Chapter 78
Nothing they could do about the phones for the moment, and she’d been asked to find the life raft. Holly wedged herself onto the chart table seat, found the folder and ran her finger down the index. There, life raft stored in the port cockpit locker.
Back on deck, she gave the news to Tug.
‘We should have a look,’ he told her.
He looked tired, Holly thought, the strain of the last hour was starting to tell. ‘More people than me need to know how it works,’ he went on. ‘We might even get it out, keep it on deck.’
Pushing down the thought that if Tug wanted to ready the life raft, he was more worried than he was letting on, Holly dropped to her knees and pulled open the locker. She heard Tug hand the helm to Robin and, a second later, he dropped to his knees beside her.
The life raft was in a bag made from heavy-duty blue plastic with black straps.
‘We should get it on deck,’ Tug said. ‘Give me some room.’
He leaned into the locker, took hold of the straps and heaved. When she could reach, Holly added her own strength to the task. Slowly, the bag emerged. When it was clear of the locker, Tug lowered it to the cockpit floor.
‘I’ll find somewhere to stow it,’ he told her. ‘If we need it, we throw it overboard, but it has to be attached to the yacht first. There should be a painter.’
Holly had no idea what a painter was. ‘Is it inside?’ she asked.
Tug’s face was grim. ‘I don’t like to open it till it’s needed. I don’t know, though, Holly, something doesn’t look right.’
Holly took a sharp breath to hold the whimper at bay; all they needed was a malfunctioning life raft.
‘Better find out now,’ she said.
Tug nodded and bent to the zipper. He cranked it an inch and recoiled.
‘What’s the matter?’ Holly asked. Then she smelled it too. A stench that leapt inside her head and throat. She fought back the gag.
‘Jeez,’ muttered Robin, from the helm. ‘What’s that sme—’
Tug pulled on the zipper and the bag sprang open. What it contained was the very opposite of something designed to preserve life.
The life-raft bag held a corpse.