Higgins, who had joined them after walking the road from Toormore, shook his head. ‘It’s a sheer drop around there.’
‘What is it?’ Andrews asked.
Dunne looked at him. ‘There’s been report of a distress signal. A fisherman sailing home to Achill saw it, he thought he was imagining it, but then fifteen minutes later he saw it again. When he got home, he reported it to the local coast-guard who transmitted a message to the vessel searching the coast between The Quay and Toormore. They carried on to the south coast to see if they could see anything but all they can see is a very faint light a few hundred feet above sea-level.’
There was a collection of indrawn breaths as they all looked at one another. ‘Can they get closer, have a look?’ Jarvis asked.
Dunne shook his head. ‘Way too rough for them to get close. They’ve used their searchlight but aren’t able to see anything. The faint light is still there, there’s no rational explanation for it so we’re going to have to investigate. They’re going to stay where they are to direct us, but we need to make an approach from the cliff top.’
‘You think it’s them.’ Andrews asked.
Dunne grimaced. ‘The search teams are all reporting back in the negative. There was a distress signal reported, and now a faint light where there shouldn’t be one. I’d say it is a possibility.’
‘Why wouldn’t he keep signalling though?’ Jarvis asked, looking around. He saw the answer in some of the other men’s faces.
‘Hypothermia,’ Dunne said, deciding to be blunt. ‘It causes confusion. Ok,’ he said, turning to his team. ‘Who do we have with us that can abseil in the dark?’
As it happened, there were four who could. It took an hour to organise the equipment, and transport. Higgins promised to guide them along the cliff side and the waiting coast-guard vessel was ready to signal when they were in place.
The wind had picked up and the cold was biting as they made their way past Toormore House and along the cliff-top. It was difficult to speak, so nobody did. They did a lot of thinking instead, the Civil Defence team wondering how many times they’d have to rescue careless tourists before they’d learn some sense; Andrews wondering how West could have been so stupid.
Dunne held a large torch and signalled the coastguard when they arrived. The vessel flashed their huge light and kept it on while the group moved along, following Higgins, watching their steps on the uneven surface.
Then the coastguard light flashed several times. They were there.
For the next frustrating minutes, Dunne and the coastguard, as prearranged, exchanged Morse code messages using a simple left and right to direct them to the exact point where they could see the light.
‘Is that Morse code?’ Jarvis asked.
Andrews nodded. ‘I learned some when I was a boy-scout. He’s spelling out either left or right. See, dot – dash – dot. That’s right. If he wants us to move left, he’ll flash dot – dash – dot – dot.’
Dunne was a careful man. He knew there was little margin for error. A final signal from the coast-guard and he nodded at his team.
Andrews nudged Jarvis. ‘They’ve flashed a Y for yes.’
It took several minutes to get it all set up. The two climbers nominated for the task donned the regulation safety apparel and tested the powerful torches fitted into their helmets. Light also came from several hand-held torches, their beams criss-crossing as the owners moved. Out at sea, the coast-guard vessel continued to aim its powerful beams at the cliff-face.
Finally, they were ready. It had been decided that one would go down first, assess the situation, and report back. With shouts of good-luck blowing in the breeze, the first man vanished over the side, the ropes playing out slowly as he descended.
Andrews and Jarvis exchanged worried glances but said nothing.
It seemed a long time before the two-way radio held by the second climber crackled into life. He pulled it from its harness. ‘Go ahead, Kev.’
The radio crackled again and then, clearly, they heard Kevin’s voice. ‘They’re here. Alive, but unconscious. There’s no sign of any injury.’
The words were greeted with shouts of relief from the gathered group. Andrews turned to Jarvis and grabbed him in a brief hug. ‘He’s alive.’
Gareth Dunne quietened them all down with a wave of his arms. ‘We’ve a long way to go yet,’ he said. ‘We need to get them out of there.’
Kevin’s voice came again. ‘There appears to be a stairway heading from the cave. It’s narrow though, and would be difficult to manoeuvre. I think our best option would be to ask the coast-guard to send a dinghy. The drop from the cave to the sea is only a few feet; we’d easily lower them down.’
