After the Storm (29 page)

‘I said we’d stay another night,’ she said.

‘Fine by me.’

She looked up and to her horror she saw Gary and Gail walking along the street and they were coming towards Vivienne’s Bar. They stopped and Owen waved to them and they came up the steps of the verandah and approached the table. As Gail spotted Kim she pulled herself up and lifted her chin. Kim was frozen to the spot. She tightened her grip on the coffee pot while she tried to think of something, anything to say. Gary spoke first.

‘We’re devastated, just devastated. We came to pay our respects.’

‘We stayed here last night, to be with Olivier,’ Kim said, looking down at the ground.

‘That poor boy. What a burden to carry for the rest of his life,’ Gail said with feeling looking over at Owen.

‘Yeah,’ Owen said.

An awkward silence followed and Kim felt it must be obvious to the men that she hadn’t been able to look Gail in the face.

‘I’ll go get Olivier,’ Owen said standing up.

‘No, no, it’s OK, don’t disturb him. I’m glad you’re with him. Could you tell him we came by,’ Gary said.

Kim stood there silent and paralysed with awkwardness and shame.

‘Well can we get you a coffee at least,’ Owen said.

‘Oh yeah, please do sit down and I’ll go make some fresh,’ Kim said.

She hurried back into the building, glad to get away from them. Gail wasn’t going to make any reference to the party or to Gideon Carter but she wasn’t going to make it easy for her either. She had been so friendly before and Kim felt the judgement of her silence.

‘You know I think we’d best be off. We just wanted Olivier to know that we’re thinking of him,’ Gail said.

‘Everyone on the island is,’ Gary said.

They shook hands with Owen and walked away arm in arm.

Kim returned five minutes later with a fresh pot of coffee and two mugs.

‘They decided to go. What’s up with you?’ Owen asked turning to her.

She sat down and pushed the pot and the mugs away from her and put her head in her hands not looking at him.

‘I’m so sad.’

He stroked the back of her neck under her hair but she didn’t respond, she kept her face in her hands.

‘I’m gonna go out to the boat now and check a few things. Do you wanna come with me?’ he said.

She looked up then.

‘No. I’ll stay here with the boys. But I meant what I said last night Owen. I’m going home.’

Owen rowed out to his boat and walked around the deck. He knew every plank, every hollow, every last angle of it. He stroked the mast and leaned his forehead against it remembering all the sailings he had done on his beloved boat. Then, with a sad shrug, he went down into the saloon and searched through the lockers to find the papers and bill of sale for the
El Tiempo Pasa
. He put these into his rucksack and rowed back to the shore. He secured the dinghy and headed round the harbour towards the bus stop when he saw Anna sitting on a wall by the fishing boats. She was on her own and was reading.

‘Anna…’

She looked up.

‘Hello Owen.’

Her voice was strained, he thought, as she closed her book and got off the wall.

‘How are you today?’

She asked this as she was putting her book away in her bag and she had not looked at him properly. He could feel the change in her manner towards him. The last time he’d seen her she was affectionate, emotional and acting as if she didn’t want him to leave her side. Now she seemed awkward towards him.

‘I’m a lot better, thanks.’

‘And how is Olivier doing?’ she asked.

‘He’s a strong boy. He’ll get through it somehow. Where’s Rob?’

‘I don’t know. We agreed to spend the day apart.’

She lifted her bag onto her shoulder as if she was planning to walk away.

‘I hate it here. I want to go home,’ she said.

So she was spooked as well.

‘We’re all badly shaken up,’ he said.

She took a deep breath and looked him straight in the face for the first time.

‘Who would want to kill Vivienne?’

He looked back at her.

‘You think I know?’

She lowered her eyes and blushed.

‘What’s going on Anna? You’re being weird.’

‘Where did you go?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘The night of your fever; you left the cabin.’

‘What the fuck!’

‘I’m just asking where you went.’

‘Well you can fuck right off with your questions.’

He walked away from her fast. She had made him very angry with her suspicions and she could go to hell.

