Chapter 21
‘Get him! Get him!’
Nel winced as a chubby boy in camouflage crept out from behind a pile of tyres only to be hammered by a barrage of rubber bullets.
Lauren’s backyard had been transformed into a battlefield for Leo’s birthday party. From where Nel sat, in the relative safety of the veranda with a glass of rosé, it was surprisingly exciting to watch. The deaths were particularly spectacular. Once or twice she’d cheered accidentally.
‘Got him!’
‘You’re dead, Zach!’
‘Get the flag!’
A ginger-haired boy lunged for a red flag on the back fence and held it up, triumphant.
Leo and his teammates mobbed him, hooting and back-slapping, while the defeated soldiers lay sprawled on the grass.
Barely a minute had passed when Leo yelled, his eyes a little crazed, ‘Let’s play again!
’ They all jumped up and started yelling over each other, renegotiating the teams.
Not sure she had the stamina for another round, Nel wandered back inside the once humble bungalow that Lauren and Steve had spent the last few years renovating.
Walls had been knocked down so the previously pokey kitchen now flowed into the living room, and bi-fold doors opened onto a large veranda to create what Lauren called ‘indoor-outdoor flow’ and maximise the jaw-dropping views up Millers Beach.
The white walls and high ceilings might have felt cold if it wasn’t for the crackling fire and a floor-to-ceiling bookcase on the far wall.
Lauren had documented the transformation in a coffee-table book of before-and-after photos that she’d thrust at Nel earlier.
Nel had arrived an hour before the party started, thinking Lauren could probably use some help setting things up, only to find that everything was firmly under control.
Instead, her sister had used the opportunity to quiz her about Jimmy.
The pink-haired waitress, it turned out, was the daughter of one of her bootcamp clients, so word had already got back to Lauren that her sister was on ‘a date’ with the local cop.
Cath had also apparently updated Lauren on the impromptu dinner the night before, when Jimmy had shared some hair-raising policing stories over lasagne.
‘Didn’t you two have a thing at one stage?’ Lauren had asked.
Nel had denied it and quickly changed the subject, but there had been a brief period when it seemed like they might be something more.
They’d kissed at a party in Year 9, but then Maddie died and everything changed.
It had all been so brief and uneventful that Nel wasn’t sure if Jimmy even remembered.
It was a relief, she thought, that it never eventuated into anything.
What she needed here was a friend, not an ex-boyfriend.
She walked over to peruse the bookcase, which had been meticulously arranged by colour. Resisting the urge to swap a blue spine with an orange one, she picked up a photo of Lauren and Steve on their wedding day. Her sister wore an empire-line dress to accommodate her enormous baby bump.
Nel remembered standing in the dark hallway earlier that year, eavesdropping, while Lauren and Steve told her parents they were having a baby. Rob had been stunned. Cath had cried. Lauren was halfway through a Bachelor of Education at Canberra Uni, but the pregnancy had been the end of that.
Nel replaced the photo and went into the kitchen where she refilled her glass and sat down on a bar stool. Voices echoed in the wide hallway.
‘Sorry we’re so late.’
‘Honestly, no problem at all!’
Nel’s heart skipped a beat at the sight of Sophie following Lauren into the living room.
God, this town was small. They stood talking at the end of the hall, Sophie’s boy by her side, holding a plastic machine gun.
She was tiny but wiry, in a floral dress and a long cardigan that she pulled around herself like a shield.
‘Nice outfit,’ Sophie said, referring to Lauren’s camo-print miniskirt and cap, with two black lines of face paint on each cheek.
‘Oh thanks,’ Lauren said. ‘The boys are out the back, Charlie. Follow the shouting!’
He trotted off. Sophie looked across the expansive room and out the bi-fold doors to the stretch of yellow sand and the ocean beyond. ‘What a beautiful home.’
‘Thank you, we’re really happy with how it turned out. The reno was a complete nightmare!’ Lauren said.
Sophie put a hand to her forehead. ‘We forgot Leo’s present!’
‘Oh, don’t worry.’ Lauren waved a hand. ‘This is my sister, Nel.’
‘Of course, yes,’ Sophie said as Nel stood to join them. ‘We met a few days ago.’
There were squeals of excitement from the backyard. ‘It sounds like Steve needs backup,’ Lauren said with an exasperated sigh.
She hurried outside, leaving Nel and Sophie alone. How much did she know about Maddie, Nel wondered? How much had Ryan told her?
‘Will you stay for a glass of wine?’ Nel asked, already taking a glass from the cupboard.
‘Oh, no, I can’t stay … I’ve left Ryan at home with the younger kids. I told him I’d drop and run so …’ She clicked her tongue. ‘Actually, I’d love a glass of water, if that’s okay.’
