by Leah Murray
He grinned again, climbed out the car and held her door while she stepped out.
She looked around warily when she didn’t see any other cars or people in the near vicinity. `Where are we?’
`I told you, it’s a surprise. Come on,’ he said, leading her down a gravel pathway that led into the woods. There was a welcome sign at the start of the path but Will turned her away, not willing to let her see where they were going.
She could hear the roar of water and felt the chilly damp of the woods as they followed the path, which crossed a grey stone bridge before meandering through an avenue of beech trees, curving off to the right and disappearing into the distance.
It had been raining the day before and the woods were shrouded in moisture, tiny droplets falling from leaves, pooling into puddles that they skirted as they walked.
`Oh cool,’ she said, bending to look down at a group of brown toadstools at the base of one of the trees. `Is that a toadstool? I’ve never seen one before.’
`Yep,’ Will replied, his amusement obvious.
Feeling slightly foolish at her childish fascination with toadstools and the fairies she automatically associated with them, she reddened, stood and carried on down the path but stopped a few yards down, glanced up, trying to find the source of a sudden loud call from the branches of one of the trees above her, squinting slightly against the rays of light filtering through the canopy.
`And that’s a woodpecker,’ Will told her, grabbing her gently by the elbow, pointing up at a branch just to her left. She smiled as she saw the black and white bird eyeing them warily, twisting its head to the right to peer down at them.
`I’ve never seen one of those either,’ she whispered, entranced.
They stood watching the bird for a few more seconds then walked on, heading into steadily denser bush as the path sloped downward, flanked by a meadow covered in bluebells, a bright splash of color against the almost ubiquitous brown and green of the woods.
Jo felt herself relaxing, calmed by the serenity of the cool, damp wood, the treasure chest of surprises. The roar of water was becoming louder by the second, was almost deafening as they left the canopy and stepped onto a riverbank.
Will climbed onto a boulder and reached out a hand to help her clamber up next to him. She looked around, filled with awe as she saw the full power of the waterfall heaving itself over the rocks way above them in a gush of white thunderous steam.
`Wow, this is so cool. What’s it called?’ she asked and he smiled.
`Golitha Falls’
`It’s awesome,’ she said, closing her eyes and holding her hands out to feel the spray of the water against her skin, laughing with delight as she felt him step closer, run a finger down the side of her jaw.
She kept her eyes closed and leaned into him, savoring the mad rush as he lowered his mouth to hers, the roar of water lost against the pounding of her heart in her ears. It was several moments before she stepped back, her eyes still closed, and almost toppled off the boulder, laughing again as he caught her, pulled her tight up against him, wrapping his arms around her waist.
`So do you like your surprise?’ he asked and she nodded, finally opening her eyes and smiling up at him.
`Do you come here often?’ she replied and he laughed.
`No need to chat me up Jo, I’m already hooked,’ he said drily and she pulled a face.
`You know what I mean.’
He smiled then looked back at the waterfall, nodded. `Yeah I come here a fair bit. It’s one of my favorite places.’
They sat down on one of the boulders, had lunch, eating in a comfortable silence while Jo stared up at the wood-clad hills, fed bread crumbs to numerous small birds brave enough to come hopping up to them.
She looked up in surprise when Will reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box.
`Here,’ he said, pushing it over.
She frowned. `What is it?’
He grinned. `Open it.’
She felt herself returning the smile. `When did you get me a present?’
`Earlier. Now just open it, will you?’
`Okay okay.’
She unwrapped the gift, felt her heart stop when she saw the velvet jewelry box.
`Will-‘
`Open it.’
She looked up at him then opened the box, drew her breath in sharply. `Will, I can’t-‘
`Oh relax will you. The ring came with the earrings. Now, do you like it or not? They can change it if you want.’
She hesitated, lifted the earrings out the box. God, were those real diamonds? The design was delicate, the earrings small rosebud studs, the ring intricately carved.
`Will, this must’ve cost you a fortune.’
