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‘Hey, Geoff, thought I saw you arrive. What’s news?’ One look at Noah’s face and he knew something was up.
‘Hey, Noah, all good, mate. You doing this reno?’
‘Yeah, big job, I’m stoked.’ For once, she was pleased with him being a man of few words.
‘I’m following up a lead about a discovery, no word on what but that’s what I’m here to find out.’
‘A discovery, huh? Gosh, word gets around. But, Ava, where do we start? The sheds behind me’ — he gestured to the building— ‘were empty, but there was an old fire engine that I’ll restore. It’s in pretty good nick. Some of the furniture left behind in the house is antique, silky oak and Tasmanian oak timbers, fully restored that’ll come up a treat.’
Ava laughed. It was more of a nervous titter, but oh, Noah was a genius! For a moment, she couldn’t contribute as she gathered her thoughts.
‘Noah!’ She slapped her thigh in an exaggerated fashion. ‘He isn’t interested in the furniture! It’s the French coins, postcards and old newspapers that we found in the kitchen and under the floorboards that has rumour circulating. And I’m sure Geoff wants to hear about my preliminary investigations into the returned soldier who used to reside here.’
That piqued Geoff’s interest. Noah gave her a thumbs up and slunk away, his job done.
‘Oh, look, okay, I wasn’t going to say anything yet, but I guess I can give you a quick look. For the moment, these items are in safe keeping and I have plans for them. You can’t print this because I haven’t discussed it with Harriet yet, but I’m thinking of revitalising the history centre and trying to locate as much memorabilia as possible. The history is here in Bellethorpe; I’ve found it, there must be more. For such a little place, there is a lot of history and we need to showcase it. I hope to write a dossier on each returned soldier that settled in Bellethorpe. That’s a big task because as I understand there’s so little known about them. I’m starting with my fellow, of course.’
Geoff wrote hurriedly in his little spiral bound notebook. Did journalists still use those? And his notes were copious despite her saying it was not for publication. She didn’t really care about that, if The Times and the rest of Bellethorpe was off her tail about the real finds out here; she was happy.
And none of what she said was a lie. Before she’d found the turtle, researching the history of the town and its returned solider scheme, along with improving the history centre, had been an idea. Make the centre a destination, a place on the map. But now she was distracted and hadn’t pursued the idea any further.
But in the circumstances, she was decidedly happy with herself for this diversion. Well, she’d have to thank Noah later. He’d saved the day. Geoff’s attention was completely focused now on the coins and postcards she’d laid out before him. She wasn’t letting him touch the papers, but he got the idea. He snapped photographs with an old Canon camera that he’d likely had for decades.
The low hum of a vehicle engine echoed on the breeze up the hill towards them. Ava stood in front of Geoff blocking his view. ‘Geoff, ah,’ then she frantically piled up the coins and put them away, wrapped up the cards. ‘That’s all I’ve got time for now. If you have any questions, give me a ring.’ She pushed him in the back, through the long narrow corridor of the house and out the front door. His long fringe fell into his eyes and he clutched his camera and notebook to his chest.
‘Oh, okay, thank you. I’ll be in touch.’
‘Bye now!’ She sung out in a too cheery sing-song voice and stood waving until he was halfway down the long drive. Safely far enough away.
Matthew and James were up for smoko and were boiling the kettle. ‘Did you tell someone about the fossil?’ Now she replicated her hands-on-hip stance matched with her mother voice for when Ish had done something wrong: firm and fierce.
‘What? No. We haven’t seen or spoken to anyone! We agreed!’ Both appeared quite affronted.
‘Not a soul?’
‘No one.’ She believed them. Argh! It had to be Noah. Storming from the deck Ava strode the few paces to the sheds. Inside remained dark despite the windows being open and cleaned and the roller doors propped up. She squinted, her eyes adjusting slowly.
‘Noah, did you tell someone about the fossils?’
He was banging around and didn’t hear her.
‘Who did you tell?’
His eyes narrowed and then they opened wide. ‘Oh, shit. I’m so sorry. I told Alex because he needed to know with doing the bathrooms and stuff, he’d be running the team out here and had to know about the additional people on the property and what they were doing. Hang on.’
He whipped out his mobile phone and spoke to Alex. Her heart was lodging further into her chest with each word.
‘Sorry, Ava. I guess I didn’t make it clear that it wasn’t public knowledge. He told his girlfriend, but then she mentioned it to someone in the coffee queue and then the grapevine that is Bellethorpe no doubt took over.’
Bugger. Bugger. Bugger.
‘But this grapevine, it doesn’t know the detail, right? You didn’t tell Alex it was a rare and extinct turtle fossil that is a major archaeological find?’
‘No, I didn’t give him any detail. Simply said that you’d found something old and you had a couple of fellas in to help you sort it. And to be honest, he didn’t care for much more information. It’s not going to be most people’s cup of tea.’
Her smile was rueful. ‘Okay, so you can go back to him, and tell him that it’s coins and cards and French stuff from the war just like I’ve told Geoff. That’s what we’ll run with. I’m guessing that you can also, say, go to the pub tonight and reveal this too, and that’ll get the word around town pretty quick. So, it’s not a disaster. Even though I did tell you not to mention it!’
She turned and stormed back to the house.