Dunne agreed and sent a message to the vessel. It was quickly answered. They were happy to oblige and would await a signal to proceed.
Andrews and Jarvis stood looking on as Dunne gave quick commands to his team. Specialist rescue equipment was lowered down to the cave and a second climber descended to assist Kevin in making the two victims transport-ready. The signal was sent and within minutes a dinghy was bobbing in the rough seas at the base of the cliff.
One of the crew held a loudspeaker. ‘We’re going to throw you up a guide-rope,’ he said, ‘can you tie it to something?’
Kevin caught the rope and looked around and then made a loop in the rope and threw it around a rocky outcrop. He gave it a tug. Solid. He didn’t have a loudspeaker but he waved the end of the rope at the men below and when he had a nod of acknowledgement, he dropped it down.
‘Ok, that’s a bit better,’ the coast-guard called, ‘but it’s still like a roller-coaster down here.’
It took several minutes to lower each gurney, Kevin and his partner responding to shouts of stop and ok, keep going from below. Once Kelly and West were secure, the coast-guard officers gave thumbs-up, and headed back.
Minutes later, a final Morse code message was sent to the cliff-top. They were safe on board.
Dunne turned to Andrews. ‘They have experience in treating hypothermia. Your friends are in good hands. They’ll be met by an ambulance when they get to Galway, and be transferred to Galway University Hospital.’
Andrews huffed a sigh of relief. ‘Your team has been great. We owe you.’
Dunne smiled. ‘All in a day’s work.’
Almost four hours later, a pale Jarvis, and an even paler Andrews, bid their uniformed gardai a grateful goodbye as they were deposited at the door of the hospital. They’d been in contact on the way, both West and Kelly were doing fine, both were awake and almost back to normal.
‘What a night,’ Andrews said, pushing open the door. ‘Let’s just see for ourselves that he’s ok and then we’ll get the hell out of here.’
Jarvis grinned.
They followed the directions they’d been given, stopping in front of the ward-door and exchanging glances before going in. They found themselves in a small corridor with numbered doorways on each side.
‘What number were we told,’ Andrews asked.
‘Seven,’ Jarvis replied, walking ahead. ‘Here it is.’ He pushed the door open, and spotted West in the far corner of the four-bedded unit. ‘He looks ok,’ he said.
West heard the whispers and turned his head, lifting a hand in acknowledgement when he saw who it was.
‘What a run-around you gave us,’ Andrews said, his face brightening when he saw Jarvis had been right. He did look ok.
West grinned, and reaching out, caught Andrews’ hand in a strong grip. ‘Believe me, it wasn’t intentional.’
Andrews dragged over a chair, and Jarvis perched on the edge of the bed. ‘Where’s Kelly? We heard she was ok.’
West nodded. ‘She’s next door; I’m just back from visiting her. She’s fine. They gave us both some intravenous therapy on the coast-guard vessel, it was amazing, within a few minutes we both woke up and before we got here, we were feeling fine. They insisted they needed to do some tests but they’ve all come back normal. They said w
e could leave whenever we wanted.’
Andrews shook his head, hearing the unspoken request. ‘Wait until later, eh?’ Then, seeing that West was going to argue, added, ‘I bet Kelly is exhausted after it all.’
West relaxed back against the pillows. If he were being honest, he was pretty shattered himself. He was glad Andrews was more cautious than he.
Seeing the resigned look on his face, Andrews said, ‘The climbers who got you out said there was a passageway from the cave. Nobody else in the group knew it existed. We all assumed you must have gone down it and lost your way or something.’
West’s grin faded. ‘No, it’s a direct passage from the surface to the cave; when we went back up, someone had pushed something over the hatch. We waited, but whoever it was didn’t come back.’
And left them for dead. If it hadn’t been for the torch...
‘Luckily you left that torch pointing out to sea,’ Andrews said, putting his thoughts into words.
West shook his head. ‘I don’t remember doing that, I’d been sending an SOS every fifteen minutes but eventually my hands got too cold, and then I couldn’t seem to remember the sequence. I don’t remember putting it down at all. Maybe I dropped it.’
