by L K Harcourt
Dan complied, stifling the urge to vomit as he helped John lift the corpse’s arms up to allow him to fit the straps beneath them and around his chest. It was simply indescribable to be at the bottom of the shaft, not knowing if Jake or someone else might burst round the corner at any minute, virtually hugging a corpse – one, furthermore, that his girlfriend had inadvertently killed and whose body was now to be illegally disposed of. At one point, Zak’s head lolled against his shoulder, nuzzling it as if it were Emma’s. Dan pushed it back, revolted.
And there was a distinct sickly sweet, nauseating odour of intestines, dried blood and very bad breath from his mouth. It was the smell of death all right. Dan fought with all his might the desire to retch.
‘Ok,’ said John, as he attached the rope secured around the door handle up above to the D-ring of the harness now pulled tight around Zak’s body. ‘Now we both go back up to the top and we’re going to have to pull with all our might to haul him up.’
John and Dan lifted the corpse to the foot of the shaft and then climbed back up into the outbuilding. They grabbed a stretch of rope each and began to pull and pull. It was incredibly hard-going, especially for Dan whose limbs were already bruised and sore.
Their arms felt as if they were being wrenched from their sockets. But slowly the great leaden weight at the bottom of the shaft began to lift upwards and begin its journey to the top. Their combined strength was only just up to task. Yet eventually, and this time under very different circumstances, Zak’s head appeared above the hole in the floor for the second time that day. This time, there was no gloating, seedy grin or bombast, just the wax-grey, bloated features of a face in which no-one was any longer at home.
John had laid out the tarpaulin ready to receive Zak’s body as they finally dragged it clear of the shaft. He and Dan rolled the corpse up tightly in it and then got several lengths of rope to tie him up securely.
‘We’ve been some time,’ said John, ‘the girls will wonder why we haven’t put to sea yet, let’s just pop back and check all is well and make sure they’re not looking out of the window when we shift the body.’
John and Dan took off their gloves and, hoping they didn’t smell of death, and went back into the lighthouse. The girls were now downstairs in the lounge, chatting over a glass of wine.
‘Hi you two, goodness that was quick,’ said Emma, as they came in.
‘Erm no, we haven’t gone out yet,’ said John. ‘We were just sitting on the rocks, looking out to sea, chatting, you know how it is, we’re just heading off now.’
‘Well don’t do anything we wouldn’t do,’ called Louise, cheerfully.
~~~~~
‘What have they been up to?’ wondered Emma, after the boys disappeared. ‘They both looked deathly pale.’
‘It’s been a tough day for them,’ pointed out Louise. ‘Especially for your Dan. I think he sees John almost as an older brother figure, you know, even though they’re the same age. He probably needed to talk about what he’s gone through today, and get it off his chest.’
‘Well it’s me he should be talking to,’ said Emma, a little put out, ‘but I know what you mean. Well let’s hope they feel refreshed after their fishing trip.’
~~~~~
There were no boats to be seen anywhere close to the island as two very reluctant pallbearers strode from the outbuilding holding Zak’s body between them wrapped in blue tarpaulin. They made their way down towards the jetty, John holding his head and Dan his feet. They were glad when the path dropped behind rocks out of sight of the lighthouse windows. They heaved Zak’s remains into the boat, its weight making the boat list slightly.
John pulled the starting rope and the small outboard engine fired up immediately. That was a relief. As they headed away from the island, they looked at each other, as if needing reassurance. ‘I have no idea where would be the best place to choose,’ said John. ‘What about you?’
John stared a little impatiently at Dan, who had been the star of the show earlier on, but was now leaving him to make all the decisions. After all, the whole point of this was to spare his girlfriend the trauma of knowing the consequences of what she had actually done. That and the need to protect their claim to the treasure, of course.
CHAPTER 20
‘I wonder how their fishing trip is going,’ said Louise glancing out of the lighthouse window. ‘Oh that’s them look, over there I think. I can see a boat chugging across the bay and it looks like mine. Hmmm, maybe not, there’s some great big blue object of some kind in it – looks almost like a tree trunk wrapped in a tarpaulin.’
