by Jane Casey
‘But if it was an accident—’
‘I didn’t change anything by being here,’ she said quickly. ‘She was going to jump anyway. I just gave her a helping hand.’
I was all too aware that Freya had been looking for Will’s ledge so she could escape the hunt behind her. Coco had killed her, but she didn’t realize it. And I wasn’t about to tell her that while we were alone in exactly the same spot. Not when she had a very strange look on her face, as if she had made a decision about something I wouldn’t like.
‘You’ve explained that it was an accident,’ I said. ‘I believed you – I’m sure everyone else will too. They’ll understand why you didn’t want anyone to know what really happened.’
‘You don’t understand. I can’t afford to be tainted by association with something like this. It could blow my whole future.’
‘I hardly think so.’
‘I can’t have rumours about me being involved in what happened here last year. All the work I put in – all the training – it will only be worthwhile if I get some sponsors to pay me to run. I should get some advertising deals if I make the GB team and that’s where the money is. Then, after I retire from running, I could move into commentating. And then mainstream television presenting.’ Her eyes had gone unfocused as she laid out her vision of the future. Now she came back to herself and glared at me. ‘But that will only happen if I look like a good girl. Getting caught up in someone else’s drama is so not in my life plan.’
‘You have to make the team in the first place. None of it will matter if you’re just not good enough.’ I was trying to distract her, looking for a weak spot. I had to get away from the edge of the cliff.
‘I’m good enough.’ Coco’s confidence was unshakeable. ‘I only have one problem.’
‘Me.’
‘You.’ She sighed. ‘I could have liked you, you know. You have more character than most of the girls around here. You don’t give up. That’s why I know you won’t agree to keep your mouth shut about Freya’s death.’
She was right – there was no point in denying it. I was trying to remember how many steps I had taken, and in what direction. I edged to my right a little and she copied me. I couldn’t help shivering.
‘What happened to Freya – you could call that an accident. If anything happens to me, no one is going to believe it was another one. They’ll investigate properly this time.’
‘Do you think so?’ She laughed. ‘You’re not in London now, you know. It’s in everyone’s interests to hide the bad things about Port Sentinel. Anything that affects the tourist numbers could be catastrophic for the town. I think you’ll find there are plenty of people who’d be willing to swear you were obsessed with Freya to the point where you dressed like her, behaved like her and re-enacted her suicide down to her last moment, when you got carried away. Whether you meant to fall or not, tragically, you did.’
‘That’s not going to happen.’ I stepped sideways again. I should really have paid more attention to the size of step Will had meant. He was taller than me. Did that mean I should take nine steps instead of eight? I hadn’t asked nearly enough questions, given that it might save my life. Another step. Coco matched it neatly, getting ever closer. She was still completely calm and it was this that made me most scared. She was in control, not me. She had done it before – because I didn’t believe she had tried to save Freya, judging by how she was behaving. She might not have meant for her to die, but she hadn’t minded too much that that was the outcome. She knew what she was doing. She knew how easy it was to kill. And she was the sort of person who would never give in.
‘Don’t do this,’ I said quietly.
‘I have to.’ Completely matter-of-fact, no apology about it. And she was far too close. I was opening my mouth to try a different approach when three things happened, more or less simultaneously and without any warning.
One: a man shouted, very loudly, ‘Police! Step away from the cliff.’
Two: the beams of several powerful torches suddenly stabbed through the dark night, swinging as the people carrying them approached us at speed, effectively blinding me when they passed across my face.
Three: Coco shoved me as hard as she could.
And after that, one other thing happened.
I fell.
