The Hunted

by Jo McCready

  “Got it. Don’t stare too long, don’t scan too long, and don’t scan too quickly. I might as well just close my eyes since it doesn’t seem like I’m allowed to do anything else.” She rolled her eyes, knowing full well the effect was lost on Stuart. Not only was he ahead of her, he also wouldn’t have been able to see her expression in the dark. She trudged on, cursing him for everything under her breath as he continued to attempt to guide her through the gloom.

  RJ continued to follow his voice when, without warning, her foot caught on a root or something else unseen and she fell on her knees with a loud thud. She could add purple knees to her list of bruises to count in the shower tomorrow. They’d been walking less than fifteen minutes. How on earth were they going to make it the rest of the way? She couldn’t even imagine how many bruises she’d pick up along the way.

  Stuart came back and hooked his hand under her shoulder to help her up.

  “I can’t see a bloody thing,” she protested.

  “Not yet, but you will. It takes thirty to forty minutes for your eyes to adjust fully. We’ll be out of the trees by then. Look, put your hand on my shoulder and I’ll guide you through.”

  “How can you manage?”

  “Training,” he said grimly. “Years and years of training. Believe me, this is easier than most scenarios where I’ve had to practice my night vision. At least we don’t need to watch out for anyone trying to blow us up or shoot us.”

  RJ considered the extreme situations that Stuart’s time in the army, and perhaps even his time with Kingfisher, had put him in. She kicked herself for being childish and competitive. Of course he had more skills than her in this area. She had to set aside her stupid pride and rely on his experience. She knew she still had a lot to learn, and working with and depending on a partner was the thing she had to work on the most. It was just that she hated relying on anyone else—she really needed to get over herself on that one.

  She reached out and felt for his shoulder, feeling the taut muscle as she grasped it.

  Stuart turned his head. “We ready?”

  “Ready,” confirmed RJ.

  Stuart slowly walked on, with RJ following close behind him, tethered in place with flesh and bone and a renewed respect for the man she was partnered with.

  With Stuart as her guide, moving through the trees was much easier. As much as she wanted to dislike the guy, she struggled to hold on to her resentment. It was hard not to forge a connection when she could feel the heat of his skin through his thin shirt, hear his breathing—emphasized by the silence that had descended upon them—so close to her own. Oh God, what was she thinking?

  Abruptly, the contact broke as they stepped out of the trees and onto the vast area of pastureland. RJ was both disappointed and relieved as Stuart’s shoulder pulled away from beneath her touch. Was she imagining it, or did she sense the same tangle of emotion in him? It didn’t matter, she told herself. They were here to do a job. That had to be her only focus.

  She turned her attention to the task at hand, amazed at how much she was able to see after the darkness of the forest. The entire area was bathed in moonlight, the hills in the distance black against the lighter dark of the night’s sky. Careful not to look up at the moon in case it affected her ability to see in the dark, she chanced a look at the stars ahead of her.

  Stuart watched her. “Surprising how much you can actually see, eh? Try and ignore the display above you. Direct your focus on your surroundings. That’s what you need to concentrate on if we’re going to get anywhere tonight.” He put his hand on her shoulder, sending a current up her spine. Stuart hastily removed his hand as if he felt it himself.

  RJ lowered her eyes, letting her sight readjust. “Let’s go.”

  The walk to the ridge was much easier, with their path often dictated by what looked like deer trails through the grass. “They’ve already discovered the simplest way up. Makes life easier for us,” Stuart explained.

  “What are we looking for? What do you think we might possibly find after all this time, and in the dark?” she asked.

  “I’m not sure, but we have to cover all bases. We don’t know for sure that this is even where he died. Let’s just wait to see what the evidence tells us. You never know what we might find—or not find. That’s a bigger possibility, of course. I want to have a look at the terrain, too. See how easy it would have been for him to just fall to his death, see if it’s likely or even possible.”

  They kept their voices low, lest their conversation drifted too far in the still, quiet, dark.

