‘You just said…’
‘Who are you? Go away.’ This time Archie shouted so loud, the nurse ran back in. ‘Go away, tell them to go away. Go away!’
The man crouched down, tending to the old man. ‘It’s okay, Archie. You’re safe.’
‘I saved the baby.’
‘I know you did.’ The nurse was now humouring Archie. Natalie could see that. ‘Do you want to go into the lounge and watch telly for awhile?’
Archie didn’t reply. The nurse gave an apologetic smile and wheeled Archie towards the door. ‘I’ll be back in a moment to get you signed out.’ With that, Archie was gone.
‘Did any of that make sense?’ Laura stood and stared out at the sea.
The boat with the flickering light was now gone. The inky blue was all-consuming if she stared at it for long enough. As the clouds drew back, the moon was once again revealed; its reflection skewered on the choppy sea.
‘I don’t know. The baby crying in the sea. It could mean Jess. He knows something and he saw something that day. He was in the cabin of his boat, supposedly sleeping. He could easily have come out, taken the baby and headed up towards Banjo Pier and…’ Natalie couldn’t bring herself to say that she thought Archie had dropped Jess in the sea.
‘That’s a big accusation.’
‘I know it is.’
‘Why are you looking into this? It was a long time ago and all we’ve done is upset Archie.’ Laura tucked her hair behind her ears.
‘That young woman deserves the truth. Every day she and her family have to carry on, not fully knowing what happened to baby Jess. If I’m onto something, I have to find out more and tell her.’
‘Nothing you do will bring that baby back. That woman, Kate, she’ll poke around for a few days and then she’ll go home.’ Laura took another sweet from the bag. ‘Why do you carry the weight of the world on your shoulders?’
She shrugged.
‘Do you want to come back to mine for a bit of dinner? It must be quiet in that apartment of yours.’
Natalie glanced out at the sea one more time. Her apartment had been as cold as her ice cream since Alan died. She pulled her phone out of her pocket to see if Mary had messaged after that talk on the phone the other night, but there was nothing. A talk was in order about what Natalie had overheard, but that meant facing her husband’s floozy and she didn’t know whether she could do it without lashing out. There was another person there that night in the darkness and she needed to find out who it was. Who was Mary arguing with and how did that conversation end? She needed to go home and sleep on it all.
‘About dinner?’
‘Sounds good. We’ll stop and get some wine on the way. I could use a drink.’
‘I’m on board with that. We’ll grab a takeaway too, can’t be doing with cooking now.’
The nurse came back and gestured for them to follow him. Natalie took one glance back at the darkness through the windows and shivered.
‘Are you coming?’
‘Err, yes.’
Whatever Archie was hearing must be chilling him to the bone. In the back of her mind, she imagined the sound of a baby wailing, then worse. It stopped dead. Wailing meant life.
SEVENTEEN
KATE
I pull the quilt up a little higher so that it rests under my chin. I flinch as the wind howls against the window, causing the frame to judder and the loft to creak.
‘They’re both asleep. It’s been a long day for them and we’ve got to be up early.’
Damien gets into bed and lies next to me, his nose almost touching mine. My conversation with Cody has been sending me into a confused spin and it would help if I was alone here and not creeping around.
‘You never answered my question.’ Damien’s glare is fixed on me.
