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for?’
    He flipped the shell over, flipped it back. ‘My mother calls it a “tell shell”, some kind of island tradition. People used to send messages to one another.’
    â€˜What kind of message?’
    â€˜No idea. Load of nonsense.’
    He threw the scallop towards the castle wall. It hit the old stones and shattered.
    â€˜I might have wanted that,’ Hayley said.
    â€˜It’s just a shell.’
    The girl stood and said, ‘Well, I’m going home.’ She paused. ‘God, I’ve just called that ridiculous little cottage “home”.’ She gave an anguished sigh and walked away. After a few steps she stopped and turned. ‘Oh, and FYI, there might be someone hiding in the big cave down there. Thought you should know in case he’s kidnapped your brother or something.’
    â€˜What do you mean?’ Fraser asked, startled, but the girl strode off down the path and was gone.
    He faced the castle again and his brother was there, standing under a shadowed archway like a phantom. Fraser sighed in relief that he was found, imagined some laird’s son from centuries past plunging from the high cliff and only now returning, a pale ghost haunting the castle, moving through its dark, ruined rooms in silence.
    â€˜Time to go home, Dunny,’ he said, but he knew that this place, this cliff, beach and ocean, was the only place Dunny seemed truly at home.

CHAPTER 6
    H ayley stood on the beach and stared at the endless ocean. She was stuck on this island, an Alcatraz of sorts, only wetter and with less chance of escape. And nobody ever escaped from Alcatraz.
    She took out her phone, turned her back to the sea and snapped a picture of herself. Later she would post the photograph on every one of her profiles and home pages, along with a challenge to her friends. She was alone on a beach, on an island where she knew no one, in a country far away from everything she understood. Could anyone she knew post a pic that was a more of a selfie than that?
    She climbed up from the beach on to the harbour wall and saw her mom. Sarah was talking to the whale man. He was good-looking in that older, stubble-on-chin, broad-shouldered way that boys her age couldn’t muster. She moved up the jetty and her mom saw her.
    â€˜Hi, Hayley,’ she said. ‘Ben was just telling me that you saw a dead whale this morning.’
    â€˜It was gross.’
    The man laughed. ‘I prefer them alive myself.’
    â€˜Do you see many?’ Sarah asked.
    Ben nodded enthusiastically. ‘This season has been amazing, actually. I’ve seen a bunch of minke whales, pilot whales, dolphins, harbour porpoises, a sei whale. And then  . . . ’ He paused for a moment and looked at the ocean, smiled slightly. ‘I recorded a sperm whale. Can you believe it?’
    â€˜That is amazing,’ Sarah said.
    Hayley blew a snort of disbelief. Her mom wouldn’t know a sperm whale if it flopped on to the sea wall and introduced itself. What was she doing?
    â€˜Nin suddenly seems to be the centre of the whale world,’ Ben said. ‘I’m thinking of packing in my research and starting a whale-watching business.’
    â€˜You mustn’t do that. Being a scientist is such a cool job.’
    What was that? Hayley wondered. That was dangerously close to flirting.
    â€˜I’m kidding. I love my job, although it can be a little lonely at times, just me and the whales.’
    Her mom laughed coyly.
    Enough already .
    â€˜Here’s something you might find interesting,’ Ben said. ‘You guys have a species of dolphin named after you. There’s a Risso’s dolphin.’
    â€˜Oh, my goodness,’ said Sarah. ‘That’s exciting.’ She turned to her daughter. ‘Isn’t that exciting, Hayley?’
    Hayley thought, Not really . ‘Sure,’ she said.
    Ben looked at Hayley now. ‘There’s also a Fraser’s