Things That Go Bump in The Night

It was two in the morning when she bumped into me. I didn't know it was two in the morning for a few minutes. I didn't know that it was her until some time later.

Maybe I should explain.

I had been fishing for the last three days and my freezer was full. I had decided that I should get some sleep before I headed back to the mainland. There were two reasons for this decision, I had to navigate through the reef, not an easy task on a pitch black night like tonight, and I was tired.

I had just completed one of my regular trips to the seaward side of the outer Great Barrier Reef where there were still plenty of fish to be caught. I supplied several fish shops along the coast within some thirty kilometres of home, as well as the one run by my sister and brother-in-law. The owners chipped in for the cost of fuel and I sold to them at a price commensurately lower than the fish wholesalers in the city.

There I was, fast asleep, not even dreaming, when I felt a huge bump on my boat. Debating for half a second whether I should put something on over my jocks, I scrambled out of my bunk, into my jocks and up onto the deck. There was a yacht, it's sails hanging limply, slowly sliding along my hull, so my first task was to secure her. That done I stepped over onto her and called out. There was no response. I checked the door into the cabin, it was locked. I went back to my boat and got myself a powerful torch, this I shined through the cabin window. That was when I saw her, laying on the cabin floor and not moving.

I went back for some tools and before long, I had the door open, it appeared to have been locked from the outside, strange, and was bending over her body, she was breathing. I shook her, thinking that she was asleep, no response. I noticed a fairly large lump on the side of her head.

I carried her to a bunk and got a wet cloth to wipe her face and lay over her forehead. She groaned softly as she began to join the land of the living. "Who, who are you?"

"Just someone you ran into. Who are you and what are you doing sailing around on your own?"

"On my own, where's my partner?"

"I haven't searched all of this yacht, but you are the only person I've come across so far. Your partner, what does he or she look like?"

"He's tall, good looking in an athletic way."

"I'll have another quick look to see if he's around, and then I'll make a drink for you, you look thirsty."

"That would be nice."

"It'll mean jumping onto my boat. I'll be right back." I did a quick search of the yacht and found nothing and no-one.

She was sitting up when I returned. "Well?"

"Nothing, no sign of him or anyone else."

"So, what happens now?"

"First things first. What day is it?" An easy question to check if she's thinking straight.

"I don't know, Saturday I think."

"Try Monday. You have obviously been out to it for a while and need to get out of those clothes and clean up. I don't want to sound rude, but you're not nice to be near. Do you feel up to jumping over the side and getting out of those soiled clothes, you can rinse as much of the muck from them and chuck them onto the boarding platform hanging from the stern of my boat before you climb out, we'll dispose of them correctly."

"Only if you promise not to look."

"Spoilsport. Okay, I promise, while you're doing that I'll find you a change of clothes."

She jumped in and swam around to the stern of my boat.

I rummaged around and found no clothes, this was getting stranger. I didn't find any form of ID, or money.

Okay, I know that I promised not to look, but I'm a normal, red blooded bloke and I didn't have the willpower to avoid looking. Part of me was remorseful, and part of me wasn't. "I can't find any clothes, and I looked everywhere. I'll find something that will cover you sufficiently for the trip back to Mackay."

I jumped back onto my boat and found a tee shirt that would cover most of her, and a pair of budgey smugglers that would, at a pinch, take care of the rest. I hid behind my hand as I dropped the clothes onto the platform and went back into the cabin. I had the kettle on and it reached the boil as she came into the cabin. "Somehow I wish that I had weakened and grabbed a look, it would have been worth it."

"Bullshit, I saw you taking a sneaky peek."

"Okay, mea culpa, but you can't blame me."

"I forgive you, after all, it appears as if I owe you my life."

I handed her a cup of coffee. "Do you think that you can steer your yacht?"

"Yes."

"Good, this is going to be a bit tricky. I have to plot a course through the reef and it's up to you to keep her right behind me. Any deviation could see you hitting the reef. If the coral holes your hull we could lose her."

"Not to mention the damage to the coral."

"There's that to take into consideration as well. I'll pull your boat alongside so that you can step over, then I'll play the line out until we have enough clearance. I'll take it steady until we're inside the reef and then, if you want, we can lash your wheel and you can ride with me."

