The Trawlerman

the other side when her man’s at sea,’ said Stella.
Even in the porch light, Alex could see Tina’s blush deepening, but she smiled.
‘It was lovely,’ she said, quietly. ‘Longer he was at sea, the happier I was. What’s bad is I used to pray that he’d never come back. And then one day, he didn’t.’
‘He fell overboard,’ said Stella. ‘Did you hear about that? I’d have pushed him myself if I’d been on the boat.’
‘Shut up,’ said Tina, a little too loudly.
Stella ignored her. ‘And a year after he’d gone, we moved in together and ever since then, that psycho Mandy Hogben has been accusing her of killing him.’
‘She’s not well, Stella.’
‘It’s not the first time, then?’
‘Show her, Tina.’
Tina sighed, then turned her head to Alex, picked up her hand and laid it on her scalp. ‘Feel that.’
Alex’s finger found a bump of flesh; a line about two centimetres long. ‘She did that to me in Asda. I was doing the shop and she was there. She saw me, started screaming and shouting and throwing stuff at me.’
‘Tina had concussion after that.’
‘A can of something. I bled like a pig all over the aisle. It was horrible.’
Stella sounded angry now. ‘At the inquest they said it. He got onto the boat and sailed off in it and never came back. What more does she want? She was bloody there at the inquest but she won’t believe it.’
‘It’s OK, Stell.’ Tina’s voice was soft.
The pulse of the distant bass continued. The spit of land seemed full of people tonight.
Stella flicked her cigarette butt into the air; it flew in a red arc into the blackness. ‘More splosh, anyone?’ she said, standing.
‘When did you hear that he was dead?’ asked Alex.
‘They were fishing out of Folkestone. Just a two-man crew. The other man on board called it in to the coastguard the moment he discovered he’d gone over, but he hadn’t seen him go, and he wasn’t sure when, so the search area was huge. The sea was pretty big too and they knew they’d no chance of finding him alive. I had a copper come to my door to tell me he was lost overboard. I said, “Have you told his mother yet?” They hadn’t, of course, because they wanted me to do that. Thanks a million.’
‘So it was you who told Mandy Hogben her son was dead?’
Tina nodded.
Alex drank. ‘But you had to wait seven years to marry because they never found his body.’
‘Controlling bastard, even after death.’
‘Stella!’ chided Tina.
They drank a little more wine. Satellites and planes moved above them, tiny dots of light. The sky here was enormous, Alex thought. ‘You never had kids with Frank?’
‘He wanted them. I never did. You got kids?’ Tina asked.
‘One. Teenage girl. Seventeen. She’s out there somewhere. She’s gone feral.’ She waved in the direction of Big Pit. Her girl spent little time at home these days.
‘Short fair hair? Skinny as a pin? Has a backpack?’
‘Zoë, isn’t it?’ said Tina.
‘That’s her.’
‘She’s brilliant.’
‘You know her?’
‘We just met her today. Early this morning I was watching a yellow-legged gull out at the patch, and she was there too.’
‘Was she?’
The ‘patch’ was what some locals called the water just off shore by the power station, where heated water attracted the fish and where the fish attracted seabirds. Zoë had been up early, Alex remembered, before she had woken.
‘She’s your daughter?’ Tina laughed. ‘She’s absolutely nuts. We love her.’
‘Me too,’ said Alex.
‘Stella’s crazy about birds and stuff,’ said Tina. ‘This was her choice of place to go, not mine.’
‘Your Zoë said she’ll take us moth-trapping one night.’
‘Who goes hunting moths on their honeymoon?’ complained Tina.
‘Me. You’ve already had one honeymoon. This is my first. I get to choose what we do.’ For no particular reason, she stood and howled at the dark sky, like a wolf. ‘God, though. They said on the news there’s a psychotic killer out there. Pretty scary stuff. Killed two people, they said.’
Alex said, ‘Yes. Pretty scary.’
‘Don’t you worry about your little girl, out here on her own?’
‘All the time.’
They were all quiet for a minute. Alex drank a little more of the fizzy wine and realised she was a little bit drunk. Tina broke the silence by asking quietly, ‘How did you know she was going to pull out that blade?’
‘I didn’t. That’s what freaks me out. I stood up and walked over towards her, but I don’t know why I did.’
‘It’s like you’ve got a spidey sense.’ Tina giggled.
‘What?’
‘Like Spider-Man.’
‘Tina believes in that stuff. The third eye. Divination and destiny,’ said Stella. ‘I’m your destiny, aren’t I, darling?’ And she leaned and kissed Tina on her head, just on the spot where Frank’s mother had scarred her, and she left Alex and Tina sitting in the darkness while she fetched another bottle.
On the way back home, she noticed Zoë’s bike was propped unlocked against William South’s small porch, so she knocked.
William South lived in Arum Cottage, a small red bungalow that faced the nuclear power station.
South opened the door.
‘Have you got my girl in there?’
‘You want her back?’ He opened the door wide.
Zoë was sat at South’s dining table, hands in front of her. There was blood on them.

Eight
‘Jesus, love. What have you done?’
‘Been digging,’ her daughter answered.
‘My grave?’
‘I’m not burying you, Mum,’ said Zoë. ‘I’m leaving you for the crows.’ South sat down opposite her and picked up cotton wool. ‘An air burial.’
‘Thanks.’
‘Blisters,’ said Bill quietly. ‘Looks worse than it is.’
‘I said I was volunteering today up at the Romney Marsh reserve, remember? We were clearing out the drainage ditches. I was going for it. And then I was clearing grass with the scythe for the orchids. They have Spiranthes spiralis there. It’s a threatened species.’
‘Autumn lady’s tresses,’ said Bill, as if this were an explanation Alex would understand.
Since dropping out of sixth form college, Zoë had filled her time either protesting or volunteering. Whenever Alex had tried to get her to complete a CV,