Wreckers Island

by L K Harcourt

  Emboldened by John’s support, Louise wrapped her arms around his neck and had another try. ‘Come on Emma, let sleeping dogs lie, for everyone’s sake. Don’t do this to John and Dan and above all, don’t do it to yourself.’

  ‘Try and see that we acted in your best interests Emma, and the best interests of securing the wealth that is coming to us,’ chimed in John, ‘wealth that will give us financial security and allow us to finish our degree courses without having to worry about how we’ll pay for it. And you, of all of us, were struggling the most, you deserve this money more than anyone.’

  ‘I deserve a prison cell,’ said Emma, sobbing again. ‘Whatever I did to Zak, however terrible, I can at least say that it was never my intention to fatally injure him, but if I say nothing now, I am wilfully taking a decision to cover up what I did which will make it look tantamount to murder. I have to tell the police the truth, I simply have to. And if it ever came out that Zak had died at the hands of a gang of four who had just discovered over £1½ million of treasure and who then disposed of his body, it would look pretty grim for all of us, including you, Louise.’

  ‘The truth won’t come out,’ said John, calmly. ‘The police have closed the file on Zak – they clearly think he’s lowlife anyway. The officers round here, they’re all pretty decent, rural folk from good backgrounds, they’re not going to bust a gut trying to work out exactly how scum like Zak met a bad end. And those sort often do meet a bad end.’

  Louise opened her mouth to speak but was cut short by Dan. ‘Louise, you have said enough already. It is intolerable the pressure you are putting on Emma and I won’t stand for it any longer.’

  ‘Emma, listen to me,’ Dan said, turning to her and putting his hands on her shoulders. ‘You must do whatever you think is right. None of us should tell you what that is, including me. If what happened will torture you and eat away at you for the rest of your life then you must deal with it as you see fit. If you feel you have to go to the police, I will support you. Don’t worry about John and me, we will have to account for our wrongdoing and explain ourselves. But you shouldn’t be bounced into acting against your conscience for our sakes.’

  Louise tutted and rolled her eyes angrily. She could hardly believe the day’s turn of events. If only they had left the courtroom promptly at the end of their inquest and not found themselves accidentally staying for the next. And what dreadful bad luck that the one immediately after should be Zak’s! John was thinking the same, although logic told him that it was not so great a coincidence as it seemed, since the two matters would inevitably have been reported to the Coroner in close succession.

  The four of them fell silent, each lost in their own thoughts. A coolish wind rustled the leaves in the great horse chestnut above them and blew pleasant autumn scents into their nostrils. Eventually, Dan spoke. ‘Emma, we are all in this together. We stand or fall together. Whatever relationships we have had with each other, fundamentally underneath it we are all the best of friends. If you wish to go to the police station now and make a statement then we will go with you and face it together. Won’t we?’ he said to John and Louise.

  The two of them, realising that it was futile to say anything further, nodded.

  ‘That’s what I have to do,’ said Emma, in a quiet monotone.

  ‘Shall we go then,’ said Dan. They all got up and walked slowly out of the park.

  ‘I think the main police station is somewhere down there,’ said Louise, pointing vaguely along the high street. Unlike the others, she knew St Perro well and they trustingly followed her lead.

  ‘Hang on a minute,’ said Dan, who was getting wise to Louise and her ways. ‘Surely that’s the police station, the other way to our left, across the road. You can see its blue lamp outside, quite clearly.’

  ‘Oh sorry, I must have been mistaken,’ said Louise, wincing with annoyance. She had hoped by heading off in completely the opposite direction, there might have been time for Emma to walk off her desire to go anywhere near the place.

  As they span round, Louise said to her, despairingly, ‘oh come on Emma, we all admire you hugely for your stance on this, but please don’t go through with it.’

  Emma’s tears had dried up now, she seemed calmer and more assured, as if she knew what she had to do. She halted abruptly and turned to Louise. ‘Yet another deception!’ she said, spitting out the words as she glared at her. ‘I will go to the police station and I will go alone. I need to do this on my own. Why don’t you all go back to the lighthouse, and if I am let out on bail later after I’ve confessed I’ll join you. If I’m locked up I’m sure they’ll allow me a phone call to explain.’

