******
All day my thoughts kept returning to the empty boatyard. What had happened to Eric and Johno and Maria? In the end I decided to go back over there again to see if I was going to get any more work or if I was going to get paid. Dad was a bit worried. “Still,” he said “You’re a big lad now, but just be careful, those people sound like a pretty violent lot. Better take Jack with you to watch your back.” Jack laughed. “You mean I should go over there and Tim should watch my back!” Jack started up Lizzie and we ran full throttle up the river. When we got to Bob’s Point I told him to slow down so we didn’t make so much noise, but I needn’t have been so cautious. There was still nobody there and the whole boatyard was completely silent. “No one here.” Jack said “Come on, let’s take a look around.”
We tied up and walked very quietly along the jetty, looking cautiously around all the time. Quite frankly I was feeling shit-scared and wishing I hadn’t started all this. If those guys caught us here we could be in big trouble. We walked round to the workshop. There was the smell of fresh paint but nothing else. We went over to the cottage and Jack peered in the windows. “Nobody in.” he said. He knocked loudly on the door while I prepared to sprint back to the boat, but nobody answered. Jack tried the knob and the door opened. “Come on” he said, “let’s look inside.” “Perhaps I should wait out here in case somebody comes,” I said. “You bloody coward, come on.” I looked carefully back at the river, and then went in, leaving the door open, ready for a quick exit if needed. In the kitchen there was a half-eaten tin of spaghetti on the table, and dirty dishes in the sink. Just to be on the safe side I took another look out the window. We went into the bedroom. There was a double bed with the blankets thrown off. Jack looked in the wardrobe. “There’s hardly any clothes in here,” he said “and look, there’s no women’s clothes at all. They’ve shot through.” We made another quick tour of the boatyard. They’d left the cradle down the slipway in the river again. “Bloody hell “ I said, “I’ve told them not to do that. It rusts up the wheels in no time” I went to winch the cradle back up the slipway, but a big cast iron gear wheel on the winch was missing. “That’s funny Jack, I wonder why they took that off?” “Dunno. Well, not much else to see here. That’s a disappointment; I was hoping we’d discover bodies or something. Might as well go home.”
We stepped back into Lizzie and headed off, and I felt very relieved to be safely out of the place. A couple of minutes out from the boatyard we noticed a cloudy patch in the water, and a bit of splashing on the surface. Jack stopped Lizzie and we peered down into the water. There was a shark circling round and lunging at something. I was a bit surprised; we don’t often see sharks well up the river; they prefer salt water, not the brackish water further up. This one must’ve come in on the big tide we’d just had, but what was the attraction now? We got out the emergency paddles to beat off the shark and he swam away down river. As the water cleared we could see a partly eaten body of a man a couple of metres down, with his feet tied to a big iron gearwheel on the bottom. The cloudy stuff in the water was blood. “There you are, that’s what they wanted the gear wheel for, to stop the body from floating up to the surface” said Jack. I wanted to vomit. Jack isn’t turned off by dead bodies like me, just the opposite in fact. “Well” he said cheerfully, “that looks like one missing person found and two to go.” We headed back to the harbour, and Jack phoned the water police. They said they’d come as soon as they could raise some divers. There was another trip due for Annabelle, but dad said I’d better wait in the office for the cops; him and Jack could handle Annabelle.
The water police came up the river in their launch and tied up. Sergeant Angus McFarlane was in charge again. “You’ll have to show us where you found the body” he said. Their launch was a beautiful boat, a big white fiberglass catamaran with a spacious cabin, comfortable seats, a galley, all sorts of electronic gear and two computers. On top of the cabin were radio whip masts, a radar scanner, and two big spotlights. At the stern were two huge Yamaha outboards. The constable at the helm started the outboards, backed around, and headed off down the harbour. “Don’t forget there’s a four knot speed limit in the harbour,” I said. “Mind your own fucking business,” he said, but I noticed he kept the speed down till we were clear of the entrance markers. “Which way now son?” he asked. I pointed the way to go. He opened the twin throttles, and we took off up-river.
I’ve never been on a boat so fast. The twin hulls left deep furrows behind in the curling wake, and I could feel the wind rushing through my hair. As we got close to Bob’s Point I asked him to slow right down, then I directed him over to the murky patch in the water and we dropped anchor. The cops peered down into the water, then two of them put on black wet suits, orange flippers and scuba gear. “Watch out for the bloody shark” said the helmsman, with a big grin on his face. One diver picked up an underwater camera and the other picked up a spear gun, just in case. They did a back flip over the side into the river. We could see them swimming around the corpse taking photos, with strings of air bubbles coming up, then one of them pulled a diver’s knife out of his boot and cut the rope holding the corpse down. It floated to the surface, and the two divers came up and towed it to the side of the launch. The other cops pulled it aboard. The shark had bitten off big chunks, but I could see it was Johno from the boatyard. I felt sick again. “It’s Johno. He was working at the boatyard, ‘till yesterday,” I said. “What’s his second name?” “Dunno." "Well, looks like somebody’s stuck a knife into him between then and now.” The cops wrapped the corpse in a big plastic bag with a zip fastener. “Better leave a marker buoy here.” I said, “You might want to find this spot again.” I had a reason for suggesting this, but I kept it to myself. The divers came back on board over the stern counter.
We cruised over to the boatyard jetty and the cops went ashore. They tried the front door and it opened, so they went in. Later Angus McFarlane came out with some papers and came back aboard the launch. “Looks like you were right Tim, these receipts for the yachts are all forgeries when you look really closely. I wonder where the other two suspects are? What were their names again?" "Eric, and his girlfriend is Maria.” “They probably shot off in that last yacht they had here. If we look up and down the river we might find them. You know what the yacht looks like Tim, keep a sharp lookout for it.” We headed up one side of the river and down the other, but we were really going too fast for a careful look; anyway we didn’t find them. They dropped me back at the marina and took off at high speed.
I borrowed a long boat hook from the marina and headed over to Bob’s Point again. Using the cops’ marker buoy I found the gear wheel on the bottom and pulled it up with the boat hook. I went over to the boat yard and fitted it back on the slipway winch, and then I was able to winch the cradle back up out of the water. I hate to see perfectly good piece of machinery rusting away for the sake of a little bit of attention.