Emma: He said it felt strange being back on the island, that it was like going back in time. I felt the same. There were so many small things I’d forgotten.
There is this spot in the village where there’s a drain cover that’s half in the road but half in the pavement. They built around it and it’s something you’d never think about – except for when it’s right in front of you. When I walked past it, I remembered cycling around that drain cover when I was a girl. Then, from nowhere, you’re right back as that little girl.
Scott: Galanikos does odd things to you. If you’ve never been, then I’m not sure I can describe it. It feels so claustrophobic, as if that village and the hotels are all that matters. Then you leave and life continues. You forget all those feelings until you go back – and then you’re suffocated again.
Emma: We sat on the grass a little past the sign. I suppose there’s an irony that we were close to the edge of the cliffs, given what happened to each of our fathers. I only thought about that later. At the time, it felt natural and normal.
Scott: When I saw Emma that first time by the car rental place, I thought she’d been coming back to the island year after year. That might have been why I was so angry. I pictured this spoiled girl carrying on as if nothing had happened. All the while, my dad was dead.
Emma: I think the crew had put Scott straight on a few things. He’d been with them just before they left for the airport and someone said this was the first time I’d been back since everything had happened with his dad.
We sat and watched the ocean for a while, or perhaps we just listened to it. I remember feeling this incredible sense of peace. I think I’d forgotten about Dad, Daniel and the rest. It felt as if this was why I was back on the island. Why it was worth it.
Scott: She said: ‘Do you really think my dad killed yours?’ – and it was so earnest that I knew then for absolute certain that she had no idea what happened the night Dad died. I suppose I’d spent years telling myself that I knew, but the truth is that we were in the same position. Neither of us knew what happened.
Emma: He said he didn’t know.
Scott: I was angry at the time. I’d gone to bed with a father and woken up without one. Then Geoff was named as a suspect and…
…
Are you telling me you’d act any differently? I wanted someone to blame and the police literally told me: ‘Here’s the suspect.’
Emma: He said he’d heard about my dad falling and we didn’t say anything for a while. When I first saw Scott, I had wondered if he might have been involved as some sort of revenge. I stopped thinking that when we talked on the cliffs. I wanted someone to blame in the same way he did.
Scott: What was there to say? My dad fell off those cliffs – and then so did hers. Is it ironic? It was certainly extraordinary.
Emma: There was perhaps a year-long overlap when we were teenagers where we would talk to each other about things like our feelings. Perhaps it wasn’t even that long? Either way, when we drifted, there was a hole in my life that I didn’t even realise he filled until that day on the cliffs. It was around twenty years that had passed – but we were talking like the friends we once were. He started telling me about life just before his dad fell.
Scott: I’d always assumed Emma knew what was going on, partly because she was working for her dad at the time. I guess she didn’t.
I told her that my dad wanted out of the business. Around three months before he died, Dad started talking to Geoff about potentially being bought out of the company. He was bored of property by that time. There was money to be made – but not the sort of money he wanted. Not only that, he’d already done well for himself. He used to say to me: ‘How much money do you realistically need?’ I didn’t understand it then – but I do now. He was saying he’d made enough. He didn’t need to keep buying a bigger house for us. He didn’t need more cars, or more expensive holidays. That wasn’t him.
Emma: I never knew that Alan wanted out.
Scott: I told Emma that Dad was trying to get out – but that hers wanted to expand. He wanted to buy places abroad and rent them as holiday homes. There was a fundamental difference in what they wanted and seemingly no easy way to fix it.
Then Dad died and the situation resolved itself. Daniel came in and bought Dad’s share, while Geoff ended up in a position where he never had to listen to anyone else’s opinion again, unless he wanted to.
Emma: I finally saw things from Scott’s point of view. No wonder he was suspicious of Dad.
Scott: I know we keep talking about ironies, and maybe I’ve been misusing the word – but I’ve got another one here. I’d more or less got over all of this by the time Emma and I talked. I was taking part in the documentary because the team said that, if there was anything to find, then they’d find it. I didn’t necessarily expect anything to come up. If they said they thought Dad had fallen by accident, I’d have believed them.
But, as I told Emma about those differences between our fathers, I got this sense that she was the one who was becoming convinced.
Maybe I’m wrong?
Emma: Our conversation was punctuated by these long pauses where neither of us said anything, but neither of us needed to. It was like we knew what the other was thinking.
Scott: I asked her what she was up to now and she told me about the clothes shop where she works with her friend…
…
I’d have never pictured her doing that, not compared to the girl I knew. Obviously, what happened to her son would have changed her… plus prison, of course…
I don’t think I have a point here, just that I was surprised. People change, but I suppose you only notice it when you don’t see or talk to them in a long while.