  ‘I’d rather not be at my lovely lighthouse when the police come calling for us,’ said Louise, ‘as they no doubt will. I don’t want that sort of experience imprinted on my brain. It will spoil the place forever. Look, why don’t the rest of us do as planned, go back to Gunwalloe Cove and take our beach tents down and light a fire with driftwood and have a really good barbecue – a sort of condemned man’s last meal? The police will be able to find us easily but hopefully by the time they do we’ll be well fed with a few beers inside us for Dutch courage.’

  John and Dan smiled wryly, while Emma looked troubled and upset.

  ‘I think that is a good idea,’ agreed John. ‘We’ll take some rudimentary items to keep ourselves warm and comfortable if we do get to stay the night. And plenty of beers and burgers. We’ve got our little barrel barbecue in the boot of the car, we can use that. I think there are a couple of bags of charcoal in there as well.’

  Louise and Dan nodded.

  ‘Right, Louise and I will head back to the car and give you and Dan a moment or two alone together,’ said John considerately to Emma, giving her shoulder a rub. ‘I do hope things go ok, you have to do what you think is best. Hopefully we’ll see you later this afternoon.’

  And with that, John grabbed Louise’s arm and walked off with her towards the car park.

  ‘Oh Emma, I’m so sorry for what’s happened,’ said Dan.

  ‘Give me a hug Dan, a big hug,’ replied Emma.

  The couple embraced passionately in the middle of the pavement, oblivious to the world around them. To passers-by they would have looked like a pair of love-struck teenagers, unable to contain their longing for each other.

  But here were two young people for whom the future looked bleak, career hopes set to be dashed; education at a top university ruined; romance torn apart; prospect of great wealth blown away. They had the world at their feet – but within minutes, it was primed to explode.

  Alone with Emma, Dan could have used the moment to make a last appeal for her to leave things be, for all their sakes. Vulnerable and afraid now, it might even have worked. But he made no such attempt. They walked slowly, with increasing foreboding, towards the huge entrance doors to the main police station in St Perro.

  As they got nearer Dan turned to Emma. ‘I could come in with you, or I can wait outside.’

  ‘Go back with the others my love,’ said Emma, brushing his cheek tenderly. ‘I understand Dan, my wonderful Dan, why you did what you did. You did it for the love of me and I am sure that God will forgive you.’

  ‘But you can’t forgive me,’ said Dan.

  ‘I can’t forgive myself,’ replied Emma. ‘And I must do what I know to be right.’

  Dan looked at his girlfriend and noticed how lovely she looked in the soft autumn sunshine, enhancing the blue of her eyes and giving her blonde hair extra lustre.

  ‘We will come through this,’ he told her. ‘I don’t care if we end up penniless, with no degree, and no job prospects. So long as I have you I will never want for anything. And if we both end up in prison, then we will count the days down until we are out and can be together again. If the right thing for you to do is to report this, then I respect your decision. You are a better person than any of us for being willing to do that and I’m proud of you.’

  ‘Oh Dan, you don’t know how much th
ose words mean to me,’ replied Emma, fighting back tears. ‘From this day forth, I will carry them in my heart. Our love will give us the strength and courage we both need in the days ahead, I promise you.’

  They embraced one last time and then, giving Emma a final affectionate squeeze of the arm, Dan turned and walked away towards the car park where John and Louise waited patiently in Louise’s old Ford. He stole a final glance behind him and saw Emma walk up to the main doors of the police station. The sight made him shiver. Dan could not bear to see her actually go inside, into the place where their future dreams would shrivel and crumble into dust and he turned away quickly. Keeping his eyes firmly fixed ahead, Dan walked resolutely to find the others.

  ‘Let’s go,’ he said, sadly, as he got inside Louise’s car. They smiled supportively at him, realising that he was hurting more than anyone.

