Page 66 of On the Edge

‘Did Mum tell you I’m grounded?’Poppy said.

‘Yeah.Why?’

‘Because she’s a psycho who thinks it’s reasonable to track my location twenty-four seven.’

‘What happened?’

‘I told her I was going to Gemma’s house and turned off location tracking.She freaked out when she couldn’t see where I was and rang her mum, so now I’m grounded until I tell her where I went.’

‘Where were you?’

‘Watching Jack play at the Shark Bay Markets.’Poppy sighed heavily.‘But if I asked her, she would have said no.What was I supposed to do?’

‘I don’t know,’ Nel murmured, feeling caught in the middle.Poppy was only fifteen.It wasn’t unreasonable for Lauren to want to know where she was, but Nel sensed that the trust Poppy felt for her was fragile.It might not survive if Nel took Lauren’s side.‘Let’s have a look at the email,’ she said, keen to move the conversation on.

Poppy opened the message and held it up for Nel to read.

Its time your aunt left town one way or another

‘He’s just trying to scare me away,’ Nel said under her breath.

‘Why though?And why’s he sending the messages tome?’

Nel bit her nail, thinking.It was a good question.‘Maybe he wants me to think he might do something to you.’

‘Maybe hewilldo something to me!’

Nel shook her head.‘Leave Ryan to me.’She took the phone and typed a reply:

Hi Ryan, it’s Nel.Sounds like you have a guilty conscience.Stop harassing my niece.PS We’ve traced your IP address, so if anything happens to her, you will go down.

‘You’ve traced the emails?’Poppy asked.

‘Jimmy has, but he hasn’t heard back yet.’She handed the phone back.‘If Ryan’s smart he will have used a public computer but …’ She shrugged.‘It’s worth a try.’

Chapter 41

Nel sat in her car at the lighthouse, watching the gentle offshore breeze blowing spray off the back of perfect waves that sparkled in the yellow light.She should get out there—soon she would be back in Sydney where she’d be battling dozens of others for waves like this—but she was struggling to muster the energy.

It had been a long slow day with a steady procession of patients but no news from Jimmy about the DNA sample.He said it would take a couple of days, but impatience gnawed at her.

She startled at a knock on the window and looked up to see Sophie, her eyes red-rimmed.Nel lowered the window.

‘What’s wrong?’

Sophie shook her head and looked out at the horizon, then back at Nel with tears in her eyes.

‘You want to hop in?’Nel asked, sensing she wanted to talk.

Sophie got into the passenger seat and shut the door, then she covered her face with her hands.After a moment she took a deep breath then turned to face Nel.There was a bump above her left eye.

Nel swallowed.‘What happened?’

Sophie stared through the salty windscreen out to sea.‘We had an electrician come to do some work at the house.Ryan waswatching me talking to him at the front door on the Ring Camera.He’s got an app on his phone.I was just being friendly, but Ryan thought I was flirting.’

‘He hit you?’

‘He pushed me as I left the room.My forehead hit the doorframe.’