I glanced around the cabin and was amazed at how much had changed since the last time David had raised this issue. That had been just after the hurricane and everyone had pretty much ignored him. This time there was silence and everyone was listening intently. David was finally winning people over.
‘David,’ Jack was clearly disturbed by the direction the meeting was turning in. ‘Look maybe you’re right, but we just don’t have the people or the resources to do anything like that. Besides, even if we could clear Elbow Cay, or even part of it, or one of the smaller islands, there will always be drifters. We’d never be safe.’
‘Jack, we’ve got no choice. It’s the only way we can survive in the long term.’ David marshalled his thoughts before carrying on. ‘Can’t you see? Boats aren’t safe. There’s always the risk of them giving out on us and we’ll end up on the shore anyway. Look at what happened to Rob. At least if we do it now, we can do it on our own terms. We can be prepared. We’d have a chance. If we’re forced to do it as a last resort, in an emergency, we’ll always come off second best. We’ll end up like Rob did yesterday. It was luck that it was only Jon that died. By rights it should have been all of them.’
‘David, we can’t do what you’re suggesting. It would be suicide to even try.’ Jack was almost pleading with him.
‘You just can’t see it. It’s our only chance. You need to look at the big picture. We’ll end up on the shore eventually, and we’d be better off doing it on our terms rather than theirs. We need to take the fight to the infected. I thought that Dan and his family dying would be warning enough, but none of you took any notice. You carried on wasting time on the garden boats, oblivious to what we really needed to be doing. Something had to be done ...’
Unexpectedly David stopped mid-sentence. I could tell by the look on his face, he’d said something he shouldn’t. The room was quiet, the only sounds the noises of the infected drifting in on the breeze. David’s last words echoed through my mind. ‘Something had to be to done’. Just what had he meant by that?
A thought occurred to me, but surely it couldn’t be right. David couldn’t possibly be talking about what happened to the rib, could he? The only way that was possible was if he’d planned it. But he couldn’t have … he wouldn’t have … would he? I stared at him.
‘David, what did you just say?’
A look flickered across his face and, in that moment, I knew he’d done it. It was his fault Jon was dead. I would never have believed he was capable of it but the look on his face said it all. I advanced upon him and repeated the question.
‘What did you say?’
David stood there, his mouth opening and closing, his brain working overtime, trying to figure out how to best respond. The room was silent. Everyone realised something was happening but no one knew quite what. Jack tried to pull me back, but I shook him off. I was now standing in front of David, standing toe to toe with him.
‘What. Did. You. Say?’
David swallowed before he spoke, ‘I ... I ... I said, I’d have thought Dan’s death would have been warning enough.’
I was confused. Why was he bringing Dan into it? I glared at him. ‘No, after that. You said “something had to be done”.’
I saw the look on David’s face change suddenly. He seemed almost relieved, as if I’d just given him a way out.
‘All I meant was that we should have done something about trying to clear a base on land, after Dan died. We should have realised then that boat’s aren’t reliable, that they’ll always give out in the end, just like the rib did; that we need to have a refuge on the land for when that happens.’
‘No you didn’t. You meant you felt you had to do something. You sabotaged the rib, didn’t you?’ I felt anger rising within me. I waited for David to say something, watching his eyes darting everywhere, trying to judge the mood of those around him. The room was still, but the tension was palpable. Everyone was waiting to see what would happen next.
Finally, David came to some kind of a decision and slumped down onto one of the benches. He glanced up at me. ‘You can’t prove anything.’
‘Don’t you mean “I didn’t do anything”?’
‘No.’ There was a brief silence. ‘I mean yes, that’s what I meant.’
‘Too late.’ I lunged at him. I felt his nose crunch under my fist, but I didn’t care. I punched him again and again before Jack and Andrew finally managed to drag me off.
‘Rob,’ Jack’s voice was firm. ‘Rob, he’s right. You can’t prove anything. Even if he did it, you can’t prove anything.’
I glared at Jack. ‘But he did it. It’s his fault Jon’s dead.’
