Chapter Twenty

Arnie eventually regained consciousness. A long, slow recovery. He was underwater, at the bottom of the North Sea, nothing above but a ripple of light blue, so far away. Is this it? he wondered. Am I dead? There were no white lights. No angels. When he tried to swim his limbs were immobile. He was cold one minute and burning up the next. Then he was tumbling from a great height, falling hard and fast before being submerged in the stormy seas again.

At last he opened his eyes. He wasn’t lost at the bottom of the ocean. He was in bed, lying on his back, feeling heavy. Movement seemed just as difficult as it had in the dream.

Everything was bright. Florescent strips across the ceiling. White walls.

A figure came closer. A nurse dressed in pale blue.

“Where am I?” he asked. His voice little more than a croak.

“You’re in hospital,” she answered. “You’re safe.”

More people came into the room. Doctors. Someone shone a light directly into his eyes. Arnie winced in pain. His thoughts were foggy, painful.

After a few minutes, he drifted off again.

The next time he came around, things were clearer. His head didn’t hurt as much. His mind was less muddled.

And sitting at the side of the bed, holding his hand, was Dominic.

Dominic stood up as soon as he realized Arnie was awake. His handsome face was right over him. Arnie could get lost in the warm depths of his eyes.

“Welcome back,” Dominic said, his voice soft.

Arnie struggled to smile. He raked through his memories, trying to remember how he’d got here. The beach, the sea, AJ.

“Where’s AJ?” he asked as his thoughts cleared.

“Don’t worry,” Dominic said, gripping his hand in reassurance. “He’s on his way. He was discharged two days ago. Your parents took him home. When the doctors told me you were coming around, I called them. They’ll be here soon.”

“Is he all right?”

“He’s fine. A little shaken. He’s bound to be. He was hypothermic and suffering the effects of shock when we brought him in, but he’s good now. More than anything, he’s worried about you. We all are.”

Arnie relaxed slightly and inhaled. AJ was okay—that was all that mattered.

Dominic put a gentle hand on his brow. Arnie yielded to his touch. He smelled so good, so comforting and familiar.

“It’s such a relief to see you awake,” Dominic said. “I was worried we were going to lose you.”

“Did you find us? Were you in the lifeboat?”

“I was. I wouldn’t have stopped searching until I found you. You’re everything to me now. I couldn’t bear to lose you.”

“What happened?” Arnie asked, digging deeper into this mind. “Someone hit me from behind.”

“Don’t worry about that now. It’s not important.”

“Tell me,” he insisted. “I want to know.”

“Is that all you remember? Being taken from behind?”

He nodded.

“Noel Garrard. The kid who helps at the station. He’s the one who attacked you. He must have followed you and AJ along the beach. He knocked you out cold and left you to the mercy of the incoming tide. If AJ hadn’t reacted the way he did and dragged you onto the higher rocks before calling for help, you wouldn’t be here now.”

“But why? I don’t understand. Why did he clobber me?”

“We can go over this later,” Dominic said, stroking his hair.

“I want to know now.”

Dominic sat and pulled the chair closer to the bed. “The police suspect Noel is the man who threw Sandy Costello over the cliff. I don’t know much yet. The investigators are keeping the facts down tight, but they found evidence at his house that proves he did it. They also suspect he’s been hanging round your house these last two weeks. Your stalker, that was him.”

“Why?”

“Why did he attack Sandy? I have no idea. I suspect the reason he focused on you is that you and AJ saw what he did. You couldn’t ID him, but I don’t know, I guess he panicked in case you could. Or he became fixated on you because you had a connection to his first crime. Until the police catch up with him, we’ll never know.”

“What do you mean, catch up with him?”

“He’s gone to ground. No one has seen him since Saturday.”

Arnie stiffened. Dominic took his hand again.

