The Weekend Escape, page 24
Sonia caught on immediately. She started doing the same with the big flashlight. Next to her, Marne was struggling to light the paraffin lamp, sheltering the flame from the wind.
‘Try to keep time with each other,’ Lyndsey said. ‘It’ll be a more obvious signal if we’re all doing it at the same time.’
Sonia nodded. ‘Do you think anyone will see us?’
‘I don’t know. There could be too much daylight still.’ Lyndsey had thought the almost-twilight of the storm would’ve been dark enough, but now she wasn’t so sure. ‘We should’ve tried this earlier.’
‘It was definitely too light earlier.’ Sonia squinted across the water. ‘There’s a car moving in the car park. Do you see it?’
Lyndsey didn’t want to admit that her eyesight wasn’t good enough to make out the individual cars. She kept flashing her torch.
Thunder rolled across the sky again. Sonia glanced upwards. ‘This is a terrific place to be during a thunderstorm,’ she mentioned. ‘If I see one single bolt of lightning, I’m running for cover.’
Juliet came to take up her position at Lyndsey’s side and switched on her own headtorch. It was a brand-new LED torch, with five different settings, including one that shone a red light, for some reason. She struggled to find a setting that would let her flash the light on and off at will, so instead she set it to the third setting, which was a constant flashing.
‘Goddamn technology,’ she said with an irritated roll of her eyes. ‘It’s so great when it makes life easier, isn’t it?’ She stooped to light the second paraffin lamp.
Across the water, a pair of headlights appeared on the road leading down to the Sound Café. They disappeared in and out of view as the car made its way down the twisting road.
‘They’re looking right at us,’ Lyndsey said.
‘Let’s hope they’re paying attention.’ Sonia raised her voice. ‘Come on, you idiot! Look over here!’
‘I’m almost certain they can’t hear you.’
‘But there’s a possibility someone will hear.’ Sonia gave Lyndsey a grin. She looked wild and fierce with the wind blowing her short hair about her face. ‘It’s worth a shot, right?’
‘Sure.’ Lyndsey laughed, then she shouted as well. ‘Hey! Over here! Hey, café! Look out of your windows! We’re over here!’
The wind whipped their voices away. There’s no way anyone can hear us. Lyndsey shook off the doubt. If there was even a tiny chance their voices might carry…
Besides, all that shouting was cathartic. She felt like she’d been needing to scream for hours. It felt good to finally let it out.
After a moment, Juliet joined in as well.
Lyndsey shuffled as close as she dared to the edge of the cliffs. Some of the water that struck her face was spray from the sea, she was sure of it. When she licked her lips, she tasted salt. It didn’t freak her out as much as it had done earlier. Sonia stepped even further, right onto an outcropping that overhung the sea.
‘Be careful,’ Lyndsey warned. ‘That’s a hell of a drop.’
‘We should’ve brought a safety line,’ Juliet fretted.
The car that was coming down the road in the distance paused just before it reached the car park. It was angled towards the channel. The headlights dipped once in acknowledgement.
‘Yes!’ Sonia shouted. ‘Yes, they’ve seen us!’
Lyndsey waved and yelled. Sonia, with steadier hands, trained the heavy flashlight on the car and sent the SOS message again.
Again, the car dipped its headlights.
‘We’ve done it!’ Lyndsey couldn’t believe it. ‘Someone saw us!’
Juliet raised both arms in triumph. ‘That’s it! They’ll send help. We’re saved. Oh my God, I didn’t think it was going to work. I take back everything I’ve ever said about your planning skills. It worked!’
In that moment, Lyndsey was more than happy to forget all the suspicion and harsh words that’d passed between them that day. She threw her free arm around Juliet’s shoulders and hugged her. Juliet was laughing and crying at the same time.
It made Lyndsey think of that fleeting moment the day before, at the base of the lighthouse, when Lyndsey had completed the abseil, and Juliet had been right there to congratulate her. If either of them had realised at the time what was to follow, they would’ve clung to that moment for much longer.
‘We’re saved,’ Juliet said into Lyndsey’s shoulder.
