“Was it?”
“You know damn well it was! What are you saying? That we play it all over again?”
“Three hours, then the boat will leave straight away if you’re not there. I’ll let you have waterproofs.” He turned to Ruby. “It’s been nice knowing you. I’ll miss you.”
“You’re sick, Max,” she said.
I placed a hand on her arm. “Look, Max, maybe we can talk this through, try to see sense. You’re unwell…”
He left the room, this time leaving the door open. “Philip, what’s The Mount? What does he mean?”
I recalled the trip to Gowan Torr by car, very much aware that to get there we had to drive around the huge hill beyond the house; the one that so reminded both of us of The Mount back home, that immense brooding slag heap on which we’d played our games as kids. I shuddered. “I don’t rightly know what it all means, Ruby, but I think we’d better be very careful, whatever. To get to Gowan Torr you have to go around that hill the other side of the house, right?”
She nodded. “Why?”
“Any other way? What about taking a wide detour?”
She frowned. “Not really. There are bogs and marshes that stretch for a mile or so behind the house, so to take a wide berth is difficult, if not downright dangerous, especially at this time of year when the water table’s at its peak. With the weather as it is I wouldn’t advise straying too far beyond this. It’s easy to get lost, and if the weather turns even worse you could end up dead through exposure in a matter of hours. It’s the same the other side of the hill. It looks fine, but there are no paths and bogs that could suck you down in seconds if you strayed into one. I’ve seen it in high summer – what constitutes high summer here – and it’s still a pretty frightening route. No, the only safe route to Gowan Torr Bay is either around the hill by the track, or straight over the top of it.”
“Shit!” I said.
“What’s the matter, it’s pretty straightforward?”
It was The Mount all over again. Only this time the odds were far greater. I was being asked to play for real this time. “How many men does he have working for him?”
“There are four security guards here.”
“Sure?”
“Yes, course I’m sure. Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”
“To get to Gowan Torr Bay we have to run the gauntlet of Max’s henchmen. That’s what he’s planned. It’s a kids’ game, one we played when we were nippers. To get into his gang you had to prove yourself by reaching the rock at the top of The Mount, a slagheap. It was virtually impossible, but I happened to do it one day, got there in spite of all Max’s efforts to stop me. I guess he never forgot. Maybe he thinks this is a fitting payback.”
Just then we heard a car start up and drive off into the distance.
Ruby stormed out of the room, shouting, “Max! Max, where are you?”
I followed, urging her to be careful. She stopped in the hall beyond. On the floor in front of her were two waterproof coats. I stooped and picked them up, handing one to Ruby. She rushed ahead, trying doors as she went, but each was locked. “It’s no good, Ruby; he’s blocked off every route to the rest of the house, channelling us through to the outside.”
“Can’t you break a door down?” she pleaded. “We could get to a radio or something.”
I shook my head. “They built these things to last. I’d break my shoulder first. He wants us to go outside. He hasn’t given us a choice.”
We walked cautiously to the only door open to us, and that led straight outside. We zipped up our waterproofs as we stepped out onto the gravel beyond. The faint smell of car fumes was still evident in the air, and the rain was coming thin but hard, driven along by an increasingly fierce wind. I gazed at the sky, doubting that it would progress beyond the semi-dusk that it was now. In fact I envisioned it getting darker as the clouds built up further.
“We could try other doors,” Ruby said, clutching my arm.
“He’ll have thought of that. You can bet they’re all locked.” I pointed. “He wants us to go that way.”
Beyond a gnarled fringe of weather-stunted trees was the dark, exposed slopes of the hill that so reminded me of The Mount; so much so I shivered at the thought. Clouds the colour of bruises appeared to be sprouting from its summit, curling up like smoke, building slowly into gargantuan hammerheads. Though I strained to see through the pall of mist and rain that skated across the scene, I couldn’t make out anyone, not a single human shape. Ruby must have been thinking the same.
“I can’t see anyone,” she said, her face already shiny with the moisture that ran down it.
