May 2020, Benevolence Day Three
It was late morning when Jude and Nina left the lighthouse. By now, there were clouds moving in to cover the sun, making it seem a very different sort of day from those that had come before. The air was cold, and Nina was glad of her padded jacket. She wished she’d worn a few more layers underneath it, but there was no time for that. She started to ring the bell, calling the team together.
People began to appear. Brian came out of the cottage he was working on, a frown on his face, his tool belt low on his hips. Reynash and Gemma were behind him, muttering together. Paul and Arnie, obviously interrupted in their lunch preparations. Elle came to join Nina, her camera secure around her neck, looking pale and worried, and not at all her usually bubbly self.
‘What is it?’ she asked. ‘Is it about the generator? Do you know who did it?’ Her voice sounded strained and she waited impatiently for Nina’s answer.
‘No. Well, not entirely. There’s been someone living on the island. We found a sleeping bag in the lighthouse, along with some other things.’
Elle frowned. ‘What other things?’
‘Nina?’ Paul was beside her. ‘I saw you up in the lighthouse. What happened?’
Everyone was there now, waiting and watching.
Jude held out the plastic bag and the gun. Someone gasped. Paul’s gaze sharpened. ‘These will be safer with you,’ Jude told Paul. ‘We found them up in the lighthouse with a sleeping bag. Someone has been dossing there.’
Nina spoke then, going over the spilled diesel episode this morning, reminding them of the satellite phone and then Brian’s missing equipment. She tried to keep a close watch on their faces, thinking that maybe if one of the team knew more than they were saying, she could catch them out. But they all seemed naturally concerned and shocked, which was nothing out of the ordinary. When she finished there was silence followed by a few exchanged glances, as everyone took it in.
‘Is whoever this is still here on the island?’ Brian sounded outraged. ‘What on earth is going on? Why would they want to steal from us, destroy our equipment? What good will that do them? If they’re using the island as a place to traffic drugs, why didn’t Island Heritage know about it?’
‘It could be someone gone rogue,’ Paul said. ‘Someone who now considers the island their territory.’
‘We don’t know that.’ Jude was standing with his hands in his pockets. ‘We don’t know what their agenda is. What if it’s just someone with a few issues who wants their solitude?’
‘More likely a drug-running crazy,’ Paul muttered.
Arnie snorted a laugh and then, when Brian glared at him, held up his hands in apology.
‘So, what’s next?’ Brian asked.
‘I have a drone,’ Jude said. ‘I’m going to send it over the island. Whoever this person is, they can’t hide forever. If they’re still here then we’ll find them.’
‘Is that a good thing?’ Paul said. ‘Cornering a dangerous person, trapping them, making them feel desperate?’
‘Wouldn’t it be better to know what or who we’re dealing with?’ Jude retorted.
Paul nodded reluctant agreement. ‘Just be careful,’ he said, turning the weapon over in his hand. ‘This might look like a kid’s toy, but it’s real.’
‘Dangerous,’ Elle said and then seemed to realise she’d spoken aloud. ‘I did some freelance work for one of the newspapers. Too many of these weapons are getting into the country. In the wrong hands …’
‘Are there any right hands?’ Nina asked.
Another silence ensued, broken by Brian. He sounded fed up. ‘And in the meantime? I vote we just get on with things. That’s what we’re here for, isn’t it? What else are we going to do? Come on, folks, let’s get back to work.’ And he began walking towards the cottage he was repairing. A few of his volunteers trailed after him, while others went to resume whatever they had been doing before Nina rang the bell.
‘Just … be careful!’ Nina called.
There were a few murmurs, a few raised hands, but no one responded.
‘For once, I think he’s right,’ Paul said. ‘We should just get on with it. That’s what we’re here for. Whoever this is seems to want to frighten us, and I never respond well to bullying.’
Arnie gave her a wink over Paul’s shoulder and Nina smiled. With Paul’s size and military training, it would take a brave man to bully him.
‘I was wondering if Elle could take some photos of this lot,’ Paul held up the gun, ‘and inside the lighthouse. Document the evidence. It might be useful later on.’
‘That’s a good idea,’ she agreed. ‘Can you do that, Elle?’
Elle looked reluctant.
‘You can take someone with you.’
Arnie said he’d go, and Jude handed over the key. Lis followed them, and Nina was tempted to tell her not to, but then she changed her mind. There was safety in numbers.
‘Let’s get started with the drone,’ Jude said.
‘Good luck!’ Paul called to them.
Nina saw the question in her friend’s eyes. She gave him a quick thumbs up and hurried towards Jude, heading along to the upper track and the assistant-keeper’s cottage.
* * *
Jude worked at setting up the drone, a frown of concentration on his face. ‘The camera sends images to my laptop, so we should be able to watch in real time. Might as well get it to fly right over the island before we start poking around the cliffs. We can check the anchorage near Birds Nest Island. If there’s a boat there, we’ll see it.’
‘Okay.’
