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‘She wasn’t stolen.’
‘—onboard and managed to hot-wire the engine or some—’
‘Lucy, Daniel took her out.’
She flinches, shakes her head, as if a fly just swooped into her ear. ‘Daniel?But Daniel’s at work. He left before I took Fin to school.’
‘I’m sorry, I really am – but Daniel maydayed from theLazy Susan.’
Lucy’s throat clenches. It feels like someone’s squeezing it. Her right hand finds her wedding band and twists it round her ring finger. She looks past Alec to the coastguard helicopter banking west, out to sea. Her gaze drops to theharbour, to the flotilla of small boats being readied; to the Tamar-class lifeboat, out beyond the breakwater, its propellers churning a white wake. Despite the gunmetal clouds, the falling pressure, the day still seems preternaturally calm.
The ringing in her ears intensifies. She weaves around Alec to the glass doors.
TWO
1
The entrance to Skentel’s RNLI boathouse is dominated by its hand-painted service boards. They detail a century’s span of notable rescues. Beyond them, a cavernous boat hall is ringed by two railed walkways. Right now, the roller-shutter door is up, exposing the giant steel slipway descending to the sea. In the nine years since Lucy’s relationship with Jake Farrell ended, the place has changed hardly at all.
She finds Jake in the ops room, crouched over the VHF radio. A laptop shows graphics of the rapidly changing conditions. Jake straightens when he sees her. Since the split, he’s never quite learned how to handle their encounters. He rolls his shoulders, rubbing his close-shaved scalp.
‘Just tell me, Jake,’ she asks. ‘What happened? Where’s Daniel?’
He motions Alec to replace him at the desk. ‘Keep an ear out,’ he says. ‘Grab me if there’s news.’ Then he steersLucy along the corridor to the changing room. ‘Coastguard picked up a distress call from your husband, earlier.’
‘And? Is he OK?’
‘We don’t know. We’re in the—’
‘You don’tknow?’
‘Our lifeboat located your yacht, but the crew found no one onboard.’
Her ears roar, air rushing into a vacuum. ‘So where’s Daniel?’
‘That’s what we’re trying—’
‘He’s still missing?’
‘Right now, we’re—’
‘Have you heard from himsince?’
Jake holds up his hands to silence her. ‘Lucy, take a breath, OK? Listen to what I’m saying. Daniel put out a Mayday around twelve thirty. Twelve thirty-seven, to be exact. Said he was taking on water and needed assistance. We don’t maintain a headset watch here. First we heard about it was a request from Milford coastguard, asking us to send a boat. Our DLA authorized the Tamar to launch. Crew went out twelve minutes later.
‘Daniel stopped broadcasting before he sent his position, but the coastguard’s direction finder picked up his transmission bearing. Still took us a while to find theLazy Susan, even with that. Those currents are strong and she was just drifting, seven miles out, sails packed away like they’d never been used. Our offshore boat got a couple of crew onboard with a salvage pump, but they couldn’t find hide nor hair of Daniel. When we relayed that, the coastguard bumped the priority. We left a crew member with the yacht and redeployed.
‘You probably saw the helicopter. We’ve launched ourinshore D-class to assist. Clovelly and Bude have sent their inshore vessels too. Plus Tamars from Appledore and Padstow. Good thing is, the weather’s still holding. I don’t know what it’ll be like in a few hours, but right now we’ve a window. There’s a small fleet heading out from Skentel. Fishing boats, yachts – pretty much the whole town is mobilizing.’
Daniel in the water. It’s too distressing to take in. She shuts her mouth, opens it.Focus, Lucy. ‘How long, exactly, since he made contact?’
‘I didn’t hear the broadcast. But he wasn’t talking long.’
She looks at her watch. ‘So – an hour forty-five?’
‘There or thereabouts.’
Her throat tightens further. ‘That water’scold, Jake.’