by Sarah Barrie
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
SARAH BARRIE is a bestselling Australian author writing suspense in rural settings. Her debut bestselling print novel, Secrets of Whitewater Creek, earned her a spot as one of the Top 10 breakthrough authors of that year, and her next three books, the Hunters Ridge series, also reached bestseller status.
Sarah has also worked as a teacher, a vet nurse, a horse trainer and a magazine editor.
Her favourite place in the world is the family property, where she writes her stories overlooking mountains crisscrossed with farmland, bordered by the beauty of the Australian bush, and where, at the end of the day, she can spend time with family, friends, a good Irish whiskey and a copy of her next favourite book.
Also by Sarah Barrie
Secrets of Whitewater Creek
The Hunters Ridge Trilogy
Legacy of Hunters Ridge
Shadows of Hunters Ridge
Promise of Hunters Ridge
Bloodtree River
Devil’s Lair
www.harlequinbooks.com.au
This is book is dedicated to the extraordinary men and women who risk
their lives every day to save others.
CONTENTS
About the Author
Also by Sarah Barrie
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
CHAPTER
1
‘I’m sorry I got you into this!’ Charlie Reynolds shouted over the gusts of wind blasting them with icy sleet. ‘It’s the stupid weather! I don’t know where it came from. I can’t see how to get down!’
Neither could Tess. She held on to a shelf of slippery rock on a narrow ledge high on the cliff face with frozen, aching fingers. Beneath them was absolutely nothing. She tried for a smile, for encouragement, because the cute but stupid twenty-three-year-old was close to panic, but in her head she was swearing: at him, the mountain, the weather, the whole messed-up situation. He had no right to be here. He’d been warned. No—he’d been told. Repeatedly. The Federation Peak climb belonged only to those with the experience to tackle it and enough respect for the extreme Tasmanian conditions to know when not to. And he’d climbed up anyway.
Now this.
She clung to her anger as desperately as she clung to the cliff, filled herself with it so there was no room for fear, for any of Charlie’s panic to creep in. Panic, and the effects it had on the body, would only increase the chances of them falling to their deaths.
She wriggled her tingling toes in her boots and willed them not to lose sensation. ‘Don’t worry about that right now,’ she called, cautiously sliding her foot down to the next small jut of rock. ‘Just put your hand there for me. Right where mine was. That’s it … Now just a small step down … Go steady.’
She watched Charlie’s exhausted, unsure movements and sucked in an anxious breath as his fingers struggled to grip the ledge. The steady stream of water rushing off the cliff wasn’t helping, and he was shaking so hard his coordination was poor. Tess wasn’t much on praying, but she sent one up.
‘How many rescues have you done?’ He just wouldn’t shut up. Nerves, she knew, but damn it, she was trying to concentrate.
‘Plenty,’ she answered. ‘Haven’t lost anyone yet.’ But her voice wanted to crack from tension.
It was true that since joining the Search and Rescue team she’d participated in some emergency rescues, and not losing anyone was accurate. But plenty was a stretch, and this was not a textbook rescue. Wasn’t even close. If conditions had been better the chopper would have come in. The police cliff-rescue team would have hooked Charlie up and brought him down safely. If this had been a rescue call-out she’d have a partner up here with her, with proper climbing gear. But she wasn’t on a rescue. Charlie and his photographer mates had booked a guided hike for a nature documentary. A couple of days in the Southwest National Park to see Federation Peak, photograph some wildlife and head back out. Tour guide was as much as she’d prepared herself for—a quick climb up a stunningly dangerous mountain in a winter storm had never been part of the itinerary.
As Tess’s mind wandered her foot slipped, catapulting her heart around her chest before she found traction again. Stay focused, Tess. Or die.
A few more steps and she felt safer ground underneath her. ‘Okay,’ she said loudly. ‘Stop for a second, rest.’ She needed a moment herself. They were off the main face, but there was still a lot of mountain to navigate.
Huddled, shivering, Charlie pulled off his beanie and wrung the water from it with shaking hands before returning it to his head. His thick mop of blond hair was as soaked as the beanie. ‘I’m sorry,’ he stuttered again. ‘Last night’s rain had stopped and I didn’t want to miss a chance at the summit. I was sure the sun was coming out. I thought if I went up early I could be back before we headed out this afternoon. Lots of people do it without ropes, right? Hikers do it all the time. I wanted to sign the book at the top. I was just unlucky with the storm.’
He was rambling, wanting her to say it was okay, but damn it, it wasn’t. ‘Looks like we might get a short break in the weather,’ she said instead, as the sleet eased to rain and a distant patch of blue penetrated the fog. ‘It’d be a good idea to get going again while it lasts.’
‘I didn’t think you’d come up after me. I thought at best you’d call for a rescue.’
Which is exactly what she should have done. She shook her head. ‘I called it in, but in these conditions they can’t fly. They’ll be en route as soon as they can, but you could have been up here a long time.’ And looking at him, at the hypothermia and the fatigue, she knew he wouldn’t have lasted more than a couple of hours. ‘Right now, you’re stuck with me.’
