Over the Edge (6 page)

“Fine, whatever!” she snapped, marching in the direction of the gift shop.

Jack drifted over to where his father was deep in conversation with one of the CNN cameramen, hoping to ask if he'd seen Morgan but afraid to interrupt. He tried to listen to what they were saying, but it was too technical for him, so he wandered around looking for Morgan on his own. Twice he walked up and down the halls, peering through office doors that were lighted but empty before finally stumbling across Morgan coming out of the men's room.

“Hey, where've you been?”

“You checking up on me?” Morgan demanded.

“No. I just wanted to talk.”

Eyeing him warily, Morgan asked, “About what?”

“About…I don't know. Nothing, I guess.”

“Good!” Morgan broke into the beginnings of a smile. “I've had enough moralizing to last me awhile. I mean, your mom was out of control back there. I hope Snipe doesn't see that report—he would freak if he thought the hunt was going to get banned.”

“She's pretty intense when it comes to animals. But everyone in my family is.
I
think that hunt is gross.”

“Except no one mentioned that Cash-for-Carcasses shoots mostly coyotes, which reproduce even faster when they're killed off.”

“If they're dead, they can't have babies.”

“Really?” Morgan asked sarcastically. “I'm talking about when they're thinned out they're fewer of them competing for food, so the survivors' litters get bigger, which means there's no way hunters can ever wipe them out.” Nodding with satisfaction, he added, “Snipe told me.”

“So? That's still no excuse to use animals for target practice.”

Beneath lowered lids, Morgan stared down at Jack. “Everything dies. It's only a matter of when.”

“That's the same as saying one human can kill another human because ‘they all die anyway.'” Jack could feel the color rising in his cheeks, until he saw the amused grin bending the corners of Morgan's mouth.

“Point taken,” Morgan said, giving a slight bow.

 

“But before we leave this subject, I'd like you to consider that if your mom and all her tree-hugging friends are right, then people are just animals on the food chain, which means we shouldn't be held accountable for acting like them since that's all we are. Animals kill each other all the time, right? So we as humans should be entitled to the same privilege. You lose the argument.”

“I can
not
follow your logic. You're so weird,” Jack answered, shaking his head.

“You just noticed? How unobservant. I'm hungry.”

“Me, too. Let's find Ashley and see if we can get my dad to buy us some pizza.”

“Deal,” Morgan said. “You know, Jack, you're all right. Most people can't take me, but you hang in.”

“I guess that makes
me
weird.”

“Most definitely,” Morgan nodded. “You might even be a geek. That's the next level past weird.”

“Please, you're scaring me.”

When they begged for pizza, Steven gave in almost immediately. “Let's head for the cafeteria. I could go for a bit of high-carbo, high-fat myself.”

In the cafeteria, Olivia began to relax. She talked a bit to Morgan, and this time he answered without a hint of sarcasm. Jack could tell his mother was pleased. Even Ashley seemed to be warming up, especially when Morgan accidentally dropped a slice of pizza down the front of his shirt, leaving a tomato-red smear.

“You certainly have trouble with your food,” she snickered. “Orange juice, pizza—maybe you need a bib.”

Morgan took the teasing good-naturedly, without even a word of verbal retaliation.

After pizza, back at the Yavapai Lodge, Steven invited the two boys into the room he shared with Olivia and Ashley, saying, “Come on in—Olivia's just going online to check her e-mail. Then we'll head over to Grandeur Point and try to spot the condor.”

They waited, Ashley sitting on the cot that had been brought into the room for her, Jack looking at a Grand Canyon map to see where they'd been, Olivia calling up her e-mail on the laptop.

“Oh my! Steven, come look at this,” Olivia gasped.

In an instant both Steven and Morgan were behind her. Morgan, peering over Olivia's shoulder, bit his lip and squeezed his eyes shut tightly as Jack and Ashley crowded around. On the pale green, high-resolution computer screen, the message stood out in large, bold, capital letters:

DR LANDON YOU THINK VARMITS DESERV TO LIVE.
YOUR WRONG. DEAD WRONG.
VARMITS DESERV TO DIE.
AND SO DO YOU.

