by Fiona Lowe
Where would she have gone? She banged her head against the steering-wheel. Think like a girl.
Her brain was grey fog. She stared through the windscreen at the green road sign displaying names of places out of town.
Sasha’s sweet voice sounded in her head. Once I walked from home to Ledger’s Gorge. I really liked it there, it was a good place to think, you know?
If you’d had an argument with your father, you’d need to think. Ledger’s Gorge was a decent walk in daylight. It would be almost impossible in pitch darkness. The arguments went around in her head. Still, it was the best shot she had. She started the car and headed out of town.
The only sign of habitation at the Ledger’s Gorge picnic spot were two wombats grazing in the moonlight. Kate got out of the car, cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled into the darkness. ‘Sash-a.’
She held her breath, wishing for a reply. All she got was an echo of her own voice.
She swung her high-beam torch around the area. It illuminated the carved wooden sign that marked the start of the steep walk down to the gorge. Even in daylight it was a tricky walk. Surely Sasha wouldn’t have gone down there?
The crazy thought took hold, niggling her until she couldn’t ignore it any longer. She strapped on her backpack, put her mobile phone in her pocket, gripped her torch and started to walk along the narrow and rough track. Every ten steps she called out Sasha’s name and waited, her ears straining for a reply.
Twigs snapped underfoot, making her jump. Go back, no kid would do this in the dark. But Sasha could be determined, almost as determined as her father, and for some reason Kate couldn’t rule this crazy venture out of her head.
She reached the top of the steep and narrow steps that were carved out of the red rock. She gingerly took the first step. One down, ninety-nine to go. ‘Sasha!’
Her voice came back to her. Then she thought she heard a small sound. She held her breath.
Silence.
She lowered herself onto the next overly large step and slid her bottom along it, the darkness making her feel dizzy. This was why they didn’t do search and rescue in the dark. But this is Sasha. She managed another ten steps that way.
‘Sasha!’ She swung her torch in an arc, squinting to see any sign of anything that wasn’t a tree. One side was blackness, the side that fell to the gorge only black space between her and the bottom.
At step forty-seven she decided she was the one who was crazy, unwise and foolhardy. If Sasha was here, she would have heard her calls by now. Go back to town. She stood up and gave one more almighty yell, shining the torch from side to side and down.
The white light cut through the darkness, catching a flash of colour. She moved it back. Pink. She blinked in disbelief. Below her she could see pink. ‘Sasha.’
But the pink didn’t move.
Her heart hammered wildly in her chest as she sat down and bottom-shuffled another fifteen steps. She shone her torch. On a ledge just below the stairs, cushioned in thick bush, lay Sasha’s inert body clad in pink pyjamas.
Be alive. Be alive. She scrambled to the edge, and shone the torch. The drop from the steps wasn’t much more than six feet. You can get down there without a harness. Somehow she managed to lower herself down, her feet finding footholds, her fingernails digging into the crevices, until she dropped the last bit.
Prickly branches scratched her as she tumbled onto the ledge. She took in a deep breath and wriggled. Everything moved, nothing hurt. She crawled slowly to Sasha and immediately pulled her away from the edge of the ledge.
Gently shaking her shoulder, she tried to rouse her. ‘Sasha, sweetheart, it’s Kate.’
The girl’s eyelashes fluttered open and closed again.
Thank you, thank you. She sent up a prayer. She shone the torch on Sasha’s face. Blood had clotted at her temple and her face was badly scratched by the bushes. She checked her airway and breathing, then gently opened each eyelid and tested her pupils. The black discs contracted. At least she could rule out a brain injury.
‘Sasha, I’m going to see if you have done yourself any more damage.’
The girl moaned as Kate systematically ran her hands down Sasha’s arms and then her legs, feeling for misalignment, pretty much dependent on her sense of touch rather than sight as she juggled the torch in her mouth.
A sob broke from Sasha’s lips as Kate’s hands pressed on her lower left leg, which lay at an angle.
‘I’m sorry, Sash. You’ve broken your leg.’