17
FALLING OFF THE cliff was easy. I don’t really have to explain why landing was the difficult bit – landing in one piece and alive, specifically, which was a million-to-one shot. I was almost more shocked to find myself sprawling on the grassy ledge than I was to have fallen in the first place. For one thing, it was so quick. I had only just registered that I was falling when I collided with solid ground, with such force that it felt as if my lungs had exploded from the impact. There was no air left in my body and I struggled for an agonizing few seconds to breathe in again. It was sheer instinct that made me cling onto the grass – instinct and an absolute refusal to let Coco win. As a defining characteristic, never giving up isn’t bad, especially when it’s all that stands between you and a twenty-metre drop to some very scary rocks.
So I survived.
I still had absolutely no idea how I was going to get back to solid ground.
I kept my face pressed against the ledge, too terrified to think about trying to get my bearings, or even looking round. I had only just made it. One leg was hanging off the edge, and when I could move, I inched away from danger towards the cliff, pulling my knees up onto the ledge until all of me was on solid ground. It took all my concentration and I paid no attention to anything else that was going on around me, lost in my own struggle to stay alive. So it was a surprise when a voice spoke in my ear a couple of minutes later.
‘Well done.’
‘For what?’ I turned my head so I could see Will, who was crouching beside me, looking as relaxed as if he was in the middle of a vast field rather than high in the air on a tiny shelf above a sheer drop.
‘Getting the proof you needed. Not dying. Take your pick.’
‘I’m not sure about the second part. I’ve still got to get off this ledge.’
‘You’ll be fine.’ He leaned back and gave the thumbs-up to someone I couldn’t see on top of the cliffs.
‘How did you get here?’
‘I came with Dad. Or do you mean the ledge?’
‘I did mean the ledge, actually.’ My world had shrunk to a crescent of rock and earth and greenery that was, at a generous estimate, the size of a bed. A single bed at that.
‘I climbed down,’ he said. ‘We wanted to make sure you were OK. You didn’t answer us when we shouted.’
‘I didn’t hear you. I was a bit busy not dying.’
‘Don’t worry about it.’
‘Don’t worry about dying?’ I glared at him. ‘Again, still stuck on the ledge in case you’d forgotten. I think I’m entitled to be a bit anxious.’
‘I mean you shouldn’t worry about not answering us. I was glad of the excuse to come down and make sure you were all right.’ Will put his hand on my shoulder. ‘You’ll feel better if you sit up, you know.’
‘Nope. Not moving.’
‘Don’t worry. I won’t let you fall.’
‘How exactly are you going to stop me?’ I demanded.
‘By not letting you do anything risky. Come on. You can trust me.’
It was easier to do as he said than to argue with him. Very reluctantly I inched forward and turned, pressing myself against the lovely solid wall of rock that was the alternative to the bone-shattering drop on the other side. The view had suddenly lost its appeal for me; I vastly preferred a close-up of the cliff. As I curled up in a tiny ball at the very back of the shelf I noticed I was still pretty close to the edge. It wasn’t any wider than it had looked from the top of the cliff. How I had managed to land more or less on it was a mystery to me, but I was fairly sure I owed my guardian angel a drink.
Will sat next to me and leaned his elbows on his knees. ‘How’s that?’
‘Be
tter,’ I admitted.
‘Told you so.’ He grinned at me with that sudden, irresistible charm. ‘As I was saying, well done. I’m impressed. You did exactly what you set out to do.’
‘Sort of. I didn’t actually set out to end up down here with you.’ But there were worse places to be. I felt my mood begin to lift, the terror fading to be replaced with an uncontrollable desire to giggle. It was shock, I told myself sternly. Hysterical laughter was not what was needed. Sober discussion about how to get off the ledge would be far more useful. ‘I didn’t actually have a plan for this situation and I have no idea what to do next.’
‘You don’t need to worry about it. Dad’s getting in touch with the coastguard but I’d say we’ve got a while to wait before the rescue guys turn up, so you might as well tell me what you found out.’
‘Now?’ I shivered. ‘You’d better hear it in case I fall, I suppose. You can give evidence for me.’
‘I’m not really sure that’s how it works.’ Then, quietly, almost reluctantly, he asked the question everyone would want to ask. ‘Did she kill Freya?’