  Every now and then, something fluttered overhead, making RJ uneasy. Too small to be owls, so she assumed they were bats out hunting for prey. She ducked out of reflex whenever she heard a noise in the air above her.

  “What’s your theory about it all?” she asked, as much as to provide a distraction to herself as to satisfy her curiosity.

  “I don’t have one yet. I prefer to see all the evidence.”

  “But you must have something in your mind.”

  “Nope. You obviously do, though.”

  “Same as I’ve felt all along. It wasn’t an accident. I can’t see what the motive could possibly be yet, but I think he was killed.”

  “Possibly, and actually very likely given all the evidence we have so far,” Stuart conceded.

  RJ’s body just about purred at the warm burn in her muscles as they climbed the grassy slope. It had been a few days since she’d last trained. A run around the village roads simply didn’t cut it when her body was used to a much more punishing exercise regime..

  They stopped to survey the valley below them, the sheep nowhere in sight, and the atmosphere eerie in its silence. “There are no signs of life anywhere,” she murmured.

  “Oh, it’s there all right, you just can’t see it at the moment.”

  “I wonder if this is the way James Sullivan came up to the ridge.”

  “If he made it up here under his own power,” Stuart muttered.

  “How far is the main house on the estate from here?”

  “Three miles, give or take, why?”

  RJ chewed the inside of her cheek as she turned the information over in her mind. “He was out hunting at dusk. Why venture so far from the main house if he’d have to make his way back in the dark? Odd, don’t you think? And odd for him to be out on his own without a guide.”

  “It could be that he lost his way or maybe he just liked being on his own, especially if every second of his day was usually accounted for. Maybe this was his alone time,” Stuart countered.

  They marched onwards through the long grass, the sharp points slashing ineffectually at their covered shins.

  “Almost there,” Stuart said.

  As they crested the ridge, RJ thought she could make out a dark bulge in the distance over the other side of the valley below, which may or may not have been the main house.

  “The deer track doesn’t go anywhere near the edge,” RJ pointed out. The path through the grass followed the line of the ridge, consistently staying meters away from the black void that marked the edge. “Why would he have had any reason to get so close?”

  They examined the area.

  “No idea. This would be so much easier to do in the daylight.”

  “Maybe he saw a stag in the distance and was trying to find a shot. Or maybe he was trying to survey the area better, to see the deer or a way back to the house.”

  They edged closer to the brink, Stuart’s arm out behind him, urging RJ to keep back. “We’ll set up the ropes. I’m going to take a closer look down cliff face.” He took off his pack, knelt beside it and detached his climbing rope. When he straightened, he moved closer, peering over the side. RJ inched closer to inspect the drop with him.

  “Just be caref—” the rest of his sentence was suddenly swallowed up by the sound of gravel tearing down the slope, taking him with it.

  Chapter 12

  RJ stood, shocked, her boots rooted in place.

  Stuart had
been just there, and then he wasn’t.

  A split second later, she dropped to the ground and cautiously crawled forward, keeping away from the area that had given way beneath Stuart’s feet.

  RJ didn’t have time to consider that she might suffer the same fate as the tips of her fingers reached the edge, and she pulled herself closer. She peered over the edge, looking for any sign of her partner. Relief, and more than a little surprise, rushed through her as she saw the white of his face staring up at her from just over halfway down. Halfway down was still too far for comfort but much better than the alternative.

  “I’m okay, I’m okay,” he whispered breathlessly, but she could hear the strain in his voice.

  “What’s the situation?” she asked him.

  “I managed to grab a bush or a tree or something on my slide down. My toes are wedged in a very narrow foothold. It’s fine as long as I’ve got the bush to hold onto, but I don’t know how long that’ll last. You’ll need to be quick. Please,” he added, a hint of desperation creeping into his controlled response.

  RJ turned her head to the darkness behind her. None of the dark shapes were big enough to be the trees that she had hoped would provide a strong anchor for the climbing rope. “It looks like only gorse. Will they hold?”