"Sounds like a plan. By the way, we haven't been formally introduced, I'm Marcia, Marcia Gorman."

"I'm Rob Brinkworth, pleased to meet you Marcia." We shook formal hands before I pulled Windrush alongside.

Marcia decided that she would ride with me. She had nothing to bring with her. "Where were you headed?" I asked.

"Eventually to Tahiti, we were going to island hop and take our time."

"Was there any reason for the trip or was it some sort of vacation?"

"A bit of both. I needed to get away from work, I discovered something that I was not supposed to know and Benson, my work partner, decided that we should make ourselves scarce for a while."

"This Benson guy, is he your boyfriend or is it more serious than that, like husband?"

"He's a guy I met though work, my boss in fact. I told him what I had found and he took it to his boss. Next thing I knew was that I was told that what I had seen did not exist and, if I were to pursue the matter further there would be dire, unspecified but hinted at, consequences."

"I don't think that we should notify the authorities just yet. I need to speak to a mate to see if they have a search party out scouring the ocean looking for you." I picked up the my satellite phone. "By the way, when I was going through the gear I couldn't find your EPIRB, I thought that to be a little odd."

"It should have been there, right beside the chart table."

I dialled a number. "Bruce, Rob here."

"Where's here?"

"You know I won't divulge where here is. Listen, a yacht bumped into me a while ago, there was a woman on board, it would seem that someone doesn't want her found before something bad happens to her. I'll bring her and the yacht in, it will be dark when we arrive. We need to secrete her, the yacht that is, somewhere out of the way. I'll explain all when we get in."

"That doesn't sound good." Marcia said.

"I think that, for the time being, we should keep this our secret."

"So you think something is not right."

"Yes, a missing partner and no EPIRB leads me to believe that to be the case."

We had just enough steerage way for her to get through the reef without incident. The gaps were small and the GPS tracker wasn't accurate enough to rely on, a couple of metres out and we could have hit the reef.

"Are you a professional fisherman?" She asked as I plotted the course through the inner reef and home.

"No, I have a half share in a Fish and Chip shop and I go out to the reef every few weeks to catch enough to supply our shop and a couple of others. The other guys chip in for the fuel, so it costs little more than my time."

"How long have you been doing this?"

"The shop four or five years, the fishing two. A couple of years ago an old guy took me out on one of his regular trips and, months later, when he retired, he sold me his trawler for a price that I could afford, so here I am, your normal everyday part time fisherman."

"What did you do before that."

"Forbidden topic."

"Can't or won't tell."

"Both, can we leave it at that?"

"Okay, I won't push it."

"Thank you." I didn't know how she would take it, but it was worth a try. "I must say, my shirt never looked as good as it does now."

"Are you hitting on me?"

"Nah, it's just an observation." I didn't think that she believed me. "What I was doing was flirting with you. There is a difference you know."

"Is there, I'm not aware of any?"

"Sure, flirting is lightening the mood with no expectation of success, while hitting on is a serious enterprise with every chance of failure. When I work in the shop I flirt with the women customers, it seems to work, they haven't complained, in fact they seem to enjoy it. If I were to hit on them we'd never see them again."

"I don't know. If you were to hit on me I'd want to know how serious you were."

"Too soon to tell."

The police met us as we approached my berth. The Windrush was taken in tow for forensic examination while Marcia stayed with me and was met by police as I tied up. "G'day Rob, how're they hanging?" He looked Marcia up and down, obviously thinking that I was one lucky bastard.

"I'm fine, more than I can say for my passenger, she needs to be looked over, not the way you're thinking, before you guys ask her questions."

"Do you two know each other?" Marcia asked.

"It's hard not to know each other, it's not a huge metropolis." A deliberate non-committal answer.

"Rob used to be one of us, before he chucked it in for an easier life."

"That's not entirely true, but that will have to wait."

"Are you coming with us?"

"Sure, you'll want to ask me some questions too, won't you?" I was trying to shift the focus back to Marcia's situation.

"Thought so, jump in." I opened the back door for Marcia and joined her in the back of the patrol car. "You two behave yourself back there, it's not a taxi you know."