O
livia stared at the screen, her eyes seemingly transfixed by the words. “Well,” she said at last, “I guess someone out there objects to my idea about banning the varmint hunt.”

“Who wrote that?” Steven asked hotly. “Is there a return address? No, I suppose a coward who would e-mail something like that would prefer to hide. Just a gutless thug who won't even sign his name.”

Peering more closely at the screen, Olivia said, “You're right—there's no return address. I never knew a message could be sent with no return address. How is that even possible?”

“Actually, it's fairly easy to send an e-mail anonymously,” Morgan said quietly.

“Yes. I'm sure you would know,” Olivia answered. The comment wasn't meant to sting, but Jack could tell it hurt Morgan. Color flushed his cheeks and spread all the way to the tips of his ears, like a creeping burn. A part of Jack felt bad, but knowing that Morgan had set up a nasty Web page of his own and had used his knowledge of the Internet to post his message of scorn—well, better than anyone, Morgan knew how to hit and run. Olivia kept her eyes on the screen. She seemed strangely calm as she read and reread the message. “On the bright side, whoever sent it isn't too awfully sharp. He can't spell.”

“Don't take this lightly, Olivia,” Steven told her. “This is a threat. This maniac says ‘varmits—meaning varmints—deserve to die and
so do you.
' That sounds dangerous. The best thing we can do is call the police.”

“That won't do any good—” Morgan began, but Steven cut him off.

“We'll let them decide how to handle it,” he snapped. “I'm not going to just sit here and let some wacko threaten my wife! At least the police can properly advise us.” He made a move toward the phone, but stopped abruptly when he realized that the phone wouldn't work because the computer was still connected to the phone line.

By then Olivia was at his side, taking his hands in hers. Steven was as fair as Olivia was dark, and her tanned hands looked small, almost childlike in his. “No, Steven, let me do it. I should be the one to call.”

“Mom, is someone going to hurt you?” Ashley asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Of course not.” She flashed Ashley a smile that didn't fool Jack for a second.

“None of you get it—this is just some guy flaming Olivia,” Morgan stated matter-of-factly. “People on the Net do it all the time. It doesn't necessarily mean anything. Like I told you, the Internet is a different world, run with different rules.” He waved his hand dismissively and said, “Forget the police. They'll never be able to trace a good hacker.”

“How do you know?” Ashley demanded, turning on Morgan with an indignation that might have had more to do with fear than anger.

Morgan clenched his fists. “All I'm saying is the police can't help!”

“Did your friend Snipe write it?”

“Snipe wouldn't write garbage like that. And I wouldn't protect him if he did. All I'm telling you is that whoever sent this didn't break the law!”

“You
sent it, didn't you?” Ashley looked startled, as though the idea itself surprised her, even though it had come from her own lips. “You were mad at my mom because she was going to send you back to Dry Creek!”

“Ashley, how did you know about that?” Olivia gasped.

“I—I was listening in when you guys were talking. I know about what he said about me on Snipe's Web page. Sort of. And now he's going after you!”

Steven took a step toward his daughter. “That's enough! Morgan didn't have access to your mother's laptop. It's impossible.”

“But Dad, he disappeared when we were back at headquarters. Jack went looking for him. He could have gone into an office and e-mailed it from there.”

“That is so stupid I'm not even going to answer,” Morgan retorted. His eyes had changed from blue to the color of steel, cold and distant. He crossed his arms tightly over his chest.

Jack couldn't stand it another minute. How could his own sister accuse Morgan that way! Sure, Morgan was hard to take, stubborn and smart and arrogant. But Jack knew him better now. The accusation was one hundred percent impossible. “Stop it, Ashley. Morgan wouldn't threaten Mom, and you know it!”

For a second, Ashley looked uncertain. “Look at what he did in Dry Creek,” she said defensively. “Think about how he trashed Mom and me—”

“I didn't know Snipe was going to post that and those people in Dry Creek were never my friends—” Morgan shouted at the same time Jack cried, “Oh, come
on—
that's not
anything
like the same thing—”

Suddenly Steven was in the middle of them, thrusting out his hands as though he were a traffic cop. “Hold it! Time out!” he shouted. “This has gone far enough! Everyone stop talking
—now!”

