Bright Air Part 16

We were silent for a long time. It sounded almost plausible, but there were details that bothered me. I decided to give the great detective time to mull it over.

'Anyway, if there's a grain of truth in it, we'll have to be very careful. I don't think it's a story that anybody is going to want to hear. So I propose we do as Bob suggested and go for a cycle, and pretend that everything's just fine.'

She nodded agreement. 'You're right. And really, if it did happen like that, there's nothing to be gained from opening it all up again.'

'Right.' Except that, if it did happen like that, then those five blokes had deliberately conspired to direct the rescue effort twenty kilometres away from where it should have been focused.

We walked back to the cabin and Anna had a shower and I a couple of beers-our respective ways of recalibrating ourselves to the world. Then we went out to the driveway in front of the house, where half a dozen bikes were stacked against the veranda rail, with helmets piled on the edge of the deck. We selected our mounts, I helped adjust the height of Anna's seat, and then we wobbled off up the driveway to the road. We turned south, back along the way Bob had first brought us from the airstrip, which we came to after ten minutes. The headwind caught us as we turned onto the long stretch of road that ran parallel to the runway, and we laughed as we battled at barely jogging speed, straining against the wind.

At the far end the road curved around the end of the airstrip to head back towards the lagoon sh.o.r.e. Dead ahead there was a sand dune, and parked on it a small white four-wheel drive bearing the crest of the New South Wales Police. We pulled off the road and walked our bikes up to it. There was a track through the dunes here, leading down to the sandy sweep of Blinky Beach, the island's surfing beach. A lone figure was far out among the breakers, and we sat on the tufted gra.s.s watching as he caught a wave and coasted in. He looked as if he got a lot of practice.

He spotted us, and slung his board under his arm and padded up the beach towards us.

'G'day. Grant Campbell,' he said as we got to our feet. 'Looking for me?'

'Not specially, Grant,' I said, and introduced us. 'We're friends of Lucy Corcoran, remember her? Who had the accident four years ago?'

'Course I remember.' He eyed us steadily.

'Guess you don't get much crime here.'

'Nope.' Grant seemed even more laconic than Bob, and equally aware of our presence on the island.

'I was talking to Glenn Maddox in Sydney recently. He's a sergeant now.'

'Oh yeah? The big guy.'

I a.s.sumed he was being ironic. Maddox was shorter than any of us. 'I told him I was thinking of coming out here. He said to say h.e.l.lo.'

'Did he manage to convert you?' He grinned. 'How come you were talking to him?'

'Just wanted to check if there'd been any developments.'

'Developments? Like what?'

I shrugged. 'I've been overseas for four years. I just wondered if anything new had come up. Anyway, Sergeant Maddox seemed to think us coming here would be a good idea. Help us come to terms with it.'

'And has it?'

'Well, this is only our second day. You were involved with the rescue effort, weren't you, after she fell?'

'Yeah.'

'Were you happy about how it was done?'

'How d'you mean?'

'Well, did you get all the resources you needed?'

'We had the navy and the air force. By Monday evening we had twenty boats and aircraft out there.'

'Were you involved in directing the search?'

'Me and others.'

'Would you mind taking us through what happened?'

He sat beside us on the dune, the sand sticking to his black wetsuit, and picked up a piece of driftwood to draw a crescent in the sand. 'Lord Howe. Bob got a message from them at two that afternoon that Lucy had fallen and was in the water.' He poked the stick at the bottom of the crescent. 'He contacted me, then got in his boat and headed down there. I found as many people as I could with boats and sent them down after him. Towards three they reported that there was no sign of her.

'They reckoned there was something like a three-knot current down there, running due west, so by then she might have been carried anything up to five kilometres out to sea.' He drew a line across the foot of the crescent. 'There were several of us in my office by this stage, and we identified a search area and directed everyone out there except for a couple to keep searching the waters around the cliffs, just in case. By this time some of the yachties from the Sydney to Lord Howe race had heard about it, and they began heading out too. We notified AusSAR, the national search and rescue people in Canberra, and they alerted the navy and air force. The RAAF Maritime Patrol Group is based at Edinburgh in South Australia, so it would take their Orions over four hours to reach us, by which time it'd be dark, but they sent one over anyway with thermal imaging equipment, and then another came towards dawn the next day. HMAS Newcastle Newcastle was exercising in the area and was directed our way, and its helicopter flew over around five. Meanwhile a small fixed-wing set out from Port Macquarie, but didn't make it before dusk. was exercising in the area and was directed our way, and its helicopter flew over around five. Meanwhile a small fixed-wing set out from Port Macquarie, but didn't make it before dusk.

