The Survivors

by Jane Harper

  ‘Great minds,’ she said lightly as they approached. ‘Sergeant Renn said he was in the Surf and Turf last night, thought that link had leaked.’ Pendlebury looked a little put out, but not particularly troubled. ‘So, if you’re following those photos, I’m guessing you’ll be heading up the cliff path to the lookout?’ She pushed herself away from the wall. ‘I’ll walk with you. I’m going that way myself.’

  ‘So we’re right, then? These photos are from Bronte’s camera?’ Kieran said as they started walking through the old part of town.

  Pendlebury reached out a hand for Mia’s phone. Her thumb moved over the screen rapidly as they walked, checking the images, and after a few paces, she handed it back with a nod. ‘They’re some of them.’

  ‘How did they get online?’ he asked.

  ‘Bronte’s uni provided online storage space as part of her course,’ Pendlebury said. ‘Art students have a lot of high-res files, I’m guessing. Bronte uploaded her stuff most days.’ She nodded at Mia’s phone. ‘Ideally they wouldn’t have gone on that social media site, but at some point she’d allowed other students shared access to some of her folders. Group projects apparently.’

  ‘You couldn’t block them?’ Kieran said.

  ‘We could, but then people start to wonder why and that’s not always –’ Pendlebury stopped short. Her pace slowed and she made a noise of frustration. ‘For God’s sake.’

  They were approaching George Barlin’s house, ripped-up garden and all. Parked on the road outside was Ash’s dirty ute.

  Kieran could see Ash through the windscreen, sitting in the driver’s seat, engine off, arms crossed against the steering wheel. Shifty was next to him on the passenger’s side, head out of the window and tongue lolling.

  ‘He’s been warned about this.’ Pendlebury glanced at Kieran. ‘He has to move on. I am very happy to –’

  ‘No, it’s okay.’ Kieran put the brake on the pram. ‘I’ll talk to him.’

  Ash had already fired up the engine by the time Kieran had crossed the road.

  ‘It’s all right, I’m going. I had something to see to but –’ Ash leaned out of his open window and raised his voice in Pendlebury’s direction. ‘I’m leaving now, okay? You don’t need to call your mates, I’m going.’

  Ash sat back heavily in the seat and reached for the gears. Kieran put a hand on the door.

  ‘Hey, wait a sec,’ he said.

  ‘What, mate? I’ve got work to do.’

  ‘I messaged you.’

  ‘Yep.’ Ash sighed. ‘I’m at work, mate.’

  ‘Yeah, okay, but –’

  Ash finally looked over. His face still carried a hint of the exposed nerve Kieran had seen the night before, but today he simply seemed tired.

  ‘What?’ Ash said again.

  ‘Are you all right? After last night?’

  ‘Fine.’

  ‘Right.’ Kieran still didn’t move his hand off the door. ‘Because that stuff George was saying –’

  ‘Oh.’ A tiny crease appeared around Ash’s eyes. ‘Yeah, no, that’s fine. Look, mate –’ He put the ute into gear. ‘I’ve got to keep moving.’

  ‘Well, give me a call if you –’

  But Ash was already raising an arm out of the window in pointed farewell to Pendlebury. Kieran dropped his hand and took a step back as the ute moved away. They all watched until the vehicle was out of sight, then Kieran returned to the pram. They started walking again.

  ‘What did that garden look like before, out of interest?’ Pendlebury said as they hit the cliff path.

  ‘Beautiful,’ Mia replied.

  They covered most of the hike up in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. As they neared the top, Mia jogged a few paces and caught up to Pendlebury.

  ‘Do you think whoever took Bronte’s camera and computer knew she was uploading the pictures somewhere?’ she asked.

  ‘I couldn’t say.’ Pendlebury had her eyes on the ocean as they walked. ‘It depends who it was and why they did it.’

  ‘And you said these photos we can see online aren’t all the ones she’d saved to her student folders?’

  ‘That’s right.’

  Mia was scrolling through her phone again as they walked, her thumb moving up and down. ‘But would you say these ones are –’ She hesitated. ‘– a reflective sample?’

