The Man in the Water

by David Burton

  ‘But it’s the only time they returned one early,’ Will said. ‘And it’s in the evening, around the final flights for the day. Did the dead guy work at Rosewood?’

  Shaun closed his eyes. He sent his mind back to Monday. Back to the dead body. He hadn’t seen the man’s face. His open fluoro-orange vest gave away nothing about where he had come from. He tried to bend his mind to look at the front pocket floating there on the surface, to see a logo. But reality wouldn’t let him.

  He replayed the timeline in his head.

  ‘So, I see the body around 2.30. By the time Charlie and I come back, it’s about 3.30. So if the killer’s got the body, they’ve got to ditch it somewhere, and then I guess they go to the airport to leave town. Which means they wouldn’t have been able to get to the airport until, what – 5.00? How long does it take to get rid of a body?’

  Will shrugged and reached for the car hire sheets. ‘I don’t know, but there were only four flights on Monday after 3.00 anyway. Two arriving from Brisbane, and two leaving. So they went to Brisbane.’

  ‘Okay.’

  But where did that leave them? Nowhere, probably. They didn’t even know if the car was associated with the dead guy at all. It felt like a stretch. Shaun looked over the other pages. Will had already begun to lose interest and was checking his phone.

  ‘Hey,’ said Shaun, quietly. ‘Look.’

  Will glanced up.

  ‘Tuesday afternoon, at 5.00, someone named “Grant” picks up an online booking for three cars.’

  Will’s face was unchanged.

  ‘Grant,’ Shaun said. ‘You know. As in Megan Grant. Megan from school.’

  ‘Oh! Your girlfriend.’

  ‘She’s not my girlfriend.’

  ‘Sorry – your lovahhhhhhh.’ Will leant forward and breathed frozen syrup grossness in Shaun’s face.

  Shaun pushed him away.

  ‘Could be anyone. It’s not like Grant’s an uncommon name.’

  ‘Still,’ Shaun said, looking over the page, ‘three cars is weird.’

  Will rolled his eyes. ‘Whatever. It’s got nothing to do with our dead dude anyway.’

  Shaun put the paper down. ‘You’re right. So, where does that leave us?’

  ‘Well, I’ll ask Sarah about the car that got dropped off early.’

  ‘How are you going to do that without letting her know what we’re up to?’

  ‘You worry too much. It’ll be fine. She won’t care.’

  As they rode back to school, Shaun kept thinking about the three cars under the name Grant. Maybe he could ask Megan about it when they got there.

  But when they got to school, she was nowhere to be seen. She’d been away all day. When he checked his messages, he saw she hadn’t been active since that morning.

  She was gone.

  Megan wasn’t there the next day either. Something was wrong, because she still wasn’t online.

  That was Thursday. If she wasn’t at school the next day, he wasn’t sure what he’d do. But he knew that Megan would normally hang at the pool on a Friday afternoon and her dad would pick her up around six.

  This had been her routine since Year 9. The moment Shaun figured it out, he made sure he was at the pool every summer Friday too. They would both swim laps; Shaun loving swimming alongside her. And then they would lie in the sun and talk, or sometimes just sit and let the sun warm them. Shaun had spent countless hours like this, internally screaming, desperate to lean over and kiss her, taste the chlorine and the joy. But he’d never had the courage.

  Shaun and Will spent their Thursday lunchbreak focusing on the car hire documents. By now the papers were wrinkled and slightly smelly from being stored at the bottom of Will’s backpack. When the bell went for last period, Will threw his hands in the air in frustration.

  ‘It’s a dead end,’ he said.

  Shaun asked if he could keep the documents for himself and Will grumbled. Shaun was getting frustrated too. They had a couple of scribbled notes and a muddy pair of boots. So what?

  He thought about biking out to the airport again, to see if he could find the car that had been returned early. Maybe he could search through it. He’d memorised the licence plate: 839 LZE. But this was a long shot. The car, if it was still there and not hired out again, would have been cleaned by now. Even if it was in the car park, how much information could it actually provide?