'The boats stayed out till midnight, using lights, though we knew the chances of them spotting anything were slim. They set out again at dawn, by which time the Newcastle Newcastle and the second Orion had arrived.' He shrugged. 'What can I say? The experts had taken over by then, plotting the currents, defining the search area. They were using radar altimeter measurements from satellites. It's like plotting pressures on a weather map-the ocean currents were rotating in a huge anticlockwise flow around a high spot way to the south. Mate, they were taking her far, far away from land. We knew she was a goner, even if she'd somehow survived that fall. I'm sorry. I don't reckon there was anything else we could have done.' and the second Orion had arrived.' He shrugged. 'What can I say? The experts had taken over by then, plotting the currents, defining the search area. They were using radar altimeter measurements from satellites. It's like plotting pressures on a weather map-the ocean currents were rotating in a huge anticlockwise flow around a high spot way to the south. Mate, they were taking her far, far away from land. We knew she was a goner, even if she'd somehow survived that fall. I'm sorry. I don't reckon there was anything else we could have done.'

'No, I'm sure there wasn't, Grant. Thanks.' I took a deep breath. If my suspicion was right, the whole effort in those critical first hours on the Monday afternoon before sunset had been wasted, displaced twenty kilometres north of where they should have been looking. It made me sick to think about it. No wonder Owen had felt guilty. I wanted to ride back into town and find Bob and choke the truth out of him, but I guessed he'd just deny everything, as Damien would too.

We thanked the cop, and mounted our bikes again and pressed on down the road. There was a steep climb past the golf course, and the physical effort helped work out a little of the frustration I felt. We stopped at a sign to Lovers Bay, and sat on the hillside looking out over the ocean. The sight of that vast sea chilled my heart, and I immediately began pouring out the anger I felt. Anna listened in silence while I ranted on about them searching the wrong sector. Then, when I ran out of steam, she said simply, 'No, it couldn't have happened like that.'

'How do you mean?'

'If they were on b.a.l.l.s Pyramid when they radioed for help at two that afternoon, how would they have got back to the southern cliffs in time to meet the rescue boats?'

I was stunned. Of course she was right. I wasn't thinking clearly. 'How did it work, then?'

'I'm not sure. It would depend on whether Bob and his boat were there with them when it happened. If he was, they'd have searched for a while themselves, until they were convinced they weren't going to find her. How long would that take? Hours, surely, if they weren't prepared to call for help. Then they'd have returned to the southern cliffs, dropped the climbers, and Bob and Marcus would have headed back to the jetty to wait for the radio call from Curtis. If Bob wasn't with them, it would have taken even longer-he'd have had to go out to them, then search and so on as before.'

'You're right! And then there's Damien. Was he really sick in bed, or was he with them, refusing to have anything to do with it and demanding to be taken back? However you look at it, she must have gone in hours before they gave the warning-maybe first thing that morning.'

'Why that morning, Josh? I told you right at the beginning, didn't I? We only have their word for any of this. We haven't found anyone else who saw Luce after Thursday night. Why did Owen take over filling in Carmel's log?'

The timing-that's what had been bothering me all along. Why did they delay their return to Sydney?

I said, 'There's something else I thought of, to support the idea that they weren't on the southern cliffs when she fell.'

'What's that?'

'If they were there, and they were doing their research project, why wasn't her electronic diary lost with her? Why didn't she have it on her, the way she had all the previous month, recording their positions? It was found in her room, and now we know that her last entry was for the Thursday.'

If there's a psychic equivalent of vertigo, I felt it then, the giddy sense of having nothing solid beneath you. 'Would they have really done that-just not told anyone about the accident for days days?'

Anna didn't reply at first, then she whispered, 'Accident? How do we know that? How do we know she fell into the sea? Maybe it took them days just to cook up that story.'

18.

We cycled back and parked our bikes where we'd found them. Anna returned to the cabin, but I heard the sound of someone working in the garden behind a hedge, and when I looked over I saw Muriel Kelso among rows of lettuce and potatoes. She had a wide straw hat on her head, a hoe in her hand and a determined look on her face.

'Oh, h.e.l.lo, Josh. How was your ride?'

'Good. We met Grant Campbell out at Blinky Beach.'

'Ah yes, his favourite spot.' She laughed. 'Surfing was he? He wanted to be a professional, but not many people can make a living out of it, so he did the next best thing and took old Billy's job when he retired. That's life, isn't it? Making accommodation. Oh, and I have something to show you.'

She peeled off her gardening gloves and led me to the back door of the house and into the kitchen. 'You're probably thirsty after your ride. Would you like some homemade lemonade?'

'Thanks.'

