The Survivors(25)

‘Oh yeah?’ Renn walked a few steps back. ‘Along Beach Road?’

Kieran nodded. ‘A bit further along. Coming from this direction towards town.’

‘Time?’

‘About eleven-thirty.’

‘Make and model? Colour?’

‘Four-wheel drive. Holden, maybe.’ Kieran tried to think, but what he remembered most were the lights and the noise. Renn was still waiting. ‘Sorry. It was driving pretty fast. Mia saw it too, though.’

‘Okay. Try to remember what you can. We’ll grab a statement off you both when we get a chance.’ Renn turned back to Olivia. ‘Ready?’

Renn’s tone was neutral and there was nothing unusual about the way he gestured to the front door, open and waiting for Olivia. But somewhere deep in Kieran’s primal survival instincts, a warning pinged. Tread carefully.

Olivia herself paused, one hand still on the police tape, and Kieran wondered if she felt it too. Then she straightened, and followed Sergeant Renn into the house where, until yesterday, Bronte had lived.

The tide swelled in and out, slow and steady as Kieran led Olivia across the beach. The South Cave was the further of the two from the cliff path, but it was his favourite.

Kieran avoided the dip at the entrance, then reached out and offered Olivia his hand to help her over. She took it as they crossed the threshold from the bright light into the cool dark shadow.

‘Wow,’ she breathed as he took out his torch and showed her along one of the same routes he’d raced through an hour or so earlier. The rocks arched over them, mostly above head height, sometimes lower. The damp sand that formed the soft, wide path repaired itself quickly, their footprints vanishing almost as soon as they were made.

‘It’s really beautiful,’ Olivia said as they stopped and stood side by side, examining the way the natural patterns in the rocky walls formed strands of colour, woven together over millions of years and washed twice daily by the sea.

Kieran had to agree. It was always beautiful, even if he rarely stopped to notice these days. He took his time leading them through, giving Olivia a chance to absorb the caves at her own pace.

‘What’s down there?’ Olivia asked as they came to a junction and Kieran guided her left rather than right.

‘Dead end, eventually.’ He shone his torch down the gloomy path. From where they stood, the tunnel looked the same as the other one. ‘It goes pretty deep, though. You can go a fair way before you have to come back.’

‘You’ve been down it?’

‘Yeah, once.’ By accident, when he hadn’t been paying attention.

Kieran could still remember the startled leap of panic when he’d realised, too late, that he had gone wrong. Finn had warned him about exactly this, many times. Kieran knew all about the tunnels so twisty you could get lost ten steps deep. The roof over Kieran’s head had instantly felt lower, hanging dark and heavy. He had checked his watch, struggling suddenly to calculate the minutes – hours, in reality – left until the tide was due to rush in.

All he could think of was Finn’s warning: If you’re still in here at high tide, mate, you’re not coming out.

Kieran had made himself take a few deep breaths, all alone in that unfamiliar space, and then turned a very careful 180 degrees and started to walk, slowly. When the first sliver of daylight had reappeared – literally at the end of the tunnel – he had let himself run towards it, embarrassed by his fear even as the adrenalin still coursed through him.

‘There’s not much to see down there anyway,’ he said to Olivia now, turning the torch away. ‘This route’s better.’

They had traced the trail onwards through the rocks and eventually they could hear the sea and emerged once more near the wide-open cavern inside the mouth.

‘Back again,’ Kieran said. ‘Safe and sound.’

‘Thank you.’ Olivia’s cheeks were flushed and her eyes bright. ‘That was amazing.’

‘It’s good, hey? You’ve never been down here before?’

‘No, my mum says it’s off limits for a reason.’

Kieran shrugged. ‘I mean, you don’t want to be around at high tide, but it’s okay now.’

‘Yeah.’ And Olivia had smiled as they stood alone in the dark cosy cave with the warm beach breeze floating in. ‘It’s pretty good now.’

And Kieran, who found it best not to overthink things, had taken that as his cue and kissed her. She had kissed him back and, after a minute or two, he had put his hand out and led her a little deeper into the cave, where a large flat rock jutted out from the wall, creating a secluded ledge.

And he had shown her, as he had shown a couple of other girls that summer, how to climb up, and they’d sat on his towel, hidden from view, and kissed some more as the afternoon light filtered in. They had stayed there, close and undisturbed, until eventually Kieran had very reluctantly checked his watch.

‘We’d better go,’ he’d said. ‘The tide’ll be coming in soon.’

He’d helped her down and he’d been a little surprised, as they emerged, how thin and narrow the slice of beach had become. Time had slipped by faster than he’d thought. Out on the water, The Survivors were up to their waists.

Kieran and Olivia climbed up the cliff path together and at the top, she’d stopped, looking back down at the hidden beach.