The Survivors(95)

There was a thick silence. They looked at each other, properly, for what felt like the first time in years.

Kieran lowered his hand from his face. It still hurt. ‘Feel better now?’

‘Yes, actually. I do.’ Verity inhaled, and exhaled. ‘Wish I’d told you that twelve years ago.’

Without another word, she turned her back on him, stepped straight over Brian, and walked into the house. Kieran heard her footsteps disappear down the hall, then nothing but the sound of the door to Finn’s room clicking open and shut again.





Chapter 34


Kieran lay next to his daughter on the bed, jangling his keys over her face to make her laugh while Mia turned a page of a dog-eared G.R. Barlin novel.

‘Maybe we should just book those flights,’ Kieran said. ‘Go home tomorrow.’

Mia looked up. ‘Do you want to?’

‘I don’t want to leave things like this, but –’

They both turned their heads at the sound of Finn’s door opening across the hall. The floorboards creaked, then, further down, Brian’s bedroom door squeaked open and gently closed shut.

Mia frowned. ‘She’ll probably be more willing to talk in the morning.’

‘I’m sorry for how she spoke to you,’ he said, not for the first time that afternoon.

‘It’s okay. None of this is about me.’

Kieran didn’t say anything, just shook his keys gently and watched his daughter smile. It had been hours since the argument. After Verity had locked herself away, Brian had thankfully let himself be led to bed, where Kieran had tucked him in like a child. He had closed his eyes and slept, tired from his swim. When Verity still did not emerge, Kieran and Mia had taken Audrey down to the beach to give her some space. They had returned, much later, to find her still shut in Finn’s room. Kieran had been able to hear her moving about, but his knocks on the door had gone unanswered. At last, he and Mia had holed up in his own room, trying and failing – on Kieran’s part at least – to make sense of the events of the day.

Mia closed the book and reached over to check the time on her phone. The light was fading outside. ‘Should we make dinner? We could go and get something from the supermarket.’

‘Peace offering?’

She smiled. ‘Worth a try. Either way, we all have to eat.’

‘Yeah. I suppose.’ Kieran pulled himself up. ‘If we’re going, we should go now. They probably still shut early.’

They walked to town along the road, Audrey snoozing in the carrier against Kieran’s chest. Fisherman’s Cottage was in darkness as they passed, the police tape still fluttering at the gate. Someone had removed the flowers and the space looked oddly bare. They walked on and as they reached the spot where they had seen the car blast past all those days ago – Liam’s car, allegedly – Kieran reached out and took Mia’s hand. There were no cars tonight.

‘It feels –’ Mia started, then hesitated. ‘This week has felt like the days after the storm.’

‘I don’t remember that too well.’

‘Oh yeah, of course. It was weird, though, people were out and about when they had to be, but it was like everyone kind of disappeared into themselves for a while. Self-preservation instinct kicking in or something.’

She fell quiet for a way.

‘What are you thinking?’ Kieran said as the lights of the marina came into view up ahead, a bright halo in the twilight.

‘Same as you, probably.’ Mia shrugged. ‘Trying to think of a good reason why Gabby’s bag was on your brother’s boat.’

‘Yeah?’ Kieran looked over. Mia had known Gabby as well as anyone. He waited as she breathed out, his flash of hope slipping away as the seconds drifted by. Eventually she shook her head.

‘I don’t know, Kieran, I’m sorry. The best I can come up with is a chance encounter, like they found it or something. But that doesn’t make sense either, because you’d just hand it in, wouldn’t you?’ She sounded sad. ‘All I can tell you is that Gabby didn’t really know your brother or Toby. I’ve been trying to think of something I might have forgotten, but I can’t. We were fourteen, they were grown men. We didn’t know them as mentors or diving instructors or anything like that, and definitely not as friends. She’d seen them around, and –’ Mia paused for a fraction of a beat, ‘– I guess they would have seen her, obviously. But no more than that, as far as I knew.’

‘Right.’ Kieran listened to the sound of their footsteps for a while. ‘The thing is –’ He couldn’t help himself. ‘Something feels really off. I mean, yeah, Finn was my brother and yeah, you’ve probably got a point that we only remember the good things. But he could be an arsehole at times, I really do know that. He wasn’t at heart, though. He was just a normal bloke, with good points and bad points. I genuinely believe that. So maybe I’m kidding myself, but it feels like a big jump from that to –’ He shrugged. ‘Whatever some backpack on his boat suggests.’

‘I couldn’t say, Kieran.’ Mia’s eyes were on the marina. The gentle creak and groan of the boats filled the evening air. ‘I honestly didn’t know Finn or Toby at all.’

The lights were on in the Surf and Turf as they walked past but the place was again virtually deserted, with nearly every table empty. Through the window, Kieran could spot the grainy picture of Bronte still smiling out from the noticeboard. He wondered if the collection tin had been passed on to her parents yet. He presumed it still would be, despite what had been aired at the community meeting. He wondered what Nick and Andrea Laidler would make of it. A kind gesture from those who cared, or a case of far too little, far too late, from people who had let their daughter down?