The World's End: A Gripping Tale of Love, Loss, and Lies by Karen Fitzgibbon

Author:Karen Fitzgibbon [Fitzgibbon, Karen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Poolbeg Press
Published: 2024-05-02T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 29

Lukasz watched Lana Bowen walk up the harbour until she disappeared from view. He knew she was heading for the World’s End summerhouse. He had told her the house had been boarded up the previous summer and it was unlikely she would find anyone to show her around, but she wanted to see it anyway. She also wanted to travel to the island in the afternoon and she asked if he would be willing to take her out there. “ Shit,” he muttered under his breath. He fired the empty paper coffee cups into the bin beside the kiosk and returned to his boat to tidy up the remainder of the loose nets. Piling the knotted ropes into the storage box, he slammed the lid shut, catching his finger. A sharp pain shot up his arm and he bit on his lip to stop himself from roaring. He felt lightheaded, and for a moment, he thought he might faint.

Take a breath, Lukasz, think.

Holding his injured finger upright, he found some loose ice cubes on the deck and with his free hand, he wrapped the fabric of his T-shirt around the ice before pressing it hard against his finger. Eventually, the pain subsided, fading to a weak throb. He sat on the edge of the storage box and stared out at the island, his thoughts turning to the investigator and what she had just told him.

Lukasz had thought the young girl had been left behind by her friends that evening, that they had got drunk and forgotten about her, and yes, it was a horrible thing to do, but that is what he thought had happened. There were many rumours that other things had gone on, but Lukasz didn’t like rumours. Sometimes, the Irish had loose lips and they said things about people that they shouldn’t say, altering information for dramatic effect, but he never, not for one moment, imagined that she had been deliberately pushed from the boat – that someone had intentionally shoved her into the water and left her there. Now there would be a court case, and he would have to give evidence. The investigator didn’t say as much, but he knew that is what would happen. Lukasz Nowak would have to stand in front of a judge and explain what he was doing that morning, and he would have to explain why he had left Poland. He cursed himself for telling Lana what he had seen – the two people arguing outside the World’s End. It most likely meant nothing, a drunken argument. Luckily, he had kept his mouth shut about the other thing.

He heard a van pull up and a door close behind him.

“Hey, Lukasz, how goes it?”

Pete climbed onto his boat moored right next to Lukasz’s, and started searching through the empty nets on the deck left there from earlier that morning. “Can’t find my bloody phone, must have dropped it here somewhere.”

Lukasz continued to stare at the island.

Pete looked up as he rummaged through the nets.

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