Page 51 of On the Edge

There was a cheer from a group of boys, hooting and clapping as Ryan Warner sculled a beer.Maddie watched him, her eyes glassy in the firelight.Was she about to cry, Nel wondered?But then her face hardened into something else.

‘Hey, guys!’Maddie yelled, defiant.

Ryan and his mates swung around.When Maddie saw that she had their attention, she pulled Harriet towards her and kissed her deeply on the mouth.More hooting and clapping.Nel felt jealousy ripple up again.

Ryan stood among his cheering mates, glaring, stoney-faced, then threw his empty beer bottle into the fire and walked into the darkness.

When Maddie pulled away, she looked in the direction Ryan had gone, her mouth turned up ever so slightly into a smile.Harriet’s eyes were still on Maddie.

*

The memory lingered as Nel watched Harriet, who was using a remote control to change the channel on the TV above the bar.A woman with long hair said something as she passed her.Harriet laughed.Was that her wife?

‘So what’s going on?’Jimmy asked.

‘What?’

‘You said you wanted to tell me something?’

‘Oh!Yes.’Nel refocused her attention on Jimmy.She reached into her bag for her phone.‘Poppy’s been receiving anonymous emails.’

‘Saying what?’

She showed him the first screenshot.‘This was the first one, last Tuesday.’

He read the single line of text and shrugged.‘Teenagers send each other all sorts of shit like this.’

‘Swipe to see the next one.’

He did so.‘Yeah, probably just a stupid kid.’

‘I thought so too, but then she got another one.’Nel reached across and swiped to reveal the most recent email.He read it, frowning, then slowly raised his eyes to meet hers.

She glanced around the bar and lowered her voice.‘I think it’s Ryan.’

He listened with raised eyebrows as she told him about Ryan’s surprise visit to the clinic.

‘I checked his record,’ he said.‘He has an assault conviction.’

‘He does?Was Sophie the victim?’

Jimmy shook his head.‘He was charged after a fight right here in this fine establishment five years ago.I asked one of the guys up at Mount Clare what he knew about it.Story is, Ryan thought the other bloke was coming on to Sophie so he beat the crap out of him.He was the father of one of their kids’ schoolfriends.

Nel’s chest tightened.Another red flag.‘Did he get jail time?’

Jimmy scoffed.‘He got off on a good behaviour bond due to strong character references.’

She looked back at the screenshots on her phone.‘Is it possible to trace this sort of thing?’

He tilted his head to one side.‘Yes and no.Gmail doesn’t include the sender’s IP address.’She had no idea what he was talking about.Her face must have conveyed this, because he explained.‘That means the best we can do is trace the server the email was sent from, rather than the specific computer.Gmail’s different from other web-based email in that regard.Even if we got a court order to force Google and the sender’s internet provider to give us any additional user information they have, it’s not likely to help us much.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because the sender would have provided bogus personal info when they set up the account.And the internet service provider, Telstra or Optus or whoever, is legally required to provide the name and address linked to the IP address of the server where Gmail was accessed.Unless the sender’s a total moron, it’ll be a public wi-fi network, like at a library or a cafe.’He took a sip of his beer and wiped his top lip.‘At this stage, we wouldn’t have enough to get a court order anyway.’

‘But she’s a fifteen-year-old girl, Jimmy!Are we just meant to ignore this?’

‘I know it seems crazy.This is the problem with the internet.People can get away with all sorts of shit because they’re anonymous.’