by Matt Hilton
‘Yes,’ Leah snapped. ‘You might want to explain what really happened to your face.’
Dom rose to his knees, but hadn’t yet progressed from the confines of the tent. ‘What you talkin’ about? I fell and smacked my head on a tree.’
‘Looks more like you took a punch in the eye,’ Leah said.
‘You and Rob didn’t fight?’ Effie demanded, suddenly understanding where Leah was leading. ‘Tell us, Dom. You didn’t leave him out there hurt?’
‘What are you on about? For fuck sake, me an Rob are mates!’
‘Yeah, and you were drunk and pissed off with him,’ Effie added.
‘And envious,’ Leah finished.
‘Of you?’ Dom barked out a laugh.
‘No. I meant of Rob.’
‘Don’t flatter yourself, lass. If you think I’d begrudge my best friend a night in the sack with a tart like you, you don’t know how tight me and Rob are.’ He crossed his fingers. ‘Like that we are.’
Choosing to ignore his blatant insult, Leah instead considered his forthright manner. She could believe him if not for the convenience of supposedly banging his face on a tree. ‘If you’ve hurt him you have to tell us, Dom.’
Dom finally came to his feet in a rush. Leah tensed, expecting him to launch at her. But he didn’t, he spun around, staring up at the looming cliffs. ‘If Rob’s hurt we have to go an’ find him.’
Effie and Becks were in agreement. Leah was too. But first she should tell them about the person who’d been stalking her for the past few days. Could someone else have come to the island that none of them knew about? Before she could say anything, Dom spun and faced her. He looked her up and down, a sneer twisting his mouth. His gaze alighted on the knife handle jutting out of her waistband, visible under her unzipped jacket. ‘What the bloody hell is that?’ He glanced rapidly between his friends. ‘You’ve the cheek to blame me for hurtin’ Rob, what about her? She’s the crazy bitch with a bloody knife!’
‘It’s only for protection.’ Leah wanted to add “against you, Dom”, but didn’t think it would help. ‘I came here looking for Rob,’ she went on, ‘because there’s something weird going on around here. I was hoping I could get a ride back to the mainland with you guys when you leave.’
‘So you say,’ Dom challenged, ‘but how do we know you haven’t cut his throat and left him to die back at your cabin?’
‘Don’t be so bloody ridiculous,’ Leah snapped.
‘Huh,’ Becks said, ‘he does have a point, though.’
Leah glared at the young woman. ‘Do I look like a crazy person?’
Effie stepped in quickly. ‘Let’s not play the blame game, guys. It’s more important we find Rob. If he’s injured…’
Muffled voices posed questions. Their conversation had roused the other campers. Lamps flickered to life inside their tents. The young stocky guy was first to emerge; he thumbed on his spectacles and peered up quizzically at them. Shelley and her two friends were next to emerge, and lastly the loved-up couple. More questions were posed.
Effie placed a hand on Becks’s shoulder, gave it a squeeze. ‘We need to go and look for Rob, but someone should stay here and keep our guests calm.’
‘I’m going with you,’ Becks answered immediately.
Shaking her head, Effie said, ‘Dom and I are trained guides; we will cover more ground quickly if we go alone. I need someone I can trust to stay here and look after our guests.’
‘Where’s Rob’s satellite phone?’ Dom asked. ‘Was he carryin’ it when he left earlier? Maybe he’s already called for help from the mainland.’
‘We don’t know if he’s in any shape to call for help,’ Effie replied. ‘And even if he did, how would we know unless the emergency services turn up? I’m not willing to sit around and hope for the best.’
‘Me neither,’ Leah said. ‘I’ve got a really bad feeling about this.’
‘Yeah,’ said Dom, ‘if you did hurt him the last thing you’d want is the coppers comin’ here.’
He was talking bull, didn’t really mean his accusation, so Leah didn’t respond. Instead she said, ‘I think someone else is on the island with us.’
‘That bogeyman you were afraid of in the woods?’ Dom snarled sarcastically. For clarity he added to the others, ‘She said that someone was stalkin’ her when I went to her cabin to invite her to camp last night. She was jumpin’ at shadows, if you ask me.’