The room became still, as if the volume button had been switched to mute. Steven looked each one of them full in the face. “All right. That's better. Now listen to me, all of you. We have a problem, and we have to deal with it logically. No more shouting, no more turning on one another—we have to calm down and think this whole thing through carefully. Do you understand what I'm saying?”

Jack and Ashley nodded. Morgan stood, sullen, his eyes locked on the floor.

“Ashley, why don't you and your brother go into the other room for a minute, and see what you can find on TV,” Olivia said, putting her arms around Ashley's shoulders and guiding her to the connecting door. “I think your father and I need to talk to Morgan.”

“Why do I always have to leave? It's not fair!”

“And why do I always have to stay?” Morgan practically shouted. “You're not taking what she said seriously, are you?”

When Olivia didn't answer, Jack watched the blood drain from Morgan's face. “But I didn't do anything. Great. Perfect. You think I'm guilty, just like that!” Snapping his fingers, he glared at Olivia. “Jack, you don't think I wrote that message, right?”

The question caught him off guard, but before he could think it through he blurted, “No way.”

“See—Jack believes me!”

“Son, go into the other room with Ashley. And shut the door, please. Come here, Morgan, and sit down.” Olivia's voice was surprisingly cool as she dropped onto the bed and tapped the mattress beside her. Jack would have liked to hear more, but his father nudged him through the door, then shut it, cutting him off. He heard the lock slide in place with a loud click.

For the second time in as many days Jack and Ashley had been shoved into another room while the action went on without them. Why couldn't he be a part of the conversation? Morgan was his friend. Pressing his ear against the rough wood, Jack strained to hear. He could make out voices rising and falling, Morgan's words coming in a rush while his mother's and father's replies sounded muffled. What little Jack could hear was suddenly drowned out by the sound of the television. Ashley was sprawled on the bed, the remote in her hand, flipping through channels as though shuffling cards in a deck. Jack stared at her, anger welling in his throat. He suddenly felt as though he barely knew his own sister.

“Way to go, Ashley,” he hissed. “Way to get Morgan in trouble. There's no way he wrote that message, and you know it!”

“Maybe. Maybe not.” She punched the button on the remote again and again, ignoring him. “He wrote those awful things on his own Web site.”

“So?”

“He changed the votes and messed up the Homecoming dance. When he's mad, he uses a computer. He's been mad at Mom. He wrote bad things about her.”

“But he wouldn't say Mom deserved to
die!”

“Why not? She was going to send him away, remember? But you don't care about the facts, because you two are best friends now. Just you and Morgan. Best friends with the guy who dissed me. But you don't care about that, either.”

So that was it, Jack thought, suddenly understanding. How could he have missed the fact that Ashley had been hurt by what Morgan wrote about her? What were the words his mother had read from Snipe's Web page? Jack searched his memory. Snotty. Arrogant. Those statements weren't even close to describing his sister, yet they had been etched on a screen for any and all to see. Still…Morgan had been chewed up and spit out because of how different he was. It made sense that he would fight back in the electronic universe, punching fingers into a keyboard as if they were fists. Morgan walked his own line, but he wouldn't menace Jack's mother.

Jack sighed and dropped onto the bed directly across from Ashley. She didn't look at him, but kept speeding through the channels, never pausing long enough to even guess what the program was about.

“Look, Ashley,” Jack began, “Morgan is weird, no question. Maybe I should have punched him when I found out he wrote about you. Hey, maybe I'll still do it, if that'd make you feel better. But this thing with the threat is different. This is real. If Mom and Dad believe he wrote that, he'll be out of here tonight.

 

Maybe not just to detention—maybe to jail!”

Ashley shrugged. The different channels flashed across the screen. Her indifference made him angry all over again.
“He didn't do it,”
Jack cried.

“What if you're wrong?” She threw down the remote and stared at Jack. “You still don't get it, do you? It's like your brain has been taken over by that geek. Guys like Morgan have blown up schools—”

“Wait a minute—where did
that
come from?”

