The Survivors(30)

Ash ran his tongue over his teeth. ‘And he wouldn’t help you out?’ He looked at his girlfriend. ‘Give you a clue?’

Olivia had spent much of her eighteenth year pretending not to notice that the new young constable in town had an embarrassingly obvious crush on her. She had never acknowledged it, and then twenty-seven-year-old Chris Renn had done his very professional best to hide it, but the telltale blush that used to creep up his neck tended to betray him.

‘No. He wouldn’t, actually.’ Olivia looked at the house, and seemed unsure what to make of that.

They all jumped a little as the door opened and Julian reappeared. Kieran could see Chris Renn in the hallway. He was talking into his mobile. He noticed Kieran watching and slowly reached out and tapped the door shut again.

Julian came down the path and ducked under the police tape at the gate.

‘Listen, Liv, this goes without saying, but don’t worry about the rent for now. If you still want to stay on afterwards –’ Julian jerked his head awkwardly at the police car. ‘We’ll work something out.’

‘Thanks, Julian.’

There was a pause. ‘You didn’t tell me the security bulb was blown.’ He tried and failed to keep the note of reproach out of his voice.

‘I thought Bronte mentioned it.’

‘She didn’t.’

‘Oh.’ Olivia rubbed her eyes. ‘Well, I don’t know what I can tell you, Julian. You know what she was like.’

‘Yeah. Of course.’ He checked himself. ‘Sorry. It’s just been a bloody long day already. You’ll be right staying at Ash’s for now?’

Olivia shook her head. ‘My mum wants me at home with her.’

‘Fair enough. I probably would too. All right, well, call me if you need anything, yeah? Don’t hesitate, okay?’

She nodded and Ash put his arm around her.

‘Let’s get going,’ he said, and then turned back to Kieran. ‘Speak to you soon, mate.’

‘Yeah.’ Kieran watched them walk away together.

He had never told Ash about his meetings with Olivia at the caves, or that she had been with him on the day of the storm. Whether Olivia had told him, he supposed, depended on how close she and Ash were. Kieran couldn’t guess.

He turned towards home himself, raising a hand to Julian. ‘See you around.’

‘Sure,’ Julian said. ‘And hey, is your dad okay? After last night?’

Kieran stopped. ‘What?’

‘Hope he wasn’t left too confused. It was me who found him this time.’ Julian clocked Kieran’s own confusion and frowned. ‘Sorry, I thought Verity would’ve said. Brian was out wandering again.’

‘Wandering? Again?’ Kieran stared at him. ‘How long has he been doing that for?’

‘I’m not sure,’ Julian said. ‘But he was doing it last night.’

‘Where?’ But Kieran was already picturing the hallway of his parents’ house that morning. The broom propped up against the wall. The sand scattered across the floorboards. He felt a sudden overwhelming urge to get home, right now.

‘He was walking along the road here, a bit after midnight, when I was driving home.’

‘And you saw him, did you?’

‘Yeah, luckily. I was doing the quarterly payroll, so it took me a while to cash up, otherwise I might have missed him. I called Verity, let her know. Your dad won’t get in the car with anyone he doesn’t recognise these days, so –’ Julian shook his head. ‘Well, you know how he is. So I followed him along the road. Drove behind until your mum came out and got him.’

‘Right,’ Kieran said. ‘Thank you.’

‘No worries. I didn’t want him getting himself into any trouble.’

Through the cottage windows, Kieran could see the outline of police officers moving around. He looked back, his unspoken question of whether or not Julian had shared this information with them answered by the shadow of guilt on the man’s face. He absolutely had.

‘Look, I told them straight,’ Julian said, reading his mind, his voice low. ‘I’ve known your folks for years, I’m not looking to cause problems for them. But I’ve known Liam his whole life. I love that kid like my own. Sarah’s devastated. We all want this sorted out. And not even for Liam, for Bronte.’

When Kieran didn’t reply, Julian shrugged.

‘I mean it. Bronte was a good girl, the customers loved her, all the other staff too. We just want whatever bastard did this to her found before he’s halfway across the mainland. If he’s not already. I’m serious. The cops are wasting their time looking at Liam.’

It was an echo of what Sean had said earlier and Kieran didn’t reply. He could see Julian’s silver four-wheel drive parked a little way along the road, surfboard still strapped to the top.

‘That’s the only reason I even told the cops about your dad,’ Julian said. ‘So they’d know that it was possible other people were around last night. People who weren’t necessarily seen, you know?’

‘I’m not sure Chris Renn needs your help reminding him what his own town’s like at night,’ Kieran said.

‘Maybe not, but it’s not him running this show, is it?’ Julian said. ‘They’ve got some woman over from Hobart.’