  Besides, his mum was waiting for him when he arrived home from school that afternoon. She was at the dining-room table, laptop open, phone nearby, a cigarette stub on an old plate and a half-finished cup of tea in her hand.

  ‘Dearest son of mine. Come and sit down.’

  He felt himself become heavier. This wasn’t good. Usually she was too tired or stressed out to talk properly.

  He sank onto the chair beside her.

  ‘Yeah?’ he said.

  She closed the laptop. ‘Why weren’t you at school yesterday?’

  ‘I was.’ It wasn’t a complete lie. They’d made it back to school for lunch.

  ‘Then why did the school call me and say you weren’t there for the morning roll?’

  He couldn’t think of a response. Silence settled between them. She was waiting.

  ‘Well?’

  Shaun searched for a lie – anything that would make sense and get her to back off.

  ‘I went to visit Dad’s grave.’

  The words tumbled out of him before he could think.

  She didn’t move. ‘Okay,’ she said. ‘All right.’

  She cleared her throat and opened her laptop again. He was almost scared now. His mother was still. He wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to say, but it had stopped her asking questions. Bringing up his dad was risky. But he knew it would get her to stop prying.

  ‘I got back after lunch,’ he said. ‘Sorry. I knew I shouldn’t have, I just … I don’t know.’

  ‘I got off the phone with the hospital just before you came in,’ she said. ‘I’ve booked you in with the psychologist. There’s only the one round here, and she’s in for a couple of days a week. Your appointment’s not for well over a month, unfortunately. But next week sometime we’ll need to go see the doctor because we’ve got to get a referral for Medicare. It’ll cost us an arm and a leg otherwise.’

  ‘I don’t need a psychologist.’

  ‘It’s not up for discussion, Shaun. In the meantime, you need to tell me if you want to go and see the grave again. You can’t just take time off school.’

  He nodded. ‘Yeah, but I’m not crazy. I’m not making stuff up.’

  ‘I believe you, okay?’ She leant in closer to him, offering her hand. ‘But I still think you need to see someone.’

  ‘If you believe me, why aren’t you more upset? This guy was killed! And the killer could still be out there.’ He was suddenly standing up.

  She brought her hands up to her face and massaged the hollows of her eyes.

  ‘Shaun,’ she said firmly, ‘why would it be a murder? From what it sounds like, you saw a man who took his own life.’

  He said nothing.

  His mum watched him carefully. ‘You didn’t think of that?’

  He looked away, suddenly feeling weak. His heart was water now, and with each beat he felt the floor coming closer.

  ‘Sweetie,’ she said, ‘you saw a man who drowned himself.’ She paused. ‘Shaun, is this about your dad?’

  He felt the hot sting of tears in his eyes.

  ‘Are you sure you saw this man?’

  That night Shaun lay in bed and looked at the shadows on the ceiling.

  He kept checking his phone to see if Megan was online. But she was nowhere.

  He thought about his dad. He’d never seen his body. Only heard the news from his mother. It was over a year ago now, but when he started to think about it, he cou
ldn’t help but be sucked back into the memory, like a dream.

  He’d been playing a game in the lounge room. She’d come in, her face wrecked. She wasn’t meant to be home for a while yet.

  He paused the game and listened to her.

  Dad had died. He’d done something stupid to himself, using a tree out on the edge of town. He’d been drinking. He hadn’t left a note. He was gone.

  He could still remember his first thought.

  Should he turn off the game, or un-pause it to get to a save point?

  Shaun hadn’t slept, so his backpack felt twice as heavy as usual, and he lurched off to school with darkness pulling at his heels.

  Megan was nowhere. Again. He’d put his togs into the bottom of his bag that morning. He’d have to wait six long hours before he might see her, and even then, what if she didn’t turn up?

  He’d sent her a message every day. He didn’t want her to think he was a stalker, and it was starting to feel awkward. She hadn’t replied to a single one.

  An announcement came over the PA. The principal’s rough and tinny tones echoed through the school speakers. There would be an assembly this morning. Everyone was to gather in the hall.

