The Survivors(100)

Kieran walked on, past the marina where he could make out the Nautilus Blue in the dock. He slowed his pace, wondering what would happen to the business when word spread about Gabby’s bag having been found on board the near-namesake boat. The Norwegians might not care, but the locals would.

Kieran turned and kept moving, towards town, past the police station. He thought about Sergeant Renn, and his promise to have those painful and long overdue conversations with two families today, and Kieran very nearly stopped. He spent a minute in silent debate and then, checking the time, pressed on.

The lure of caffeine had attracted a few early risers through the doors of the Surf and Turf that morning at least. Kieran could see Lyn through the window, carrying a tray. There was no sign of Julian or Liam. No Olivia either, although he hadn’t expected to see her. Kieran remembered the strain on her face in the Surf and Turf the night before last and wondered whether she’d woken up that morning at her mother’s house or at Ash’s place. Kieran guessed it depended where she felt more secure. Anywhere was probably better than the hollow loneliness of Fisherman’s Cottage now.

Kieran continued on, not slowing outside George Barlin’s house this time. In daylight, the garden looked even worse than it had at night. Kieran glanced at the windows, but he could see no movement inside. The niggling sensation started up again, but Kieran knew now what it had been trying to tell him. What had George said, as he’d leaned against his own fence the night before, his expression hard to read in the dark?

The writing’s on the wall.

Kieran did not stop until he reached the top of the cliff path. There, he paused at the lookout, leaning against the safety rail as he had so many times before, feeling the wind rushing over the sea and rocks. There was no-one in sight.

Below, the ocean was large and empty, all the way to the perfect horizon. He leaned over, craning his neck. The beach below was a thin strip, small enough that Kieran immediately felt uneasy. Out to sea, the waves lapped high against The Survivors. All around him, the birds bristled and flapped.

Kieran looked out at the water, to the spot where he had last seen Finn. The guilt was still there, like a scar, but now it felt different. What Kieran had always believed, and what had really happened that day, were not one and the same. He understood that, even if he hadn’t quite accepted it yet. Still, he repeated it to himself silently, turning the information over and over in his mind. What it had meant then, what it meant now.

Kieran stepped past the barrier and started to make his way down. At the bottom of the cliff, the water was washing up high over the sand and he checked the time again. The tide was coming in. But it was not there yet.

Kieran ignored the South Cave, where he and Olivia had met on that strange day as the sea and storm moved in. Instead, he stood at the mouth of the North Cave. As the edge of the water nudged his shoes, he looked at the names that had been carved into the rock. The marks left behind by him and his brother and their friends. And he thought of Pendlebury. What had she asked him as she stood there, so deliberate and precise, in this very spot?

Can we find them all?

They could be anywhere.

Kieran stared into the yawning mouth of the cave, and the blackness inside. The eerie sensation of something watching and waiting trickled through him once more. He stood on high alert, but he could hear nothing but the heartbeat pulse of the ocean.

He could go in, step through the entrance and into the gloom. He could speed this up. But he had already spent too long mentally navigating the dark of those caves, wandering exhausted over the same old ground. Battling to change something that couldn’t be changed, instead of trying to find his way out to the light.

Enough, Kieran thought. It was time to stop.

He stepped away. The sea water was creeping around his feet. He didn’t need to go in. High tide had a way of washing everything out.

Kieran turned. He walked the few steps across the sand back to the path, then went up a short way, settling for a point just out of sight of the cave and well out of reach of the lick of the tide. He sat, and he watched the water slither in. Above him, the cliff path remained deserted. Below, the beach slowly disappeared.

Kieran waited as the birds circled overhead, watchful and wary, calling to him that he was right. But as the sea crept closer and time ticked on, he slowly began to wonder. He was still arguing with himself when he sensed rather than heard it. A splash of movement.

Kieran stayed very still and stared at the edge of the cave, holding his breath as the seconds trickled by. He thought he might have imagined it and then, all at once from the blackness, a figure appeared. He watched as the figure waded out, knee-deep in water, bag over shoulder.

Kieran breathed out. It was what he’d expected, but it was still a shock. The figure turned towards the path, saw him and froze.

Kieran stood, a little unsteady on his feet. For a long moment, the only sound was the slap of waves hitting the rock, then he opened his mouth.

‘Did you find it yet?’ Kieran’s voice echoed off the cliffs.

A silence. Deliberate and calculating. ‘Find what?’

‘The message Gabby Birch scratched into the rock on the day she died.’





Chapter 37


Kieran waited, the blood rushing fast and loud in his ears.

Knee-deep in the water, Sean stared back at him.

Sean’s hair was damp and the sea water had soaked his clothes, darkening the colours. He didn’t speak, but his head tilted in a familiar way that Kieran knew meant he was thinking. Kieran pointed at the bag over his shoulder.