The Weekend Escape, page 12
Juliet blinked at the force of her words. ‘I’m making tea.’
‘Can’t we leave you unsupervised for ten minutes?’ Sonia went to snatch the kettle out of her hand.
‘Careful, it’s hot! I’m putting it down, look, there, it’s down. What the hell are you so worked up about?’
Lyndsey’s gaze fell on the two cups on the counter. ‘Who were you making tea for?’ she asked. ‘You and Val?’ Without waiting for an answer, she turned to glare at Marne. ‘Let me guess – you said you weren’t thirsty?’
‘I’m not.’ Marne looked at her in confusion. ‘What’s wrong with that?’
‘Come over here.’
‘But – I’m working on—’
‘This is more important. Come here.’
Grumbling, Marne got up from her chair. ‘I wish you’d make up your mind. First you say the radio’s the most important thing in the world, now—’
‘Sit there. On the stairs.’ Lyndsey didn’t know where else to put her. For the moment, she just wanted to keep Marne away from the radio.
Sonia came out of the kitchen, dragging Juliet by the arm. ‘We’ve found out some stuff,’ she said.
‘We suspect some stuff,’ Lyndsey amended. After all, there was no proof. She still wasn’t sure they had enough to confront Marne with, but there was no stopping Sonia now.
‘Bobbie was poisoned,’ Sonia said.
Several people objected at once. ‘Hang on,’ Juliet said, ‘how can you be sure of that?’
‘Think about the symptoms. She got confused, distressed; she was hallucinating. When we found her – Juliet, you remember how she looked.’
Slowly, Juliet nodded. It was unlikely any of them would forget the sight.
‘What sort of poison?’ Val asked.
‘We don’t know exactly,’ Lyndsey said. ‘We can only guess.’
‘I can look on my laptop.’ Val started to stand. ‘I’ve done a bunch of research on—’
‘Yeah,’ Sonia said. ‘We know.’
‘So, I can go check.’ Val paused. ‘Wait, I couldn’t find my laptop this morning. It’d gone missing.’
Impatient, Lyndsey said, ‘It’s on Sonia’s bunk.’
Val blinked. ‘Why’s it there?’
‘Look, that’s not important right now,’ Sonia said. ‘What matters is that Bobbie’s dead, she was poisoned, and there’s a box of rat poison missing from the shed.’
Marne’s head came up. She’d been listening with a frown, but now sat upright, startled. ‘Why were you going into the shed?’ she asked. ‘That’s my property, not yours.’
‘Exactly.’ Sonia glared at her with undisguised hostility. ‘It was you who took the box. You put it into our water supply.’
For a moment, Marne was speechless. ‘How on earth—?’ she started to say.
Sonia jumped on that as an admission. ‘What else did you do? Was it you who was sneaking around during the night, peering into windows?’
‘What? No. Why would—?’
‘You scared poor Bobbie so much that she went outside during the night. Then what? Did you lead her to the cliffs? Did she try to get away? Is that how you got those scratches on your face?’
Marne automatically touched a hand to her cheek, where the two scratches had crusted over. ‘I told you, that was—’
‘A polecat. Yeah, you said. Excuse us if we don’t believe you.’
‘Sonia.’ Juliet touched a hand to her arm. ‘Let her speak.’ Turning to Marne, who was still perched, stunned, on the stairs, she asked, ‘Well? Is any of this true?’
Sonia rolled her eyes and muttered, ‘She’s hardly likely to admit it, is she?’
Marne’s hands were shaking as she held them out, defensively, in front of her. ‘I haven’t done anything,’ she said. ‘How on earth would I get poison into the water tank, even if I wanted to? It’s all sealed up.’
‘But you’ve got access to it, right? For maintenance purposes, if nothing else.’
Marne shook her head quickly. ‘I’ve got no reason to go tinkering with it. If something goes wrong, we get a maintenance bod over from the mainland to fix it. It’s way past my paygrade to mess around with the water supply.’
‘Could anyone else have tampered with it?’ Lyndsey asked.
‘I don’t see how. It’s a sealed system. I don’t even have a key to get near it.’
