The Forgotten Sea

by Beverley Harper

  She smiled weakly. ‘So tired.’

  ‘Go back to sleep, baby. I’ll be here when you wake up.’ He rose and went towards the door. ‘I’ll let the doctor know you’re back with us.’

  The hospital gown didn’t quite meet at the back. She wanted to tell him but sleep engulfed her. As last sights went, however, at least this one guaranteed sweet dreams.

  Later that day, Holly gave a statement to Rafe Jolliffe. Though still weak, she was anxious to leave hospital. Connor wanted her to stay another night but Holly had always had an aversion to hospital smells. Dressed and ready to leave, her impatience close to the surface, the policeman made it clear that nobody was going anywhere until he had every last detail.

  Finally, Jolliffe closed his notepad.

  ‘Can you let Sham know?’ Holly asked.

  ‘Come with me please.’

  Holly and Connor followed, wondering what the detective was up to. He opened a door and ushered them inside. The man in the bed turned his bandaged head in their direction. ‘Rafe?’

  ‘How did you know?’

  ‘Footsteps. Who else is there?’

  Rafe Jolliffe drew Holly closer. ‘I think you can tell him yourself.’

  Holly stared at him. ‘Hello Sham. What happened to you?’ she finally managed.

  ‘Miss Jones. Good to hear you. Had a little run-in with our mutual friend, Guy Dulac.’

  ‘My God!’

  ‘I’m pleased you’re safe. I was worried he’d get to you.’

  ‘He did. But not as much as he got to you.’

  Sham flipped his good hand back and forth. ‘I’ll be okay. Then I’ll go after him. What happened?’

  Holly told him.

  ‘Dead!’ Regret was in Sham’s voice. He shook his head slightly. ‘The Vitry case, Rafe. What a way to close it.’

  ‘Vitry?’ Holly felt a surge of excitement.

  ‘Corrine Vitry. It’s more than likely that Guy Dulac murdered her.’

  Holly held out her arm, realised the detective couldn’t see it, and said, ‘I found a bracelet on the boat. The initials CV are engraved on it.’

  ‘Did you keep it?’

  ‘Yes, it’s here.’

  Sham pulled impatiently at the bandages and raised one edge. ‘Please.’ He held out a hand and Holly passed the gold chain to him. The detective peered at it for a long time before handing it to Rafe and pulling the binding over his right eye back into place. He let out a shaky breath. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘Does it help?’ Holly asked.

  Jolliffe answered for Sham. ‘It implicates him, that’s all. Nothing can be proved now. But on Mauritius . . .’ He shrugged. ‘Let’s just say this island thrives on gossip. You have done us a great service. Thank you. I hope, and I’m sure my friend here agrees, that it will help the girl’s family.’

  Sham nodded his bandaged head. ‘I’d like to have seen Guy Dulac get life, not death. It would have been a greater punishment. Still,’ he added with quiet satisfaction, ‘the boy has paid dearly. We move on.’

  ‘Wrong,’ Jolliffe said. ‘I move on. You stay right where you are.’

  Sham grunted his annoyance. ‘And you, Miss Jones? When do you leave?’

  ‘Tomorrow.’

  One shaking hand reached searchingly. Holly took it in one of hers. Sham felt bandages and let it drop. ‘Goodbye then. Please don’t judge us by your experience.’

  ‘I won’t,’ Holly promised warmly. ‘I’ll send you the article when it’s published.’

  Back at the apartment in Flic-en-Flac, Holly called her father. ‘How was Réunion?’ he asked.

  ‘Um . . .’

  ‘You know how much I hate that word.’

  ‘I didn’t get there.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Um . . .’ She threw a despairing look at Connor.

  He gently took the receiver from her. ‘Quinn? Connor Maguire. Holly’s fine, just a little shaken. We’ll be leaving here tomorrow. Arriving Sydney on Sunday. Our flight gets in from Melbourne at eleven fifty-five. I’ll run Holly home. No, there’s no need for that . . . You will? Okay, we’ll see you at the airport.’ He winked at Holly as Quinn’s voice filled his ear. ‘No, she’s okay . . . well, pretty okay. I’ll put her back on in a minute but first, ah . . . Quinn . . . sir. It’s just that I’m going to marry her and I know I should have asked your permission but things got out of hand and . . . well, hell, Quinn, do you mind?’ Connor listened for a while. ‘Yes of course. Here she is.’ He handed the receiver back to Holly.

