They clambered out of the van. Nick’s limbs were so stiff from sitting in one position for hours on end he nearly fell over. He pulled himself fully upright and squinted along the beach past Butch. He could see a figure in the distance, moving towards them, close to the water’s edge.

Dave drew a gun from inside his boiler-suit. ‘Stand where you are until we say otherwise,’ he growled.

‘We’re going to do exactly what you tell us to do,’ said Michaela. ‘Isn’t that right, Nick?’

‘Absolutely.’

Wada lowered the binoculars. She looked down at Driscoll. He’d slowed and turned his head towards the cliff, as if watching something. She tried the binoculars again. He was squinting. She had the impression he was lining himself up with something below her. Then he stopped and looked straight ahead.

She followed the direction of his gaze. At the other end of the beach, two people had emerged from the back of the van. One of them was Dr Morrisette. The other was a man of about forty. Nick Miller, Wada assumed. She’d never seen him before, but there was something about his face, when she studied it through the binoculars, that reminded her of someone else: Driscoll, of course. He was his father’s son.

She lowered the binoculars. Espersen had halted his descent from the eastern headland. It was difficult to judge distance at that range, but she reckoned he was about thirty metres from the 4WD. The van – and the four figures gathered around it – were about ten metres beyond that. A fifth figure climbed out of the driver’s side of the van as she watched and looked up towards Espersen, then back along the beach.

Wada switched her gaze to the lifeguard station and the car park behind it. Nishizaki and the second security man were walking slowly towards the beach. Nishizaki pointed to the first security man, who was already on the beach, and directed him to go ahead with a jerk of his hand. The man started moving.

He was heading towards Driscoll, who was standing, arms folded, apparently waiting for him. He looked down at the sand as Wada watched. He seemed to be looking at something close to his feet. She trained the binoculars on the spot. But all she could see was a small pile of mussel shells thrown up by the tide.

Suddenly, Driscoll turned his head and looked directly up at her. In the second before she pulled the binoculars away, he seemed to smile.