"The way it is now" by Garry Disher

An audio book.

It's Jan 2000, Australia. Charlie is visiting his divorced parents (father a detective, mother a teacher). His mother's taken in a lodger, Lambert. He's been behaving badly. Charlie offers to evict him for her. A boy disappears, his clothes left on the beach. Then his mother disappears.

20 years later neither the boy's body or his mother's has been found. Liam, Charlie's brother, still suspects their father. Lambert has long disappeared, but retired mates of his dad are around - Volenti was almost a surrogate dad at times. His daughter Emma is staying with him. He's a detective, suspended from work for hitting his boss who seemed to be obstructing a rape case. Charlie's forced to go to therapy. He notices that the therapist uses similar techniques to those of detectives. A witness in the rape trial was put under pressure. Charlie helped her and slept with her. Someone tries to run the two of them over while they're on bikes. His father, nearly 70, is now with Faye. They're on a cruise and his father catches covid before it has a name. Is Faye a suspect?

With time free, Charlie investigates the old case, contacting friends of his mother, and Lambert. A skeleton is found. It's the boy's. Beneath it is the skeleton of Charlie's mother. Charlie goes to the boy's mother. Together they try to work out what happened. Maybe Charlie's mother interrupted a paedo and had to be eliminated?

Now there's a body, the police reopen the case, re-examone the evidence. His mother's car is found. Alibis are rechecked.

Charlie's ex-boss assaults him, then tries to attack his daughter, who's put under police protection.

When his dad returns, they organise a memorial service. His father's taken it for questioning, and has another heart attack. While he's in hospital, more loose ends emerge. Lambert, Volenti, his father and another cop, Saltash were a gang who'd organised robberies. His father had got in their way. At the end Saltash tries to kill the others in the mob.

I liked the writing and the asortment of possible motives. I'm surprised that a 20 year-old car might be useful. And wouldn't the father's remorse have provoked a deathbed confession? If Volenti could confess, surely the father could.