The Weekend Escape, page 3
‘We shouldn’t be moving her,’ Val grumbled. ‘It’d be smarter to keep her here.’
‘Yeah? For how long?’ Juliet asked. ‘It could be hours waiting for rescue.’
‘I’d rather not wait out here,’ Amanda said with a weak smile. ‘Let’s get to the bunkhouse, yeah? I can walk that far.’
‘We’ll take it slow, okay?’ Juliet said. ‘Leave your bags here. We’ll come back for them later. Sonia, leave your bag too; you’ll go faster without it.’
Sonia looked like she still wanted to argue, but swallowed it back. ‘See you there,’ she said shortly. Then she started off at a jog out of the courtyard and away from the lighthouse.
Lyndsey unclipped her harness and grabbed her rucksack, as well as the water-resistant bag containing the spare climbing kit. Val was sorting through the pile of jackets. She picked up two identical grey coats and held them up for size comparison, before passing the smaller one to Amanda. ‘We must’ve visited the same sale rail,’ Val commented. ‘I knew I should’ve sewn names into my stuff.’
They left Sonia’s backpack, along with Juliet’s and Amanda’s, in the shelter of the wall. Lyndsey opened her mouth to ask whether it was safe to leave the bags unguarded, then realised how daft the question was. There was no one on the island to steal their stuff.
With Juliet’s help, Amanda could limp at a slow pace. Bobbie walked alongside them, taking small, continuous sips from her water bottle, as if still battling nausea. Her face was creased with worry.
The island was only small, less than a mile wide. Most of the land was given over to scrubby grass, gorse, and bracken, with a few hardy trees braving the salt air. The island had once been used, many years ago, for cow and sheep farming. Dry stone walls, many of them tumbledown, separated the old fields and grazing paddocks. A track led up from the southern harbour to the bunkhouse, passing close to the old lighthouse.
Their pace was necessarily slow, because of Amanda’s injured leg. Lyndsey lifted her face and felt the first drops of rain. Typical. She hoped it would hold off until they reached shelter.
Val came to walk next to Lyndsey. She’d unfastened her climbing helmet, but still wore it perched atop her head, since it was the easiest way to carry it. She took it off briefly to rub a hand over her cropped hair. Every time Lyndsey saw her, there was more grey in Val’s hair. Val had always been an old soul, making a big deal of the fact that she was a year older than the rest of them, but over the last few years she’d really leaned into her old-lady aesthetic. She’d used the excuse of turning thirty to cheerfully quit buying any clothes or shoes that weren’t designed solely for comfort.
‘It would’ve been difficult for any of us to cut the rope,’ Val said, conversationally.
‘What?’
‘We were all up at the top of the lighthouse together. None of us could’ve done it without the rest noticing.’
‘No one cut the rope.’ Lyndsey glanced around. Juliet, Amanda, and Bobbie were a little way behind them. She lowered her voice. ‘It snapped, all right?’
‘Sure, but what if it didn’t?’
‘None of us would’ve done it. For one thing, we were all using the same rope. It could’ve given way on any of us.’
‘That’s true.’ Val didn’t seem fazed by the conversation. She had a familiar tilt to her head which meant she was puzzling something, in the oddly detached manner Lyndsey remembered from school. Professor Val, they’d called her. Always picking away at everything to discover how it worked. On more than one occasion, she’d been sent out of class for arguing with their teacher.
Right at that moment, Lyndsey didn’t want to think of this as a puzzle to be solved. She wanted to forget the whole nasty incident.
‘Of course, we weren’t paying attention,’ Val said then. ‘We were watching each other, not the belay point. It’s possible someone could’ve damaged the rope without the rest of us noticing.’
‘Stop it, Val. None of us did it. None of us would want to risk hurting someone.’
‘No, of course not.’ Why was there a sceptical note in her voice? ‘But who else is there?’
‘No one.’ Lyndsey was losing patience. ‘No one else was there. There’s no one on this island but us.’ Even as she said it, she knew it wasn’t completely true: according to Juliet, there was a warden who lived in the bird observatory on the island, right next to the bunkhouse where the group would be staying. But Lyndsey said it anyway, hoping Val would drop the matter.
