The Forgotten Sea

by Beverley Harper

  ‘Long enough. It should get us to the bottom.’ He glanced up as he knelt to secure one end of it around the thick trunk of a tree. ‘Are you okay with this? I’ll go down on my own if you like.’

  Holly pulled a face. ‘You have no idea, Maguire, how much I’d love to take you up on that.’ She had butterflies in her stomach. ‘But in the interests of intrepid journalism, I’m afraid you’re stuck with me.’

  ‘Have you done any climbing?’

  ‘Heaps. In and out of bed every day.’ She pointed to the rope. ‘Just make sure that’s tight. I’d hate it to come undone halfway down. It would ruin my day.’

  ‘It won’t. Trust me.’

  ‘I do. It’s the bloody rope I’m suspicious of.’

  He tossed the other end over the cliff. It slithered down the slope, causing a cascade of small stones – a sinister sound it seemed to Holly. ‘Wait here. I’ll test that ledge first and give you a shout.’ He picked up the rope in both hands, planted his feet on the edge of the escarpment, leaned out and stepped backwards.

  Jones, you have to be insane! She heard him curse. ‘Are you okay?’

  ‘Fine.’ His voice floated up to her. ‘I’m on the ledge. It’s safe enough, but be careful. There are sharp sticks everywhere.’

  ‘Super,’ she gritted. ‘Just what I needed.’

  ‘Want to stay up there?’

  ‘No way.’ She picked up the rope. Don’t look down. She looked down. Connor’s head was only a couple of metres below. ‘This could take a while.’

  ‘Take your time. Keep the weight on your feet. Lean out. That’s my girl, you’re doing fine. Now, slide one hand down. Not too far. That’s it. Same with the other. Good. You okay?’

  ‘Yuh.’

  ‘Feel around with a foot, Holly. Keep your legs apart and find a new level that will support your weight. Got it? Now bring the other foot down.’

  At this rate, Holly felt she might make the ledge by sundown. She kept getting her balance wrong, at one stage dangling helplessly until Connor could talk her back into position.

  Holly’s hands were so slippery with fear that she expected the rope would slide through her grasp. Oh, thank God! The feel of his hands on her legs, guiding and supporting, was reassuring. As she descended further, he was able to catch her around the waist and virtually lifted her down to the ledge. The look on his face was speculative. He was clearly having second thoughts about her ability to reach the bottom.

  Never having done anything like this in her life, Holly used the rope as a lifeline rather than a safety precaution, gripping too hard and allowing it to rub the soft skin on her palms. By the time she joined Connor on the ledge – quite a substantial shelf as it turned out – both hands were smarting. At this rate, she’d have blisters before she was a quarter of the way down. Connor noticed the damp sheen of nerves on her forehead. ‘Baby, you don’t have to do this.’

  Holly leaned against him, mouth dry and heart pounding. ‘I’ll get the hang of it.’

  ‘You’re a plucky little –’

  ‘If you say ducky you’re over the side.’

  She heard him chuckle. He put his arms around her. ‘I love you, Holly Jones. You will marry me, won’t you?’

  Trust Maguire to propose at a time like this! ‘Only if I survive.’

  ‘You will. I’ll make damned sure of it. Was that a yes?’

  She looked up at him. His face was close. A lock of hair had fallen forward and a thin trickle of blood had dried near one eyebrow where he’d obviously run foul of one of the woody plants growing horizontally out of the rocks. Otherwise, he was unscathed and as cool as a cucumber. His eyes were tender and caring.

  ‘That was a yes.’

  He kissed her forehead. ‘Good,’ he said mildly, as though he’d merely been seeking confirmation of something he already knew. ‘Let’s do the next bit.’

  ‘Is that it? I’ve just said I’ll marry you. Can’t you come up with something better than that?’

  Connor smiled and shook his head. ‘I don’t trust you, Jones. You do that thing with your mouth and before I know it, I’m drowning in you. Can’t it wait till we reach the bottom?’

