Hindsight (49 page)

Licking her lips, she remembered the taste of him — wondering why he’d bother attempting to deceive or manipulate her with a kiss when she clearly meant so little to him. Best for both of them if it stayed that way too. However, the thought of his upcoming departure only added to her torment. She’d not only miss his security, experience and preparedness, she’d miss his gentle hands, kind voice and vibrant music. He’d made her feel so alive around that campfire with Ben, and now she felt empty.

Turning away, she kept her eyes closed, loathing herself. Compared to him, her resilience seemed quite pathetic; his independence and ability to take care of any situation — not only surviving under fire and though
real
fire, but doing it so well and with such flawless self-control and confidence that he commanded the respect of battle-hardened men, like Finnigan and Brette. She couldn’t even command enough balance from her own feet. She felt pale and weak beside him, and so cold that even with the rain easing to misty drizzle, she could feel the warmth radiating from his body across the short distance between them. She felt like a thief, taking it. His silence and avoidance transformed that short distance into an abyss — the abyss she’d once wanted and needed between them, and now feared.

Trembling, she felt cold to the bone and alone. She longed for Ben, but feared he’d need more distance from her now too. Her inability to bridge the gap between who she was and who she needed to be now seemed wider than ever, and as the deck heaved again beneath her, she felt her grip on the future slipping.

Yesterday is history
: the mantra that had once given her hope now seemed like a terrible joke. One step forward, one day back more like it, each step ending in pain or disaster, and not just for herself but for anyone who got too close to her — everyone except Gabby so far, and considering their current direction, a sad fate seemed inevitable for her too.

How could she stop her?

‘You look tired,’ Lockman said, his voice softening and warming her like molten chocolate. ‘It’s nearly midnight. You should go back in the cabin.’

He touched her shoulder, pushing her away gently, but shaking her head, she stiffened her shoulders and gripped the rail tighter.

‘Come here then,’ he said, roughly turning her backwards against him; wrapping his arms around her, he held her close inside the warm wings of his own jacket. ‘I think crazy must be catching if you want to freeze out here with us.’

Melting against him, she turned her face into the chilly breeze and heard the growing thunder of surf.

‘We’re nearly there,’ she said, noticing the particular curve of a well-lit building against the sparkling coast — easy enough to recognise, even though she’d first approached it in Ben’s car from the opposite direction. ‘Chloe’s unit is the beachside penthouse on the top two floors of the furthest corner.’

‘There,’ Gabby said as if she was pointing, then she manoeuvred the cat parallel to the beach where the four-storey resort began to curve around the sandy headland. Beyond that, Mira remembered seeing the resort and gardens curve as far as a natural lagoon and estuary.

‘Nice,’ Lockman replied, and Mira recalled saying something similar to Ben. History repeating itself yet again, or Fate spiralling her life in circles that kept bringing her back to the same echoes of former mistakes.

‘Her father was rich,’ she said numbly, but Lockman knew all that. Hector Greppia was
still
rich, but could have been wealthier — perhaps more generous to charities too — if not for the despicable elements of his family. If Moser’s information was correct, then the worst of them had moved in up there, using the home of Hector’s murdered daughter as a base for their new operations.

‘No sign of a yacht,’ Gabby said, keeping parallel to the surf along Currumbin Beach.

‘They may have stashed it at a local marina,’ Lockman replied. ‘Or a private jetty up the estuary.’ He shifted Mira under one arm with an apology that he needed one hand for binoculars. ‘That apartment’s definitely open for business. Drapes are drawn but inside there are enough heat signatures for a family reunion.’

‘You can count their body heat through walls, even at this distance?’ asked Gabby.

‘Not through bricks or plumbing, but that penthouse is mostly glass on this side and the internal walls are thin. I count three heat signatures on each floor of the apartment itself and one on the roof, with another three stationary guarding the hall and fire exit. Could be more, but it’s not less. So we’re in luck here I think. Shouldn’t take me any longer than twenty minutes to get on top of the problem. Once I’m in I’ll use the apartment phone to call the feds: Detectives Symes and Moser.’