No such luck. ‘Amanda was the last to come down,’ Val said. ‘The rope didn’t snap until she was nearly at the bottom. So, perhaps it wasn’t damaged until she started descending.’
‘We were all on the ground by then,’ Lyndsey said. ‘No one was in the lighthouse.’
‘None of us, no.’ Val turned to look at Lyndsey with her pale eyes. ‘But someone else could’ve been.’
The words sent a chill through Lyndsey. ‘There’s no one here but us,’ she said again.
‘We don’t know that. Someone could’ve come into the lighthouse without us noticing. The door’s on the other side to where we were abseiling. They could’ve slipped in, waited until Amanda started coming down the rope, then– ’
From behind them, Juliet asked, ‘What’re you two talking about?’
Lyndsey gave Val a warning glare. ‘Nothing,’ she said. ‘Just wondering if it’s starting to rain.’
Mercifully, Val didn’t say anything.
The rain started a few minutes before the bunkhouse came into view. The track passed through a gap in the drystone wall. Beyond it, to the left, was a sweep of stunted grass, kept short by rabbits, since there were no sheep on the island anymore. A few tenacious trees clung to the edges of the field. Lyndsey ran a gloved finger along the wet stones of the wall. When she touched it to her lips, it tasted of salt. The spray from the sea must reach every corner of this island.
Off to her right, on the other side of a large, flat field, were the bird observatory and, next door, the bunkhouse.
The bunkhouse looked bleaker and more exposed than it’d appeared on the National Heritage website. The stone building had been there for so long it’d begun to blend into the background. Moss and lichen climbed its walls. Its windows were dingy and a few slates were missing from its roof. Next door, the observatory looked like it was in a similar condition, but it at least appeared inhabited. The enclosed gardens in front were strewn with wooden pallets and netting.
Lyndsey glanced back at her friends. Juliet and Amanda weren’t too far behind, although neither of them had spoken for a while. There was an identical look of concentration on their faces. Behind them, Bobbie brought up the rear. She looked worse than any of them. Her face was ghostly and her gaze was fixed on the ground at her feet. She didn’t look like she could focus on anything except putting one foot in front of the other. The bright blue of her jacket washed the colour from her complexion.
I should check on her. Lyndsey started to go back, but at that moment she heard a shout.
She turned and spotted Sonia next to the bunkhouse, waving. Lyndsey waved back.
Sonia shouted something else. Her waving was more frantic.
‘Something’s wrong,’ Lyndsey said.
She broke into a run. Within a dozen steps she realised her backpack and climbing bag were too heavy. She shrugged them off mid-step and kept going.
Sonia came out through the gate at the end of the overgrown garden. Her expression was pissed-off.
‘No one’s here,’ Sonia called as soon as Lyndsey was within earshot.
‘What?’
Sonia lifted her hands in exasperation. ‘No one’s here. I can’t find the bloody warden.’
Lyndsey jogged to a halt, one hand pressed to her chest. ‘Christ, I thought someone had died or something. Don’t panic me like that.’
‘I think we’re entitled to panic.’ Sonia glared at the blank windows of the bird observatory. ‘The warden’s supposed to be here. We were told they’d be here. Now we’ve got a proper emergency and we can’t get in to use the goddamn radio.’
Lyndsey put her hands on her knees while she caught her breath. When she’d seen Sonia waving, she’d thought … well, she had no idea what she’d thought. Her nerves were stretched as tight as wire.
Belatedly, she remembered to signal to the others. ‘It’s okay,’ she called. ‘Don’t panic.’ She didn’t want any of them busting a gut to run across the field like she’d just done.
‘I’m considering whether to break a window,’ Sonia said. ‘I can see the radio – at least, I think I can. There’s something boxy and radio-ish on the workbench in the warden’s front room. Do you think I could get away with smashing a window? This is an emergency, after all.’
‘Just … hold off on the window-smashing for a minute, okay?’ Lyndsey looked at the two buildings – which were really just one building that’d been partitioned into two, sharing a common wall. At some point in the past, it looked like it’d been a decent-sized house with a barn or stable attached. ‘What about the bunkhouse?’ she asked. ‘Can we get in there?’
