To the Sea Page 2

  ‘Either of you ever been at a scene with a body before?’

  ‘Yes, sir,’ said Eric. ‘Car accidents on the highway and a few drownings. We’ve probably seen more than you CIB guys in town. Still don’t like them much though.’

  ‘There’s not much to like. Paul, Narelle, you two split up and start taking statements and follow your noses. Narelle, take photos of everything. If there’s any chance this girl is out of the water and still alive, let’s get the active search underway as a priority. You two boys stay close to the detectives and follow their lead.’ They all looked at each other and nodded.

  ‘Let’s go,’ said Tony. ‘Keep me informed of everything. Thanks for the coffee.’

  He had finished the coffee, which wasn’t too bad, and felt better for the caffeine hit. He got back into his car and drove through the wide gateway and down the long white sandy drive with the others following close behind.

  Sadie

  ‘I CAN ANSWER ALL YOUR QUESTIONS,’ SADIE CALLED OUT TO THE MAN standing on the front verandah looking across the lawn and out over the sound, taking it all in. He was the detective in charge. Sadie was sure of that.

  ‘There really is no point talking to us all. We’ll all just tell you the same thing.’ She kept talking as she approached him, shook his hand and steered him back towards the open living room doors.

  ‘Thank you. And you are?’

  The detective was surprisingly young to be running this investigation, Sadie thought. He looked just like what you would expect a young ambitious detective to look like: close-cropped dark hair, sharp suit, polished shoes and an expensive white shirt with a dark tie loosened at the collar. He was holding his suit jacket in one hand and what looked like a standard issue notebook and pen in the other. He had a light sweat on his clean-shaven upper lip and Sadie was tempted to reach out and wipe it away.

  ‘I’m Sarah Kennett. It’s my sister who has drowned.’ Sadie was shocked by the words as they came out of her mouth. ‘But call me Sadie. No one calls me Sarah.’

  ‘You made the triple zero call.’

  ‘Yes.’

  Sadie stood in front of the detective in her sleeveless white summer dress with its distinctive gold collar and matching gold sandals and could not think of another thing to say to him. She could hear Cecile talking to a young uniformed policeman at the bottom of the lawn. Suddenly there were policemen everywhere. Sadie hadn’t heard any cars arrive but she’d been down on the beach for a while and all you could hear down there were the waves and the gulls. One of the officers was down on the jetty draping a blue and white chequered tape along the wooden rails and across the entrance from the beach. He must have decided that was the crime scene, she thought.

  She tried to focus in on the conversation Cecile was having but couldn’t make out the words. She looked around for her children but couldn’t see them anywhere. She wondered where Roger was.

  ‘Detective Inspector Tony Vincent. Hobart CIB.’

  He extended his hand to Sadie and she shook it briefly. He had a firm but relaxed voice. For all that he was young, he appeared confident and in control. Sadie noted that he didn’t express any sorrow for the family’s loss or acknowledge the tragedy. Obviously that was not part of police training.

  DI Vincent walked away from the open living room doors and over to a long table on the lawn. He placed his jacket on the table, loosened his tie a little more and then opened his notebook.

  ‘The missing young woman is seventeen-year-old Zoe Kennett, your sister. Is that correct?’

  He didn’t look at Sadie as he spoke. He had his head down and was reading from some handwritten notes in his notebook.

  ‘Yes, that’s correct.’

  ‘And what can you tell me about what’s happened to Zoe?’

  ‘She went snorkelling in Driving Sound last evening and she hasn’t come back.’ Sadie heard her voice crack.

  ‘Driving Sound?’

  ‘This bay here,’ said Sadie, pointing to the water at the bottom of the dunes.

  ‘Why was her disappearance not reported last night?’

  ‘It was confusing last night. I don’t think we realised Zoe hadn’t come back until this morning.’

  She knew what his next question would be and she braced for it.

  ‘And no one thought to call the police this morning when you all realised Zoe had not come back?’

  ‘We all looked for her but eventually I thought I should call the police.’