  “No, the roots are too shallow. You’ll need to find something else. And quick. This doesn’t feel as if it’ll hold out much longer.”

  RJ shuffled backwards, then stood up and ran to the area of darkness behind her. She frantically searched for a rock or stronger tree to secure the rope to, hands striking out, searching for options as she scanned the area in front of her. She caught sight of something in her peripheral vision to the left and changed direction to a boulder sunk into the ground. She knelt, put her shoulder to it and tried to shift it. When it didn’t budge, she threw her pack to the ground and untethered the rope, winding it around and then fumbling to tie a knot Stuart had made her practice when they’d first arrived at the cabin. She closed her eyes to visualize it in her mind. It had been so much easier when she could see what she was doing. Her fingers shook as she manipulated the rope. An involuntary gasp escaped her mouth when she heard a movement in the gorse bushes. Instinct kicked in—she stopped what she was doing and looked in the direction of the noise. The darkness showed no signs of movement, gave up no further sounds. The bushes remained deathly still. RJ’s heart pumped in her chest. The adrenaline must have been playing tricks on her. She shook her head to clear it. There was no time to waste on figments of her overactive imagination. She turned back to her task and tied off her knot to her satisfaction, giving it a strong tug to test its hold.

  Scurrying back, she called out softly to Stuart, unable to tell where she had left him.

  “Here,” he answered. “Don’t come too close to the edge. But hurry.”

  RJ got down on her belly and crawled close to where she had last looked over to see Stuart. She took the coiled rope in her right hand and swung it down towards him. It missed its mark, but it was too dark for RJ to see by how much.

  “You have to get it closer,” Stuart said. “I can’t take my hands off this thing without having something else to grab on to.”

  RJ pulled the rope back up and threw it down again. This time it hit its target as it bounced off Stuart’s head. He grabbed at it with one hand, then quickly the other.

  “Got it?” she called, waiting to hear his affirmative answer before shimmying backwards, then moving to ensure the rope was safely tied. RJ took it up, adding her own body weight. She couldn’t fully trust that she’d managed to secure it correctly, not when there was someone else’s life in her hands.

  “Don’t pull,” Stuart’s voice sounded out in the darkness. “Let me come up under my own steam.”

  The skin on her hands burned as she gripped the rope and listened to Stuart’s agonizing grunts and moans. Twice, she heard gravel shifting and then a grunt as parts of the cliff face gave way under Stuart’s feet. RJ dug her heels into the earth and leaned back against the force at the other end of the rope. She didn’t realize she had been holding her breath until she felt herself gasp for air. Afraid to say anything in case it distracted him, she waited, her lungs heaving from the effort it took to hang on to the rope. The closer he got, the heavier the rope became and the more her arms ached, the muscles in her thighs burning as they locked her in place.

  By the time Stuart breached the edge, he was breathing heavily and she could smell his sweat from a distance. He took a beat to gulp in some air before scrambling away from the unstable ground and collapsing on his back, his breath coming out in short, shallow gasps. RJ’s body gave out and she flopped to the ground where she stood, joining him in his pursuit for oxygen.

  “So, I guess we know how easy it would have been for James Sullivan to simply slip and fall to his death here.” He waited to catch his breath before continuing, “I was only saved by the fact that I had been facing you when I fell. It meant I could grab at the cliff side.” He paused. “If Sullivan had been looking out for deer below, he wouldn’t have stood a chance if the edge gave way like that.”

  “Can we prove it?”

  “Not without examining the area properly in the daylight, and maybe never. My slip could have covered up any evidence there might have been.”

  Neither was willing to move nor willing to verbalize the possibility that their investigation might have put the entire case at risk.

  “Shit.”

  “Shit,” RJ agreed. There was nothing else to be said. Reluctantly, she got to her feet. “You rest, I’ll get the rope. No more investigating tonight. We need to get you back.”