Right at that moment, Marne let out a cry. Lyndsey spun around. The light from her headtorch caught Sonia’s face as she leaned out over the precipice. The wind whipped strands of her bobbed hair up and around like a halo. In that frozen moment, Sonia was grinning, exultant.
The next instant, she pitched forward. Marne’s cry of alarm had come too late. Sonia flung out her arms, but she was already falling. Her face stretched into an O of surprise.
It all happened so suddenly that she didn’t even have time to scream as she fell.
She missed the rockface by inches and plunged into the ocean.
‘Sonia!’ Lyndsey yelled.
The waves closed over Sonia’s head. For the space of three seconds – which felt like a hell of a lot longer – Lyndsey held her breath. Then Sonia burst back up like a cork. Her arms flailed.
‘Grab onto the rocks!’ Lyndsey yelled down at her. Sonia was only a few feet from shore. She can get back out – if she’s fast, she can—
Sonia gasped an implosive breath. Her heavy clothes dragged her below the surface again. This time she was down for longer. When she at last came back up, a current had caught hold of her legs and pulled her further from shore.
‘Someone help her!’
Lyndsey’s feet might as well have been nailed to the ground. She watched her friend get sucked under the water again, and she couldn’t move. Nothing in the world could’ve made her jump into the freezing sea. Not even to save her friend’s life.
‘Don’t!’ Juliet yelled from somewhere behind her. Lyndsey tore her stare away from the sea, in time to see Marne kick off her wellies and jacket, then, without hesitation, leap from the top of the bluff. She fell as if in slow motion and hit the water with straight legs, arms by her sides. She was only under for a second before she popped back up. She shook her head to clear the water from her eyes then immediately struck out in Sonia’s direction. Her headtorch, still fastened around her skull, sent light glinting off the waves.
Sonia was like a ragdoll caught by the riptides. They pulled her one way then the other. She was fighting to get out of her jacket. If she didn’t shed some weight, she would drown within seconds.
At the same time, Marne was trying to reach her. She was obviously a strong swimmer, but that didn’t matter right now. For every foot she gained, the water shoved her two feet in a random direction. Twice she was pulled down beneath the surface and had to claw her way back.
She’s not going to reach Sonia in time. Lyndsey realised it with sick certainty. And, even if she did, that just meant the two of them would drown together.
‘We’ve got to help them,’ Juliet said. She flung down the lamp and ran off in the direction of the harbour.
It was the fastest way down to the water, short of jumping straight in. Lyndsey knew that. She knew she had to move. Sonia and Marne were going to drown if someone didn’t help them. Yet still her legs felt like concrete. She was hyperventilating and didn’t know how to stop.
Sonia fell off the cliff – she was leaning too far out and she fell –
No, that wasn’t what’d happened.
Someone pushed her.
Lyndsey’s brain replayed the moment in fierce clarity. Sonia leaning out over the edge, her face split by a grin, her hair wild. Then, behind her –
Amanda pushed her.
Like a bad dream, Lyndsey looked behind her.
Amanda was backing away down the trail. Her eyes were wide and scared. Her headtorch had been knocked askew. She blinked once and met Lyndsey’s gaze.
‘It was her fault,’ Amanda said, so quietly the words were almost lost to the wind. ‘She killed her.’
Then she spun on her heel and sprinted off down the trail. Her gait was awkward, lopsided, as if the residual drugs in her system were still affecting her.
‘Lyndsey!’ Juliet yelled from somewhere below.
Lyndsey snapped out of her trance. She lurched to her feet and ran to help Juliet. There was no time to go after Amanda. Right now, they had to worry about saving Sonia and Marne.
With every step, she prayed they wouldn’t be too late.
Chapter Thirty
SATURDAY
7:00pm
‘Find something to throw to them!’
Juliet had sprinted out onto to the concrete jetty at the harbour that projected into the channel. The undertow was dragging Marne and Sonia off into the middle of the Sound. They were getting further out by the second.