`Do you like it or not?’
Suddenly overwhelmed with emotion she felt the tears welling up.
`What? Why are you crying now?’ he asked, bewildered.
She threw herself at him, half-laughing, half-crying, covered him with millions of tiny kisses, hugged him tight as he laughed.
`Because nobody’s ever bought me diamonds and I’m thirty and I’m getting wrinkles and I’ve got a black eye and you’re being so nice and I-‘
She broke off, realized what she’d been about to say and sat back, flushed.
`And well, thanks,’ she said, not daring to meet his gaze. She put the earrings on, slipped the ring on her right hand and twirled it nervously.
`What do you think?’ she asked, daring a look up.
He smiled. `It looks good. Now come, there’s something else I want to show you,’ he said, standing up and reaching down to help her up.
He started back up the path.
`Will?’
He turned. `Yep?’
`I- thanks. Really.’
He smiled, ruffled her hair. `No worries.’
Then he started walking. `It’s a bit of a hike but you should be okay with this,’ he called out over his shoulder and she followed him up the side of the bank, heading into a dense stand of trees, trying not to slip as the path got steadily steeper.
About half-way up she stopped to catch her breath, bending over with her hands on her knees. Will had just turned a corner in the path ahead of her, climbing fast, and she couldn’t keep up the pace.
But now she felt alone and suddenly scared. The eerie silence was deafening as she realized that she couldn’t even hear any bird calls.
She stood upright, looked around, trying to see into the dark depths of the trees lining the small path. The hairs on her arms stood upright and she felt her breath catch in her throat as a stone came rattling down the path from behind her.
She whipped round, sighed in relief as she saw Will waiting for her at the corner.
`Come on slowpoke,’ he called out and she climbed up to meet him, trying to shake off the feeling that she was being watched.
`A bit of a hike?’ she managed between breaths and he laughed, started walking again at a slower pace.
`We’re almost there.’
It was another five minutes before they reached the edge of the wood and stepped out onto the ridge of a gorge. Jo looked down, drew in a breath at the beauty of the valley spread out below them, the brown-white of the river snaking through the trunks of oak and beech.
`Wow,’ she said, taking a deep breath, feeling like she was on top of the world. A large dark brown bird swooped down in front of them and she gasped, amazed at its size.
`What’s that?’
`A buzzard. Awesome isn’t it?’ Will replied.
He was standing a bit in front of her, his back to her and closer to the edge. Jo started to take a step forward to join him when she felt a slight push against her back, tripped, screamed as she rolled with the fall, knocking into Will as she saw the edge rushing up at her.
`What the?’
She felt rather than saw or heard Will move, became aware of the iron grip around her wrist as she slammed into a bush at the edge of the gorge, tried to choke down a sob as she realized that th
e bush and Will were all that were stopping her from tumbling down the side to a certain hideous death.
She closed her eyes, gritted her teeth and tried to push up with a foot as Will reached down to grab her other hand.
`Fuck!’ he swore as her movement set loose a huge chunk of earth and she swung away from the bush. She screamed again as she felt the earth give way, every inch of her below the breastbone now hanging over the edge of the gorge.
`Jo!’
She looked down, closed her eyes, tried to block the vision, think straight, ignore her panicked whimpers.
`Jo! Look at me!’ She opened her eyes again, looked up at him, her eyes wide, saw him clench his jaw against the strain of holding her weight.
`Jo. Don’t move. I’m going to pull you back up, don’t kick, don’t try and help or every inch of ground underneath you is going to give way and I’ll just come down after you. It’s been raining and it’s unstable. Understand?’
She nodded, closed her eyes again, lay still as she felt him pull her up, slowly taking a step back and then another, finally heaving her back over the edge, rolling backwards and pulling her with him as another large chunk of the edge gave way.
They lay on their backs, breathing heavily for a second before Will swore again and stood up, pulling her to her feet.
`Jesus Christ. What happened there?’ he asked, his face pale.