I was breathing heavily, my mind spinning from the revelation of what David had done.
‘But you can’t prove it, can you?’
I hated it, but deep-down I knew Jack was right. I couldn’t prove anything. A look of relief spread across David’s face as he wiped the blood from his broken nose. I knew he was obsessed, but I’d never thought he was capable of this, that he could be so cruel. I wondered why he’d done it. Had he sabotaged the rib just to show people what would happen when boats failed? Then I realised he hadn’t only been trying to make a point, he had also been trying to get rid of us. He saw us as an obstacle to doing what he thought had to be done. He’d done all he could to make sure we didn’t come back from Little Harbour, but when we’d returned anyway, he’d decided he’d take matters into his own hands.
With hindsight, I could see it had been building for a while, maybe ever since we’d arrived. Whenever he’d brought up his plans to clear somewhere on land, Jon and I had been the ones who’d argued most strongly against him. Well, us and Dan.
That brought my mind back to Dan. Why had David brought up what happened to Dan? I’d thought he was just trying to confuse me, to cover his tracks, but maybe there was more to it. In my mind I went over exactly what David had said, and I realised the implication. Suddenly, everything fell into place: we weren’t the first people he’d tried to get rid of. He’d done the same to Dan. I knew he’d been away from Hope Town that night, and it would have been so easy for him to cut the McGanns' anchor line and watch the boat drift onto the shore.
‘Why did you think I was talking about Dan when I asked you what you’d said?’ I was staring at David again and I saw his face freeze as he realised I’d worked it out.
‘Rob, what are you talking about?’ Jack’s eyes flicked from me to David and back again.
‘You sabotaged Dan’s anchor line, didn’t you, David?’ I could see the panic rising in his eyes.
‘What d’you mean?’ There was a look of confusion on Jack’s face.
‘I can’t prove he sabotaged the rib, but I can prove he sabotaged Dan’s boat. I’ll bet if I went over to Marsh Harbour, I’d find the anchor line hadn’t worn through after all, but that it had been cut.’
I looked round the cabin. The atmosphere was electric. Everyone held their breath as they waited to hear what David would say.
He stood up, his eyes darting from person to person. He knew I was right. It would only take an hour or so for someone to go over to Marsh Harbour and check. Everyone stared as he walked slowly to the door. When he got there, he turned.
‘All of you, you can’t see it, can you? The best form of defence is attack. We need to take the fight to the infected. We can’t just sit here waiting for them to pick us off in ones and twos. We need to take back the land. It’s our only chance. I had to show you. I had to demonstrate why it was so important. Every soldier knows that sometimes you have to sacrifice a few to achieve the greater good. Can’t you see? I did it for you — for all of you — so you’d understand what needed to be done.’
David glanced around the cabin once last time. The looks on the faces of everyone present told him he was finished.
‘You’re too blind to see it now but you will. Maybe sooner, maybe later, but in the end you’ll see I’m right. I just hope by then it won’t be too late.’
/> With that David turned and left. I followed, yelling after him as he sped back to his boat.
‘If I ever see you again, I’m going to fucking kill you. I’ll rip your fucking head off.’
All across the harbour, my shouts brought people up onto their decks. I could see them craning their necks trying to work out what was going on. Within minutes, David had pulled up his anchor and left. I watched him go, still wondering how he could have done it, any of it; how he could have justified it to himself?
Back at the catamaran, I went to find CJ. She was curled up in the bunk she and Jon had been sharing since we’d returned from Little Harbour.
‘I need to speak to you.’
As she sat up, I could see her face was red and puffy, and her pillow was soaked with tears. I sat down beside her and put my arm around her. I didn’t quite know where to start, so I plunged straight in. ‘CJ, what happened to the rib yesterday wasn’t an accident.’
I felt her stiffen and she turned to stare at me. ‘What d’you mean? What could it have been if it wasn’t an accident?’
I turned away. I couldn’t bear to see her face when she heard what I was about to say. ‘It was David. He sabotaged it.’