‘Moser?’ Gabby asked, sounding worried. ‘Not that guy we just …?’

‘Brother,’ Mira said. ‘He’s the guy Douggie was trying to protect by keeping his mouth shut and working for the Greppias. But you can’t go alone,’ she added for Lockman. ‘Locksmith or not, you can’t face that many by yourself. You have to offer them another trade. Force them to let Ben go before I hand myself over.’

‘Don’t you dare!’ Gabby shouted. ‘You can’t hand her to those killers! You saw what they … you know what they … you just can’t!’

‘No intention of it. If you drop anchor here,’ he said, indicating behind the breakers, ‘I’ll take care of it.’

‘How?’ Gabby asked, voicing Mira’s worries too. ‘You’re grossly outnumbered!’

‘Numbers won’t matter if they don’t see me coming. Anchor the boat, please.’

A long silence followed, but instead of slowing, Gabby revved the engines and slewed faster and further south. ‘No need to get your feet wet,’ she said, as she passed a northbound fishing trawler and swept around the small headland into the estuary. Then she hooked right again into the picturesque lagoon that shared gardens with the resort, a sprawling picnic spot and carpark.

‘Oh,
oui
?’ Gabby exclaimed. ‘What do we see here? Our second yacht is no longer missing. The
Navis Amoris —
isn’t that Latin for love boat?’

‘Stop here, please.’ Lockman shrugged off his jacket and draped it over Mira’s shoulders, leaving her with the bulkiness of two. ‘You’ll have to pass too close to it to reach the shallows.’

Gabby huffed as if offended. ‘I could swing us through sideways and still have room to park an aircraft carrier.’

‘But can you do it
quietly
?’

Gabby cut the engine and lowered her voice. ‘Let’s see, shall we?’

‘Interesting lean on it,’ Lockman said a moment later. ‘Touching bottom. How long do you think it’s been here?’

‘It wasn’t here yesterday,’ Mira said, assuming he’d been talking to her.

‘Hard to say with it floating,’ Gabby added. ‘But if it’s the one they used to escape Straddie, and if they disembarked from its current anchorage I’d say they must have learned of Mira’s escape and evacuated their hostages about the same time I took her to hospital. Timing still had to be tight. I’d say Greggie’s boat called Gregan’s with the news and then if their paths crossed, it happened in the middle. Or else they used another sister ship to do part of the run, passing the batons, so to speak, under cover of mangroves somewhere along the way.’

‘What makes you say that?’ he asked.

‘The height of the tide now. And check your watch. We’ve been faster than them.’

‘In this wind?’ he said sceptically.

‘This wind isn’t entirely friendly to them. They may have big, slick engines for manoeuvring in and out of marinas, but they’re primarily designed for sailing in luxury, while the
Edukitty
was built for any depth, any weather, with speed and efficiency to move up to fifty heavily equipped people with strict timetables around the islands. My guess is Gregan evacuated his hostages from Straddie the moment he heard of Mira’s escape from his son, the leech, and a trip that would have taken them about fifty minutes to an hour in this weather, just took us under thirty. So if it’s them up there, I’d guess they’ve been settled in for a little over an hour.’

Mira felt the cat swing around as if backing in to the sheltered beach, and heard Gabby say something about having a ramp she could raise and lower from the helm — a ramp she hadn’t used while disembarking with Mira for the hospital, because it would have left the catamaran open and insecure in the city.

The ramp lowered with a quiet hum, but as it bumped and glided up onto wet sand, Mira heard Lockman stride across to the helm and make a sound as if he’d kissed it — or Gabby.

‘What was that for?’ Gabby asked, sounding astonished.

‘Because you’re a pearl,’ he replied. ‘I’m glad you’re on my side. I’m also hoping you’ll do me one more favour while I go up there.’

‘You want me to cripple their yacht?’

‘Don’t you dare! You stay away from that … or else!’

Gabby laughed. ‘Did you just shake your finger at me?’