“We’re not meant to. They’re there somewhere.”
“Do you think they’re watching us?”
“I’ve no idea. Somehow I doubt it. Part of the rules – count to fifty slowly then the game begins.”
She looked at me uncertainly. “This is stupid.”
“Max doesn’t seem to think so, and it is Max’s game were playing. We’re on his island after all.”
“You’re not taking this seriously,” she chided, giving me one of her special glares.
“On the contrary, I’m taking it very seriously. I don’t like this one bit. But I can’t see any other way out of this. We have to get to Gowan Torr Bay in about two and three quarters of an hour, and if that means getting by that bloody hill, then getting by that bloody hill it is. Ever played cowboys and Indians?” I tried to grin, but it wavered and twitched awkwardly, then fell away altogether. “We’ve got to think this through, though. Any chance of getting to a car?”
“I doubt it. There are three here on the island, and he’ll either have them all locked away or will have taken them with him. We know one of them has gone already.”
I sighed. “Where do you think Helen is?”
“That bitch? I don’t care. Probably locked herself away as well, till this is all over. Waiting for Max.”
“I take it it’s more than a professional relationship?”
She snorted. I’d rather not talk about it. First we ought to make for the trees,” she suggested, pointing. “We’ll get a little shelter from the rain and then we can think it out from there.”
I nodded in agreement. “You reckon we’ve got to go along with it, then?”
“I don’t see any other option. Anyhow, if there’s the slightest chance I’m going to get away from this hellhole then I’ll take it the chance, no matter how slim.”
We set off at a pace across the gravel, onto mown grass and then into long rough. By the time we’d made the cover of the trees our trousers and shoes were soaked. We stood there panting, the droplets of rain falling steadily like liquid silver from the branches, but the trees did keep some of the weather off us, especially the wind. I searched the undergrowth, flicking through the wet branches that the wind had torn away and discarded at the foot of the trees, eventually finding a suitable straight branch, about two inches in diameter. I broke it over my leg so that it was a manageable weapon, striking the air with it to get the feel of it. Ruby watched me earnestly, then searched one out for herself. We must have looked a pitiful pair even at that stage, wet, miserable and our faces giving away our trepidation. But we smiled fleetingly at each other for encouragement.
“We’ve go to take it slowly from now on,” I said. “They could be anywhere, and I don’t trust them at all, or what they’d do to us if they caught us. Max was careful not to tell us those particular rules of the game. Whatever, two can play at it, and I ain’t going to lie down and take it without a fight.”
“Big, brave General Custer,” she said dryly. “My hero.”
I frowned at her, knowing full well she’d always been the stronger of the two of us. “What do you suggest?” I asked. “You can be project manager if you like.”
She eyed me contemptuously. “We need to think this out logically.” She peered through the trees, to the hill beyond. It looked far closer than it actually was.
“Whi
ch way would they expect us to go?”
Her breath escaped in clouds, her eyes closed in thought. “At various places around the base of the hill is some sort of cover – bushes, trees, that kind of thing. The easiest route is to skirt around the hill using this cover if we don’t want to be seen. It’s firm enough with a single dirt track cutting by its base to the open land beyond – the same track you’d have used in the car. That’s where it gets difficult, as you saw for yourself.”
“There are miles of open space. We’d stand out like a sore thumb, especially in these coats. They’re too bright. That’s if we ever made it that far. Actually, I don’t think Max expects us to make it past the hill. In fact I’m banking on it.”
I scanned the hill through the gaps in the trees. Its summit was now wreathed in a fine mist that obscured the crest and uppermost parts, with wispy tendrils reaching down the heather-clad slopes to linger and explore the many hollows there. What’s more, this was no mere slagheap; this was a veritable beast by comparison.
“What have you seen?” Ruby asked, noticing my intense gaze.
“What if we went over the top instead of around it?”
“It’s too open, too exposed; they’d see us for sure.”
“But they wouldn’t expect us to go that way.”
