Deep Water Page 10

  ‘I’m seriously impressed,’ said Cate. ‘I’ve just learned more about wildlife in five minutes that I’ve learnt all year at school.’

  ‘Perhaps I should give up my dream of becoming a geologist and become a teacher instead,’ said Michel, laughing.

  ‘Nah,’ said Cate. ‘The next David Attenborough more like. You’ve definitely got the looks for TV.’

  ‘Thanks, cherie.’ Michel grinned as he pushed a piece of driftwood into the sand next to the nest. ‘And you can be my very glamorous assistant.’

  The two walked on along the beach. Cate had dreamt about being together alone for weeks, but she couldn’t stop thinking about the terrified Josie. And Marcus was no doubt expecting some sort of report in a day or so – she didn’t want to let him down.

  She sighed inwardly, cursing her own diligence. ‘Michel,’ she said quietly.

  ‘Yes, cherie,’ said Michel, his hand tightening around hers.

  ‘Josie mentioned tonight that she had seen lights in the bay – under the water. I was just wondering, have you seen anything like that?’

  Michel stopped and looked down at her. ‘Here was me thinking you were going to tell me how much you’d missed me and how romantic this was. I should have known better.’ Then, to Cate’s relief, he laughed. ‘You are just so different from any girl I have ever met. I guess that’s what I love about you.’

  Cate felt herself blushing, but still she ploughed on. ‘Is that possible? Lights under the water? Or do you think that Josie was just, well, mistaken?’

  Michel sighed. ‘Josie is a very unhappy girl,’ he said. ‘Ask Jacob. He is a good friend to her. She’s only been here a few weeks, and she’s been neurotic from the start. I don’t really know why she is here – she seems to hate going in the water, she’s not really that interested in the wildlife. She only really lights up when Miles comes by. She totally hero-worships him! And as for the lights, well, I have been nightwatchman seven or eight times in the last three weeks and only once have I seen something strange. It was like a blue searchlight coming up from the sea, intense, powerful. It happened so quickly, come and gone in a few seconds and, you know, it was a very clear night. It could easily have been a reflection of the moon or a bright star. You see all sorts of weird phenomena in this part of the world,’ he continued. ‘Phosphorescence, light diffusion, shooting stars, dry lightning. The Blue Mountains near Sydney aren’t called that because they look blue. It is because they are covered in trees which give off a blue haze in the summer, so intense that the human eye can see it. So yes, Josie may have seen some underwater lights. So might I. Welcome to amazing, fascinating Australia.’

  He sat down on the sand and pulled Cate down next to him. ‘A bit like you come to that! And now, Cate, we had better make the most of our few minutes alone together.’

  The next morning, Cate woke very early. She lay there trying to gauge if anyone else was up but the only sounds she could hear were that of the sea hissing gently back and forth and the birds singing clearly and brightly – beyond Mitsu’s snoring, that was.

  Cate silently pulled on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt and grabbed her running shoes. Back home, she made a point of either working out or running pretty much every day and her body was badly missing its regular exercise fix.

  The beach was longer than she had realised, and it took ten minutes to run to the far end. While the beach near the camp was flat and soft, here it was rocky, with red cliffs looming up above her. Every few metres, great chunks and gouges had been taken out of the rocks, presumably by rock falls, and at the bottom of the cliffs piles of red earth and stones were gathered like massive anthills.

  Cate walked over to one of them and pushed at it with her foot. It broke down easily and she was just about to walk away when she noticed something glinting in the soil. She picked up a handful of earth and ran it through her fingers. It was full of tiny metal shards, as sharp as glass. Puzzled, she checked another mound and then another. Each one was the same. She looked back up at the cliff. Were those gorges really created by nature or had man had a hand?

  Just then, through the mist, beyond the breakers, Cate spotted a grey fin, then another, then another. For a few heart stopping seconds she thought she was seeing sharks again, but as the fins rose together out of the sea and up into the air she realised that she was watching dolphins at play. As if they were putting on a performance, the three bottlenose dolphins dived and rose through the sparkling surf, racing each other almost to the shore before swerving away at the last minute and heading back out to sea again.

