The Survivors(91)

He surveyed his half-empty office and took a breath.

‘George Barlin told me and Pendlebury something looked off with the storm timings when we went round to his place to get him to sign a statement about Bronte. He thought he’d stuffed up his research and kept asking about it. Wouldn’t let it go.’

There was a clatter from out in the hallway, and they all looked at the door. A muffled swearword floated in, followed by the sound of a box being repacked. Renn turned back to Kieran.

‘And this is at the same time as Pendlebury was getting very interested, mate, in the fact that your dad was the last person seen with Gabby Birch, and then also found wandering around when Bronte was killed. I’d already got Trish Birch talking up a connection, and then suddenly there’s George Barlin picking holes in a timeline concerning your family that day, Kieran.’

Kieran felt like he could hardly breathe. The pram creaked as Mia rocked it back and forth.

‘That storm –’ The phone on Renn’s desk started to ring. He checked the number, then waited until it stopped before he spoke again. ‘The storm has done its damage. There’s nothing to be gained from letting that wound fester. I really believed that. I still do. Things were done and decisions were made at the time, rightly or wrongly, and as a community we got through it and we moved on. But Pendlebury wants answers about Bronte as much as I do, so she’s asking questions.’ Renn dropped his chin. ‘And she’s looking years into the past and then she’s looking at Brian, and so I have to tell her about some of those decisions made back in the storm. Because I want this resolved for Bronte and for her mum and dad, and we’re not going to be able to do that if I’ve got key officers wasting time looking in the wrong direction.’

Kieran swallowed. ‘Thank you. Chris –’

‘Don’t thank me yet.’

The office was so quiet, they could hear someone’s mobile ringing in another room. And suddenly, in what felt like a blinding premonition, Kieran had the urge to turn back the clock. Refuse to take Pendlebury down to the caves, tell her he’d made his peace with the storm and wasn’t interested in dredging it up again. He wished he and Mia had gone home instead of coming here to this police station, where he suddenly found himself very afraid of what Sergeant Renn was going to say next. He felt Mia stir. She looked worried too.

‘Finn and Toby were already out on the water that day,’ Renn said. ‘You’re right about that. Despite all the warnings and whatever, they’d got on their boat as the storm came in and by the time we got word you were in trouble out at the caves, they’d already left the marina. And I didn’t know exactly why then, and I still don’t –’ Renn looked Kieran in the eye. ‘– and that’s the truth.’

He took a breath, and Kieran had to fight the urge to tell him to stop talking. He’d heard enough. That was all he needed to know.

‘But this is what I can tell you. After Finn and Toby drowned, we worked hard to bring their boat back in, to show your families we cared about those blokes. We said we’d look it over, me and Sergeant Mallott. Try to help your families by giving them the best information we could about what’d happened.’

Renn shifted again in his chair. There was no disguising his uneasiness now.

‘And as it was, Sergeant Mallott did find something on the Nautilus Black.’

‘What?’ Kieran couldn’t stop himself. ‘What did he find?’

‘Gabby Birch’s backpack.’





Chapter 32


There was a rustle from inside the pram, the soft thrash of limbs and Audrey began to cry. Kieran barely registered the sound. Mia had curled herself forward with her elbows on her knees and her face in her palms. Audrey’s wails bounced off the office walls until finally Sergeant Renn moved to stand.

‘I’ve got her.’ Kieran got up and reached into the pram. ‘Don’t touch her.’

Renn held up his hands and sat down again.

‘The bag was locked in the dry box –’ Renn realised Kieran had stayed standing. ‘Sorry, do you still want to hear this?’

Kieran felt a lot like he was shaking, but Audrey was steady in his arms as he soothed her. Did he want to hear? Gabby Birch’s backpack. What he really wanted was for that not to be true.

Mia said something, her voice muffled. She lowered her hands and tried again. ‘Just tell us.’

Renn glanced at the door. There was no sound from the hall now.

‘Me and Geoff Mallott were working flat out from the minute that storm passed through. The town was a wreck. We had people injured. We’d been organising the search crews for Gabby, getting word out. Circulating her description, what she’d been wearing. Her bag. Purple stripes with a kangaroo key ring.’ Renn rubbed his neck, remembering. ‘Looking over the Nautilus Black was a courtesy. We didn’t have the time really, wouldn’t have done it for tourists. But with it being two local men, local families –’

Renn looked up at Kieran, still on his feet.

‘We wanted to make sure you all felt like we’d taken care of them. But we were busy, and I’d been held up at the station dealing with things still coming in and I was rushing down to the marina to meet Mallott. I was nearly at the gate, you know, that one where you can look straight across the docks?’