by Jo Allen
The trunk was smooth, but there were enough places where she could get a grip. She’d always been good at climbing, so lithe and light — like a cat, her PE teachers had always said. Now she was beyond the first of the branches, now the second. How high should she go? She swung herself up to the third branch and edged along it, maybe ten feet above the ground. There, she wound enough of the rope round the branch to be sure she wouldn’t hit the ground, looped the noose around her neck and sat to take her last look on the sad world.
‘Izzy!’
She lingered. The sun was declining in the west. Mikey, crashing around in the woods, was getting nearer, but he wouldn’t reach her in time.
‘Izzy!’
She’d miss him. Bracing her hands one on either side of her on the slender branch, she eased herself forwards until she was barely balanced and then, with a flutter of excitement, leaned forward.
‘Izzy Ecclestone. Get down from there right now!’
Storm. She hadn’t seen him approach, but he was barely five yards away. The twist threw her off balance and, in an unwinding spiral of rope, Izzy fell.
Jude and Mikey broke out of Cave Wood just in time to see the black-clad figure balancing in the Sentinel Tree like an oversized crow. Jude was the closer, by a few feet. He turned up the hill, surging forwards, but the six mile run and the fording of the river had turned his legs to lead and Mikey powered past him. ‘Izzy! Christ, no, don’t!’
But she did. Even as Storm appeared, shouting, below the tree, Jude saw her slip forward, saw her drop and then, as he redoubled his efforts, there was a sharp crack. The branch snapped and branch, rope and Izzy crashed together to the thin, sheep-mown turf.
Storm had reached her first but Mikey brushed him aside and dropped to his knees beside her. ‘For Christ’s sake, Izzy, what are you doing? Can’t you see how worried I was? Why did you do it? For God’s sake, why did you have to scare us like that?’
Jude slowed to a walk. When he made the last few yards Izzy was sitting up, a bemused expression on her face, and Mikey was on his knees beside her, with his arm around her shoulders. He forced himself to be calm, because God knew what had gone through the girl’s mind, or what she was thinking. Mikey’s passion was understandable but not necessarily helpful.
‘This wasn’t meant to happen.’ Izzy looked up at Mikey, in breathless, wide-eyed surprise. ‘I was meant to die, but I caught my arm in the rope. You startled me.’ She glared at Storm. ‘It was like it was trying to hold me back. Look.’
She disentangled herself from the washing line and held out her arm. A red weal stood out on the pale skin where the rope had slowed her fall. There wasn’t so much as a scratch on her neck.
A small silence encircled them. The wind rustled in the wood but the leafless branches of the Sentinel Tree were still.
‘Are you okay, Izzy?’ Jude asked.
‘I think I’ve hurt my ankle.’
‘Right,’ Mikey said, ‘we can sort that. We’ll get you up to the hospital to get it fixed and we’ll get you some help — some real help — and Jude will call your mum and let her know what’s happening and everything will be all right. Because I’ll make damned sure it is.’
‘I thought I was going to die,’ Izzy said, in tones of utter wonderment. ‘I was so sure. The tree was calling to me.’
Mikey got to his feet, gave her his hand and held her up. ‘You want to listen to me next time, not a dead tree.’
‘We’ll take you up to the hospital and get you checked out, Izzy. Then we’ll get you home,’ said Jude. ‘Mikey, you can drive. And you can run me home afterwards, too.’
‘I’ll go and tell Raven everything’s okay.’ Storm backed away. A blue light flashed in the background and Jude moved to reassure them that everything was in hand.
Mikey got out his phone and checked his messages, putting them on speaker and playing Jude’s panicked messages back. ‘Ha ha, you were a bit worked up there, weren’t you? Did you think I was that much of an idiot? Bit of a fuss about nothing, in the end.’ He laughed and winked at Izzy, who winked back. ‘Right. Let’s get moving. It’ll be fine now I’m in charge.’
‘Wait a minute,’ said Izzy. ‘There’s Raven.’
Raven was thinner than ever, frail in the gathering gloom. She hesitated a moment before she shuffled across to them. ‘Izzy. My dear, dear girl.’
‘It’s like that first time we met, isn’t it? Down here in the woods? It seems a long time ago.’ Izzy dashed a tear from her eye. ‘You were so kind to me. And do you know, you were right after all, weren’t you? It isn’t my time to die.’
It was after midnight by the time Jude struggled back home and managed to rustle up something to eat. The call came through on the landline and for a moment he stared at it in perplexity, because no-one but the few ambulance-chasers and scammers who’d got round his ex-directory shield ever called him on it. ‘Hello.’
‘Jude.’ It was Becca, sounding wary. ‘Sorry, I know it’s late but I couldn’t get you on your mobile.’
‘It’s in the river.’
‘In the river?’ A pause. ‘Did I wake you up?’
‘No. But I’ve had a difficult evening.’
‘Oh, I’m sorry. It wasn’t important—’
‘It’s okay.’ He took the phone to the living room and sank into an armchair. ‘I’m always glad to hear from you.’
He heard her sigh of relief. ‘Well. You know I never presume, but I was a bit scared. I know your mum’s away and Mikey went driving off like a bat out of hell and isn’t back yet.’
Mikey was staying with Izzy until her parents, who had been out with friends, could get home. ‘Yeah. It’s been a bit of a nightmare.’
‘Is everything all right? I know there’s been a fuss at Eden’s End, too. Ellie called me.’
