The Survivors, стр. 20

Chapter 9

Kieran thought Ash and Olivia might want to walk alone to Fisherman’s Cottage, but when he hung back to give them the chance, Ash waited for him.

‘You’re going this way, aren’t you?’

Kieran nodded. Mia had texted to say she had got back to his parents’ house safely. While he hadn’t truly expected any different, he still felt relieved.

They left Sean pulling on his wetsuit.

‘You’re going out to the wreck?’ Kieran asked in surprise and Sean shrugged, his face grim.

‘I can’t see any of this putting off the Norwegians. I’m fine, seriously,’ he said when he saw Kieran glance at the oxygen tanks. ‘Check them over yourself if it makes you feel better.’

Kieran had followed Ash and Olivia out of the marina and onto the road. No-one suggested going the beach way.

‘So, Liam,’ Ash said as soon as they hit the tarmac. Sand blew across the road, crunching underfoot. Behind them, Sean and the Nautilus Blue were well out of sight but still, Ash kept his voice low. ‘The thing about Liam –’ Ash stopped again, choosing his words. ‘Look. I get it. He’s Sean’s nephew. They’re close. But don’t get sucked into saying anything about him that you don’t want to.’

‘I’m not planning to, mate,’ Kieran said. ‘Why? Something I should know about him?’

‘No,’ Ash said quickly, shaking his head. ‘I’m not saying that. I mean, I think Liam’s a bit of an arsehole, that’s not news. But let’s be real. We were all around when the storm hit, we all know the bloody background playing out here. So yeah, Sean’s probably entitled to ask for a favour and yeah, maybe he deserves to get it.’

They rounded the corner and, up ahead, Kieran could see the first glimpse of Fisherman’s Cottage. Two police cars were parked on the road outside.

‘But whatever happened back then is done,’ Ash said. ‘That’s not going to change. So don’t let it tangle you up in something you’re not happy with now.’ A tiny pause. ‘Either of you, eh?’

Kieran couldn’t help it. He shot a sideways glance at Olivia. She didn’t react, but then she always had been better at controlling herself than he had.

It had been a very long morning. He could think of fifty good reasons off the top of his head for the tension across Olivia’s shoulders and neck. He didn’t know her well enough now to be able to tell what she was thinking. But that hadn’t always been the case. And Kieran suddenly found himself wondering, for the first time in years, how much his good friend Ash actually knew about that day of the storm.

It had been a big summer. With their final year exams done and dusted, Kieran and Sean had launched themselves headfirst into the booze-soaked celebrations. Good weather had brought a lot of tourists through that year, including plenty of bored teenage girls who could think of a few places they’d rather be than on holiday in Tasmania with their parents. Kieran considered it his personal civic duty to show these girls a good time, and whenever the beach or caravan park or someone’s rented house came alive with music playing and beer flowing, Kieran was generally there, watching the sun both set and rise through bleary eyes.

Ash had been right there beside him, of course, despite having already called it quits at school. When the students at Evelyn Bay’s secondary school finished Year 10, the state’s education system meant anyone who wanted to complete high school had to dig out their bus pass and spend their final two years travelling to and from the nearest college.

Ash, who had coasted effortlessly in the top third of class for his first ten academic years, had gone to visit his dad and returned with the view that trailing ninety minutes each way on a school bus was for bloody idiots with nothing better to do. He couldn’t be talked around and, with that, Ash’s formal education had come to an end.

It was great, though, Ash had used to say – a lot – over those next two years. He’d showed up on the first morning to wave Kieran and Sean off on the bus with a grin. Then he’d turned around and got a job at the plant nursery, worked out pretty quickly that he was pretty good at it, and started finding his own gardening work. He had money coming in. Not loads, but more than Kieran and Sean. The best bit, though, Ash reckoned, was the freedom. Being able to spend his days however he chose. Maybe so, Kieran had thought, but it still seemed that most days what Ash chose to do was hang around the bus stop in the evenings, waiting for his friends to come home from school.

For Kieran, the summer of the storm had felt almost like a reunion, with the classroom finally behind them. They’d all been working. Ash had cooked up some idea to launch his own landscaping business and was flat out turning his grandmother’s garden into a showpiece. Kieran and Sean had worked for their older brothers, same as every year. Finn and Toby didn’t muck around when it came to the diving business and it was hard work – ‘Minimum wage for maximum shit,’ Kieran had used to complain to Verity, but he hadn’t really meant it.

Olivia had been there too. Down at the beach in her bathers. Getting a beer from the fridge at a Friday night house party, looking as relieved as anyone to have put the tedious bus rides to college behind her. She’d been around a lot, but not with them. Because while Kieran and Ash had a strong preference for the holiday-happy girls who stayed at sea view cabins or the caravan park before disappearing back