by Jane Harper
‘Shit. Alice?’
Bree had thought Alice’s eyes were closed but she could see now that they were a tiny bit open. Little white half-slits stared at the grey sky.
‘Can you hear me?’ Bree could barely hear her own voice over the pounding in her head.
There was no movement and no response. Bree felt light-headed. Like she wanted to sit down next to Alice, perfectly still, and disappear.
Alice’s half-slitted eyes continued to stare until Bree couldn’t stand it anymore. She stepped sideways so she could no longer see her face. The back of Alice’s head looked a little strange and Bree leaned as close as she dared. There was no blood, but the skin of her skull looked mottled and purple where her blonde hair parted. She stepped back, her eyes on the ground.
She nearly missed the object wedged between Alice and the base of the rock. It was almost completely hidden by Alice’s lower back. Only the end was visible, circular with a glint of metal. Bree stared at it for what felt like a long time. She didn’t want to touch it, she didn’t want to admit she recognised it, but already she knew she couldn’t leave it.
At last, Bree made herself crouch and with her fingertips, she grasped hold and pulled out the industrial metal torch. She knew the name would be scratched into the side, but it still took her breath away to see it glinting in the light. Beth.
It’s gone too far. Alice doesn’t get to threaten you and just get away with it.
In a single reflex action, Bree pulled her arm back and threw, sending the torch spinning into the bush. It hit something with a thud and disappeared. Bree’s hand tingled. She wiped it on her jeans. Spat into her palm, and wiped it again. Then she looked back at Alice. Still sitting, still silent.
Two doors swung open in Bree’s mind and with a single shake of her head, she slammed one shut. The woolly feeling was gone now, and her head felt suddenly very clear. She needed to move.
Bree glanced down the path. It was empty. For now. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been there. Had anyone else heard the phone ring? She listened. She couldn’t hear any movement, but the others would be waking soon, if they weren’t up already.
She did the bag first. That was easier. She checked once more that the phone was dead, then slipped it into a side pocket and grabbed the straps of the backpack. She carried it into the bush, far enough that she couldn’t see the path, and propped it behind a tree. She stood and, for a terrible moment, could not remember which way the trail lay.
Frozen on the spot, Bree took deep breaths, making herself calm. ‘Don’t panic,’ she whispered. She knew which way she needed to go. She sucked in a final big breath and made herself walk straight, in the direction she had come, through the long grass and the trees, faster and faster, until she could see Alice sitting against the rock.
She almost stopped short at the sight of the back of her head, the blonde hair lifting in the wind, the awful stillness. Bree’s pulse was beating so fast she thought she might pass out. She forced herself to run the last few steps and, before she could change her mind, had hooked her hands under Alice’s armpits and pulled.
She walked backwards, dragging Alice deeper into the bush. The wind whirled around her, scattering leaves and debris across the ground in her wake, as though she had never been through there. Bree pulled until her arms ached and her breath burned in her chest and until suddenly she was stumbling and falling.
Alice – the body – fell one way, flat on her back, her face to the sky. Bree landed heavily against a dead tree stump, her eyes hot with tears and fury. She wondered briefly if she was crying for Alice, but she knew that she wasn’t. Not then, anyway. At that moment, she only had enough tears for herself, and her sister and what they’d somehow become.
As if her heart wasn’t aching enough, it was only then that Bree registered a stinging sensation in her arm.
Chapter 32
Something caught Falk’s eye.
Far below, at the base of the falls, he saw the flash of a high-vis jacket as someone crept out of the tree line with a familiar gait. Carmen. She positioned herself at the base of the waterfall and Falk saw her head tilt upwards, looking for them. It was too dark to see her face, but after a moment she raised a single arm. I see you. Around her, officers were moving slowly into place, trying not to draw attention to themselves.
Lauren hadn’t seemed to notice and he was glad. He wanted her attention as far away from the drop as possible. Through the roar of the water, Falk heard footsteps echoing on the wooden bridge. Lauren must have as well because she turned her head towards the sound. Sergeant King came into view, flanked by two other officers. He stayed back, but lifted his radio to his mouth and muttered something Falk couldn’t catch from that distance.