  For ten minutes or more they bucked and reared, their thick grey bodies arching gracefully in the morning sunshine, snouts touching, diving backwards and forwards across each other in an almost human display of exuberance. And then they were gone, leaving Cate alone and smiling. This was the flip side of yesterday’s shark attack. Good times, bad times. This was what living with nature was all about.

  Cate dropped the soil and headed back to camp. Those metal shards could have been there for years for all she knew. She found Noah in the kitchen, boiling up a large pot of coffee and chatting to Jacob about the day’s rota.

  ‘Hey, Cate,’ said Noah. ‘Been running?’

  ‘Yes, it was brilliant. I saw dolphins. Can you believe it? It was totally wicked. Worth the trip from Europe alone.’

  He passed her a mug of the strong-smelling brew. ‘Welcome to beautiful Snapper Bay.’

  Cate was just taking a sip of the coffee when the twins appeared. They were carrying rucksacks and wearing sheepish expressions.

  ‘We’re sorry,’ Amber said. ‘Jade and I, we’ve been up all night talking. We’re ready to move on.’

  Jacob looked at them incredulously.

  ‘It’s just that we came here to help out,’ said Jade, flushing under his gaze. ‘We really did. But you know, things have gotten a bit weird. We’re on a gap year, we believe in what you’re doing but we don’t want any hassle or worries.’

  ‘OK, let’s not overreact,’ said Jacob, finding his voice. ‘Don’t make a hasty decision, girls.’

  ‘I think they’re right.’

  This time all eyes turned to Josie who had been sitting quietly in the corner of the kitchen. ‘That shark attack was something else,’ she continued. ‘It was unreal.’

  She clearly hadn’t slept much; she had dark shadows under her blue eyes, and her freckled skin was pale and drawn.

  ‘Hey, Josie, chill,’ said Noah. ‘I’m with Jacob here. I was pretty scared out there too, but when you’re dealing with wild creatures they don’t always act according to our rules.’

  ‘I know something is badly wrong. First those badly injured turtles and now that . . . that . . . co-ordinated military shark campaign you and I went through. Those sharks – I swear they were deliberately trying to kill us, to see us off their patch.’ Josie stopped, looking at the stunned faces around her. ‘And let’s not forget Rafe.’ There was a noise of protest from Maria, who had come in while Josie had been talking. ‘Who really thinks he left us all that night, of his own free will, without even a goodbye. Do you, Mitsu? Noah? Jacob? Maria, we all know you and him had a thing going on, and he didn’t even tell you that he was leaving.’

  ‘Josie, calm down,’ said Jacob. ‘We’ve been through all the wild theories. It’s obvious he wanted to leave, but couldn’t face telling us. He’ll be in contact sooner or later.’ He turned to the twins. ‘Guys, please change your mind and stay. You’re a valuable part of the team and we’d really miss you if you went.’

  They flushed bright red.

  ‘I get it,’ said Josie, looking around her. ‘We’ll all pretend it’s hunky-dory when anyone can see there’s something really crazy going on around here. But let’s not talk about it because if we do we might make it real. La la la. Fingers in ears, hands over eyes.’ Her voice rose, it was shrill now, almost hysterical. ‘Why won’t you listen to me?’ she said. ‘I’m trying to warn you and no one will listen to me.’ Her s
houlders sagged suddenly and she sat down heavily on a chair.

  ‘She’s losing it,’ said Dan with what Cate was beginning to realise was his usual lack of tact. ‘She thinks the sharks are coming to get us.’

  ‘Josie, you’re not well,’ said Maria gently. ‘You’re still in shock from yesterday. Guys, I’ll take her back to her tent and make sure she gets some sleep.’

  Josie stared up at Maria, fear in her eyes, tears running quietly down her cheeks. Then she stood up and leant against her, allowing Maria to put Josie’s arm round her waist and half carry her out of the cabin.

  ‘You’ve got our mobile numbers. Stay in touch, guys,’ said Amber as she and her sister picked up their rucksacks. ‘Noah, can we have that lift to the airport, please?’

  ‘I’m sorry about that, Cate,’ Jacob said. They were the only two left in the kitchen, the others having gone off to carry out their daily tasks, albeit in a more subdued fashion than usual. ‘You’ve only been here a day and you’ve already seen more drama than we usually get in a month. Amber and Jade have clearly overreacted and Josie can be a little bit, how shall I say, highly-strung. It’s not really her fault. She had a pretty ropey childhood.’ He laughed grimly. ‘Although that’s true for other people round here too.’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Cate thoughtfully, boiling some eggs in a pan. ‘Michel mentioned she is rather unhappy. He said you and she had become good friends.’