“—but you think he's perfect because he can do a couple of cheap computer tricks. Mom doesn't trust him.
I
think he's dangerous. But
you
don't care what
I
think! You only care about Morgan.
That's
what I'm mad about.”

Jack was just about to light into her about the geek comment when the door swung open and their father stood there, looking solemn.

“OK, listen up, we've got a plan,” he told them briskly. “Your mother thinks that we need to get a bit of nature to calm us all down. She's going to take you three kids to the rim to watch for the condor. I'll go to park headquarters and at least alert them to what has happened. Then we'll try to put this whole thing behind us and go on. Agreed?”

“Sure,” Jack told him, feeling relieved. Getting out of the room seemed like the perfect move. “I'll bring my camera.”

“The
three
of us?” Ashley asked in disbelief. “We're taking Morgan? Why am I the only one who sees what's happening here?” she asked, throwing herself back onto the bed.

“Sweetheart, this trip has been a strain on us all. Things have been said on every side that shouldn't have been said. But after discussing it with Morgan, your mother and I feel—”

“Fine,” Ashley said abruptly. She turned off the television and stood up. Her hands were clenched in the pockets of her jeans, but her father didn't notice.

His voice dropped low as he went on, “Look, I know it's been a rough ride for you, Ashley. Morgan has behaved badly towards you, and I'm sorry you even know about it. Your mother and I understand that you were trying to help, but…the bottom line is that neither one of us believes Morgan had anything to do with that message.

“Told you!” Jack said triumphantly.

Steven shot him a look, and anything else Jack was going to say died in his throat.

“I understand why you suspected him. For a bad couple of moments I didn't know what to think myself. But it makes no sense that he would write a message like that. What good would it do?”

Ashley's face contorted. “Couldn't he be trying to scare Mom?”

“Not likely. As Morgan pointed out, he operates under his own code of ethics. Everything he's ever done, right or wrong, has been up front. He attacks his enemies head on.”

“That's true, Ashley,” Jack agreed.

Steven continued, “Ever since he's been with us, we've jumped on that kid pretty hard. We're supposed to be helping him. Just try to get along, OK? All of you.”

Ashley nodded, but her face was like stone.

“The main focus now is to alert the police to that message so we can track down the real culprit. I'm going now,” Steven announced. “I'll meet you at the rim in about an hour.”

 

Not talking much, they'd started out from Yavapai Lodge, walked past park headquarters, then connected with the Rim Trail, which would take them to the observation station at Yavapai Point. Grand Canyon's rim had warmed with the late-afternoon sun. Jack pulled off his sweatshirt and tied the sleeves around his middle, while Ashley bolted ahead up the paved trail, anxious, it seemed, to get away from the rest of them.

Morgan hung back, his arms swinging loosely at his sides. Since Morgan's sunglasses concealed his eyes, it was hard for Jack to guess what he was thinking. The silence of their half-hour walk had been broken only when Olivia asked questions to try to draw them out. When no one would answer, she'd given up, trusting, she'd said, in the rejuvenating powers of the canyon.

Now, from the trail, Jack realized how right his mother was to bring them here. A wind blew up from the west, tousling his hair and making the pine trees shiver in the sun. Less than 30 feet away, deer munched lazily on wild grass, oblivious to the knots of visitors bustling by. Morgan stopped to watch, while the rest of them walked on. Jack drank in the sweet smell of air tinged with pine and felt himself relaxing. No problem seemed very big next to the Grand Canyon.

“Do you want me to go after Ashley?” Jack asked his mother, his eyes following his sister's retreating figure.

“No, it's OK, let her go, she probably won't walk any farther than the observation building,” Olivia answered. She sighed loudly. “I have no clue what's going on with her. After that nasty stuff on Snipe's Web page, I guess I can understand why she's upset with Morgan. I've had a lot of problems with him myself. But it doesn't make any sense that Morgan would break into an office at headquarters, compose a bizarre message, and then pretend not to know anything about it. Still, the idea that it's Morgan has really taken hold of her. Any clues about what's going on with your sister?”