Chapter 21

21

Giving her apologies, Elin follows Farrah to a table a few feet away, where a member of staff is waiting.

"This is Tom, one of the water sports instructors." Farrah smiles at him encouragingly and he nods an awkward hello, ruffling a hand through his dark hair.

"Sorry, I'd have come forward earlier, but I'm not on early shift today. Sleeping in." It's obvious that he's dressed hurriedly. His blue shirt is buttoned in the wrong order, the khaki shorts beltless, hanging low on his waist.

"No problem. Can you take me through what you know?"

Flipping his sunglasses to the top of his head, Tom nods. Elin mentally revises his age upward: midthirties maybe, looking at the fine lines around his eyes. "Bea and I met at uni. Same halls. She told me a few months ago that she was coming. It was a nice coincidence. I was looking forward to catching up."

"And you were aware she'd canceled?"

"Yes. She contacted me a few weeks ago, explained that she'd had to drop the trip because of work, but said the rest of her family were still coming. I didn't think any more of it until she messaged me early yesterday, saying she'd changed her mind. She asked if I could help, told me she wanted to turn up unannounced, surprise her family."

Messaged him yesterday. Did it imply a last-minute decision, or did she simply not tell Tom until just before she was leaving for the island? "What exactly did she ask you to do?"

"Pick her up, sneak her in." He glances across at Farrah, sheepish. "Crappy move, I know, but she was going to check in first thing, and as she'd booked in originally, I knew there was space..."

"What time did you collect her? Morning? Later?"

He wrinkles up his brow. "Evening, around eightish. I moored at one of the smaller coves, so no one would see us arrive, then we went to a meeting room in the main lodge."

"Did she say why she didn't want to go straight to see her family?"

"Said she'd had a long journey and wanted a drink to unwind, catch up."

"How many did she have?"

"Not a lot. Maybe two or three? I don't think she realized how late it had gotten." Tom glances out to sea, his gaze automatically ticking over a group of paddleboarders with a well-practiced eye. "But she wasn't drunk, if that's what you mean."

"And nothing seemed odd about her behavior?"

A shrug. "Pretty hard for me to judge. We don't know each other well, not anymore. Uni was a long time ago. We only kept in touch occasionally, through social media."

Elin nods. "Roughly what time did you finish having drinks?"

"About eleven thirty. She said she was going to head to the villa, surprise them. I pointed her in the right direction and left her to it."

Eleven thirty. They had her on the CCTV at the barrier at one a.m. What did she do during the time between leaving Tom and when she fell? From what the family said, she never made it to the villa.

"Did she take her luggage with her?"

"I assumed she had." He frowns. "You haven't found it?"

"No."

"It might still be in the meeting room." He inclines his head toward the main lodge. "I can show you where it is."

"Please." Elin starts pushing back her chair.

"Wait," Tom says. "Before we go, there is something: when you asked if anything seemed odd... it's only just come to me. Just before she left, she got a message on her phone. She said she needed to call someone. I left her to it, but it sounded like she was pretty upset."

Elin mulls over what he's said with a nagging sense of disquiet.

She can't shake the feeling that she's missing something about what's happened here, a vital part of the narrative.