Emma: Scott is working as a plumber and owns his own business. I can imagine him being really good at it. He was never the sort to take something on and only do half a job. If he’s in for something, then he would try to be the best he could. He said he was taking on an apprentice when he got home because his workload was becoming too much and he needed some help. I was really happy for him.
Scott: I told her I was flying home later that night and suggested we could maybe swap details and get in touch back in the UK. She gave me her email address and told me to message her. I gave her one of the business cards from my wallet, which had all my details. We hugged goodbye and then I headed off towards the villa. I had a bit of packing left to do and then a taxi was picking me up. The last I saw of her, she was sitting on the grass, with a beach bag at her side.
…
I didn’t see what was in the bag. It wouldn’t have crossed my mind to ask.
Emma: It’s difficult to know what to make of people who were once so integral to your existence and then, suddenly, they’re not.
Scott: How long is it since we were on the island? Five months? Emma has never emailed me since. I sent her one the weekend after I got back. It wasn’t anything major, more a: ‘Hi, hope you’re well’-kind of thing. I probably asked how her dad was doing.
Emma: Scott never emailed me.
Scott: I didn’t get a reply and then, about two weeks later, I sent a short follow-up. Something like: ‘Hi, did you get my email?’ She didn’t reply to that either and so I left it. I thought we had reconnected, but I wasn’t going to push the issue. She had my card with my phone numbers and email address. All I had was her email address.
Emma: I don’t remember a business card.
Scott: You’re talking to someone who’s been dumped by Emma McGinley twice now. If you’re asking if I’d go for the hat-trick, then no.
…
…
Well, maybe. That chat on the cliffs felt like something special. You can’t fake that, can you?
Chapter Twenty-Seven
THE GENERAL SORT OF AMBIVALENCE
Emma: With talking to Scott, I had almost forgotten that I still had the licence, key and account details in my bag. I was nearly back at the hotel when I remembered why I’d left
in the first place.
I then had an idea about a place where nobody except perhaps Lander would ever think of looking. I made a detour to hide the bag – and then went back to the hotel.
I’d barely walked through the doors at the front when it was clear that something was badly wrong. Julius was standing at the reception desk, surrounded by three or four staff members. The manager who’d told me about Dad and moved Mum and me to the cottages was there. He was speaking into a walkie-talkie and there was this manic energy, like when the doors open at a concert and people are excited about what’s about to happen.
I’d never seen Julius like he was that afternoon. There are lots of times around family gatherings and the like where I’ve wondered if he’s stoned. It probably comes from the fact that Mum and Dad give him such an easy ride, but he has this general sort of ambivalence to him. As if life is supremely easy.
He was the opposite that day. He was flapping his arms and then putting his hands on his hips, before turning in a circle. He didn’t know what to do with himself.
Julius: For the record, I’ve never been stoned at family gatherings. Another lie.
…
I’ve never been stoned full stop.
Emma: I went across to the reception desk, where Julius was and asked him what was going on. He was so distressed that he could barely get the words out.
It was the manager who told me that Amy and Chloe were missing.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
THE FOREIGN LOT
Julius: I want this on the record: Amy and Chloe weren’t missing. That makes it sound much worse than it was. Did Emma tell you that? She’s so overdramatic.
Emma: Julius was telling the manager that the twins had been by the pool. He’d gone back to his room for a reason he wasn’t clear about – and then, when he returned, they were no longer there.
Julius: I had gone to the toilet. Is that a crime?
Emma: Julius said he’d walked around the pool and then double-checked the room – but that he couldn’t see them anywhere. He was definitely worried at this point, although that’s no surprise.
He was talking so quickly that it was difficult to understand parts of what he was saying.
The manager called across a few more staff members and then Julius showed them photos of the girls from his phone. The manager sent them off around the hotel to search for the girls.
In the meantime, I dashed over to the cottages. There was no sign of Mum, or the girls, so I raced back to the lobby. By that time, the manager’s face was grim. He was talking into the walkie-talkie but turning his back to Julius. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what that meant. As soon as I said the girls weren’t at the cottages, the manager said he’d call the police…
Julius told him not to.
Julius: It wasn’t like that. I knew they’d be nearby and didn’t want to bother anyone. Not only that, the hotel staff knew that place better than anyone. They were doing the searching and I trusted them.
Emma: I think Julius was determined to believe that it wasn’t happening. If the police came along, it would be real. Without them, he could tell himself they were hiding at the kiddie pool, or something like that.
Not only that, if the police had come, then Julius would have had to tell Mum. You can hardly continue to be the golden child if you’ve lost your twin daughters, can you? He was more scared of what our parents’ thought of him than anything else.
Julius: That’s ridiculous.
Emma: I went off to do another check of the pool area. I figured I’d recognise the girls better than any of the staff members who were searching.