‘I’m serious,’ he said, dropping his voice and tapping his goggles. ‘There’s a heat signature aboard, taking a dump.’ He crossed the deck past Mira towards the ramp. ‘They’re not expecting trouble from National Parks and Wildlife anyway, but treat that yacht like a poisonous snake.’

‘Probably just a guard for the yacht itself,’ Gabby said. ‘Nobody anchors here much overnight. It’s too attractive for land-based pirates.’

‘All the more reason I need the favour,’ Lockman replied.

‘Name it.’

‘Take her back to sea, and don’t let anyone get near her, unless it’s me or Grady.’

‘What a guy,’ Gabby said as she raised the ramp. ‘Where on earth did you find him?’

Mira leaned over the rail, listening to his footsteps fade from sand onto grass and beyond into silence. ‘At Serenity.’ Same day that she’d met Ben now that she thought about it.

Gabby laughed. ‘That figures. All the good ones are gay, married or crazy. What was he in for?’

‘Huh? Oh …’ Mira shook her head, finding it hard to imagine anyone assuming Lockman could be crazy. ‘No, he wasn’t
in
. He was
at
— as security for somebody else.’

‘Phew! That’s a relief, because he’s got the hots for you bad, baby, and I mean
smokin
! More even than Ben. I was getting hot just watching him.’

‘Don’t,’ Mira warned. ‘That’s only a mask, and his tamest.’

‘We all have masks, honey. It’s how we cope with the darkness.’ Abandoning the helm, she came to Mira and wrapped a comforting arm around her. ‘We’re both wearing masks now — the same one. I’m scared to death for them now too, you know. But we’re leaving against our natures because we know we’d only get in his way.’

Mira nodded, realising she’d been so focused on her own perspective that she’d failed to consider poor Gabby’s feelings through any of it.

‘Everyone who helps me gets hurt, Gabby. I’m fearful for you too — and I’ll fear for you a whole lot more once we leave the shore,’ she confessed, ‘because I know Greppia’s people can shoot from very far away. That’s how they ambushed Ben and me in the first place. On land, maybe I could do something, but at sea, I’m completely useless. I can’t see. I can’t stand up straight. I can’t even swim if the boat sinks.’

‘You can’t swim? But you were wet when I found you, and every school in Australia —’

‘I had three lessons before I lost my sight, and then I didn’t go to a normal orphanage or school for the blind. I’ve been institutionalised the past decade. I only survived today because I was lucky to flop and flap enough until I felt the jetty.’

‘We have to fix that.’ Gabby tugged Mira around as if she could solve the problem on the spot. ‘Here’s a lifejacket with a torch, distress signal and whistle,’ she said, fastening it over Mira’s head but wrapping the straps inside her jackets so she could still take off those layers if she grew too hot. Then after taking only seconds to show her how to operate everything, Gabby took Mira’s right hand and pushed a frightening shape into it.

‘Flare gun — in case you fall overboard. You get one shot. I just loaded a cylinder, but don’t panic, here’s the safety switch.’ She led Mira’s fingers to it and aided her in switching it off and on again. ‘Only make sure you’re aiming straight up, or you could burn the hull of anyone coming to save you.’ She pushed the cold shaft down the front of Mira’s lifejacket, wedging it firmly but relatively comfortably in her cleavage.

‘Oh, yeah. That makes me feel much safer, Gabby. Let’s go get seasick.’

Gabby patted her shoulder, then left Mira and started the engine. She swung the cat around smoothly, but Mira gripped the rail, tempted to dive overboard and try to beat Lockman up the fire exit after all. Then from the direction of the invisible yacht, she heard a creak, as if a hatch opened.

‘Did you hear that?’ she asked Gabby, but thunder still drummed the skies, competing against the engines.

‘Drop anchor!’ ordered a chillingly familiar male voice from that direction. Sergeant Pobody called both women by name with instructions to cut the engines and raise their hands. ‘Do it,’ he ordered, ‘or I’ll have to turn you and that pretty
kitty
into tea bags.’