‘So what makes you assume I want a family?’ Jennifer was frowning. Did she want a family? It wasn’t something that had been more than a fleeting thought over the years. A thought that was easy to shove on the back burner due to the precedence her career had always taken. ‘Not all women are born with the desperate need to reproduce. Maybe I’m just as sure about it as you are.’
‘You just gave me the impression that you’re fond of kids, that’s all.’
‘How on earth did you reach a conclusion like that?’
‘Both your worst and best cases involved babies and children.’
‘I guess those cases can be more memorable. Maybe it’s more of a tragedy to lose babies and children than older people who have had a chance to live life.’
‘Like Digger, you mean?’
‘No, I didn’t mean that.’ Jennifer’s tone softened. ‘Digger’s obviously special. He reminds me of my dad.’
‘Because he called you Jenna?’
‘Not just that. There’s something else there. An independence maybe. Or courage, or a sense of humour. An ability to face whatever has to be faced without making a big fuss about it.’
Guy grunted. ‘You’re not a bad judge of character.’ Jennifer could hear him moving. ‘Hey, Digger? Did you hear the nice things Dr Allen was saying about you?’
There was no response from Digger. Jennifer moved as well, to wriggle her hand inside the coverings and find Digger’s wrist.
‘His radial pulse isn’t palpable,’ she said quietly. ‘Blood pressure’s dropping.’
‘He’s not responsive,’ Guy added. ‘And I don’t like how shallow and rapid his breathing’s getting.’
Digger was tilted towards Guy’s side of the tent and as Jennifer was tucking his arm back under the leather jacket and foil sheet she found him tilting even further. Startled, Jennifer opened her mouth to say something but then realised what was happening. Guy was taking the older man into his arms.
‘It’s OK, mate,’ he was saying softly. ‘I’m here, Digger. I’m not going anywhere.’
This time tears formed that rolled down Jennifer’s face. Would someone hold her like that when she was dying? And speak softly in such a loving tone? There was a gap beside her now, where Digger’s back had been.
‘Come a bit closer,’ Guy instructed. ‘We need to keep as much body heat in one place as we can. Pull the tarp in around us if you can.’
So Jennifer found herself pressed against Digger’s back again. She could feel his uneven breathing beneath her cheek. She could feel the erratic heartbeat a long time later when his breathing settled into a rhythm that suggested the end wasn’t far away. They huddled together as the minutes, then hours passed. The cold was numbing and attempts at conversation gradually faded into simply waiting.
Waiting for dawn.
Waiting for rescue.
Sadly, there would be no rescue for Jim Spade. As the inky blackness outside lightened by slow degrees into a frigid dawn, Digger took his last breath and slipped away, held in the circle of Guy’s and Jennifer’s arms. Neither of them could break the contact immediately and Jennifer had no idea how long they lay like that. It was Guy who struggled free first. He laid Digger gently on his back and then turned and wriggled out of the tent. When Jennifer put her head outside the shelter she found the light strong enough to see the silhouette of the man standing some distance away on the edge of the plateau.
The craggy rock faces of the more distant peaks provided a backdrop for the solitary figure. A figure whose head was bent and shoulders were shaking in grief. Jennifer closed her eyes and buried her face in her hands. She knew neither of these men in any real sense, yet she felt as bad as she had on her father’s recent death. Her heart ached for Guy and she had to resist the impulse to go and offer comfort of some kind. He had gone as far away from the tent—and her—as he possibly could, so he clearly needed some time alone. He would come back when he was ready and Jennifer would do her very best to comfort him if she could.
Except that Guy didn’t want to be offered any comfort. When he finally returned to the shelter, the first rays of sunlight were lifting the temperature just enough to be noticeable. The coldest thing Jennifer was aware of had to be the expression on Guy’s face.
‘I’m so sorry, Guy,’ she said softly.
‘You didn’t even know him.’ The tone dismissed any right Jennifer had to show empathy.
‘That doesn’t stop me feeling bad. For Digger…and you.’
