Carmen turned to him, her red-rimmed eyes wild with hope. “It’s coming round. It is circling around the reef.”
It was. Andrew began to wave again and called on the others to do so. With his heart swelling as though it might burst he saw the helicopter turn and come buzzing towards them. It was flying at a height of only about fifty metres, low enough so that he could see the two people in the little perspex bubble of a cockpit, and to read the name of the company on its side. Frantically he waved, bobbing up and down as he did so and catching a mouthful of water as a consequence. By now he was so excited he barely noticed.
Then the helicopter was past them and he felt his stomach turn over with dread. Panic and despair began to surge but he kept on waving. ‘I can see them! Why can’t they see us?’ he thought angrily, noting the person leaning out of the right hand side.
Suddenly the helicopter turned sharply to the left, away from them. That both puzzled and worried Andrew. But the helicopter kept on turning, losing altitude as it did. Within seconds it was heading back towards them, now only about 25 metres up. ‘Have they seen us?’ Andrew wondered, scarcely daring to hope.
The helicopter swung low around them in a tight circle and Andrew saw a man lean out and his arm wave. “They’ve seen us!” he croaked, or sobbed (He wasn’t sure which).
The people in the helicopter had. There could be no doubt about it. The machine began to circle, slow and low. One of the men kept leaning out and was aiming what might have been a camera or binoculars at them. This went on for ten minutes.
“Why don’t they land, or hover or something?” Doug snarled.
“No floats,” Carmen replied.
Andrew could see that it was a small land machine with skids and the thought crossed his mind that he wouldn’t like to be flying that far out to sea in such a tiny machine. It obviously did not have room for any passengers and no external winch or similar equipment was visible. ‘But it will have a radio,’ he thought. ‘With luck they are calling for help right now.’
It was the best that could be done. For the next twenty minutes the helicopter circled, sometimes low and sometimes much higher up. But there was no doubt they had been seen and reported. Thus Andrew was not all that concerned when the helicopter came down low and hovered while the man on the right hand side leaned out and waved and pointed to the south and the machine then buzzed off in that direction.
“They must be low on fuel,” he said to Carmen.
“Yes,” she agreed. “But they saw us and help must be on its way.”
But would it be in time? Andrew worried as a bout of severe shivering shook him.
In the end it was more than 2 hours before the rescue vessel appeared. It was a big, yellow-hulled Volunteer Coastguard launch, a catamaran, all bristling with antenna. The thing arrived so fast that Andrew did not see it until it was only a few hundred metres away. As soon as he realized what he was looking at he sighed with relief and just slumped in his gear, held up only by the BCD.
The launch slowed and nosed slowly towards them, obviously wary of the nearby coral reef. As the launch reached them it turned around and Andrew saw a line of at least a dozen faces looking down at them from the shelter deck and the steering position above it. Only after Carmen had cried out with relief did Andrew recognize his father, Moses and Jordan among the faces. Then he knew he was really safe and relaxed.
The launch was designed and equipped for getting survivors aboard from in the water. It had water jet propulsion so could safely turn it stern towards them. At the stern was a diving deck and open transom. Two crew members in wet suits jumped in with ropes and helped haul them to the launch. Andrew was so exhausted and his fingers so swollen and stiff that he could barely unclip the BCD from the buoy, and from Carmen’s air tank. The rescue man then towed him to the stern and he was hauled aboard.
Andrew was so weak he could not stand. His diving gear was stripped off him and placed under the bench seat along the port side. He was then helped onto the seat. By then his father and the two T.Is were with him, towelling him dry and offering a hot drink. The wet suit was left on and a thermal blanket wrapped around him. All Andrew could do was sit and shiver violently as reaction and cold gripped him. He noted Carmen being helped to the seat beside him and gave her a weak grin.
All he wanted to do was succumb to his weariness and collapse but he kept himself focused till Muriel and Doug were both safely aboard. Then he got another shock, one which got his heart going and his emotions working. Muriel’s parents were both there- and so were Old Mr Murchison and Grandma Murchison!