Anna watched his retreating figure. All their relationships seemed to be breaking down in the most nightmarish way. She wanted this disastrous holiday to be over and to go home so badly. The prospect of another day on her own in Oak Ridge was bleak. Perhaps she would take that wildlife tour of the mangrove swamps that Kimberly had mentioned; anything to stop her mind replaying that night with Owen again and again.

Owen found a bar and made the call to Sander Haak, the Dutchman who seemed to know a lot about his boat. He arranged to meet him in Coxen Hole in two hours’ time. He boarded the bus and slumped into a corner seat at the back. Anna was like a speck of grit in your eye or a pebble in your shoe. He couldn’t get comfortable with himself. That she could even for a moment think him capable of that. Vivienne was loved by Kimmie and liked by nearly everyone. She had been a force for good on the island and whoever had killed her was evil. Evil.

By the time the bus reached Coxen Hole Owen’s anger was dissipating and changing into something gentler and sadder; a profound sense of loss. He had virtually no recollection of the night of his fever. He made himself try to recall what had happened but it was as if there was a kind of silence and blindness about the events of that night which he could not penetrate no matter how hard he tried; all he could call up was the image of his father plunging the hunting knife into his mother’s neck.

Rob had taken the bus to French Harbour. He wanted to see Kim but did not want to meet Owen, so he was relieved when he saw her on her own. She was sweeping the dead bougainvillea blooms from the verandah of Vivienne’s Bar. The pink blooms were shrivelled and brown and Kim looked devastated.

‘Oh Rob, it’s good to see you.’

She put the broom against the wall and they hugged each other. He noticed that her eyelids were red and swollen from weeping.

‘Where’s Anna?’ she said.

‘We’re barely speaking.’

‘What did you fight about?’

‘I’m sorry Kim but I think she’s become obsessed with Owen.’

‘Yeah, I think she’s got a thing about him. I’m so sorry.’

‘She thinks she can save him,’ he said bitterly.

‘I reckon she does.’

‘She can be so fucking high-minded sometimes. She drives me nuts.’

‘But you’re still in love with her; otherwise you wouldn’t be so angry and hurt.’

He nodded.

‘Owen’s gone down to the boat. We’re hardly speaking either. Come on up and I’ll get you a drink,’ she said.

They sat at Vivienne’s kitchen table as her grandmother’s clock on the dresser chimed twelve.

‘One of the last things Vivienne said to me was about that clock. She said it had the sweetest chimes and it does.’

Her eyes filled with tears.

‘She got it mended you see. Viv liked things to be real nice around her.’

Her voice broke.

‘I’m sorry to see you so sad. I know she was your dear friend. But you mustn’t worry about Owen. He would never cheat on you. You two are the strongest couple I’ve ever met,’ Rob said.

She shook her head at his words and more tears started to run down her cheeks. He reached for her hand and stroked it and she cried harder. She gulped.

‘I feel so guilty.’

‘Why?’

There was a long moment as if she was debating with herself what to say to him. Then she lifted her eyes and whispered:

‘I cheated on Owen. With Gideon Carter. I feel so cheap.’

‘Bloody hell,’ he said.

He withdrew his hand from hers involuntarily and then put it back on top of hers seeing how upset she looked at his gesture.

‘I drank too much. I was angry with Owen and it was a stupid, ugly thing to do. I never did that before. All these years and all these men coming onto me and I never once considered it.’

Rob was feeling a strange prickling sensation all over his body, like he’d fallen into a bed of nettles. Yes he probably did fancy Kim a bit, as Anna had accused him. He had certainly grown fond of her and felt there was an understanding between them. But he’d never once thought to act on his feelings. She and Owen were so much part of each other it was like they were welded together. Yes, that was how he had seen them, like they were a functioning piece of machinery, each one entirely dependent on the other. And now this confession. It was a jolt.

‘And he must
never
know,’ she said.

‘I won’t say anything.’

She moved her hands from under his and blew her nose on a piece of kitchen roll.

‘Don’t think badly of me, please.’

‘We all make mistakes sometimes,’ he said.

But he was so disappointed that she had cheated on Owen.

