Wreckers Island

by L K Harcourt

  Dan shot a sharp look at John but he hadn’t noticed either, and nor had the girls.

  ‘Pete, it is Pete isn’t it, would you mind if I had a look at your paper – catch up on the local gossip?’

  ‘No not at all cap’n, you go right ahead,’ said Pete, amiably.

  Dan took the newspaper, angling it so that the others couldn’t see, swallowed hard and began reading.

  THE body of a man with a severe head wound has been recovered from the sea off the south Cornish coast. The discovery was made in a ravine close to Gunwalloe Cove yesterday evening by a local fisherman. It is believed that the man is local although a formal identification has not yet taken place.

  The man, thought to be in his late 40s, was wearing a ship’s safety harness and it is possible he was lost overboard and the tide carried his body to the shore, a spokesman for Devon & Cornwall Police said. The man had sustained a severe head wound.

  ‘It is not possible at this stage to say what caused the injury or whether it was responsible for the man’s death,’ the spokesman said. ‘We believe that death occurred sometime within the last 24 hours and will treat it as suspicious until foul play can be ruled out.

  ‘Inquiries are on-going and the Coroner has been informed. We would appeal to anyone with any information to contact Devon & Cornwall Police.’

  A chill settled on Dan’s heart. So, Her Majesty’s Coroner would be getting two reports in very close succession: one about an unexplained death; the other about a haul of treasure being found. What an unfortunate coincidence. Except of course, it wasn’t a coincidence. Both events were linked in the most unfair and unforeseen circumstances.

  Dan pictured himself standing in the dock, trying to explain everything to a judge. What he and John had done was to seek to prevent an injustice by acting in a way that could not, in a court of law, be justified. After all, whatever the mitigating circumstances, moving bodies, covering up evidence and failing to report a death were all thoroughly illegal. Not sufficient to land anyone with a murder charge probably, but certainly enough for charges of some kind to be brought and custodial sentences passed, degree courses and careers wrecked and a huge official reward, which could set them up for the rest of their lives, forfeited. But if through acting as they had, there was some chance of sparing Emma a terrible ordeal, then surely it was worth it.

  Emma smiled at him. ‘A penny for your thoughts,’ she said as Dan slipped the paper to John.

  ‘No, you really wouldn’t want them, certainly not for a penny,’ he replied.

  ‘What about if I paid you a gold coin,’ she whispered mischievously. ‘I bet you were thinking nice things about us, our future together and going back to Oxford University as boyfriend and girlfriend, our money worries solved.

  ‘Oh Dan,’ she continued, her enchanting watery blue eyes gazing lovingly at him, as they sat alongside each other in the back of the boat, ‘what a wonderful, unforgettable time this is.’

  Dan smiled at her and caressed her arm. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘we are very lucky.’ It was true, he reflected, they were very lucky, they just had to hope their luck held.

  CHAPTER 24

  The curator at the Royal Cornwall Museum was indeed thrilled when a chortling Rupert Spencer walked into his office with the four students, carrying boxes full of the kind of maritime riches he didn’t think he would see in a lifetime.

  Ex-military and in his late 50s, tweed jacket and floppy grey moustache ever so slightly curled at the ends, he looked just as you would expect a museum curator to look, reflected Louise, who loved to assess people and work out the personality within. He seemed a jovial, kindly fellow – the sort she could somehow never visualise grinding themselves hard into a woman, making her gasp and cry out. Maybe 30 years ago, perhaps. As for goofy Rupert, she’d given him a lesson in life that day that he wouldn’t forget in a hurry. She grinned to herself.

  The curator was fascinated by the find, and in particular with the captain’s diary. He was most impressed that Dan had managed to translate some of it – despite the fact that he was majoring in French at university.

  ‘Oh you Oxford chaps, you really are the cream of the crop, I’ll give you that. I’m a Durham man myself, jolly fine university but not quite up there with the best. Perhaps that’s why I only rose to be curator of the local museum, well after an indifferent career in the Army, that is,’ he said, smiling ruefully at them over the top of his pince-nez spectacles. ‘Mind you, it’s the best place for me. I’m at home here amid my glass display cabinets and old books and art collections.’

