“I need my glasses,” she mutters, fumbling for the side table. Her elbow juts out and a dusty candle goes flying, an empty vase wobbling like a bowling pin. I could scream.
She slips her reading glasses on and snatches my phone, bringing it to her chest. I dart a glance at Chris, who sits rigid on the couch, sweating.
“Yes. I recognize him.”
Slow motion. I see myself turning back to Kat, my mouth falling open.
“I mighta met him once or twice,” she mumbles, chin dipping low to her chest, still staring. “A friend of Hannah’s.”
“A friend since when? Had they known each other long? When was the last time you saw him?”
I hit her with questions as hot blood rushes in my ears.Hannah knew Donny Granger. Hannah was killed in a horrific attack. My father killed Donny. Mum was murdered.
My father is missing.
Kat passes my phone back, lowering her glasses to the bridge of her nose. “He was one of her Water Mates, I think. One of the new crowd.”
“Was he meeting her in Kangaroo Bay on that trip?”
She frowns, sucks her teeth again. “I don’t think so.”
Chris speaks slowly, but I can feel he’s as frantic as I am. “Are you sure? You said they met up with each other along the coast…and Kangaroo Bay isn’t the sort of place a girl would travel to alone.”
She’s already shaking her head. “You didn’t know Hannah. She often traveled alone. Even camped in her car by herself. We—” She breaks off, looks down. “We had a few tiffs about it.”
The Jack Russell scoots closer to Chris, panting, showing nubs of yellowing teeth.
“This guy,” I finally say, gesturing to my phone. “Do you know that he went missing, too?”
“I heard,” she murmurs. “Few months after Han. I’m not that surprised.”
It wasn’t a few months after. They went missing at almost at the same time. Chris gives me an urgent look that I ignore.
I’m not that surprised.
I look up. “Why weren’t you surprised he went missing?”
“Some of these Water Mates of hers…” She tucks her glasses back into their case. “They were a bit, I dunno. Dodgy?”
“How?”
She shrugs. “Just a feeling, you know? Thecheck your purse after they leavesort of feeling. I didn’t like them coming ’round here. I wish I’d spoken up more. Wish she’d listened.”
Has there been an update?
“Can’t stop accidents from happening,” I murmur, eyes boring into hers.
She stares at me levelly. “It was no accident.”
“They…found her, though?” Chris says, uncomfortably. “Injuries consistent with a shark attack.”
What was left of her anyway.
“It wasn’t an accident.”
“I think—”
“I know what everyonethinks.” She hisses the last word. “But something came for her before she died. Dropped off on the bloody doorstep.”
