The Lost Boy: A gripping psychological thriller by Jane Renshaw

Author:Jane Renshaw [Renshaw, Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Inkubator Books
Published: 2022-07-09T16:00:00+00:00

17

Anna

Good.

As she drove towards the house, Anna could see there were still lights on in the guest living room, and Rod was stretched out on one of the plantation chairs on the decking. And just off the reefs of Creag an Sgoiltein, a cone of illumination moved slowly over the water as the search and rescue helicopter quartered the inshore waters.

Anna let herself into the extension and went straight through the hall and the living area and out onto the decking. Her heart was pounding. This must be how an actor felt once they had walked on stage. Up for it. Ready to do what they had to do.

‘Oh, Rod,’ she sighed, plomping herself down on one of the other chairs. ‘Still no sign?’

‘No.’ He barely looked round at her. The only light was from the windows behind them, but it was enough to be able to tell he looked wrecked – hair on end, face pasty. He had taken off his glasses, and without them he looked different, more boyish, more vulnerable.

‘I’m so sorry.’ She made her voice treacly with sympathy.

‘I’ve been back to the cottages – the two the policemen aren’t in, anyway. And I’ve looked in the farm buildings, and the outbuildings here, and the sheds at the harbour. Even that little boat hut thing.’ He sat up and put his glasses back on and looked at her. ‘Where else is there? What other buildings are there on the island?’

‘There’s another boathouse at Bàgh an Ear,’ said Anna. She left just enough of a pause to raise his hopes before adding, ‘But I’ve just come from there.’

He slumped forward, his head in his hands. ‘Oh God.’

Chug-chug-chug went the helicopter, coming nearer.

Perfect timing.

Anna looked up at it. ‘They’re certainly going all out trying to find him.’

Rod looked up too. ‘They’re looking in the sea. Not on the land.’

‘No, well, but the island is tiny, Rod.’ She lowered her voice. ‘And we’ve already searched it from side to side and top to bottom. The shoreline too. That was possibly the most likely place – if he’d twisted an ankle on the rocks or something – but I’ve been all round it in my boat, as have two very experienced fishermen. And the searchers have walked the shore too.’

‘And he’s nowhere to be found,’ Rod finished, his voice breaking.

‘I’m so sorry.’

And now Rod started to weep in earnest.

She watched him. She drank him in, every heave of his shoulders, every snottery intake of breath, every swipe at his face. He wasn’t even bothering with a tissue.

After a while, she went inside to get a box from the kitchen and brought it out to him.

‘Thanks, Anna,’ he choked, pulling out a handful of tissues and rubbing his face hard, as if it were possible to rub away the pain.

‘This is karma,’ he said at last.

She left a beat. ‘Karma?’

He stared at her, his eyes behind his spectacles wide.

‘What do you mean?’ she said gently. ‘Karma for what?’

He shook his head.

‘Rod.’ Her voice dripped with compassion.

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