‘Perhaps that’s the fishing rods and all their gear that they’ve wrapped up together and now they’re off to find a nice spot,’ said Emma, more interested in her glass of crisp, tangy white wine than tracking the boys’ voyage across the bay.
‘Actually,’ added Emma, ‘as it’s been a warm day today and the rock pools will have warmed up, I’m going to take my glass of wine outside and go and have an open-air bath. If we’re going out tonight, I could do with freshening up.’
‘Oh that’s a good idea – any room for me in the tub?’ replied Louise.
‘Yes of course,’ said Emma. ‘Let’s go and get ourselves nice and clean.’
They walked down the stone steps leading to the lighthouse with their towels, wash bags and wine glasses, round to the where sea water at high tide would get trapped in big, luxurious natural hollows in the rock which under a hot summer sun, would be deliciously warm by early evening.
‘Let’s try this rock pool for a change,’ said Emma, ‘we can just about see the boys messing about in boats from here.’
The two women stripped off and jumped into the water. It was almost as warm as if they had run a bath at home and loads more room.
‘Are you going to flaunt yourself at me, like you did before,’ said Emma with a grin, seeking to break any tension between them.
‘No need,’ said Louise, ‘you’ve seen it all before – and touched it.’
‘This is true,’ said Emma. ‘Quite a dirty holiday we’ve all been having when you think about it, mind you the treasure hunting aspect has rather taken over.’
‘We could erm, go back to being dirty,’ said Louise, a little hesitantly. ‘I mean, what we did that night was kind of good and with the island to ourselves for a bit . . .’
‘No Louise,’ said Emma, firmly. ‘That’s not on. What we had was good and I don’t regret it but it wasn’t meant to be. Within a day you’d moved on to John and I’d moved on to Dan.’
‘I do kind of like the best of both worlds, I suppose,’ said Louise, shooting Emma an artful look from beneath her dark fringe. ‘I haven’t stopped fancying you just because I got it together with John.’
‘And I still fancy you,’ said Emma, ‘you’re a beautiful woman, nothing changes that. But I’m with Dan now, and you’re with John. It can’t happen again.’
‘Just let me touch you, you don’t need to respond or give anything back. Why don’t I give you a lovely soothing massage? Oh go on, Emma.’
‘You can massage me if you like, I would enjoy that, I don’t mind us being sensual together and close but not sexual,’ said Emma, as she ran her feet up and down the smooth rock beneath her. ‘Anyway, I just want to relax for the rest of the day. I don’t want breathless passion or to get turned on right at this moment, I just want to try and de-stress after all that’s happened. Can’t we just enjoy lying in this lovely rock pool together, staring up at that lovely rich blue sky and seeing the golden sun start to sink? That’s all that I need for now.’
Louise relented and the two of them fell silent, content to lie back in their rocky baths and enjoy the warm sunshine and sea air.
When Emma finally stepped out onto the rocks she looked out into the bay, hoping to catch sight of the boys but she couldn’t see the boat anywhere.
Louise took the chance to watch her, saying, ‘you really are beautiful you know, Emma.’ Louise also got out and, wrapp
ing a towel around herself, reminded Emma about the massage, suspecting she might have thought better of it.
‘Very well,’ replied Emma, sounding somewhat unsure. ‘I suppose it would be rather relaxing. How about here on this nice flat rock, under the evening sun? I’ll put my towel under me so it should be quite comfy.’
Louise stroked her fingers around Emma’s shoulders and neck. She really was very good at this and Emma felt the tension of the day slipping away from her. It was quite enchanting to feel the firm but gentle fingers of Louise at work as the sea, now at low tide, gurgled and crackled over the shingle and the gulls cried mournfully overhead.
Louise’s fingers explored downwards to her lower back and buttocks. They lingered over Emma’s soft, pert backside, enjoying its gentle curves. When Emma turned over onto her front, Louise was becoming incredibly turned on, her nipples were erect and a distinct dampness forming between her legs.