‘I don’t need your sympathy.’ Guy folded back the tarpaulin from where Jennifer was huddled in the entrance to the shelter. ‘I’m going to need this,’ he muttered. ‘If it gets windy or wet, you can get inside what’s left of the plane for shelter.’
‘What?’ Jennifer watched in bemusement as Guy laid the canvas square on the ground and started putting items on top of it. The billy, his pocket knife, a length of rope. He took off the dark blue anorak and replaced it with his leather jacket. Jennifer had taken it off Digger when she had covered him completely with one of the foil sheets. Guy seemed to be ignoring the sight of the shrouded body of his friend. He took the spare foil sheet and added it to the pile on the tarpaulin.
‘What are you doing?’ His actions were making Jennifer nervous.
‘Packing.’
‘Why? Have you seen something?’ Jennifer turned her gaze to the horizon. The blue of the sky was becoming brighter and the day was as clear as she could have wished, but she could see nothing that suggested rescue was at hand.
‘I’m going to walk out and get help.’ Guy picked up the half-eaten packet of chocolate biscuits and put them down beside Jennifer. ‘You can keep these.’
‘You can’t leave!’ Jennifer was horrified. ‘The first rule for anybody lost in the bush is to stay put. Even I know that.’
‘I know what I’m doing.’
‘We’re on the top of a mountain, for God’s sake! There’s no way you can walk out.’
‘It’ll take a while,’ Guy agreed calmly. ‘Three days at the most to get to civilisation, I reckon. I’ve been having a good look. The climbing’s a bit tricky to get down to the bush line but I’ve picked out a route I think I can manage. I might find a river in the next valley and I should be able to follow that to get somewhere recognisable. I know this country pretty well. I’ll survive.’ He rolled up the items in the canvas. ‘If they find you first, you can let them know what I was planning.’
‘If they find me first?’
‘There’s no guarantee they’ll come looking in the right place. I’m not going to sit up here for days getting hypothermic and dehydrated and then decide to try and walk out.’
‘You can’t leave me.’ Jennifer’s voice rose sharply. ‘I’m not going to sit here with three dead people all by myself.’
For the first time since he’d returned to the shelter, Guy turned to look at Digger. A long moment passed and Jennifer kicked herself mentally for seeming uncaring enough to have made Digger simply one of the fatalities. Guy turned away abruptly.
‘I’m going,’ he said flatly. ‘You can’t stop me.’
‘Then I’ll come with you.’
‘Ha!’ The sound was scathing. ‘Don’t be ridiculous. You wouldn’t make it past the first ridge.’
‘What makes you so sure about that?’
Guy just looked at her and Jennifer had never felt so inadequate in her life. She didn’t know what scared her more—attempting a journey that would probably be impossible or sitting here alone, waiting for rescue that might, conceivably, never come.
‘Do you want to go rock-climbing? Fording rivers? Forcing yourself through bush that could be virtually impenetrable?’
‘No! Of course I don’t. And you shouldn’t either. If you get lost out there, it’ll be the end. At least we’re visible here. They’ll be looking for a plane.’
‘I’ll mark my route.’
‘You can’t do this!’ Jennifer shook her head, feeling horribly close to crying and
begging him to stay. ‘What about your leg? Your ankle? How far do you think you’ll get on that?’
‘As far as I need to,’ Guy said grimly. ‘I’m going to see if I can unearth your cell phone in the plane. The battery on mine is dead. It’s possible I can come across a spot on a ridge that might give some coverage. There might even be a hut with a radio somewhere along the way.’
‘A hut?’ Jennifer caught her bottom lip in her teeth. Was that really possible? If they had the shelter of a hut, survival was far more likely.
‘We’re in a national park. I’m not sure exactly where, but there are a lot of tracks used by trampers and climbers in the area. With a bit of luck I might come across one of them in a day or two.’ Guy crouched beside the red bag as he spoke. ‘I’ll take a few bandages and a clean dressing or two, though. What do you need me to leave for your arm?’
