‘Why did you come back?’ he asked, almost gently, although being this close to her had started all the physical reactions again, and the confusion of that made him feel …
Angry?
Not really, more unsettled …
‘Why did you?’ she countered.
‘I was asked,’ he said, trying desperately to pretend that this was just a conversation between two old friends. Which, of course, it was—wasn’t it?
‘The island was in trouble, the community was in trouble. It’s my home and I love it. Of course, I had to come back.’
‘And yet you ask me why I came? To tell you the truth, I didn’t know things were this bad until I got here. I just wanted—needed—to come home.’
‘And now you’re here?
She turned towards him, her eyes alight with determination.
‘I have to find out what’s been happening. How everything’s gone so terribly wrong. Do you honestly believe the island means less to me than it does to you? That this isn’t my community as well?’
Her gaze drifted back to the sunset, so he guessed there was a bit more to the answer than that. But whatever it was it had caused a break in her voice and he wanted more than anything in the world—more even than saving the livelihood and well-being of the islanders—to comfort her, to take her in his arms, hold her close, smell the Caro scent of her, and never let her go.
Like she’d want that!
He also wanted to ask her about Christopher. She hadn’t answered earlier. But he knew it was too painful a subject to bring up when they were so estranged, so he stuck to practicalities.
‘So, what do you think you can do?’ he asked instead, his voice rougher than it should be as it scraped past the emotion in his throat.
‘Find out what’s been going on, for a start,’ she said. ‘All the predictions from the geologists showed the mine had many years to run. I don’t doubt Ian’s been embezzling the money it’s been earning but it can’t just be that.’
Keanu hid a smile. That sounded so like the young Caroline—his Caro—on the trail of some possible crime—suspected cruelty to some chickens being only one of her campaigns.
Memories were dangerous things …
Better to stick with the present and practicalities, discuss what facts he did know, although they were few enough.
‘Did you know Ian leased out the research station?’ he asked.
‘He’s leased the research station? Why on earth would he do that?’
‘Money, why else! It had been run-down for a while. Fewer and fewer people using it. Then he somehow found this wealthy Middle Eastern guy who wants to set up an exclusive resort. The local residents are a bit uneasy about it, but heaven knows we need all the income and employment we can get.’
‘Well, it explains the guy with the nail in his foot. Does my dad know?’
‘I assumed he did but the negotiations certainly went through Ian, and no one here seems to know anything about it.’
‘Dad would never have trusted Ian to negotiate, and he’d never have made a decision without consulting the elders. He sent Ian here mainly to keep him out of trouble. It’s the way Dad feels about family. He thinks even the black sheep deserves a chance to redeem himself, but from all I’m hearing about our particular black sheep, it’s impossible.’
She sighed then added, ‘The guy with the nail in his foot—he’s working there? Work’s going on now?’
Keanu nodded. ‘And has been for some time.’
‘I want to have a look.’
‘You can’t. The whole place is fenced and gated. That patient yesterday wouldn’t even let us drive him back down there. He had his mate come back to the hospital, remember?’
‘But this is our home! We can go wherever we like.’
Keanu hid a smile. This was Caro at her most imperious. And hearing her, hearing the old Caro sent a piercing pain through his chest.
‘You want to argue with the guards? They’ll never accept your authority. Besides, legally, I would think now this man has leased it, it’s his land for as long as the lease states.’
‘But Dad doesn’t know anything—if he did he’d have told me. Come on, Keanu, you must know something.’
‘All I know is that some rich man is turning it into a resort. A chap called Luke Wilson was doing some research here a few years ago and apparently this rich bloke knew Luke from somewhere. That was enough for Ian to make contact with him and that’s what happened.’
Keanu paused, trying to think—to get it right.
‘I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s already achieved his aim for the resort—there’s been a hell of a lot of activity going on around the place. Container loads of stuff taken off huge ships and ferried ashore on barges, imported workers everywhere.’
‘But the research station? That was my great-grandfather’s legacy to the whole of M’Langi, designed to provide facilities and housing to anyone who wanted to investigate or study ways to improve the health of the islanders through science. Your father was one of the first to work there. I know my grandfather and Ian resented putting money into it, but I’m sure it was legally tied up so the mine had to keep supporting it.’
‘And if the mine couldn’t?’ Keanu asked. ‘Isn’t it better to lease it to someone with money than let the idea die completely?’
Caroline stared at him, trying to work out what might be going on behind this conversation.
As far as she was concerned, there was a lot of very strange stuff lingering in the deep recesses of her mind and fluttering along the nerves in her body, yet Keanu was sitting there, about as sensitive as a boulder.
Whatever. She was finding out things she needed to know so she had to set aside all the physical manifestations of the boulder’s presence and seek more information.
‘You mean this mystery millionaire is going to keep the research station going? So why build luxury accommodation?’
Keanu shrugged.
‘Who knows, but that’s what’s happening because Sam’s been carrying on with some of Luke’s research into why the islanders don’t suffer from encephalitis to the extent their counterparts in other island groups do and he’s been wanting to use the laboratories there. Apparently, they’ve said he can as soon as the renovations are completed.’
‘Weirder and weirder,’ Caroline muttered, but the worst of the weirdness was what was going on in her body. She’d been, what, thirteen when she’d last seen Keanu? And with her isolated life on the island then boarding school, had probably been a late developer. And although his disappearance from her life had devastated her—even