She poured me a gla.s.s from an enormous fridge in the corner and told me to sit while she fetched whatever it was. Photographs as it turned out, taken at the party for the sailors from the yacht race. And there she was, Luce, looking pretty good, maybe a trace of shadow around the eyes, but still our Luce, smile fixed in the flash. I studied them all carefully, getting Muriel to identify the locals and the yachties. There were two pictures with Luce, one standing with Damien and the other with Marcus, an ironic smile on his face and a rotund man with a scowl on his other side.

'American, I think,' Muriel said. 'Or Canadian. From one of the boats. Can't remember his name. Quite taken with Lucy, as I remember.' The idea was grotesque. I felt her eyes studying me as she said that. 'I thought you might like to see these, but I wasn't sure ...'

'No, I'm glad you did, Muriel, thanks.' But my voice sounded odd.

'It's hard to know. After my sister died I couldn't bear to see pictures of her. Guilt, you see. She was living on the mainland, and I should have gone over earlier, but I put it off, and finally I was too late. The guilt stopped me grieving as I should. I think it's like that with a lot of people. We should have done more, or less, or differently, and now it's too late and we blame ourselves and can't bear to think about it.'

I nodded, eyes fixed on Luce's picture. 'That's right. I understand exactly what you mean.'

'But that's so sad, isn't it, being unable to remember someone for such a reason? It's very important to forgive yourself, Josh.' She laid a hand on my sleeve. 'Just remember how wonderful it was that she shared her life with you, if only for a brief time.'

'Yeah. Looks like a good party. Did you see Lucy the next day?'

She thought. 'I'm not sure. I think I remember waving to them all as they set off with Bob the following morning.'

'And after that, over the weekend?'

'I really can't remember, Josh.' She looked at me curiously. 'Why?'

I shrugged. 'Thanks for letting me see these. I'll tell Anna; she may want to have a look.'

'Take them and show her.'

At the door she put her hand on my arm again. 'You're not worried that she may have taken her own life, are you, Josh?'

I froze, staring at the floor. 'Er ... it's a possibility I've wondered about.'

'I'm sure she didn't. She would have left a note, wouldn't she?'

'I don't know.'

'Yes, I'm sure she would-for her father, if no one else. She was a very considerate girl.'

Anna was sitting on a sofa in a bathrobe with a towel around her head. She was staring blankly at a book in her hands. I noticed it was upside down.

'Good book?'

She gave a s.h.i.+ver and put it aside. 'Just thinking.'

I handed her the photos and sat down beside her. As she went through them I told her the names that Muriel had given me. I'd recognised one or two of them, wealthy Sydney businessmen. There was one of Damien and Pru Pa.s.slow, both laughing wildly. When she'd gone through them all, Anna returned to the picture of Luce with Damien.

'They don't look as if they've fallen out, do they? They look just like good friends at a party.'

'Yeah.'

'I've been thinking about your theory. If it's true, none of them-Bob, Damien, Marcus-will admit it, will they? We'd need to have evidence of some kind to make them, and there's really only one place where it could be.'

I turned away. I didn't want to hear this. 'The last place we know for sure where Luce was,' she persisted. 'b.a.l.l.s Pyramid.'

I shook my head. 'We'd never find anything out there now.'

'We won't know until we try.'

I looked at her in disbelief. 'Are you crazy? That is a seriously dangerous place, Anna. You saw it. They'd never agree to us going there.'

'No, I'm sure they wouldn't.'

'Oh no. Look, maybe-maybe if we told Grant Campbell, he might do something, organise a search out there.'

'When his best mate, good old Bob, tells him we're mad? Of course he won't, and neither will anyone else.'

'Sergeant Maddox?'

'Not without something more substantial than an obscure map reference that might mean anything or nothing.'

'I wish I'd had more time to note the readings that Owen entered into Carmel's log. I mean, we're a.s.suming that he put down false readings, but suppose he didn't? If he had a map reference for b.a.l.l.s Pyramid in there somewhere, then we would have evidence, wouldn't we?'

It was clutching at straws, but I wanted to deflect Anna. She had a gleam in her eye that I'd sometimes noticed in the old days, and which had briefly been rekindled in Orange. Next thing she'd have us stealing a boat and heading out across the open sea with ropes and magnifying gla.s.ses and las.h.i.+ngs of ginger beer.

'Shouldn't be that difficult,' she said.

'What?'

'To have another look around Carmel's office. There could be other stuff there about what they were doing.'

'What, break in?' I saw the look on her face. 'b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l, Anna, larceny's gone to your head. Remember what happened the last time.'

'We got what we wanted, Josh. Without it we wouldn't have come this far. But this time you can go in, and I'll keep watch.'

'I'll think about it.'

'Or I'll go alone.'

I sighed. 'All right. On one condition-that they don't have a burglar alarm. I'm not going through that again.'

'Fair enough.'