Chapter 33

E

arly on Wednesday morning Nick and Jeanne were rushing to get ready. There would be no lazy lie-in with breakfast in bed today. He had to be at the yard for the delivery of the boat and Jeanne was going with him. She was secretly looking forward to being part of the excitement. There was no way she could focus on her writing at that time, feeling her life was on hold until Dan was safely in custody.

An air of anticipation hung over the workshop and the men smiled broadly as Nick and Jeanne arrived. She settled herself in the office with her book while the men continued their work and Nick made some phone calls.

When the huge transporter pulled into the yard everyone dashed outside to help. After many shouted directions from Nick and the lads and much manoeuvring on the part of the driver, the trailer was finally in position ready for the hull to be winched off. It was fascinating to watch and Jeanne cheered with the others when it was at last on its blocks, waiting to be transformed into a luxurious gin palace by the assembled craftsmen.

Her heart swelled with pride and love as she watched Nick organise his team. He was modest about his business but she guessed he must have worked very hard in order to compete with the big boys in the boating world.

As she joined the others returning inside, her mobile rang. It was Inspector Ferguson.

‘Morning, Jeanne. How are you feeling now?’

‘Much better, thanks, Inspector. Are you phoning to tell me you’ve got Dan?’ her breathing quickened as she hung on his reply.

‘No, sorry, I’m not. But I’m sure it won’t be long now. I’m actually ringing about Marcus. He’d like to talk to you, if you’d agree to see him.’

She gasped. ‘Oh, no!’

‘Don’t worry, there’d be someone with you at all times and anyway I’m convinced he doesn’t want to harm you. What do you think?’

‘I don’t know. It depends what he’s got to say. I don’t want to listen to a load of self-pitying excuses, that’s for sure!’ she exclaimed.

‘It seems he wants to tell you what happened fifteen years ago. He’s admitted he was on the speedboat but hasn’t given us any more details, saying he said he wanted you to be there, to hear it from him and not some third party. It’s an unusual request and normally it wouldn’t be considered, but these are extraordinary circumstances. If you could bear it, then it would be the way for us all to learn what really happened.’

This was what she had waited for. This was what had haunted her dreams for so long. But could she sit facing Marcus while he told her what she was also afraid to hear? Her mind raced with these thoughts until, with a sigh, she realised that there was only one possible answer.

‘All right, I’ll come.’

She heard him let out a long breath.

‘Good, you’re being very brave, Jeanne. I’ll ask your, er, shadow, to bring you to the station in an hour, if that’s convenient?’

Switching off the phone she looked up to see Nick watching her and with a heavy heart told him about the coming meeting.

Although Nick was concerned about her facing Marcus, he agreed it was the best way for Jeanne to find out the truth and finally lay the ghosts. The policeman arrived at the agreed time and they drove in silence to the station.

‘Jeanne. Thanks for coming. Shall we go straight in?’ Inspector Ferguson shook her hand warmly and then, with his hand on her arm, guided her down a corridor to an interview room. Before they went in he turned to Jeanne, saying, ‘You might be shocked at the way Marcus looks. He’s hardly slept since he’s been here and hasn’t eaten much either. I’m having him checked by a doctor once we’ve finished. It’s possible he’s on the verge of a mental collapse. But he’s quite lucid and not at all violent,’ he added reassuringly.

‘Hello, Marcus. I was told you wanted to see me,’ Jeanne said, taking in the unkempt figure hunched over the table in front of her.

At the sound of her voice he looked up and she had to stifle a gasp at the sight of his bloodshot eyes framed by dark shadows.

‘Jeanne! I wasn’t sure you’d come, even though they told me you would.’ He paused, staring at her. ‘I suppose it’s a daft question in the circumstances, but how are you?’ He looked so concerned and so defeated, so unlike the cheerful, generous man she had known that Jeanne almost felt sorry for him. Then she remembered why she was there.

‘I’m all right, considering what I’ve just gone through! But I don’t want to talk about me. I want to know what happened to my parents!’

He winced at the hardness of her voice. Looking her in the eye he said, ‘I owe it to you to tell you the truth, even though you’ll probably hate me even more once you know.’

