After the Storm (27 page)

‘You’re powerless when you’re a young kid. Your parents have all the control.’

It had jarred with her at the time but now it made sense. She went on to read the reports of the inquest. She was surprised and angered at how few column inches were devoted to it. Three lives ended violently and a fourteen-year-old boy left traumatised for life: surely it was worth more than the few inches she could find here? The last sentence said flatly:

The couple’s son Owen was the sole survivor of the attack.

Survivor? How did you ever survive something like that? This was the horror Owen had been carrying inside himself for the last twenty-four years. She followed more links and came across a longer article, written by a journalist six months after the killings. She printed this article and left the internet café.

She realised she hadn’t eaten all day so she found a café, ordered a tortilla and started to read the article. This journalist had dug deeper for details of the atrocity and had spoken to Jim Adams’ sister Cally. He must have gained her trust because he got her to reveal much more about what had led to the frenzied attack. Cally explained that about a year before the killings there had been a freak accident at the air base; a spillage of fuel which had covered an airman. He had caught fire and burned alive in front of Jim. The dead man had been a friend of Jim’s; they had joined the Air Force at the same time. Cally said her brother was never the same after witnessing that accident. He had broken down once and told her about it; had said the screams and the smell came back to him all the time. It was impossible to stop the images playing in his mind. But it was his memory of the smell that was the worst. It was for ever in his nostrils and the smell of a burning body was something you could never forget.

‘They didn’t help him. The air force was his life and they abandoned him,’
she was quoted as saying.

Cally also shared Jim Adams’ suicide note with the journalist. This had been found by the police in the pocket of his jeans. He had written that the world was an evil place where it was impossible to live a good life and be a good person. There was a battle going on between good and evil forces and the Devil had all the power and was going to triumph. His wife Bronwyn and his beloved children Owen and Megan were pure souls. He loved them and he had to save them from future sin and wretchedness by killing them. He knew God would forgive him and would gather them all to his bosom. Amen. Anna read the article twice and was close to tears. She folded it and put it in her bag. She left the café and headed back to the bus stop.

The taxi trundled down the path and pulled up in front of the gates of the Carter villa. Rob asked the driver to wait and he and Owen got out. Owen’s T-shirt was now badly stained by the blood and he took faltering steps so that Rob gripped him by the arm as they approached the gates. They were locked and a guard was sitting on a stool on the other side fanning himself with a newspaper. He got to his feet and came to the gate.

‘We need to speak to Gideon Carter at once,’ Owen said through the bars.

‘I don’t think so,’ the guard said.

‘It’s urgent.’

The guard shook his head.

‘He’s not seeing anyone today.’

Rob tried.

‘We’re worried about a guest who was at the party last night, Kimberly Adams. All we want to know is if she’s in the house.’

‘All the guests have gone,’ the guard said.

‘Can we speak to Barbara Carter then?’ Owen said, his voice hardening.

‘I’ve had instructions. They’re seeing no-one today.’

Rob tried again.

‘We’re very worried. Kim has not arrived home. She was here last night. All we’re asking is that you check with the Carters that she left here safely and at what time.’

‘There’s no point my checking. All the guests are gone.’

‘You’re a cunt,’ Owen said.

The guard gave them both an insolent smile and made a finger gesture. He turned and went back to his stool and his newspaper. Owen looked murderous as Rob led him back to the taxi.

‘Back to Oak Ridge?’ the driver asked.

He had his windows down and had heard the exchange with the guard.

‘Not yet. There must be someone else we can ask,’ Rob said looking around.

‘My cousin works in the big house,’ the driver said.

Owen looked up.

‘Is there another way in?’

‘There’s the staff entrance round the back. I’ll take you there.’

He reversed up the drive and parked around the corner, out of sight of the guard at the front gates. Then he used his phone to call someone. He spoke rapidly and then turned to them.

‘My cousin will come and speak to you.’

He pointed to the path that led down by the side of the garden wall.

‘There’s a door there.’