  ‘I tell you this, young people, this is most definitely treasure if you ask me, both in terms of its legal definition and in the vernacular use of the word. I am thrilled by the sight of it and certainly I will wish to advise the Coroner of our desire to purchase it should we be able to. The hoard of gold and silver coins is particularly exciting and historic. From 1780, you say?

  ‘It’s simply wonderful. You might be interested to know that we already have a collection of gold coins which came from the wreck of a Spanish ship – a collection believed to date from the 14th to 15th century discovered in Praa Sands, not so very far from where you are staying. It is likely to have come from Le Kateryn Van Arnude which sank in Mount’s Bay in 1478.

  ‘And we have some other remarkable coins in our numismatics section, including several Roman coin hoards. Rupert here, he’ll spend hours poring over them with his magnifying glass and helping us categorise them. Comes in his own free time as well.’

  There’s a shock, thought Louise.

  ‘Oh but you must excuse me, I get rather carried away at times. We need to go through all the items you have brought in carefully and give you what is essentially a receipt for them – that way, you can feel safe to leave them here.’

  It was not a five-minute task but Rupert and the curator couldn’t have been more helpful. After it was all done Rupert drove them back to the jetty and Pete, the relaxed skipper of the council motorboat, was summoned to take them back to the island.

  ‘Well it was an absolute delight to meet you all,’ beamed Rupert as they stood on the jetty. ‘It was quite a remarkable day,’ he said, glancing slyly at Louise, who tried to avoid making eye contact. ‘I’ve got all your details so I will keep in touch with you. I will inform the Coroner on your behalf of your find so leave that to me. He will most probably write to you at your home addresses to let you know what will happen next. Bear in mind that if he does hold an inquest, it will most likely not take place for several weeks, if not months, although we are quite speedy here in Cornwall.’

  As the four said their goodbyes, Rupert turned a little awkwardly to Louise and, colouring slightly, said, ‘thank you in particular Louise for your kind hospitality this morning and for showing me around the lighthouse, it was a revelation and I am grateful to you for it.’

  Louise looked at him quizzically, and a wave of grudging admiration swept aside her scorn. He wasn’t trying to be funny or clever, he really was grateful to her for an experience which he had clearly craved but never had. He seemed to accept that Louise wouldn’t allow any more to come of it.

  She squeezed his arm. ‘You’re a good man Rupert, thanks for everything you’ve done today – everything,’ she said, repeating the word so that he would know she had no regrets about what happened.

  As the council motorboat roared away to deliver them back to Wreckers Island, only Dan noticed that, behind the cheerful, toothy grin of Rupert, waving madly as they sped off, was the toothless, scowling face of Jake, sitting on a bollard, watching them curiously.

  As the boat crossed the bay, he also spotted out of the corner of his eye, a couple of official looking boats moored at the far end, close to where he and John had dumped Zak’s body. There were several blue lights flashing on and off in a semi-circle, as if police had put a cordon round the spot. Once again, ice cold fingers of fear seemed to squeeze him round the neck. John had seen them too, and so had the skipper who seemed
about to remark on it.

  Just in time, Dan began to bluster about their exciting day and what an interesting time they’d had and how helpful Rupert had been. John joined in too. The girls, meanwhile, were engrossed in a conversation of their own.

  ‘Oh aye,’ said Pete. ‘He’s a good lad is our Rupert with an absolute passion for archaeology. That’s the love of his life you know. His only love you might say, I don’t think he’s spoken for, not sure he ever will be. But each to their own, he might not be much of a one for the ladies, but give him a couple of ancient artifacts and he’s in heaven.’

