Reader’s Note
A funeral in a drought town.
by@commuterfictionWritten 2 May 2026Read 29 April 2026
Aaron Falk drives up from Melbourne for the funeral of Luke Hadler, who he grew up with. Luke, his wife Karen and their son Billy are dead at the farm. The baby daughter is alive in the house. The district has had almost no rain for two years.
Falk works for the federal police in the finance section. Luke's father sends him a note before the funeral and then asks him to stay a few days and look at the farm accounts.
Twenty years earlier a girl named Ellie Deacon was found in the river. Falk and Luke told the police they had been together that afternoon. People in the town remember this. Falk's car is damaged in a car park and a note is left under the wiper.
He works with Greg Raco, the local sergeant, who does not think the deaths happened the way they appear to have happened. They go through the Hadler bank records, the school where Karen worked, and a rabbit-shooting spot by the river.
Both cases are settled by the end, and they are separate. Falk drives back to Melbourne.
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