Bright Air - Barry Maitland [65]
‘Perfect,’ I said.
‘There’s information leaflets on the desk over there,’ Bob pointed. ‘Where you can eat, things you can do, nature trails, beaches, stuff like that. But seeing as you’re friends of Luce, I’d like to show you around.’
‘That would be great, if you can spare the time, Bob. You must have been one of the last people to see Luce. We’d appreciate the chance to talk to you about it, if you don’t mind.’
He gave his slow nod. ‘I have a boat. We could go out tomorrow, see the place where it happened, if you like.’
‘Yes, we’d like that.’
‘Fine. Why don’t you have a look around yourselves, and I’ll come back at six. We can have a beer before dinner. Mum’s invited you to the house to eat with us.’
‘Sounds great.’
As he drove away I turned to Anna. ‘So much for stealth.’
The place had a relaxed holiday feel about it, and I would have been happy to stroll around for an hour or two, buy a bottle of wine and put my feet up, but Anna thought we should act quickly before everyone on the island had been told to watch out for us. I thought they probably already had, but I went along with her plan anyway, which was to catch the ranger unprepared, if she was still there.
We walked down the road to the end of Lagoon Beach, where there was a store and visitors’ centre at the heart of what passed for the town. There we got directions to the ranger’s office, which we found in an old cottage further along the street. There was a light on inside, and a young woman with sandy hair, dressed in khaki shorts and shirt, was bent over a desk. She lifted her head with a smile. ‘Hello. Can I help you?’
I looked at the nametag on her shirt. ‘Carmel? I’m Josh and this is Anna. We were friends of Lucy Corcoran at university.’
‘Oh, really? I’m very pleased to meet you.’ She shook hands vigorously, and there was a warmth to her smile that suggested she’d be fun to have around. But then the smile faded. ‘Were you friends of Curtis and Owen, too? We heard about the accident, of course.’
‘Yes, we were. We all used to go climbing together.’
‘That’s terrible. Three of you …’
‘We’re just here on a short holiday, and we wanted to say hello to the people Luce met. You got to know her quite well during that month she was here, didn’t you?’
‘I did, yes, but … I’d love to have a good long chat to you, but you’ve caught me at the worst time. A friend’s offered to shout me a trip back to the mainland for some leave, and I’m about to dash to catch the plane. In fact I was just about to close the office.’ She checked her watch.
‘Maybe just a couple of minutes, Carmel? We’ve come all this way.’
‘Of course. Sorry, I feel so rude. Do you want to sit down?’
We sat around the office table and accepted the cups of water she offered us.
‘How did you two come to meet?’ I asked.
‘Oh, it was part of the protocol. Dr Fenn had to have approval for his research program from the Island Board, which consulted with us here at National Parks and Wildlife. Part of the agreement was that his team would log each day’s activities with my office. Luce was the person who liaised with me, so we soon got to know each other. She was brilliant …’ Carmel paused, looking wistfully at her knees. ‘We got on well. We shared the same values.’
‘Maybe you could take us through that month they were here. It would really help us come to terms with Luce’s death to hear it from you.’
‘I met with them here the day they arrived, and we confirmed their program. They were going to start on Roach Island …’ She got up and pointed it out on a big wall map. ‘It’s part of the Admiralty group just off the coast to the north, up here. There’s a grey ternlet colony on the cliffs of Roach Island, and they were planning to spend the first two weeks there, until the fourth