  The young detective’s eyebrows rose almost imperceptibly. But Sadie saw it. ‘And this is your house?’ As he asked this question, he looked up and slowly extended his arm to take in the house, the lawn and the ocean.

  ‘No. This is Rosetta - my parents’ shack.’

  He smiled slowly as he looked up at the big white house behind him. ‘Some shack.’

  DI Vincent looked back out to sea. Sadie followed his gaze down to the jetty. Cecile and Carl were down there now with a young sandy-haired policeman in uniform and a female detective with long curly hair blowing out in a red halo around her head.

  Cecile was talking animatedly and pointing down the coast to the southeast. Sadie couldn’t imagine what she was saying. Zoe had been snorkelling in the sound, not sailing around the coast. She wished Cecile would stay focused and not make this any more complicated than it needed to be. Carl had his arm around Cecile’s shoulders. He would be trying to keep her calm.

  ‘Would it be easier if I just wrote a witness statement?’ Sadie asked, remembering the detective.

  He was moving so slowly, and Sadie just wanted it finished with. She wanted him and all his officers to get on with finding Zoe. ‘Thank you and yes, we will require a written statement from you, but right now I would appreciate your time to answer a few questions. If it’s not inconvenient?’ He looked at Sadie and waited for her to answer.

  ‘Yes. Of course. I mean, no, of course it’s not inconvenient. I just thought it might be quicker for everyone if I wrote a statement and you could get on with something else.’ The detective turned his gaze back to the water.

  ‘Just out of interest, what else do you think I might be getting on with?’

  He had lowered his notebook to his side now and was standing relaxed with his weight on one leg and one hand in his pocket as he continued watching the scene down on the jetty. The sun was behind the people on the jetty and they shimmered golden in its afternoon glow. The faint breeze was not yet cool enough to take the heat out of the long afternoon or break the surface of the blue water.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ said Sadie. ‘I don’t know what you should be doing. I’ve only ever worked with the police in a professional capacity and this is completely different. Please, just do whatever it is you feel you need to.’

  ‘And what is it that you do when you work with the police?’

  ‘I’m a social worker and I often work with victims of crime.’

  The detective continued looking towards the people down on the jetty and said more to himself than to Sadie, ‘A social worker.’ He paused and pointed to the jetty. ‘The two people down on the jetty with my detective. Are they also members of your family?’

  ‘Yes, my brother and one of my sisters. Carl and Cecile. The whole family is down for Christmas.’

  ‘Have there been other people on the jetty today? People other than your family?’

  ‘No. It’s a private jetty, a private beach really. No one but our family uses this bit of the coast.’

  She looked at his side profile but his face did not change. ‘That must be nice,’ he said in an even voice. ‘So that little yacht tied up to the jetty. That belongs to your family?’ He pointed to the small white boat.

  ‘The Laser? Technically it’s a dinghy. It’s Zoe’s,’ said Sadie. Why did she need to correct his sailing terminology? What was wrong with her?

  ‘Was Zoe out in that boat when she went missing?’

  ‘No, she was snorkelling.’

  She looked at DI Vincent and said,
‘She definitely wasn’t out sailing. There was only a weak offshore breeze yesterday and the Laser had been tied up all day. Zoe would normally put it in the boatshed at the end of the day.’ She paused. ‘Not yesterday though.’ There was a choking sensation in the back of her throat. ‘I think she was snorkelling. Actually, I’m not sure what she was doing in the water.’

  DI Vincent nodded his head slowly and continued looking at the boat.

  ‘Could you please tell me exactly who was here yesterday when Zoe went missing?’ He had raised his notebook again and was ready to start recording Sadie’s answers.

  ‘Our whole family’s here: my parents, my two sisters and their husbands and children, my brother and his children, and my husband and our children. And of course, Zoe.’

  ‘And are all those people still here? Except Zoe?’

  ‘Yes, they’re all scattered about the place. I think my parents are upstairs. My mother’s not well. My sister Edie is with the younger kids, I think. My brothers-in-law, Max and Con, are over there under that pine tree with one of your men and you can see most of the other children.’

