Floe de Lir

Chapter 4

The water was freezing.

He had dipped a toe in, just one toe, and immediately backed away.

He had.

Dylan hadn't.

Dylan had scoffed, claimed he'd been in colder water, zipped up his wetsuit and dove under the waves before anyone of authority could realize Dylan had broken the staunch rules they had been told.

No diving in the Harbour.

"Fuck that," Dylan had told them outside of the last place the twins had been seen alive. "Brandon and Brenda were together when they disappeared. Isn't that what the security camera showed? If they were together and Brandon was found in the water, then Bren's got to be down there. I'm going after her."

"What if you don't find her down there?" asked Valerie, picking at her food.

"I won't stop 'til I find her," said Dylan definitively.

Steve had glanced at the unusually quiet woman on the other side of the table.

"Kel?" he asked. "Aren't you going to eat something?"

"That wasn't Brandon," she said, both to them and to no one.

Steve also wished the body hadn't belonged to Brandon, but Jim and Cindy Walsh had confirmed the identification the day before.

All Steve could do was stay strong for his friends, as he knew Brandon would have done if the roles were reversed.

Steve had to be the pillar of strength, because Brandon could no longer be.

Kelly had walked around in a daze since arriving in Cork. Valerie had lashed out at anyone who dared to give her sympathies about Brandon. Dylan had stormed into the old building that used to belong to the White Star Line offices and demanded to see the last footage they had on the missing Walshes.

As much as Steve wanted to shatter, to cry for the loss of his best friend, his brother, he couldn't.

He had permitted himself to tear up only once, when he had seen the news report on Maggie's small kitchen television.

"Not Brandon," said Maggie, over and over on a loop. "This will kill Brenda."

If Brenda would ever be found, Steve nearly shouted out in his simmering rage, but he kept what he wanted to say inside.

Kelly hadn't seen the news.

Kelly hadn't known anything about Brandon until she had seen Steve's face.

Except Kelly assumed Steve's face was about Brenda.

"Did they find her?" Kelly had asked, sitting beside Steve in the taxi hired to return them to the airport. "Is she alright? Is Brandon with her?"

"Kel," Steve hadn't known where to begin. He had to begin somewhere, as both Dylan and Valerie had shied away from telling Kelly and he couldn't let her find out through the news as they had. "Kel," Steve had said again, reaching for her hand, "when is the last time you saw Brandon?"

"At a psychology conference last summer." Kelly was startled by the question. "He was covering it. I had planned to say hi, but he left with his colleagues before I got the chance. I don't think he even knew I was there."

"What would you have told him, if you had been given the chance?" asked Steve.

"I don't like where this is going," Kelly had said, withdrawing both of her hands from Steve's reach. "If you think we won't find him, you're wrong. We will. We'll find him, and I'll make sure he knows just how much we looked for him."