“Don’t worry,” he continued. “There’s a police officer stationed right outside that door. And another at your parents’ house watching over AJ. They’ll be with you until they apprehend him. You’re both safe. And I won’t let the little bastard anywhere near you. He should hope the cops catch up with him before I do, because I won’t be responsible for my actions.”

“This is crazy,” Arnie said. “Why the hell would he do any of this?”

“Noel Garrard is a disturbed young man. He always has been. His grandmother asked us to get him involved with the lifeboat in the hope it would give him something positive to focus on. That the crew could act as role models to him. His parents were worse than useless. His dad went to jail for armed robbery when Noel was just a kid and died a couple of years later. A feud or something with another inmate that got out of hand. His mother was a heroin addict with a string of abusive boyfriends. Noel was removed from her care and placed with his grandparents when he was ten. Your mother will be able to tell the story better than I can, but the grandparents have done their best for him. They made him go to school and tried to give him a normal life to stop him turning out like his mother and father.”

“None of that explains what he did.”

“No,” Dominic said carefully. “Honey, there’s worse. I just don’t think now is the time.”

Arnie gripped his hand. “Tell me.”

“You’ve just woken up.”

“Tell me,” Arnie insisted.

Dominic took a breath before looking him straight in the eye. “Gabriel is dead. They found him at home on Saturday afternoon, not long before you were attacked. The police want Noel for that too.”

“Dead?” Arnie heard the words. He understood their meaning. He could not believe them. “How?”

“They think it happened sometime on Friday night. All indications are that he was taken by surprise when he got home from work. When he didn’t come in the next day, someone from the restaurant went looking for him.”

Tears sprang under Arnie’s eyelids and ran down his cheeks. “Why? For fuck’s sake, why?”

“Until they catch Noel, we’ll never know. Maybe we never will. I can’t imagine what provoked him to do any of this. He was a quiet kid, sullen most of the time, and motivating him to do anything around the station was a chore in itself. But he showed no inclination toward violence. I can’t remember hearing him swear or speak out of turn. On the surface of things, he seemed rather placid, docile even. There must have been some deep, dangerous currents running beneath that calm exterior.”

Arnie wiped his eyes on the back of his hand. “I can’t believe Gabriel is dead. What did he do to him?”

Dominic shook his head. “You don’t need to know about that yet. I’ll tell you everything later, when you’re ready. I promise. For now, I want you to focus on getting better. You were in a bad way, you know. Concussion, hypothermia and shock. You’ve got a couple of broken ribs too. Your body was shutting down when we got you to the dock.”

“I’ll mend,” he said resolutely.

Dominic smiled. “That’s right. You will. You’re a fighter and a survivor. You and AJ, you boys are made of strong stuff.”

“What about Sandy Costello? I got a news alert, right before Noel hit me. It said she had come around.”

“That’s right, she has. She’s going to be all right too. Eventually. The poor girl has a lot of broken bones, including her pelvis. Fortunately, there’s no damage to her skull or spinal column. She’s got a long road ahead of her and a lot of intensive physio before she’ll be fully healed, but she’s on her way. It’s a miracle, really, considering what she has been through. She’s a fighter, like you.”

Arnie nodded, then sighed. “What could drive a young man to do these terrible things? I don’t buy the useless parents as an excuse. Plenty of kids come from bad backgrounds. It doesn’t turn them into callous killers. There must be some reason.”

“We might never know. Don’t torture yourself trying to figure it out. Noel is disturbed. No one could have predicted he’d do any of these things. Whatever is wrong with him, he kept it well hidden. It’s hard, I know, but you must focus on the positives here. Your son is alive. You are alive. They’ll catch up with Noel soon enough. I doubt he’s got the brains to evade the police for too long.”

Arnie nodded and wiped his eyes again. “You saved us.”

“It was AJ. If he wasn’t smart enough to do what he did and call the Coastguard, we wouldn’t have been there. Your boy is a hero.”

Arnie took his hand. “Then I guess I really am lucky. To have two heroes in my life.”