She gazed down at Emma’s lithe, slender body. This was the first time she’d had a really good look at her naked in full natural light. She looked so ravishingly beautiful, Louise just wanted to spring on top of her. It seemed cruel that their passion for each other should have been so abruptly curtailed, simply because they had both found romance with the two men they were on holiday with.
When she passed her hands over Emma’s breasts she met with no opposition, and so she gently massaged them, noticing, to her delight, that Emma’s nipples had also become like little bullets. She traced her hands smoothly over Emma’s firm, lean stomach. How she ached to run her fingertips into that fine, sandy-blonde bush of pubic hair and into the hidden depths beneath.
She remembered how Emma had yielded to her that magical first night when Louise had been bold enough to slip her hand between her legs. Would she let her again, would she be unable to stop herself?
Louise, her heart beating a little faster, began to massage Emma’s inner thighs and then, barely able to control her desire, she brushed a single finger through Emma’s pubic hair.
‘No, Louise!,’ said Emma, instantly, sitting up. ‘I told you that can’t happen anymore. You are with John, I am with Dan – now behave yourself. Honestly, it’s like you’re on heat or something.’ She got up, picked up her towel and wrapped it around herself. ‘I’m going back inside to get dressed. The boys will be back soon, I should think.’
‘I’m sorry Emma, I just wanted what we had the other night and my instincts got the better of me,’ said Louise.
‘I don’t cavort with more than one person at the same time, it’s not how I was brought up,’ snapped Emma.
Louise remained sitting on the rocks, staring out to sea, Emma’s disdain ringing in her ears: on heat, cavort, not how she was brought up . . . Was I brought up so badly?, thought Louise, miserably. Still naked, she gently caressed her own breasts with one hand, while letting the other slip between her legs. She was incredibly turned on, fresh air and sunshine were always powerful aphrodisiacs for her and she felt desperate to satisfy her lust. Oh how she had wanted to touch, taste and lick Emma again, but it wasn’t to be.
She reached across for her bag, rummaged inside it and fetched out the vibrator she had rather shyly bought at a recent Ann Summer’s party. She needed it now like crazy. She switched it on, enjoying its gentle purr and pleasing quiver in her hands. Louise pushed the top of it into her vagina and rubbed it hard against her clitoris, until its gentle pulsing send waves of ecstasy through her and she reached a shuddering and satisfying climax.
~~~~~
‘Ok let’s have a think,’ said Dan, aware that John was getting irritated that he wasn’t helping more with the crucial decision-making required. Dan was exhausted after the day’s events and his body and brain were finding it hard to keep going. He ached just to flop into an armchair with a beer in his hand and for everything to go back to being ok again.
‘I think it’s potentially risky to dump the body out to sea, we might easily be seen from the shore and if we are, we’re absolutely done-for,’ said Dan, striving hard to say something meaningful. ‘Why don’t we motor into that ravine Louise showed us the other day, the one where you can row the boat right into the underground cavern, and drop the body there?
‘Hey that’s not such a bad idea,’ said John. ‘Assuming there’s nobody in that cavern, no-one will see and it might well take a few days for it to be discovered, by which time decomposition will have set in. The longer it is before any forensic pathologist gets a chance to examine Zak’s skull the better.’
Dan shivered slightly at John’s rather clinical assessment. He simply couldn’t bear to think that his wonderful, sensitive, incredibly kind and thoughtful girlfriend might ever be dragged before a court over something like this. And nor could he bear to think that she had actually caused such an injury in the first place, but she had of course been terrified. And who knows what might have happened if she hadn’t acted as she did?
No, what he and John were doing was right – or at least, wholly justifiable, reasoned Dan as they motored over to the coves in search of the ravine. It was a tragic accident triggered by that most basic of human emotions, self defence against someone you believe to be a killer and who might well kill you. His lovely Emma most certainly did not deserve to suffer as a result.
‘Ah yes, it was around this sort of spot, I seem to recall,’ said John. ‘Yes, you can see the sandbank over there, where you and me got out and jigged about the other day.