The inspector cut in to say that from now on what Marcus said would be recorded and transcribed as a statement for him to sign. Marcus nodded his agreement and the machine was switched on.

Marcus began.

‘Dan and I had gone over to Herm that Sunday to pick up a supply of drugs that had been dropped off earlier. I wasn’t directly involved in the deal – I didn’t take drugs myself and was still at school, remember – but Dan…persuaded me to go with him as cover. He thought it would look less suspicious if he was with a schoolboy,’ Marcus gave a hollow laugh.

‘He knew the police were keeping an eye on him in Guernsey so he used Herm as the pick-up point. The drugs were brought over from France. So we went over that evening and moored some way up from Rosaire Steps. The drugs were in a sealed waterproof container attached to a marker and all we had to do was haul it in.’ He paused to drink from the glass of water in front of him.

Jeanne sat immobile, but her mind was racing as she remembered the time Marcus had seemed on edge when she mentioned staying in Guernsey – when she told him about the flashbacks – having hypnosis. It all made horrible sense.

‘Normally we’d have waited till it was dark but the tides were wrong that night and anyway the light was already. So we thought we’d be safe.’

His bloodshot eyes fixed on Jeanne as he continued.

‘Just as we were pulling up the container Dan noticed a couple walking along the cliff path towards the harbour. They must have noticed us and stopped. I suggested to Dan that we leave it but he was determined not to and said they probably wouldn’t realise what was going on. So we hauled it up. Then we noticed that the man had a pair of binoculars and he was training them on us and the container. We both panicked and Dan completely flipped. If we’d stayed calm, acted as if there wasn’t a problem, maybe things would have been different.’

He groaned and ran his hands through his now very dirty, fair hair.

‘I tried to calm him down but it was no use. He was high on drugs and booze and just kept waving his arms about and shouting. The man on the cliff must have sussed that we were doing something illegal and grabbed the woman’s arm and they started running along the path. It took me ages to get Dan to calm down even a bit and then he started up the engine and headed towards the harbour. We saw them get into a small cabin cruiser. It looked like they were going to head off to Guernsey and we waited, just out of sight.’

He took another sip of water.

‘I swear to you Jeanne, I didn’t know what Dan was planning to do. I thought we’d make a run for it after they’d got out of sight. We could have dumped the drugs and there’d have been no proof of anything illegal. But Dan was…not thinking straight. Neither of us recognised your parents and we didn’t know you were on board until…until later.’

Jeanne’s heart was pounding as her memory of that fatal boat ride from Herm was stirred. She remembered that initially she’d been in the cabin. They’d had a picnic on the beach and she was putting things away in the storage area while her parents had gone off for a quick walk.

Marcus’s voice cut across her thoughts.

‘Dan gave the other boat a good start and then went after them. When I realised he was chasing them rather than staying clear, I asked what the hell he was doing. He didn’t answer, just increased the revs and narrowed the gap. As we got closer the man saw us and started waving his arms and shouting, but Dan kept on.’

Marcus dropped his head in his hands and shuddered. Jeanne sat as if in a trance, which to some extent she was. Marcus’s voice was having an hypnotic effect on her and the lost memories continued to surface as he spoke.

Inspector Ferguson sat, impassive, his eyes fixed on Marcus.

After a few moments Marcus raised his head and she could see the tears in his eyes.

‘Dan aimed our boat straight at their starboard side. To port were some visible rocks and I guess he wanted them to…to…smash onto them. We…we hit them and I saw the woman stumble and hit her head. We hit them again, and again the woman fell. The man shouted and went to her but…but the boat was keeling over to port and she…she fell overboard. He jumped in after her. Then we saw a girl take the wheel.’

Again Marcus looked directly at Jeanne, whose eyes were filling with unchecked tears.

‘I couldn’t see you clearly, it was dark. I could just tell it was a young girl. I called to Dan to help but he just laughed crazily and pulled alongside, to port near the rocks. We saw the man – your father – trying to hold onto the…your mother. Dan grabbed our mooring hook and for a moment I thought he was trying to give your father something to hold onto. But he…he…hit him on the head a couple of times. The man let go of the woman and…and…she disappeared. Then the man seemed to lose his strength and he…he disappeared as well,’ his voice was now little more than a whisper.