  Her foot dislodged a rock that went crashing to oblivion below. It reminded both of them that a crumbling ledge high on an escarpment was probably an inappropriate place for anything other than a brief rest.

  Holly eyed the boulders. She didn’t want to think about the sloping shelf, not yet. ‘Let’s go.’

  ‘Hey,’ he said softly, catching her to him again. ‘It’s not as bad as it looks. I’ll be right there.’

  She took a deep breath.

  Half an hour later, nearly at the end of the rope and slipping and sliding down the last bit, Holly glanced towards the river. Through a gap in the foliage, she saw a body floating, face down, in a shallow pool of blood-red water.

  Her spontaneous cry alerted Connor, who was braced against a sapling just below. ‘What is it?’

  ‘There.’ She nodded past him. ‘I think it’s Justin.’

  He looked. ‘Oh Jesus! That must have been the sound we heard.’

  ‘Can you get to him? I’ll be okay. You’ll be faster without me.’

  Connor disappeared immediately, using only the vegetation to slow his descent. Holly realised just how much she must have slowed him down.

  Only a minute or so later he came back into view, running across the rocks towards Justin. ‘He’s dead,’ Connor called up to her. ‘He must have fallen from the top.’

  Holly looked upwards. It was a hell of a long way. Connor crossed back to the base of the escarpment. ‘The last bit isn’t too difficult.’

  She eased her way towards him, hands on fire but ignoring the pain. The end of the rope seemed like losing a security blanket. She let go reluctantly. Shock over Justin helped her down the last part. She was thinking more about him than the descent. Poor man. He must have been following us again.

  Connor caught her to him as she slithered out of control to the bottom. The feel of his hard, strong body was comforting. His arms went around her. ‘I don’t think you should go over there,’ he advised. ‘It’s not very pretty.’

  Holly cried a little against his chest. She hadn’t trusted Justin Parker but, strangely, she’d liked him well enough. No-one should die without someone’s tears.

  ‘What do we do now? We can’t leave him here.’

  ‘We’ll have to. We can’t move him. The police will have to be informed.’

  ‘You go. I’ll only slow you down. I don’t mind waiting here.’

  ‘Are you sure?’

  She could see that he agreed, he just wanted to make certain she was okay about being left with Justin. ‘I’m sure.’

  ‘I’ll come straight back as soon as I’ve reported it. May take a couple of hours, though. Don’t, whatever you do, attempt to get back up on your own. Wait for me, okay?’

  ‘I promise. You take care.’

  He kissed her quickly and was gone. She could hear his progress for about ten minutes then there was nothing but the tinkling water. Holly sat beside the river and listened to the silence. It was as empty as Justin’s soul and just as lonely.

  Two hundred and fifty years earlier, give or take a decade, Mauritius was hit by the biggest cyclone in its history. With it came weeks of torrential rain. Rivers, swollen to capacity, burst their banks and fanned out, seeking new and previously unknown ways to the sea. All things being equal, William Maguire’s treasure should still have been safe. Two-thirds of the way down the escarpment, it was well back from the normal volume of water coming over the falls. Even under flood conditions, the treasure remained unscathed. It was in a shallow cave, an overhang of rock protecting the entrance from rain and prying eyes. Only foraging geckos and ants knew it was there.

  But William could never have anticipated the ferocity of that cyclone, nor the effects of unrelenting rain on an already sodden island. A landslide caused the Tamarin River to back up for several kilometres above the
head of the falls. A wall of rock, mud and trees swelled the water level to ten times its highest known depth before giving up the struggle. Slow at first, then with terrifying momentum, it swept up and sucked in everything in its path until the surging, swirling river finally burst free over the escarpment to plunge earthwards in a mad scramble for the ocean.

  Still, the treasure was safe, the overhanging rock acting like a roof over the cave entrance. But as days turned into weeks, the build-up of debris at the base of the falls formed another dam wall and this time the valley below began to back-fill. Foaming, flotsam-filled water eventually reached the cave, flushing out the two small chests, all that was left of William’s treasure. They slid forward and sank, dropping through the water to settle in what was normally the second pool under the waterfall, the same one where Justin now lay.

