Written in the Stars (18 page)

‘Are you all right?’ he asked, looking at her, extremely concerned. He turned to Charlize. ‘I was coming to tell you that I heard there was an accident, and I tracked down the skipper of the sailing boat. He told me what had happened and how a speedboat had whisked Suzi back to the mainland.’ He lifted his hands. ‘He didn’t know whether you’d been detained in hospital or not, but he gave me the phone number of the local ambulance station. so I could make enquiries.’

‘The ambulance driver dropped me off here, just a matter of minutes ago,’ Suzi said.

‘Thank God she’s safe and sound now,’ Charlize said, clinging to Suzi’s hand. ‘I think I’d have died if anything had happened to you. I’d have felt I was to blame for bringing you to Australia in the first place.’

‘Don’t be silly,’ Suzi said, with a note of exasperation in her voice. ‘I chose to come with you, and that’s all there is to it.’

‘We need a drink after all that,’ Lloyd said, and disappeared, only to return within minutes with a vodka and coke for Charlize and a double brandy for Suzi. Then he arranged to meet them in the bar before dinner. After he had gone, Suzi had a leisurely shower. The liquor had dulled the remaining aches and pains, but now that the tension had been removed, she felt quite exhausted.

‘I’ll be all right,’ she said, in answer to her friend’s concern, ‘but I’ll skip dinner downstairs tonight, and have something sent up here instead. I just want to be alone to sort out some things in my mind.’ In response to Charlize’s anxious expression, she added, ‘Now don’t you worry… I’ll be okay. You go… Lloyd will be waiting.’

While she waited for the meal to arrive, Suzi thought about her vision of Steve Pardoe. What on earth made her think that he had come to save her? Then she realised that more than likely she had hallucinated under the circumstances.

Chapter Twenty Two

Steve felt quite annoyed by Greg Chaplin’s off-hand attitude to the accident.

‘She would have drowned if we hadn’t reached her in time.’ Steve said.

‘She might have, but she didn’t. We got her out in time, didn’t we? So there’s no problem is there?’ Greg replied.

Steve stared at the other man for a moment as he tried to come to grips with his reasoning. But Greg was right, of course—there was no problem. It was his own concern for the woman that was the issue, and the man was totally oblivious to that aspect of the situation. However, that did not satisfy his need to know if she was all right.

‘Yeah, you’re right. I just got a bit carried away. The hospital, is it easy to find?’ Steve asked, as casually as he could. ‘I’d like to find out if she’s okay.’

After Greg had given him directions and said goodbye, Steve went to his room and showered. As he washed the salt water out of his hair, he thought about the ridiculous idea he was harbouring. The odds of the woman being Suzi must be astronomical. He thought about the middle-aged woman who had spoken to her on the boat.

Apparently, the two women had spent nearly two weeks touring the state and were due to fly back to Britain within a few days. Even as he towelled himself dry, Steve wondered whether he should leave things as they were. He had tried to put her out of his mind ever since he left Wales, but now, had they been brought face to face again, even if under almost tragic circumstances?

He was reminded of the previous evening when he had visualized her lovely face in the moonlit waves breaking on the seashore. Had that been an unconscious desire for her, or had it been a premonition of what was to come? He recalled the look on her face as he swam towards her in the water. He wondered—had she recognised him in that instant before she lost consciousness? A half hour later, he reached Proserpine.

As he drove slowly down the main street looking for the signpost to The Base hospital, an ambulance turned out of the road to his left. It never occurred to him at the time that it could have been the vehicle that had transported Suzi to hospital; after all, every ambulance in Queensland was painted creamy yellow.

When he finally found the casualty ward, the nurse was helpful, but apologetic.

‘Doctor Hodge treated her for immersion and shock, but was unable to convince her that she should remain in hospital overnight. She said something about having to catch a flight to England tomorrow.’

‘Did she give a local address?’

The nurse looked at the treatment card and shook her head. ‘No, nothing all at all, only her name; Suzi Lysle Spencer, and her date of birth.’ She glanced at the clock on the wall. ‘You’ve just missed her… she picked up a prescription from the pharmacy and left about ten minutes ago.’

Steve thanked the nurse and walked out to the car park and climbed into his car. So he had been right. It really was his Suzi. He shook his head, almost afraid to believe it. He sighed as the late afternoon sun cast shadows across the cane fields, and drove back to the resort area deep in thought. What now, he wondered. Should he try to find out where she was staying in Airlie Beach? He knew that a lot of tourists were bussed in for the day. Suzi could have been in transit. She might even be staying in Proserpine.

