The Survivors(19)

Ash’s phone rang at last.

‘Finally,’ he said, his features slackening with relief as Olivia’s picture flashed on the screen. He turned his back on the Surf and Turf and lifted the phone to his ear. ‘Are you okay? Where are you?’ Ash listened. ‘No, don’t.’ His eyes flicked to the growing crowd. ‘Look, Sean’s at the marina. Go there instead, I’m on my way.’

He hung up and turned back to Kieran and Mia.

‘Can you come? Sean didn’t sound great and I’m not sure what Liv’ll need.’

Kieran glanced at Mia, who was trying to soothe a fractious Audrey.

‘She needs feeding,’ she said. ‘You go. But tell Liv I’ll call her. I’ll find somewhere to sit and get this feed done and …’

Mia hesitated as both she and Kieran looked down the road that led home. Past Fisherman’s Cottage, past the police tape. Past whatever had happened to Bronte on the shoreline.

Kieran shifted, uneasy. ‘Are you okay to walk back alone?’ Was he okay with it?

‘Yeah.’ Mia shrugged. ‘I mean, yes. You know, it’s broad daylight. There are lots of people about. The police are probably all still over there.’

‘I suppose.’

‘Yeah.’ She frowned. ‘So, I think it’s fine. Right?’

They looked at each other, trying to work out exactly where the line fell between cautious and overdramatic.

‘I’ll walk with you,’ Lyn said suddenly. She finished her latest cigarette and ground it out. ‘I’m going that way anyway.’

‘Really?’ Mia said. ‘You’re happy to do that?’

‘No worries at all.’

She meant it too, Kieran thought. That was interesting. Lyn, who had barely said a word since Liam’s name was first mentioned, was really not worried, at all.

Ash was already moving. ‘Let’s get going,’ he said to Kieran. ‘Liv’s waiting.’

They headed out of town, each lost in his own thoughts. As they passed the police station, Kieran saw the few parking spots out the front and on the road were all now taken up by both patrol and unmarked vehicles. Reinforcements from Hobart, he guessed.

‘Hey, is Renn getting the boot or something?’ Kieran asked, remembering what Lyn had started to say earlier.

‘Whole station’s getting the boot,’ Ash said. ‘Budget cuts. Think the plan is to send a couple of cops over from Port Osborne in summer, but there’ll be no-one full-time over winter. I heard Renn was pretty pissed off about it. He could have gone to Port Osborne, but decided to quit instead.’

‘What, altogether?’

‘Well, when the station closes next month. He’s moving to the mainland. Going to work for his brother’s haulage business.’

‘That’ll be different.’

‘Yeah. I mean, I get it. He wasn’t the only one annoyed about the station closing. My mum’s on the Neighbourhood Watch and they petitioned and stuff, but it was a done deal. You know what it’s like, though, it’s only Renn and whatever sidekicks they send him for the summer. Probably costs more to keep the lights on than it’s worth.’ Ash thought for a moment as the marina came into view up ahead, the water gleaming in the late-morning light. ‘Although after last night, who knows?’

The marina was close to deserted, with some of the boats already prepared for off-season storage, tarps strewn like shrouds across their decks.

Kieran spotted the Nautilus Blue immediately. Sean was standing by the helm, his arms crossed as he stared far out to sea. Sean’s had been a close family even before the storm, Kieran knew. But afterwards, seven-year-old Liam had reacted to the death of his dad by clinging hard to his uncle. Sean, barely eighteen himself at the time and reeling hard, had clung back.

It was interesting that Liam had been seen on camera with Bronte, though, Kieran thought. At the very least, it added a new edge to Julian’s caginess earlier, when the man had stopped by the Surf and Turf.

Julian’s gentle courtship with Liam’s mother Sarah in the years following the storm had been one of the few positive things to emerge in the aftermath, and the will they–won’t they green shoots of romance had kept the entire town enchanted over a long winter. They had, at last, in a much-celebrated happy ending, and three years after losing his dad, Liam gained a stepfather.

From what Kieran knew, Julian had embraced stepfatherhood with the same earnest dedication with which he approached any new challenge and, perhaps against the odds, he had won Liam over. It probably helped – Kieran pictured Julian hunched tense in his car outside the Surf and Turf earlier – that Julian genuinely seemed to give a shit about his stepson.

Sean was the first to spot Kieran and Ash approaching and he said something to Olivia. She had been sitting on the dock, very still, her face down. Her head snapped up and she started to stand but Ash was already there, taking three large strides across the dock straight to her. She turned wordlessly and buried her face in his shoulder. From the heave of her back, Kieran could tell she was crying hard. Ash put his arms around her and waited.

‘What’s happening with Liam?’ Kieran said quietly to Sean as he climbed aboard.

‘He’s at the station with Sarah. Julian’s got a lawyer coming from Hobart.’

Kieran waited for him to say something more, but Sean turned back to the water, his eyes unseeing. On the dock, Ash murmured something to Olivia, who gave a muffled reply.