  They had reached the top of the cliffs and stopped at the lookout. Out on the water, The Survivors stood tall. The Nautilus Blue rocked in the waves beyond, the blue and white dive flag visible. Pendlebury ignored the view, looking instead at Mia.

  ‘All right,’ she said. ‘I can see you’re worried because you and Kieran appear in one of the photos, so let me put your mind partly at ease. You are not the only ones.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Not by a long way.’

  Kieran wasn’t sure why he didn’t feel more relieved.

  Pendlebury turned back to the safety rail, her eyes on The Survivors.

  ‘How’s that tide looking, Kieran?’ she said. ‘Low enough for a trip down?’

  ‘Now?’

  Pendlebury tucked her computer tablet under her arm. ‘Now would be good.’

  Mia didn’t look happy but she didn’t argue. Kieran passed her the pram and he and Pendlebury stepped around the barrier and made their way alone down the unmarked trail. When Pendlebury hit the sand at the bottom, she stopped, ignoring the birds that had risen into the air almost as one. She took in the gaping voids of the caves, then raised her face and squinted back up the steep cliff face to where they’d been. She took out the tablet again, frowning as she moved her index finger across the screen.

  ‘All right,’ she said. ‘Now, I want you to bear in mind that Bronte was a twenty-one-year-old girl with a digital camera. So I’m not kidding when I tell you she took a lot of photos. Having said that –’ Pendlebury held the screen so Kieran could see it. ‘Can you identify the locations of any of these images? Take your time.’

  Kieran took the tablet and began to flick through Bronte’s photos slowly, unsure what he was about to see. Many of the pictures were cropped so close they were essentially anonymous. Grains of sand, a tight photo of seaweed plastered green and jewel-like against a dark surface. He flipped back and forth, feeling Pendlebury’s eyes on him.

  ‘Sorry, I’m try–’ Kieran started, then stopped, because all of a sudden he did recognise something.

  A craggy surface with sand dusted across the face and crevasses carved deep by the water. A sharp line of contrast where daylight met permanent shade. The mouth of the North Cave, Kieran knew. There was no doubt, none at all, because in that tight-cropped photo, among the crevasses and the sand and the shade, his own name was carved into the rock.

  Kieran looked at the casual scars of those letters that he had left years ago, captured now on a dead girl’s camera, and felt a dash of fear.

  He was still staring at the picture when Pendlebury reached across and swiped the screen again. A similar shot appeared, but this time it was Ash’s name cutting through the corner of the frame. Another swipe and Ash’s name was visible again. A different carving this time, the angle making it harder to read. Kieran couldn’t tell where that one had been taken.

  Pendlebury reached over and even before she swiped, Kieran could already half guess what was coming. Finn, then Finn again. The R–A–N tail end of another Kieran. Toby.

  Kieran made himself look up and meet Pendlebury’s eye.

  ‘These are barely in shot,’ he said. And it was true. He looked down again, this time at the S–E–A of Sean. The image was very tight, with the letters out of focus and distorted by the shadows from a harsh flash. Kieran pointed to a piece of flowering lichen blossoming next to the S.

  ‘Bronte was clearly taking close-ups of the rock,’ he said. ‘These don’t mean anything.’

&n
bsp; ‘I didn’t say they meant anything.’ Pendlebury’s face was perfectly neutral. ‘I was asking if you knew where they were located.’

  ‘Some of them. I suppose.’

  ‘All right,’ she said. ‘Show me.’

  Kieran led her across the sand to the mouth of the North Cave. It was cool and dark in the shadows, and it took a minute for Kieran’s eyes to adjust. He could see Pendlebury blinking as she gazed around.

  ‘Here.’ He pointed to the wall. ‘These ones you saw yesterday. And there are a few more over here.’

  Pendlebury flipped open her tablet and scrutinised the screen, then the rock face. She took a few steps one way, then pulled out her own phone and took a photo. Then a few more steps, and another photo. Kieran watched as she repeated that several times, trying to recreate the angle. She stared at the tablet and shook her head.

  ‘I don’t think this one is right. The space between the lettering isn’t the same.’ She turned the tablet screen so Kieran could see. He could make out Ash’s name in the corner of the photo.

