by Grace York
"You don't want her to get hurt, do you Brody?"
Brody shook his head. "Of course not. She's safe enough where she is."
"What's going on?" Addison whispered to Olivia.
"I can't explain it all right now, but Erin thought Brody might have been the one to… you know… push Trent over. He's been coming here every day since it happened, and sitting out there on the edge."
Addison still didn't understand. "What are you and Max doing out here?"
"Max was out here the night Trent died. He confronted him, but he didn't kill him. It looked bad, though. So we thought if we came out here and Erin saw Brody, she might be able to get him to confess."
"While standing on the edge of the cliff?"
"Yeah. It wasn't a great plan, I'll admit."
"Why would Erin be able to get Brody to confess?"
"Because he loves her."
Addison still had a lot of questions, but they could be answered later. Right now they needed to get these young people back to safety. She took a step towards Isaac, who'd just sent Adam back to the carpark to wait for Kendall and Ryan.
"Can I help?" Addison whispered.
"Only if you can do it from right here. I'm not putting you in danger as well."
"I have no intention of going past that fence," said Addison. "You know how I feel about heights." A certain ride on a Ferris wheel came to mind.
Addison exchanged glances with Erin, who looked relieved to see her. She gave the young woman a nod of support, then turned her attention to Brody. He was staring out to sea, so she couldn't see his face, but she could tell he was troubled.
"Hi Brody," she began, in the most carefree voice she could muster. "My name is Addison. Do you mind if I talk to you for a minute?"
Brody shrugged, so Addison continued.
"I've heard you've been coming out here since Trent died. Do you miss him?"
Another shrug, but no answer.
"You and Trent were friends, right?"
"Supposedly."
"Do you think Trent would want you putting yourself and Erin in danger out here?"
"Trent didn't think about anyone but himself," said Brody.
"That must have been hard for you to deal with," said Addison. "If you two were friends, I mean."
"Trent stopped seeing me as a friend years ago. That's the difference between him and Chad. Chad doesn't treat me like the hired help."
"And Trent did?" Addison wanted to keep him talking, but all she got was another shrug.
"What about Erin?" she tried. "How did Trent treat her?"
"He didn't deserve her," Brody spat. Now they were getting somewhere.
Addison glanced at Isaac, who nodded to her to keep going.
She softened her voice. "Brody, do you have feelings for Erin?"
Brody sighed. "I love her."
Addison noticed Erin visibly stiffen. Brody was still staring out to sea, so Addison thought she could get Erin in behind the fence and to safety without him noticing. She held out a hand and gestured to Erin to come forward, but the young woman shook her head.
"Don't move," said Brody, as if he had eyes in the back of his head.
"I'm right here," said Erin. Her voice was calm and even. It didn't match the terror in her eyes.
Addison tried a different approach. "What are you doing all the way out there, Brody? Why are you threatening to jump?"
"Because I killed Trent," he said matter-of-factly. Addison was astonished at how quickly the admission had come. She looked at Isaac, who was equally stunned.
"Was it an accident?" Addison asked.
Brody shook his head. "Nope. I meant to kill him."
29
"How did it happen?" Addison asked gently.
Brody finally turned to face them. His head tilted to one side as he looked at Erin, then his face hardened when he focused on Addison.
"I followed him out here that night," Brody began. "Once I figured Erin and Chad were both asleep, I snuck out of my tent and came out here to find him. I only wanted to talk."
Addison nodded, and kept her eyes on him. "What did you want to talk about?"
"Erin." Brody glanced at her again when he said her name. Addison thought Erin did very well not to show her fear.
"Did you know Trent had cheated on Erin?" Addison asked. She figured if she could keep him talking until more help arrived, they'd have a better chance of convincing him to come back behind the fence. Surely the more people there to watch, the less likely he was to jump.
"Everyone knew," said Brody. "He never treated her right. He didn't deserve her."
"But you did?"
"I wouldn't have treated her like he did." He stared at Erin. "I wouldn't, you know. I would have taken care of you."
Addison noticed he was using past tense. Did that mean he was seriously thinking of going over the edge? Or had Erin rejected him already?
She didn't have time to answer that question. She needed to keep him talking.
"What happened that night, Brody?"
He turned back to face the sea. "We argued. He didn't love Erin, and I called him on it. I asked him to step aside, let me ask her out. He just laughed at me."
"Why did he laugh?"
"Because he's an entitled…" Brody didn't finish the sentence. Addison waited for him to continue. "Trent saw Erin as his property. He said he'd finish with her when he was good and ready. I hated him for that. Hated the way he treated women, hated the way he treated most people, actually."
"So you pushed him off the cliff?" Addison asked.
"No, not then. I asked him to be reasonable. I told him I loved Erin. Really loved her. He could have any woman he wants. I asked him again to let me have Erin."
Addison heard Olivia's gasp from where she was standing, and she knew exactly what her daughter was thinking. She turned and caught Olivia's eye, pleading with her to stay silent.
She couldn't stop Erin having her say, though.
"I'm not a toy. I'm not something you can fight over. I'm not something you can possess."
