Eye of the Storm (10 page)

Niamh felt her face begin to heat up. What could she say about Tony with Carrie sitting beside her? There was no reason to think that Tony had told his sister about their kiss in the back of the
car yesterday. How much should she say?

His name is Tony. No juicy details till you get to Dad’s computer. I’ll wait online.

Pictures?

Niamh glanced at Carrie, her cheeks burning.

Carrie laughed. ‘I’m sure I can find somethin’ for you,’ she said.

Yes.

Cool! I’m on my way!
Give me 5 mins.

The green dot disappeared from next to Beth’s name, signifying that she had gone offline.

‘So, you and Tony are an item then?’ Carrie stated more than asked as she leaned back against the headboard. ‘That was fast work for him. He’s not normally so quick when
it comes to girls.’

‘I wouldn’t say “item”. We got to spend some time together yesterday afternoon, and we like each other, yeah,’ Niamh mumbled.

‘See? I told you he was into you, didn’t I?’ Carrie put her arm round Niamh and gave her waist a gentle squeeze. ‘I’m glad you two are hookin’ up.
You’ll be great together.’

‘I hope so.’

‘I know so.’ Carrie swung her legs off the bed and got up. ‘Do you want some breakfast? I’ll go make it while we wait for your friend to get to your house.’

‘That would be nice. Thanks.’

‘What would you like? Pancakes? Waffles?’

‘Just some toast, thanks. I’ll come with you. We can take the laptop through to the kitchen.’

Tony was in the kitchen. He’d laid the breakfast bar with place settings, bowls and plates, and had poured three glasses of fruit juice.

‘Mornin’, bro’. This all looks very organised. Should I ask what the occasion is?’ Carrie teased.

‘No occasion,’ he replied, trying to look nonchalant. ‘Just looking after our guest.’

‘Guest? That’s a bit formal, isn’t it?’ she said, giving him a cheeky wink.

‘Oh, leave him alone, Carrie,’ Niamh said, giving her a friendly push on the shoulder. ‘He’s being very sweet. Thanks, Tony. Where should I sit?’ She put the laptop
down on the breakfast bar where they would all be able to see the screen and gave him a warm smile.

‘The middle will be fine,’ he said.

‘So that you get to sit next to Niamh wherever I sit,’ Carrie observed. ‘Sharp move, bro’. I like it.’

‘Carrie!’ Niamh warned, taking the middle seat. ‘It’s fine if he wants to sit next to me, because
I
happen to want to sit next to him.’

Niamh could feel her face burning again at her declaration, but the smile Tony gave her made the feeling of embarrassment worthwhile. She took her place and began sipping at her orange juice,
hoping that the chilled drink would help to cool her flushed cheeks.

‘OK, I’ll stop my teasing. I assume that was Mom I heard leavin’ a little while back.’

‘Yeah, and Dad went to work just after seven.’

‘Thought so. Well, as you’re playin’ host, Tony, Niamh would like some toast, and I’ll have pancakes with maple syrup, please.’

Tony’s eyebrows rose as his sister sat down to Niamh’s right, placed her hands on the breakfast bar and smiled at him.

The computer gave out a popping sound that announced someone was sending a message on chat. Niamh ran her finger over the mouse mat and the screensaver disappeared, leaving the familiar format
of Niamh’s Facebook home page.

‘Wow! That was quick,’ she said, looking at the screen. ‘Beth must have sprinted.’

In your dad’s office. You were saying about Tony…?! Need I ask if he’s hot?

Niamh looked across the breakfast bar at Tony who was loading the toaster with bread.

Yes, I think you would say so. I’m looking at him now.

He’s there!
Could be awkward.

You’ve no idea! His sister Carrie is sitting next to me. She says she’ll find me a photo to send you later, but can you do something for me first?

Sure.

Open Word. Then click on Open Document.

Done.

There should be a folder called Devil’s Triangle or something similar.

Got it.

I need you to email me a copy of the folder to my hotmail address.

Hasn’t your Dad got this with him on his laptop? I didn’t think he went anywhere without it.

Dad’s not here right now and there’s something we need to find out.

OK. Just a mo . . .

There was a long pause, then another pop.

Can’t attach it. There’s loads of sub-files and dozens of documents in each.

Niamh groaned.

‘What’s the matter?’ Tony asked, moving around the breakfast bar so that he could see the screen. Niamh was glad that the earlier dialogue about him had scrolled off the top of
the window.

‘Beth can’t email the whole folder because it’s too big and it would probably take ages to attach each document individually.’

‘Use online storage then.’

‘What? How do I do that?’

‘There’s loads of websites who offer online storage that can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection,’ he explained. ‘It’s simple: upload the file to
a site, access it from here, copy it on to our computer and delete the online copy. Job done.’

‘Why does technology have to be so . . . technical? It would have been so much easier if she could have just emailed it.’

‘I can do it for you,’ Tony offered. ‘How about I talk to your friend and you girls finish making breakfast?’

Niamh nodded and dashed off a quick explanation to Beth.

Handing over to Tony. He’s going to talk you through some online thingy that should mean you can send me the file.

Cool!

For the next few minutes the girls chatted and laughed as they heated Carrie’s pancakes, and Carrie tried to convince Niamh to try spreading both peanut butter and ‘jelly’ on
her toast. The girls bantered about the different cultural food clichés they associated with either side of the Atlantic, with Tony throwing in the occasional comment. All the while,
Tony’s fingers tapped away on the keyboard.