‘I don’t want them to come any closer.’ Lauren’s face was wet, but her eyes were dry and her expression was set in a way that made Falk nervous. He thought he’d seen that look before. It was the look of someone who had given up.
‘That’s okay,’ Falk said. ‘But they’re not going to keep away all night. They’re going to want to talk to you, and you should let them. If you come away from the edge we can try to sort this out.’
‘Alice tried to tell me about the photos of Margot. Maybe if I’d listened, everything would be different.’
‘Lauren –’
‘What?’ She cut him off. Looked at him. ‘You think you can fix this?’
‘We can try. I promise. Please. Just come back to the lodge and talk to us. If you won’t do it for yourself then –’ He wavered, unsure whether it was the right card to play. ‘There’s still your daughter. She needs you.’
He realised instantly it had been the wrong thing to say. Lauren’s face tightened and she leaned forward, her knuckles bright white where she gripped the ledge.
‘Rebecca doesn’t need me. I can’t help her. I’ve tried so hard, her whole life. And, I swear to God, I know I’ve made mistakes but I did the best I could.’ Her head was down as she stared into the abyss. ‘I’ve only made things worse. How could I do that to her? She’s just a girl. Alice was right.’ She leaned forward. ‘It is my fault.’
Day 4: Sunday Morning
The first thing Lauren heard when she opened her eyes was the screaming outside the cabin.
She felt movement around her, heard someone standing up, then the trample of feet against the floorboards. A bang as the cabin door swung open. She was slow to sit up in her sleeping bag. Her head throbbed and her eyelids were heavy. Alice. The memory of the trail came to her immediately. She looked around. She was the only one in the room.
With a sense of dread, Lauren stood up and went to the doorway. She looked out and blinked. There was some sort of commotion in the clearing. She tried to work out what she was seeing. Not Alice. Bree.
Bree was slumped by the remains of last night’s fire, clutching her right arm. Her face was pale.
‘Elevate it!’ Beth was shouting, trying to pull her sister’s arm over her head.
Jill was flipping frantically through a thin leaflet. No-one was looking at Lauren.
‘It says we need a splint,’ Jill was saying. ‘Find something to keep it still.’
‘What? What kind of thing?’
‘I don’t know! How should I know? A stick or something! Anything.’
‘We have to go,’ Beth shouted, scooping up a handful of broken twigs. ‘Jill? We have to get her to a doctor right now. Shit, hasn’t anyone done a first aid course?’
‘Yes, bloody Alice!’ Jill finally turned to the cabin and saw Lauren in the doorway. ‘Where is she? Wake her up. Tell her we’ve got a snakebite.’
Lauren had the surreal thought that Jill meant to go and wake her from the path, but instead the woman was pointing at the cabin. As if in a dream, Lauren lurched back inside and looked around. She was still the only one there. Four sleeping bags on the ground. She checked each one. All empty. No Alice. She hadn’t come back.
There was movement in the doorway and Jill appeared.
Lauren shook her head. ‘She’s gone.’
Jill froze, then all at once grabbed her own backpack and sleeping bag from the floor and shook them out.
‘Where’s my jacket? It had the phone in it. Shit. That bitch has taken it.’
She threw her belongings down and turned, slamming the cabin door behind her.
‘She’s bloody gone and she’s taken the phone.’ Jill’s voice was muffled outside. Lauren heard a cry of outrage that could have come from either one of the twins.
She pulled her boots on and stumbled outside. She knew where the jacket was. She had seen Alice stuff it behind a log the night before. Lauren wished now she’d never got up in the night to go to the toilet. She wished she’d taken a minute to wake the others instead of chasing after Alice in the dark. She wished she had been able to stop her from leaving. She wished a lot of things were different.
Lauren could see the splash of colour behind the log. She reached down.
‘The jacket’s here.’
Jill snatched it from her and rummaged through the pockets. ‘No. She’s definitely taken it.’
