The running woman

by Carlon, Patricia

A woman is observed running from Larapinta Creek Bridge; then the body of a very unpleasant fourteen-year old girl is found, drowned. Did the girl fall into the water by accident? Or was she pushed? Attractive, blonde Gabriel Endicott is an apparently wealthy young widow, a newcomer to Australia's Larapinta district where everyone else seems to know the neighbors very well indeed. The next day she receives a newspaper clipping in the mail about the drowning. The clipping ends with the enigmatic statement that the police are anxious to interview a woman seen running from the bridge over the creek, "a young, fair-haired woman wearing a white dress.". Gabriel doesn't know who would have sent her this news. Or the subsequent envelopes containing information about the death of young Carol Zamia. But she was wearing a cream-colored suit and had walked near the bridge that night. Now the police, the town, everyone, seems to suspect her of complicity in the girl's death. Either she pushed Caro