For a moment, Charlie was too shocked to do anything. His face, scarlet a moment ago, was turning a sickly white.
Jas came running up ahead of the other three.
‘What have you done, Charlie? Where’s Finn?’
‘He – he fell into the sea,’ stammered Charlie, and burst into tears.
Kyla gasped in fright.
‘He can’t swim! He’ll drown!’
The others arrived.
‘What’s happened?’ asked Amir.
Jas was peering down into the sea from the harbour wall. There were several little boats bobbing about near the steps that led down from the top of the wall to a little wooden platform below.
‘Finn fell in,’ she said shortly. ‘I can’t see him down there. He must be behind one of the boats.’
‘Perhaps he’s stuck,’ said Kyla, who was always looking for disasters. ‘Perhaps he’s drowned, and his lifeless body will float out to sea and—’
Charlie gave a wail.
‘You shouldn’t have chased Finn, Charlie,’ said Dougie reproachfully. ‘You might’ve killed him.’
Charlie wrapped his arms round his head and sank down on to a bollard.
A clanking noise made Jas look up. On the far side of the harbour Charlie’s dad was heaving lobster pots around on the deck on the Janine. Jas cupped her hands round her mouth.
‘Mr Munro!’ she shouted. ‘Help! Finn’s fallen into the sea. He can’t swim!’
Mr Munro didn’t hear. He went into the wheelhouse of the trawler and started up the engine.
‘Shout louder, Jas,’ said Kyla helpfully.
Charlie lifted his head.
‘He’s deaf. He can’t hear you. It’s all my fault. I’m a murderer. I’m . . .’
‘What are you taking your shoes off for, Amir?’ said Dougie.
Amir had kicked off his shoes, tucked his glasses into one of them, and was throwing off his sweater. He didn’t answer Dougie. He was already halfway down the steps towards the platform at the bottom.
Charlie jumped to his feet and began to wrestle his sweatshirt over his head.
‘Come back, Amir! I told you, it’s my fault! I’ll go in,’ he shouted.
Jas caught his collar in a strong grip.
‘Let him go, Charlie. He’s the best swimmer of all of us. He’s done life-saving. You’ll only get in his way.’
Charlie started to fight her off, but Dougie shouted, ‘Look! Amir’s jumped in!’
The four children leaned over the harbour wall again to look down. Amir was standing up to his chest in water between two small motor launches, looking surprised.
‘It’s really shallow here,’ he called up to them. ‘The tide’s right out.’
‘Can you see Finn?’ Jas called back.
Amir didn’t answer. He was wading round between the small boats, looking carefully behind and under each one.
‘He must be down there somewhere,’ Kyla shouted down to him. ‘Are you sure he didn’t knock himself out? Perhaps he’s under the water. Perhaps he’s already drowned.’
‘Shut up, Kyla,’ said Jas, seeing the look on Charlie’s face. ‘Of course he hasn’t drowned. Amir would have seen him. We all would have.’
Amir appeared, dripping and breathless, at the top of the steps.
‘I looked everywhere. All round the boats. He’s not there. But he must be all right. It’s so shallow that he wouldn’t have needed to swim at all. He must have hidden behind a boat while we were all looking down. I bet he slipped out and went round to the beach while we were all arguing.’
The children looked at each other, anxiously wondering what to do. They couldn’t see round the end of the harbour wall or over the far side of it on to the beach because of a rampart built up all along the length of the wall, which was made of rough-hewn stones with gaps in between them.
‘I’ll climb up and look,’ said Amir.
Charlie pushed him aside. Without a word, he began to climb the rampart, while Amir put his shoes on and tried to wring some of the water out of his clothes.
‘You’re not allowed up there,’ Dougie called up to Charlie. ‘You’ll get into trouble.’
Charlie was nearly at the top of the wall when a bellow came from the Janine. Mr Munro had seen him.
‘Get off that wall, you wee imp! Now!’
At the sound of his father’s furious voice, Charlie lost his foothold and fell hard on to the cobbles. Jas ran across to him, trying to help him struggle to his feet.
‘Are you all right, Charlie?’ asked Kyla. ‘I should think you’ve broken your leg.’
‘Shut up, Kyla. I’m fine,’ grunted Charlie, and he began to hobble after Jas and Dougie, who were already racing back along the cobbles to the tarmac road, with Amir squelching along behind them.