‘My arm’s fine.’ Jennifer wasn’t even aware of the discomfort now. She had too much else to worry about. She followed Guy as he went back to the wreckage of the plane.
‘You can’t do this,’ she insisted. ‘You have to stay put. Everybody knows that’s what you’re supposed to do when you’re lost.’
‘Only if you don’t know what you’re doing,’ Guy countered. ‘Like you.’ He eventually had to give up the search for Jennifer’s handbag and he straightened and met her gaze directly for the first time since Digger’s death.
‘You’ll be all right,’ he said. ‘Keep yourself as warm as you can and melt some snow for water. I’ll leave you the extra jacket. You could take some more clothing off Bill and Shirley as well and put that on.’ Something like concern flashed momentarily in his gaze. ‘I’ll get help just as fast as I can.’
And then, with what seemed like total incongruity, he smiled. ‘See you in a few days, Jenna.’
Jennifer watched him walk away. Saw him stoop to collect the rolled tarpaulin and then keep walking. He reached the edge of the plateau, where he’d stood so long alone at dawn, and stopped for several seconds, perhaps confirming the route he wanted to take. With one hand on a huge boulder for support, he then stepped lower. Another step and his hand left the rock. A second later his head disappeared from view.
He was gone.
Jennifer had never felt more alone in her life. Even her mother’s death, when she’d only been eight, hadn’t left her feeling this bereft. Or losing her only remaining family when her father had died so many years later. Feeling the last breath Digger had taken so recently had brought back too many memories of loss, and seeing Guy disappear over the edge of the plateau was too much.
Jennifer didn’t want to die. She especially didn’t want to die alone. And she was damned if she wasn’t going to do something to try and help herself. If Guy believed he could make it, there was no reason why she couldn’t keep up with him. Maybe they’d both die in the attempt, but at least they wouldn’t be giving up.
And they wouldn’t be alone.
She had no real choice in the end. It felt good to move—to make some decisions.
‘Sorry, Shirley.’ Jennifer had to grit her teeth to approach the dead woman. ‘I need to borrow your shoes and trousers. I don’t think a skirt and high heels are going to help me get very far.’
Having made the decision, it became urgent. Trying to cope with shoelaces and zips with frozen hands and a half-splinted arm seemed to take far too long. When she had put on the second jacket on top of her odd collection of garments, Jennifer stumbled in her haste to get to the edge of the plateau.
She stopped by the boulder where she had last seen Guy, and her hand went out for support. It wasn’t the first stage of climbing down, however. She needed the support to cope with what she was seeing. The steep, snow-covered drop was pierced only infrequently by visible rock formations. It looked totally impossible to cross and it didn’t lead, as she had expected, to the sight of a forest and a potentially manageable route. As far as she could see there were more ridges and plateaus with only snow, rock and grass tussocks. The bush line was miles away, lower than her by what looked like thousands of feet.
Where was Guy? Jennifer squinted against the glare of the sun on snow. Close to her feet she could see the prints he had left in the snow. Every second one seemed noticeably deeper, as though he was favouring his injured ankle. Her eyes tracked the line, crossed a rocky area and just picked up the marks again on the other side.
Raising her gaze a little, she spotted him. How had he gone so far in such a short time? He was halfway across the slope, heading sideways, not straight down. Of course, Jennifer thought, he’d be doing some kind of zigzag to get down safely. And if he’d gone this far in the time it had taken her to follow then maybe there was hope. The day was clear and there were many hours of daylight left.
He knew what he was doing.
Jennifer clung to the thought as she stepped down to the snow. She put her feet into the prints Guy had left, stretching her stride to match the steps he had taken. The scramble over the first patch of rocks was terrifying but Jennifer forced herself to continue. She found a hand-hold with her uninjured arm and then a place for each foot. Then she was into the snow again, with Guy’s prints to guide her and provide reassurance that she wouldn’t slip to her death.
‘I can do this,’ she found herself saying aloud. ‘I can make it. Wait for me, Guy. Please!’