‘I’ve seen him again,’ Leah iterated. ‘It’s why I came here in the middle of the night carrying a bloody knife. He was at my cabin trying to force his way inside.’ She stared accusingly at Dom. ‘I thought it was you.’
‘Yeah? Well it fuckin’ wasn’t.’
‘It’s not the first time he’s been in my cabin. He stole my radio, and this…’ she clawed in her pocket and pulled out the bracelet. She held it out at them. They looked at the bracelet nonplussed.
‘He stole it, but you’ve got it: how does that work?’ Dom asked.
‘He returned it again.’ Leah exhaled. ‘I know it sounds nuts, but he’d scratched off the original inscription and added my initials. Take a look if you don’t believe me.’ None of them took up her offer. But Leah wasn’t finished. ‘Here, Effie, look at it. You can see he has scratched LD on it.’
‘You could have scratched it yourself,’ Dom said, simply to be confrontational. But even he knew that there would be little point for Leah to do such a thing, unless she was the crazy knife murderer he’d already suggested. He ducked back inside his tent to find his boots and jacket.
‘I saw indications of a disturbance on the trail when I came here,’ Leah ventured, ‘we should start searching from there.’
Effie and Becks weren’t dressed for a search party, and right then were more interested in waylaying the concerns of their guests. They had a duty of care to their party, but by the sound of things the youngsters wanted to join the search effort too, and Effie was relenting, to Becks’s satisfaction. She ordered them to dress appropriately and to fetch their torches. It made sense, the more eyes the better, and the more hands to carry Rob back to safety if he was injured or disabled in some way. While they organised themselves, Leah stood, holding her tiny torch, feeling like a spare wheel.
‘Okay,’ Effie said officiously as the group all gathered around her, Leah included. ‘Safety first, ladies and gentlemen. We stay together until we get up to the top of the cliffs, and then from there will pair up. I want you to keep your partner in sight at all times. The last we want is for somebody else to wander off alone and get injured. We need to find Rob, but that isn’t to say we must take any chances. If anyone spots him, you inform me immediately. I will then assess the situation before we go blundering in blindly. Is everyone clear?’
‘See you up top,’ Dom announced and set off, practically jogging up the steps.
‘You’re letting him go off alone?’ Leah asked.
Effie shook her head at Dom’s blatant disregard of her instructions, but she wasn’t too concerned. Dom was an experienced outdoorsman; her instructions had been for her guests. ‘Dom knows what he’s doing.’
‘What if he’s gone ahead to ensure we don’t find Rob?’ Leah said, to exclamations of confusion from some of the others.
Effie grabbed Leah by an elbow, and led her roughly aside. The woman had uncommon strength, and it was added to by anger. Sotto voce she snarled, ‘Do you mind keeping talk like that to yourself? You’ve got my customers wondering what the hell you mean? Dom didn’t hurt Rob; he meant it when he said they’re best friends. So don’t go implying he did. Bullshit like that causes distrust and distrust turns to fear and then panic. The last thing I want is for a bunch of frightened and inexperienced kids running all over the island.’
A flashback to when Pete gripped her went through Leah’s mind. ‘Please let go of my arm,’ she said equally quiet, but also with equal vim. Effie’s fingers fell away from her, but the woman didn’t back off.
‘Seriously, Leah, accusing Dom like
that isn’t helping.’
‘Okay. I hear you. And I’m sorry, but Dom didn’t help himself the way he acted earlier. Is it any surprise I thought it was him when he has been a total letch since I met him?’
‘That’s just Dom. He’s harmless, really.’
‘He’s a creep.’
‘Not if you get to know him: he’s a good guy.’
‘So you say, but I don’t see it.’ Leah held up her palms in surrender. ‘Look, let’s just agree to disagree on Dom, shall we? Rob’s who we should be concentrating on.’
‘Exactly,’ said Effie. ‘So are you going to show me where this disturbance was on the trail?’
‘Is there a better torch I can borrow than this?’ Leah’s torchlight was now barely an umber glow around the lens.
Without answer, Effie rejoined the group. She ushered them towards the steps, but then crouched inside her tent flaps and came out holding a sturdier flashlight than Leah’s. She handed it over and Leah slipped hers in a pocket. ‘Better?’ Effie asked.