She shook her head vigorously. “It’s steeper than it looks, and it’s wet and muddy; I’ll bet it’ll be the devil to climb even in dry weather, but with this wind and rain – I don’t know, Philip, I don’t like the idea.”
“No, see, we wouldn’t be spotted at all, not if the mist thickens. Even if it doesn’t come any lower, once we reach the summit we’d be hidden from view altogether. I’m betting Max thinks we’ll take the route around the base. That’s where he’ll put someone. There are only five people, including Max himself, so they’ll be spread pretty thinly anyhow. I reckon there’d only be a brief amount of time we’d be visible on the hillside, till we reach the summit. That’s the dangerous part. If we get over we’ll ditch these coats, they’re like bloody flags.”
I stopped talking, breathless, searching her eyes for agreement. She looked sceptical. “What if there is no boat?” she said gravely. “I don’t trust him. How can he let us go?”
“I saw a couple of rowing boats on the beach there. I’d risk taking one of those out to sea if I had to. We can’t stay here.” It was bravado and potentially suicidal, and she knew it, but it was all we had to cling to. “Let’s get moving,” I said. “And be careful. Keep an eye out for anyone. We can follow this line of trees for a while and then cut across to that other clump over there. After that we’ll play it by ear. OK?”
She nodded and we kissed each other briefly, our lips as cold as ice. Keeping low and hugging the cover we flitted from one clump of trees and bushes to the next. We heard the sound of an engine and I signalled Ruby to lie low. She did so immediately, flat onto the grass. We waited, the sound of the engine growing louder, and finally we saw through a gauze-like haze of rain the Range Rover in the distance, trundling slowly into view and making its way cautiously along the narrow path that skirted the hill. I couldn’t be certain of the identity of the occupant but it was obvious whoever it was had their eyes peeled for us. We hung on till it faded into the mist, the engine gradually lost to the sound of the wind. It was surprising how fast it had come into view; we hadn’t heard the engine while the last moment because of the rising storm.
“We’ll have to be careful,” I said to her in a hush. “That thing was almost on us before we knew it.” I rose to a crouching position, ready to move off, but sensed she was still lying down. “What’s the matter?” I said.
“What if they capture us? What will they do?”
She’d been reading my thoughts. Or my expression. I knelt to her. “I wish I knew. But they aren’t going to get us, are they? We’re gonna beat him at his own twisted game.”
I gripped my largely useless self-made stave tighter. She shook away the moisture from her eyes and we crept low across to the last belt of trees before the base of the hill. It now loomed high above us, dark and oppressive, its top shrouded from view. Ahead of us was a small rock-strewn stream that rushed at quite a pace, bloated and agitated as it was with water flooding down from the hills. Ruby bent and took a handful of the icy water, lifting it to her lips. To the left and the right of us there was no one to be seen. I grew increasingly nervous. Thunder shook the heavens and I felt the tremors run through my body as if I’d been punched lightly in the chest.
I don’t know what made me turn around, but I turned my head in time to see a black blur hurtling towards me. I managed to duck to one side but I felt a glancing blow on my arm and I was knocked to the ground.
“I’ve got ‘em!” the man shouted. “I’ve got ‘em!”
The guard raised his baton to strike at me again, but he was slow and cumbersome in the heavy waterproofs he wore. I cursed myself for having missed him hiding somewhere in the long grass or near a tree and raised my own stave to fend off the blow. The man crumpled up, however, as Ruby sent her pole crashing into the small of his back and the words he was about to yell came out in a rush of air and a groan. It didn’t completely fell him, though. By the time Ruby had lifted her heavy pole to strike again he was already straightening, turning on her with hatred lighting his eyes, pulling his baton back menacingly. His attention momentarily averted from me, I sent my stave into him with all the strength I could muster, my blow landing on his right shoulder, and he dropped the baton immediately, crashing to his knees. He doubled up in pain, and I let my pole hang limp at my side, wiping the rain from my blurred eyes. But Ruby’s anger was up and before I could say anything she was on him like a leopard, her pole swinging in a wide arc to smash against his skull. His head snapped sideways and without another sound he flopped like a straw dummy to the ground and lay perfectly motionless.