  As the rain abated and the river fell back to its original course, the backed-up water drained away to expose the chests to the relentless pounding of the waterfall. It took time but, first one, then the other, burst open and surrendered its contents. William never knew. He had died of natural causes during the cyclone. Coins and precious stones were swept out of one pool and into the next, until they could fall no further and settled in the river bed. Silt quickly covered all evidence of the fabulous wealth. In time, it might have washed to the sea but that was not to be. The advent of hydroelectricity reduced the flow of the once mighty river to an ineffectual trickle. As the centuries rolled by and fluctuating weather conditions made subtle changes to the terrain, three gold coins worked their way back to the surface.

  Holly’s thoughts drifted. Her back was to Justin’s body, she couldn’t bear to look at him. The sun sat directly overhead, burning down and warming the quiet, isolated place that had claimed his life. Something glinted under the water. Holly moved, trying to see what it was. There was another, and another, all lying close together. When she realised what it must be, a great sense of calm descended over her. Kathleen Maguire had said, ‘I have a strong feeling that the treasure and one other are destined to meet.’ At the time, her words hadn’t made sense. The treasure and one other, destined to meet. Justin? Holly left the coins where they were. It would be up to Connor of course, but she had a feeling he would decide that Justin, having paid the supreme sacrifice in his search for riches, should be allowed to keep the secret.

  She had no doubt that the remainder of William’s treasure would be in the river. Let it stay there. Let the violence of the past remain hidden and the violence of the present go, at last, in peace. Let the earth embrace that which man had once torn from her.

  Holly sighed. She was becoming quite philosophical in her old age!

  Connor returned nearly three hours later with the news that a police rescue team was on its way. ‘We have to stay until they arrive.’

  Holly pointed out the coins.

  He stared at them for a long time. Then put an arm around her. ‘You know, it’s the finding that’s satisfying.’

  She nodded, waiting for him to continue.

  ‘Of course, it might not be William’s. But if it is, the money could do a lot of good.’

  ‘True.’

  ‘Could be cursed, though.’

  ‘I’m not sure about that. Kathleen didn’t seem to think so.’

  ‘But she sensed evil. Perhaps it was a premonition about Justin.’

  ‘Maybe.’

  He gave her a hug. ‘I’ll write that cheque.’

  Holly kissed him long and hard.

  Two members of the police rescue team abseiled down the escarpment immediately next to the falls, as casual as you please, as if they were taking a Sunday stroll. Justin’s body was photographed, gently removed from the pool, strapped onto a stretcher and winched up the cliff face. ‘We’ll be down here a while,’ one of the rescuers said. ‘There’s a detective at the top who wants to ask you some questions. Can you make your own way up?’

  ‘Not a problem,’ Connor assured him.

  Holly resigned herself to more pain than she felt she deserved. It was all very well for these bloody fit men. Would it be asking too much for at least one of them to stop and think that not everybody is thrilled at the prospect of scaling a fifty metre death trap?

  The going up involved more physical effort than coming down. At least gravity helped on the descent and every step meant she had less distance to fall. Connor alternated between taking the lead and staying behind in case she fell. When they finally made it to the top, Holly felt her lungs were on fire. She had scratches on her face, arms and legs, the skin on both hands was blistered from the rope, and those that had burst were bleeding. Bright red from the exertion and covered in dirt, Holly lay on her back, gasping for breath. To her chagrin, Connor, who had made the climb twice and had worked doubly hard to get her up and down, appeared totally relaxed. It didn’t help either when he said, with very little sympathy, ‘Exercise program for you, Jones. As a matter of some priority.’

  ‘But I hate all that stuff,’ she complained.

  ‘Sorry, baby.’

  He wasn’t sorry and that pissed her off too. But she was too damned tired to argue.