"Still the clown Bruce." As he hadn't introduced himself, I took the initiative and did it for him. "Bruce here, Sergeant Bruce Jennings, and I go back a long way, I'll leave it at that for the time being."

We arrived at the police station and this was where I found out just how smart my companion really was. "Let's start with the basics." Bruce said. "Your name is?"

"Marcia Gorman."

"And your occupation is?"

"I am an auditor, a forensic auditor."

"What exactly does a forensic auditor do?"

"We have two main roles, the first is that we review company accounting practises to ensure that there aren't any discrepancies that could get them into financial trouble down the track, and then we are called in when a company gets into financial difficulties, such as fraud, to find out what went wrong, how they can recover and prevent it from happening again."

"How is it that you were found, alone, on a yacht, drifting kilometres from anywhere?"

"Me being on the yacht is easy to explain. I have been working as a consultant for a company, reviewing their accounting practises, when I came upon an anomaly. I brought it to the attention of the chief accountant. This is where it got weird, instead of asking me to fix the problem, I was told to take leave while the company took care of it."

"Did that seem strange to you?"

"Yes, but it was their decision and there was little that I could do about it."

"What happened next?"

"The guy that they hired to sort it out, Benson Craig, asked me to explain my findings."

"And did you?"

"Partly. I identified the anomaly, it was the receipt of undisclosed cash payments into the company bank."

"When you say undisclosed, what do you mean?"

"The sources were not identified, just cash amounts going into the books."

"Was it he that suggested that it could have been a Ponzi scheme."

"My initial thought was that it was a laundering operation. I told him that, if it was a ponzi scheme, as he suggested, the stock exchange should be notified. He said that we should hold off and give the company time to resolve the problem themselves. His words were 'we don't want to scare off the investors'."

"The CEO called me into his office. "Marcia, Benson tells me that you have discovered a problem that we have with our finances. He also told me that you suggested that we should report this problem to the authorities. While, in principle, I have to agree with you, for the sake of our shareholders, I feel that the best course of action is to attempt to fix the problem without reporting this matter."

"I told him that my conscience would not allow me to agree to that. That was when he suggested that Benson and I should have a short time out, so that they could work on a solution free from public scrutiny. It was Benson that suggested the sailing trip."

"And you accepted this?"

"Not at first. It took them several weeks and some veiled threats, to convince me that it would be detrimental to my health to keep resisting. I was not happy."

"And when did things start to go wrong?"

"The second night out, we'd just eaten and he had the sails and self steering set. He suggested that we should advance our relationship to a personal one. I declined the offer, explaining that I would compromise my objectivity if we did."

"Did he try to advance it further?"

"Probably, I don't know. The next thing I knew was Rob waking me. Benson must have drugged me because I was out to it for at least two days, maybe more. I'm pretty hazy about the time line."

"I have a suspicion," I said, "That if these guys find out that Marcia is still alive, there will be another attempt made on her life."

"What would you suggest?" Bruce asked.

"Now this is a perfectly innocent suggestion. How would it be if Marcia stays with Chris and Brian."

"Who are they when they're at home?"

"My sister and brother-in-law, we could fit her out with a plain name, Julie for instance, and introduce her to the world as our new assistant."

"What if Marcia slash Julie doesn't want to go along with this 'innocent' suggestion?" Bruce asked.

"Marcia slash Julie has no objection." She looked at me, the beginnings of a smile on her face.

We were dropped back at the wharf and I set about unloading the catch. When the freezer was empty and the van loaded, we drove to the Fish and Chip shop. "Who is this?" Brain asked as he opened the door and dragged the first bin of frozen fish off.

"Brian, this is Marcia, she bumped into me out on the reef."

"What was she doing out there?"

"It's a long story and can wait until we get the fish unloaded. I need to call the other guys and tell them that their fish are waiting to be picked up."

Chris was in the shop blanching the day's supply of chips. "What have we here?"

"Chris, meet your new sales assistant, Marcia."

"Where did you find her?"

"Your wonderful brother saved me from certain death. Is there something that I can do to help?"

"It's all under control, why don't you take a seat and tell me how it is that Rob goes out on the reef fishing and comes back with more than fish."