  Louise pricked up her ears at that point and smiled inwardly. She reckoned that gawky young Rupert might just find there was more to life than Roman antiquities and such like from now on. Well good luck to him, she thought.

  ~~~~~

  Safely back in the lighthouse, they all felt relieved that the treasure had gone and been safely handed in to the museum. Spellbinding though it was, they had felt vulnerable having it in their care in an offshore lighthouse. Now it was no longer at risk of falling into the wrong hands.

  That evening the girls were in high spirits and keen to return ashore for another night out. Dan and John exchanged glances. They would have liked to as well, but for them, burdened with knowledge they could not share, there was less to celebrate. And there was also that unpleasant emotion: fear.

  ‘Do you know what I feel like?’ said John, ‘a nice quiet barbecue out on the rocks on the seaward side of the island, washed down with a couple of very cold beers.’

  ‘Yes,’ agreed Dan, ‘that sounds great. We always tend to enjoy the view looking back towards the shore, let’s go the other side and gaze out to sea, to the far horizon!’

  ‘Hmmm,’ said Louise. ‘Ok then, but I think you pair are getting old before your time. We ought to be going out into the village, painting the town red! Especially as we only have a couple of days left here. I can’t believe that our time together has passed so quickly.

  ‘Unless, oh you know, I have just had the most brilliant idea!’ exclaimed Louise, her eyes shining. ‘Why don’t we all stay on? I mean, what’s stopping us? It’s only mid June, we have got the whole summer holidays stretching out in front of us – the autumn term at Oxford doesn’t start until mid October. My parents aren’t planning to come and stay here any time soon. Why don’t we grab another week and do more exploring and pottering about together?’

  CHAPTER 25

  The suggestion caught John and Dan unawares. If they’d had time, they would have thought of a convincing excuse why they couldn’t. Not that they wouldn’t have loved to ordinarily, simply that they both knew, with the police snooping around trying to work out how Zak had met his end, it would be safer for them all to be out of the picture.

  There was a slightly awkward silence and Louise felt hurt, so too did Emma, whose eyes had brightened at the suggestion. Apart from anything else, didn’t their menfolk want to be with them? John decided that it was time to be partially honest with them, to prevent any misunderstanding.

  ‘Look girls,’ he said. ‘Dan and I have got a few concerns about our presence here which we haven’t gone into any detail about before because we didn’t want to alarm you. Let’s get the barbie going and sit outside on those flat rocks and enjoy a nice summer’s evening together and we’ll talk through what’s bugging us. If you girls go inside and start getting some salad and nibbles ready and chill some beer, Dan and I will get the charcoal lit.’

  ‘Oh great, I love the old-fashioned division of labour, welcome to the 18th century everyone! Dan will be dressing up as an ancient mariner again soon!’ retorted Louise.

  It was quite a funny quip, save for the fact that dubbing Dan the ‘ancient mariner’ had been Zak’s gag – his last ever, to be precise. John and Emma shuddered slightly at the unwelcome reminder.

  ‘I wonder what did happen to Zak in the end,’ said Emma, slowly.

  ‘Look, said John, ‘let’s talk about things later, ok? Over a barbecue and a beer.’

  Just at that moment Louise’s phone beeped. It was a text message from Rupert. He had news for them. Louise read it out to the others:

  Spoken to coroner. 99% def be an inquest. Pencilled in for Thurs, Oct 11. He’ll write to you formally tho 2 let u no. Will be in touch when I no more. Best, R x

  ‘Oh well,’ said Louse, a little quietly. ‘Nearly four months to wait. Well it’s part of the court system remember – these things do take time. At least we’ll know before we go back to college. And we’ll all get to meet up again for it, which will be nice.’

  She and Emma went back inside the lighthouse to prepare the food while Dan and John busied themselves with the barbie.

  ‘I know I must have sounded pretty sexist earlier, sending the girls off like that,’ said John when Louise and Emma were out of earshot. ‘But I thought it best for you and me to get our action plan together first, us knowing a bit more about what’s happened than them.’

  Dan nodded. He was as anxious to talk to John alone as the other way round. ‘You had me worried earlier – in fact, I still am worried,’ he said. ‘I thought the whole point of moving the body was so that we could keep everything secret from the girls?’