  Detective Rafe Jolliffe, a big bluff man with suspicion in his eyes and scepticism in his voice, questioned them closely. He suggested that for such an isolated spot where tourists seldom managed to go, two people risking life and limb to climb down the escarpment and a third accidentally falling to his death, on the same day, seemed a bit of a coincidence. Especially since the deceased was known to both Holly and Connor.

  ‘We didn’t know he was following us,’ Holly said.

  ‘Why would he have been doing that?’ Jolliffe asked.

  Holly said the first thing that came into her head. ‘He was jealous.’

  ‘Of you, Monsieur?’ Jolliffe looked at Connor.

  ‘Yes.’ Connor had a look on his face that said, Where did that come from?

  ‘But why did you climb down?’ the detective asked for the second time, having not accepted their first answer that it seemed like a good idea at the time. He nodded to Holly. ‘You are inexperienced. It was extremely foolish.’

  ‘Okay, okay.’ Connor held up both hands in a gesture of surrender. ‘It’s my fault. I wanted to ask her to marry me. It had to be memorable, different. That’s all.’

  ‘Ah!’ The man’s intelligent eyes flicked from Connor to Holly. He saw a look pass between them. There was no doubt they were in love. But they were hiding something too. ‘Mademoiselle?’

  ‘She said yes,’ Connor put in.

  Holly actually blushed. As the colour in her face deepened she looked down, embarrassed by Connor’s frank admission.

  It crossed the detective’s mind that these two were possibly only trying to conceal a private moment of passion. He was about to put that to them when Holly suggested he check her out with Detective Sham.

  Jolliffe looked at her guardedly. ‘You know Sham?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘Have you heard of Guy Dulac?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Sham is investigating him.’

  ‘What has this got to do with you?’

  ‘He has been making a nuisance of himself. Sham knows about it and made sure Dulac was aware that he was watching him.’

  The detective nodded slowly. ‘I see.’ He thought for a minute, shrugged, and said, ‘I’ll speak to him later today.’ He did not see any reason to let Holly know that Sham was lying in hospital, smashed up, semi-conscious and in no shape to verify anything. But he was encouraged. If this girl believed that Sham would vouch for her then she was probably telling the truth about the dead man. Sham rarely, if ever, misjudged people.

  After providing details of where they could be reached, Holly and Connor were allowed to leave. ‘I’ll be in touch if I need any more information. Come to the station in Curepipe tomorrow. You’ll have to sign statements.’ With that, he left them to recover the rope.

  ‘Jealous?’ Connor was looping the
rope around one shoulder.

  Holly shrugged. ‘It was the first thing I thought up.’

  ‘Do me a favour.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Next time you decide to spring a whopper with no warning, just clear your throat or something first so I know it’s coming.’ He put his free arm around her shoulders and they started walking. ‘Better still, try not to do it.’

  ‘I couldn’t tell him about the treasure.’

  ‘No,’ Connor agreed. ‘But you could have just said he’d dropped behind us.’

  ‘Maguire.’ Holly squinted up at him.

  ‘Yes.’ He knew her now. She was about to zap him with one of her special expressions.

  ‘Sorry.’

  Connor grinned. He didn’t know her that well yet. But he sure as hell was having fun learning.

  Back at the car, Holly suggested they have some of the food they’d bought earlier in the day. So far, she had managed to conceal the damage to her hands. Somehow they seemed to reflect her lack of fitness. Okay, so she hadn’t been looking after herself, she knew that, but it was surprising just how taxing the climb had been. Holly would not admit, not even to Connor, just how out of condition she had become. It was a question of pride. The truth of it was she was soft and had been absolutely terrified.

  They stood beside the car chewing crusty French bread with cheese. ‘Fancy a little trip tonight?’ Connor asked casually.

  ‘Where?’

  ‘Grand Baie.’

  ‘Reason?’

  ‘I thought a spot of break and enter would be diverting.’

  Holly looked at him. ‘On a certain person’s boat? Haven’t you had enough excitement for one day?’

  ‘I’m running out of time.’

  ‘What will you do if you find anything?’

  ‘Depends on what it is.’

  She was silent for a while. ‘You want to tell me about it yet?’