  Quinn was in full flight. She let him blow himself out.

  ‘Finished yet?’

  ‘Tell me everything.’

  So she did. Well, nearly everything. Holly felt that her father could only take so much.

  When she’d finished there was a long silence at the other end. ‘Are you really okay, sweetheart?’

  ‘I’m fine. Shaken but not stirred.’

  ‘And the marriage thing?’ This was the question he’d been dying to ask.

  ‘Yep.’

  ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Quinn’s frustrated concern burst down the line. He yelled so loudly Holly had to jerk the phone from her ear.

  ‘Do me a favour,’ she said quietly, when it was safe to raise the receiver again, ‘and don’t shout. I’ve got a headache.’

  ‘Put Maguire on.’

  She did, and watched him listening for ages. Finally he spoke, ‘I won’t. I completely understand. I know, sir. They are. Okay, Quinn, sorry. Talk to you soon.’ He hung up. ‘Your father didn’t want to talk to you again.’

  ‘I don’t believe he said that,’ Holly had her arms folded, embarrassed and annoyed at the same time.

  ‘Said what?’ Connor’s smile was slightly bemused. ‘That he didn’t want to speak to you?’

  ‘Oh that.’ She waved her hand dismissively. ‘He was probably a bit emotional. No, the rest of it. You got the full fatherly thing, didn’t you? If you hurt me he’d kill you. He said I was his little girl and he loved me very much. And then . . .’ she choked back a laugh, ‘and then he asked if your intentions were honourable.’

  Connor nodded, grinning. ‘You left something out.’

  She thought for a moment. ‘Sorry. Brain’s not working properly.’

  ‘He said rescuing you cut no ice with him since it was my fault his daughter was there in the first place.’

  ‘That’s not fair!’

  Stepping forward, he kissed her very gently. ‘It’s okay, my baby. I’ll take the flack for you on this occasion. Just don’t make a habit of it.’

  Holly leaned into him and kissed him back. ‘I’m going to love you forever,’ she whispered. ‘Think you can handle it?’

  ‘Yes,’ he said huskily. ‘I’m a big boy. I’ll handle it just fine.’

  If Holly thought the remainder of their time in Mauritius would be spent quietly, Connor soon put paid to that illusion. ‘You know I’d do anything for you, don’t you?’

  She threw him a suspicious look.

  ‘And you know I’m not letting you out of my sight again? Not ever.’

  A distrustful frown appeared.

  ‘And I wouldn’t do anything in this world to hurt you?’

  Hands on hips. ‘Spit it out.’

  He sighed. ‘I really am going to have to work on some of your expressions.’

  She waited.

  ‘We have things to do.’

  ‘We?’

  ‘You can sleep in the car.’

  Connor sported a kind of satisfied smile. It reminded Holly of a crocodile that had just spotted lunch. ‘There are a few loose ends.’

  ‘A few! From where I sit it looks more like a bowl of spaghetti.’

  ‘I’ve made some calls, got things rolling. I know you probably don’t feel up to it but we have to make tracks.’

  ‘Where to?’

  ‘Couple of places.’

  He’d tell her when he was ready. ‘Just one thing, Maguire, before you spring into act
ion. You haven’t explained how you found me.’

  He looked slightly embarrassed. ‘I don’t think you’re ready to hear it.’

  ‘Try me.’ Her eyes locked with his and he had nowhere to go.

  ‘I went to Kathleen.’

  Incredulity showed on her face.

  ‘It was all I could think of,’ he added. ‘I was fielding one lot of bad news after another. You had disappeared. There’d been a warning that Guy Dulac knew where we were staying and then I hear that Raoul is still at home. Putting two and two together, I figured that you’d been taken by his son. When the police came up with nothing I was frantic enough to try anything.’

  ‘She told you where I was?’ Holly could hardly believe it possible.

  ‘Kathleen said you’d been hurt and knew it was your jaw. She felt you were cold, frightened and in very rough sea. That’s all I had to go on.’

