The Dry

Falk goes to see Gretchen at the pub below the room he’s staying at. They greet each other, and he says she looks nice. As they talk, Falk tells Gretchen that he went back to his old house and found that it wasn’t what he expected. Gretchen mentions that everyone in town knows that Falk is going around with Sergeant Raco investigating the murders. She thinks Falk should be cautious, although she’d like to find out that Luke didn’t do it.

Falk thinks about being 16 and walking along a rocky outcropping with Ellie, Gretchen, and Luke. This was after the kiss, and Falk wanted to find alone time with Ellie, but Luke kept sticking around. Eventually, Luke left to group to go pee. While he was gone, the other three all of a sudden heard a crash. They ran over to see if Luke fell off the outcropping, about a hundred meters, and Gretchen started crying hysterically. Falk realized Gretchen was very drunk. Ellie, however, seemed sure that Luke was faking.

In the present, Gretchen muses to Falk that as much as she’d like to believe Luke’s innocent, she does believe he’s capable of it. She says Luke’s bravado used to annoy her sometimes when they were younger, but she figured he was probably a fundamentally good person. Falk says he always wondered if Gretchen and Luke would stay together, but Gretchen says that while they stayed together for a couple years after Falk left, they never really had an adult relationship.

Gretchen asks if Luke ever mentioned her on the rare occasions when he and Falk talked. Falk says he and Luke generally avoided the topic of Kiewarra altogether. Gretchen says she’s surprised Luke stayed in Kiewarra, since it seemed like he wanted to go to Melbourne to study engineering, but she supposes maybe things changed after he met Karen.

Thinking of the day on the rocky outcropping, Falk remembers searching for Luke for several minutes after hearing the noise. Eventually, Ellie called out to Luke, saying that they were going to get help, so it was his last chance to say something. But when they returned, they found Luke perfectly healthy, lying on a rock and smoking a cigarette. Falk got angry and lunged at Luke. Ellie was also upset. Luke said Ellie had become boring recently—ever since she’d stopped drinking, she couldn’t take a joke, and she was always working. When Ellie continued to be angry, Luke called her a “bitch.” But Luke did eventually apologize to Gretchen. All of this took place two weeks before Ellie’s death.

In the present, Falk considers telling Gretchen about how he and Luke were each other’s alibis during Ellie’s murder. But he reconsiders after Gretchen says that Luke stood by Falk for 20 years, and that without Luke’s influence, things in Kiewarra would be even worse for Falk. Gretchen takes Falk’s hands. Falk thinks about how difficult it must have been for Gretchen to stay behind. Just then, a person Falk recognizes steps into the pub.