Gideon Carter ran his property rental business from a large office in the centre of Coxen Hole. Owen had arranged to meet Sander Haak outside the office which was on a junction with large windows on two sides of the road. There were photos of villas to rent on display in the windows. He stood and looked at the photographs. He recognised some of the villas and they’d been made to look better than they were by clever photography. While he waited he saw Gideon Carter through the window. He had come out from the back and was talking to a hard-faced blonde who sat at the reception desk. Owen saw at once that Gideon was a changed man from the figure he had seen circulating at Gary’s hog roast only a week ago. It was as if some small element of his face had caved in and this had changed his look completely. He looked shattered.

‘Owen Adams?’

A tall sandy-haired man with a broad face was approaching him on the sidewalk.

‘Guilty as charged,’ Owen said.

Owen and Sander Haak sat in a bar and over several beers they talked prices and finally agreed a figure for the
El Tiempo Pasa
that satisfied both men. He asked Sander Haak to pay the cash into his account and they left the bar to go to the Banco Atlántida together. On their way there Owen caught sight of Teyo on the steps of the post office. He was standing with his legs planted wide and his arms crossed over his chest. The two men exchanged hostile glances but no words and as Owen walked past him he could sense Teyo’s eyes on his back. Money Joe had probably told him how Owen had avoided him that day. He felt a flush of humiliation at the way he had crouched in the water under Money Joe’s house. Well they would leave the island as soon as Sander Haak’s money had cleared and he’d never need to worry about that lowlife again.

His boat was sold and he was bereft. He took the bus back to Oak Ridge and when he got there he couldn’t stop himself even though he knew it would cause him pain. He walked down to the scrubby beach and sat on the shingle. He couldn’t bring himself to set foot on his boat again. He corrected himself: his former boat. He would leave his books and his charts and Kim’s battered kitchen utensils. Let Sander Haak dispose of them all. He sat and looked at his boat until the sun set behind its mast. He had always loved the shape of his boat. His eyes refused to stay dry and he blinked the tears away.

It was time to pack up the cabin. He headed up the hill and packed the few belongings they had brought with them. He left a fifty dollar note on the kitchen table for the electricity costs. He wasn’t going to owe Money Joe anything. Then he went next door to say goodbye to Rob and Anna even though he was mad as hell at Anna. But the cabin was dark and all was silent and he assumed they were out or asleep. He went back into his cabin, found a flyer and wrote a message on the back and wrapped some dollars in the note. He pushed this under their door. The moon was high in the sky as he walked down the hill to Oak Ridge for the last time.

When he got back to Vivienne’s place Kim flew at him.

‘Where’ve you been all this time? Why are you punishing me like this?’

‘Punishing you? I’ve been to Coxen Hole and I sold my boat.’

She looked at him in stunned disbelief.

‘You sold her?’

‘Yeah and we’re gonna get out of here. Catch the boat to La Ceiba first thing tomorrow.’

‘Tomorrow?’

‘First thing. And we’re going for good,’ he said.

‘You sold her.’

‘Yeah, because of Vivienne and because of what you said.’

She felt a surge of forgiving love filling her up. He had listened to her at last.

‘Thank you darlin’. I know what a big thing that was for you.’

He rested his face on her head and smelled her hair. He was grateful that he still had Kimmie to hold on to.

They got everything ready for their early start the next morning and lay down next to each other. He knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight. That sighting of Teyo in Coxen Hole had shaken him. The way he had looked at him with open hatred made his mind jump around. He kept playing back the words he had heard Money Joe and Teyo exchange that day. He had the strongest feeling that Teyo was coming after him. He felt for his baseball bat by the side of the bed, then got up and checked that the doors and the windows of Vivienne’s house were all locked. He never felt as safe in a house as he did on a boat. On a boat you could hear an intruder approach. When he got back into bed he was hyper alert to the sounds outside. Kimmie was sleeping fitfully beside him and his last night on Roatán was a long one.

Owen and Kim were up at sunrise. The night before she had told Olivier they were leaving the island for good and that he must stay in touch; his wonderful mom would have wanted that. He said he would. He wanted to give her something of Vivienne’s to take with her. She had chosen a framed photograph of Vivienne standing outside her bar on the day it opened. Vivienne looked so proud and happy in the photograph and they had cried together as they looked at it.