  ‘Yes,’ agreed John. ‘But things have moved on. As we know from the newspaper, the police found Zak’s body much more quickly than we anticipated. That is not good news. It allows them to pinpoint the time of his death with much more accuracy and decomposition won’t have had time to conceal the evidence of his head wound. The police have also put out an appeal for witnesses.

  ‘We are quite likely to see a police boat chugging out our way before long with detectives on board asking us a few routine questions, as they’ll put it. After all, staying in a lighthouse we have an excellent view of the coast. Perhaps we might have seen something, they’ll ask. And with the four of us together, they’ll probably tell us at least some of what they know and that they’ve identified the body as a local man. They may even refer to his wound and then Emma might start putting two and two together. And wouldn’t you agree that she’s quite a vulnerable and honest person who might struggle with that sort of conversation?’

  Dan did agree. ‘You know John, I’m uneasy about us even being here any longer. I’m beginning to wish that we were leaving tomorrow, not the day after. And now we have Louise begging us to stay on for another week and offended that we don’t appear to want to. Emma looked pretty disappointed too.’

  ‘I know,’ said John. ‘My thoughts exactly. It’s a tricky one because there is no reason why we couldn’t stay on and I would love to under other circumstances – we ought to be on cloud nine finding that treasure but instead we find ourselves in a bit of a pickle. If we went our separate ways now, ok the police may ring us at home, assuming they think it’s worth the bother of tracing us, and ask if we saw anything but that will be easier to handle because we’ll be miles away by then. And you and me will be able to deal with those questions ok because we’ll be ready for them and as for the girls, they would be able to answer, quite truthfully, that they saw nothing.’

  ‘And above all,’ said Dan, ‘it’s a case of being out of sight, out of mind. We won’t be suspects, just a bunch of over-grown kids camping out on an island who might possibly be witnesses. If we’re scattered to the four winds, then I can’t even see them tracking us down, ringing us up one after the other, on the off-chance we’re any use to them. But stay here, and the police will come over for a chat, if only because it will be an enjoyable trip out in a boat for a couple of them.’

  ‘Plus,’ said John, ‘clearing off should hopefully ensure the girls don’t get wind of the investigation in progress. Stay here and we’ll be staring Zak’s death in the face from every newspaper billboard in Porthlevnack and hearing about it in every pub and café we walk in.’

  The pair of them had done so much talking they had forgotten to light the barbecue.

  ‘The trouble is,’ said Dan, while John quickly busied
himself with the matches, ‘how do we break it to the girls that not only do we not want to stay on here, but we want to go home tomorrow, a day early. How’s that going to make them feel?’

  ‘That brings us to my cunning plan,’ said John. ‘We scare them about being at risk here, especially with Zak sniffing about. Obviously Zak isn’t sniffing about any more, but didn’t you say earlier you noticed Jake loitering and staring at us on the jetty? Right so it’s semi truthful. We persuade them that we should all leave and go our own separate ways but – and this is the clever bit – we will not only all meet up again in October for the treasure inquest, but we’ll come back here to the lighthouse and resume our holiday. We’ll be able to squeeze a few days in before the new term.

  ‘Well why not, when you think about it? That way, the girls understand that we’re acting from the best of motives and will be delighted at the thought of another holiday in the lighthouse in early autumn. This will culminate in us going to the treasure inquest and coming out very happy and very rich and returning to Oxford for our final year with the pair of them on our respective arms. If that isn’t a fine plan, then I don’t know what is. What could possibly go wrong?’

  ‘I can’t think,’ replied Dan. ‘Nothing hopefully, although knowing our luck, anything. But it sounds like a good idea to me. I certainly can’t think of a better one. Anyway, here’s our chance to put it to the committee.’

  Louise and Emma came out laden with a trayful of food, including some fine-looking sausages and burgers to put on the barbecue and good ice-cold beers, just the way their men liked them. They were horrified at first to learn that John and Dan wanted that evening to be their last and for them to pack up and go home the day after. But John succeeded in scaring them about Zak and Jake and the possibility they would mount a counter-attack.