‘Yeah,’ he said again, short of words. He could imagine her, picking at her hair, twisting it round her finger. It had been a lot more comfortable when Becca called him without anxiety and he could answer without fear of overstepping some invisible line he didn’t know she’d drawn, but the sound of her voice still did something to his heart.
‘If there’s anything I can do to help—’
‘Thanks.’ He rallied. Vanessa had shown him his weakness and that meant he could turn it to his advantage. He loved Becca and always would; fighting it was as futile as hoping for something to come from it. Loving and losing wasn’t the end of the world. If Vanessa had understood that, five young people would have lived. ‘It’s all good. A friend of Mikey’s went off on her own and he was worried about her. But it turned out fine. She’d had a fall and hurt her ankle.’
‘That’s good news.’ She laughed. ‘Sorry. I’m wasting your time.’
‘Never.’
‘I tried to call you and so I got worried. It was a silly reaction. I’m as hysterical as everyone else these days. But I’m glad you’re okay.’
He waited to see what came next, but nothing did. No sudden profession of love, no plea for forgiveness. It didn’t matter. You had to let these things go. He was a better person than Vanessa Wood. ‘You can call me any time.’
‘We are still friends, aren’t we?’ she said.
‘Always,’ said Jude with a sigh, and put down the phone.
Also by Jo Allen
Death by Dark Waters
DCI Jude Satterthwaite #1
It’s high summer, and the Lakes are in the midst of an unrelenting heatwave. Uncontrollable fell fires are breaking out across the moors faster than they can be extinguished. When firefighters uncover the body of a dead child at the heart of the latest blaze, Detective Chief Inspector Jude Satterthwaite’s arson investigation turns to one of murder. Jude was born and bred in the Lake District. He knows everyone... and everyone knows him. Except his intriguing new Detective Sergeant, Ashleigh O’Halloran, who is running from a dangerous past and has secrets of her own to hide... Temperatures – and tensions – are increasing, and with the body count rising Jude and his team race against the
clock to catch the killer before it’s too late...
The first in the gripping, Lake District-set, DCI Jude Satterthwaite series.
* * *
Death at Eden’s End
DCI Jude Satterthwaite #2
When one-hundred-year-old Violet Ross is found dead at Eden’s End, a luxury care home hidden in a secluded nook of Cumbria’s Eden Valley, it’s not unexpected. Except for the instantly recognisable look in her lifeless eyes…that of pure terror. DCI Jude Satterthwaite heads up the investigation, but as the deaths start to mount up it’s clear that he and DS Ashleigh O’Halloran need to uncover a long-buried secret before the killer strikes again…
The second in the unmissable, Lake District-set, DCI Jude Satterthwaite series.
* * *
Death on Coffin Lane
DCI Jude Satterthwaite #3
DCI Jude Satterthwaite doesn’t get off to a great start with resentful Cody Wilder, who’s visiting Grasmere to present her latest research on Wordsworth. With some of the villagers unhappy about her visit, it’s up to DCI Satterthwaite to protect her – especially when her assistant is found hanging in the kitchen of their shared cottage.
With a constant flock of tourists and the local hippies welcoming in all who cross their paths, Jude’s home in the Lake District isn’t short of strangers. But with the ability to make enemies wherever she goes, the violence that follows in Cody’s wake leads DCI Satterthwaite’s investigation down the hidden paths of those he knows, and those he never knew even existed.
A third mystery for DCI Jude Satterthwaite to solve, in this gripping novel by best-seller Jo Allen.
* * *
Death at Rainbow Cottage
DCI Jude Satterthwaite #4
At the end of the rainbow, a man lies dead.
The apparently motiveless murder of a man outside the home of controversial equalities activist Claud Blackwell and his neurotic wife, Natalie, is shocking enough for a peaceful local community. When it’s followed by another apparently random killing immediately outside Claud’s office, DCI Jude Satterthwaite has his work cut out. Is Claud the killer, or the intended victim?
To add to Jude’s problems, the arrival of a hostile new boss causes complications at work, and when a threatening note arrives at the police headquarters, he has real cause to fear for the safety of his friends and colleagues…
A traditional British detective novel set in Cumbria.
* * *
Death on the Lake
DCI Jude Satterthwaite #5
Three youngsters, out for a good time. Vodka and the wrong sort of coke. What could possibly go wrong?
When a young woman, Summer Raine, is found drowned, apparently accidentally, after an afternoon spent drinking on a boat on Ullswater, DCI Jude Satterthwaite is deeply concerned — more so when his boss refuses to let him investigate the matter any further to avoid compromising a fraud case.
But a sinister shadow lingers over the dale and one accidental death is followed by another and then by a violent murder. Jude’s life is complicated enough but the latest series of murders are personal to him as they involve his former partner, Becca Reid, who has family connections in the area. His determination to uncover the killer brings him into direct conflict with his boss — and ultimately places both him and his colleague and girlfriend, Ashleigh O’Halloran, in danger…
Acknowledgments
There are too many people who have helped me with this book for me to name them individually: I hope those I don’t mention will forgive me.
I have to thank my lovely beta readers – Amanda, Frances, Julie, Kate, Katey, Liz, Lorraine, Pauline, Sally and Sara – who offered support and suggestions throughout the process. I’d also like to thank Graham Bartlett, who kindly advised me on aspects of police procedure. Mary Jayne Baker delivered, as always, a stunning cover.
Finally, as before, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the eagle-eyed Keith Sutherland, for proofreading.