She felt herself start shaking again, shivering, tried to form the words.
`Jo?’
`Somebody pushed me,’ she managed, saw his shocked stare before she doubled over, lost for breath.
CHAPTER 27
WILL TOOK A DEEP BREATH, told himself to count to ten. Fought back the urge to take her by the shoulders and shake some sense into her. Somebody pushed her? Just how much of an idiot did she think he was? Why not simply admit she was bloody clumsy and had almost killed them both?
About to lay into her about her damn overactive imagination he paused as he caught sight of the bootprints just to their right, at the top of the path.
They hadn’t been there before.
A tight fist grabbed his heart, held it as he looked up, scanned the trees.
Jo was sitting on the ground, her head between her knees and he left her sitting, followed the tracks into the trees a short distance.
Bloody hell, someone had been watching them all right. The signs of it were everywhere, the guy hadn’t even bothered to cover his tracks. And it was a guy. He could see by the size of the footprints.
Fuck, Jack.
He looked around, followed the prints with his eyes, saw them skirting the path. The bastard had followed them up the hill with minimal cover.
Will cursed himself for being so caught up that he hadn’t heard anything, noticed anything odd. He knew they could have been followed, knew the bastard was dangerous. And what did he do? Drag Jo up the top of the damn gorge to make it easier for him to get at her.
Cursing, he turned back, saw her rocking herself gently in a sitting position, staring at him. He crouched down next to her, pulled her closer to him. She didn’t cry, just laid her head on his chest.
After a moment, he stood up. `I’m calling Shaun. These prints may give them some leads,’ he said but she just nodded.
He made the call, turned back to her, grimaced.
`Shaun says he needs to talk to us, if we’re sure Jack’s gone we should stay and make sure nobody messes up the prints or anything.’
She nodded absently and he kissed the top of her head, walked over to the edge of the gorge, looked down.
He gritted his teeth at the large gap where the chunk of earth had disappeared beneath her.
God, his reaction had been pure reflex. He hated to think what would have happened otherwise. Jo seemed to be thinking the same thing.
`He tried to kill me Will. He honestly tried to kill me. I can’t get my head around it.’
He flinched slightly, tried to ignore the chill down his spine, went over to pull her to her feet.
`I don’t think he intended you to go over. He knew I’d catch you, that’s why he pushed you into me. It was reflex. If he had really intended it, he could simply have pushed me over with you. The bastard’s trying to scare you, it’s a power thing.’
Jo pulled away, kicked out a tree trunk. `You fucking loser,’ she yelled into the woods, kicking the trunk again. `You’re not going to win. Do you hear me, you’re not going to win!’
Will sighed, watched her without moving, let her shout it out, kick it out, whatever it took. It was better than sitting in a heap on the floor.
She turned to face him again and he saw that the tears had finally started but she was still angry, rubbed at her cheek with a frown. It would have been cute if it wasn’t such a messed up situation.
`What are you staring at?’ she yelled at him and he raised an eyebrow.
`Don’t take it out on me, thank you. He’s long gone by now, I’m sure, but keep yelling in his direction.’
She glared at him, clenched and unclenched her fists then turned to kick the tree again, wandered over to the path.
`Mind you don’t mess up the prints,’ he called out and she turned to glare at him again.
`I’m not an idiot!’
`I didn’t say you were,’ he said mildly, trying to defuse the situation.
She took a deep breath, looked up at the sky, then turned to face him again, contrite.
`I’m sorry Will. I’m just scared and I don’t know what else to do. God, how long are we going to be stuck up here for? What if he comes back?’
Will tried to hide the fact that he’d been thinking the same thing. `It’ll be about a half hour till they can get here. He won’t be back. If he wanted to do something now he’d already have done it.’
He watched her walk slowly to the edge and look over, saw the glaze of fear in her eyes. `It’s such a long way down,’ she said anxiously, jumping slightly as he came up behind her, rubbed her arms.