‘Here!’ Lyndsey found the life ring that had earlier saved her life. It was lying discarded on the grass, exactly where they’d abandoned it. Either Juliet or Val had taken the rope back to the bunkhouse earlier.
She snatched up the life ring then immediately fumbled it to the ground again. The feel of the cold, wet plastic beneath her palms, even while wearing her gloves, triggered a sudden flashback. She had to force herself to keep hold of the ring and run with it to Juliet. It would’ve been less traumatic for her to carry a dead animal.
She almost slipped twice on her way out onto the concrete jetty. The surface was slick with sea water and seaweed. Breathing hard, she shoved the life ring into Juliet’s grasp, then quickly bunched her hands into tight fists. The sea surrounded the dock on three sides. It surrounded Lyndsey.
‘Where are they?’ Lyndsey asked. Her voice sounded thin and breathless.
‘There!’
Lyndsey followed Juliet’s finger. She spotted one dark head above the surface. It had to be Marne, because she was swimming away from them. Further out – a lot further out, Lyndsey realised with fright – a second head fought to keep above the surface. Sonia’s pale face was just visible above the waves.
Even as they watched, a hidden current caught hold of Sonia and made her vanish. One second she was there, the next she was gone.
‘Sonia!’
Marne powered towards the spot where Sonia had disappeared. She sucked in a deep breath then dived beneath the surface.
Lyndsey held her breath. Neither woman came back up.
‘We’ve gotta go in after them.’ Juliet dropped the life ring and started tugging off her boots.
‘Don’t,’ Lyndsey said. ‘You’ll drown as well.’
‘I’ll take the life ring.’ Juliet stripped off her jacket.
‘We don’t have the rope! We took it back to the bunkhouse.’
Juliet swore as she remembered. ‘I still need to go in. The life ring will keep me afloat.’
‘You’re a terrible swimmer.’
‘I know.’
‘You saw what happened when I went out there this afternoon. I almost died. And that was with a life ring and a safety line and three people to haul me in.’
‘I know!’ Juliet glared at her. ‘I’ve got to do it anyway.’
Tell her she doesn’t have to. Tell her you’ll do it instead. Lyndsey couldn’t force her mouth to open. You’re the better swimmer. If you let Juliet go out there, she’ll die too.
Numbly, Lyndsey stepped back to give Juliet space. She couldn’t even find her voice to tell Juliet to be careful.
Juliet hurriedly stripped down to her T-shirt and pants, then stepped to the very end of the concrete jetty. The rolling waves slapped against the rock, sending spray over her legs. She was already visibly shivering.
Lyndsey looked past her, towards the water. From this angle, she could see nothing but the white caps of waves, or the streaks of hidden currents. Then, from the corner of her eye, something snagged her attention.
‘There!’ she shouted.
A head had appeared above the waves. The dark hair was the same colour as the water. Lyndsey had only seen it because, somehow, Sonia’s headtorch was still securely attached and functioning, and now shone a wavering light straight upwards into the clouds. She was at least fifty feet away from the shore. The current was dragging her with ferocious speed, but she was still fighting, kicking and flailing against the riptide. None of her efforts could bring her close to land. If anything, she was moving further away.
Lyndsey swept her free hand across her eyes to clear them of stinging water. There were two heads out there, bobbing in the waves. Marne had managed to reach Sonia. They huddled together, Marne helping Sonia stay afloat.
Juliet sat down on the dock then dropped the short distance into the water. The cold made her gasp. Her shoulders hunched. The next wave brought the water level up to her thighs.
‘Wait,’ Lyndsey said. She’d realised what Marne was doing.
There was no chance of the two of them fighting their way back to the harbour, so instead Marne had let the current sweep them towards another point of possible safety – the rocks, a hundred yards offshore, where the concrete tower with its red warning light stood.
The tide had risen enough that waves rolled continuously over the rocks at its base. Bursts of spray broke against the bollard itself. But Marne didn’t have a lot of options. They were a lot closer to the marker than they were to the shore, and the currents were pushing them towards it. With a strength that must be waning fast, she towed Sonia in the direction of the rocks. Sonia let herself be dragged. It looked like all her effort was taken up by just staying afloat. The beams of their two headtorches waved at the sky like desperate beacons.
