‘Hey, is Renn getting the boot or something?’ Kieran asked, remembering what Lyn had started to say earlier.
‘Whole station’s getting the boot,’ Ash said. ‘Budget cuts. Think the plan is to send a couple of cops over from Port Osborne in summer, but there’ll be no-one full-time over winter. I heard Renn was pretty pissed off about it. He could have gone to Port Osborne, but decided to quit instead.’
‘What, altogether?’
‘Well, when the station closes next month. He’s moving to the mainland. Going to work for his brother’s haulage business.’
‘That’ll be different.’
‘Yeah. I mean, I get it. He wasn’t the only one annoyed about the station closing. My mum’s on the Neighbourhood Watch and they petitioned and stuff, but it was a done deal. You know what it’s like, though, it’s only Renn and whatever sidekicks they send him for the summer. Probably costs more to keep the lights on than it’s worth.’ Ash thought for a moment as the marina came into view up ahead, the water gleaming in the late-morning light. ‘Although after last night, who knows?’
The marina was close to deserted, with some of the boats already prepared for off-season storage, tarps strewn like shrouds across their decks.
Kieran spotted the Nautilus Blue immediately. Sean was standing by the helm, his arms crossed as he stared far out to sea. Sean’s had been a close family even before the storm, Kieran knew. But afterwards, seven-year-old Liam had reacted to the death of his dad by clinging hard to his uncle. Sean, barely eighteen himself at the time and reeling hard, had clung back.
It was interesting that Liam had been seen on camera with Bronte, though, Kieran thought. At the very least, it added a new edge to Julian’s caginess earlier, when the man had stopped by the Surf and Turf.
Julian’s gentle courtship with Liam’s mother Sarah in the years following the storm had been one of the few positive things to emerge in the aftermath, and the will they–won’t they green shoots of romance had kept the entire town enchanted over a long winter. They had, at last, in a much-celebrated happy ending, and three years after losing his dad, Liam gained a stepfather.
From what Kieran knew, Julian had embraced stepfatherhood with the same earnest dedication with which he approached any new challenge and, perhaps against the odds, he had won Liam over. It probably helped – Kieran pictured Julian hunched tense in his car outside the Surf and Turf earlier – that Julian genuinely seemed to give a shit about his stepson.
Sean was the first to spot Kieran and Ash approaching and he said something to Olivia. She had been sitting on the dock, very still, her face down. Her head snapped up and she started to stand but Ash was already there, taking three large strides across the dock straight to her. She turned wordlessly and buried her face in his shoulder. From the heave of her back, Kieran could tell she was crying hard. Ash put his arms around her and waited.
‘What’s happening with Liam?’ Kieran said quietly to Sean as he climbed aboard.
‘He’s at the station with Sarah. Julian’s got a lawyer coming from Hobart.’
Kieran waited for him to say something more, but Sean turned back to the water, his eyes unseeing. On the dock, Ash murmured something to Olivia, who gave a muffled reply.
‘Are you doing okay?’ Kieran asked Sean.
‘Yeah. I dunno.’ He rubbed a hand over his face. ‘God, this is all so wrong. What are they saying in town?’
‘Nothing important.’
‘Yeah, right.’ Sean turned back to the water. ‘I can guess.’
Kieran looked over at Olivia, who was wiping her face with a tissue. Ash was rubbing her back.
‘She’d forgotten her yoga mat,’ Ash said to Kieran quietly, and Olivia looked up.
‘That’s how you found Bronte?’ Kieran said to her and she nodded.
‘Mum hadn’t slept well so we were going to the early class. They usually run out of mats, though, so we stopped by my place on the way. Mum waited outside in the car – oh my God.’ Olivia put her hands to her eyes. ‘Can you imagine if Mum had come with me and seen her?’ She looked ill at the thought. ‘I was only going to run in and out, but Bronte’s bedroom door was open, which was a bit weird because it was still early. And I couldn’t hear her in the house, so –’
She stopped. The only sounds were the water lapping against the boats and the distant call of gulls.
‘I could tell from the back door handle that it was unlocked. So I went outside, to see if she was having a coffee or something.’ Olivia stared at the shredded tissue. ‘I saw her lying near the water. She was still in her work clothes. She must have been out there on her own, all night.’
A silence followed.
‘Liv.’ Sean’s voice was quiet, his eyes still on the waves. ‘Did Renn say what they thought had happened?’
‘No.’ Olivia shook her head. ‘But at the station I overheard one of the cops from Hobart say they thought Bronte had been out on the beach for at least five or six hours, so I think that’s why –’ Olivia glanced at Sean, who didn’t look back. ‘– why they wanted to talk to Liam.’
‘Right.’ A shadow crossed Sean’s face. ‘Did they ask about anything else, or was it just Liam?’
‘Other things. They wanted to know if Bronte had a boyfriend. I told them about that guy she was seeing earlier in the summer.’ She looked at Ash. ‘You know, that tourist? Marco something. I couldn’t remember his last name.’
‘That Spanish bloke who was really loud in bed?’ Ash shook his head. ‘I wouldn’t even have remembered his first name. I’ve managed to block him out.’
The way Ash said it made Kieran think he remembered the guy quite well.
‘He was Portuguese, not Spanish.’ Olivia looked down. ‘Probably doesn’t matter, he’s been gone for weeks anyway.’
‘Is
