AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘All right, Phil. We’re going to get you back to shore as quickly as we can.’
‘I thought I was going to drown.’
Nikki put her arm around him.
‘You’re all right now. We’ve got you.’
‘Where are the others? Where are the others?’ His voice rose in panic.
‘They’re OK. They’re on the beach. It’s all good.’
‘Thank you.’ He slumped against her, exhausted by his ordeal.
‘That’s all right. It’s what we’re here for. Do you know what the day is?’
‘Wednesday? It’s my bloody birthday. My fiftieth.’
‘Happy birthday.’
‘I could have died,’ he said again.
‘You could have,’ she said. ‘But you didn’t.’
‘Ambulance is on its way to the boathouse,’ Dan told her.
‘Ambulance?’ said Phil. ‘I’m fine.’
‘You need checking over,’ said Nikki firmly. You didn’t mess about with possible hypothermia. It was deceptive, and she could tell Phil wasn’t as alert as he probably should be.
‘My wife’s going to kill me,’ said Phil. ‘She’s cooking a special dinner.’
‘I think she’ll probably be very glad you’re safe,’ said Nikki.
Phil’s face crumpled. He was going to cry. This often happened. Being rescued was an overwhelming experience.
‘You’re going to be fine,’ said Nikki gently. ‘With a bit of luck, you’ll be back in time for birthday cake.’
‘My kayak. It was her present to me.’
‘We’ve got it,’ said Dan. He’d fished it out of the water while Nikki was settling him and strapped it onto the side. ‘You can come and pick it up from the boathouse.’
Phil covered his face with his hands. ‘I don’t know how to thank you.’
Knowing they’d saved someone’s life was all the thanks they ever needed. As Speedwell hove back into view, the three of them looked at each other over Phil’s head.
‘Nice work, team,’ said Eddie.
Back in the boathouse, Eddie gave them all a debrief over a cup of tea. Afterwards, Nikki wriggled out of her layers of protective clothing and back into her own clothes as the team trickled back to their real lives, to their work and conversations and meals. Normal service resumed itself quickly. Partners and families and colleagues were used to the interruption and learned not to complain. How could you?
Before she left, she stood on the harbour by the slipway and offered up a prayer of thanks for a successful rescue. She was never quite sure who the prayer was to, for she didn’t believe in God any more than she believed in Neptune or Poseidon, but she felt she owed gratitude to something and it was her ritual, a quiet moment of contemplation where she shut her eyes and acknowledged that she had only played a very small part in the outcome.
When she opened her eyes, she found the coxswain, Archie Fowler, had come to find her.
‘Everything OK?’
‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘I wanted a word, that’s all.’
‘What about?’ She felt a flicker of anxiety. The postcard was always there, at the back of her mind. She felt a slight prickling on the back of her neck, as if someone was watching her from afar. Could it be a member of the crew who had sent it? They were all taught to observe, after all. Perhaps one of them had seen something—
