The Survivors(92)

He paused, as Kieran nodded.

‘I was still a fair way away but I could see Mallott already on the boat. He had the boltcutters out and was working on the padlock on the dry box. My phone rang; it was the medical centre with some crisis and I had to stop at the gate to take the call. I was annoyed, I remember, pacing up and down because I needed to get them off the phone so I could get on with things. I looked out across the docks and I could see Sergeant Mallott. He’d got the box open and was reaching inside –’ Renn stared at his desk, his gaze somewhere far away and long ago. ‘– and he pulled something out. And it looked to me a whole lot like purple-striped fabric.’

Kieran held Audrey tight as Renn opened his mouth again.

‘And I remember feeling completely blindsided. I didn’t know what to make of it, and I couldn’t work it out, because I was stuck on that bloody call.’ Renn breathed out. ‘It took ages, and I’m having to search my bag for notes I made hours earlier, and being transferred by the medical centre to a doctor at the hospital, and then at last I can hang up.

‘So I’m rushing into the marina, apologising, stressed out, and I’m expecting Mallott to call me over to the dry box to corroborate, take some photos, but he doesn’t. He’s just standing on the deck – as normal as you like – and he says he’s all finished. He asks me to call the relief coordinators and tell them we’ll be coming around to do checks and updates.’

Mia made a small noise in her throat. She was staring at him, her hands clasped tight in her lap.

‘So I asked Mallott straight out what was in the dry box.’ Renn’s mouth pressed into a hard line. ‘And he said there was nothing much. Those were the words he used. Nothing much. Charts and things. The lid was wide open by then. I had a look inside. There was no bag in there.’

Kieran felt a stirring of hope. ‘Maybe you were wrong.’

‘Yeah, I wondered that too. I mean, it had been chaos, and I must’ve repeated that description of Gabby a hundred times. I thought maybe I was so tired I’d got confused. So I said to Mallott that I thought I’d seen him lift something out of the box. He looked me in the eye and he said no.’ Renn shook his head. ‘And I knew that he was lying to me. I could tell. It was the first time I’d ever known him to do that. I couldn’t think what to do.’

The faint sounds of chatter rose and fell as someone passed in the corridor. Mia took a breath. ‘So what did you do?’

‘Geoff and I stood there looking at each other, and then he got on his radio like nothing had happened. He ordered me to follow him to the cars and we went and did our relief checks. We were at it until the early hours. When we finally finished, I went home but I couldn’t sleep. I kept running it over in my mind, and the next morning I felt sure I knew what I’d seen.’ Renn gave a hard smile. ‘Mallott was already here at the station when I got in. Early – earlier than I’d ever known him to get here – like he was waiting for me. So I put it to him straight, said I thought I’d seen Gabby’s bag in the box. He sat me down. Here in this room –’ Renn nodded to where Kieran and Mia were sitting on the other side of the battered desk. ‘And he told me I was wrong.’

‘He denied it?’ Kieran said.

‘Well, he wouldn’t admit it,’ Renn said. ‘Which isn’t quite the same thing. But he brought me in here, gave me a coffee, talked in that matter-of-fact way of his about how we had three families grieving. Did I really want to go stirring things up when we had no answers, only more questions? He kept going on about how before I went upsetting families, I’d really want to have proof of something, like the bag itself. Did I have the bag? Did I have anything like that?’

Renn leaned back and his chair groaned.

‘We argued. Me and him. I wanted to call in the families, starting with Trish and Olivia. Tell them what I’d seen. Mallott kept repeating himself. Really calm. We had two men dead. A lot of people to think about. Your parents, Kieran, worried about your recovery. Toby’s wife was filled up to her eyes with prescription meds, she was so upset by what had happened. His boy Liam was only young. And wherever Gabby was, she wasn’t on that boat anymore. So we were no further forward.’

Renn closed his eyes, frowning.

‘So yeah, we argued. As much as that was possible. I was young, brand new. Mallott was my sergeant. I know –’ He held up a hand as Kieran opened his mouth. ‘I know that’s no excuse, but that’s how it was. I went back to the Nautilus Black myself, but there was no sign of any backpack by then, so the chain of evidence was already destroyed. Next thing, I hear some dog walkers have found the bag on the beach. Pretty bloody convenient, like Trish has always said.’

Kieran pictured Trish Birch. The way she scoured the sea. He felt his chest clench.

‘When I heard the bag had washed up –’ Renn said. ‘I reckon I had about five seconds to open my mouth and tell everyone what I thought had really happened. But it had been such a bloody hard time and I’d been running on empty for days, working nonstop. I could barely think straight. And the funerals were around the corner and everyone was still shaken up and vulnerable and –’ He stopped. ‘I didn’t say anything. And then after that, I couldn’t, could I? I felt like my hands were tied. The funerals were dreadful. The families were devastated and it was obvious how much Finn and Toby had meant to everyone, and I thought –’