CHAPTER FOUR
SHE was following him.
It had taken several incredulous seconds for Guy to figure out what the moving blob on the snow near the rocks above and behind him was, and when he did, he swore aloud and kept moving.
This was the last thing he needed. The risk he was taking was huge but he was experienced. To have the liability of someone like Jennifer trailing after him spelled almost certain failure. He would have the concern of her safety hanging around his neck like a millstone, adding unwanted and probably overwhelming weight to every decision he would have to make. At best, she would slow him down enough to tip the balance against surviving. At worst, she could cause both their deaths.
Guy kept his gaze on the next outcrop of rock he was heading towards. He kicked the next step into the layer of snow with his heel, testing its firmness before allowing his whole weight to follow and praying that his injured ankle would take the strain yet again and not collapse and send him hurtling downwards like a human avalanche. He was moving sideways and down the vast slope. One step and then another.
He could just keep going, couldn’t he, and pretend he hadn’t seen her? He could probably increase his pace considerably once he got past this icy slope and then she would never catch up.
She’ll die, a voice in his head stated clearly. Is that what you want?
‘Of course not,’ Guy muttered. ‘But she’ll probably die anyway and take me down with her. She should have stayed where she was. I would have sent help…eventually.’
You weren’t too keen to stay, were you? the voice taunted. With three dead people for company? With Digger?
‘I couldn’t.’ The pain was still too great. A raw wound that was unbearable.
Maybe she couldn’t either.
‘She didn’t even know him.’
She tried to save his life. She said he reminded her of her father. You knew she’d been crying when you went back. She cared.
Guy refused to respond to that one. She had no right to care and he didn’t want anyone claiming even a tiny share of his pain. Especially a total stranger.
Where the hell was this voice coming from? Was he already hypothermic and dehydrated and exhausted enough that his brain function was impaired? He couldn’t afford to doubt himself right now. He needed to concentrate on what he was doing and ignore any negative thoughts.
The voice wasn’t about to give up so easily.
What would Digger think of what you’re trying to do? it whispered.
‘He’d do exactly what I’m doing. Take a risk and go for help.’
He wouldn’t have left someone behind. Someone who had tried to save
the life of someone he loved. Someone who cared.
‘Dammit!’ Guy snarled. ‘Dammit it to hell!’ He had reached the rocky outcrop. Two sections of his zigzag descent completed safely. And now he had to wait.
To wait until Jennifer bloody Allen caught up with him. And then he’d have to drag her along and try and keep them both alive until they reached help because otherwise his conscience, or whatever was creating that persistent voice, would probably plague him for the rest of his life.
‘I would have waited anyway,’ he growled aloud. ‘I just wanted to get to the rocks so I could sit down for a minute.’
It took more like twenty minutes for Jennifer to catch up.
‘Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?’ Guy might have been planning to wait all along, but there was no way he was going to applaud her rash decision.
‘I’m coming with you.’
‘You’re out of your mind. Go back and stay with the plane.’
‘No way. I’ve come this far. I’m not turning back now.’
‘And just how far do you think you’re going to get?’
‘As far as I need to,’ Jennifer flashed back. ‘Just like you.’
‘You’ll never make it.’ She had already made an effort, though, hadn’t she? Guy shook his head to stop that voice speaking on her behalf.
His gaze raked her from head to foot and a breath escaped in a huff that was verging on laughter. She looked ridiculous. They must be Shirley’s trousers she was wearing. Or even Bill’s. They looked several sizes too big and she still had her skirt on top of them. Wearing two anoraks made her look like a child who’d been layered up in hand-me-down protective clothing to go out and build a snowman, and the lace-up suede shoes she had swapped her high heels for were already soaked. She have frostbite in no time flat if they stayed above the snow line.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said with even more emphasis. ‘But you can’t manage this.’
‘You don’t know that.’
‘I know that you have no idea what you’re trying to get into. I’ll bet the biggest physical challenge you’ve faced recently is a Pilates class.’
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