‘Whereabouts is the water tank?’ Lyndsey hadn’t seen anything near the bunkhouse which looked like it was used for storing water.
‘It’s up on the hill, over that way.’ Marne gestured with her head.
Sonia raised an eyebrow. ‘Isn’t that where you were yesterday before we arrived?’ she asked. ‘You said you’d been out on the hills all day, sorting out your bird traps.’
‘This morning too,’ Val put in. ‘When I came to find her this morning, she was out.’
Marne looked from one face to the next. There was a slow panic dawning behind her eyes. ‘Why would I even want to poison the water?’ she asked, her voice rising. ‘It supplies my house as well. I’d be poisoning myself.’
‘You’ve got plenty of bottled water,’ Sonia said. ‘There’s a five-litre bottle, right there on the counter.’ They could see it from where they were standing.
‘Well, yes, but that’s only sensible. They don’t recommend we drink the tap water unless we boil it first. And things are temperamental here. You’ve seen that for yourself. Sometimes the supply breaks down.’
Juliet’s mouth had set into a thin line as she processed everything. Lyndsey knew what she was thinking – if the poison’s in the water, it could’ve been any of us who died. It could’ve been all of us.
‘What about the radio?’ Juliet asked in a faint voice. ‘Is it really broken? Or are you just stopping us from calling the police?’
The question hung in the air. Marne opened her mouth, then closed it again. Her shoulders slumped. ‘I’ve been trying to fix it,’ she said. ‘I swear. If you reckon you can do better, go right ahead.’
‘I think we will.’ Juliet turned to her friends. She was visibly holding her composure together with difficulty. ‘Who wants to have a go at it? Lyndsey?’
Lyndsey grimaced. ‘I’m no good with electrics. I can’t even change a plug.’
‘I’ll have a go,’ Sonia said. ‘It’s not like I can break it more than it’s already broken, can I?’
‘All right. You and Val stay here.’ Juliet grabbed her coat from the peg by the door. ‘Lyndsey, you come with me.’
‘Where’re we going?’
‘I want to look at the water tank.’
Marne started to her feet. ‘I can show you where it is,’ she started to say.
‘I think we should go alone. Give us your keys.’
‘But I don’t have a key for—’
‘So you say. How about we find out for ourselves?’
Juliet kept her hand held out until, reluctantly, Marne fished the bundle of keys out of her pocket and handed them over. Then Juliet turned away. Her jaw was clenched as if she was holding back from saying something she’d regret.
She caught Lyndsey’s arm. ‘Let’s go.’
Chapter Fourteen
SATURDAY
11:05am
The trees on the slope of the hill didn’t provide as much of a windbreak as Lyndsey had hoped. The trunks were thin, stunted, battered by the weather since they were saplings. Their leaves drooped under the constant pattering of the rain.
Lyndsey and Juliet followed a narrow path that cut straight up the side of the hill. Unlike most of the other paths on the island, which looked like they followed old sheep-trails, this one had been made with a purpose. Even so, it was overgrown on both sides with bracken that swiped at Lyndsey’s legs at every step. Within minutes, her jeans were soaked through. She wished she’d put on her waterproof trousers before she’d come out.
‘I came past this way this morning,’ Juliet said. She was leading the way, as always. Underneath her jacket, she still wore her yoga outfit, as if cold weather was something that only affected other people. ‘When I was out looking for … for Bobbie, this is the track I took. I saw something that might be the water tank.’
‘Okay.’ Personally, Lyndsey thought they should’ve got some better directions from Marne. If the water tank was hidden in any way, they could walk right past it. It might take them hours to find it. She didn’t want to be outside any longer than was necessary.
Her fears turned out to be unfounded. As they reached the top of the hill, Lyndsey spotted a mound of grass-topped earth, too regular in shape to be a natural formation. It poked up a couple of feet above the top of the bracken. The straight path took a right-angled turn to reach it.
‘Guess this is it,’ Juliet said.
There was a waist-high fence around the rectangular mound, although much of the fence had been swamped by gorse bushes. A metal gate stood open, held in place by the thick, tufty grass that’d grown up around it. There were several prominent warning signs attached to the gate, declaring this was private property and not to be tampered with.