‘Why would he do that?’ CJ sounded confused.
‘Remember what you said about him wanting to make sure we didn’t come back from Little Harbour?’ I hesitated for a second. ‘I think you were right. He wanted to get rid of us. I think he saw it as the best way to try to get people to back his plan. He needed a demonstration to show how dangerous it was if someone’s boat gave out, and he thought he could kill two birds with one stone.’
‘Jon’s dead just because he wanted to make a point?’ CJ could barely believe what I was saying and I didn’t blame her. I was still having problems believing it myself.
‘It gets worse.’ I glanced across at her.
‘What d’you mean?’ She was on the edge of tears, ‘Jon’s dead. How could it get any worse?’
‘The McGanns. That wasn’t an accident either.’ I could barely get the words out. ‘That was David too.’
I looked down at CJ. She was crying again, this time with anger. She leapt to her feet. ‘Jon, Dan, the kids, everyone died because of that bastard? I’ll kill him. I’ll blow his sodding head off!’
I grabbed her and sat her back on the bunk. CJ gave me a look that told me not only was she serious, but that she was quite capable of carrying out her threat. It was shocking to see how much she’d changed from the child I’d first met in the boatyard in South Africa.
‘You can’t let what David did get to you. If you do, it will eat you away inside. You’ll become bitter, resentful … obsessed. You’ll become like him.’ I tried to look her in the eyes, but she turned her head away and said nothing.
CJ’s tears turned from anger back to sorrow. I hugged her.
‘You know Jon loved you very much. He didn’t want to leave you, but with what he did, he saved Andrew and me. He gave up his life to save us. That was the kind of person, the kind of man, he’d become. Do you see what I’m saying?’ I felt her nod.
‘CJ, I need to go. I need to tell Jeff about David before he hears it from anyone else. Will you be okay?’
CJ sniffed and wiped her face. ‘Let me do it.’
‘Do what?’
‘Let me tell Jeff. It will be better if he hears it from me.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Yes.’
I watched as CJ got up and walked out of the cabin. I heard her as she knocked on Jeff’s door and went in. I heard her speaking softly and then I heard Jeff start to cry. Soon CJ was crying too. They had both lost people they loved because of David’s actions. Only they could know what the other was going through, and only they could help each other through it.
A few hours later I was sitting in the main cabin, staring into space, thinking over the events of the last twenty-four hours. I don’t know how long I’d been there but eventually my eyes came to rest on the barometer. At first I didn’t really notice it but then it suddenly snapped into focus. I stared at it disbelievingly. It couldn’t be right. I went over and tapped it but nothing changed. I looked at where the arrow had been the day before and saw how far it had dropped. I ran outside and checked the sky. The wind was picking up and I could see clouds starting to appear on the horizon. Over the next hour the barometer dropped still further. The clouds and the wind kept building, and it started to rain. The weather was changing and it looked like a storm was coming in. We’d have to move fast to prepare, and without Jon to help, it would be all the more difficult.
As I picked up the microphone to call Jack, I thought back. Just before the last hurricane the infected had started to act so jittery and here they were acting strangely again. Maybe it wasn’t just about the light from the lighthouse. Maybe there was another reason they’d flocked here. Could they sense something coming? Did they know how bad it was going to be? Was this why they were crowding into the most sheltered place on the island? If it was, I couldn’t help but think it was a bad sign — a very bad sign — of what was heading our way.
Chapter Nineteen
Everyone in the community worked through the night and, by early the following morning, the garden boats were secured and covered, their rain-catchers removed and safely stowed. The runabouts were tied up in the most sheltered part of the anchorage, sails were stripped and packed away, dinghies were stowed in cabins. Boats that had been tied up alongside each other were separated and anchored far enough apart so they wouldn’t damage each other in the coming storm. By this time, the winds were strong enough to make it difficult to move around the harbour. By lunch, the rain started to descend in earnest, falling in sheets upon the deck of the catamaran. We were as ready as we could be and all we could do was wait. As before, we sat around the crowded cabin, resting on the piles of gear that were wedged inside it. The mood was sombre and Jon’s absence weighed heavily on us all. There was little I could think of to raise the spirits of those around me, and even if I could, with my own at rock-bottom, I doubted I would’ve made much difference.