Rob and Owen walked down the path towards the door. The driver followed a few steps behind them. After some minutes the garden door in the wall opened and a tired looking woman came out looking around nervously. The driver said something to her in Spanish.

‘She was working at the party last night,’ he said.

Owen spoke urgently to the woman.

‘Did you see my wife? Kimberly Adams. Small, blonde curly hair.’ He stopped and thought. ‘Wearing a white dress.’

The woman nodded.

‘I see her.’

‘Did she stay here last night?’

‘I think so. At the top of the house.’

‘And she’s still here?’

‘No, she was gone when I come this morning.’

‘What time was that?’ Owen asked.

‘About seven-thirty.’

Owen exhaled and leaned against the wall as if he needed it to support him.

‘You’re sure she’s gone?’ Rob said.

The woman nodded slowly.

‘She’s gone.’

Owen had gone very white and his legs had buckled.

‘They killed my Kimmie,’ he said.

Rob took him by the arm and led him back to the car. The driver touched Rob’s arm and jerked his head in the direction of his cousin.

‘She’s a widow and she’s got three children to feed.’

‘Of course,’ Rob said.

He helped Owen into the car and then walked back and gave the woman a twenty-dollar bill.

It was a slow journey back on the bus and Anna felt deeply shaken by what she had read. It had shifted a lot of things in her mind. So his father in his great distress had found God who
would gather them all to his
bosom
. Owen hated religion. But it must hold some fascination for him or why else would he have suggested they go watch the baptism on the beach? She understood now how Kimberly had been trying to protect Owen for years. She was a loving and loyal person; there could be no doubting that. But she wondered if Kimberly’s way of dealing with it, keeping it all a deep dark secret, was the right way. She had learned through her work that buried trauma created misery and sickness. Owen suffered from acute insomnia. He had been self-harming for years. Those scars on his chest and stomach, which he hid from everyone, must be daily reminders of what he had witnessed. She found herself anxious and aware of how dangerous last night had been. Owen was an unexploded bomb.

And poor Jim Adams, his tormented father, he too was a victim. He had witnessed a horror which he could not forget or escape. He had said
‘I’m saving
you’
as he stabbed his wife and daughter to death. Was it possible that Jim Adams thought that killing his family was an act of love? As she got off the bus at Oak Ridge she noticed two policemen with a huddle of people standing around them. The people were asking questions, talking in Spanish so she couldn’t understand what it was about, but everyone looked grim. As she moved past the crowd she had an even stronger feeling than she’d had the day before that they should not have moved to the cabins. There was something about Oak Ridge that unnerved her. It was partly the smell of the place. There was the reek of rotting fish on the air. But it was also as if some equilibrium between the four of them had been disturbed when they left the boat.

She climbed the hill and when she got to the top she saw Kimberly sitting on the doorstep of their cabin. She looked dishevelled and was wearing her white party dress which was stained. She hurried over but Kimberly did not stand up; just sat there looking up at her with a weary expression on her face.

‘Here you are, we’ve all been worried about you. Are you OK?’

Kim shook her head.

‘I’m locked out. I’ve been sitting here for hours.’

‘Rob and Owen are out looking for you.’

‘It’s a long story. But first I need a shower and can you lend me some clean clothes.’

‘Of course.’

Anna unlocked their cabin.

Kim stood in the shower. Her nipples were very sore now and the jets of water were painful against them. She turned her back to the water and cried for a few minutes. She still didn’t feel clean and she didn’t feel ready to face Anna’s clear-eyed questions. After Teyo had dropped her down by the harbour she had felt him watching her as she walked away. So she’d headed along the beach as if she was going to the boat. She kept walking until she was sure he had driven away. She saw a lounger left under a tree and sat down on it. Something precious between her and Owen was lost for ever. She lay down and cried herself to sleep. What woke her several hours later was the voice of a man demanding payment for the lounger. She’d had to explain that she had no money and he’d got nasty with her. When she’d got back to the cabins they were both locked up. She got out of the shower and dried and dressed herself in the panties and T-shirt Anna had given her. Anna was taller than her and she was glad the T-shirt was long enough to cover the beginnings of thumb sized bruises at the top of her thighs; those tell-tale bruises. She had the strongest impulse to throw her white satin dress away. She could not imagine ever wanting to wear it again. She bundled it up and joined Anna in the kitchen.

