Tess smiled and glanced at Ed.
The next dozen were increasingly frantic and demanding. Call immediately. No mention of Joy telling them she had called, but her sister must have done.
The last was written yesterday, and said they would call the Australian police and report her missing if she didn’t contact them right away.
She grabbed her phone. Time to be brave. She’d go outside, so she didn’t wake Ed, and call them right now.
Tess picked up the black Akubra on the side table and rubbed her thumb over the thick felt. Ed had given it to her, and wearing it, even for a minute yesterday had made her feel powerful and in control.
Decided, she placed it on her head and walked out the door.
In the kitchen, Sam, Heath and Dobby were saying goodbye to Georgie and Amy. Brandon was driving them to the airport to catch their flight back to the city. Matt and Darcy must already be working, and Faith would have taken Lara to school.
Heath grinned at her. “I was hoping you’d be up before we left.” He swept her up and hugged her. “Nice hat.”
“Thanks.” Tess’s heart pinched as she hugged him back. He’d been so kind to her. “I’ll miss you.”
“Don’t be a stranger,” Heath said. “You need anything, you call. You’ve got my number?”
She nodded. “You be careful wherever you’re going.” She’d never known anyone who worked in the armed forces and hated the thought they might go somewhere dangerous.
“Always am,” he assured her.
“We keep him out of trouble,” Sam said. “You try to do the same from now on.”
She smiled. A week ago, being in a room full of large men would have intimidated her, but these guys had shown her she didn’t always have to be afraid. She waved as they drove away, and then excused herself from Georgie and Amy to call her parents, her muscles tense.
“Hello?” Her mother always sounded uncertain when she answered the phone.
Annoyance filled her. Tess would never be that timid again. “Mum, it’s Tess.” She moved towards the sand dunes, the red dirt and peace calling to her.
A sharp inhalation. “Where are you? Why did you run away? Why didn’t you answer any of my messages?”
Tess railed against the feeling of being suffocated. She was an adult, she didn’t need to tell her parents everything she did. “I’m safe, Mum. Didn’t Joy tell you?” She inhaled the fresh air, the scent of eucalyptus, and the openness of the country, dissolving the suffocation.
“She didn’t tell me where you were.”
“That’s because she didn’t know.” Tess took a deep breath. Her mum was going to be horrified. “I left Tan’s place because I saw him kill someone.”
Silence.
“Mum?”
“You haven’t told anyone, have you?” Her mother’s voice wavered.
Tess frowned. “What?”
“They won’t believe you. Tan is an important person. If you tell anyone what you saw, they’ll think you’re lying. You mustn’t say a word.”
Not the response she’d expected from her mother. “Mum, he had me followed. Someone tried to kill me.”
She gasped. “No. You misunderstood. You must come home immediately.”
“I can’t. He has my passport.”
“Then go back to him. He’ll forgive you as long as you haven’t told anyone.”
Had someone put her into an alternative reality? Why was her mother defending Tan? Tess shook her head, the confusion giving way to annoyance. “Mum, I can’t.”