Brody turned to face her. "I didn't mean… I don't think…" He sighed. "I'm sorry, Erin. You're right. I just… I love you. Trent didn't deserve you."
"That was for me and Trent to work out."
Addison could see Brody getting upset again. He and Erin could talk about this all they wanted, but not if Brody carried out his threat and threw himself off this cliff. Addison couldn't deal with anther death in Getaway Bay. She had to get him to come back in.
"Brody, tell us what happened to Trent," she asked.
"He just kept laughing at me. He said I'd never get a girl like Erin, and I'd always live in his shadow. He said he knew I hated him, and that I had to suck it up because his father paid me to look after him and Chad and keep them out of trouble.
"We used to be friends. I asked what happened to make him so mean and angry, and he just shrugged. He didn't care how I felt. He didn't care how Erin felt. He didn't even care about his own brother. He didn't want to grow up, didn't want to work."
Brody was standing right at the edge of the cliff now. His foot moved, and a cascade of rocks fell over the edge. He leaned forward and watched them fall.
"We were sitting right there," Brody said, pointing to where Erin sat. "Then he stood up, right in the middle of our conversation, and said he was going to bed. He was going to climb into his tent and cuddle up with Erin and there was nothing I could do about it. But he was wrong."
"What did you do?" Addison asked. She held her breath.
"I hit him. I punched him right in the face. Then I shoved him, and he fell backwards towards the cliff. Then…"
"Then what?" Addison prompted. It came out almost as a whisper.
"Then I saw my opportunity. I had a chance to get him out of my life, out of Erin's life, forever. And I took it."
"You pushed him over the edge," said Addison.
Brody nodded. He looked down to the bottom of the cliff. Addison could hea
r the waves crashing over the rocks. No-one could survive that fall. Trent didn't.
Addison heard movement behind her. She turned to see Adam arrive back at the lighthouse, accompanied by Kendall and Ryan. They approached Isaac slowly, but with a presence only their uniforms could command.
Brody's face changed at the sight of them. He knows it's over, thought Addison.
Now was her chance.
"Brody, it's time for you to be strong. Come back in and face what you've done. For Erin's sake, and for Chad. He's already lost a brother. Don't make him lose a friend as well."
Brody took an age to consider it, but finally he took a step toward Erin. She reached out a hand, and he took it.
For one frightening moment Addison thought he was going to drag her over the edge too, but he didn't. He helped her back to safety, delivering her to Addison's arms before handing himself to Isaac.
Isaac nodded to Ryan, who stepped forward and handcuffed Brody. Kendall took hold of Erin, who finally allowed herself to cry. And Addison wrapped her arms around her daughter and held her tight.
It was over.
30
Addison had barely let Olivia out of her sight when they got back to the beach house. Slowly she had coaxed some of the story out of her daughter, in between Olivia's protestations that she really hadn't been in any danger.
"It looked pretty dangerous from where I was standing," Addison countered the next morning.
They were in the kitchen, just the two of them, Addison baking a double batch of scones for Hazel's café. With all the drama of the day before still swirling in her mind she hadn't the energy for anything more complicated.
"I messaged Isaac the moment I thought we were in trouble," said Olivia. She placed a coffee in front of her mother, and cradled her own cup in front of her as she took a seat at the kitchen bench to watch Addison work.
"Why didn't you call me?" Addison asked.
"I didn't want you to worry, Mum. Besides, Max and I were hiding in the bushes. We couldn't call anyone. I put my phone on silent and texted Isaac to come. It's what you would have done."
Addison couldn't argue with that. But still, she wasn't happy Olivia had been anywhere near a murderer.
"Tell me again why you and Max were hiding in the bushes?"
"Erin thought she could get Brody to confess to the murder. Max was recording their conversation."
"And what possessed the three of you to play detective? Why didn't you just call Isaac and let him handle it?"
"Mum, we went through this last night."
They had discussed it briefly last night. Once the police had taken Brody into custody, and Max and Erin to the station for questioning, the Beach House Murder Club had wanted to convene to discuss the events. Addison wasn't having it, though. She sent everyone to their rooms and settled in with Olivia to find out the truth. Olivia was still quite rattled, though, and Addison had eventually sent her to bed having only heard a jumbled version of the story.
Olivia had gone to the pub yesterday to ask Max if he knew Erin. That question was answered as soon as she knocked on the door to his room: Erin was with him, and she was in tears.
They'd explained how Max and Erin had been friends back home in England, having grown up in neighbouring villages. They were never a couple; their relationship was more like brother and sister.
Erin had been intending to break up with Trent for months, but she didn't know how to do it. She didn't want to be stranded alone in a strange country. So she'd contacted Max, who asked her to come and stay with him in Getaway Bay.
Trent had been getting into more and more trouble with the press in the latter half of last year, and Chad and Brody were looking for somewhere they could go and get him out of the spotlight. So Erin had suggested the group come to Getaway Bay, and camp out at Echo Point. Trent was always better behaved when he could surf, and Erin planned to break up with him and then stay with Max until she found her feet.