  Assemblies were usually on Mondays, but Shaun didn’t really think about this until he made his way to the hall and saw Queen Bitch and Charlie standing there with the principal.

  He looked for Will. Always late. He reached for his phone and texted.

  R u here??? Police + special assembly.

  He was probably still cycling to school. Shaun sat in his usual home group spot and waited. He bit his lip.

  What was going on?

  His phone buzzed.

  Just arrived. Coming in now.

  The principal took to the small metal stage. The teachers hushed the students.

  ‘Okay,’ he began. ‘Good morning, students.’

  Everyone chorused, ‘Good morning, Mr Hagger.’

  ‘I’m here today with some worrying news. It’s about one of our past students. We’re a community here and when something happens we come together. So today I’ve been asked by Sergeant Baker and Constable Thompson to get you together because they need some help. I’m afraid that Tyson Grant has been missing for three days, and everyone’s getting quite concerned.’

  Tyson Grant.

  Shaun swallowed.

  ‘Some of you will know Tyson; some of you will never have met him.’

  Shaun knew exactly who Tyson was.

  ‘But most of you know Megan Grant, his younger sister.’

  So he hadn’t dreamt it.

  The man he’d seen in the water was Tyson Grant.

  Shaun sat through maths trying not to let his brain turn itself inside out with disaster.

  He knew he wasn’t mental. In fact, he was sane and important. He now knew the identity of the murdered man.

  Will and Shaun weren’t in the same maths class, so they only had a few moments to talk after assembly, before the normal school day resumed. The assembly had turned out to be short. Queen Bitch had stood at the lectern and introduced herself as Sergeant Baker before calmly offering a plea for assistance. Tyson had last been seen at work.

  As soon as assembly was finished, Will rushed over to Shaun. ‘Are you going to say something?’ he said.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘To the police.’

  Shaun hadn’t thought of it. He had told the police and they hadn’t believed him the first time round.

  But that felt thin in his mind. He should tell; it was the right thing to do. True, he wouldn’t get the victory parade for having solved the murder like he had imagined. The police would take over, pat him on the head. ‘You did good, Shaun.’ If he was lucky, Charlie might apologise. If he was luckier, his mother might cancel the psych appointment.

  ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘Are you going to?’

  ‘I won’t if you won’t,’ Will said.

  ‘I’ll see you at lunch.’

  ‘Yeah.’

  But Will had taken only a couple of steps before he turned back.

  ‘Bugger,’ he said. ‘Tenner reminded me that we’ve got debating today.’

  Shaun rolled his eyes. For once, he agreed with Will’s reluctance about debating. It was the last thing on his mind. ‘Megan isn’t here,’ he said.

  ‘I know, but he said it was important for us to meet and make a plan. It all kicks off super soon. We’re not doing it, are we?’

  Shaun didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to hang with Megan regularly, even under these weird circumstances. But there was so much else to think about.

  ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘Let’s talk to Tenner at lunch.’

  A few minutes later, he looked round at his classmates in the maths room. Some of them would have known Tyson. He’d only been at the school the year before last. So Shaun had been in Year 8 when Tyson was in his final year.

  He had vague memories of him: tall, well built, a football player. He was exactly the type of guy Shaun wouldn’t talk to at school. But he always seemed nice enough. He’d even picked Megan up a few times from the pool.

  The pool, with its glassy fresh water. The sun bouncing and singing on Megan’s skin. And in another stretch of water, Tyson, hazy from the heat. Shimmering like a mirage.

  He shook the image off. But it kept coming back to him throughout the day. Tyson, dead, facedown in the water. Tyson, dead, a ghoulish hand reaching out to him. Tyson, dead, his heavy body dragged through the dust to a waiting ute and driven away to be lost forever.

  He would get through the day. He would go to the pool. And if, by some miracle, Megan was there, he would tell her everything.

  ‘Okay,’ Tenner said, dropping his bag on a desk. ‘So you two weren’t in class on Wednesday.’