Relief flooded through Lyndsey. ‘They’re gonna be okay,’ she said. ‘They can make it.’
Juliet was watching the two women as well, but she shook her head. ‘Even if they do, they’ll be trapped out there. We’ve got to go get them.’
Marne at last reached the rocks and started pulling herself up. It was exhausting work. Each wave tried to shove her back into the channel. After half a minute of struggling, she got her feet underneath her and was able to help Sonia scramble up to safety. Sonia had managed to shed her bright red jacket and her boots during those panicked moments while she was in the sea. The waning light of her headtorch danced across the slick rocks. She clung onto Marne as if she’d never let go.
‘They’re okay.’ Lyndsey came up to the end of the harbour and reached down to grip Juliet’s shoulder with relief. ‘They’re okay.’
Juliet let out an explosive breath. ‘That absolute bloody idiot,’ she said with feeling. ‘We told Sonia to watch her footing on the bluff. She could’ve killed herself, falling in like that.’
Lyndsey blinked. I’m the only one who saw. ‘She didn’t fall,’ she said.
‘Yeah, she did. We were right there, Lynds. We all saw it happen.’
‘No, I mean … she didn’t fall. She was pushed. Amanda pushed her off the bluff.’
It was Juliet’s turn to blink. Her mouth formed words but no sound came out. She was still standing on the rocks at the base of the harbour jetty, with water swirling up around her thighs, but for that instant the cold was forgotten.
‘No,’ Juliet said at last. ‘That’s not – that can’t be—’
‘I saw her. Amanda shoved Sonia. That’s what made her fall. I think—’ Lyndsey swallowed thickly. Her mouth tasted of salt. ‘I think Amanda blames her for what happened to Bobbie. She said as much, before she ran off.’
Juliet looked quickly behind Lyndsey, as if just realising Amanda wasn’t with them anymore. ‘Why would she—?’ she started to ask, but broke off, biting her tongue.
Because you told her all of your suspicions. Lyndsey’s stomach twisted again. You told her that you suspected Sonia. It’s no wonder Amanda freaked out.
Lyndsey looked across the water at Sonia and Marne. They were huddled together in the meagre shelter of the concrete marker. At that tidal time, the rocks at its base were only about twenty feet wide, at best, and every wave either washed over it or broke against the sides, showering them with spray. And the tide was still coming in. In another hour, even that small amount of safety would be lost. The concrete bollard itself was ten feet high, its sides pitted from exposure to the elements, but there was no real way for them to climb up it, and no room on top for them to perch.
‘We have to get them off there,’ Lyndsey said. ‘They’ll die of hypothermia.’
Juliet set her jaw. ‘I’ll go in and get them.’
‘We don’t have a safety line—’
‘Then we’ll run back to the bunkhouse and get one.’ Juliet climbed back onto the dock. ‘We need to hurry.’
Lyndsey glanced at the café across the water, only partially visible from this angle. ‘Someone definitely saw us,’ she said. ‘That car flashed its lights. So the helicopter will be on its way here soon.’
‘If it makes it here in time. How long do you think those two can hold out for?’
Lyndsey peered through the rain at the car park. She couldn’t see the car that had flashed its lights at them. She cast around and eventually spotted it, heading back up the road, away from the car park, its headlights briefly visible in the gloom. Where are they going?
Her heart plummeted. The driver hadn’t seen them. Or hadn’t attached any significance to their torchlights. What they’d all mistaken for a flash of the headlights must just have been the car going over a bump in the road.
The realisation floored her. No one had seen them. No one was going to raise the alarm. That meant the helicopter wasn’t on its way after all. They were still on their own.
She directed her headtorch in the direction of the café. For all the good that would do. There were only a few cars still left in the car park. Soon the lights in the café would be turned off and everyone would go home.
An answering flash of light caught her eye, and for a moment she dared to hope. But, when she turned, she saw the light was from Marne’s headtorch. Marne was signalling them.