  ‘So, how many people were here yesterday all together?’ Detective Inspector Vincent looked up at Sadie as he asked this question.

  ‘Um. Sixteen.’

  ‘And does that include Zoe?’

  ‘No, seventeen if you count Zoe.’

  ‘Let’s count Zoe, shall we, Mrs Kennett?’ he said matter-of-factly as he again started writing in his notebook.

  ‘It’s Ms Kennett. I kept my name when I got married. Look, just call me Sadie.’ Sadie could feel her eyes stinging and bile rising from the pit of her stomach. She didn’t like this detective with the quiet manner covering his judgements of her and her family. Sadie tried not to care what he thought. It didn’t matter.

  ‘Just to reiterate,’ Sadie said evenly, ‘there were seventeen of us here up until Zoe went snorkelling last night and now there are sixteen of us. Is that clear enough for you?’

  The bile was rising faster now and a tear trailed slowly down the side of her face. She looked away from him and focused on the lawn just in front of her. She was rigid, ready to scream or run around in tight circles on the grass like a mad woman. She was losing it. She had lost her sister and now she was losing control. This was a new sensation. She should tell Roger. He would be pleased.

  ‘The divers are here,’ the detective said as two police launches came into view from around the bluff. There were four men on board each boat and some were already in full diving gear. ‘It’s getting late but we should be able to get a few hours of diving in.’

  Sadie watched him as he closed his notebook and slipped it into his pocket as he spoke.

  ‘Thank you for your time, Sadie. I’ll catch up with you later to finish my interview. I need to get the divers started. Will your brother and sister be able to point them in the right direction?’

  Sadie nodded.

  He looked over at her. ‘And I need to speak to your parents. Just your father will do if your mother isn’t up to an interview today, but as Zoe’s parents, I do need to speak to one of them and also get a photo of Zoe.’

  ‘I’ll talk to my father now. He’ll be here to meet with you when you come back up to the house.’

  Just as he was turning to go, Tony paused. ‘Sadie, we’re here to help,’ he said. ‘My job is to ask questions so I can find your sister.’

  He raised his hand in a casual salute and jogged off down the lawn towards the sand dunes. She watched him as he disappeared for a moment and then reappeared on the little beach below. He jumped up onto the jetty, ducked under the police tape and strode down towards a policeman who was getting off the boat. He had his back to Sadie but she could tell he was taking control of all the people standing around him and those still on the boat. Ben had trotted over to him from where he’d been sitting at Carl’s side. Sadie noticed how the detective’s hand immediately slipped down to gently rub Ben’s ear while he continued talking to the others. He pointed towards Table Rock and Sadie saw Cecile shake her head. Carl was also shaking his head. What on earth could he be asking?

  The orange sun was still hot but there were only a few hours of daylight left. Sadie felt that the worst part of this day was still in front of her. She watched DI Vincent turn back to the boat and lean over the side rail to talk to the divers. The officer at the wheel of the boat started the engine and DI Vincent jumped on board. The two divers put on their face masks and the boat slowly chugged further out into the sound. DI Vincent was standing on deck looking up at Rosetta when both the divers went over the side.

  Sadie heard the small splash as they disappeared under the flat blue surface of Driving Sound. The next sound she heard was a loud sob escape from her chest and she leaned over and threw up on the soft grass and her gold sandals.

  Eva

  ROSETTA WAS NOTHING LIKE THE LOLLY-COLOURED LITTLE FIBRO HOUSES along Pelagus Road. It had been built before Garnet Point was a seaside town. Before the causeways were built across Pitt Water and Orielton Lagoon, the better part of two centuries before the Tasman Bridge was built to link the eastern and western shores of the Derwent River, and a full century before there were roads from the Port Arthur highway across the hills to Garnet Point. The construction of Rosetta began when this corner of Van Diemen’s Land was still deemed terra nullius and the local natives were the only ones present to see the great white house rise from the sand and stone and sea in front of their disbelieving eyes. For all but the last sixty years of its long life, Rosetta could only be approached from the sea.