‘Let’s go,’ Leah said and headed for the steps. Above her Becks led the six youngsters up the cliff. Dom was already out of sight, and despite acquiescing to drop the subject Leah wasn’t certain she was happy about him going off alone: who knew what he was up to.
21
Her misgivings concerning Dom were proved unfounded within minutes. He was waiting for the group just beyond the large boulders that marked the head of the trail. He aimed his torch beam at the ground, crouching for a better look at the indentations he’d discovered in the dirt.
‘Hey, Leah,’ he called, ‘let me see your feet.’
Leah frowned at his request, but went forward, flanked by Effie and Becks. ‘What is it?’
Without answering, Dom shone his light on the ground. There were footprints in the dirt, but they were to be expected. A distinctive pattern was overlaid over other recent prints. Leah understood what he was alluding to. She lifted her right foot and showed her sole: her boots also had a distinctive print, but it was unlike the freshest of tracks.
Dom darted his torch beam along the track. ‘Look there. Those are your tracks, Leah, from when you recently arrived. But look at these.’ He returned his perusal to the fresher tracks. ‘These are on top of yours, made in the last few minutes, if you ask me.’
‘Show us your boots, Dom,’ Effie instructed. She wasn’t questioning his reasoning, only proving a point on his behalf. Dom lifted his feet in turn, showing a crosshatch pattern whereas deep ribs formed the prints in the dirt.
‘Could they be Rob’s?’ Becks wondered aloud.
They all glanced around, expecting Rob to suddenly pop out of hiding and laughing at the joke. Except Rob wasn’t the type to play a cruel prank like this. He was a responsible leader, and wouldn’t risk the safety of his clients by drawing them away from camp on a nighttime search party through treacherous terrain.
‘Rob has bigger feet than those,’ Dom announced. ‘He takes an eleven, these are only about a size nine, a similar size to my feet.’ For clarity, he stepped alongside one of the boot prints and left his own indelible mark. They were similar sizes.
‘Is this where we go all Cinderella and check whose feet fit those shoes?’ Shelley, the girl who’d outed Leah as Diana Leigh asked.
‘We don’t need to, Shelley,’ said the bespectacled guy, ‘seein’ as we know none of us has been up here.’
‘Duh,’ said Shelley and made a face at him. ‘I was only joking, Harry.’
‘D’you really think this is a jokin’ matter?’
‘No, Harry, I just think you’re a joke.’
There was obviously history between Shelley and harry that Leah hadn’t picked up on before. She ignored their bickering. Instead Leah was stock-still, deep in concern. She caught Dom’s eye. ‘I told you there was someone else on the island,’ she whispered. Dom’s eyebrows arched slowly; he didn’t dispute her theory this time. He stood and followed the prints off trail. They headed into the forest, towards the cliff tops, disappearing almost instantly. Dom returned to the group.
‘Whoever made those prints they were spyin’ on us while we were down in the camp,’ he said.
‘He followed me here,’ Leah asserted. ‘I told you he was at my cabin, trying to force his way inside. It’s why I came here for help.’
‘Where’s that knife?’
Leah placed her hand on the hilt poking from her waistband.
‘Give it to me,’ Dom said.
Leah shook her head, even as Effie exclaimed in disbelief.
Dom faced them, his features pale in the backwash of their torches. ‘If there’s some lunatic prowlin’ around, we need to protect ourselves. No offence, ladies, but I think I’m the best one to do that.’
‘We don’t know it’s a lunatic,’ Effie responded, ‘those prints could be from anybody.’
Dom eyed Leah for support. And Leah — for once — found herself siding with him. ‘Whoever it is, they’ve been stalking me, sneaking in my cabin, stealing and moving things to torment me: that isn’t the behaviour of a rational person. And then there’s Rob going missing…’ She allowed her statement to hang, adding to its gravity.
‘We have to find Rob,’ Effie asserted. ‘But we’re not splitting up like I said before. Everyone stays together, right? Nobody goes off alone.’ Her last was for Dom, but he was his own man.
‘Gimme that knife, Leah.’ He held out his hand, staring earnestly at her.
