, I thought how nice it was to be getting to know you again. I felt like we were becoming friends and I enjoyed it. Of course, I had no idea that Eliza was setting us up.’
‘So the information you shared with us, about your husband and marriage problems, that was all true?’
‘Everything I said in the chat room was true, other than my name and relationship to you.’
Nat reached across the table and laid her hand over Hannah’s. ‘Oh Han, I’m devastated for Damien. How’s he handling everything?’
Tears spilled down Hannah’s cheeks. She extracted her hand from Nat’s and wiped her eyes. ‘Sorry, the last few days have just been too much.’ Her phone rang as she pulled a tissue from her bag. ‘It’s Julian, my friend from the fraud company. I’d better take it.’
Nat waited, still trying to piece together precisely what had happened as Hannah took the phone call. She was mainly answering yes and no, so it was impossible to know what was going on. She hung up and looked at Nat.
‘They’ve been taken into custody, as we just saw, and their company and accounts have been frozen. Julian’s confident that Dad and Sue might see their money. The account hadn’t been emptied. It might be tied up for some time while they’re prosecuted, but there’s a strong chance it will be returned.’
A broad smile broke out on Nat’s face. ‘Thank God for that. Do you want to ring them now and tell them?’
Hannah smiled. ‘Kind of, but another part of me thinks we should make them sweat it out a bit longer. Can you believe they were willing to take that sort of risk?’
‘They’re more desperate for money than I realised.’
‘They need to sell the house. Real estate in East Malvern is worth a fortune.’
Nat nodded. ‘I’ll talk to Dad. See if he needs a hand getting a real estate company involved. You were right when you said there are other ways to feel close to Mum.’
The coffee arrived, and Nat wrapped her hands around the steaming mug, still feeling shaky from the excitement and shock of the morning.
‘Was Julian working with the police on this?’
Hannah nodded. ‘Sort of. Just from the information I passed him. He has a contact on the force who’s kept him in the loop. After he passed on my information, they contacted me, as I mentioned, and met with me last night. Until now the police haven’t been able to track Jacob or Eliza down. In the last two days they’ve had agents posing as investigators in the chat room. It appears we weren’t the only ones that Eliza was having private conversations with. The police weren’t able to engage her, even though one of their agents was talking to her and discussing investing. They asked to meet with her, and she declined.’
‘Really? So why did they organise the meet-up with you today? It makes no sense.’
‘No, it doesn’t. Although she had built a relationship with us, whereas her relationship with the undercover cop is very new. Both Jacob and Eliza were clever. They might have decided it was too risky at this late stage.’
‘I’m surprised they risked having lunch with me that day. What if they’d been caught on camera or something?’
‘Apparently they were. The restaurant had some CCTV footage, but as their images didn’t match up with any databases they couldn’t be identified. Jacob also paid the tab with cash, leaving no credit card trail. I guess they must have known they’d be hard to track down. We can ask the police more when we speak to them. Julian said to expect contact this morning.’
Nat shook her head. ‘One thing’s for sure, I’ll never be visiting another chat room. You can’t trust anyone. I trusted both you and Eliza and look at what I got. Eliza scamming my family out of money and you enjoying a phoney relationship with your sister and thinking it meant something.’
Hannah’s face crumbled. ‘Believe me, Nat, it meant something to me. Based on our conversations in the chat room I think we can be friends. I know I need to be less bossy and more interested in what you’re doing. I listened to everything you said, and I’m sorry for the way I’ve acted up until now. As stupid as it might sound, I think when Mum died, I lived in a permanent state of panic that something would happen to you or Phyllie or Dad.’ Hannah’s cheeks flamed red as she raised her eyes to meet Nat’s. ‘It’s no excuse, but me trying to control things was to prevent another tragedy. After the accident, and even now, I think of the worst-case scenario and do everything I can to try and prevent that from happening.’
More tears welled in Hannah’s eyes. ‘I’ll never forget that day, Nat. If I hadn’t insisted on that saddle, we might not have gone riding. The accident could have been avoided.’
Nat stared at her sister. ‘It wasn’t your fault.’
‘But Dad wanted to take Mum to the theatre and out for dinner. If only I’d gone along with that and not pushed her to go riding.’
Nat drew in a breath. Hannah actually believed it was her fault? That was ridiculous. She reached across and squeezed her hand. ‘You didn’t have to push Mum to go riding. It would have been exactly what she wanted to do that day. Dad might have suggested the theatre but Mum would have only gone along to please him. Remember she fell asleep through Cats and Phantom of the Opera, so it was hardly her thing. And, don’t forget, Mum rode without a helmet all the time. It could have happened on any of those days.’