The young girl started to cry, the pain from her leg seeming to have jolted her back to consciousness. ‘Oh, Kate, I was so scared. Daddy’s going to kill me.’
Kate stroked her temple and kissed her forehead. ‘Shh, no, he’s not. He’s going to be thrilled you’re safe.’ She pulled out a space blanket and tucked it around Sasha to keep her warm. ‘I’m going to ring him now and when the sun comes up he’ll be here to take you to hospital.’
She set the torch securely in the fork of a bush and pulled out her phone. Leaning in close to the torch, she auto-dialled Baden’s mobile and then put the phone to her ear.
The sound of ringing never started.
She held the phone under the beam of light. The signal detector was blank. Her heart slammed against her chest. You idiot! She was so used to using her work satellite phone she’d never even thought that her mobile phone wouldn’t work out here.
She was stuck on a ledge, with a child with a concussion and a fractured leg, and no way of getting any help.
Daryl would string her up and ditch her from the search and rescue squad.
Baden would never forgive her.
‘So what do you think she was wearing when she left home?’
Daryl opened his spiral-bound notepad as he stood in the middle of Sasha’s room.
Baden tried to pull his fried brain together. ‘She’s got a lot of clothes but I’ve looked through them and I think the only things missing are her pink pyjamas and her walking boots. The lantern torch is gone but her backpack is still here.’
‘It’s cold out there tonight. Would she have a jacket?’
Baden opened the drawer where Sasha stored her hoodies and polar fleeces, his hands riffling through the contents, trying to keep his thoughts calm enough to think. ‘Perhaps a red hoodie, but I’m not certain.’ In thin pink pyjamas, hypothermia was a real concern. Regret slashed him. Sasha was out there somewhere, alone and cold, and it was all his fault.
‘And you’ve rung her friends, you say, and no one’s seen her?’ The fatherly policeman’s bushy eyebrows rose in question.
Baden pulled his mind back to the details. ‘That’s right and Kate Lawson has been doing a town search while I did the ring around from here in case Sasha came home.’
‘Wise idea. Well, she’s been gone five hours now so I’ll put the call out to our volunteer searchers. We’ll meet at the station in an hour.’
‘I’ll be there.’ Relief flooded him that he could finally do something more tangible to look for Sasha.
Daryl flipped his notebook closed. ‘Doc, someone has to be here at the house in case she does come home under her own steam.’
‘I can’t sit around here any longer. I have to do something.’ His voice rose in frustration.
Daryl scratched his head. ‘The kiddie knows Kate, doesn’t she? Ring her and get her back here. She can man the house and that frees you up to search. I’ll see you at the briefing.’
‘Right, I’ll be there.’
Sasha, be safe, please, be safe. I promised to keep you safe.
The moment Daryl left the house, Baden dialled Kate’s number. ‘The number you have telephoned is either turned off or out of range. Please try again later.’ The recorded message droned on. In his haste he must have dialled the wrong number. He tried again but this time he used the number already listed in the contacts list to avoid a mistake.
The same message played.
I’ve got a full battery and I’ll have this in my
pocket all the time I’m driving around town, looking for her.
He glanced at the clock. He’d missed the check-in phone call because he’d been with Daryl. His unease ramped up. Kate wouldn’t have turned off her phone. She was experienced in search and rescue and she knew the vital importance of communication. He knew she would have rung him when she hadn’t heard from him.
His stomach curdled. Something was wrong. Very wrong. The only reason she wouldn’t have rung him was if she wasn’t able to. If something serious had happened to her.
An insidious thought edged though him, taking hold. Two females missing. Shocking things, unmentionable things sometimes happened in small towns as well as in big ones.
His blood turned to ice as his fear for Sasha, already at breaking point, compounded with his dread for Kate. He collapsed into a chair, dropping his head into his hands. First he’d lost Sasha, now Kate was missing. What if he lost them both?
Crushing pain bore down on his chest, sending silver spots wavering before his eyes. He couldn’t lose either of them. He couldn’t lose his daughter and the woman he loved.
The woman he loved.
