“No, of course not!” Ivy assured him. But she did feel guilty – terribly guilty. She was missing her parents and brother already, but she had to support Joe, who hadn’t been as lucky with his parents as she had with hers. When they got to London, she intended phoning home to let her mum, dad and brother know that she was safe. She hoped they’d understand.
Joe had turned the radio on, and was singing along tunelessly. Just then, they reached the steep incline that ran beside Harper’s Lake. Hurtling along, lost in his own thoughts of the future, Joe suddenly realised he’d miscalculated his speed. He slammed on the brakes just as he reached the apex of the hill.
“Watch out, Joe!”
Ivy screamed as the car spun out of control, and Joe tried in vain to apply the brakes again. The car shot forward into the air, and for a few seconds they seemed to be flying. But their flight quickly came to an end as the car plunged into the lake alongside the road.
“Oh my God!”
“Jesus!”
Following a gigantic splash, the car slowly sank to the bottom, surrounded on all sides by murky water. The temperature immediately dropped and they found themselves entombed in the water’s menacing depths.
“We’ve got to get out! Open your door!” Ivy screamed, releasing her seat belt. The water was already crashing in through the open passenger window and the car was quickly filling up.
“My foot – it’s stuck behind the pedal –” Joe’s voice was lost as the water rose over his head.
Ivy was consumed by terror as the car was rocked violently by the impact of the water. She became disoriented as she struggled to escape through the window, all her thoughts narrowly focused on survival. The dark waters seemed to claw at her, as though it didn’t want her to escape its clutches. Battling her way to the surface, Ivy spluttered and gasped as her lungs finally filled with air. But looking all around her, she couldn’t see any sign of Joe. What was keeping him so long? He was a competent swimmer, so he should have surfaced by now.
Having reached safety, Ivy was scared to return to the murky depths of the lake, but she’d no other choice. Taking a deep breath, she plunged beneath the water again, her eyes stinging from the debris and algae that seemed to be all around her, its tentacles seeming to ensnare her. Already her lungs were bursting, and she could barely make out the shape of the car. Joe was still in the driver’s seat with the door closed, and Ivy felt a momentary sense of bewilderment. Then she remembered something about his foot being caught … Trying to wrench open the driver’s door proved impossible, and she had to fight her way back to the surface again.
Ivy took another lungful of air then plunged back into the water. Back in the murky depths, she swam in through the open passenger window this time and tugged in vain at Joe’s foot, but she couldn’t manage to pull it out from behind the pedal. She couldn’t even get his shoe off, because his entire foot was wedged behind it. Then she looked at Joe and her blood ran cold. He wasn’t moving. His head was bobbing about unnaturally, his mouth frozen in a scream, and when she touched his face and hands, there was no response. He was dead already. No, he couldn’t be – they were going to be together forever!
Her lungs bursting, this time from shock as well as lack of oxygen, Ivy surfaced again, then immediately made another plunge into the depths. She’d get Joe out, no matter what it took! Filled with a burst of almost superhuman strength, Ivy pulled at Joe’s trapped foot, but all to no avail. She felt tears of anguish forming, but she had to keep on trying. Although by now it was obvious that Joe couldn’t have survived this long under water.
She touched his ice-cold face that now flopped from side to side, his hair weaving like snakes as the currents of water buffeted it about. It was an image she’d never forget. There was no doubt any longer – Joe was dead.
Her lungs bursting, Ivy surfaced. This time, there was no going back down again. It was pointless trying to save Joe any longer. Tears stung her eyes. Their dream of leaving the village was over. The love of her life was lying dead at the bottom of the lake, and she’d never love anyone ever again.