Beth was standing over Bree, who was still slumped on the ground, her arm immobilised in a makeshift splint.
‘All right. What are our options?’ Jill was breathing heavily. ‘We stay put. Or we split up, leave Bree here –’
‘No!’ the sisters said in unison.
‘Okay. Okay, then we’ll have to walk. We’ll all have to help Bree, but which way –’ Jill spun around.
‘Keep going north,’ Lauren said.
‘Are you sure?’
‘Yes. Stick to the plan. Keep as straight as we can, as fast as we can, and hope we hit the road. It’s our best bet.’
Jill considered for a fraction of a beat. ‘All right. But first we need to look for Alice. Just in case.’
‘Are you kidding? In case what?’ Beth was open-mouthed.
‘In case she’s gone to the toilet and twisted her bloody ankle, I don’t know!’
‘No! We have to go!’
‘Then we’ll be quick. The three of us. Leave Bree here.’ A hesitation. ‘And don’t go too far.’
Lauren was already running through the long grass towards the trail.
‘Alice had better hope someone else finds her,’ she heard Beth say. ‘If I get to her first, I’ll bloody kill her.’
Lauren was breathless as she ran. She could still feel the weight of Alice as they’d fallen and the shock as the air was knocked out of her lungs. She could still feel the sting of the words.
At the memory of that, Lauren slowed a little. The trail looked different in the daylight and she nearly missed the spot. Nearly. She was past the large smooth rock almost before she realised it. She stopped, turning, understanding in an instant what she was seeing. Nothing. The rock stood alone. The path was empty.
Alice was gone.
Lauren felt dizzy as the blood rushed to her head. The trail was deserted in both directions. She looked around, wondering how far Alice had got. The bushland gave no clue.
She scanned the ground, but there was no sign of her bracelet. Could she have lost it at the cabin and not realised? There was nothing to see, but the air had an odd tangy scent and she had the sensation that the area had been disturbed. She supposed it had been, in a way, but as she looked around now, she could see little evidence of their fight. Her legs shook only a little as she turned and walked back.
Nearer the cabin, Lauren could hear the faint shouts of the others calling for Alice. She wondered if she should do the same, but when she opened her mouth, the name stuck on her lips.
Chapter 33
Lauren stared down at the water. She took a breath through clenched teeth and Falk seized the chance to take a fast step towards her. She was so focused, she didn’t notice.
Falk could see they were both shaking with cold, and he was scared Lauren’s frozen fingers could lose their grip, whether she – or he – was ready or not.
‘I honestly didn’t mean to kill her.’ Lauren’s voice was almost lost in the crash of water.
‘I believe you,’ Falk said. He remembered their first conversation. It seemed a long time ago, out there on the trail, with the night all around them. He could still picture her face, overwhelmed and unsure. It wasn’t any one thing that went wrong, it was a hundred little things.
Now, she looked determined. ‘I wanted to hurt her, though.’
‘Lauren –’
‘Not for what she did to me. That’s my own fault. But I know what Margot did to Rebecca; that she prodded and baited her. And maybe Margot was smart enough to hide it, and Alice shouted loudly enough to make the school look the other way. But I know what that girl did. She is exactly like her bloody mother.’
The words hung in the freezing mist. Lauren was still looking down.
‘So much is my fault though.’ Her voice was quiet. ‘For being so weak. I can’t blame Alice or Margot for that. And Rebecca will realise that one day, if she hasn’t already. And she’ll hate me for it.’
‘She still needs you. And loves you.’ Falk thought of his own father’s face. His handwriting scrawled across his maps. With Aaron. ‘Even if she doesn’t always realise it.’
‘But what if I can’t make it right with her?’
‘You can. Families can forgive.’
‘I don’t know. Not everything deserves to be forgiven.’ Lauren was looking down again. ‘Alice said I was weak.’
‘She was wrong.’
‘I think so too.’ Her answer caught him by surprise. ‘I’m different now. Now, I do what I need to do.’
