Page 120 of The Rising Tide

Katharsis, she thinks.Purification through tragedy.

Except this isn’t a purification.

This is a corruption.

… twenty-nine, thirty.

Breathe. Relax. Breathe.

Her boy is lifeless. Lucy screams at the unfairness of it.

Thereissomething she can do for Bee. And if she can’t save her boy, she really should save her friend. The chance is slim but worth trying. She reaches for the carving knife duct-taped to the hull and tears it loose. Pulling herself up, she yells Bee’s name. The woman twists in the water. Their eyes meet. Lucy tosses the knife. She doesn’t even follow its trajectory before sinking back down beside Fin.

TheCetus’s engine winds up to full pitch.

Lucy returns the heels of her palms to her son’s chest. Sweat and seawater run down her face. There’ll be a point when she can’t continue, but she hasn’t reached it yet.

One, two, three …

Impact, suddenly, against the boat. Lucy’s thrown off her knees. She lands in a sprawl of limbs, shrieking with the sick raw fuckingagonyof it.Huntsman’s Daughterrolls to starboard. It rocks back even faster, slamming Lucy against a cockpit locker.

Pain like white light. Followed by instant darkness. When she opens her eyes, she can’t tell how long she’s been out, but the yacht is still rolling beneath her. She grabs on to the locker, drags herself up. And sees Lucian crouched on the coachroof above her head, brandishing his boathook. Saliva shines on his teeth. ‘Lucy,’ he hisses. ‘Thisdefinitelywasn’t in the script.’

FIFTY-THREE

Strapped into his seat, Abraham Rose feels the Tamar-class lifeboat detach from its cradle and accelerate down the slipway, hitting the water with no loss of speed. Donahue O’Hare throttles up the twin diesel engines. The boat surges past the breakwater towards open sea.

He’s one of seven aboard: coxswain, navigator, engineer; other roles he hasn’t figured out. Through the starboard windows, he sees a crew member raising a communications pole from its stowed position.

Abraham holds his mobile phone and a VHF radio. In the last five minutes, communicating with the coastguard and his team back in Barnstaple, he’s marshalled every available asset: NPAS helicopter support from Exeter, a coastguard helicopter from St Athan, additional RNLI resources from Appledore and Padstow. All marine traffic has been alerted.

Forty minutes before Abraham reached Skentel’s quay, Jake Farrell, Lucy Locke’s ex, was on duty at the lifeboat station. According to O’Hare, Farrell received a phone call and immediately left his post. No one’s seen him since, buthis yacht,Huntsman’s Daughter, is missing from its usual berth.

Just now, the DS in Barnstaple called back with the information Abraham had requested. As he’d suspected, the red Renault Clio parked outside the lighthouse belongs to Bee Tavistock. One of her distinctive T-shirts had been bundled up on the Clio’s back seat.

The DS also ran a PNC check on the black Lexus’s owner: Lucian Edward Terrell, thirty-seven years old, resident of an exclusive address in London’s Belgravia.

Terrell’s source of income isn’t clear, but he has a long history with the police. Five times he’s been arrested on suspicion of stalking or harassment. Three of those arrests led to charges. Two cases were retired by the CPS before they reached court. The third – the only time Terrell appeared as a defendant – was thrown out by the judge following interventions by the defence team. Since then, no further cases have been brought.

An internet search reveals that Terrell is a National Council member for Arts Council England and a trustee of several other institutions. According to his biog, he studied at the Slade School in London around the same time as Lucy Locke. Abraham recognizes the man from the Drift Net and the vigil on Penleith Beach.

In the note she left him at the quay, Lucy alleges what Abraham had started to piece together – that Lucian Terrell is pursuing a vendetta.

CCTV footage from Friday morning showed Fin Locke being driven to the quay, but the Volvo’s privacy glass obscured the rear seat. If Billie was in the back, was Terrell sitting beside her?

That would make the black car in the lay-by Terrell’sLexus. If he returned to shore in the dinghy, perhaps he used Bee Tavistock’s red Clio to drive away. It might explain why Tavistock used an electric scooter to visit Lucy on Friday morning.

Were the life-insurance policies a ploy to implicate the Lockes? Simple enough for Terrell to make the applications. Almost as simple to set up a bank account in Lucy’s name. Slightly more difficult to intercept any paperwork before it reached the house. In her note, Lucy maintains she recently found exactly that.

One thing he wants to know more than anything: Did Lucian Terrell return to shore alone, or did he bring Fin Locke with him?

God, I praise you for your compassionate heart. Give me the relentlessness of the good shepherd who goes after wandering sheep and never gives up. Show me my task and help me fulfil it.

Abraham scours the sea for a sign.

FIFTY-FOUR

Lucy stands in the cockpit, legs braced, as Lucian watches her from the coachroof.

---