Marie had the blue light flashing all the way to Stone Quay. Beside her, Laura drummed her fingers on her knees.
They jumped from the car and ran over to Carter’s Land Rover, parked next to the empty stand that had once supported the Eva May. The engine was cold.
Marie’s heart sank. She turned to Laura. ‘She’s gone! The Eva May! He’s already taken her out. Laura, he lied to me for a reason — about the tides I mean. He didn’t want me here. And he told me things. What he told me means he will lose his job, the job he lives for!’
Laura bit her lip. ‘Then he’ll have nothing left at all. We have to catch him.’
Marie stared down the river towards the estuary, but the expanse of water was a ribbon of steel. Unmoving. And there was no boat in sight. She took a deep breath and ran back to the car. ‘If we go back to the main road and take the Wash lanes to Arun Point, we can see where the river joins the Wash. We might be able to get ahead of him.’
The two women sat in silence. Marie concentrated on driving as fast as she dared along the narrow winding lanes.
When they reached the Point, Marie brought the car to a screaming halt and grabbed a pair of binoculars from the back seat. She and Laura hurried from the car park and up the steep sea bank, to where they could look out across the grey waters of the Wash.
‘There!’ Laura pointed.
Marie trained her glasses on the small vessel. Yes! It was Carter! She grabbed her mobile and rang him again, but it went straight to voice mail.
Laura was waving frantically. ‘What about the coastguard?’
‘And tell them what?’ Marie groaned.
‘I don’t know, but surely . . .’
Looking again through the binoculars, Marie realised that Carter was not alone on the Eva May. Another figure sat close to him. ‘Crazy Silas?’ she whispered, ‘And his dog?’
Suddenly hope coursed through her.
Carter had taken Silas with him for the rebuilt lifeboat’s maiden voyage! He’d wanted it that way, but rather than upset her again, he left early. No more than that! They had caught the early tide and were celebrating together. She said as much to Laura, then exhaled. ‘Of course he didn’t want anyone else along! This is a very personal thing, to mark his friends passing. And Silas looked out for him when he was a little boy and when his mother died, so they’ve made this trip together.’ Her smile widened. ‘He’s letting them go. At last, he’s letting his dead friends go!’
Laura said nothing. She stood and gazed at the old wooden boat heading bravely out into the North Sea.
Marie continued to stare through the powerful binoculars. Then her euphoria faded. She squinted and tried to adjust the focus to make it clearer. It seemed as though they had jettisoned something heavy into the water. She blinked a few times, but now she wasn’t sure what she had seen.
She trained the glasses on Carter. He was staring directly at her.
‘He’s waving! He’s seen us!’
She passed the binoculars to Laura.
After a moment Laura passed them back. ‘Look again.’ There was a catch in her voice.
Marie did.
Carter stood, with his arm raised, as if he were stretching towards the two women on the far shore.
‘He’s not waving, Marie. He’s saying goodbye.’
Marie went cold. Oh no, please, no.
She felt Laura’s hand grip hers. ‘Oh God! The Eva May. She’s sinking.’
Marie swallowed. She could not move or take her eyes off the wooden lifeboat. It was still moving away from them at a steady speed, but something was terribly wrong.
Laura was right.
Marie lifted the glasses for the last time. She could hardly bear to look. They were low in the water now, but neither man made any attempt to save themselves. They sat close together, the dog beside them, and a shaft of early sunlight reflected off something in Carter’s hand. A bottle?
Marie lowered the glasses. She could have sworn they were laughing.
EPILOGUE
Marie sat down and sighed. ‘Gary’s found himself a nice little bungalow out on the edge of my village. He’s going to be moving on, Jackman. I’ll miss him.’
‘More to the point, you are going to miss his cooking.’ Jackman grinned at her.
‘Don’t worry, we’ve already arranged a regular weekly get-together, and he’s going to rustle up whatever I want.’
‘Spoilt woman.’
‘Spoilt in more ways than one. Did you hear that Robbie is going back to Spain to see Harvey Cash?’
‘Really?’
‘He’s talked to him on the phone, and he thinks Harvey’s changed since he admitted what Suzanne did to him. Robbie reckons it was a cathartic experience. He thinks that Harvey deserves a proper explanation, and maybe some help to get on top of his drinking. So, he’s taking a short holiday in Sanxenxo.’ Her smile widened. ‘And he’s asked me to go with him.’
‘That’s the best news I’ve heard in ages. Good for you.’
‘You’ll cope without us?’
‘I’ll try.’
She looked around the office. There was something different about it. She looked again and saw that the picture of Glory, Jackman’s old horse, had been moved to the wall behind the desk, and in its place hung an old and rather faded watercolour.
Intrigued, Marie went to look at it. It showed an old man, his dog beside him, pulling a salmon from a landing net in a river. ‘He looks just like Silas Breeze.’ She looked at Jackman, her head tilted slightly to one side.
‘It’s called “The Poacher,” so no wonder you made the connection.’
Three bodies had been recovered by the Underwater Search and Recovery Diving Unit. Carter McLean, Silas Breeze, and Klink the dog. The Eva May had broken up, and since she was no danger to other vessels, she had been left to lie where she was.
‘Where did the picture come from?’
Jackman took out his phone and scrolled through the received messages. He passed it to Marie.
“Please collect parcel behind seat of Land Rover. Take care of it for us.”
‘Carter?’
‘Yes. I’ll probably never find out why it was so important to him. I’m certain there is a story attached to it, but it’s a kind of bequest, so . . .’
‘Have you received the Marine Accident Investigation report yet?’
Jackman evidently didn’t want to say. ‘You won’t hurt me, you know,’ said Marie. ‘The facts will help me put this whole horrible affair into perspective, then I can file it away and move on.’
‘They discovered several places in the hull that had recently been “doctored.”’ Jackman looked thoroughly miserable. ‘He rigged it so that a series of bungs could be removed. It was a deliberate sinking.’
Marie nodded. ‘I thought I’d imagined it. So what I saw was true. They were drinking together when she went down.’
‘Confirmed by the bottle they found floating in the wreckage.’ Jackman pointed to a file that was lying on his desk. ‘Are you sure you are ready for this, Marie? It doesn’t have to be dealt with now.’