‘I’m not complaining,’ he said, and she saw the gratitude. ‘I couldn’t have held on that long. I can keep going now though, if you want.’
‘Okay, let’s go.’ As they continued their descent, heath and sedge clung to crevices in the prehistoric quartzite where the rocks’ jagged shapes provided better footholds.
‘Where are we?’ Charlie asked. ‘I don’t recognise anything.’
‘Chockstone Gully’s not too far below us. It’s going to be slippery.’
He took a few exhausted breaths and blew into his gloved hands. ‘Piece of cake, right?’ he joked weakly.
They climbed under the enormous stone wedged in the wall of the gully and made their way down a near-vertical waterslide of slippery rock and moss before shufflin
g across its width to climb the adjoining pandani-dotted gully. ‘Well, that’s pretty nice,’ Charlie said, indicating behind and below them to where the gully sharply dropped into empty space. The fog had cleared just enough to show off glimpses of Lake Geeves, six hundred metres below, its shores engulfed by ancient trees—mere pinpricks from their current height. Nice that we didn’t end up down there, she thought with relief.
‘I’m sorry, I need another break,’ Charlie said, and propped himself against a crevice in the rock, but she could see some of his normal self returning. That bone-numbing fear had worn off.
She needed to warm up; despite her best gear she was soaked through. Every extremity stung with pins and needles, her face was frozen, her nerves were shot and, without the exertion of the climb, she was starting to shake.
Charlie rubbed his hands together to warm them. ‘All this drama and not one photo,’ he joked. ‘I don’t seem to have had a chance to get my phone out of my pack.’
Relenting, Tess unzipped the waterproof pocket of her hiking pants and took out her phone, moving around and above him. ‘Okay, then, got the energy to smile?’
He did, and she caught a snap of him with a bit of the view in the background, but visibility was becoming poor again. ‘I’ll send it to you,’ she said.
‘Thanks. An eternal reminder of my own stupidity.’
A shout from above had both of them looking up. Damn it, she’d left the other two hikers, Ken and Patrick, at Béchervaise Plateau, hoping they’d have the sense to stay put. But they were coming down.
Charlie sent another apologetic glance at Tess. ‘I bet the guys have got the shits with me.’
‘They were very concerned,’ she answered tactfully, remembering the outbursts of ‘Irresponsible knob!’ and ‘Selfish prick!’ that had exploded from their lips several times after realising where he’d gone. ‘I’m not sure why they’re coming down. We need to get up there.’
A fist-sized rock broke away from the mud and moss under Patrick’s foot and tumbled past them. Tess kept an eye on its descent until, with a final high bounce, it disappeared over the edge.
‘You’re all right,’ Patrick said with relief as he slid down beside them, closely followed by Ken.
‘Fine.’ Charlie brushed the comment off with a ridiculous amount of bravado.
‘I wasn’t talking to you!’ Patrick snapped with a ferocious scowl. ‘What the hell were you thinking?’
Charlie’s face fell. ‘I just wanted—’
‘Yeah, you always just want!’ Ken said. ‘It’s always about what you want. Tess could have died up there because of you!’
‘I know,’ Charlie said more sombrely.
‘It’s not the right time for this, guys,’ Tess interrupted over a sudden gust of wind that brought a fresh lash of rain. ‘We need to get back to camp. The weather’s coming back in.’
‘I could do with a hot chocolate,’ Charlie said.
‘Then come back to the tent and have it,’ Patrick said. ‘But you’ve gone too far this time. Never again, Charlie. Once we get out of here, that’s it.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘You’re off the project,’ Ken snapped then, with a nod at Patrick, he started back up the gully.
‘What? You can’t be serious!’ Charlie said, stunned. Then on a burst of desperation: ‘Wait!’ He made to bound up the slope, and the ground gave way underneath his feet.
Tess lunged, grabbing hold of his jacket.
And went with him.
They toppled, one over the other, down the steep gully.
She threw out her arms and legs, hoping for something to stop her fall. Her gloves were ripped from her fingers as her hands clawed, desperate for a hold. But the sharp, uneven ground bruised and sliced her frozen fingers, destroying them. She struck her head and her vision dotted. She hit the cold hard ground again, again, while one panicked thought screamed in the back of her mind: The drop-off.
She managed to get her legs in front of her and dug her heels in hard. It slowed her descent, then brought her to an awkward stop. Water running down the gully soaked into her clothes and threatened to dislodge her. Heart pounding, everything aching and stinging, she carefully turned her head. She was centimetres from the edge. Charlie was dangling from it, one hand wrapped around a jagged pillar of rock. Water cascaded off the cliff past him into nothing. His fingers were slipping.
More stones pummelled Tess as Ken and Patrick made their way towards them, frantically shouting.
‘Stay still!’
‘Hold on! We’re coming!’
Terrified, she gingerly shifted to better brace herself, wedging one arm against Charlie’s lifeline rock before offering her other hand. ‘Take it!’