She was growling with uncontrollable rage, her teeth set, her eyes mere slits, and she was about to lay into his prone body again till I grabbed her wrist and prevented her from doing so. She panted heavily. “I want to kill him!” she rumbled. “I want to kill them all!”
I persisted with my grip till she calmed a little and finally walked away, her pole dragging on the heather behind her, her head low. Bending to the guard I checked for a pulse but I couldn’t find one. Not that I was any good at finding them anyway. His head was awash with blood, which ran in a winding stream down his face. It was being diluted by the rain so that it glowed a peculiar kind of iridescent pink in the strange storm light. And strangely I couldn’t care less whether the man was dead or not. In any case, the blow to the head would have done lasting damage. Perhaps it was better he died, I thought callously.
I walked swiftly to Ruby who was wiping her nose on the back of her hand, her eyes full of tears. “He might have alerted them. If we’re in luck the wind and rain might have deadened his shouts. You OK, Ruby?”
“Course I’m OK!” she snapped. “Are we going up this bloody hill or not?”
I looked up at the sheer surface of the hill and wondered whether this was such a good idea after all. It looked perilous to say the least and one false step, or a slip, could see us sliding all the way back down to where we’d started from. But Ruby was already beginning to climb, selecting her handholds and footholds and gradually heaving her way up the precipitous slope. I was only a matter of yards up its surface when I realised I had to let go of my stave, for it was impossible to climb and hold onto the thing at the same time. I was reluctant, because it had saved us already. I watched with some alarm as it slithered down the bank and came to rest beside the stream. Just like my Remington did during that children’s game so long ago…
Already I felt naked, exposed.
We continued at a slow pace for some time, but it was laborious work, the rain having made the heather and rocks like ice. Looking above me I saw the blanket of mist and thought that it seemed further away than ever. I saw Ruby, just ahead of me, her head pointed towards
the summit, as if the mist was a talisman that kept her transfixed, a beacon that called to her. “Nearly there, Rube!” I called softly, breathing hard.
She paused, her fingers grasping a clump of heather so that the red flowers looked to burst from her fist like frozen fireworks. She looked over her shoulder at me, her body almost flat to the slope. And she smiled. The rain lay in droplets on her eyelashes, like jewels on her lower lip. We stared so for what seemed many long minutes, but can only have been a second or two.
Then she died.
I heard the dull shot, but thought it was thunder. Her eyes widened and she stiffened.
Her face registered disbelief and she silently pleaded with me to answer the myriad questions that were coursing through her dazed mind. Then she slipped down a foot or so, grabbed instinctively at another piece of heather, which ripped out of the thin soil, and she began to slide faster. I reached out my hand as she passed me, but my fingers snagged briefly on the material of her coat as she rushed by. I called her name, over and over, watching in horror as her slender body tumbled down, rolling, rolling, her arms and legs striking out into grotesque spider-like shapes. “No!” I yelled. “Ruby!” She slithered, like my stave, to an untidy halt by the stream, head pointed towards the sky, eyes white and vacant. It was only then that I realised the full hellish meaning of this game we played.
I loosed my hold, and I too began to slide down, then, uncontrollably, I fell headlong down the slope, coming into contact with chunks of rock as I did so. But I felt no pain. Only that pain which scooped out my insides and made me hollow. I hit the ground with a numbing crunch. Winded, I looked across at Ruby’s still body, a thin sliver of blood running from her lips. The rain pounded on her eyeballs. Then a pair of boots came between us and I blinked away the rain and tears to follow the legs upwards. It was Max. In his hands he held a rifle.
I made an effort to spring to my feet but my legs buckled. “You…” I began to shout, but I could not formulate the words. I was blind and dumb with rage. I stood up, struck out wildly at the hazy figure before me. But in an instant I was beaten back by unseen hands, my world a fuzzy whorl of blacks and greys and muddy-browns.
Blood Bonds: A psychological thriller Page 34