The Cold Cold Sea by Linda Huber Read Free Book Online Page B

trainers were under the sofa where she’d kicked them off the night before. The fifteenth, of course, had been sandals-for-the-beach weather.
    The bathroom was the worst place of all.
    Livvy’s stripy peppermint toothpaste. The lotion Maggie had smoothed into her daughter’s skin every evening; the strawberry shower gel. The smells of lost Olivia.
    Maggie lay awake for hours each night, struggling with the less than five minutes on the beach when Olivia must have disappeared. She hadn’t seen where her daughter had gone and neither had Colin or Joe. Howard and his colleagues had reconstructed the entire beach scene and were satisfied that they had drawn the right conclusions, but Maggie knew that one day she would have to go down there and establish for herself just what she and Colin could and couldn’t see. If she checked for herself, then she might believe that Livvy had drowned. Col was so adamant he’d have noticed if Livvy had gone into the water, but Maggie wasn’t so sure and neither was Howard. Colin and Joe hadn’t seen her, but then they hadn’t been watching out for her either.
    Trembling, Maggie went for her jacket. The rain had almost stopped; there was no excuse not to go. In the two weeks since Olivia had vanished, this would be the first time she’d been back on the beach.
    Of course now there were only two possibilities. Either Livvy had drowned, or someone had taken her away. If she’d simply wandered off by herself she would have been found by now.
    Hands deep in her jacket pockets, Maggie walked across to the rock pools. How much of the beach
could
Col and Joe have seen? They’d been moving about all the time, standing up and crouching down, digging round jellyfish and talking.
    Maggie stood for a moment watching a swarm of tiny fish flit around amongst some seaweed and stones, the odd raindrop shivering the surface of the water. Joe would have had them in jars as quick as anything. Tears stung her eyes at the thought of her son, but she blinked them away and looked back across the beach to the rocky ring.
    She knew that from inside the ring, she’d been able to see about a third of the shoreline. What could Colin see? She would check now and then call him tonight.
    The frostiness between them was thawing, albeit slowly. He had phoned twice now, and they’d talked like strangers, but it was something. A start, maybe.
    Maggie crouched in the middle of the rock pools area, facing the rocky ring but still staring into the nearest pool. From here she
would
have noticed a little girl running towards her. And if she faced the sea, she
would
have seen Livvy going into the water. Even if she wasn’t actually looking, the movement would have attracted her attention. But the other direction, facing away from the ring...
    Maggie squatted for a moment, then stood up slowly, massaging her thighs. None of the waves that were rushing up the sand had been within her line of vision just now. If both Colin and Joe had been facing this way, engrossed in the pool-life in front of them, they might well not have seen Olivia go down to the sea. From the very beginning, Colin had refused point-blank to even consider that Livvy could have gone into the water without him noticing her, but he was wrong and she’d just proved it.
    Maggie trudged back across the sand. She’d known all along really that the sea was the most likely option. That was probably why she’d avoided the beach so determinedly. It hadn’t been as painful as she’d expected, though she knew that the pills she had from the doctor were taking the edge off a lot of the pain.
    Halfway up the cliff path she turned and looked back at the beach. This end was deserted. On the other side of the rock pools area two dog walkers were sitting on the steps of one of the beach huts, throwing sticks for their dogs.
    Her mobile buzzed in her pocket, and she jumped. It was Howard.
    ‘Maggie, I’m at the cottage.’
    She hurried on up the steep path. Howard or