That was beside the point. She’d promised to be there so Lara wasn’t alone and then immediately broken the promise. She dialled the house and Georgie picked up.
“Can you keep an eye on Lara for a couple of hours?” Amy asked.
“Sure. Are you not feeling very well?”
Amy hesitated. “Ah, I’m not at the Ridge.”
“What?” Amy winced at the shriek and moved away from Brandon and Sam. “I’m at the caravan park in town.”
Georgie swore. “By yourself?”
“Brandon and Sam are with me.”
“I knew I should have kept a closer eye on them. Why are you involved?”
“They needed my car.”
“Right. Did you find anything?”
“We saw the guy who broke in.” She placed a hand over the phone. “Do you have a photo of the guy to send Georgie?” She assumed he’d taken one while she’d been sleeping. When he nodded, she said to Georgie, “Brandon sent you a picture. Do you recognise him?”
A pause before a quiet curse. “He might have been a customer on the tour boat last week.”
Amy put the phone on speaker and told Brandon, then asked Georgie, “Did you speak with him?”
“What day, Georgie?” Brandon asked.
“Give me a second.” Another pause. “He was excited about the tour. Kept going on about how he wished his parents could be there too, said he’d have to fly them out next year.” Her voice broke. “I told him Mum and Dad were going out tomorrow and I couldn’t wait for them to experience it.”
Amy exchanged a glance with the men. It meant the people behind this knew Beth and Bill would be heading into town early.
“Oh, God,” Georgie said. “Did I give them the information they needed to kill Mum and Dad?”
“No!” Brandon barked. “This isn’t your fault, Georgiana. Dot’s going to arrest the bastard and we’ll get all the answers we need.”
She sniffed. “When are you coming back?”
Amy glanced at Brandon. “Soon. We’ll get coffee on the way.”
“All right.” She hung up.
“Lucky coincidence, or was he planted on Georgie’s boat to get info?” Sam asked.
“I’d bet he was a plant,” Brandon said.
Sam nodded and ran a hand through his hair. “I need coffee. Where’s the best place, Amy?”
“Ningaloo Cafe,” she responded. “Down at the town beach.” She needed a decent dose of caffeine too. Her brain was running on empty.
Brandon handed over her car keys and she drove the short distance to the cafe. It was just opening. She didn’t know the waitress, but she smiled and asked, “Any chance for a coffee?”
The woman returned her smile. “Of course. Machine’s heated. Come in.”
“Let’s get take-away,” Sam said. “We can walk along the beach and plan.”
Less chance of being overheard. Brandon paid for the drinks and a few minutes later they discarded their shoes on the sand and wandered up the beach. The tide was low, exposing some of the rocky reef which rimmed this area of the shore.
Amy inhaled the salty air and it cleared some of the mugginess from her head. Maybe she should splash her face with water to relieve some of the heaviness in her eyes. She took a long sip of the coffee and her body celebrated the caffeine hit.