It was busy that day, mainly because it was so warm. Nobody wanted to do anything other than lie around the pool. The kids’ pool seemed full and nobody was doing much swimming because there was no room to move.
I don’t understand how anyone enjoys themselves on days like that. It’s so hot and there are so many people. People are always arguing over who has the best sunbeds and how far any of them can be tilted or twisted.
I must have done two laps of the area and didn’t see any sign of the girls. Julius hadn’t seemed sure what either of them was wearing, which didn’t help, but the thought did occur to me that they could be right in front of me and I might struggle to see them. It was hard to walk around because of the sheer number of errant sunbed legs, chairs and the like.
It wouldn’t have been my first choice, but I was beginning to get worried at that point – and I stopped next to Liz. She’d again found a way of moving around the pool to keep herself in non-stop sunshine. Given how busy it was, it was quite the skill.
There was no sign of Daniel, but I crouched and asked if she’d seen the twins. I remember Liz lowering her sunglasses so that she could peer over the top towards me. It was proper headmistress stuff – but with the skimpiest of bikinis and a piña colada on the side.
She nodded toward the slides and said they’d been there earlier. In fairness, when I told her the girls were missing, she did immediately jump up and offer to start looking for them. There was this ruthless efficiency about her: shoes on, glasses off, strict march to the lobby. It felt like she might actually get something done.
Liz: Can’t trust that foreign lot, can you? You’re lucky to get a proper toilet in most of these places.
Emma: I followed Liz through to the lobby, where it was clear the girls still hadn’t been found. Julius was following one of the staff members through a door that read ‘Staff only’ and the manager told me that everyone who works at the hotel was now involved.
Liz was trying to take over, which is when I realised everything I thought about her was true. She kept saying things like ‘You people’ and ‘You lot’, which isn’t the most helpful thing in that situation.
Liz: Someone needed to take charge.
Emma: While Liz was busy shouting at the manager, I thought of how Julius had told Mum that everything he did was for the girls. I can’t explain why it stuck with me, other than it felt wrong. If you see someone trying to do a task left-handed when they’re usually right-handed, you can tell something is off… and that’s what it was like.
Julius: I don’t even remember telling Mum that – but, if I did, then I meant it. Everything I do is for the girls.
Emma: I think I’d been caught up in the moment. It was easy to be in that mad sort of panic when you weren’t sure what was what. When Liz started shouting, I was able to take a step back.
If I was an eight-year-old girl and I’d been stuck in this hotel for four days, with only brief excursions to the beach – plus I’d been crammed in with all these people on a day this hot – I’d want to get away, too.
And as soon as I started thinking like that, it seemed obvious where they’d be. It’s where I’d have been at their age.
Liz: Typical Emma, hey? Couldn’t just tell anyone where she thought the girls were. Had to be the centre of attention.
Julius: Emma didn’t tell anyone where she was going. That would have been too simple, wouldn’t it?
Emma: If I’d told everyone what I thought, and then been wrong, it would have wasted more time. I wasn’t trying to be the centre of attention. I don’t want the attention.
Besides, if I’d not been the one to find them that day, then Julius’s little lie wouldn’t have been uncovered.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
THE HIPPO TOSS
Emma: The girls were sitting in the long grass, tossing an inflatable ring with a hippo head towards their own shoes. I wasn’t sure on the exact rules, but they had assigned each shoe a different amount of points – and were competing to see who could throw the ring over the shoes.
…
In fairness, I’ve seen worse game shows on prime-time ITV.
Chloe: It was called hippo toss. You get three points for a left foot; one point for a right. Double points if you get two shoes. Triple points if you get both rights, or both lefts.
Emma: I also think they’d stolen the ri
ng from the hotel pool.
Amy: We borrowed the ring.
Emma: They were on the cliffs, near where Dad fell – although not too close to the edge. I’m never going to offer parenting advice, but, if it was me, and I was Julius, I’d have taken them to the cliffs before that afternoon. I’d have wanted to see it if I was their age. Kids are naturally curious.
I was about to tell them that they had to go back to the hotel – and that people were worried. I probably should have done, given that I was the adult… but they seemed so happy in the moment. It didn’t feel as if I could take that joy away from them.
Amy: Auntie Emma asked if she could play our game. We told her everyone had to pay ten euros to play and that it was winner-takes-all.
Emma: I swear, they must get that smartness from their mother.
Either way, I sat with them in the grass for a while. I watched at first and tried to remember what it was like to live so fearlessly. If there hadn’t been a search, I’d bet they could have spent hours in that grass making their own entertainment. You forget all that when you grow up. I can’t tell you how much I craved to be able to go back to that. I almost ached for it.
After the Accident: A compelling and addictive psychological suspense novel Page 16