Author Spotlight: Kelly-Jo Sweeney

“…in Port Chalmers, near Dunedin.” The radio said. Helena stood still to listen after reaching over to turn up the volume, herheart rate increasing and her mouth going suddenly dry as the report continued.

“The body was uncovered in the recentbad weather. We understand that a slip had caused part of the skeleton to beexposed and it was spotted by a walker this morning. Local constable Sarah Hanover was first on the scene.”

Constable Hanover’s voice came over the radio, in what was obviously a pre-recorded statement.“At this stage, wecan’t say who this body might be, or how long they have been in the ground. We can say thisisn’t a recent burial though and we are followingseveral lines of enquiry currently.”Â

“We will be following this story and will let you know once we have more information on this discovery,” said the presenter,“and now on Checkpoint, we’ll be looking at some of the other areas of the country who have been suffering from the recent bad weather.”

Helena clicked off the radio and sat at the table. The story had finally made the news, but they seemed to know even less about things than she did. It was hard to know what to expect but hearing the report turned out to be a bit of ananti-climax. Any hopes that she might have learnt something more once the media gotinvolved, came to nothing, it must be too early for them to know anything much yet.A few minutes later, she still sat, staring off into space when David came through the door. In hismid-fifties, a little older than Helena, he was still a handsome man. They had been married fornearly thirty years, and it was always fun to tease him that he had aged like a fine old wine. Even so, she still found him just as attractive as ever. These days his hair had turned a steely grey colour, rather than the dark waves of his youth. But a smile still shone in his green eyes as he greeted her.He’d lived in New Zealand since his early twenties, just beforehe’d met Helena, but he stillretained his Northern English accent and straightforward approach to life.

“Hi, you look miles away,” he said with a grin, kissing her on the cheek. “Did you hear the local excitement? Someone found a body or something, in Port.”

He peeled off the light jacket he wore over the top of his cycling gear and dropped it onto the back of one of the dining chairs. He reached up to rumple his hair which had been squashed flat by his cycle helmet. Turning towards him, Helena managed little more than to look at him blankly.

“I did. I mean, it was me who found it.”

He turned to look at her, his eyebrows shooting into hishairline.