The winds increased throughout the afternoon and into the early evening. By nightfall, it was howling through the rigging and we were being tossed this way and that. Despite the shelter provided by the harbour, the waves were reaching several feet in height. This itself was not an issue. The catamaran was designed to deal with waves many times larger, but only if they were open ocean waves; long, well-spaced, smooth and rolling. These waves were short and choppy, and were packed tightly together. The boat lurched and shuddered as they beat against its hulls. This was much worse than the previous hurricane. I wondered if the boat would hold together, and what we would do it if didn’t.
I wasn’t the only one having such thoughts and over the radio I could hear frantic calls between the other boats. One had already been badly damaged, its broken mast laying half on deck and half in the water. The people on it were safe for the time being, but with each wave the boat crashed against the crossbars. It would be only so long before they ripped a hole in the hull. If the people on board were lucky it would be above the waterline, if they weren’t … I didn’t want to think about it.
I watched the other boats dance like puppets controlled by a maniac, the position of each one marked by the light streaming from their cabins. Every now and then one would disappear and I would hold my breath until it appeared again on the top of another wave. I wondered about the infected on the nearby shore and how many of them would end up in the water, swept there by the wind and the waves. I wondered how many more drifters would be created by the storm.
At two in the morning, the winds started to ease and then dropped to a slight breeze. Once again we were in the eye of the storm, but this time no one wanted to go outside. I looked at the others. As before, Andrew was terrified but this time so were Mike and Jimmy. Jeff’s head was buried against CJ and she held him tightly. CJ was the calmest of them all, but I could see it was an act; that she was try
ing to keep it together for the sake of the boys. I was again struck by how much she’d changed. Like Jon, she’d been forced to grow up fast by the events that had overtaken us, and, like Jon, she’d stepped up to the challenge.
‘What’s that?’ Mike was pointing over my shoulder and out through the cabin doors. I followed his out-stretched arm to where a beam of light was shining through the harbour entrance. As I watched, it passed along the shoreline as if someone was trying to find their way in. I called Jack up on the radio and told him what I could see. The light grew brighter, and eventually a boat appeared.
‘That’s David. What the hell’s he trying to do?’ I wasn’t really speaking to anyone in particular.
Suddenly, I felt someone behind me and I turned to find CJ clutching the rifle. ‘Out of my way, Rob. I’m going to kill him.’
I could see her eyes were filled with rage. ‘CJ, you can’t. No matter how much he deserves it, you can’t do it.’
CJ tried to push passed me and I had to grab her. We struggled for a minute before I finally managed to prise the gun from her hands.
‘Give me the fucking gun, Rob. Give it back.’ She was almost crying as she said it.
‘I can’t let you do it, CJ.’ I pulled her to me and hugged her.
‘It just hurts so much to have lost him, and all because of that bastard.’
I could feel tears streaming down her face.
‘Did you see that?’ Andrew sounded shocked.
David’s spotlight had flicked upwards momentarily. His rigging was shot and the top half of his main mast was gone. We watched as he tried to manoeuvre the damaged boat into the harbour. It was large and heavy, and it was difficult for one man to handle even at the best of times, let alone in the middle of a storm.
The light swept back to the sides of the narrow channel and I could see David was too close to the rocks on the southern side. He must have seen this too because he turned the boat sharply to the north, taking it towards a row of docks that stuck out into the harbour. Before he could correct his course again, the spotlight slipped from his hand and fell onto the deck, coming to rest shining straight up at him. He made a desperate figure, soaking wet with a large gash in his head, his left arm clearly broken and hanging uselessly at his side. Given the state he was in, it was no wonder David was having trouble steering the boat and holding the spotlight at the same time.
For Those In Peril (Book 1): For Those In Peril On The Sea Page 27