Well, he could soon find out. He found an empty phone booth with an intact telephone directory and began calling all the hotels and motels in the area. None of them had a Suzi Lysle Spencer booked into their establishment. He phoned Kerry, the owner of the sailing boat and asked if he knew where the ticket had been purchased. The man grunted a reply and then dropped the phone onto something hard. A few minutes later he came back on the line.

‘I’m not sure, but I think it’s the last one that was sold. The receptionist at the Airlie Beach Hotel badgered me into letting her sell one more ticket.’ He let out a lengthy sigh. ‘I shouldn’t have listened to her; I was already fully booked. There’ll be hell let loose when the harbour master finds out.’

The hotel receptionist kept Steve hanging on the line for nearly two minutes and then asked him to wait some more. He hung up and dialled again, but the line was busy. In desperation he jumped into the Toyota and drove down to the hotel.

‘I seem to have a trouble getting through to anyone here,’ Steve said, when the girl on the desk looked up from her desk to face him. ‘You kept me hanging on the line and now… ‘

‘What’s the trouble?’ a voice said.

Steve turned around to look at the speaker, a burly man with a shock of unruly hair, staring at him.

‘I don’t remember addressing you. I want some information from this young lady.’

‘What do you want to know?’

The receptionist stared at the man with a resigned look on her face, but said nothing.

Steve took a deep breath and then asked,

‘Is there a Suzi Lysle Spencer staying in the hotel?’

‘Who wants to know?’ The burly man positioned himself in front of the desk.

‘I do, she’s a friend, and I was told she might be here.’

The man grabbed the register from in front of the girl. He flipped through the pages and then threw it back on the desk. ‘You’re wasting your time… and ours,’ he said. ‘She’s not here.’

‘Thanks for nothing,’ Steven said bitterly. ‘You sure run a great hotel.’

‘If you don’t like it, get lost. We don’t need trouble-makers around here.’

Rather than get into a slanging match or worse, Steve walked outside.
Best forget it
, he told himself;
it’s not worth fighting over
. But he was no closer to knowing whether Suzi was still in the area or on her way back to Brisbane.

He phoned his parents that evening and told them he would be back in a couple of days. Norah told him Kirsty and Joey’s bodies had already been released and the funeral was scheduled for tomorrow, but she urged him not to hurry home.

‘Nobody will be upset if you’re not here. The people who count know you were on the way to Queensland to install some pumps when the accident occurred. They won’t expect you to drop everything and return. ‘

When he paid his account the next morning, he asked if the manager at the Airlie Beach Hotel was usually that rude. Then he repeated the man’s words.

‘Was he a big burly fellow?’ When Steve nodded, he continued. ‘Ah, that’s the publican’s brother. He’s a bit of a pest. When he’s tanked up he’s likely to say anything to anyone.’

‘But…’

‘Oh, he’ll be gone by now. He comes around, scrounges some money for booze and then heads off again. Strange sort of fellow; harmless enough really, but rather intimidating.’ The man laughed. ‘The staff know better than to argue with him when he’s drunk. That’s Airlie Beach for you. Full of odd characters.’

‘Very odd if you ask me.’

‘It’s a pity you didn’t think to tell me about it when you came back,’ the manager said. ‘My sister-in-law was on the desk last night, and I could have rung her for you.’ He lifted the phone. ‘I’ll give them a bell now, if you like… see what they know.’

Steve watched as the man spoke to someone at the hotel and nodded.

‘She was there. Apparently she was sharing a twin room with a woman called Bronwyn-Smythe. That’s why her name wasn’t on the register,’ he explained. ‘But they’ve gone. They booked out early this morning.’

Steve thanked the man, made his way outside and climbed into the Toyota. He was still shaking his head in disbelief as he turned onto the highway and headed south towards Brisbane. Why hadn’t he thought to go back later? Well, it was too late now.
There must be a reason why I didn’t find her in time
. Then he consoled himself with the thought that nothing happens without a reason. He tuned into a local radio station to help pass the time and caught the tail end of the news.

The announcer gave a brief weather summary and then chuckled.

‘Now we’ve got the delightful Dolores with the day’s astrological forecast.

The woman made some indiscernible remark about rude disk jockeys and launched into her daily predictions in a broad nasal twang. Her last words were:

‘Don’t forget, you can’t deny your destiny. Everything is written in the stars.’