‘Yeah.’ Sonia held up a key. ‘It was taped to the front door. No note or anything, just the key. Very high security.’
‘I guess casual burglary isn’t a major issue out here.’ Lyndsey glanced at the others, who were approaching at Amanda’s limping pace. Even though they were some distance away, Lyndsey dropped her voice. ‘Listen, we don’t know how badly Amanda is hurt. I think the best thing we can do is get her into the bunkhouse and settled down. As soon as we find the warden, we’ll call the coastguard.’
‘All right, but the option of smashing a window is still right there. Just saying.’
Lyndsey went to the others to tell them the situation, then jogged back to pick up her bags from where she’d ditched them on the grass. Bobbie had waited for her by the bags.
‘I would’ve carried them for you,’ Bobbie said, ‘but, y’know, your backpack is unnecessarily heavy.’
‘I brought a couple of bottles of something nice for us all.’ Lyndsey shouldered her rucksack. ‘I thought we’d deserve a treat by this evening.’ Now, she was thinking they would need a lunchtime drink just to fix their nerves. ‘How’re you feeling now?’
‘Urgh, moderate to terrible.’ Bobbie gave a flimsy smile. ‘I don’t know why, but somehow I forgot we’d need to get on a boat to get here. I hate boats. If I close my eyes, it still feels like the ground is boggling.’
The rain had progressed to a constant drizzle, which looked soft but was collecting on Lyndsey’s climbing helmet, then running down to drip onto her face and down her neck.
‘You’ll feel better with a cup of tea and a rest,’ Lyndsey said. ‘And maybe a drop of something stronger.’
Bobbie wrinkled her nose, but didn’t reply.
Chapter Three
FRIDAY
12:10pm
Sonia had unlocked the front door to the bunkhouse and stepped inside by the time the others got there. ‘Home sweet home,’ she said sourly.
Lyndsey had expected the accommodation to be basic. It’d been advertised as a bothy, providing ‘a base for up to eight adventurous people’. Whilst preparing for the trip, Juliet had warned the group to bring sleeping bags, a pillow, and food and water for the full three days. So, Lyndsey had known not to expect luxury.
Still, she was taken aback. The first thing she noticed was the damp, fusty smell, like the place hadn’t been aired out in a long time. It was cold too. Lyndsey had been praying for central heating or maybe a nice wood-burning stove. Anything to take off the chill that’d been settling into her bones since she’d stepped onto the boat that morning.
Sonia found a light switch and clicked it on and off. Nothing happened. ‘Great,’ she muttered.
There were only three rooms in the single-story building. The largest, to Lyndsey’s right, was the bunkroom. In the dim light filtering through the two grimy windows, Lyndsey could see two rows of four bunkbeds. It looked uncomfortably like a prison cell. The mattresses on the bunks were thin and had obviously seen a lot of use. To her left was a small kitchen – or rather, a food preparation area, since there was no fridge or cooker, just a counter with some cupboards underneath, and a sink. An old table with a peeling Formica top took up a fair chunk of the room, with its three mismatched chairs. We’ll have to eat in shifts, Lyndsey thought, irrationally.
The third door stood partially open, revealing the tiny bathroom, which had just enough room for a toilet, sink, and shower unit. The floors throughout the building were unfinished concrete. Lyndsey shuddered at the thought of putting her bare feet on the floor when stepping out of the shower or off her bunk. There were nibble marks in the skirting boards and along the bottoms of the kitchen cabinets. Lyndsey really hoped the marks had been made a long time ago, by rodents who would be long gone.
‘Juliet,’ Val said as she surveyed the rooms, ‘what exactly have you got us into this time?’
‘Shift out of the way, will you?’ Juliet was attempting to bundle Amanda through the door to the bunkroom. Val moved aside.
With Juliet’s help, Amanda limped to the nearest bunk and dropped heavily onto the thin mattress with a groan that was either relief or despair.
‘There.’ Juliet straightened up and looked at their accommodation properly for the first time. ‘Hmm. Okay. The lights aren’t working?’
