Читать книгу No Escape - Lucy Clarke - Страница 13

The Maritime Rescue Centre is set at the edge of a commercial port, and Lana drives in behind a container lorry. She parks in front of a squat, flat-roofed building, but doesn’t get out immediately. Her wrists ache from where she’s been gripping the steering wheel too tightly.

She’s not sure what she’s doing here – what she expects to happen next. All she knew was that she couldn’t wait in the apartment any longer. So she scribbled a quick note of apology to her boss, which she left downstairs in the gallery, and then drove with the radio on hoping for a further update.

As she sits in the car now, she thinks there’s something soothing about a stationary vehicle, the wind locked out, the warm air trapped inside, and the feeling of being sealed off from the rest of the world. Being on the yacht was different; you felt the world and the elements in all their rawness – each gust of wind hitting your face, the roll and rise of swell surging beneath you, the heat of the sun searing across your skin. The sea demanded your constant attention.

Beside her on the passenger seat are a stack of old sketchbooks and three blunt pencils. Sometimes at weekends, Lana will get in the car and drive along the coast without a plan or a specific destination, simply pulling over whenever the desire to do so takes hold. Then she’ll climb into the passenger seat, prop a sketchbook on her knees, and draw for hours and hours.

It takes her back to the long afternoons in the school art room where she would sit with her elbow on the paint-stained desk, her hair falling down one side of her face, the sun slanting in through tall sash windows. The art room was a refuge from the rest of school life, which seemed drab and predictable. Apart from Kitty, Lana struggled to make friends. The other girls teased her for her quirky shoes, her thick amber hair, and the bright woollen tights she wore on home-clothes day. Her father had little money, so Lana’s wardrobe was comprised of odds and ends she’d pick up from charity shops on their monthly visit to town.

In the art room Lana felt comfortable. It was a place of colour and noise and warmth, where the radio played constantly in the background, and the air smelt of turpentine, coffee and the chalky scent of cheap paint. She sat next to Kitty on a high wooden stool, enjoying her constant chatter as Kitty made swirling patterns with a palette of pinks and purples.

Lana was fourteen when her art teacher, Mrs Dano, called her back after class. She’d spent the lesson scrawling a stub of charcoal across an A3 page and ignoring the still-life display of weighing scales she was meant to be drawing. She screwed up each piece of work, lobbing them all in the bin and, when the bell went, she’d slung her bag over her shoulder and started lumbering from the room.

‘Lana?’ Mrs Dano had called as she stood at the sink washing up paint-streaked jam jars. ‘A word, please.’

Lana had rolled her eyes at Kitty, then hung back, leaning a hip against the wall.

Once the room had emptied, Mrs Dano set aside the jam jars and wiped her hands on her apron, then went to the corner of the room, returning with three balls of screwed-up paper. She placed them on the desk in front of Lana. ‘Please would you open these?’

Lana’s jaw tightened as she picked up the first ball. The paper felt as crisp as dried leaves as she unscrewed the picture. It was a drawing of the windows of the art room, with an angry slash of charcoal across the centre that had torn the page.

Mrs Dano placed a finger in the left-hand corner, her amethyst ring catching in the sun. ‘Here,’ she said. ‘The light. You’ve got it just right as it cuts through the glass. And here, too,’ she said, sliding her finger lower. ‘Hmm, no, this bit isn’t quite right. The perspective is off, but if you just—’ Mrs Dano pulled a piece of charcoal from the pocket of her apron – ‘put the line this way,’ she said, dusting the charcoal across the page, ‘and applied a lighter pressure to shade it, you’d be there.’

With a change of stroke, the drawing had been transformed.

Mrs Dano rested her hands on the edge of the table. ‘I don’t want any more work going in the bin, Lana. There is beauty in imperfection. Remember that.’

Lana nodded. Then the wooden legs of her stool scraped across the floor as she stood.

‘And Lana?’

She turned.

‘If you ever want to use the art room in your lunch breaks, I’m usually in here.’ Mrs Dano held her gaze. ‘You’ve got talent. I’d like to see it grow.’

Lana had left the room, pleasure blooming hot in her cheeks. Outside the door, Kitty had been waiting, listening. She reached for Lana’s hand, their fingers threading together. ‘I knew it!’ she whispered. ‘I knew someone would notice your talent.’

*

Lana cannot delay going inside any longer. She takes a deep breath and opens the car door, stepping out onto concrete that shimmers with spilt diesel. The wind teases her dress around her thighs, making it seem as though the white sparrows of the pattern are fluttering and flying across the powder-green fabric.

The air is tinged with fumes and the scent of brine washing in from the water as she walks towards the main building. She comes to a reception desk that is unmanned and waits for a moment, peering into the back office – but the place is empty, computer screens off.