CHAPTER 40
BE SURE YOUR SIN WILL FIND YOU OUT!
Seeing Old Mr Murchison was such a surprise that for a moment Andrew could not take it in. Then a deep sense of grievance and anger began to simmer. He watched coldly while Muriel was fussed over by her anxious (and obviously angry) parents. Then he shifted his gaze back to the old man and met his eyes unflinchingly.
Old Mr Murchison was the first to look away. He turned to join the group worrying about Muriel. Grandma Murchison cast an anxious glance towards Andrew and Carmen then lowered herself to the seat on the other side, beside Muriel. To Andrew the old lady looked very drawn and shrivelled.
‘Poor old thing,’ he thought. ‘She senses something is badly wrong but I don’t think she knows the truth.’
Andrew’s attention was then drawn to the men helping Doug. Two of these were uniformed police officers and Doug was vehemently shaking his head and pointing off northwards. ‘He’s trying to wriggle off the hook,’ Andrew decided.
But how much to tell, and to whom? Andrew knew that the whole story was going to cause a lot of pain and heartache. That was something he had no wish to do, particularly to Muriel. Even his strong desire to see justice done was tested by that. He also realized that a lot of it would be- could easily be- denied. ‘It will be an our-word-against-your-word situation,’ he thought. ‘I think I will say as little as possible,’ he decided.
The small aft deck was quite crowded by then- three Volunteer Coastguards, two policemen, the Murchisons, Andrew and Carmen, their father, plus the two T.Is and Doug. The captain of the launch addressed them all, saying loudly, “You people are amazingly lucky. That helicopter was looking for the white launch. When they didn’t see one the pilot was going to turn around and go home but the observer wanted to see if he could spot the wreck of the Merinda. If they hadn’t done a sweep around the reef looking for it they would not have seen you.”
“Then we would have been dead,” Andrew answered.
Muriel’s mother glared at him from the opposite bench seat and snapped, “If you two hadn’t dragged Muriel into this she wouldn’t have been in any danger.”
Anger at the injustice made Andrew smoulder but he held his tongue. ‘She obviously doesn’t know what went on,’ he told himself.
But Carmen snapped back angrily, “We didn’t drag her into anything. She and her friends kidnapped us at gun point and threatened to kill us if we didn’t show them the wreck.”
“Oh! How dare you say such things!” spluttered Muriel’s mother.
Andrew saw Muriel go pale and shake her head in misery. Again he said nothing until his father said, “Well, what did happen? Speak up Andrew.”
Andrew didn’t want to but he could see that his father was angry. His father went on, “We have been searching for you two all night and I have been worried sick. It was only this morning when a fisherman told us he had seen you two go on board that white launch that we had any clue. So what happened?”
“We were tricked into going aboard and then held at gunpoint,” Andrew replied unhappily.
At that Doug cried, “Oh, you were not! I asked you to come and talk to Muriel and you agreed to join us.”
Carmen exploded with anger. “That is not true! You tied us up and said you would kill us if we did not help. We spent all night tied to those bunks with you guarding us. I was terrified. I was sure that Trevor was going to do
what he said.”
“Oh, you liar!” Doug shouted.
At that Carmen, who had been shaking with emotion, burst into tears. The older of the policemen, a senior sergeant, now asked, “Where is the white launch, the Silver Stingray?”
Doug pointed north but said nothing. On the sergeant looking at him Andrew said, “He left us in the water.”
“Did you see him go? Did he say anything?” the sergeant asked.
Andrew shook his head. “No. That is what Muriel told me. The launch was gone when I got to the surface.”
That turned all eyes on Muriel, which was not what Andrew wanted. She nodded and mumbled, “That’s right. When I surfaced Trevor asked if we had ... had... had.. er found any gold in the wreck. When I said no he just drove off.”
“Is there gold in the wreck?” the sergeant asked.
The questioning was now taking a line Andrew did not like but he realized that he would have to reveal part of the truth. ‘Divers are going to find Grandad’s body,’ he thought.
The sergeant looked from one to the other. It was Carmen who answered him. “I didn’t go far into the strong room but Andrew did. He said there wasn’t any.”