‘Doesn’t look like anyone’s been here in a while,’ Juliet said.
Lyndsey glanced behind them. Their own progress through the wet grass had left a distinctive trail of footprints. Ahead of them, there were none. It didn’t look like anyone could’ve walked to the water tank without leaving a track.
‘Maybe she came here yesterday, or the day before,’ Lyndsey said. She wasn’t ready to discard this theory just yet. ‘Or some time before that, even. It could’ve been a week ago that she put the poison in.’
Juliet pursed her lips but didn’t reply. She waded through the ankle-high grass to the mound. It was a smooth, regular shape, without any obvious access point. All of the important workings were probably underground.
‘Where does the water come from anyway?’ Lyndsey asked. ‘Rainfall?’
‘I don’t know. There must be a natural spring or something. Probably the same one that feeds the stream at the top of the field.’
‘I’m surprised you didn’t check that before we came here.’
‘Yes, well, I didn’t realise it would be relevant, did I? I put all my time into looking up the best climbing routes, the nicest beaches to scramble down to, the stretch of coastline where we could do some coasteering…’ Juliet shook her head. ‘All for nothing. I should never have bothered.’ She pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead as if forcibly suppressing her tears.
Tracking around the side of the mound, Juliet found a set of steps leading down to a sturdy metal door. There were more warning signs here. Most obvious was the DANGER OF DEATH sign, right in the middle. Juliet tried the door but it was locked. She put her ear to the door to listen.
‘Does it sound like poisoned water?’ Lyndsey couldn’t help but ask.
Juliet gave her an annoyed look. ‘I can hear machinery in there. I guess there must be pumps and stuff. I thought maybe it’d be a simpler set-up here. Like, I don’t know, like one of those big plastic tanks people have in their garden.’
She started searching through Marne’s bundle of keys, trying each one in the door lock.
Lyndsey wandered back up the steps. She climbed onto the top of the mound, feeling the wet grass slide beneath her feet with every step. From the top, she had quite a good view out over the north of the island. Past the trees, the land sloped downhill to the rocky northern shore. Beyond that was the stretch of water known as the Sound, which separated the island from the mainland. Even though the Sound was only a couple of kilometres wide, it was daunting. At most times of the day, except during the highest and lowest points of the tide, the tidal difference caused currents to sweep through it at frightening speed. From where she stood, Lyndsey could see the dark swirls and lighter white-caps on the surface as they zipped past.
She raised her eyes to look at the mainland.
The sheets of rain made it seem as distant as the moon. The land rose in dark lumps. If she squinted, Lyndsey could just make out the lights of a building, directly opposite the northern harbour of the island. She remembered the café and visitor centre there, which mostly catered to the ramblers and birdwatchers who found their way along the costal path. The single-track road leading to the café was a ribbon of grey against the dark hillside. There were no other houses or farms that Lyndsey could see, although admittedly her eyesight wasn’t fantastic. She’d been putting off an eye test for quite a while now. But, as far as she remembered, most of the area around this stretch of the mainland coast was a wildlife preserve.
She wondered if there would be any visitors in the café on a day like this.
‘We’re not really that far from land,’ Lyndsey called down to Juliet. ‘Do you think they’d hear us if we shouted?’
‘What?’ Juliet’s voice was muffled. She was still bent over her task with the keys.
Lyndsey strained her eyes towards the distant café. Realistically speaking, it was only a couple of miles away, in a straight line. There must be some way to attract their attention. Maybe if we—
‘No bloody use,’ Juliet said, loudly enough to make Lyndsey jump. She’d come back up the steps with a scowl on her face. ‘None of these keys works. I guess maybe Marne was telling the truth.’
‘Not necessarily. She might have other keys that she keeps separate.’
‘I don’t know.’ Juliet weighed the bundle of keys in her hand, frowning. ‘I thought the water tank would be easier to access. But this looks like a proper professional set-up. I doubt there’s any way to get into the system unless you’re an authorised engineer. Even then, I expect it’s designed to make it difficult for someone to purposefully dump poison into it.’