  “Agreed,” said Stuart. He was a lot of things, but foolhardy wasn’t one of them.

  RJ made her way back to the rock and started to untie the knot. As she unwound the rope, a bright little object on the ground caught her eye. She scanned the nearby area, trying to get a better look at it but was unable to make out any identifying features. Whatever it was, it didn’t belong there. She reached out to investigate and came across what looked like a smooth, light-colored rock but felt soft and warmer than she expected. Whatever it was, it seemed out of place, so she put it in her pocket to look at later. She wound the rope into loops, reattached it to her pack and made her way back to Stuart.

  She stood over him and tried to figure him out.

  “All right?”

  “Yeah. Thanks. I mean, thank you.” He looked up at her. RJ didn’t need to see the expression on his face. His tone said everything he needed to say.

  “Yeah well, if you hadn’t been such a good knot-tying teacher . . .”

  “There is that,” he admitted with a laugh.

  A sudden movement in the distance caught her eye. “We’ve got company. Coming from the house. Look.”

  They watched the pinprick of light from a vehicle slowly making its way closer.

  “We need to get out of here.”

  “Already ahead of you.” RJ handed him his pack. “Let’s go.”

  Stuart got to his feet and took a step forward, stopping as quickly as he had begun. He winced with a sharp intake of breath. “My ankle,” he explained. “I must have twisted it on the way down.”

  RJ looked at him in dismay, glad that he couldn’t see the look on her face. She hurried to him, adjusting her pack so it hung over one shoulder. Wedging her other shoulder under Stuart’s armpit, she put her arm around his waist. “We’ll go slow.” She looked back at the car in the distance. “Well, maybe a bit quicker.”

  Together, they hobbled down the way they had come, stopping every few minutes for RJ to check the progress of the car, but also to give Stuart a bit of respite.

  Once on the flat ground, they stumbled hurriedly along.

  “There’s no way I can take you back through the trees,” RJ said.

  “I know,” Stuart said, wincing in pain. “I was thinking the same. We’ll need to skirt around the road. Come out near the entrance to the estate.”

 
“But the car—”

  “We’ll deal with that if, and when, we need to,” he said. “Come on. We need to try to cover as much ground as possible before it catches up with us.”

  They floundered onwards in the darkness that had suddenly gotten thicker. She looked up to see whispery clouds start to move in over the moon. Either the forecast had been wrong, or they’d spent more time up on the ridge than planned.

  As if reading her mind, Stuart said, “It’s better for us, believe me. It’ll be harder for them to find us. Quick, get down.” He yanked her down in the tall grass and they lay deathly still, listening to the increasing rumble of the car engine coming closer. Unless the headlights passed directly over them, or the driver knew exactly where they were, they would remain unseen. They stayed down in the damp vegetation, uncomfortably close to the leftover odor of old sheep droppings. The car rumbled slowly past and they lifted their heads to see its rear lights retreat down the road.

  RJ made to get up, but Stuart clutched her sleeve. “Stay down. It’ll come back around.”

  Lying huddled together in silence with the smell of their damp sweat mingling felt unbearably intimate, and she wondered if Stuart felt the same. She was desperate to get up and get moving, to get back to safety and her own accepted personal-space requirements, but she had to trust Stuart’s instinct and experience over her own desire to escape.

  Sure enough, after another ten uncomfortable minutes in the grass, the headlights came back into focus. They stayed down, their white, tell-tale faces looking in the opposite direction of the car. It wasn’t until the rumble of the engine was long gone that Stuart said, “Right, let’s go.”

  Her muscles protested when she stood, and she shook her limbs to get the blood flowing again. Once again, her sympathy sparked for Stuart. The activity must have been more unbearable for him due to his injury.

  She eased him up to a standing position, seeing the pain etched all over his face, and slung his cold, sweat-soaked arm over her shoulder. The immediate danger over, they took their time making their way to the entrance; as it was, they had little energy for anything other than a slow stumble towards safety.