Her friend’s powerful leg up and over the side of the boat almost had her on top of Thanassis. She stepped over the man without looking too closely. She could see his chest still moving at least. The blood was congealing on the side of his face, and in a small pool at the bottom of the hull, but the most important thing was to get out of there while they still had a bit of daylight. There wasn’t any time to dress wounds.
The back of the boat was a mass of nets and cages, but Maddie stumbled to the narrow seat by the engine where she’d watched Thanassis steer their course and turned to smile back reassuringly at her friends. She lowered the bottom half of the motor gently into the water and fixed the picture of Thanassis starting her up firmly in her mind.
‘Here we go!’
The first pull of the power cord produced a feeble splutter which died almost immediately.
‘Damn.’
She tugged harder on the cord and the engine started for a couple of seconds before fading again.
Maddie crossed the fingers on one hand while she pulled as hard as she could with the other.
‘Third time lucky!’
A sudden roar jerked her backwards as the motor sprang into life under her.
Maddie offered up a silent prayer as her friends clapped and cheered.
‘No time to celebrate! Quick! Jump in.’
She kept the fear to herself that the engine would flood or stall, thus stopping them getting away.
Sofia flung herself over the side of the boat like a fish who’d just been landed, which even made Maddie smile for a brief moment. Charlotte hesitated in the water for a heart- stopping few seconds, until Sofia held out her hand to pull her much taller friend aboard.
The boat bucked underneath them as Charlotte managed to clamber on board, and Maddie had to battle to hold the engine steady in the water.
‘Balance yourselves out. One on either side of Thanassis. Grab a seat and after that, don’t move, whatever you do.’
She glanced back to check her friends were in the correct position.
‘And we’re off.’
It took her a few moments on the tiller to work out which way was right, and which was left, but after one dramatic lurch that brought forth a scream from Charlotte and made Maddie fear they might actually capsize, the boat steadied under her hands.
As they pulled out from the bay into open water, the promise of a dramatic sunset touched the sky with delicate corals and pinks.
Under any other circumstances it would have been beautiful, but it just brought home to her how tight the race was against the clock. They didn’t know these waters, so once they lost the light, they could be in an even worse position than they’d have been on the beach. Her tactic was to hug the shore as much as possible, without going too close to the rocks. It worked while she could still make out the outlines of the rocks, but it wouldn’t last much longer. She wondered how much battery the others had on their phones, although a phone torch wasn’t going to help much once they’d completely lost daylight.
Why had they opted for somewhere so remote? There were no other boats out at this time of night and very few signs of life along the coastline. But there was no point thinking about the what-ifs. She’d had enough of those after Tony’s death. There’d been endless nights agonising over what she could have done differently. Looking back wasn’t going to help the fisherman who’d shown them a wonderful day out.
A groan from the bottom of the boat had them all looking over at Thanassis, although Maddie quickly turned her face seaward again.
‘Stay where you are. Please don’t go to him. It’ll unbalance the boat.’
Sofia shouted into the insistent breeze.
‘He’s opened his eyes, and he’s trying to speak.’
Maddie kept her own eyes on the horizon.
‘OK, that’s a good sign. What’s he saying?’
‘Hang on. It’s a name… Eimear. He’s saying Eimear.’
‘God knows who that is. He’s probably got concussion.’
Maddie scanned the shoreline and the land above where a few lights were coming on up the hill.