‘Got it!’ he announced suddenly.

‘Really?’ Niamh asked. ‘Brilliant! Thanks, Tony. Can I just have a quick chat with Beth before she goes.’

‘Sure.’

Hi Beth – Niamh here again. Thanks for that.

No probs. Tony made it easy. Don’t forget that you owe me a photo.

I won’t. Will email a photo in a minute. Should be waiting for you by the time you get home.

Great. Hey, it sounds as though someone’s opening the front door. Have you got a cleaner coming in, or something?

‘Damn!’ Niamh cursed. Her mind began to race and her fingers darted all over the keyboard, sending a string of short messages in rapid succession.

No

Might be the police

No time to explain

Shut down and get out. Quick!

Beth’s status went from green to grey. She was gone.

‘What’s the matter?’ Tony asked.

‘I may have just dropped Beth into a whole load of trouble,’ Niamh sighed, logging out of Facebook. ‘I hope not, but she is not likely to be very pleased with me if the police
find her in the house and decide to question her.’ She minimised the internet window and double-clicked on the Devil’s Triangle folder that now sat on the desktop.

She knew her dad had been collecting information about the Bermuda Triangle for a long time, but just how big was his master folder of information? A window opened with a choice of three
sub-folders labelled
Sea, Air
and
Theories.
She clicked on
Sea.
Within
Sea
was a further selection of sub-folders labelled
Derelicts, Debris Found
and
Disappeared Without Trace.
She clicked on
Derelicts. A
long list of documents appeared, organised by date order. Top of the list was
The Mary Celeste – Dec 1872.

‘Wow!’ Carrie breathed, her head appearing over Niamh’s shoulder. ‘Your dad really did his homework, didn’t he?’

‘Yep. He always has been thorough,’ she said, opening the top file.

‘So how do you want to do this?’ Carrie asked. ‘Should we all look at the files together, or should we copy the lot to other computers and each take a section
separately?’

‘Perhaps we could start by looking at them together and see how we get on,’ Niamh suggested. ‘I think we’re far more likely to find fresh answers if we throw ideas around
as we go.’

‘Together it is,’ Tony said, looking very happy with her answer. He climbed on to the stool to her left and sipped his orange juice. ‘So, the
Mary Celeste,
then. Funny,
I always thought it was the
Marie Celeste.’

‘Lots of people make that mistake,’ Niamh told him. ‘But Dad told me that the
Marie Celeste
was actually the ship in a fictional story written by Arthur Conan Doyle some
time after the events of the real mystery. I’m sure the similarity of the names was deliberate, but lots of people now confuse the fictional ship with the actual one.’

‘Conan Doyle – the guy who wrote
Sherlock Holmes
?’ Tony asked.

‘Oh, yeah, that’s right! The cool detective dude with the hat. Loved the film. Robert Downey Jr! Yum!’ Carrie said.

‘Really? You’re jokin’, right?’ Tony looked shocked. ‘He’s ancient!’

‘Fit though,’ Niamh observed, giving Carrie a wink.

‘Girls, girls!’ Tony protested. ‘Boy present! Can we keep our minds on the problem, please?’

‘Oh, OK. If we must,’ Carrie sighed. ‘But we could do with thinkin’ like a detective if we’re going to solve this mystery.’

‘Thinkin’
like
a detective, yes,’ Tony agreed. ‘Thinkin’
about
an actor who
plays
a detective . . . I don’t think so.’

‘You’re no fun,’ she replied, sticking her tongue out at him.

‘Oh, look!’ Niamh said, pointing at the screen. ‘Dad’s put a relevance note at the bottom.
Relevance
—
Low.
I wonder if he’s done that with all
of them. That would make it a lot easier to sort through everything.’

He had. Niamh opened several of the files in the folder on derelicts and they were all noted as:
Relevance – Low.

‘I guess he must have decided that none of the derelict mysteries have much in common with your mum’s disappearance.’

‘Well, some of these derelicts were found a long way from the Triangle,’ Niamh pointed out. ‘The
Mary Celeste
was found near the Azores which is not even close to the
Bermuda Triangle. Given that it was a long way away, a long time ago and that it was just the people who vanished, you have to admit that there’s not much in common between that and my
mum’s disappearance.’

‘Fair enough,’ Tony said. ‘But let’s try not to rely on your dad’s system, or we’re not gonna reach any conclusions of our own.’

‘Good point. So let’s start by trying to think about the big picture. Boats, aircraft and people in the Triangle either disappear without trace, disappear leaving some evidence of
disaster, which is often as baffling as the disappearance itself, or experience weird phenomena. But what does that tell us?’

‘Maybe there’s more than one phenomenon at work?’ Carrie suggested.

‘Or whatever is causing the mysteries deliberately varies its tactics to muddy the waters,’ Tony added.

‘Both good ideas,’ Niamh said, grabbing a sheet of paper and a pen. Drawing two bubbles, she wrote
Multiple phenomena?
in one and
Deliberate variation?
in another. She
stared at them for a moment and then added another bubble in which she wrote
Transported to somewhere remote?
‘Dad used the name the Devil’s Triangle rather than the Bermuda
Triangle because he felt it implied intent behind what was happening. If you were going to arrange for all these ships, planes and people to disappear, why would you do it?’

‘Money,’ Tony suggested.

‘Power?’ Carrie added, her voice uncertain. ‘Not “take over the world” type power, but “do it because I can” type power. Some people get a real kick out
of that sort of thing.’