  CHAPTER 30

  ‘If only,’ said Dan, bitterly, ‘if only I hadn’t been so stupid that day. Not one but two fool’s errands – first when we were all down in the cave, returning to the lighthouse to get Captain Felipe’s diary so I could place it on his shelf and then later, going back down the tunnels to retrieve it again. Whatever was I thinking of?’

  ‘Now hang on,’ said John, almost angrily, ‘thank goodness for your first fool’s errand as you call it, because otherwise you’d have been trussed up with the rest of us and Zak and Jake would have made off with everything.’

  ‘Trouble is John,’ said Dan, bitterly, that would in many ways have been a far better outcome than the one we’re now facing.’

  John didn’t reply to that and nor did Louise. Dan had a point. The three of them travelled in silence on what seemed like an endless journey to the Cornish fishing village of Porthlevnack that they loved so much.

  As Louise pulled up by the jetty that she had known all her life, the place looked the same and yet somehow different as if she could now only view its charms through a prism of fear and foreboding, rather than anticipation and hope.

  How very much happier an occasion it would have been if only they had left promptly at the end of the treasure inquest. But there was no point thinking that way and John did his best to sound brisk and cheerful as they got their things together to camp on the beach at Gunwalloe Cove.

  Their spirits lifted somewhat despite everything as they busied themselves buying meat to put on the barbecue, snacks and bottles of their favourite beers. And John and Dan enjoyed collecting up the driftwood and piling it, ready to burn. When it blazed up, after a couple of false starts due to an unhelpful breeze blowing out their matches, they looked almost cheerful as they stood and watched the flames lick high into the sky. John rather childishly hurled a great pile of seaweed on to make it smoke and pop.

  ‘That is the maritime equivalent of getting a length of bubble wrap and keep bursting it again and again,’ said Dan.

  ‘Erm yes, I do that too at home, actually,’ admitted John, ‘When a parcel comes I will sit there popping every single bubble until they’re all gone – infuriates my mum – I tell you, if looks could kill.’

  He faltered at that point and a grin that had temporarily crossed his face disappeared quickly. The ‘k’ word was not one they wanted to hear again that day, even if in a totally different, jocular context. And the pair of them fell silent at the reminder of home and families.

  John couldn’t help but compare the mild upset he might cause his parents by popping bubble wrap with the more sombre news he might soon have to impart – that he faced trial for attempting to pervert the cause of justice and illegally disposing of a body, and possibly even being considered an accessory to unlawful killing.

  Oxford University would almost certainly expel the four of them, and that, plus a criminal record and likely jail sentence would wreck any realistic hope of a job, certainly any kind of profession. As for the financial reward due from the treasure, they could forget it. It would be deemed obtained through illegal means, in breach of the law and code of conduct governing the finding of treasure. And that meant it would be forfeit.

  Similar thoughts were running through Dan’s mind but he was more concerned about the torment Emma must feel. As for Louise, she was angry and upset, in particular because both Dan and John had turned on her and brusquely told her to shut up after she moaned about Emma and how she’d ‘ruined everything’.

  Why, she mused, should she have to suffer for the actions of her friends? Emma had killed Zak and John and Dan had attempted to dispose of his body. The heads of the three of them were on the block. But what had she done? If it hadn’t been for her delaying tactics, Dan would never have had the chance to get down to the caves, change into Captain Felipe’s old clothes and scare off Zak and Jake.

  Then her conscience pricked her with a reminder of her boorish, loud-mouthed behaviour in the pub the previous night which had needlessly attracted attention and been the trigger for the drama the following day. Looking at it that way round, she concluded miserably, she was primarily to blame.

  ‘We’ll all feel better when we’ve got some food and beer inside us,’ said John, glancing at the glum faces of his friends.

  And he was right. It was good to see tasty burgers, sausages, kebabs and ribs crackling away on the barbecue, sending up a fragrant plume of smoke. When they came to eat, they were so tense and worked up they could barely taste their food. But with a beer to wash it down, the three of them slowly began to relax a little. They were numb with fear, but felt a camaraderie that comes of being in something together, knowing there was nothing more they could do.