Jeanne was now crying uncontrollably and the inspector switched off the recorder before opening the door and calling for someone to bring a glass of water. He then sat by Jeanne, his hand on her heaving shoulder.

Marcus was slumped forward, his head in his hands.

The water arrived and Jeanne blew her nose before taking a sip.

‘Couldn’t you have stopped him, Marcus? Couldn’t you have saved them?’ she cried.

He raised his head and flinched as he must have seen the pain in her face.

‘It all happened so fast! He was like a madman! He kept pushing me away when I tried to hold him back. I even thought of jumping in but at that moment we caught sight of the lights of a boat in the distance, coming out of St Peter Port. Dan revved the engine and sped off. It looked like you’d lost your balance as when we left you were lying down in the cockpit.’

‘Yes, I remember now. After Dad went to…to…help Mum I tried to hold the boat steady but…but she was holed on the rocks. A wave hit us and I stumbled. I guess that’s when I hit my head, as the next thing I remember is waking up in hospital.’

Inspector Ferguson, who had switched on the recorder after the water had arrived, interrupted. ‘So where did you go when you left the damaged boat, Mr Davidson?’ His voice was icy.

‘We headed up to Bordeaux. Dan thought it would be too risky to go into St Peter Port. We beached the boat and then Dan went off to phone a friend who had a trailer and he came and picked us up. He was one of Dan’s partners in crime and didn’t ask any questions. We hid the boat in a lock-up. She only had a dented prow and Dan got that fixed some time later. The…the rocks had done the most damage to the other boat.’

For a moment all was quiet in the cheerless room. Each seemed lost in their own thoughts. Jeanne felt completely drained. It had been a horrible replay of that night’s horror and she just wanted to curl up in bed and grieve for her parents, again.

Inspector Ferguson touched her arm and asked, ‘Do you want to go now, Jeanne? Or have you any more questions before we call it a day?’

She shook herself out of her reverie and said, ‘I’d like to know what Marcus thought would happen last Sunday when he asked to meet me.’

Marcus looked up and she witnessed various emotions chasing across his face. Sorrow, despair, self-disgust and, oddly, love. She shivered.

‘I don’t know what I thought. Dan just said he wanted to see us together and although I thought it was odd, I wondered if he was going to make some sort of confession.’ He laughed harshly. ‘What a fool I was! As if Dan would have gone willingly to prison – and for life!’

He reached out and grabbed Jeanne’s hand.

‘I swear to you, Jeanne, I would never have knowingly helped him to kill you! I love you! God help me, I love you!’

He fell forward onto the table.

The inspector opened the door and asked a policeman to come in. He then switched off the recorder and, holding Jeanne by the arm, led her out of the room and along to his office.

After settling her into a chair he phoned for a doctor to look in on Marcus before bringing her a cup of tea.

‘Here, drink this. Wish I’d got something stronger to offer but it’s frowned on by the bosses,’ he said, with a wry grin.

Jeanne took a grateful sip of the over-sweet tea and she too wished that it was something stronger.

They were both quiet for a few moments.

‘Are you going to be all right, Jeanne? Or would you like to see the doctor?’

She shook her head.

‘I’ll be fine, Inspector. It’s safe to assume I’m no longer suffering from traumatic amnesia! My memory’s completely returned. Horrible as it was listening to Marcus, I’m glad I now know what happened and why. My parents were just unlucky. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time.’ She shuddered.

He nodded.

‘It’s more or less what I thought must have happened. I’m not surprised drugs were involved,’ he said gravely. Then he sighed and went on. ‘Although I understand it doesn’t take away the pain of your loss, I hope that now you know what happened you can move on. You’ve shown a lot of courage, Jeanne, and I hope that you now find happiness.’ He cleared his throat.

She was touched. ‘Thank you. That’s exactly what I’m hoping to find. Happiness at long last.’

Jeanne stood up to leave and as the inspector went to open the door the sergeant burst in and blurted out, ‘Sorry to interrupt, sir. But we’ve just had news of a reported sighting of Dan Davidson.’