  Holly shuddered. It finally hit home just how lucky she’d been.

  ‘If you hadn’t been holding that white envelope we’d probably have missed you altogether. It was already getting dark. Even then it was hard to keep you in sight.’

  ‘Did I say thank you?’ she asked softly.

  He pretended to think about it. ‘Now you mention it, I don’t believe you did.’

  ‘Come here, Maguire.’

  ‘Baby, everywhere on you hurts.’

  One bandaged hand brushed his cheek. ‘Find somewhere that doesn’t.’

  EIGHTEEN

  ‘I’m sorry to do this to you,’ Connor said as he helped her into the car. ‘I know you’d be better off in bed. You look like hell.’

  ‘Thanks, Maguire.’ Holly knew how she looked. Her jaw was swollen and grazed, and bruising extending to one eye. The cut on her forehead was stained yellow with iodine. Both hands remained bandaged. And those were only the parts you could see. She walked awkwardly courtesy of the renewed pain in her ribs. The envelope cut, more itchy than sore, was a constant irritant. And, due to the difficulty of straddling the container in a sea from hell, Holly felt she’d spent a week on a very fat horse. ‘I hope you’re a patient man,’ she said as they drove away from the apartment, ‘because sex will be out of the question for a while.’

  She heard him laugh quietly. ‘Go for it, Jones! Straight to the heart.’

  ‘Okay. If you insist.’

  ‘Bad Holly.’

  But her mind had gone off on a tangent. ‘How did you get the car back?’ As far as she knew, he’d left it at the airport.

  ‘The pilot brought it to the hospital. He wanted to see how you were.’

  ‘Nice man.’

  ‘Very,’ Connor agreed. ‘When I tried to pay him he refused, said it was on the house.’

  ‘Well, I don’t suppose it’s every day that his passenger throws himself into the sea. He’ll dine out on that one for a while.’

  ‘It’s a bit more than that. Like the hospital staff and the police, he’s embarrassed that a tourist could be treated so badly. Everyone is very anxious that your impression of Mauritius is not unduly tainted by Guy Dulac’s behaviour.’

  ‘They needn’t worry.’

  ‘It’s not just because you’re a journalist. Their concern is genuine.’ He glanced at her. ‘You’ve got a stubborn look on your face.’

  ‘The article is already written.’

  ‘What does that mean?’

  ‘It means, I see no reason to change it.’

  ‘Is that your polite way of telling me that you are the journalist around here and to mind my own bloody business and stop trying to tell you what to write?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘You’ve got it.’

  Holly stifled a smile. Then she noticed that Connor was cutting across the island, well south of Port Louis. ‘Where are we going?’

  ‘Raoul Dulac’s.’

  ‘Are you crazy?’

  ‘He probably won’t be there. I told you I’d made a few calls. There’s some heavy-duty interest in dear Raoul. The stuff in that envelope wasn’t only about Scylla. He’s been a busy man.’ Connor punched an imaginary hole in the air. ‘Yesss! There is a God. The internal revenue boys couldn’t wait to have a word or two with our friend. Don’t worry about him, he’s not the reason we’re going there. We’re fetching Anne-Marie.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘She wants to meet her mother.’

  The coldly arrogant French Mauritian and a warm little Creole nun. Would it work? ‘Is that a good idea?’

  ‘She’s had a change of heart. Justin’s death affected her quite deeply. We spoke for a long time earlier this morning. I felt I owed Kathleen something. There was no harm in trying. Anyway, after a couple of false starts she listened. Seems that her adopted parents only gave Anne-Marie half the story. She’d always been told that Kathleen seduced Raoul’s father and then tried to blackmail the family when she fell pregnant. Anne-Marie grew up believing that Kathleen deliberately produced a Dulac child for nothing more than financial gain.’

  ‘Did you tell her about Raoul?’

  ‘I didn’t need to. The truth came to light last year. Anne-Marie overheard Raoul and his mother discussing it. She went a little crazy for a while.’

  Something in Connor’s voice alerted Holly. ‘The fire?’

  ‘Yes. Arson was suspected, never proved.’

  ‘That means she got away with murder. Are you sure meeting her mother is a good idea?’

