The Edge of the Shadows by Elizabeth George Page A

her way. “Let ’em call the cops if they don’t like it. We’ll be out of here before the cops show up.”
    â€œBut if it’s private property . . .”
    Isis stamped her feet. “Hayley! Cowgirl
up
, for God’s sake.”
    Hayley looked to her left, feeling furtive. The closest houses appeared uninhabited. More of them would become so as autumn deepened. And anyway, they were separated from the beach by a canal of wetland, so what was the big deal, truly, if she and Isis merely walked by them? It wasn’t like they were burglars. They were just two girls strolling along the beach in the sun. So she followed Isis.
    Some way along, the canal of wetland ended. At that point, Hayley and Isis came to a vacant lot, then to a tiny beach cottage listing to the right, then to another vacant lot with a chain across it. Isis stopped walking at a final house that was larger than all the rest. To Hayley’s horror, the other girl walked right up to this place. It had a low wall separating a small yard from the beach and she climbed over it. She said to Hayley, “No big deal. I’ve been coming since June. The place’s for sale. It’s empty. Come
on
.”
    At least, Hayley thought, as she followed Isis, the other girl didn’t proceed through some open window or push in a sliding glass door. What she wanted Hayley to see was a fire pit and its accompanying seating area along with a covered in-ground spa and the kind of outdoor kitchen one saw featured in magazines.
    â€œIsn’t this the coolest ever?” Isis asked. “This is exactly what I’m going to have when Brady and I are married. Course that’s not happening for
years
because he’s got to do medical school and all that, but when he starts making piles of money, it’ll be the beach for us.” There was a stack of beach chairs abutting the house, and Isis went for one of these as she talked.
    Hayley watched her, incredulous, as Isis brought a chair over to the fire pit, went for another, sat down, and gestured Hayley to do the same. She put her feet up on the river stones of the fire pit’s edge and continued chatting. “Course, I wouldn’t tell Brady any of this. You won’t say anything, will you? He’s gonna come up if Aidan ’n’ me are still here at Christmas.” Isis was digging in her purse as she spoke and she seemed finally to notice that Hayley hadn’t joined her. She said, “I’m just babbling. It’s ’cause I’m nervous. How are
you
? You look so nice today. That color is perfect for your complexion, which is
also
perfect and I know perfect ’cause my mom’s a dermatologist. And
anyway 
. . . ” She finally found what she was looking for and she brought out a slim chrome box from which she took out a cigarette.
    Isis caught Hayley’s look of surprise and said, “I used to smoke. This’s electronic. You ever see one? Watch.”
    It took no lighting at all but when she sucked on it, the tip of it glowed and what it emitted looked like smoke but was instead vapor that bore no scent. It gave her a hit of nicotine, Isis said. Unfortunately, she was still addicted. This was how she dealt with the addiction. It had been her mom’s idea.
    â€œMy parents know everything about me,” she confided to Hayley. “Sex with Brady and two other guys before him, smoking, diet pills till I got caught, weed
also
till I got caught. Oxycontin once.
Just
once. We talk about it all ’cause the one thing they don’t need is more than one kid who likes to keep secrets.”
    â€¢Â â€¢Â â€¢
    WHEN THEY RETURNED to the spot on the road where Aidan had disappeared into the trees, the boy himself was waiting for them. He joined them wordlessly and they trooped back to Nancy Howard’s house. There, Nancy’s partner, Linda, had arrived. Isis declared that she didn’t know