Chapter 29
When Nel arrived at the clinic the following morning, Poppy was sitting at the front door waiting for her.
‘What’s going on?’ Nel asked.
‘I don’t know.’ Her voice was almost a whisper. ‘Can I come in?’
‘Of course.’ Nel unlocked the door and led Poppy down the hall.
‘I’ve been getting weird emails,’ Poppy said once they were seated in Nel’s room. ‘Anonymous ones. At first I thought they were from some loser at school and ignored them, but now I’m not sure.’
‘When did this start?’
‘I got the first one the day after Granddad’s funeral.’ She took her phone from her pocket, scrolled for a moment, then passed it to Nel. ‘This is the first one.’
You looked pretty yesterday Poppy.
It was sent from a Gmail account, but the address was a whole lot of random letters and numbers. Nel looked up and shrugged.
‘Show me the next one,’ she said, passing the phone back. She moved her chair next to Poppy’s so she could see the screen. The next email was sent on Saturday.
I saw you with your friends today. I like your shorts. Is Jack your boyfriend?
Nel swallowed. ‘Where were you on Saturday?’
‘Watching the firsts play AFL.’
‘You were there with Jack?’
‘Yeah, and some other friends.’
‘And I take it you were wearing shorts?’
‘Yeah, I was freezing.’
‘So whoever wrote this was definitely watching you.’
Poppy nodded. ‘But I still thought it was probably from some other guy at school. There were, like, hundreds of people there.’
Nel reread the message. It could definitely be from a harmless kid, but she sensed worse was coming. ‘You don’t think it’s a kid from school anymore?’
Poppy shook her head, her expression grim as she tapped on the screen again. ‘I got this one yesterday.’ She bit her fingernails, watching Nel as she read it.
Saw your aunt the other day. She was hanging out with the cop.
Nel’s heart quickened. So this was about her.
‘Take a screenshot of each email and send them to me,’ she said, striving for a calm tone.
Poppy turned her attention to the phone. Nel watched the notifications flash up on her own phone screen.
‘If you get any more, screenshot them and send them to me straightaway.’ Nel sighed heavily. ‘Poppy, I think this is actually about me rather than you. I think someone’s trying to intimidate me by sending you these messages. Whoever sent them wanted you to show them to me.’
Poppy’s eyes were wide. ‘Who would do that though?’
Nel thought of Ryan. He was rattled enough to come in here and threaten her. Did he send these emails to scare her away? Stop her asking questions? Drive her out of town? She wouldn’t put it past him.
‘How much do you know about what happened back when I was at high school? And why I left?’
‘Just that your friend died, the Marshalls’ daughter, and that you left after Year 12 to go to uni in Sydney.’
‘There were a lot of rumours about what happened to my friend Maddie, and because I was the last person to see her—the last confirmed person to see her—a lot of those rumours were about me.’
‘But … so what?’
‘So there are people around here who would rather I left town.’
‘But …’ Poppy hesitated. ‘I don’t want you to leave.’ Tears pooled in her wide eyes and she looked just like the toddler Nel remembered. She felt the urge to wrap her up and tell her everything was going to be okay.
After Poppy left, Nel sat at her desk, trying to decide what to do. She wanted to meet Jimmy to tell him about the emails, but what if Ryan saw them again? He must have been following her, watching her. What was stopping him from following her again today?
A sudden surge of hot fury rose up inside her. Fear was exactly the response Ryan wanted. So what if he saw her with Jimmy? In fact, she hoped he would! It would show him how futile his emails were. This just made her more certain he had something to hide.
‘Fuck him,’ she whispered, sounding braver than she felt.
She reached for her phone. She was done with hiding.