He loved her. He dragged in a ragged breath. Oh, God, he’d been such a fool. He’d got it all wrong. His promise to make Sasha his top priority didn’t mean he couldn’t love again. It meant he should love a woman who loved Sasha. A woman Sasha loved, too.
Kate was that woman and he’d pushed her and her love away.
Now she was missing and he couldn’t tell her he loved her. And that Sasha loved her, too.
Move! a voice roared in his head. Go!
He had to find the two most important people in his life. He had to find them, hold them and tell them he loved them both.
He rang Daryl as he ran to the car. ‘Kate’s missing, too. I want the helicopter brought in and I’ll be on it.’
Kate’s fingers burned from cold as she checked Sasha’s pulse. It was rapid but that could be due to pain. The birds started to twitter, their cacophony of sound heralding the rise of the sun. A large red ball, it rose from behind the gorge, banishing the dark and bringing much-needed warmth.
At any other time the beauty would have awed her but not today. She’d spent the last hour cuddling Sasha close, using her own body heat to warm the frightened child and the space blanket to trap the heat around them.
The unforgiving rock and dirt had dug into her hip while the bushes poked her. She’d never complain about her mattress again. Sasha had slept fitfully in between being woken up for head-injury observations.
Kate sighed. At least she knew that Baden would have contacted Daryl and a search would be getting into full swing. But they would start searching from Baden’s house and move out in concentric rings. Did Baden know Sasha loved the peace of the gorge? Had she ever told him she liked to come here to think?
They could be here for hours. Why, why hadn’t she rung Baden to tell him she was heading out this way before she’d left town? But hindsight was a wonderful thing. She chewed her lip. At least her car was in the car park if someone from town thought to come out here and made the connection.
‘Kate.’ Sasha gripped her hand and started to sob. ‘It really hurts. When are they coming to get me?’
Her stomach sank but she couldn’t lie. ‘Honey, I don’t know. But you need to use some of that bravery that made you walk out here in the dark alone.’
A small voice replied, ‘I don’t think it was bravery. I think it was probably stupidity.’
Kate gave a wry smile. ‘Perhaps, but sometimes when we’re angry or sad we don’t think things through very well.’
Sasha nodded. ‘I was so angry with Dad. I wanted to come out to see you at Sandon this morning and he said I would only be seeing you at Guides.’
Kate’s heart sank. The one person she and Baden wanted to protect most had ended up getting hurt. ‘Well, you’re seeing me now and when you’re all tucked up in a hospital bed we’ll talk to your dad about you coming to visit me now and then. I don’t think he realised it was quite so important to you.’
Or to me.
If Baden hadn’t been able to share Sasha before, he certainly wouldn’t be able to now. The fear of losing her would only make him hold her closer and push Kate further and further away. Not that there was any room left to push. He’d left her in no doubt—he didn’t love her. The bleak thought chilled her as much as the dawn air.
She reached for her medical bag now that the light was bright enough to see by. She gasped as she caught sight of the precipitous drop a mere ten metres away from where they lay. She didn’t want to think about what could have happened if the bushes hadn’t broken Sasha’s fall.
‘Sasha, I’m going to examine you again now I can see and put in an IV so I can give you something for the pain.’
‘Will it hurt?’ Sasha shivered under the silver space blanket.
‘Not compared to falling off those steps.’ She slipped the tourniquet around Sasha’s arm. ‘Your job is to look upwards toward the steps and see if you can see anyone. We’ll start calling out in an hour when there might be a chance a tourist is visiting.’
‘OK.’ Sasha flinched as the cannula went into her arm.
Kate attached the five hundred millilitre bag of saline to the cannula and hung it from a tree. Then she pulled her polar fleece over her head. ‘I’m going to take off your pink PJ top and you can wear this.’
‘Why?’
‘Your fluoro pink top is really bright and I’m going to spread it out on top of this bush. Then if we hear or see anything, I’ll wave it over my head.’
‘And the rescuers will see it because it isn’t green like the trees or red like the dirt.’
‘Exactly.’ She gave Sasha a reassuring stroke of the head. ‘I found you because of this pink so they’ll find us, too.’ I hope.
