Filed To Story: Wild Dark Shore Book PDF Free by Charlotte McConaghy
“Sorry.”
“He’s not angry. You don’t know him at all if you think that.”
I meet his eyes. “I’m sorry, mate. I didn’t mean anything by it.”
I turn back to the grassy path, thinking that maybe Orly will go home now, but I hear his footsteps behind me.
“We’re looking for something called luminol,” I tell him as we go through the lab stores. There are three elephant seals
inside the lab building-whether the door was left open or they
pushed their way in, I don’t know-but they barely glance at us as we pick our way around them.
“What’s that?” Orly asks, reading the labels of jars and jugs in the dim light. Even during the day there’s not much sun creeping through the small windows.
“It’s a chemical you can use to detect other things.”
“Like what?”
I shrug. “Copper or iron, I think. Cyanide.”
“And why do we need it?”
Because it also detects blood.
“Less chitchat, more looking.”
I find it eventually at the back of a cupboard, already in a spray bottle. I’ve got no clue if it will work, but I’m going to give it a try.
As we emerge into the sloshing seawater my eyes catch on something in the distance. Way out in the ocean is a splash, a kind of spray. “Look,” I say, pointing.
He squints. It happens again. “Whales!” Orly cries. “Come on, we gotta tell Raff.” He sprints off up the hill, vanishing into the tussock, and I am left to trudge after him.
Now that I have what I was looking for, I need a way back to that field hut. I will have to prepare myself to make the walk alone, but it’s going to be hard to explain why I need to. Maybe I could just go. I certainly can’t risk anyone finding out what I intend to do there.
It’s the smell of bleach. It was so strong. It’s been bothering me.
And I am trying to come up with a reasonable explanation for why Dominic has hoarded all of Hank’s personal possessions, the things he would need, were he to have headed home as they told me. But I knew it the moment I met the guy: Dom’s lying to me. And maybe it’s not as bad as I have started to fear but either way I need to find out.
Raff is already pulling on a wetsuit when I finally stagger back to the lighthouse, luminol tucked away in my pack.
“What’s happening?” I ask, hovering by the door to the boys’ bedroom.
It’s Orly who answers, as Raff is busy gathering what looks like audio equipment. “Raff records whale sounds.”
“Did you see a dorsal?” Raff asks his brother.
“Too far away.”
“How many blows?”
“Two? No, three.”
“Was it tall or low and puffy?”
“Tall. But a bit puffy. Actually maybe it was low.”
Raff laughs. “Thanks for your specificity.”
“How do you get to them?” I ask as he thunders down the stairs.
“I’ll take the Zodiac out.” He glances back at me. “Want to come?”
God no. Going out on that little boat again is the last thing I want to do. But maybe I can convince him to take me back to the field hut. The trip’s much faster by boat. “Okay.”
“You’ll be cold. We might be out there awhile.”
I hurry to pull on every layer I can find, including the waterproof outer layers. “My clothes” are a cobbled-together wardrobe of extras from Dom, Raff, and Fen, which was generous of them, given they don’t have a whole lot of clothing themselves, and I appreciate it immensely, but nothing fits me properly and I am only just starting to figure out what layers and items are required for which activities. For this one, I’ll need just about everything. Dressed this way, it’s boiling hot inside, so I head for the front door.
“Where are you going?”
I look back at Dom, who is peeling a mountain of potatoes at the kitchen table.
“There’s whales!” Orly tells him.
Dom grunts in understanding. “And he’s taking you?”
I nod. I think I am surprised there is no protest, no reminder of the chores Raff and I should be doing. Maybe whales trump the rest.
“Can I go too?” Orly asks.
“I need your help with the soup, mate.”
Orly’s shoulders sag but he doesn’t complain, plodding over to lift a second peeler.
Dom glances at me again, maybe he can feel my frostiness. He says, “You watch out for my boy, alright?”
“I think he’ll be watching out for me.”