All eyes now switched to Andrew. He was horribly aware of Muriel’s wide eyes and pleading look. He was also conscious of the way Old Mr Murchison was staring at him. The old man looked very tired and drawn. ‘Haggard,’ Andrew told himself. ‘His guilty conscience is eating him up.’ He said, “There is at least one gold ingot in there,” he replied. “I found it when I was trying to find my torch.”
Old Mr Murchison gave a sort of croak and said, “So you searched the strong room?”
Andrew nodded and met the old man’s eyes. ‘He murdered my grandfather,’ he thought, his anger again rising as he suffered vivid flashbacks of being trapped in the strong room. “Yes, I did,” he replied in a hard voice. “And I found my grandfather’s body.”
There was a shocked gasp from Carmen, a wail and sob from Muriel, and a muttered prayer from Grandma Murchison. Muriel’s father looked puzzled and angry. He asked, “What do you mean? What are you saying? Your grandfather was lost in a shipwreck. How could he be here?”
Andrew met Mr Murchison’s angry glare with a level, cool stare and pointed to Old Mr Murchison. “Ask him. He knows what really happened, and it wasn’t a shipwreck.”
“What are you saying? How dare you imply? What...?” Mr Murchison spluttered.
But Andrew had seen the old man seem to shrink and his eyes flinch. Without taking his eyes off him Andrew bent down and groped in the zip pocket of his BCD and pulled out the wrist watch. As he opened his hand every eye was upon him. He held out his hand with the silver watch on it.
“I’d say it once had a leather wrist strap,” Andrew said. Then he turned the watch over and rubbed at the slime on the back. As he did both Carmen and his father leaned over to look. As the engraved letters became visible Carmen let out a shocked gasp and his father released a long hiss of air.
On the back of the watch was engraved:
H. W. Collins
with love
Xmas 44
Lilly
“My father’s watch!” Andrew’s father cried in shocked amazement as he took it from Andrew’s hand and held it up. He then turned a puzzled look at Andrew. “You say his body is there?”
Andrew shuddered as intense images of him crunching the brittle bones and of seeing the slime festooned skull raced through his mind. He nodded and said, “Yes. In his diving suit, big brass helmet and all. I saw his skeleton- touched it.”
“But.. but.. but how did he get there?” Mr Collins asked. He turned to Old Mr Murchison and gave him a puzzled look. The old man seemed to hunch even more and a look that Andrew thought could only be called haunted crossed his face. Andrew’s father went on, speaking loudly at Old Mr Murchison. “You said you did not find the wreck of the Merinda. You said the Deeral sank after hitting a reef in a storm. Yet she was found miles from here, scuttled at Cape Upstart. So how did my father come to be here?”
Old Mr Murchison did not answer but Carmen spoke up, looking accusingly at him. “We were right. You killed the others and took the gold. Then you sank the Deeral.”
Old Mr Murchison made no reply but Mr Murchison did. “How dare you make accusations like that! What proof do you have? Your grandfather could have died in an accident.”
That was too much for Andrew. “He didn’t,” he said coldly. “His air hose was cut and he was left locked inside the strong room.”
“Oh, this is outrageous!” Mr Murchison spluttered angrily. He shook his head and looked from his father to the police sergeant, then back at Andrew. Finally he looked down at his father. “Dad, tell them the truth. Say you did not do such a thing.”
All eyes turned to Old Mr Murchison. The old man sat, staring into the distance. Then he shook his head sadly and struggled to his feet. “The Bible has a quote, I think, that says, ‘Be sure your sin will find you out.’ And it has!”
There was a tense silence. Muriel began to sob and Andrew saw that Grandma Murchison was looking up at her husband with an agonized appeal on her face. Then Old Mr Murchison turned to Andrew and croaked, “It is true. I killed him. And I killed the two Torres Strait Islanders as well. And all for greed.”