He met her eyes with a wry grin. ‘That’s what’s supposed to happen, anyway. I’ve had a few lessons, but I’m still a novice. They would have sent a film crew with me, until the restrictions put paid to that. Can’t say I’m sorry,’ he added, with another glance at her. ‘I didn’t want them looking over my shoulder. I’m a bit of a loner, always was.’
He used to be. She remembered how Jude would go off somewhere in his own mind, drifting in dreams, and she would laugh and kiss his cheek, and ask him where he’d been this time. More recently, he’d seemed far more extroverted, surrounded by admirers. Different. Or at least that’s what she had thought, but perhaps he wasn’t different at all. Perhaps, like her, he was simply hiding behind a mask.
They took the drone outside and Jude stood back, controls in hand. Nina watched as it rose several metres into the cloudy sky, barely making a sound, before it began moving away, towards the western part of the island. The wind had risen and it struggled a bit under the buffeting, but it kept flying until it was out of sight. Nina was still staring at the spot where it had been when Jude called to her.
‘I have the controls set for FVP, so I can guide the drone using the images I’m seeing. Come on. We’ll take a look at the camera feed.’
He had placed his laptop on a table in the shelter of the verandah, and she sat beside him, tugging her sweater over her hands to keep them warm. As he had said earlier, the pictures on the screen were being transmitted from the camera attached to the flying drone. It was rather like being in the helicopter when she had first arrived, only not so high up, and things on the ground weren’t being blown about by the force of the rotor blades. There was also no audio, so everything was recorded in silence.
At first, they could only see the vegetation that covered much of the island, scrubby bushes and tufts of native grasses, with an occasional group of trees. She-oaks and tea-tree mainly, nothing very tall. Some wallabies bounded off, as if sensing the unfamiliar, and a group of Cape Barren geese was huddled belligerently together on their piece of territory, obviously squabbling with a newcomer. They strutted off angrily as the drone sailed over.
In no time the machine was approaching the cliffs, and now there were seabirds squawking silently, and flying so close that Nina was worried they might knock the drone out of the sky.
And then the land fell away, dizzyingly, to the sea below. Bright-pink pigface grew in the crevices, along with the tougher grasses. There were birds everywhere, too many to count; Birds Nest Island was well named. Nina could see the chasm that separated the two islands now, situated between inhospitable rocky faces and overhanging ledges. She noticed some shallow caverns and crevices in the cliff faces, but they were certainly not the sort of places anyone could hide in, even if they could manage to climb up to them. The sea was empty, too, a vast heaving mass with not a boat in sight.
‘I’ll move to the other side of Birds Nest,’ Jude said. ‘I doubt a boat would get much shelter there, but it would be well hidden from anyone on Benevolence.’
‘Whoever it was could have already sailed away.’
‘Maybe,’ he agreed, concentrating on the controls, ‘but I don’t think so. If whoever was in the lighthouse left in such a hurry that they forgot their prized belongings, they’d hardly have had time to sail away.’
The drone moved over the top of Birds Nest Island, capturing film of the seabirds that made it their home. Nina could only imagine the noise they were making. And then they were on the far side.
They both exclaimed at the same time. Nina leaned in, her shoulder pressed to Jude’s as they stared at the screen.
Because there was a boat anchored there. A white yacht that swung gently on its chain, rolling in the swell. ‘We need to get closer.’ Jude sounded excited as he deftly moved the controls. ‘See if there’s anyone on board.’
The drone came down over the yacht and now they could see the empty deck. No sign of anyone. ‘They could be below,’ Nina said. Even to her untrained eyes the yacht seemed untidy, ropes thrown about instead of tied off, and one of the sails was bundled up in the cockpit rather than being properly stowed away. Abruptly, the yacht swung on its anchor and Jude hurriedly took the drone back up to a safe distance.
‘Does it have a name?’ Nina had noticed the writing in black along the white hull, but it was a fancy, curly type, difficult to read at this distance.
Jude edged the drone in once more, closer and then closer again, hovering beside the name. ‘What is it?’ he said. ‘Can you read it? What’s wrong with Times Roman, for God’s sake.’
Nina laughed despite herself. The curly script really was difficult to read, but a moment later she had it. ‘Mermaid Dream? No, Mermaid’s Dream.’
Jude stared, and she could feel the tension in him, but before she could question it, he said, ‘I think you’re right.’
‘Well, we can check that out,’ Nina went on, excitedly. ‘There would be a register somewhere, wouldn’t there? An owner?’
‘I guess so. Unless it’s hired, or on loan.’ He was watching her face, that strange tension still there. ‘I need to think,’ he said.
‘Whoever’s yacht it is must be on the island. Can you do a search?’
He hesitated and then nodded brusquely. The drone responded to his commands, hovering a little before it began to rise and move steadily back over Birds Nest Island and the wild water of the chasm, to Benevolence.
‘We should check the southern edge of the island first,’ Jude said. ‘There’s an inlet there, but the draft is too shallow for larger boats.’ He had rotated the drone in that direction as he spoke, when suddenly he stopped and backtracked.