"It's a long story, most of which I don't recall, let's just say that someone wanted me dead and Rob saved me."

I walked in. "The fish are all stashed in the freezer, the guys will be in to pick up their share today or tomorrow. What are we going to do with Marcia, where will she sleep?"

"Why don't you grab her bags and show her your apartment. If she likes it you might get lucky."

"What do you mean?" Marcia asked.

"It's painfully obvious that big bother is hoping that you will share his accommodation and hopefully, eventually, his bed. Don't worry, there are two beds, if he were a gentleman he'd offer you his bed and sleep on the spare bed."

"This looks comfy enough," Marcia was checking out my boudoir, "where's the other bed?"

"This futon slash sofa converts into a bed."

"It doesn't look all that comfortable."

"If I can sleep on a bunk on a rocking boat, I should be able to sleep anywhere."

I rang Bruce. "Mate, if you're not too busy,do you think you can drop by, I want to run something past you."

He must have been close by. "What devious plan have you come up with?"

"I've been thinking, the fact that he, this Benson guy, took the EPIRB with him suggest that he something planned to cover Marcia's disappearance."

"Like what?"

"It wouldn't surprise me if in a day or two, there will be a distress message sent out that the Windrush had hit something, probably a migrating whale, and that the keel has been damaged by the impact. He will give co-ordinates that are several hundred kilometres out into the Pacific. He will activate the EPIRB and inform the AMSA (Australian Maritime Safety Authority) that she is taking on water."

"And....?"

"We get the safety authority to tell him that a search would begin."

"Won't they find him?"

"He won't be there, he'll be safe on land, probably tucked up at home in Brisbane."

"And we go and arrest him, is that it?"

"No, we let him think that he has got away with it."

"And then what?"

"We get the Windrush and change her appearance, change her name, and I have a name for her."

"Oh yeah, is it printable?"

"Borderline."

"Don't keep us in suspense."

"She's a Farr designed 30 footer, why don't we call her Farr-Canal?"

"I have to ask, why Farr-Canal?"

"Say it quickly."

"Oh, yeah, marginally inoffensive. But why go to all that trouble?"

"He, or at least those he works for, will lodge an insurance claim once the search has revealed no trace of Windrush. When the do, they'll be in for a shock."

"And I suppose that you're not going to tell us the why we're going to do this."

"When it hits the fan, then I'll tell you."

The next day Bruce spoke to the safety authority, outlining that the police had evidence of an attempt to defraud the insurance company, that there would be a mayday sent out by the Windrush, claiming a suspected collision with a whale and stating the the hull was damaged and in imminent danger of sinking. This mayday would most likely come in the evening, meaning that a comprehensive search could not begin until daylight the next day, decreasing the likelihood of finding any wreckage. He also explained that the GPS co-ordinates, given in that distress call, would be several hundred kilometres from where the Windrush was actually positioned."

"I understand your concern," the AMSA representative said, "but we must respond to all mayday calls."

"We fully expect you to, but we are merely alerting you to the situation as we expect it to happen. We realise that you must follow maritime safety protocols, we expect nothing less."

Meanwhile Marcia was being introduced to, not only the technical aspects of serving in the Fish and Chip shop, but the social aspects, how we interact with customers.

"This is something that I could get used to, it sure beats pouring over columns of figures looking for anomalies."

"You haven't told me what it was that you discovered that led to all of this."

"Like you and your personal secrets, I will hold you in suspense."

"How did you sleep?" Marcia asked as she emerged from my bedroom wearing of my tee shirts and, by the looks of things, not a lot else.

"Not that well, I kept on going over my plans looking for any loop holes." It was not yet time to tell her that it has been years since I got a good night's sleep.

"And you didn't have me with you to discuss them with, is that it?"

"If I had been with you in bed, my plans would have been way down the list of discussion topics."

"Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting?"

"That you should share my bed with you? Yes. We have known each other for several days which, in this fast paced world in which we live, is plenty long enough for me to tell you that I like you well enough to share my bed with you. However, I must warn you that because of a severe trauma, that I will tell you about in due course, I cannot promise anything more than me holding you and whispering sweet nothings in whatever ear is closest. It's all about closure, and I'll tell you at the right time."