‘We still can’t rule it out completely,’ Lyndsey said, stubbornly. ‘If it wasn’t the water supply, how else would Marne have poisoned Bobbie?’
‘I don’t know if she did.’ Juliet’s face was serious. ‘I’ve been turning it over in my mind. I just can’t make it fit.’
‘She had access to the whole bunkhouse before we got there. Maybe the poison wasn’t in the water, but somewhere else. And what about those scratches on her face?’
Juliet let out a breath. ‘I know what you’re thinking,’ she said, ‘but it can’t have been Bobbie who caused those scratches. Marne came back to the observatory just after Val went there to look for her, right? So about ten o’clock this morning. Bobbie had been lying out there for hours at that point. If she’d inflicted the scratches … well, they would’ve scabbed over by then. They certainly wouldn’t have been still bleeding several hours later.’
Lyndsey hadn’t thought of that. ‘Then why else were Bobbie’s nails so dirty?’
‘Honestly? It could’ve been anything. She could’ve fallen and put out her hands to stop herself. She could’ve tried to climb back up from that ledge.’ Juliet held up her hands. ‘I’ve washed my hands four times since I woke up this morning, and I’ve still got dirty nails.’
It was true. Lyndsey glanced at her own fingers. There were slivers of mud under her nails, except for the thumbnails, which she had a habit of chewing down to the quick. She couldn’t even remember when she’d got her hands dirty. It just seemed to happen naturally when she was outdoors.
But still… ‘I don’t think we should trust Marne,’ she said.
‘Of course not.’ Juliet climbed up onto the top of the mound to stand next to Lyndsey. ‘We shouldn’t trust anyone.’
‘Except each other, right?’ Lyndsey said it jokingly, but Juliet’s expression was grim. ‘Right? We need to trust everyone in our group, don’t we?’
Juliet didn’t answer. She was standing next to Lyndsey, but looking off in a different direction, towards the west. ‘Let me show you something,’ she said then.
She climbed down from the mound. Puzzled, Lyndsey followed. ‘Show me what?’
‘I found something else while I was looking for Bobbie. It’s over this way.’
Past the turn-off for the water tank, the path became a narrow, wiggly line that pushed its way through the wet bracken. Juliet moved with a purpose. She obviously knew exactly where she was going. As always, Lyndsey could only tag along after her. It seemed like Lyndsey had been shadowing Juliet’s footsteps for as long as she could remember.
‘I think this is the area where we camped last time I was here,’ Juliet said over her shoulder. ‘It’s difficult to be sure after all this time, but this looks familiar. I think we camped in the shelter of those rocks. That was back when wild camping was allowed on the island.’
That family holiday, all those years ago, had obviously made a fast impression on Juliet, more so than any of the dozens of other camping holidays her parents took her on. ‘Has it changed much?’ Lyndsey asked as she waded through the bracken.
‘I don’t know. It’s all so unfamiliar.’ Juliet lifted her head to look around as she walked. Overhead, a hawk of some kind was hovering, despite the buffeting winds, its sharp gaze fixed on the ground. ‘I thought I remembered every inch of the place, but apparently not. I remember the bunkhouse, but it was in the process of being converted. My parents were so excited to come back here once it was completed. But then … well, I suppose it dropped off the cards, what with their divorce and everything. No more family holidays after that. I’ve waited eighteen years to get back here… I was so keen to show it to you all. And then, when I saw the state of the bunkhouse…’ She shook her head. ‘You can’t imagine.’
Lyndsey said nothing. She suspected Juliet was only talking because she didn’t want to think about Bobbie, or the poisoned water.
After a few minutes of walking, the path led them out onto grassy heathland again. Lyndsey was glad to be in the open. The wet bracken fronds that’d constantly slapped her legs and soaked through her jeans had left her thighs clammy and cold. She wanted to go back to the bunkhouse. Without even the thin protection of the stunted trees, the wind and rain seemed to pounce on them, whipping into Lyndsey’s face and trying to snatch the hood off her head. Grimly, she put her head down and kept walking.
