The Survivors(24)

‘They look different from this angle,’ she said after a moment.

Kieran followed her line of sight along the furthest rocks that snaked out from the caves and into the sea. At the very tip, the three life-size iron figures stood guard. The Survivors.

Side by side, they gazed outwards, unflinching against the elements, their sculpted faces turned forever to where the Mary Minerva lay sunk beneath the waves.

‘I can see why people like them, but they always seem kind of cold to me,’ Olivia said.

‘Yeah?’ Kieran studied the three figures. The Survivors were permanently visible from the cliffs and the sea, tall enough that even in the highest tides and the worst weather, they never fully disappeared underwater. There was no danger of that today, as they stood knee-deep and watched over the placid ocean.

‘Maybe it’s just their name and the wreck and everything.’ Olivia shrugged. ‘It all feels a bit sad.’

‘Do you know they weren’t originally called that?’ Kieran said, and Olivia turned to him.

‘No. Really?’

‘They were, like, Trio in Iron or something, but then someone from the council heard about them and had the bright idea to put them out there. So they paid the artist extra to change the name, point them in the right direction and say they were a tribute to the wreck.’

‘Are you serious?’ Olivia laughed.

‘Yeah. My brother told me. He found out by accident when he was having to do heaps of paperwork for the dive permits. I guess they thought The Survivors was catchier.’

‘They thought right,’ she said. ‘No-one tell the tourists, hey?’

‘It’s weird. I kind of like them better for knowing that, though,’ Kieran said. ‘How they nearly had this whole other life, standing around in a sunny park or something instead of stuck out there. It makes them seem more –’ He shrugged, suddenly feeling like an idiot. ‘I don’t know. Human or something.’

Olivia looked at him then, something like surprise crossing her face.

‘Yeah,’ she said finally, turning back to The Survivors. ‘I get what you mean.’

They stood together and watched the swell of the tide.

After a minute, Olivia looked at him again. ‘So, Sean’s not going to be here at all?’

‘No.’ Kieran bent down and slipped on his t-shirt, the fabric sticking a little to his damp skin. When he stood up, her eyes were still on him; her hair shining in the sun, her legs long beneath her shorts. Her expression was unchanged, but there was an ember of something new sparking in that fresh sea air above the deserted beach.

Or maybe not something new, Kieran could admit to himself. Something that had been there for quite a while, on his part at least, at school and on the bus and at all those booze-soaked parties. A rush he felt whenever Olivia was nearby.

Kieran checked the cliff path. It was as empty as the beach. No-one was around. No Sean. No Ash. Just him and Olivia, for once. The caves lay across the beach, cool and inviting.

‘I could show you around,’ he said. ‘If you want.’

Kieran waited. He realised he was holding his breath and let it out.

Olivia was still watching him. ‘Yeah.’ She smiled, slowly. ‘Okay, then.’





Chapter 10


Olivia stopped at the gate of Fisherman’s Cottage and gave her name to the officer standing guard outside her own house. He motioned for her to wait and disappeared inside. A minute later, the front door opened and Sergeant Renn came out.

His bald head was hidden by his police hat, making him appear less like a nightclub bouncer than he sometimes could. Not yet forty and he looked to Kieran like a man who had absolutely had enough. It was a shame, Kieran thought. When Chris Renn had arrived in Evelyn Bay twelve years earlier, his enthusiasm for small-town policing had seemed genuine rather than simply dutiful.

He had spent all summer diligently shadowing then-Sergeant Geoffrey Mallott – a creaking sack of a man who preferred warnings dispensed with a grandfatherly twinkle to actual charges and paperwork. Mallott had marked off the days to his retirement on a calendar hanging in public view at the station, and been more than happy to let young Constable Renn solve any pressing cases of graffiti and littering and the occasional theft of a tourist’s wallet from under a beach towel. And Renn, for his part, had been happy to oblige.

Kieran knew there was a general consensus among Evelyn Bay residents that they were lucky Chris Renn had stuck around as long as he had. He seemed competent and ambitious enough to progress elsewhere, but he had reassured them that he simply liked both the people and the place. There had been some fear they’d lose him a few years ago when he started getting serious with a woman in Launceston, but Renn was still here and she hadn’t joined him, so Kieran guessed it hadn’t worked out.

Now, though, Sergeant Renn simply looked tired. He saw Kieran, Ash and Olivia at the gate of Fisherman’s Cottage, and lifted the police tape.

‘Just you, please, Olivia. For now,’ Renn said, holding up a hand as Ash started to follow.

Ash looked like he was going to argue, but Olivia shook her head. ‘It’s okay.’

She ducked under the tape and Renn turned back to the house.

‘Hey, Chris –’ Kieran called out, and the officer stopped. ‘I saw a car around here last night.’