  ‘Anne-Marie never intended to kill anyone. She’s genuinely sorry for that. She never got on with any of the family, in particular, Raoul. Learning the truth, that he was her father, and believing Kathleen had as good as sold her, tipped Anne-Marie over the edge. Technically it would be manslaughter rather than murder but, in my book, she’s paid a high price for what she did. I’d like to help her find some peace of mind.’

  ‘She’s pretty set in her ways. Do you think that’s possible?’

  ‘With Kathleen’s help.’

  ‘And you can live with the knowledge that two people died because of her?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Holly thought in silence and concluded that she really wasn’t qualified to judge. Her own upbringing had been so different from Anne-Marie’s. She remembered vividly the day she found Dennis in bed with one of her so-called friends. If a suitable weapon had been handy at the time, she could not guarantee that either of them would still be breathing.

  ‘Does that shock you?’ Connor asked.

  ‘No. But I had to think about it.’

  ‘Good. I like having you on the same side.’

  ‘Only because you don’t have to work so hard.’

  He ignored that. ‘On my side, by my side. Which reminds me, I’m flying first class tomorrow. How about you?’

  ‘You shit!’

  ‘But I did take the liberty of upgrading your ticket. And watch your language.’

  Holly grinned, then wished she hadn’t. It hurt. ‘Get used to it, Maguire.’

  A dimple appeared.

  She was watching his profile. Three weeks ago he was nothing more than a name, one she did not particularly like. Come to think of it, three weeks ago she had been little more than a shell – empty, aching, bitter and untrusting. Her work and his lifestyle had thrown them together. They had squabbled, traded insults and slowly learned to respect each other. They fought, made up, only to fight and make up all over again. They had faced danger together. He’d rescued her twice. In three short weeks she had come to love, trust and like the man.

  Connor sensed her scrutiny. ‘What?’

  ‘Nothing. I was just wondering where Dennis went, that’s all.’

  He understood immediately. ‘Sorry, can’t help you there.’

  She nodded, smiling slightly.

  ‘I have a confession to make,’ he said.

  Holly waited.

  ‘The treasure.’

  ‘What about it?’ She felt a rush of disappointment. Was he going to claim it after all?

  ‘One way or another, Raoul will go
after it. If he’s in prison, and that’s more than likely, he’ll want some kind of insurance for the day he’s released. More than anything in this world, Holly, I don’t want him to find it. Do you understand that?’

  ‘Of course. But can we stop him?’

  ‘It’s already done. I’ve told Anne-Marie where to look. She’s going to make sure Raoul doesn’t get his hands on it.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘By uncovering it herself. Unless the authorities have some claim she’ll donate half to Justin’s mother and half to Kathleen’s convent.’

  Although Holly approved, she couldn’t help thinking about Justin’s mother and that damned feud. Half the value would only fuel the ancient family quarrel. On the other hand, the convent could do so much good with their share. ‘I guess that balances it out,’ she said finally.

  ‘Win some, lose some,’ Connor put to her. ‘It’s not a bad compromise.’

  And Holly realised he was right. He’d done the decent thing. It was what she had come to expect of him. A lesser man would have been tempted to keep everything for himself. She leaned her head back, eyes closed. Tired and aching, Holly’s strength was at a very low ebb. Yet, in her mind was a satisfying sense of peace, a feeling that all was right with the world.

  ‘You okay, baby?’

  She opened her eyes sleepily. ‘Very much so.’

  ‘You’ve had a pretty hectic three weeks. All because of me. Sorry.’

  ‘You’re forgiven.’

  ‘I’ll make it up to you. Promise.’

  ‘And I’ll hold you to that, Connor Maguire. Breakfast in bed, every Sunday.’

  ‘My pleasure. What would you like?’

  She smiled slowly.

  ‘Behave, Jones!’

  Holly decided she should, at least for now. She was in no shape to follow through. ‘Have you laid your ghosts, Connor? The drug sting? Raoul?’

  He nodded. ‘All under control. Prison will nearly kill those two. They’ll lose everything – money, possessions, position. I’m not a vengeful person, Holly, but Raoul and Liang Song deserve everything that comes their way.’

  ‘Did Anne-Marie say anything about Guy?’