Broken Bay

About the BookDetective Sergeant Mark Ariti has taken a few days’ holiday in Broken Bay at precisely the wrong time. The small fishing town on South Australia’s Limestone Coast is now the scene of a terrible tragedy.Renowned cave diver Mya Rennik has drowned while exploring a sinkhole on the land of wealthy farmer Frank Doyle. As the press descends, Mark’s boss orders him to stay put and assist the police operation.But when they retrieve Mya’s body, a whole new mystery is opened up around the disappearance of a young local woman twenty years before . . .Suddenly Mark is diving deep into the town’s history – and in particular the simmering rivalry between its two most prominent families, the Doyles and Sinclairs.Then a murder is committed at the Sinclairs’ old home, leaving Mark wondering which is more dangerous – Broken Bay’s hidden subterranean world or the secretive town above it . . .Old loyalties and long-running feuds rise to the surface in this stunning crime novel, set in a spectacular Australian landscape known for its jagged cliffs and hidden caves. ContentsCoverAbout the BookTitle PageDedicationPrologueChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 5Chapter 6Chapter 7Chapter 8Chapter 9Chapter 10Chapter 11Chapter 12Chapter 13Chapter 14Chapter 15Chapter 16Chapter 17Chapter 18Chapter 19Chapter 20Chapter 21Chapter 22Chapter 23Chapter 24Chapter 25Chapter 26Chapter 27Chapter 28Chapter 29Chapter 30Chapter 31Chapter 32Chapter 33Chapter 34Chapter 35Chapter 36Chapter 37Chapter 38Chapter 39EpilogueAcknowledgementsAuthor’s NoteAbout the AuthorBy the same authorImprintRead More at Penguin Books Australia For Mrs Reynolds, Miss Richardson, Mrs Cavigan, Mr Hickey, Mr Quillinan and Mr Bourke Adelaide Advertiser, 1 September 2022CAVE DIVING EXCITEMENT AT LATEST SINKHOLE OFFERINGIn a historic first, Australia’s leading cave diver, Mya Rennik, will tomorrow afternoon enter the pristine waters of a Limestone Coast sinkhole that has until now been unmapped. The owner of the land on which the sinkhole sits has reached a deal with Cave Diving Australia for limited use of the cave below his property.‘We’ve always known about the sinkholes,’ Mr Frank Doyle stated. ‘Back in the day, people used to throw old tractor parts and carcasses down them. Now we’ve discovered this one here, well, what with all the interest in the area, might as well find out what’s down there.’Ms Rennik estimates the initial underwater cavern to be roughly 200 metres wide and 30–40 metres deep, with numerous tunnels leading to other as yet unexplored caves. ‘Given the extensive network of the Limestone caves, we hope to begin mapping the tunnels and laying out lines so that cave divers from all over the world can appreciate the beauty that lies beneath this unassuming land,’ she said yesterday. PROLOGUEAway from all the cameras and the spectators, Mya does what she knows best, what she longs to do, and that’s be underwater by herself. For all her accolades and recognition in the field, it comes down to this: the sense of beauty and wonder she feels in the subterranean world. It’s an honour, of course, to be chosen to be the one to lay line in an undiscovered cave, and there’s even talk of naming the chamber after her. People go on and on about her supposed fearlessness and competitive nature but all that stuff fades away when she’s down here, in the blue.Through the small hole up on the surface, she can still make out the rounded shadows of heads peering down. They’ll be taking note of her time, checking the equipment, side-eyeing the press and onlookers who’ve come to gawk at her achievement. Most of them are open water divers; they don’t understand the attraction of what she’s doing. She gives them a thumbs up before returning to focus on her shimmering surrounds. The white limestone, the water, clear as air. She holds the reel below and beside her, then tugs on it gently, feeling its tightness. Her first tie-up is to a jutting rock, tinged with green. Divers that come after her will appreciate its visibility and distance from the cavern walls.Down, down another thirty metres and she’s almost at the bottom. She chooses a white rock shaped like a wizard’s hat to make a second tie. Now she scans the surroundings, the stalactites, the cave coral, and the waving emerald fronds, and there – there! A gap in the cavern wall.Mya slows her breathing. She knows to do this when she feels an adrenaline surge and, using small ridges in the limestone, she glides over to the gap. Her torch highlights a definite hole and, tantalisingly, another dim light in the distance beyond it. It’s narrow – cave divers don’t refer to such places as ‘squeezes’ for nothing – but she’s been through tighter. She can do this. Timing is good, oxygen levels good, breathing good. Her tank is side-mounted for this reason, as she’ll need to be as flat as she can to get through.She ties off a sideline to take with her and moves into position, angling into the space, the tank scraping the wall, disturbing a small amount of silt. She waits a few seconds for it to settle. The squeeze continues for half a metre. The floor of the tunnel grazes her face as she edges forward. Calm. Slow, slow. The space is too tight for her to look at her watch, but she knows she needs to get a move on, and besides, she couldn’t turn around in this space if she tried. Slow. She can do this.There’s a small rock in front of her; she moves it and continues. Another touch to the right side of the tunnel and this time she waits only a second before gliding through the silt that billows as a result, to where the space becomes a tunnel, around one metre high and two metres wide. Light in front, that’s good. Timing is fine, though she’ll have to think about returning soon. She’s nearly at one third of her oxygen and that’s the rule to head home: a third to get down, a third to return and a third for emergencies. The tunnel opens and she’s through,