There was another shocked silence and Andrew saw Grandma Murchison look at Old Mr Murchison aghast, confirming his suspicions that she had no idea. It made him feel very sorry for her. Old Mr Murchison took a deep breath, then went on, “We found the wreck easily, on the second day. We just followed a trail of flotsam and there she was with her masts and funnel sticking out of the water. The gold was there and easy to get at so we set to work and soon had it up on deck, all except one box which burst open.”
He paused, shuddered and passed his hands over his eyes before going on. “Then the devil of temptation got me. Bert was right inside the strong room, bending to pick up that last ingot and I just pushed him off balance, then cut his air hose and safety line with my sheath knife. Then I closed the door and locked it. I don’t know why I locked it- scared he might get out I suppose, even though I knew his helmet would have been full of water within seconds.”
The audience looked sick and Andrew shuddered again. Old Mr Murchison then continued. “I tied his hose and line to a stanchion and then had myself hauled up. The two blacks were all excited and wanted to know what the problem was. I told them that Bert was snagged on some sharp steel. They tried to pull him up but couldn’t so I sent one down to help him. Francis Sailboat it was. He just dived in- skindiving, you know, not in a suit like I was. I got the other fella, Solomon was his name, to get me out of my helmet and suit. As soon as he had he went to the side to talk to Francis.”
Andrew pictured this and felt ill, knowing roughly what was coming. Old Mr Murchison went on, “Solomon went and leaned over the rail and spoke to Francis, who dived again. As soon as Francis was underwater I hit Solomon on the head with the big spanner we used to unscrew the nuts on the helmets. Then I waited till Francis came up and hit him on the head too, before he could get the water out of his eyes. He just sank out of sight and the current took him away.”
At that Old Mr Murchison shuddered and staggered. He clutched at his son and the railing, then shook his head and sobbed. “Oh, it has haunted me all these years! None of it was worth it! It was just greed and then nightmares for sixty years! Horrible! But once I had started I had to go on. So I threw Solomon’s body overboard and got away from there.”
The shaking old man turned to Andrew. “You guessed right. I took the Deeral to Cape Upstart, anchored her and ferried all the gold and some supplies ashore, then scuttled her with explosives. Then I hid the gold and rowed the boat to Hayman Island and told that story.”
Andrew nodded and said, “And you went back from time to time to get some of the gold, then pretended you had found it gold prospecting up in Cape York Peninsula.”
Old Mr Murchison nodded. He then looked down at Gra
ndma Murchison and croaked, “I’m sorry my dear. Forgive me!” Tears began to trickle down his face and he suddenly convulsed and crumpled up.
There followed a fluster of activity as he was carried into the cabin of the rescue launch. After a short consultation between the police sergeant, the captain of the launch, and Andrew’s father, Andrew and Carmen were also taken inside. They were placed in a cabin by themselves and the launch got under way.
And that was really the end of it. Andrew only ever saw Muriel one more, when she and her family walked down the gangplank onto the jetty back in Bowen. She gave him one, hurt, resentful look, and then turned away. He was told that her family moved from Cairns soon after.
There was a delay in Bowen for two more days. During these the police, Carmen, their father and the two T.Is, went back out to the wreck. Andrew refused to go. He spent the day in a motel room or walking the streets of the town. Out at the wreck the police divers and Carmen went into the strong room. Carmen went first and took photos. Then they recovered the remains of their grandfather, and his diving suit, plus the gold ingot. Andrew would not have anything to do with that gold either. It was given to Moses and Jordan to pay for the trip expenses.
Nor would Andrew explain how he had come to be trapped in the strong room. Carmen knew but her story was not enough, without his evidence, to bring Muriel to trial for attempted murder. As Carmen wouldn’t testify against Doug, he wasn’t charged with anything either and soon slipped away to a dive company in the Caribbean.
Trevor and his launch were located but he claimed he did not desert them. He insisted he left them safe at the buoy while he went searching for Doug and Carmen. There just wasn’t enough evidence to charge him either, so amid the fog of accusations and denials he managed to slip off the hook too. He sailed away for foreign parts unknown soon after.
Old Mr Murchison did not live to come to trial. He was hospitalised and there made a full confession. Soon after that he suffered a heart attack and died.
Davey Jones's Locker Page 45