‘And Dad said I had too much pink.’ Sasha tried to laugh but grimaced in pain.
Kate splinted Sasha’s leg, giving thanks it wasn’t a compound fracture. She didn’t need a bone sticking out through skin in this dirt. The sun rose higher in the sky and every five minutes she called out, “Coo-ee! Help!”
The only response she got was a visit by geckos and skinks, the tiny lizards that hid in the crevices, who came out on the rocks to sun themselves. She took a slug of water from her drink bottle, munched on a sustenance bar and waited.
Sasha moved abruptly.
‘What’s wrong? Does it hurt somewhere new?’ Kate was instantly alert.
‘No. Listen.’ Sasha stared up. ‘Can you hear that noise?’
A faint whirring sounded in the distance. A plane.
Kate struggled to her feet and grabbed the pink pyjama top, shoving a long stick through the arm.
The whirring grew louder. ‘Will they see us?’ Anxiety vibrated from Sasha as she squinted into the sky.
‘I hope so, sweetie, and then they’ll tell the rescuers where to come.’ Kate raised the stick over her head.
A yellow helicopter suddenly appeared above the red cliffs, banked and flew up the gorge.
‘Wave it, Kate, wave it,’ Sasha yelled above the deafening noise of the rotors of the approaching helicopter.
With feet planted wide apart she waved the pink pyjama flag high over her head in an arc, back and forth, as if she were signalling the end of a Grand Prix race, praying the occupants of the helicopter would see it.
The helicopter flew past, the noise receding as it rose up out of the gorge.
Kate lowered the stick. ‘They should fly round again, Sasha.’ Please, please, see us.
‘It’s getting louder.’ Sasha craned her neck, trying to see.
The muscles in Kate’s arms screamed but she raised the flag again and started waving it. The helicopter approached more slowly this time. Her breath caught in her throat. Had they seen her?
The helicopter inched closer, until it hovered close to them, the noise deafening as dirt and dust swirled from the updraught of the rotors.
Sh
e caught sight of Baden’s face, white with relief and fear.
She gave a thumbs-up, hoping to ease his fright. She yelled to Sasha, ‘Your dad’s just found us, sweetheart.’
Sasha gave a watery smile.
The helicopter rose and turned, positioning itself over them, the pilot skilfully hovering, not moving the chopper an inch from its position. An electric winch lowered a container onto the ledge. Kate grabbed it and opened it up to find a two-way radio.
‘Kate do you read me, over?’ Baden’s reassuring but strained voice rumbled through the speaker.
Relief rushed through her. ‘I read you loud and clear, Baden. Sasha is safe. She has a suspected fractured tib and fib and a slight concussion but she’s conscious and alert. Over.’
‘Thank God. I’m coming down, over.’ The relief in his voice was palpable.
Above her, Baden, dressed in bright orange emergency services clothing and a hard hat, connected his harness to the steel line, which was lowered toward her. As his hips came within arm’s reach, she steadied his descent until his feet touched the ground.
His arms wrapped around her for an infinitesimal moment, their pressure reassuring and wonderful. Then he stepped back and a sense of loss hit her.
‘Strap your radio to your body.’ His command came through the radio so he could be heard over the noise of the helicopter.
The doctor in charge had arrived. There was a job to be done and he was reminding her of her role in the rescue. Failed co-worker. Her heart, already torn and bruised, broke a little more.
He moved away from her and dropped down next to his daughter, stark relief and love shinning from his eyes as Sasha reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck.
Kate bit her lip. Father and daughter reunited—as it should be. She hated the cold and heavy emptiness that dragged through her at the knowledge that she couldn’t be part of this reunion.
He motioned for her to bob down on the other side of Sasha so the patient and the pilot could hear both radios.
Baden checked the air splint on Sasha’s leg. ‘Has she had any pain relief?’
Kate nodded. ‘An hour ago.’
‘Great. Thanks.’ He lowered his head to Sasha. ‘I need you to be really, really brave. I’m going to put you into the harness and hug you against me. Your leg might hurt but it’s the best way to get you out of here. Together we’ll be winched back to the helicopter and James will pull us on board.’