  ‘It might not be.’ Kieran shrugged. ‘There are a few around.’

  ‘Can we find them all? I’d really like to get these locations marked off.’

  The cave stretched out before them, deep and meandering. ‘They could be anywhere. I wouldn’t even know where to start.’

  ‘There was no system to it?’

  ‘Not really. Originally we did it when we’d mapped a new route.’ Kieran found he didn’t have the energy to defend it. ‘But a lot of the time it was just because we were bored. Not Sean so much, he thought it was a shit thing to do. He did it once because I made him, but me and Ash would do it all the time. And Toby. And Finn, obviously.’

  ‘Anyone else? Mia?’

  Kieran stopped. He felt cold in the shadows. ‘No. Why?’ He glanced up, although the lookout was completely invisible from where he stood. ‘She’s never been down here. Why are you even asking?’

  ‘What about Gabby Birch?’

  ‘No.’ Kieran stared at her, confused. ‘What does she have to do with anything? Or Mia?’

  ‘I’m just asking questions, Kieran. Trying to build a picture.’ Pendlebury paused. ‘How about Olivia?’

  Kieran couldn’t tell if she knew, or if she was fishing. He couldn’t tell if it mattered. ‘Yeah, Olivia’s been here.’

  Pendlebury was peering into the cave. The birds had settled and Kieran could hear the waves breaking on the shore.

  ‘Can we go in further?’ she said. ‘See what we can see?’

  ‘No,’ Kieran said. ‘Not with me. It gets like a maze. I don’t know it well enough.’

  ‘You used to.’

  Kieran nodded at the names scratched into the wall. ‘I used to do a lot of things I don’t do anymore.’

  ‘Fair enough.’ Pendlebury flipped the tablet around so Kieran could see the photos once more. ‘Take a look at these, then. Is anything else familiar enough to pinpoint?’

  Kieran flicked through more of Bronte’s photos, dreading each new shot.

  ‘The Survivors, obviously,’ he said. ‘And that’s the edge of the path at low tide. North Cave again.’ He was strangely aware of a faint niggle burrowing somewhere deep as he looked through the images, but he couldn’t dig it out. Something felt a little off. He skimmed through a few shots too closely cropped to recognise, then came to a halt at the sight of a familiar corner he had seen many times. The ledge in the South Cave, where he and Olivia used to meet. Kieran could feel Pendlebury watching him.

  ‘I know where that is.’

  ‘Show me, please?’

  They both squinted in the light as Kieran led the way back out across the beach, this time to the mouth of the South Cave. As they plunged once more into the gloom, Kieran pointed at the photo on Pendlebury’s screen and then to the ledge.

  ‘Those shots were taken around here.’

  Pendlebury walked over to the rock and ran her fingers over it. She dropped her hand and took out her phone, firing off a few shots of her own before frowning at the screen. She looked up again, noticing Ash’s name scratched into the rock above the ledge. She raised an eyebrow at Kieran, who shrugged.

  ‘Like I said, there are a few.’

  His voice bounced off the walls before being absorbed and deadened by the sand. Pendlebury cocked her head, listening.

  ‘I can’t get used to the sound in here,’ she said, turning back to the ledge.

  Kieran waited, feeling uneasy. Outside, through the arch of the cave’s entrance, he could see a wide strip of beach lying between them and the sea. Under his feet, the sand was firm. It wasn’t wet, it wasn’t covered with water. Everything was fine, he told himself. The tide was out, not in. They had plenty of time.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Pendlebury was looking at him.

  ‘Nothing.’

  ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘Yes.’ Kieran pushed back against a rare wave of claustrophobia. The roof suddenly felt unusually low and he put a hand up to check it was still out of reach. ‘Sorry. I used to come to this spot a bit when I was younger.’

  ‘Before the storm?’ Pendlebury was still watching him. ‘On the day of the storm?’

  ‘Both.’ Kieran shrugged.

  She was quiet for a moment and ran her hand thoughtfully over the cave’s rocky wall.