‘Look.’ He pointed at the screen.
At first she couldn’t see anything, and then she picked out a flash of colour, a movement. Someone was crouched amongst the grass tussocks, trying to hide. She could see dark hair and the back of a jacket, and a white hand. Jude manoeuvred the drone so that it flew lower, just as the person glanced up.
A pale, blurry face. Another adjustment and the picture came into sharp focus. It was Elle. Nina could see the photographer’s pretty features and short hair as she huddled on the ground. Her eyes were wide and staring, and she appeared frightened.
‘Wasn’t she supposed to be in the lighthouse?’ Nina said, not knowing what to think. Why was Elle out here? And whom was she hiding from, because it certainly seemed like she was hiding from someone.
‘Yes,’ Jude said. ‘She was with Lis and Arnie.’
As they watched, Elle leaped to her feet and began to move swiftly away. They saw her glance back over her shoulder at the drone, which was now following her, and then her gaze went beyond it. Her mouth opened as if she was yelling out to someone, and then she waved her arms. Was she trying to tell them something?
‘What’s she doing?’ Jude said. ‘Is she running away from someone?’
Just then, Elle put her hands over her ears and sank down to the ground. The image on the laptop began to break up. It pixelated, froze, and then the camera feed cut out altogether. They were staring at a blank screen.
‘What’s happened?’ Nina asked, but Jude shook his head with a frown.
‘I don’t know. Something’s happened to the drone.’ He fiddled with the controls. ‘Whatever’s wrong is beyond fixing from this end.’
‘Do you think she’s hurt?’ Nina went to stand up. She felt rattled, and more than a little afraid. ‘We should go and find her.’
He held her arm. ‘Wait, Nina. Let’s just think about this.’
‘I’m in charge, not you, I need to—’ Panic was making her irrational. She took a deep breath and tried to steady herself. How could things have gone so very wrong?
‘What was Elle doing out there?’ Jude said. ‘You’re assuming she is in danger, Nina, but what if she and this unknown person in the lighthouse are in this together.’ He looked grim.
Nina stilled, considering. ‘You mean she was going to the yacht? But how?’ It would be impossible for Elle to climb down those cliffs, and what, swim out to the boat?’ She shook her head, rejecting the idea.
‘The owner of the yacht must have a dinghy. An inflatable. It’s probably tucked away safely further around the coast. That inlet I mentioned, with the shallow draft. Elle could be going there.’
‘But why?’ Nina demanded. ‘We’re missing something, Jude. How could Elle be involved in this? This is her first time on the island. She was a last-minute replacement for someone else.’
Jude gave her a furtive sideways glance. ‘Um, there’s something I need to tell you. I probably should have mentioned it before, but … Well, we haven’t exactly been sharing, and I really didn’t think it was important until now.’
Nina stilled. He’d recognised something. She could see it in his face, in the uneasy movement of his body. Was it the boat? Before she could ask her questions he stood up. They were close together, and she half recognised how tempting he was, how familiar. The feelings that had never gone away. She took a step back, to give herself some distance.
‘Tell me now,’ she said in a cold, hard voice.
Jude seemed to be considering his words carefully. ‘Okay, here’s the thing. Lis works as an archivist, I did tell you that. She’s often in the state library and she happened to see Elle a few months ago. She didn’t know who she was then, of course, but it stuck in her memory, and when she saw her again here on the island she remembered. I said it probably meant nothing. A coincidence.’
Nina still didn’t get it. ‘Why would seeing Elle in the archives seem strange? She’s a photographer. She could have been following up a story.’
‘The reason it was strange was because Elle wasn’t alone.’ He hesitated, as if he really didn’t want to tell her. There was an expression in his dark eyes that resembled panic, and it was so strange to see it again after all these years that Nina felt her own fear levels begin to rise. The warning quickening of her pulse, the flash of heat over her skin, that sick twist in her stomach.
‘Come on, Jude, spit it out,’ she said. ‘What aren’t you telling me.’
He rubbed a hand over his eyes as if he was tired. And then he blurted, ‘She was with Murray. She was in the archives with Murray, and Lis said they looked like friends.’
Murray and Elle. Murray was here? But no, that was ridiculous. Why would he be? Then she remembered that weird tension she’d felt in Jude.
‘The boat,’ she whispered through stiff lips. ‘You recognised it, didn’t you?’
‘Yes,’ Jude admitted. ‘If it’s the one I’m thinking of then it belongs to Murray.’
Murray’s yacht, Murray’s friend, Murray with his dangerous clients and out-of-control behaviour. Murray in the lighthouse, staring down at her, watching her, all this time. Murray …
Jude was still speaking, but Nina had stopped listening.
The air around her began to hum, and the scene in front of her began to sway back and forth, around and around. A wave of heat washed over her, her head pounded, and her throat was dry. She tried to take a step, but her legs were like jelly, her hands shaking violently as they clung to the verandah post.
She shook her head, but there was no stopping it. The flashback. She was going back.