‘Or,’ Jarvis said, ‘it was the last rational thing you thought to do.’
‘Possibly,’ West agreed.
Andrews, looking grim, said what they were all thinking. ‘If you hadn’t, we’d never have found you, you know. They’d have put the SOS down to a prank and forgotten about it and we’d have gone on searching.’
There was silence for a few minutes.
‘You know who did it, don’t you?’ Andrews asked.
West grunted. ‘I think so, but I can’t be sure. The passageway is obviously being used for something. The pulley and ropes would indicate something is being brought in, or perhaps sent out. Put that together with what you found out about Finbarr Breathnach, what Bob said about Zombie Zee, and it seems to make sense. We, unfortunately, stumbled on the entrance to the passage and curiosity took us down...’ He saw the two men exchanging glances and shaking their head. ‘Yes,’ he agreed testily, ‘it was a dumb thing to do; you don’t have to tell me that.’
‘How did he know you’d gone down?’ Andrews asked. ‘Is the entrance visible from the house?’
West frowned, thinking of the area. ‘No, I doubt it. There are remnants of old buildings dotted here and there, I doubt if he’d have a clear line of sight to it. We must have just been unlucky.’
‘Or maybe he was checking it out because a shipment was due?’ Jarvis suggested.
‘That makes sense,’ West said, looking sombre, ‘and when he found the hatch open; he did what he did to protect his business. It’s way too lucrative to lose.’
‘Do you think he knew it was you?’
‘If he didn’t know when he closed the hatch, Sam, he’d have known as soon as the search for us started. He could have gone back and opened it, that early we’d have still managed to climb out. No, he was protecting the passageway.’
A nurse, coming to check on West, admonished the two visitors. ‘This is not visiting time, gentlemen. Perhaps you could come back later?’
It wasn’t really a question. The nurse waited, hands on hips until the two men stood and made their goodbyes to a grinning West. ‘We’ll come and get you later,’ Andrews said to his surprise. He assumed the two men would return to Dublin. But he was too tired to argue. He waved, nodded at the now smiling nurse, and snuggled down to fall immediately into a restless sleep.
Jarvis, who was also surprised at Andrews’ words, stayed silent until they exited the hospital, their breaths pluming in front of them. ‘We’re staying?’
Nodding, Andrews took out his phone and seconds later was speaking to Inspector Morrison. ‘They’re both ok,’ he said, ‘but I think we need to stay a bit longer. This case has developed legs; he needs more help that he’s getting from Garda Hall.’
Morrison breathed heavily into the phone. It was going to be a jurisdictional nightmare, but Andrews wouldn’t have asked if he didn’t have genuine concerns. ‘Ok,’ he said. ‘I’ll clear it with Westport and Galway. You’ll need a car, I’ll organise one for you at the nearest garda station. Remember,’ he finished, ‘Garda Hall is keen, just lacking experience; make sure you keep him in the loop.’
Agreeing to follow protocol, Andrews hung up. ‘Right,’ he said to Jarvis, ‘let’s go find somewhere to sleep for a few hours.’
They didn’t have to wander the city, Jarvis, with a shake of his head, took out his phone and within a few seconds had the co-ordinates of the nearest hotel. Five minutes later they were facing a suspicious looking receptionist who looked at them askance.
Jarvis blushed when he realised what the older woman was thinking and quickly took out his identification. ‘We’re working on a case; we just need rooms for a few hours.’ His heavy emphasis on the plural seemed to settle the woman’s over-vivid imagination and she handed him two key-cards.
‘She thought you were a rent-boy, did she?’ Andrews asked yawning, as they walked toward the lift.
Jarvis coloured again. ‘I suppose you see it all when you work in a hotel.’ Checking his key-card, he laughed. ‘Suspicious cow.’ he said. ‘She’s put us on different floors.’
27
Both men were used to long hours and little sleep when on a case. Neither thought four hours was bad, and the late breakfast in the hotel was certainly worth getting out of bed for. ‘So what’s the plan,’ Jarvis said, swallowing the last of his sausage with a mouthful of tea.