She was reluctant to give up her only protection, but who was she kidding? She couldn’t stab a soul, and would very likely end up skewering herself on the blade if she was set upon. She handed the knife over, handle first, a safety precaution that felt weirdly out of sorts with how she’d earlier viewed Dom.
‘Dom,’ Effie said. ‘Stay with the rest of us.’
‘Rob’s my mate; I’m not leavin’ him out there a minute longer. Not if there’s some bloody nutter roamin’ around.’ With that Dom sprinted up the trail ahead of them.
‘So much for him being the best one to protect the rest of us,’ Shelley huffed.
‘Shelley, shut up, you’re not really helping,’ Harry snapped.
‘Yeah? Well it’s a good job we aren’t relying on you either.’ Shelley was surprisingly vitriolic; to a point where even her two friends scolded her mildly. ‘Well!’ she said, as if that explained everything. Harry lowered his gaze, avoiding scrutiny. Leah had no interest in their youthful melodrama. She stood close to Effie.
‘If we don’t find Rob, how soon can we make it back to the mainland?’
‘We’re going to find him,’ Effie stated.
Leah nodded in agreement. But she wasn’t fully convinced. ‘Rob was carrying the satellite phone, your only way of contacting the emergency services. The radio at the cabin is useless without the transmitter, and there’s no way we can get a mobile phone signal anywhere on the island.’
‘We could probably send an emergency call if we went up on the crags,’ Effie said.
‘I climbed the crags my first day here; I couldn’t get a signal.’
‘You weren’t thinking of making an emergency call at the time, I bet. Was your phone totally dead?’
‘It was showing a red cross. Usually there’s a message on screen if you can still use the nine-nine-nine facility.’
Effie looked around the small group. ‘One of us will be able to get out a call…’ Before she was finished she added a caveat. ‘But it’s going to be unnecessary. We’re going to find Rob. He’s going to be okay, and we’ll all leave the island together. We’ll make room for you too, Leah.’
The thing that terrified her more than being on the rough sea in an unstable kayak was staying behind on the island at the mercy of her demented stalker. She nodded eagerly at Effie’s offer. When she took a quick glance at the others, she could tell they were eager to leave too. The young romantic couple held each other’s hand tightly, the boy looking as frightened as his girlfriend. Shelley, Annie and Hayley had huddled t
ogether, whispering and gesticulating rapidly, while Harry stood apart from them, one hand repeatedly adjusting his spectacles for something to do. Becks had followed a few paces up the track after Dom who was out of sight. She looked back, waving Effie forward.
The team leader didn’t look as confident as when Leah had first met her. Her eyes shone wetly in the torchlight. Leah gently squeezed Effie’s shoulder, encouraging her to recall her assertion of only moments ago. Effie visibly shook, but her shoulders rose an inch or two. ‘Okay. Like I said: we stick together. Becks at the front, I’ll take the rear. Leah, show us where that disturbance is.’
Leah moved to within touching distance of Becks, and unnecessarily pointed her torch up the trail. ‘It’s that way.’
Becks set off, striding in her urgency. The others strung out in a line behind her, their torch beams zipping and probing between the trees on both sides of the track. Their feet scuffed the dirt, but nobody spoke, and it was even as if the forest had fallen silent in anticipation. Leah listened intently for any hint that they were being followed, but could hear little beyond the thudding of her pulse inside her head.
When she’d recently hurried for the perceived safety of the camp, the tunnel through the foliage had felt interminably long, but surrounded by the others, Leah found they came to the spot where she’d noted the beaten down grass sooner than expected. Again Dom was waiting for them, and he wore an “I told you so” expression. ‘Sorry to disillusion you all,’ he said pointedly, ‘but this is where I took my tumble. Look.’ He flashed his torch at the nearest tree bole, indicating where the bark had been scraped off, the wet umber innards of the tree glistening in the fresh wound. ‘That’s where I smacked my face on the trunk.’ He held up an empty beer bottle that Leah hadn’t spotted earlier, the same brand as he’d been drinking when he went off in a huff the night before. ‘This isn’t where Rob left the trail.’
‘Unless he saw where you fell and was concerned for you,’ Becks offered. ‘Could he have gone looking for you and got himself lost?’
Dom stood, and peered deeper into the gloom beneath the canopy. ‘Maybe you’re right.’