‘Sure, of course.’ Nel filled a glass at the dispenser on the fridge as Sophie sat down on a stool. She looked tired, Nel thought. Her complexion was pale. Maybe she was coming down with Harvey’s cold. ‘How’s Harvey feeling? Did the antibiotics do the trick?’
‘Yeah, he’s pretty much a hundred per cent again now, thanks.’
Nel sat down beside her. ‘How many kids do you have?’ she asked, trying to keep the conversation casual. She wanted to quiz her, to find out anything Ryan had told her about Maddie and that night, but she sensed it was best to go gently.
‘Three. Charlie’s twelve.’ Sophie gestured towards the backyard. ‘And I’ve got Jasmine who’s ten, and Harvey.’
‘Sounds busy.’ Nel thought of what Viv had said about Sophie, that she was always broke. ‘Do you work too or are you at home with the kids?’
As soon as she said it, she felt she’d got the tone wrong. It was so fraught, asking mothers about their work. They got so defensive.
But Sophie wasn’t defensive. ‘I used to. I liked it.’ She had a wistful look as though she was thinking of an old friend.
‘What sort of work did you do?’
‘Just bookkeeping and admin for a fishing charter company down at the port. Nothing very exciting, but I liked it. I enjoyed the … the sense of order … I suppose.’
‘Did you stop when you had the kids?’
Sophie nodded. ‘Ryan wanted me to be at home with them.’ She hesitated then added, ‘His stepmum didn’t work, so …’
Nel remembered Mrs Warner vividly, an immaculately presented woman with a beauty pageant smile who was universally considered a saint for marrying Roy Warner and mothering his three young boys as if they were her own.
It had been a shock to hear of her cancer diagnosis in one of Cath’s emails. The end had been quick, apparently.
‘Do you remember her?’ Sophie asked, as though she could read Nel’s thoughts. ‘I guess you might have met her at the Warners’ place … with Maddie.’
Nel’s heart sped up at the mention of the name. ‘I did, yeah, once or twice.’
There was a taut silence. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to …’ Sophie shook her head, suddenly self-conscious. ‘What were we talking about?’
‘I asked about work. You never wanted to go back?’
‘I did, but when the kids were little it just felt too hard. We had two under two when Jaz was born, and then along came Harvey. By the time I felt like I could manage it, Ryan said my skills would be too rusty, that no one would give me a job.’ A pause. ‘He’s probably right.’
Nel’s skin prickled with suspicion. Had Ryan dissuaded her from working to isolate her? Increase her dependence? ‘I don’t know. Does bookkeeping change that much?’
‘All the software’s changed since I did my training.’
‘There would be an online course you could do if you wanted to get back into it.’
Sophie gave a non-committal shrug.
‘We could probably give you some work doing accounts for the clinic,’ Nel offered. It felt important that Sophie knew there were options, if she wanted them.
‘That’s kind of you, but …’ she dropped her voice, ‘… I don’t think so.’
Nel swallowed. ‘Because of Ryan?’
Another shrug. Sophie gave her a smile that reminded Nel of a country and western song. Beautiful and sad. Full of regret.
The moment was interrupted by the sound of footsteps. Lauren entered and slumped onto the stool next to Nel, resting her head on the benchtop theatrically.
‘It’s like Lord of the Flies out there. Whose idea was a Nerf gun party?’ she asked ironically.
Nel suspected her sister had a whole Pinterest board dedicated to battleground props and bullseye cakes. They laughed, the tension of their conversation slipping away.
Lauren sat up and looked around. ‘Any sign of Poppy?’
‘No. I was wondering where she was,’ Nel said. ‘I thought she must have fled the war zone completely.’
‘She’ll be hiding in her room,’ Lauren said. ‘I agreed to pay her twenty dollars an hour to help out with the party, but she’s having a tantrum. She’s gone on strike.’
‘Oh god, teenage girls terrify me a little bit,’ Sophie said.
‘Yeah, well, brace yourself,’ Lauren said.
‘What’s she upset about?’ Nel asked.
‘She wasn’t where she was meant to be last night. She was supposed to be at a friend’s place, but her friend’s mum knew nothing about it, and she’d switched off location tracking on her phone so I couldn’t see where she was. I’m not sure what she was up to, but it was definitely something shifty.’
Nel frowned. ‘You track her location?’ It struck her as a breach of privacy.
‘Of course I do. Everyone does!’ Lauren huffed.
‘Anyway. I haven’t been able to get a straight answer out of her.
Then she had the nerve to ask if she can go camping with her friends next weekend.
I said no, obviously. I’m not letting my fifteen-year-old daughter have an orgy in the bush. Does she think I was born yesterday?’