She moves beyond it, following a long corridor of rooms, all with their doors shut. She pauses outside a door that reads ‘Operations Room’ – then knocks.

The door is opened abruptly by a tall man with a thick black moustache, who introduces himself as Paul Carter, the man she spoke to on the phone. He wears hiking boots with brown socks pulled halfway up his calves. He strikes her as the sort of bloke who probably likes to spend his Friday evenings at one of the municipal beach-barbecue areas that are popular in New Zealand, although now his expression is strained, his brows heavy.

Behind him Lana can see a woman working in front of a computer screen. To her left is a noticeboard covered with maps, charts and printed weather reports. In the centre a sheet of white paper has been pinned, headed with the title, ‘The Blue: Crew List’.

Lana’s insides tighten. The names of the crew have been written in thick black marker pen and she scans each of them, her fists balled at her sides, palms sweating.

Each and every one of those five names dredges up memories that come flooding to the surface of her thoughts. Her heart pounds. It is only when Paul Carter takes a small step to the side, blocking her view of the noticeboard, that she looks up.

‘Can I help you?’ he asks coolly.

She swallows. ‘I’m Lana Lowe. I called earlier about The Blue.’

‘You shouldn’t be in here.’

‘There wasn’t anyone on reception,’ she tells him.

‘I’m afraid you need to leave—’

‘I know the yacht,’ Lana says desperately. ‘I used to sail on it.’

That catches his attention. ‘You did? When?’

‘Earlier this year – from January to March.’

‘Are you familiar with what safety equipment and communication devices they had on board? We’ve only had limited contact with them.’

She thinks for a moment, sweeping her mind over the yacht. ‘There were just the standard things – a life raft, life jackets, a grab bag, flares, an EPIRB. There was the VHF radio, and maybe another type, too.’ She can’t remember the names of things any more – the details of the yacht that were once so familiar are now beginning to slip away.

‘What about a satellite phone or personal locator beacons?’

‘No, not that I know of. None of those.’

Paul Carter nods, taking this in.

Lana asks, ‘What happened out there?’

‘I’m afraid I need to get back to my desk now.’

‘Please,’ she says. ‘My friends are on board.’

Paul Carter looks at her, then across at his female colleague. ‘All I can say at the moment is that the crew got into difficulties and had to abandon the vessel.’

‘Is there any news? Are the crew safe?’

‘Search and Rescue are doing everything they can, but no, there’s no news yet. A distress broadcast has been put out to all the vessels in the region, and a sailing yacht and merchant ship are diverting course to approach the search area.’

‘Approach? No one is even there yet?’

‘Both vessels were over forty miles away at the time. The Search and Rescue helicopter is already in the search area and we’re expecting more news soon.’

‘Did the crew make it onto the life raft?’

‘We have no information about that, I’m afraid.’

‘So … they could be in the water?’

‘It is possible, yes.’

*

Lana is desperate to remain in the Operations Room, knowing that Paul Carter will be the first person to receive any news, but he tells her, ‘One of my colleagues has organized a waiting room for relatives. Other family members are on their way here.’

Who, she thinks? The only crew with family in New Zealand are Aaron and Denny. She imagines Denny’s parents would want to be here; she remembers him talking about how much he missed them. It would be over two years since he saw them last.

‘I’ll take you there now.’ He looks over his shoulder. ‘Fiona, which room have they allocated?’

‘I think it was Twelve A,’ she says, hands poised above a keyboard.

Somewhere in the office a radio begins to beep. Paul Carter moves towards a desk where a large monitor is mounted. He picks up a hand-held device attached to it. A voice at the other end is saying, ‘Maritime Rescue, Maritime Rescue, this is Team One, this is Team One. Can you hear us?’

Paul Carter holds the radio handset to his mouth. ‘This is Maritime Rescue. Go ahead, Team One.’

‘We have been tracking the EPIRB for The Blue and have now located it.’

Lana holds herself still, hope rising in her chest. Denny once explained that an EPIRB is a device that is set off in any rescue situation. It is registered to a vessel and gives off the precise position via GPS, and then continues to transmit its position until the device – and hopefully crew – are located.

‘Go ahead, Team One. What is the current position?’

‘The position is 32*59.098′S, 173*16.662′E. I repeat, the position is 32*59.098′S, 173*16.662′E.’

Paul Carter leans over his desk, typing the coordinates into one of the three screens that are set up on the main desk. ‘Copy that. Do you have a visual? Is the EPIRB aboard the life raft?’

There is a delay, then the rush of static.

Lana looks at Paul Carter’s expression. His brow is furrowed and his mouth is fixed in a serious line. ‘I repeat, is the EPIRB aboard the life raft?’

The reply comes over the radio, filling the room. ‘There is no life raft in sight. The EPIRB is attached to a body.’