Andrews placed his knife and fork across the plate and groaned with pleasure. ‘That was something,’ he said. ‘Ok, we’ll pick up the car, collect Sergeant West and Kelly and head back to Clare Island. I want to catch the bastard who left them for dead, Sam.’
Jarvis nodded. He was keen to get his hands on the man himself. ‘We’re not staying in the same place, are we?’
Andrews sniffed. ‘You want Morrison to have our guts for garters? There’s rooms to be had in The Quay Pub, we’ll stay there.’
The local garda station was a ten-minute walk from the hotel. Within minutes of identifying themselves, the station sergeant came out to greet them. ‘I’ve been asked to offer you every assistance,’ he said, handing them a set of car-keys. ‘If you need uniformed back-up, we can let you have a few men.’
Andrews took the keys with a shake of his head. ‘Thanks, appreciate that, but we have a local man, Eamonn Hall, with us. We should be ok.’
‘I know Eamonn, he’s a good officer. So is your Detective Sergeant West, by all accounts, so the best of luck in catching the bastard.’
With a final agreement to leave the borrowed car in Athenry when they were done with it, Andrews and Jarvis took their leave and drove the short distance to the hospital.
West and Kelly were sitting in the reception area waiting when they arrived. Both looked pale, but they smiled when they saw the two men coming through the door. ‘About time,’ West said, standing. ‘We’re starving. Have you seen what they serve for breakfast in hospitals?’
‘We’ve eaten,’ Andrews said, giving Kelly a hug before standing back and looking her over. ‘You sure you’re ok,’ he asked, seeing the dark circles under her eyes.
Kelly patted his arm. ‘I’m fine, honestly. Thank you both so much for staying, and for...well, for coming to our rescue, I suppose. Someone always seems to be rescuing me.’
‘If a certain detective sergeant took better care of you, we wouldn’t have to,’ he said caustically, taking her by the elbow and guiding her out, ready to provide more support if he felt her waver.
West, walking side by side with Jarvis followed behind. He gave the younger man a cordial grin. ‘I’m never going to hear the last of this, am I?’
Jarvis smiled. ‘Baxter and Edwards send their regards. Now that they know you’re safe they think it’s hilarious that you did something so stupid.’
West cocked an eyebrow.
‘If you don’t mind me saying,’ Jarvis added hastily.
It would be a seven-day wonder, West hoped. He’d just have to put up with it.
They had something to eat in a local cafe and then started on the journey to Clare Island. ‘I contacted young Hall,’ Andrews told West as they drove, ‘he’s going to meet us at Roonagh Pier and take us over. I had a long conversation with him this morning. After they’d seen you off last night, they went looking for the entrance to the passageway. Someone had dragged a huge piece of masonry over it. He left an officer guarding it until they can get hold of a scenes-of-crime officer to go over and try to get some trace off it. He’s an efficient officer, isn’t he?’
West grunted a reply. It was a difficult thing to think of someone deliberately setting out to kill you. He twisted in the seat to look at Kelly. ‘You doing ok?’ he asked.
‘Sam is keeping me entertained,’ she replied, smiling at him. ‘Stop worrying, I’m fine.’
He had to be content with that. Turning back, he said, ‘Hall hasn’t gone to speak to Finbarr, I hope.’
Andrews threw him a glance. ‘No, he hasn’t. I told him last night to keep him under surveillance but not to approach. He’ll know all about it, though. He helped with the first part of the search, heading home when the Civil Defence people arrived. But Higgins was there. He’ll have told him everything, I’d imagine.’
Jarvis leaned forward. ‘Those Civil Defence guys were brilliant. I’ve never had dealing with them before. We were lucky they were doing some training in the area. They even had two Rope Rescue Responders with them. They’re the ones who abseiled down to you.’
West hadn’t known the details of what had occurred. ‘I don’t think there was anyone on the island who didn’t help in some way,’ Andrews said. ‘Daisy and Tadgh are a popular pair. Tadgh has contacts in the GAA so we had an influx from the local club as well. You’ll owe a lot of pints in the pub, Mike.’
Murder on Clare Island: A Garda West Novel (A Garda West Crime Novel Book 3) Page 19