  Will and Shaun were silent.

  ‘That’s no way to start the year.’

  Shaun had expected a grilling, but Tenner’s mood was unusually soft. He was never like this. Had Tyson’s disappearance affected him so much?

  ‘But listen,’ he continued. ‘We’ve all, ah, made mistakes.’

  Shaun looked up. Tenner’s face was slightly red. He was being awkward. Then it clicked. He hadn’t mentioned the incident with the wooden ruler since it happened.

  ‘So, how about we all just give each other a clean slate?’ he said.

  Will and Shaun looked at each other, unable to believe their luck.

  ‘Um, sure,’ said Will.

  Tenner gave them a thin-lipped smile. ‘So, no Megan, hey?’

  ‘Do you know what’s going on with her family?’ said Shaun.

  ‘No.’ Tenner shook his head. ‘I’m afraid not. But I’d imagine they’re worried out of their minds. Have you two spoken to her?’

  ‘She’s not online or anything,’ said Shaun.

  Tenner settled back into his seat. ‘Well, boys. That puts us in a difficult position. The way the school term’s worked out this year I’m afraid our first debate is on the week after next—’

  Will interrupted him. ‘Sir, I’m not sure if I want to do it. And I don’t think Megan will be up for it, with everything.’

  Tenner raised a finger. ‘I know, but you might be interested to learn where our first debate is. They just emailed out the tournament breakdown. They want us to fly to Brisbane to go up against one of the private schools.’

  ‘For the first debate?’ Shaun frowned. Usually the outback schools would compete against each other in the heats, and then they’d start getting teams down to Brisbane once the semi-finals started. Last year, he and Will and Megan had been just one victory off the semis.

  ‘Yes,’ Tenner said. ‘The way the maths works out, one of the schools has to travel down to Brissie. And that’s us. If we have a team.’

  Will shifted in his chair. ‘
Sir, my parents can’t afford to get me down to Brisbane.’

  ‘I know. But I’ve spoken to Mr Hagger and he’s prepared to foot the bill. Scotts mines have given the school a nice sponsorship deal for exactly these types of events. We’ll need to find billets down there so we’ve got a place to stay, but that shouldn’t be too difficult. You’d have to stick with debating for the whole year, though. I want commitment from you both.’ He looked at Will as he said this. ‘You need to think about your school participation, okay? Debating will help with your English, it’ll help with university—’

  ‘I’m not thinking about uni,’ said Will. ‘I’ll just end up on the mine, like my dad. Like everyone.’

  Tenner pressed his lips together: a familiar sign of frustration. He was often frustrated when talking to Will. Then he turned to Shaun. ‘Not everyone wants to work on the mines, do they, Shaun?’

  No answer. Shaun was too busy processing the idea of Brisbane. ‘We’ll do it,’ he said. ‘We can go. Give us a chance to talk to Megan.’

  Will was about to object, but Tenner spoke first. ‘Let’s give Megan a couple of days and see what the situation is then. We may need to start thinking about a replacement, at least for this first debate.’

  ‘We can’t do it without her,’ said Shaun.

  Megan was their best speaker. Will was relaxed and funny and charming, half-improvising his speeches from a single scrunched-up palm card. Shaun wrote out everything on his cards and forced himself to look up when he was speaking, like Tenner told him to. But Megan was the best.

  ‘We may need to think about it,’ said Tenner. ‘I’ll notify your parents about the trip. Okay?’

  Will nodded. ‘Yeah, okay,’ he mumbled.

  They gathered up their bags.

  ‘Good to see you, boys,’ Tenner said, clapping his hands together. ‘We’ll wipe the table this year. And I’m glad to see your eye’s good again, Shaun.’

  ‘Um, thanks.’ Shaun could tell that Tenner had scared himself with that incident.

  Tenner gave him a hearty pat on the back. What a dork.

  ‘Man,’ Will said the second they were out of earshot, ‘what the hell? Brisbane’s cool, but Megan won’t be okay by then. It’s less than two weeks away.’