  Jacob sighed. ‘Well, it’s more like I look after her, you know? She doesn’t seem to have any friends, or family. Her other life is a rented bedsit somewhere in Sydney. I feel sorry for her.’

  Cate was touched. ‘Jacob, that’s a really amazing thing to do. Not many people would bother.’

  He shrugged, embarrassed. ‘A few days after she came here, Josie told me her life story. She showed me the newspaper cuttings and everything. Carries them everywhere with her just in case no one believes her, I guess.’

  He sat down on a wooden chair, watching Cate as she scooped her eggs out into a pair of painted eggcups. ‘It’s an interesting tale actually. Her grandad emigrated to Australia as a penniless kid after the Second World War and was given a patch of coastline near Melbourne to farm. It seems the luck of the Irish was with him. He found barite on it.’

  ‘Barite?’ asked Cate, puzzled. She did a quick run through the periodic table in her head. ‘Never heard of it. What is it? Something like barium? But that’s a chemical compound, right, not something you can find in the ground?’

  ‘Barite is a source of barium,’ agreed Jacob, ‘but is mostly used in weighting heavy equipment in mining and drilling and oil exploration, that sort of thing. Apparently within a few years the worldwide demand was going through the roof and he was a millionaire several times over. In the days when being a millionaire meant something, of course.’

  ‘Amazing,’ said Cate, cutting up her toasted soldiers. ‘What a story.’

  ‘It gets better,’ said Jacob, pinching a piece of toast. ‘He had four sons. Josie’s dad and her three uncles. A pretty wild lot from what she told me, with no intention of working for a living. The old man died early from lung disease, they bought yachts, mansions, horses, cars, farms. The Lucky O’Learys they used to call them. The biggest gamblers in Australia, welcome at every party in town and throwing the best themselves. Little Josie and her big brother went to the top boarding schools – usually arriving by helicopter or limousine – while their nice gentle mum stayed home alone getting more and more depressed. But it turned out Daddy and his brothers were very bad losers and after a while even their many friends on the New South Wales police force couldn’t turn a blind eye any more. A small matter of harassing bookies and kidnapping and half-beating a debt collector to death. The Lucky O’Learys all ended up broke and behind bars, their flash friends gone with the wind. About the same time Josie’s mother finally cracked and was permanently committed to a secure unit. Apparently the last thing she did before she was taken away by the men in white coats was to smash her husband’s wine collection to smithereens. Josie told me that alone would have funded Josie and her brother through college. Now Josie is broke and pretty fragile, as you can see, and her big brother, Michael, I think he was called, is God knows where. I don’t think she’s seen him for ten years or more.’

  ‘Poor Josie,’ said Cate shocked. ‘All on her own. Honestly, some parents really do make the most almighty shambles of looking after their kids.’

  She thought of her own mother – glamorous, beautiful and totally selfish, dumping her and Arthur at a moment’s notice so that she could disappear off to LA and find herself. Now Cate only saw her once a year, and always on her mother’s terms. Even the infrequent telephone calls had to be fitted in around her various yoga or writing workshops and, if Cate ever asked anything remotely motherly of her, she was liable to throw an almighty strop and accuse Cate of emotional blackmail. But at least, thought Cate, she had Arthur and her dad, and Monique was a brilliant stepmother; Josie was totally on her own. No wonder she was highly-strung. But that didn’t necessarily mean she was crazy.

  ‘Jacob, are you sure Josie didn’t have a point?’ Cate said, shaking off the images of her mother and helping herself to freshly squeezed orange juice. ‘Those sharks yesterday, they did seem to be acting strangely. They were very aggressive, almost hyper aggressive.’