  Late afternoon came and the sun slipped noticeably towards the horizon. It was getting chillier. John and Dan threw more driftwood onto the fire and it blazed up again strongly, its dancing flames looking still more vivid and dramatic against a darkening sky and sea.

  ‘What do you suppose has happened to Emma?’ asked Louise as she lay back in the soft sand, allowing its grains to slowly run through her fingers.

  ‘I have no idea, I haven’t received any text or phone call from her,’ said Dan. ‘I presume she is in with the police now, making a statement. She knows where to find us and so will they by now. My guess is that they will come down to the beach this evening and speak to us, possibly to arrest us, once they know what is going on. When I say us, I mean John and myself.

  ‘But there is no point dwelling on it. This might be our last night together for some while – it might even be our last night of freedom for John and me – so let’s try to enjoy it. Let’s hold on to what we’ve got: our friendship, our relationships – me with Emma and the pair of you. I’ve always believed in being grateful for what I’ve got, not resentful for what I haven’t.’

  ‘I know Dan, that’s a good way to be, but what we’ve currently also got is a university degree course at England’s most prestigious university, undreamed of wealth, and a bright future ahead of us. Only right now it is being taken away, all because Emma feels the need to do the right thing,’ said Louise.

  ‘And we’ve also got plenty of beer,’ chipped in John, refusing to get too downhearted. ‘Come on, let’s have another one – and he uncapped three bottles of premium German lager and handed them out. Drink your medicine everybody, you’ll feel better.’

  The three of them took their beers and clambered onto the smooth rocks which marked a small headland between Gunwalloe Cove and another, smaller cove around the corner. The rocks formed natural seats in which they could recline and look out on the bay and Wreckers Island. Twilight was coming now as the clock ticked towards 7pm – a reminder that the long days of summer had given way to the shorter, chillier ones of autumn. The sun was dropping fast behind them, an orange ball going down on a fiery, emotional day.

  The three of them lapsed into silence once more, enjoying their beer and gazing out at the sea, watching it almost hypnotically, as they had from the lighthouse, ebbing and flowing, rising and falling, waves breaking over rocks and gurgling and hissing through the shingle. The moon began to
rise, painting a rippling line of silver across the blackening bay. And with it came a few stars, shining brightly in the evening sky.

  Louise broke the spell. The danger and stress was making her horny. ‘Dan, do you mind if John and I disappear for a bit into the tent?’

  ‘No, you go ahead,’ replied Dan, ‘I rather fancy a stroll along the beach anyway,’ he replied, a smirk crossing his face for a second. You certainly couldn’t fault her libido – poor John, hope he’s up to it, he thought to himself.

  ‘Oh Louise, I’m really not sure I’m in the mood,’ groaned John. ‘I’m a bit too keyed up I think today.’

  ‘Nonsense,’ said Louise. ‘It will do you good. You’ve just had your condemned man’s last meal, now for your last shag. Well, hopefully not, but you know what I mean.’

  Without delaying further, Louise pulled down John’s light canvas trousers and briefs. His penis seemed barely awake but Louise wasn’t the sort to take no for an answer. She pushed it into her mouth and sucked hard.

  ‘Come on John, let’s not go inside the tent, Dan will be a while, let’s make love beneath the flames,’ instructed Louise.

  She got the rug and spread it out on the sand. Then she stripped, leapt up onto a boulder and stared out to sea with her arm raised. ‘We will conquer!’ she cried.

  It was a surreal sight in the jumping firelight. A naked young woman with long dark hair, firm breasts and buttocks, a thick black triangle jutting out between her legs, standing defiantly like some mediaeval warrior princess.

  John looked up at her in awe. She had a wild, pagan streak to her, in contrast to Emma’s more conventional Christian faith. Louise loved being outside, skyclad, surrounded by the elements of earth, fire, and water. This spectacle was not indecent, but beautiful, defiant and intimidating. Suddenly Louise sprang from the rocks like a gazelle and landed on top of him, pulling him to the ground. She tore off the rest of his clothes.