Falk felt the hairs on his arms stand up as something shifted in the atmosphere. They had crossed an invisible threshold. He hadn’t seen her move but suddenly she seemed much closer to the edge. Over the side, he could see Carmen looking up, poised. He made a decision. This had gone far enough.
He was already moving before the thought was fully formed. Two fast steps across the rocks, the surface as slippery as glass under his soles, and his fingers outstretched. His hand closed around her jacket – his jacket – grabbing a handful of fabric, his grip clumsy with cold.
Lauren looked at him, her eyes calm, and with a single fluid action, she shrugged her shoulders, folded her slim torso forward and shed his jacket like a snakeskin. She slid from his grasp and with a movement marked by both decision and precision, she was gone.
The edge was empty, as though she had never been there.
Day 4: Sunday Morning
Jill could see her own fear reflected in the three faces staring back at her. Her heartbeat thumped and she could hear the others’ rapid breathing. Overhead, the pocket of sky carved out by the trees was a dull grey. The wind shook the branches, sending a shower of water down on the group below. No-one flinched. Behind them, the rotten wood of the cabin groaned and settled as another gust blew through.
‘We have to get out of here,’ Jill said. ‘Now.’
On her left, the twins nodded immediately, united for once by their panic. Bree was clutching her arm, Beth supporting her. Their eyes were wide and dark. On her right, Lauren shifted, the briefest hesitation, then nodded. She took a breath.
‘What about –’
‘What about what?’ Jill had lost patience.
‘. . . What about Alice?’
An awful hush. The only sound was the creak and rustle as the trees gazed down on their tight circle of four.
‘Alice brought this on herself.’
A silence. Then Lauren pointed.
‘North is that way.’
They walked and they didn’t look back, leaving the trees to swallow up all that they left behind.
Chapter 34
Falk yelled Lauren’s name but it was too late. He was talking to empty air. She was no longer there.
He scrambled across the rocks in time to see her plunge like a dead weight into the water. The splash as she hit was swallowed up by the roar of the falls. Falk counted to three –
too fast – but she didn’t surface. He dragged his jumper over his head and wrenched off his boots. He tried to suck in a deep breath, but his chest was tight as he took a step forward and jumped. All the way down, the only thing he could hear over the rush of water beneath him and the rush of air above him was the sound of Carmen shouting.
He slammed into the water feet first.
An eerie nothingness enveloped him and he felt suspended in a void. Then all at once the cold hit him with brutal force. He kicked upwards, fighting the urge to gasp until he broke the surface. His chest was burning as he sucked at the damp air, the cold of the water forcing the oxygen out of his lungs as fast as he could take it in.
The waterfall spray blinded him, stinging his face and eyes. He couldn’t see Lauren. He couldn’t see anything. He heard a faint noise over the deafening roar and twisted around, wiping his eyes. Carmen was on the bank. Next to her two officers were grabbing a rope. She was yelling at him and pointing to something.
Lauren.
The thundering curtain of water would pull her under, he knew instinctively. He could already feel the fingers of undertow snatching at his feet, threatening to drag him deep. He took a breath, trying to force air into his seized lungs, then swam in a mongrel mix of strokes towards her.
He was a reasonable swimmer, he had grown up by a river, but the pull and thrust of the water made it difficult to gain any traction. His clothes were weighing him down, dragging him backwards, and he was glad he’d had the presence of mind to pull off his boots.
Ahead, the figure bobbed towards the danger zone. She wasn’t thrashing, she was barely even moving, as her face dipped into the black water for seconds on end.
‘Lauren!’ he yelled, but the noise was swallowed up. ‘Over here!’
He caught her just metres from the pounding base of the falls and grabbed hold of her, his fingers frozen and clumsy.
‘Leave me!’ she screamed. Her lips were a ghoulish purple-blue and she fought now, kicking him away. He swept an arm across her, pressing her back to his chest, gripping tight. He could feel no heat at all from her body. He started kicking as hard as he could, forcing his heavy legs to move. He could hear Carmen calling to him from the bank. He tried to follow her voice but Lauren was pulling away harder, clawing at his arm.