Her final words were to roll around in Steve’s his mind for the next hour. Was everything written in the stars? Had Suzi’s brush with death been preordained? Had he been meant to be on hand to save her? And if so—were their lives inexplicably entwined?

He pushed on for the rest of the day and made Rockhampton just before the sun set. The next day he handed the car keys back at the airport hire desk and boarded a plane for Auckland.

*

Lloyd brought Charlize back to the room a couple of hours later, and stayed long enough to assure himself that Suzi was all right before leaving. She felt a bit guilty about the situation, because she knew they would have preferred to spend the night together, but Charlize soon put her mind at rest.

‘Don’t be silly. Do you think I’d leave you alone after what you’ve gone through?’ She picked up the electric kettle. ‘Do you want tea or coffee?’

As she sipped her tea, Suzi spoke about her lucky escape.

‘I’m still wondering if it really was Steve who rescued me, or my imagination,’ she said, thoughtfully. ‘The ambulance man said that as far as he knew the person who pulled me out of the water was taken back to the sailing boat. I wonder if I can find out what happened to him afterwards?’

‘We’d have made enquires for you if we’d known, but it’s bit late now.’ Charlize looked at her wristwatch. ‘I don’t think we’ll get much help phoning around at this time of night.’

‘You’re probably right.’ Suzi yawned noisily. ‘Let’s get some sleep; it’s an early start in the morning.’

Lloyd fussed over Charlize as they checked in their luggage at Proserpine airport. It was quite obvious that he was upset that Charlize was leaving. They clung together until the last moment, and then she broke from his embrace and ran across the tarmac to the waiting plane.

‘Are you all right?’ Suzi asked, as her friend slid into the seat beside her and dabbed her eyes with a tissue.

‘Yes,’ she sniffed. ‘I’ll be all right.’

By the time their plane landed at Brisbane airport, Charlize had regained her composure. She told Suzi that Lloyd had promised to keep in touch, and they had already made tentative plans for the future. Neither of them saw their relationship as a holiday romance. ‘He’s made me promise to phone him when I get home,’ she said, brightly, ‘and he hinted that he might be able to arrange some time off in a few weeks and pop over to the UK.’

After they had checked in their luggage at the Qantas desk, the two women bought some duty free Australian wine and a few more souvenirs. Then it was time to board the plane for the long flight back to Britain.

*

The brilliant blue skies of Queensland were but a memory as the aircraft descended through the grey clouds and taxied to the terminal at Heathrow. They were back home.

‘Well, here we are safe and sound,’ Suzi said, as they struggled through the crowded concourse. She flashed Charlize a smile. ‘I enjoyed it immensely; it’s been great fun.’

‘Yes, it’s been a wonderful experience, and I’m so glad you were able to come with me.’

They threw their bags into the back of the Alfa Romeo and headed out onto the M25 and west to Wales. Three hours later, Suzi turned the key in the front door and shivered. The place felt like a refrigerator in comparison to the heat she’d been in for two weeks. She should have arranged for Mark to switch on the heating for her. She phoned The Stow Restaurant to say that she was back, and Mark said he wanted to call in after he had finished work.

‘No, Mark, I’m not good company right now. The flight was tiring, and I need to catch up on my sleep. Let me rest, and I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?’

As she slipped in between the sheets, Suzi recalled the night she and Steve Pardoe had made love in this very room; in this very bed. She stared at the ceiling and wondered why she had not made the effort to find out it if he had been on the powerboat. That thought would be with her for the rest of her life. But what if it had been him? What would she have done she had found him? Would she have professed her love for him and expected him to reciprocate?

Then she reminded herself that he lived and worked in New Zealand and she could think of no reason why he should have been on the Whitsunday Coast in the middle of summer. It seemed unlikely—and yet it could have been possible. But surely, if it had been Steve, he would have checked to see if she was all right? After all he was a very caring person. Maybe he had tried to find her and had been unsuccessful. The questions kept flooding her mind—but no answers came.

‘I’ll never know for sure, I suppose,’ she murmured, into her pillow. As she fell asleep, Suzi remembered her grandmother’s creed that everything happened for a reason and nothing was accidental. So if it had been Steve who rescued her, it was meant to happen.

Mark greeted her with open arms when she walked into the restaurant the next morning, and embraced her for a long time.

‘It’s great to have you back,’ he said, holding her hands as if to stop her ever leaving again. ‘I’ve missed you more than I could have imagined.’ He looked her up and down. ‘You haven’t got much of a tan.’