‘Nope.’ Sonia tried the switches in the kitchen and bathroom as well, to zero effect. ‘No light, no heat, no warden, no access to the radio—’
‘The warden can’t have gone far. She probably wasn’t expecting us to arrive this early.’ Juliet checked her watch. ‘See, it’s just past midday. I gave her an ETA of mid-afternoon. She’s probably out doing her … warden stuff.’
‘There’s nothing to cook on,’ Sonia added. She turned the tap in the kitchen. It clonked and gurgled and produced a thin stream of peat-coloured water. ‘What the hell, Jules? You said this place was okay.’
‘Well, obviously I’ve not stayed in this building myself,’ Juliet snapped. ‘Last time I was here, they were busy converting it from a barn.’
‘And that was, when? Nearly twenty years ago? The place looks like it’s not been touched since then.’
‘I just went by the description on the webpage. It looked fine. A bit rough and ready, sure, but what were you expecting? The Hilton?’
‘I was expecting somewhere with lights that worked and at least a token attempt at central heating.’ Sonia put a hand on the radiator in the bunkroom. ‘It’s freezing! How’re we meant to stay here?’
‘We’ve roughed it before. Don’t tell me you’re going soft.’
Sonia glared at her. ‘I knew this was a mistake. I never should’ve let you talk us into coming here.’
‘Can you quit complaining for two minutes? No one forced you to come. And we’ve got other things to worry about right now, thank you very much.’ Juliet helped Amanda unlace her walking boots. ‘How’re you feeling, sweetie?’ she asked her.
‘Could be worse. Still sore.’ Amanda winced as she stretched her narrow shoulders. ‘My ribs hurt a bit as well. I thought I’d just winded myself, but maybe…’
Val said, ‘Bet you wished you’d stayed lying on that comfortable ground now, huh?’ She opened the side pocket of her rucksack. ‘Here, I’ve got some decent painkillers. They’ll take the edge off it.’
‘We should wait till the rescue team gets here,’ Juliet said. ‘She shouldn’t take anything until then.’
‘No, that’s not how it works. If you’re in pain now, you take meds now. The first question the medics will ask is whether you’ve taken any painkillers, the second question will be why not.’ Val sorted through a number of cardboard packets. ‘Let’s see what we’ve got here.’
‘Aren’t there rules about sharing prescription drugs?’ Sonia muttered.
Amanda raised her eyebrows. ‘Right now, I’m happy to take whatever’s on offer. Don’t judge me, Doctor Death.’
Sonia gave a surprised half-laugh. Doctor Death. Another nickname from high school. Lyndsey remembered it with a lurch. Sonia had always been the one to bring a bottle of sambuca or absinthe or something equally lethal to every party.
It was crass of Amanda to remind them of that. Amanda must’ve realised, because she reddened and dropped her gaze.
While they were talking, Lyndsey did a quick search of the rooms. There was one radiator per room, none of which were working. Same with the lights. But if there were radiators and lightbulbs, there had to be a way to turn them on. Maybe a master switch somewhere. She searched the building but couldn’t find anything that looked like an electrical box.
‘I’m gonna look outside,’ Lyndsey said. ‘See if I can figure out the electricity.’
Juliet snapped her fingers. ‘The website bumf said there are solar panels and a generator.’
The solar panels wouldn’t be doing much right then. It’d been days since the sun had last put in an appearance. ‘I’ll look for the generator,’ Lyndsey said. She took off her climbing helmet and tossed it onto a bunk, grabbing a beanie hat from her pocket instead. ‘Shouldn’t be difficult to find. They’re usually pretty obvious, right?’
‘I’ll come with you,’ Sonia offered. She looked keen to get out of the room.
Outside, the wind threw spatters of rain into their faces. Lyndsey pulled her hat down over her eyebrows. The clouds were gathering low and heavy over the island, and the air had a close, thunderous look. Lyndsey breathed deeply. How come the air smelled so clean? Was it just her imagination? Every breath felt purer, less tainted with pollution. It was like she could feel the toxins being leached out of her. She wished she could appreciate it properly, but right at that moment, they had other things to focus on.
‘I knew this was a mistake,’ Sonia said. The hat she’d put on had two oversized black bobbles on top, which looked rather frivolous in comparison to her expression. ‘Every instinct told me not to come. Why the hell didn’t I listen to my gut?’
