The Survivors(26)

‘So are you going to tell all your footy mates about this?’

‘No.’

‘Really?’

‘Not if you don’t want me to,’ Kieran said. ‘I know Ash and some of the others can be dickheads sometimes, but I’m not like them.’

‘But –’ Olivia’s forehead creased.

‘What?’

‘Kieran –’ She looked at him. ‘You are like them.’

He opened his mouth to argue, but something in the way she’d said it stopped him.

‘Well,’ he said, finally. ‘I still won’t tell anyone.’

And somewhat even to Kieran’s own surprise, he had kept his word.

Kieran and Ash stood at the gatepost, behind the police tape, staring at Fisherman’s Cottage. A uniformed officer had come out to fetch something from the police cars, leaving the front door open.

Kieran could see a bright hallway leading first towards what he knew would be the kitchen and living area. What little he could see of the house looked neat and cared for.

From what Olivia had said, it sounded like she hadn’t noticed any signs of violence or a struggle inside. Kieran pictured the layout of the house. Bronte’s bedroom window, looking over the beach. The back door, leading out to the small backyard and the sand. What had drawn her out there?

From somewhere in the house, he heard Sergeant Renn’s low voice.

There was nothing, then a short response. Olivia.

Kieran couldn’t make out what either one was saying.

Kieran and Olivia had met at the caves for a second time seemingly, if not actually, by chance. Kieran had hung around the deserted beach all afternoon, eventually resorting to doing some route mapping work for Finn and Toby as an excuse for being there. He’d sighed with relief when he’d seen Olivia’s sunlit head peering over the cliffs. He’d raised a hand and she’d waved back, both smiling as she made her way down.

Two days later, he’d left Sean and Ash sitting in the Surf and Turf and jogged outside to catch her alone. He’d led her out of sight behind the community centre and straight up asked when she could next meet him.

The following day, they had been on the ledge together and Olivia had looked up and spotted where Ash had used his keys to carve his name into the rock face a few months earlier. She’d run a finger over it and raised an eyebrow, and Kieran had shrugged.

The ledge was technically Ash’s discovery. He’d stumbled across it the summer before in the midst of an enthusiastic campaign to convince some girl from the ice-cream shop to take her clothes off for him. It had worked, Ash had reported to Kieran later, with a grin. By mutual unspoken agreement they hadn’t mentioned it to Sean, who in his own quiet way could sometimes take the shine off stuff like that.

Kieran’s only real concern whenever he laid his towel out on the flat rock with Olivia was that Ash might turn up unexpectedly, a potential conquest of his own in tow. Ash had been to stay with his dad and his dad’s new girlfriend – not the one he’d left Ash’s mum for, another one – and been in a foul mood ever since he’d got back.

But thankfully no-one ever appeared uninvited at the mouth of the cave and, for those weeks at least, Kieran and Olivia had had the place to themselves.

By the day of the storm, they had established something of a routine, and Kieran was already waiting by the time Olivia appeared on the cliff path. He was sitting by the cave entrance, glad he’d brought an extra hoodie and towel as he felt a breeze whip across the beach. The sea stretched out empty in front of him as he’d stood up to kiss her. The Nautilus Black was not sailing today, he knew. High winds were forecast. Finn and Toby would keep her safely in the marina.

‘I can’t stay too long,’ Olivia said when they broke apart. ‘It’s my mum’s birthday tomorrow. Gabby wants us to make her a cake.’

‘No worries. Looks like it might rain anyway.’

Above, the earlier blue skies had given way to darkening clouds that hung low with a pregnant weight. Inside, though, the cave was oddly warm, the rocks having absorbed the heat of the midday sun.

As Kieran and Olivia climbed onto their ledge, tucked away safely from the elements, Olivia had glanced back towards the beach. The weather wasn’t good.

‘Maybe we should leave it today?’

‘No,’ Kieran had said. ‘Stay. Please.’

And he’d kissed her again and she’d kissed him back, and after that he had barely heard the rain start as they lay on the soft towels in the snug warmth of the shelter. When the lightning had begun to flash outside, it was nothing short of romantic, and Kieran had thought to himself – this almost made him laugh later – that he would remember this day.

He was surprised, when he finally sat up, to see how dark the sky was. He checked the time. It wasn’t even that late. He looked over at Olivia and saw her staring down.

‘Oh my God,’ she said.

It was the note in her voice that made him stop. He looked to where she was pointing, beneath the ledge. Across the bottom of the cave, the sand was hidden by a dark sheet of water.

Ash leaned on the gate outside Fisherman’s Cottage and, distracted, reached over the police tape and pulled out a weed growing near the fence line.

‘Sorry,’ he said, tossing the weed on the ground as the uniformed police officer at the door frowned. ‘Bloody hell, what’s taking so long?’