‘Sort of.’ I told him what Coco had told me, and the conclusions I had drawn. ‘I don’t know if that makes her officially guilty or not, but as far as I’m concerned she should take responsibility for Freya dying. She changed things by being on the headland – if she hadn’t run as fast as she did, Freya would probably have lived. And honestly, I’m not sure Coco didn’t give her a helping hand to jump, because she was pretty confident about pushing me over the edge.’
‘She did what?’
I raised my eyebrows. ‘You were there. Didn’t you see her?’
‘I thought you slipped.’
‘You thought wrong. She got me where she wanted me, and then she shoved me. You of all people should know I wouldn’t have taken the risk of being that close to the edge voluntarily.’
Will’s face was grave. ‘I didn’t see her push you. That’s all I can say.’
‘She told me she had to get rid of me. Didn’t you hear her?’
‘Don’t look so surprised – we were running at the time.’
‘I don’t even know why you were here.’
‘I couldn’t leave you to get into trouble.’ Will stared at me. ‘Did you really think I was going to sit on my hands and wait to see what happened?’
‘How did you persuade your dad to get involved? He wouldn’t listen to me.’
‘I told him what you were planning to do.’ Will grinned. ‘One dead teenage girl is a shame. Two is a national news story. And not the feel-good, heart-warming kind. He didn’t take a lot of convincing.’
‘So what kept you?’
‘We’d been waiting at the bottom of the main path. No one expected you to go through the woods instead. We’d been there a while when I rang Petra to check whether you’d left and she told us you’d started at the bridge.’ Will shook his head. ‘When we realized you were on the headland already . . . I’ve never seen Dad move so fast. He almost caught up with me on the last bit.’
‘But you had the edge.’
‘I had different motivation. I couldn’t care less about Port Sentinel and its reputation.’ He was looking at me and I found I couldn’t quite speak, or breathe properly, or form a coherent thought. After a moment, Will went on. ‘Anyway, I don’t know about him but I know I couldn’t hear a word she said to you. I just saw you fall.’
‘So it’s my word against hers.’ I was remembering what Coco had said about how my death would be covered up, how Port Sentinel would want to preserve its reputation above all else. And I hadn’t forgotten how completely uninterested Will’s dad had been in hearing about Freya’s murder. ‘It’s not going to go away this time, I promise you. I’m not going to give up until there’s justice for Freya, and her family. People miss her, a lot. They were entitled to have more time with her. The fact that she’s gone is horrible, but the way she died makes it even worse.’
‘I agree with you but I still don’t like your chances of getting Coco to court.’ Will sounded incredibly reasonable, which was maddening. ‘You’ll need some actual evidence. And she didn’t admit anything, from what you said.’
‘I was paraphrasing.’ But I couldn’t remember her saying she had pushed Freya, probably because she didn’t say it. She’d been careful with what she gave away.
‘You can’t remember her actual words?’
‘It was a long conversation,’ I said, knowing that it sounded a bit pathetic. I shifted and something dug into my skin; I had completely forgotten the phone. ‘Oh, but there’s this.’
I ferreted about in the bodice of Freya’s ridiculous dress, trying to retrieve the phone. It wasn’t as easy as it might have been to get it out. For starters, it came out in bits.
‘Oh no. Don’t tell me it’s had it.’
Will picked up the front half of the phone, which was more or less in one piece, and turned it over. The electronic entrails didn’t look all that healthy to me, or him.
‘I don’t think the playback quality is going to be great.’
‘I must have landed on it when I fell.’ I swore very quietly under my breath. I was bitterly disappointed. All that and I had come away with nothing.
‘They might be able to get something off it.’ Will glanced at me, then looked away again, his face softening as he saw the tears I couldn’t quite blink away. ‘It’ll be all right, Jess.’
‘I just feel like I let everybody down. She’s going to get away with it, isn’t she?’ His silence answered me. I rubbed my eyes. ‘I shouldn’t have bothered inter fering. I should have minded my own business like you told me to.’