  Eva had known months before this Christmas that it was a bad idea to have a family summer together at Rosetta. She’d been worried about Zoe for some time. She knew what Zoe was going through and that they would both need time and peace to figure it out. Eva had told her other children that she wasn’t well and she would rather spend Christmas Day at one of their houses, but they’d all started arriving at Rosetta in the days before Christmas as if she had not spoken.

  Eva wasn’t surprised. Her children had never taken any notice of the things she said. Perhaps that was why she’d stopped telling them anything important so long ago. Perhaps they couldn’t hear her. But then again, Eva wondered, perhaps she didn’t talk to her children as much as she thought she did. The lines between the real world, the one her husband and noisy older children inhabited, and her own quiet world, were not like the fine lines on a map which separate the land from the sea so distinctly. Sadie frequently told Eva that she lived too much in her internal world. As if Sadie would know.

  Her older children had always been a complete mystery to Eva: loud, happy, beautiful children who were clever at school and confident in life. She guessed that John must have been like this as a child as she could not recognise anything of herself in them. When she was little, she had never whined or yelled or asked for hugs or kisses. Eva couldn’t imagine running up to Branna and just sitting on her lap while she was reading, or pushing open the bathroom door and walking around the bathroom talking in a loud voice while Branna was lying in the bath. Eva had been quiet and had waited for her parents to come to her.

  Branna hadn’t come to Eva very much, but then she hadn’t been well and Eva knew she’d been too much for her most of the time. But Eva couldn’t remember minding or even wishing it was different. Branna lay on the couch on the front verandah a lot or sometimes didn’t even get out of bed all day and Eva knew that she had to be quiet and wait until her mother was well again. Eva had never known when that would be or how it might happen but, until it did, there was her grandpa and grandma, but mostly there was her father.

  Don was something else. He would grab her and pick her up into his thick salty-smelling arms. He would rub his bristly face into her neck and cheeks and kiss her till she had to beg him to stop so she could breathe. He would tickle her and tell her to run and hide so he could chase her all around the house, and when he caught her, as he always did, he would roll with her on the floor,
tickling and cuddling her while she screeched and laughed until she couldn’t breathe again.

  She didn’t have to wait for him or ask him for anything. He came to her and gave her everything. Branna would look at them and smile. She could no more have joined in their games than she could have flown off the verandah out over the sea with the gulls. She never played with Eva or hugged her or had very much to say to her either. Branna loved her. Eva knew that, but she didn’t do anything or say anything to Eva to confirm this fact and Eva didn’t ask. She wouldn’t have even known to ask.

  But Eva’s children were different. They were demanding and they never got enough of whatever it was they were demanding of her. She had tried to give them all they wanted but had tired of the effort while they were still a swarming mass of little blonde heads on tottering legs calling out to her in a confused baby tongue. They were all grown up now. A loud group of middle-aged adults with husbands and wives and children of their own. The grandchildren were even more of a mystery to her than her own children had ever been. Eva stood at the window of her upstairs bedroom and looked out at the crowd of people who were her family filling the verandah chairs and standing around in small groups on the lawn. She realised that, after all these years, this was what was left.

  Zoe was gone. It already felt like she had never been here.

  Sadie

  SADIE WATCHED THE DIVERS SEARCHING FOR HER SISTER. SHE WAS UPSTAIRS in the big bay window of Zoe’s room, sitting at the old roll-top desk which had been their great-grandmother’s. This had been Sadie’s room when she was a girl and her mother’s before her. Eva had been born in this room, and Sadie knew that the sea and the sound of singing seals on the beach below were her mother’s first sights and sounds. The old desk was tidy, like the rest of the room, with only Zoe’s laptop, some sailing club schedules, a few Christmas cards and some photos of Zoe and her friends performing to the camera on the last day of term. Sadie didn’t know any of the other girls in the photos.