  ‘I had a friend. Have a friend, technically, although –’ She sighed. Started again. ‘A couple of years ago my friend and her husband were having a few quiet drinks at home on a Friday night. After dinner, they went for a dip in their own backyard pool. By the time she realised he wasn’t messing around, he was in serious trouble.’ Pendlebury shook her head. ‘Didn’t make it. She’s struggled badly ever since.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Kieran said. He meant it.

  ‘Thanks. It’s been hard. For her, obviously. But also watching her slowly self-destruct, you know?’

  Kieran did know. He remembered it well, those first years after Finn’s death. Trying different ways to cope. Some worked, a lot didn’t. He remembered the keen sliver of hope followed by the overwhelming frustration of disappointment. The secret fear he was running out of things to try. And then, in the midst of it all, suddenly there was Mia. Appearing in front of him unexpectedly, a longed-for oasis of calm in a shabby student bar.

  ‘Mia helps a lot,’ he said. ‘And Audrey.’

  ‘And things with your folks?’

  ‘Well, they love me, obviously. But they also loved Finn. So –’ He wasn’t sure what else he could say about that.

  Pendlebury had a curious look on her face. A mix of sympathy and something else he couldn’t place.

  ‘Kieran,’ she said. ‘I have to ask. What do you think happened here that day of the storm?’

  ‘What do I think happened? I was here. I know what happened.’

  ‘Of course.’ There was an odd pause. ‘So I’d be interested to hear it from you.’

  Kieran stared at the ledge, and then he opened his mouth and he told her. The real version. About Olivia and how they used to meet up and lay their towels out in this spot. How one day the weather was bad, and she’d suggested they leave but he’d asked her to stay. So they had, but they’d let time slip away until the sand had disappeared under the water and all at once it was too late. He hadn’t been able to find the path. The sea had been stronger than he was. Kieran’s brother and his best friend’s brother had come to save him. They had died. And he had survived.

  Pendlebury listened without interruption.

  ‘That must have been very hard for you,’ she said, when he finished.

  Kieran didn’t reply. Sometimes sharing the story was almost a release of tension, but other times, like now, he felt nothing but shame. Either way, reliving it always left him feeling drained.

  Pendlebury pressed her lips together and Kieran
had the strange sense that she was arguing with herself.

  ‘I can’t really imagine what that must be like to live with,’ Pendlebury said at last.

  ‘It’s not great.’

  ‘No. I saw what guilt did to that friend I mentioned.’ A shadow crossed Pendlebury’s features. ‘We used to be very close, but she’s like a different person now. Kieran –’ She turned her head in the vague direction of where the town lay, well out of sight beyond cliffs and water. ‘There are a lot of people dragging up all kinds of things right now. A lot of chatter being flung around, and not all of it true or helpful.’

  Kieran wasn’t sure what to say to that. He could hear water dripping somewhere in the cave.

  ‘I would really hate for you to stumble across a half-baked version of this,’ Pendlebury said.

  Kieran felt a prickle of warning at the base of his neck. ‘Half-baked version of what?’

  Pendlebury’s internal struggle flickered again in her eyes. She stared deep into the cave, then back out to where the sea water was foaming blue and white against the sand. At last, she took a deep breath and looked him in the eye. Decision made.

  ‘Kieran, there’s something you deserve to know.’

  Chapter 30

  Pendlebury started towards the mouth of the cave. ‘Let’s get out of here first. I think it would be helpful for Mia to hear this too.’

  This time, it was Kieran following as she led them back out into the daylight, blinking.

  ‘What –?’ he started, but she held up a hand.

  ‘At the lookout. Then we’ll talk.’

  They found Mia sitting on the bench, rocking the pram back and forth as they emerged at the top of the overgrown path. She looked up, her worried expression turning into relief.

  ‘Finished?’ She went to stand, stopping when she saw Kieran’s face. ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘Something’s come to my attention recently that I think Kieran should be aware of,’ Pendlebury said, taking a seat on the bench. Mia looked wary but slowly sat back down too.

  Kieran remained standing. In the pale summer light, the sea was sparkling. Above the wreck he could see the Nautilus Blue listing gently.