‘I’m making tea. Do you want a coffee?’

‘Yeah, thanks.’

She sat at the kitchen table and watched Anna put the kettle on.

‘So what happened?’

‘I had to stay over at the Carters’ because of the storm. It was only when I was walking back this morning that I found my money and keys had been taken. I had to walk back all the way and I tripped and grazed myself.’

She showed Anna her grazed arms. Anna put a mug of coffee down in front of her.

‘But where’ve you been all day?’

‘It was a long walk back and when I got to Oak Ridge I lay down on a lounger and fell asleep. I drank too much Anna and I’ve been paying for it today.’

Anna was going through the ritual of pouring boiling water onto the tea bag and then the stirring and the fishing out. Kim thought tea was a disgusting drink. She wondered if Anna believed her story.

‘Last night Owen had the highest temperature and was very sick,’ she said as she sat down opposite her.

‘He was OK when I left,’ Kim said.

‘He got worse and worse and then he started to cut himself.’

Kim put her mug down.

‘My knife?’

‘Yes. On his chest…’

For some reason Anna made the gesture of cutting with her hand.

‘He was bleeding badly and when I got him to calm down he told me… he told me about what happened… when he was fourteen.’

The two women looked at each other for a long moment. Kim was devastated that it should be Anna of all people who was the first person Owen had ever told his secret to. It meant something she had suspected for a while was happening. Anna was getting very close to Owen.

‘Please don’t talk about that to anyone.’

Her voice was quite sharp, sharper than she had intended.

‘I’m sorry, I already told Rob.’

‘Don’t say
anything
to anyone else. It’s not known on the island and we want it to keep it that way.’

‘It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Owen was an innocent victim.’

‘The last thing he needs is people going all compassionate on him.’

‘I think it might help him if he could talk about it.’

‘You don’t know what you’re dealing with here.’

‘I do work with people who’ve gone through bad stuff you know,’ Anna said.

‘He doesn’t want to be treated like a cripple.’

Kim’s voice was even sharper and Anna looked dismayed. At that exact moment they both heard the men’s steps outside the cabin and rose to their feet. Anna opened the door and they saw Rob supporting Owen as they came towards them. Owen’s T-shirt had a great dark stain at the front and he looked dreadful. He saw Kim and made a kind of moan and she ran to him and embraced him and he flinched as her head touched his chest.

‘I need the keys darlin’,’ she said.

She unlocked their cabin and helped him in.

Back in their cabin Rob was strung out. He sank into a chair in the kitchen and told Anna that a woman’s body had been found at the fish plant and how Owen had reacted to the news.

‘He thought it was Kim. He was convinced it was her. It was awful. Then we went up to Port Royal to look for her.’

‘He looks very ill.’

‘His cuts keep bleeding. It’s been a really tough day.’

She put her hand over his and stroked it. She wanted to tell him all the stuff she had found out about Owen but somehow they had seen enough darkness for one day. All their holiday light-heartedness was long gone.

‘Do they know who the dead woman is?’ Anna asked.

‘No, not yet. Or if they do they’re not saying.’

She remembered the two prostitutes she had seen down by the harbour, not far from the fish plant, and she shuddered at the thought that one of them might be the victim.

Owen stayed in bed all day, which was something Kim could not remember his doing in all their years of marriage. It was strange for her to watch him resting like this. It was as if he was catching up on years of missed sleep. She didn’t want to leave him for long so she headed along the path by the cabins to the poor dwellings beyond where a local woman sold chickens, eggs and vegetables from her back yard. The old woman had laid down a potato sack and there were five decapitated chickens lying on it and a pile of earthy onions. The chickens were all scrawny and had been plucked inexpertly. Kim pointed to one and scooped up some onions.