A few minutes later, the five of them were looking down the beach that ran behind the harbour wall, with its fringe of rocks beyond.
‘There’s no sign of him,’ Jas said. ‘It’s like he’s disappeared into thin air.’
‘He’s probably hiding over there in the rocks,’ said Amir. ‘There’s loads of places.’
‘Let’s go and look,’ said Jas. ‘We can’t just leave him. He might be hurt or – or anything.’
‘You’d better not come, Charlie,’ said Dougie. ‘I bet if he sees you again, he’ll think you still want to kill him.’
Kyla looked expectantly at Charlie, waiting for him to explode, but Charlie only glared at Dougie, then ran off to begin the search. Amir and Jas were already scrambling over the rocks, calling out, ‘Finn! Finn, are you all right? Come out, Finn!’
The tumble of rocks on either side of the beach stuck far out into the water, and they were wet and slippery with seaweed. There were plenty of places where a boy could hide, and the children worked hard, hunting in every crevice, calling out Finn’s name, but there was no sign of him.
Dougie had to give up first, when his mother, on her way home from work at the village shop, caught sight of him scrambling over the rocks. She hurried down to the beach, calling out, ‘Dougie, darling! Get down off those nasty rocks before you scratch yourselves to bits! Why aren’t you at home?’
She was waiting on the sand as he jumped down from the rocks, and took hold of his arm in a tight grip. Dougie tried to wriggle free.
‘No you don’t,’ she said firmly. ‘You’re coming home with me. Look at your feet! Soaking wet. You’ll catch your death. Kyla, sweetie! Come on home!’
‘Coming, Mum!’ Kyla called back obediently. ‘In a minute!’ Then she jumped over to the next rock and went on hunting for Finn.
Mrs Lamb hesitated, then shouted, ‘Well don’t be long, darling. Don’t be late for your tea!’
Kyla ignored her. Amir looked at her with grudging admiration. He wished he could get away with pretending to obey his mum, and then going on to do just what he liked, but Mrs Faridah was a lot tougher than Mrs Lamb. Anyway, it was Dougie that she really kept under her thumb. In a way, Amir felt a bit sorry for Dougie. He’d hate it if his mum treated him like a baby all the time.
It was obvious, when ten more minutes had passed, that Finn was nowhere in or on the rocks.
‘We’ve hunted everywhere,’ panted Jas, jumping down on to the sand. ‘He’s just not here.’
‘He must have got out of the sea and run up off the beach as fast as a – as a cheetah,’ said Amir, who liked watching wildlife films. ‘It’s weird. I don’t know how he could have had the time.’
‘Weird! Aye, that’s Finn,’ scoffed Charlie. ‘He’s weird all right.’ And then, remembering that it had all been his fault anyway, and that he’d made himself a promise not to be nasty to Finn any more, his face went a dull red colour up to the roots of his spiky fair hair, and he started scuffing up sprays of sand with the toe of his shoe.
‘We might as well give up and go home, I suppose,’ said Jas, throwing one last anxious look round the beach.
They began to walk silently up towards the narrow road that separated the shore from the little village above the harbour. When they reached it, Jas suddenly stopped.
‘We ought to do something about Finn,’ she said. ‘It’s not fair, the way we’ve treated him. Keeping him out of Dougie’s party and everything.’
‘I know, but . . .’ began Kyla.
‘I mean, how would you like it?’ said Jas.
‘It’s not as if . . .’ began Amir, but then his voice tailed away.
‘Jas is right,’ said Charlie unwillingly. ‘We – I mean I’ve got to stop being mean to him.’
A bellow from the harbour made his head whip round. Mr Munro was standing beside his pile of lobster pots, waving his arms furiously.
‘I’ve got to go,’ Charlie said hastily. ‘My dad’s going to do his nut. I was meant to be on the pots with him this afternoon.’
‘Tomorrow, then,’ said Jas hastily. ‘We’ve got the day off anyway. Let’s have a meeting. At the lighthouse. Ten o’clock. We’ll make a plan and decide what to do.’
‘Won’t you have to ask your dad first?’ asked Kyla curiously.
‘Dad’ll be working. He won’t even notice we’re there,’ said Jas with a grin.