Terror etched every feature of his face, but Charlie eyed the distance to her hand. He lunged and his fingers brushed hers, almost held. She felt the tug of them, felt herself move. Her eyes left his for a split second as she searched frantically for somewhere to better brace her foot. Then a scream pierced the air as his grip slipped from hers. When she looked back, Charlie was gone.
She stared in horror at the emptiness of the space he had occupied, feeling herself slipping towards it. She clawed the ground with torn fingernails as her feet disappeared over the edge and her speed picked up.
‘Tess!’
Something soft hit her face. Giving up her useless hold on the mountain, she snatched desperately at it and swung out into oblivion.
CHAPTER
2
Detective Senior Sergeant Jared Denham pulled the police car up behind one already at the scene and looked around. Hobart’s Salamanca Markets were setting up for a big day of trading. Despite the lightly falling rain, people were milling with phones and dogs, and kids of all ages held parents’ hands and gawked from the edge of the park. A disaster waiting to happen.
‘We need to get these people back,’ Detective Inspector Indiana Atherton muttered as she climbed out of the passenger side. Approaching sirens promised backup so she walked behind the car and flagged down more police and began shouting directions. Jared hurried across the park to where the new probationary constable who’d called the incident in stood partially protected by the cover of a tree.
‘Emily.’
‘Hey, Jared.’ Behind the casual greeting was plenty of tension. ‘I think she’s wearing goods reported stolen last night from a break and enter.’
He looked around the tree. Seated on the shoulders of a statue a few feet in front of them was a visibly inebriated middle-aged woman in not enough clothing. She sported a handbag, a couple of sparkling necklaces, what looked to be expensive sunglasses and a short red dress that had shimmied up to her waist due to the way she was straddling Tasmania’s twenty-eighth premier. In one hand was a mostly empty bottle of Jack Daniels, in the other was a Glock semiautomatic handgun.
‘The guy hanging back by my car knows her. Says her name’s Ruby.’
‘Yeah, we know Ruby,’ Jared said, recognising the woman. ‘She spends half her life sleeping off big nights in our holding cells. I’m surprised you haven’t had the pleasure yet.’
‘Dangerous?’
‘Wouldn’t have said so. Until now.’
‘She’s as likely to fire that thing by accident as on purpose. There’s too many people around.’
‘We’re dealing with that,’ Indy said, coming in from behind them. ‘How the hell did she get up there?’
‘No idea. But she’s—’
The gun raised above Ruby’s head went off. Chaos ensued from the crowds at the police boundary. A child fell or was knocked over, her high-pitched wail echoing over the general noise. Ruby gave a ‘Whoop!’ and a pump of her JD into the air before bursting into an off-key rendition of The Lone Ranger theme.
‘One of those bullets can travel a hell of a lot further and faster than we can clear this area,’ Jared said and, ignoring Indy’s ‘Wait!’, he stepped out.
‘Hi, Ruby,’ he said casually. ‘How’s it going
?’
A smile erupted on the woman’s smudged red lips. ‘Hi, handsome!’
‘That’s Detective Handsome to you, Ruby.’
‘Me and Mr Ogilvie here are having a party!’ She knocked the bottle against the statue’s head as though in cheers.
‘Yeah, about that … It must be getting uncomfortable up there.’
She eyed him wickedly. ‘Dunno. Kinda enjoying having a man between my legs. Specially one this hard! Get it?’
He forced a smile onto his face as she cackled at her joke and did what he could to keep his stance and expression relaxed. ‘You gonna let me help you down?’
‘Then what? You offering to take over?’ Another ‘Whoop!’, another wave of the gun.
Silence had descended around them. Though they were further away, crowds still watched, many with phones up, recording. Media had arrived too.
‘Okay, here’s the deal,’ Jared said. ‘That gun is dangerous. There’s kids around, Ruby. You don’t want to accidentally hurt a kid. You need to hand it to me, okay?’
‘Or what? You’ll shoot me? Taser me? Spank me?’ she asked, wide-eyed and enjoying herself.
‘I don’t want to do that. Neither does she,’ he added quickly when Ruby’s head whipped around to find Indy behind her. ‘Because any of those options would mean lots of paperwork, and you know how cops hate paperwork.’
‘Aw … she ain’t gonna shoot me. She gets me coffee in lock-up.’
‘There’ll be no more coffee deliveries, Ruby,’ Indy said. ‘Not if you don’t come down right now.’
‘Also,’ Jared continued to get Ruby’s attention back on him and off his partner, ‘being shot hurts. A lot. I can’t stress enough just how bad it really does hurt. On top of that, you might fall down and, look, you’re a long way up there. That’s gonna hurt too. So, lots of pain. Instead, why don’t you do us all a favour and hand me that gun, okay? Then I can help you down.’
Ruby considered that for almost too long, then her arm lowered.
‘Don’t point it at me,’ Jared said quickly as Indy tensed. ‘Finger off the trigger … great. Awesome job.’ He closed the distance and took the gun then held it out to Emily, who stepped up to take it. ‘Okay, let me help you.’