40
Tobias is making his way back down to the hotel lobby, hoping to find someone on night duty who could be persuaded to make him some coffee, maybe shed some light on what’s occurring down in the town, when he feels his phone vibrating in his trouser pocket.
He expects to see Olivia’s name flash up on the screen, hoping that she will have a good explanation for where she’s been, when he sees it is an unknown mobile number.
He is about to ignore it as he usually does – he gets so many scam callers these days – but then, given the peculiar turn of the evening, the unsociable hour, he decides to answer.
‘Dad?’ says the voice at the other end. It is Bella and he can hear the stuttering lilt of fear in her voice. ‘Dad, it’s me. There’s been an accident.’
‘Where are you?’ he demands to know. ‘Is this something to do with the fire? I heard sirens.’
‘What? No, I don’t know. Daddy, it’s Drew. We’re at the beach. Further along, you know that cove? We drove past it on the way here. Can you come? Quickly.’
She has started to cry now. He can hear noises in the background. Young people, shouting, swearing, their voices high with panic.
‘Whose phone is this?’ asks Tobias, ‘Who are you with?’
‘A friend’s. One of Drew’s. It doesn’t matter. Just come.’
‘Calm down,’ says Tobias. He never could stand the sound of a woman crying. ‘What’s wrong with your brother? What’s happened?’
She starts up another laboured wail, hiccupping and sobbing, so that the words are unintelligible.
‘Slow down. I can’t hear you. Say again.’
‘He was swimming,’ blurts Bella. ‘In the water. But he’s disappeared, gone. We can’t see him anymore.’
‘Christ, what do you mean?’
Tobias pats down his trousers again and is relieved to find his car keys in the back pocket as he strides out of the foyer and towards the car park.
‘Get help, Belle. Do it now. Ask for the police, coastguard.’
‘We can’t.’
‘Why not?’
‘He was high, Dad. He’d been smoking. We all were. A bit.’
Tobias pauses for a beat, opens the car and collapses into the driver’s seat.
‘We’ll deal with that later. But try to get help. And Bella, do not under any circumstances go into the water yourself.’
‘Daddy. I don’t know what to do. I’m scared.’
‘Just pull yourself together and do it,’ he shouts and steers the car down through the winding driveway, away from the hotel, and along the coast road.
As he drives, Tobias feels his heart pumping. The strange, lurching jump of it. He decides to dial 999 himself, jabbing at the touchscreen on the car dashboard, and the call is answered almost immediately.
‘Which service do you require?’ comes the reply.
‘Ambulance,’ he shouts, throwing the car around the bends and curves in the road. ‘My son has been involved in a swimming accident.’
‘What’s the location, please?’
‘We’re on holiday. By the coast. Err. Silver Penny Cove.’
‘Stay on the call and we’ll be able to locate you. Is your son safe?’
‘I don’t know. I’m on my way there now.’
‘Okay, we’ve had quite a lot of activity in that area this evening but we’ll send out someone as soon as possible. If you stay on the line, I can talk you through what to do when you reach your son.’
‘Right,’ says Tobias. He is appalled to find that his voice is breaking. ‘Yes. Yes, please.’
He swings into the turning and begins the descent down into the cove before the narrow lane peters out into a dirt track and he abandons the car.
He is following the sound of voices, the glow of mobile phones, a small fire.
His feet stumble over the hillocks of marram grass as the path winds down to the beach.
He can hear his daughter now, calling out plaintively into the night, over and over.
‘Drew, please. Wake up, Drew. Open your eyes. Say something.’