“Let go of her!”
She stumbled the last steps towards them and heard him say, “I just found her. I’m the lifeguard.”
She had to play over in her brain what he had said because it was so clear in her mind that he was evil, a child-snatcher.
But when she reached the stone embankment above the pebbles, the man released Haley, who flung herself at her mother with arms outstretched.
“Oh, Mummy-I was lost.”
“What happened? Are you all right, darling?”
“This man found me.”
He said, “Did you hear me, Mrs? I’m the lifeguard. She was in our hut. One of her friends went there for first aid.”
“One of those girls I was playing with was hit in the face by the Frisbee,” Haley said. “It wasn’t me that threw it. Her eye was hurt, so we all went up to get some help. She’s all right now. Her mummy came and took her and her sister away. I was left. I couldn’t see you anywhere.”
Olga felt tears streaming from her eyes. She apologised to the lifeguard, and thanked him all in the same sentence. Haley was still in her arms, gripping her possessively. She’d had a big fright. Olga carried her back to their spot on the beach. Mike hadn’t returned, but the people around smiled and asked if Haley was all right.
Olga explained what had happened. She looked in the picnic bag and found a can of drink for Haley. “We’ll be leaving as soon as Daddy gets back,” she said. “The tide’s coming in, anyway.”
People were packing up all around them. The French family dismantled their windbreak and folded their towels. The teenagers said goodbye and carried the loungers back to the store. Of those around them, only the copper-haired woman appeared intent on staying until the tide forced her to move. It was practically at her heels.
“Where’s Daddy?”
“He went looking for you. He’ll be back soon.”
“We’ll have to get up soon, or we’ll get wet.”
“I know. We can give him a few minutes more. We might have to meet him at the car.”
“Is he cross with me?”
“I’m sure he isn’t. We’ll tell him what happened.”
Olga used the time to fold the towels and fill the bags.
Presently Haley asked, “Why isn’t that lady packing up? Her feet must be getting wet.”
The child was right. The woman hadn’t made any attempt to move yet.
Olga couldn’t see her properly. The windbreak was around her head and shoulders. Probably if Olga hadn’t already made such an exhibition of herself she would have popped her head over the canvas and said, You’d better move now, sweetie, or you’ll get a wave over you any minute. The experience with Haley had temporarily taken away her confidence.
A little further along, the lager lads with their empties heaped in front of them were watching with obvious amusement the progress of the tide towards the woman’s outstretched feet.
Olga looked round for Mike, and there he was at last, striding towards them.
“Brilliant! She came back, then. Are you OK, Hale?”
Haley nodded.
Mike kissed her forehead. “Thank God for that.”
Olga started to explain what had happened, but was interrupted by Haley.
“Mummy, don’t you think we ought to wake the lady up? She’s going to drown.”
“What are you saying?” Full of her own drama, she’d shut everything else out of her mind. Now she saw what Haley was on about. “God, yes. Mike, you’d better go to her. She’s out to the world. I don’t know what’s the matter with her.”
He said, “It’s none of our business, love.”
“There’s something wrong.”
With a sigh that vented all the day’s frustration, he stepped the few paces down the beach to where the water was already lapping right around the windbreak. He bent towards the woman. Abruptly he straightened up. “Bloody hell-she’s dead.”
2
Isn’t this a job for the police?” Mike Smith said.
The lifeguard gave him the look he used for people who “ drift out to sea in inflatables. “By the time they get here, sport, she’ll be three feet under water.”
“Have you called them?”
“Sure.”
Three of the lads who had been drinking lager came over to see what was happening and got asked to help move the body. One walked away, saying he wasn’t touching a dead person, but the others stayed, and so did Mike. Ankle deep, they lifted the corpse and carried it up the shingle and past the lifeguard post to the turf above the beach, watched by a sizeable, silent crowd. The lifeguard asked them to lay the body down for a moment. Evidently he didn’t want it in his hut. He went inside and came out with a key and opened a nearby beach hut.
“We’ll take her in there.”
Once the dead woman was deposited on the floor of the narrow wooden building, the lager lads walked away, and Mike started to go with them, but the lifeguard said, “Hold on, mate. You can’t leave. You found the body.”
“What do you mean, ‘found the body’? I was on the beach like everyone else. Anyone could see she wasn’t moving when the tide came in.”
“The police’ll want to talk to you.”
“I’ve got nothing to say to them,” Mike said. “I don’t know who she is. We just happened to be sitting behind her.”
“Was she with anyone?”
“Not that I noticed. Look, my wife and kid are waiting in the car. We’ve got a long drive home.”
“The police should be along shortly.”
“I’ll tell my wife, then.”
“You’re coming back?”
“Sure.”
Mike marched to the car park, got in the car and started the engine.
“Is that it?” Olga asked.
“Yup.”
“We don’t have to talk to the police?”
“We’ve had enough hassle for one day. We’re leaving.” He put the car in gear and drove across the turf to the road leading to the exit.
He had to make way for a police car coming at speed with siren sounding and blue light flashing. It stopped a short distance ahead, opposite the lifeguards’ hut and two policemen got out.
“Are you sure this is right?” Olga asked.
“We can’t tell them anything. We know bugger all. We don’t know who she was or why she snuffed it. All they’ll do is keep us here for hours asking idiot questions.”
Inside five minutes they were in a long line of traffic heading away from the coast.
Police officers Shanahan and Vigne stood in shirt-sleeve order outside the open door of the beach hut where the woman’s body lay. They hadn’t gone right in. The lifeguard offered them each a can of Sprite and they accepted. Somehow it made a morbid duty more tolerable.
“Are we one hundred per cent certain she’s dead?” PC Shanahan asked. He seemed to be in charge, young as he appeared with his innocent blue eyes and smooth skin.