‘Did I say that?’ Will put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me against him, leaning his cheek on the top of my head. ‘I think I was probably trying to get you to be a bit more careful. And you didn’t listen.’
‘No. I’m not good at taking advice.’
‘That’s why I didn’t bother to try to talk you out of it.’
‘You told your dad instead.’ I spoke without thinking, and it wasn’t until I felt him move away a little that I realized what I had said. ‘It’s nothing like what happened with Ryan. I didn’t mean that.’
‘It’s what everyone will say.’
‘Then I’ll tell them they’re wrong.’ I turned so I could see him properly. ‘Will, you did the right thing. You probably saved my life by distracting her at the right moment. What would I have done if I’d been here on my own? Even if I’d landed on this stupid bit of rock I’d have been stuck here until someone came looking for me. No phone, remember?’
‘Yeah. Well, I’m glad I was able to help.’ He took his arm away from my shoulders and made a big deal out of checking his watch, and I was sure he wanted to know what time it was but I was equally sure it was an excuse. As I’d expected, he didn’t put his arm back where it had been. I shivered and rubbed my arms, missing my jacket. Missing him too, though I wouldn’t risk asking him to hug me again. I had my pride.
Pride was no help when I needed to get warm. I felt as if the cold had seeped into my bones.
‘Are you OK?’
‘Just a bit chilly.’ My teeth were chattering. I couldn’t exactly deny that I was freezing.
‘We need to get off these cliffs.’ Will took out his phone and I closed my eyes, leaning my head back against the rock while he spoke to his father. I was completely exhausted, physically and emotionally, and it had left me numb. I couldn’t even worry about Will and whether he was angry with me, if that was the reason he was on the phone trying to negotiate an escape route for himself instead of being stuck with me indefinitely.
OK, I had enough energy to worry a little bit about that.
Will’s side of the conversation was terse and I wasn’t able to work out what was going on, but when he rang off I opened my eyes again. His expression was grim.
‘What’s up?’
‘The rescue guys are on another job. There’s been a bad accident on the coast road at Le
emouth and they’ve got victims to recover. We’ve been classed as not being in any immediate danger.’
‘So?’
‘So it’s going to be a while.’
‘Define a while.’
‘Hours.’
‘Great.’ I squeezed my arms around my knees, holding myself tightly. ‘Then I suppose we’ll have to wait. Or I do. You don’t have to stay.’
‘Don’t be stupid.’ Will settled back beside me. ‘I’m not leaving here without you.’
His words gave me a warm glow that was almost enough to ward off the chill in the night air. Almost.
‘Have my jacket.’ He started to take it off.
‘I don’t need it.’ A total lie. ‘I’m used to the cold.’ That bit was true. I couldn’t actually remember what it was like to be warm.
‘Take it.’ He slung the jacket around me and I held onto it with fingers that were too frozen to feel it. I didn’t have it in me to give it back to him, but I felt bad about taking it.
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t come dressed for scrambling around on the cliffs. If only Freya had liked practical clothes.’
Will gave me a sidelong grin. ‘If only Freya had been more like you, I think you mean. If she’d been anything like you at all, we wouldn’t be here now. But then she wouldn’t have been Freya.’
‘I wish I’d known her,’ I said quietly.
‘I’m glad I did.’
We sat in silence for another couple of minutes, at the end of which Will stood up.
‘What are you doing?’
‘Getting out of here. You’re shivering again and I’m getting cold too. It’s not going to do us any good to hang around.’
‘Remember what I was saying about wearing stupid clothes?’ I stuck out my foot. ‘I am not going to be able to climb up there in these.’
‘I’m not suggesting we go up.’
‘It’s closer.’
‘And much more difficult. You aren’t strong enough to haul yourself up and I’m not going to make you try.’
‘Couldn’t you just get a rope and pull me up?’