  Jacob shrugged. ‘Maybe,’ he said, ‘but even if they were, what does that mean? Anything could have set them off. A perceived threat, a change in the weather or tides, a shoal of fish enticing them into the bay. I don’t believe for one second that any pack of animals – sharks included – are capable of planning attacks against humans. Animals are animals. They don’t bear grudges. They live in the moment. That’s what makes them so much nicer than us humans.’ He smiled. ‘The fact is that they were here long before us and they didn’t ask us to come. So it’s no good moaning when they act like the predators they are. There’s nothing more to it than that, no matter what poor, screwed-up Josie might believe.’

  Heading back to the tepee, Cate felt her phone vibrating in her pocket. She was amazed she had a signal and was even more amazed when she saw it was Nancy calling.

  ‘Caaatttteee,’ she wailed so loudly that a kookaburra sitting on a tree three metres away from Cate flew off cackling in fear. ‘Something awful has happened. You have to come – quickly!’

  ‘Nancy!’ Cate was alarmed. ‘What’s wrong?’

  She started sobbing again. ‘It’s Lucas.’ She paused for effect and Cate suddenly had a sneaking suspicion that Nancy might have been rehearsing this conversation. ‘He’s having an affair.’

  Cate was shocked. ‘Are you sure, Nancy?’ she said finally. ‘He wouldn’t have asked you to come all this way if he didn’t want to be with you. And, to be honest, he seems like a busy guy right now, what with the tour and this birthday concert coming up. I could be wrong, but somehow he just didn’t seem the type to mess around.’

  ‘They’re all the type, Cate. Not one of them can be trusted.’

  Cate didn’t entirely agree with that statement, but she knew that now wasn’t the time to argue. ‘Nancy, tell me what happened?’

  The supermodel sniffed before continuing. ‘He’s hired his ex-girlfriend to work on his album. The singer, Cindy Spencer. That over-painted midget of a goth. He says her voice would be perfect for a song he’s written and he wants her to sing it and nothing I can say or do will change his mind. He says it’s just professional but I don’t believe him. I knew he’d never got over her, not really, and now she’s coming here and she’s going to sing at the concert with Lucas. And everyone will say they’re back together and it’ll all be in the papers and I’ll be a laughing stock.’

  She began to cry again, so loudly that Cate could almost see the tears running down her cheeks. ‘Oh, Nancy,’ Cate said, trying hard not to laugh. ‘Nancy, you know better than anyone not to worry about what the papers say. And I’m sure Lucas is telling the truth. If he was going to have an affai
r he wouldn’t exactly tell you beforehand, would he?’

  Nancy paused. Cate could almost hear her brain whirring. ‘Well,’ she said sullenly, ‘he’s still not getting away with bringing his ex-girlfriend here. It’s dissing me big time.’ Her voice took on a pleading tone. ‘Hey, Cate, you have to come out here and give me some moral support for when Cindy arrives. You can stay in our villa and watch the gig. It’ll be fab, like old times. Please say you will?’

  Cate was torn. It was an amazing offer and she was never one to look a gift horse in the mouth. After all, she was simply mad about Black Noir and how cool would it be to see Lucas live in concert and get to hang out with him before and afterwards? Her friends would be green with envy. On the other hand she had only been here a day. How could she leave Michel so soon?

  CHAPTER 10

  ‘Pleeeease, Cate,’ Nancy begged. ‘Tell Michel that this is a national emergency and I need you. He can come too if he really wants,’ she added cunningly.

  Despite her good intentions Cate felt herself weakening fast. ‘Look, Nancy, it sounds like a fab idea. But I need to run it past Michel. Leave it with me for an hour or so. I’ll text you.’

  Cate put the phone back in her pocket and began to smile. Nancy really was a one-off. Back in the tepee she headed straight for a large bamboo chest that Mitsu had kindly donated to her for her clothes and belongings.

  ‘It’s nice to have some little place you can call your very own,’ the Japanese girl had said, taking pity on Cate as she tried valiantly to hang her clothes from the thin poles which held up the tepee. ‘I’ll use this hanging wardrobe Josie gave me. She inherited it from an Argentinian girl. She was really nice and wanted to stay for longer but her parents insisted that she go home for Christmas and she didn’t feel like she could say no.’

  Cate looked at her watch. Ten in the morning. Eleven o’clock at night in Europe. There were a few favours she needed to ask Arthur. But first she needed privacy, which right now in this hive of communal activity, was quite a hard thing to find. She thought for a moment, picked up the laptop, and headed back to the beach.