Garth looked out on the car park and recognised her the moment she stepped out of the SUV's passenger door.
She'd lost a lot of weight and was bordering on skinny. And her hair was different.
The short golden curls showed only the slightest wisps of grey.
The shy smile was still the same.
She was about 10 years older than Garth, if he remembered correctly.
He did a quick calculation. That made her now, what, in her late 30s early 40's?
She and the driver, a young woman with shoulder length straight black hair, were similarly dressed. Both had on bright summer frocks and flatties.
They moved past where he sat, with his coffee, out front of the sidewalk café, and swept into the Shopping Centre, sharing a joke and smiling.
What was she doing over this part of town? Maybe she'd left that old house and moved down here to the beach.
It must be 5 or even 6 years now.
Garth and his wife had rented rooms from her. She had a rambling old house in Paddington, on a steep hill; more like a cliff.
The wooden stairs climbed forever before you reached the front door. Garth remembered how he was going to wipe it off the list as too far up to carry even their meagre furniture.
But he and Louise were desperate for somewhere inexpensive to live, in those early days. And once Lou saw the cosy rooms, she was sold.
Veronica. That was her name. Yep. She had two kids, one a boy about 20 and a girl around 15 or 16. The boy had blond curly hair like his mother and the girl's was slightly darker like her father.
He and Lou were there for 6 months until he scored the Electronics job and could afford their own apartment.
They had left Paddington in less than happy circumstances when Veronica's husband wanted to keep the key money (probably already spent it and didn't have it to give back.) because he said Lou left the place dirty.
Anyone who knew Lou knew she prided herself in her cleanliness. So it was more than the just losing money, it was an affront to Louise and she wouldn't back down.
In the end, she got half their money back and an apology from the "old bastard" as she called him.
Garth let out a sigh and finished the Cappuccino. Lou had been gone four years now.
They'd built an IT business together which took him away from Louise for weeks on end, and at one stage, three long months.
The money started to pour in and they had more of the stuff than they knew what to do with. But Garth's extensive absences from their home caused Louise to feel very lonely. She met Henry who gave her the companionship sorely missing in her life. Henry worshiped the ground Lou walked on, and in the end, she and Garth sold the business for an obscene amount of money to a big corporation with their own web presence, divided up their new found wealth and went their separate ways.
Although it hurt bitterly at the time, Garth knew that Louise was much more happier and fulfilled with someone who was home more often and truly loves her.
She and Henry started their own Real Estate business. They worked together and were seldom out of each other's sight these days.
It affected him badly in the first few months after Lou had left, but Garth had come to realise that he was a loner. He loved the traveling; or even now, sitting quietly by himself enjoying his cappuccino and his short break between consulting assignments. And that was no life for a loving young wife left standing at the Terminal gate crying and waving good-bye more times than he cared to remember.
He stood up, put his chair back and headed inside the shopping centre.
He only had to buy a few things from the supermarket and take them back to the boarding house.
Because he was on his own and because he was never in town for long, the boarding house was perfect. The dear old lady who owned it had found it too much after forty years of hard work and was trying to sell it. Garth loved it so much, peacefully overlooking the golden beaches and the blue-green bay, he bought it and had it renovated. As part of the deal, the old lady retained the small section she had occupied, for forty years, free for the rest of her life. It was her home; Garth could relate to that.
Lately, though, she'd spent most of her time going on cruises and seeing the world that she'd only dreamed about for forty years. Garth could relate to that too.
Lou and Henry would love to get such a prime site and redevelop it but so far Garth had resisted. He'd love to get the place started again as a vibrant seaside holiday destination, but for that, he'd need to get someone who knew about running such a place. Someone he could trust. He knew nothing about running a boarding house. Nor did he have the time. It would be nice though, thought Garth to see the place come alive again.
He stopped by the Tandy window and looked at some of the electrical gadgetry. He was still a boy at heart, he knew. Anyway it was part of his job to keep up with the latest goodies, wasn't it? He reasoned.
His eye caught the flash of the golden hair in a nearby Jewellery shop. There they were again, sitting at a little felt covered table, checking out watches and rings.
They must have come up in the world. First, living over here wasn't cheap and those rings were worth a small fortune. Just look at the size.
While Veronica continued to admire the rings on the black felt display tray, the young lady stood up and asked the clerk something and he led her to another counter. She was smiling at him and bent over the counter pointing at another gold watch.
Garth thought her breasts were going to fall out of her low cut top as she leaned over the counter to look closely at the gold watch in the young man's hands.
Hang on; what was that? Garth couldn't believe what he was seeing. While the man was otherwise engaged with the pretty young lady up one end of the counter, Veronica slowly took some rings from her pocket and in swift and fluid movements, swapped them over for the first row of rings on the display tray, still in front of her; then she pocketed the new rings.
Garth's mouth fell open and he had to rerun it in his mind, it was so quick.
The young woman questioned the clerk a little longer, then walked back to Veronica. The two of them talked with the young clerk for a while as he locked the ring tray away. They shook his hand and left.
"Dammm," said Garth under his breath, as he watched the women move briskly out of the shopping centre.
He followed them at a distance.
Maybe they had outside help. Maybe he could identify them all and call the police. He wished he had his camera.
But instead they walked alone, firstly behind a few cars and then straight to their 4-wheel drive. Garth took note of the number plate.
When he came up beside the window, they were laughing and he heard the young one say as she started the motor... "This will pay for your holiday to Fiji Mum."
Garth opened the back door and jumped in. Both women swung round and stared back at him in shock. The young one recovered first; was about to say something, when Garth interrupted, "It's not the Police ...yet," he growled.
"But it soon will be. I have photos of you stealing that jewellery just now. "
The young one tried to tough it out. "We didn't take any jewellery. I don't know what you're talking about. Get out of my car or I'll get the police."
"Yeah, do that," said Garth.
Veronica was shaking and when she looked up, her eyes widened; "Garth? It's you?"
"Hello Veronica:"
"Is, is this a joke?" If it is, it's a poor one. You frightened me half to death."
"No joke Veronica, I saw you take the jewellery."
"Yeah, where's your camera?" said the younger woman.
"In my car under the seat; safe," Garth said to her, turning back to Veronica.
"The two of you will go to jail for 15 years for this."
Garth waited while that sank in. Suddenly, the young one was opening her mouth to say something again. Garth put on his deep voice ...
"Come on, get out of the car, lets go and give yourselves up."
