The Survivors, стр. 39
‘Do you think Liam’s one of those guys?’
‘Yeah. I guess I do, a bit.’ Olivia’s mouth was a hard line as she considered. ‘Him giving Bronte a ride home bothers me. We live so close it was unnecessary, which kind of makes me suspect he insisted, which never feels great –’
Olivia broke off as her phone beeped with a text message. ‘Shit. It’s Julian again.’
‘What does he want?’
‘I don’t know. He says to call him.’ Olivia stood up. ‘I’d better get back anyway. Ash obviously isn’t here.’
Kieran wiped Audrey’s mouth and clipped her into the sling. ‘I’ll get going too.’
‘Are you heading down?’
‘No.’ He patted Audrey. ‘I’ll go on a bit further. Give her a chance to settle.’
‘When are you and Mia going back to Sydney?’
‘Next week.’
‘Lucky.’
They started to walk. ‘You thinking you’re going to have to settle in here for the long term?’
‘I don’t think I’ve got much choice. Not after what’s happened to Bronte. I can’t see that speeding up Mum’s recovery.’
‘At least you’ve got Ash.’
‘Yeah.’
When she didn’t say any more, Kieran looked over and Olivia gave a small laugh at his expression.
‘What?’
‘Nothing.’ He shrugged. ‘You guys are good, though, aren’t you?’
‘Yeah. We are. It’s just, if I stay here, it feels like –’ Olivia stopped at the cemetery gates and sighed. ‘I don’t know. Game over, or something. There’s no point finishing my Master’s. Or having worked so hard in Melbourne. Not if I’m going to settle down with Ash and bang out a few kids and send them off to Nippers training with Julian every Saturday while I go waitressing. I could have done that straight out of school if I was going to.’ A hint of a smile. ‘Not that I would’ve had anything to do with Ash back then.’
‘No.’ Kieran could hear the rapid rise and fall of his daughter’s breath. She felt warm and solid against him. ‘But everyone can change.’
‘Yeah, that’s true. And Ash is –’ Kieran waited as Olivia considered, genuinely interested what it was about Ash that had caught her eye twelve years on.
‘He can be a lot of fun,’ she said. ‘More than I remember. And he’s really good about Mum. I don’t have to explain things to him because he already knows –’ She waved her hand loosely. ‘– about everything.’
The words were vague enough to be meaningless but Kieran could read them perfectly. He knows about us.
She was looking at him now. He nodded. Got it.
‘Anyway –’ Olivia’s phone beeped again and she frowned. ‘Oh, for God’s sake. Julian again. I’d better go. It was good seeing you.’
‘You too, Liv.’
With a wave, Olivia turned and walked down the path. Kieran watched until she was out of sight, twelve years ago suddenly feeling both very distant and very near.
Chapter 16
Kieran stopped when he reached the lookout, catching his breath. Audrey squirmed against his chest, irritated. She liked the comforting rhythm of a brisk pace and Kieran had obliged, all the way uphill from the cemetery to the peak of the path. Beyond the cliffs, the tide lay calm under the weak morning sun. Out on the water, the Nautilus Blue was anchored but Kieran could see no movement on board.
So Ash knew about him and Olivia. That was interesting, if only for the fact that he’d never mentioned it. That alone was proof of change as far as Kieran was concerned. The old Ash wouldn’t have had the self-discipline to keep quiet.
Mia knew.
Kieran had told her six months after they’d met, on the night of what would have been Finn’s thirty-first birthday. He’d battled through a frustrating phone call with Verity, where they had spoken for thirty minutes without really saying anything. At least his mum had come to the phone, though, which was more than could be said for Brian. Verity had said he was out. Kieran doubted it. That didn’t sound like Brian. Not on his dead son’s birthday.
Kieran and Mia had been lying in bed and he’d started talking and the whole story had come out.
‘You and Liv,’ she’d said, when he’d finished speaking.
He’d lain there, listening to her breathing and feeling the warmth across the bedsheets.
‘Is it a problem?’ He rolled over and looked at her, already a little afraid of the answer.
‘No.’ He’d gone slack with relief. She was still quiet, though.
‘Are you sure?’
‘Yeah. But –’ Mia turned her face towards him on the pillow. ‘Gabby had guessed.’
‘Really?’
‘I think so. She told me she thought there was something going on between you two. I told her I thought she was wrong.’
‘Does it matter, though?’ Kieran had asked again. ‘It was so long ago. It doesn’t matter, does it?’
‘Not now. Not to me. It’s just – ’ Mia put a hand under her head and stared at the ceiling. ‘I didn’t believe her. So that might have mattered to Gabby.’
Kieran looked back out to sea now, and ran a hand over the wooden safety barrier. It had been put up within a month of the drownings and it was surprising what a difference it had made to the lookout.
The place was as isolated as it had ever been, but the sturdy bench and waist-high railing and the printed plastic information panels made the whole thing feel monitored. It wasn’t, Kieran knew. Sergeant Mallott and Constable Renn had enforced the trespassing fine for just long enough to break the local habit and send teenagers seeking a quiet spot away from the caves and towards the forested hinterland instead. Psychologically, the barrier was a good deterrent. Nothing to see beyond here, it said. Stay on the right side of the line.
It was a complete illusion, though. The trail down to the beach and the caves might be overgrown, but it was still visible. Kieran looked at it, then took a step out. He didn’t even need to climb