`Face it, deal with it and move on. If you start getting paranoid about something like this he’s won,’ he said, knowing it wasn’t very sympathetic but he’d learned first-hand that it was damn good advice. Advice he’d never taken himself.
`Look, it’s the buzzard again, she must have a nest up here,’ he said to take his mind off that fact. He pointed at the bird circling above them, angling in towards the side of the gorge. He couldn’t help the pull at his heart as he watched the wing beats, the power of flight. The memories of what it felt like up there suddenly came back to him, the freedom he’d found there called out to him again and he swallowed. It was the first time since the accident he had felt that way and he was overwhelmed by the sudden longing. He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed it.
A half hour later Jo heard labored breathing and turned from where she was sitting on a rock, staring out at the valley below her, to see Rob and Shaun emerge at the top of the path. Rob was the source of the huffing, his face red with exertion.
He mopped at his forehead with a handkerchief and came to sit down next to Jo, still breathing heavily.
`What the damn hell you two doing all the way up here?’ he asked eventually.
Jo bit back a smile, watched Will walk over to Shaun, point out the prints in the bushes behind him. They hadn’t spoken much since seeing the buzzard again. Will had seemed lost in thought, his face shuttered against conversation as he stared out at the valley. She had welcomed the silence, still unable to grasp what had happened.
`We came for the view,’ she said now, standing up and stepping closer to the edge, forcing herself to look down.
Rob nodded, heaved himself up off the rock and peered over her shoulder. `Damn long way down,’ he muttered and she felt herself tense, stepped away.
`Oh sorry Jo,’ he said, seeing her face. But she shook her head, wandered over to Shaun and Will.
`Why don’t you two get back to the house and we’ll take care of things here,’ Shaun suggested and Will looked down at Jo, nodded. She f
ollowed him back down the path, trying to fight the urge to look over her shoulder every five minutes. Back at the falls he turned to her, grabbed her hand. `Sorry this didn’t turn out quite like I planned,’ he said and she smiled.
`Don’t worry. I can see why you like it here. It’s an awesome place. I … I’d like to come back after …’ she hesitated `… after this is all over.’
They drove home in silence and she went to bed early, pleading a headache but really wanting to hide. She was fast asleep by the time Will came to bed.
He lay staring at the ceiling for a long time, remembering his rushed conversation with Shaun while Jo was in the shower. He’d finally lost his temper, asked what the hell the point was in sitting still and making themselves a target.
`Will, you have to realize this is detail work. We have to dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s or when this gets to court the guy walks. Is that what you want?’
`He won’t be walking anywhere if he’s dead.’
There was a long pause.
`No. But you’ll be behind bars paying for his crimes.’
`Okay, you’re right. I’m sorry,’ Will had said after a moment, recognizing the truth in Shaun’s words. `I just feel so goddamn helpless. What can I do?’
`Look Will, he’s beginning to lose his grip. He’s starting to mess up. We have witnesses for the hit and run with Hayley, we have a partial number plate on his car, we have bootprints to tie him to the cliff today. That’s two attempted murders. There’s already the rape charge. Once we get him, he’s going away for a long time. So can you see why you can’t just rush in and mess this up?’
Will had felt the chill run through him then, had known that’s what it was. Attempted murder. But the reality of it hadn’t quite hit him till then and he had to sit down, take a moment to calm the rage.
`Once you get him. So what are you doing now? Use Jo as goddamn bait? And what about the guy he shot? Isn’t that murder?’ he’d said, lashing out.
Shaun had simply sighed. `Will, there’s nothing more any of us can do. If she runs he’ll follow her. She’s already told us she doesn’t want to do that anymore. All we can do now is wait. As for the shooting at your place, yes, we have the bullet and if we find Jack’s gun and forensics can make a match we have him on murder. There are still people investigating the link between the two of them. We haven’t come up with much at the moment but we’re working on it. Now, if you don’t mind it’s late, I’ve had all of three hours sleep in the past three days and your sister is in the middle of another tantrum. I really don’t have time for this.’