John cut the engine as they approached the fissure in the rock face through which sea water flowed and formed the deep, partly submerged ravine.
There was, he supposed, no great merit in following the ravine all the way into the cavern. They just needed to be far enough along to ensure, with sturdy rock on either side, that no-one would see them as they undertook their task.
‘How about here,’ said John and Dan nodded. They were still in fairly deep water, but it was calmer than out to sea. And also, as John pointed out, there were huge boulders, like sharp black teeth, jutting out of the water and waves would often break with a great explosion of spray and foam over the top of them.
‘You see, he could have sustained that wound of his by being hurled against those rocks in that great storm,’ said John. The force of smacking straight into them in appalling weather with 12ft high waves could equal that applied by the spade.’
‘Oh I’ve just thought of something,’ said Dan, anxiously. ‘That safety harness. He’s still wearing it, we never took it off him.’
‘You’re right,’ said John, his brow furrowing. ‘Well look, why don’t we simply leave him wearing it? That way, it will suggest he was swept off the deck of a boat or ship – perhaps during that storm? As a local man who’s grown up on the coast it would surely be nothing unusual for him to take some casual work crewing for passing ships.
‘Ok,’ said Dan. ‘So are we going to just roll him out of the tarpaulin over the side? We obviously mustn’t leave him tied up in it or anything.’
‘No absolutely not, and I’m afraid we will have to take the tarp back with us,’ said John. ‘It will probably smell as well, yuck. Anyway, no-one’s about, let’s do the deed.’
John and Dan took one final glance around before undoing the three coils of rope wrapped tight around Zak’s body. ‘Now let’s lift him over the side together, keeping hold of one edge of the tarpaulin as we do so,’ said John, ‘and his body should simply roll out.’
It was a chilling sight as Zak’s now stiffening corpse slid into the water, horizontal at first and then suddenly up-ending and ghoulishly bobbing up and down.
‘Oh God, that’s simply revolting,’ said John, rolling up the tarpaulin. ‘Let’s get away from here.’
Dan stared at Zak in macabre fascination, and then leant over the other side of the boat and was violently sick.
‘That’s not helpful Dan,’ said John, a little unkindly. ‘You’re keeping us at a crime scene and you’ve just gone and deposited evidence. We better hope that gets broken
up by the sea pretty quick.’
‘I’m sorry, I couldn’t help it,’ said Dan as he wiped his mouth with a tissue. John got the motor going and they roared away.
‘Let’s just get back as soon as we can,’ said John, glancing at the sinking sun, now sending its familiar golden finger of evening diagonally across the water.
‘Ugh, I can smell him,’ said Dan. ‘That tarpaulin whiffs. We’ll have to be careful what we do with it.’
‘We’ll dunk it in that mini lagoon near the jetty,’ said John. ‘If we stick a big rock on it, it won’t wash away, but the ebb and flow of the tide should clean off any traces of Zak. Oh am I glad to be rid of that body. It really was starting to pong wasn’t it? Mind you, Zak was the sort to smell anyway, when he ripped his clothes off in the underground cave hoping to get lucky with Louise, he reeked of rancid sweat. He’s hardly going to smell any sweeter in death is he?’
Dan allowed himself a weak smile. ‘Oh please, let’s not even think about it,’ he said.
~~~~~
Louise, content at last, switched off her vibrator, rinsed it in the rock pool and returned it to her bag. She looked up to see her motorboat, with John at the wheel, heading for the jetty. The buzzing of the sex toy had masked its sound. Louise stood up, unconcerned whether the boys saw her naked or not, nonchalantly slipped her towel round herself and watched as John and Dan brought the boat back through the rocks and to the jetty.
That blue tarpaulin was now wrapped tightly in a ball on the floor of the boat. She could see no evidence that they had caught any fish and nor, come to think of it, could she see any sign of fishing rods or tackle. But she thought no more of it and went back inside, anxious for a quick word alone with Emma before the boys walked through the door. She fervently hoped Emma would not feel the need to tell Dan that she’d made a pass at her.