Addison understood that much, but it was the details of what had happened in the early hours of New Year's Day that Olivia hadn't been clear on last night.
"Why did you all think Isaac was going to arrest Max?" Addison asked as she kneaded the dough for the scones.
"Max went out to Echo Point that night," said Olivia.
"What for?"
"When Erin and the others arrived in town, she asked Max not to let on that they knew each other. She wanted to break up with Trent in her own time, and she didn't want him and Max getting into some sort of macho war over her. So Max didn't tell anyone they were friends, not even me.
"But as time went on, and he learned how badly Trent treated Erin, Max got angry. Remember I told you I thought something was up with him?"
"You thought he was planning to go home to the UK," said Addison. She rolled the dough out and searched in the drawer for her scone cutter.
"I was wrong about that. He was getting agitated about Erin, not about going home. He wanted to confront Trent, but Erin convinced him not to. She said she was going to break up with him but she had to do it in her own time."
Addison took a sip of her coffee, then started cutting out the scones. "So he went out to Echo Point to confront Trent?"
Olivia nodded. "He didn't think Erin was going to break up with Trent. He thought she was too scared of him. So after he took Mrs Jones home that night, he headed up to the lighthouse. Erin had told him how Trent used to go out there at night because he couldn't sleep and Max, having had a few drinks and being full of bravado, thought it would be a good opportunity to confront him alone."
"What happened?" Addison put the scone cutter aside and focused on Olivia.
"He said he walked down the beach and saw a light up at the point. He figured it was Trent, so he made his way up there using the light from his phone."
Addison recalled how they'd investigated whether a person at the top could be seen from the beach. They'd only looked from South Beach though, because that's where the surfers' party had been. They hadn't even thought that someone coming from Main Beach could equally have seen the light from Trent's phone.
"Is there a path from Main Beach up to Echo Point?" she asked.
"Yes. Apparently it's a lot clearer and safer than the path from South Beach, too. Anyway, Max made his way up there and confronted Trent. They argued, and Max says there was a scuffle, but as soon as they got close to the edge he backed off. Trent was still very much alive when Max gave up and walked home."
Addison remembered the extra set of footprints forensics found by the lighthouse. They must have belonged to Max.
"I still don't understand why you didn't take all of this to the police, rather than going up there to confront Brody."
"I tried to convince Max and Erin to do just that," said Olivia. "I told them Isaac would find out the truth, but they didn't believe me. They don't know him like we do. They knew you had figured out they came from neighbouring villages, and that Mrs Jones had seen Max heading in the wrong direction the night of the murder. Along with Max's footprints out there, they thought there was too much evidence against him and none implicating Brody."
"So they decided to get some evidence themselves," said Addison.
Olivia nodded. "Erin was pretty sure Brody had killed Trent. She thought it must have been an accident or something; maybe they were fighting and because they were both drunk, they'd got too close to the edge. But whatever happened, she was convinced Brody was involved. He'd been going out there every day since, and spending hours sitting close to the edge. He'd also told her he loved her, and that she was better off without Trent."
Again Addison wanted to ask why they hadn't just taken this information to Isaac, but she was beginning to understand. Max and Erin were young, and young people didn't always think logically, especially when there were strong feelings involved.
Still, getting that close to a killer and secretly recording him while trying to get him to confess was a very dumb idea, and Addison said as much to Olivia.
"I know, Mum. I tried to tell them, but they were going do it anyway. So I figured it was better that I go with them rather than let them do it alone."
"I'm upset you didn't at least tell me."
"You would've stopped me."
"I would've stopped all of you."
Olivia shook her head. "I doubt you could have stopped Erin and Max. They were determined to confront Brody. I think Erin needed to find out once and for all what happened to Trent, and Max was terrified he was going to get the blame. I texted Isaac as soon as I thought there was any danger."
Addison wanted to protest, but it would do no good. She'd have to content herself with the fact that Olivia was safe, everyone else was safe, and the killer was behind bars.
There was movement overhead; the rest of the household were stirring. They'd be down soon, and Olivia would have to go through the story again and again. Addison's instinct was to protect her from the questioning, but she caught herself. Olivia wasn't a child anymore. She was a grown woman, and she was studying a degree that would put her right in the middle of the harsh realities of the world.
She had to learn how to handle herself.
Addison washed her hands and wiped them on a towel before coming around the bench and embracing her daughter.
"I'm sorry, Mum," said Olivia, accepting the hug.
"I know. Don't ever put yourself in danger like that again."
"I won't."
Addison held her at arms' length. "One more thing," she said, knowing what Rob would say if he were here.
"Yes?"
"I'm proud of you, kid."
31
The rest of the week passed by in a blur. Brody Hitchcock was formally charged with the murder of Trent Burchard. Malcolm, Chad, and Daniel left Getaway Bay, thankfully taking the reporters with them. And Addison kept Olivia as close to the beach house as she could manage.
"I'm going back to uni next week, Mum," said Olivia. "You can't coddle me then."
It was Friday afternoon, and they were getting ready for the barbecue. Jason was finally able to come tonight, so they were planning to christen the pizza oven he'd built.