Big salty tears ran down her face as she clung to the grassy bank at the side of the lake. Nothing felt real any more. If only she could close her eyes, and will things back to the way they’d been before …
Eventually, she hoisted herself up onto the bank and sat shivering as she stared down into the water. How could she tell Joe’s parents what had happened? His father, who was always angry, would be angrier than ever. He’d loved his new red car, and he’d accuse Ivy of encouraging Joe to steal it, and Joe’s mother Julia would blame Ivy for the death of their son. Her own parents would be furious with her for trying to leave the village secretly, and they’d blame her for Joe’s death too. Her family and the Heartleys would probably never speak to each other again. Everyone would point fingers at her, and she’d become the village pariah.
Looking out across the lake, Ivy found it almost impossible to believe what had just happened. The water was completely still, and there was absolutely no evidence of the tragedy that had unfolded a short time before. As she gazed around her at the view, she was shocked at the normality she saw all around her. Had the tragedy happened at all, or had she imagined it? She longed to wake up and find that she’d just had a bad dream, but her saturated clothing and broken fingernails told her that this was a real-life nightmare.
Nevertheless, the lake looked as it always did, glass-like and tranquil, surrounded by trees about to bloom, the sun shining down on the entire vista. How could the sun dare to shine while the boy she loved lay dead at the bottom of the lake? A boy who’d been so full of life less than an hour ago? It was so unfair! And although she’d done her utmost to rescue Joe, she knew she’d be blamed for what had happened.
Ivy wept as she sat on the bank of the lake. Although she was safe on dry land, her breath was coming in short painful gasps, as though she was slowly being suffocated by the sense of loss that threatened to overwhelm her. A knot of grief curled up inside her, and she wondered if she would ever feel at peace again. Her beloved Joe was gone – it had only taken an instant for their dreams to be overturned. Not long ago, she’d been filled with joy at the prospect of a future with the boy she loved. Now she was alone again, her hopes dashed and her dreams in tatters. She didn’t even care that her handbag with her passport and school certificates and her weekend case filled with her best clothes were now at the bottom of the lake. Joe was dead and nothing else mattered any more.
For a long time, Ivy sat staring into space. She didn’t want to go home. She didn’t want to face all the accusations and recriminations that would inevitably follow, nor did she want to foist heartbreak on the Heartleys. If she could spare them all the pain, she gladly would …
Looking around her, Ivy suddenly thought the unthinkable. No one knew what had happened here, except her. No one knew that she and Joe had been leaving town that day. It had been their secret. Now, Joe wouldn’t be telling anyone.
Trembling, Ivy stood up, and surveyed the lake once more. There wasn’t even a hint of what lurked beneath its tranquil surface. The tears came again, but now she brushed them angrily aside. If she said nothing, no one would ever know what had happened. The car wasn’t near the area of the lake where the local school children swam during the fine weather, so no one was likely to find it. Her beloved Joe was gone, and wasn’t it better for Joe’s family to believe he was off somewhere, making a better life for himself?
Leaving the lake, Ivy walked out onto the deserted road and surveyed the surface. She couldn’t see any skid marks or any evidence they’d ever been there. She felt dizzy at the prospect of what she was planning to do, or maybe it was just the cumulative effect of all that had just happened to her.
As she walked along the road in a daze, Ivy made a bargain with herself. If anyone drove past or stopped to offer her a lift, she’d tell the truth. She looked completely bedraggled and wet, so it would be obvious that something awful had happened. But if no
car appeared before she reached the outskirts of the village, she’d cross the fields behind her house, sneak in by the back door and tell no one what had happened.
No car appeared on the deserted road, and Ivy eventually let herself into the house and crept up the stairs to her bedroom. This was the room she’d left forever only an hour earlier. Now she was looking at the rickety old bedstead again, and the worn eiderdown covering it. Locking the door, she stripped off her wet clothes and crawled beneath the eiderdown, weeping hot tears that ran down her face and soaked into the sheets on her bed. She cried for the boy she’d loved, for the lost opportunities they’d both craved, and for the life of deception she was about to embark on. She could still change her mind, but she wouldn’t. At least Joe’s family would be protected from sadness, and she’d be protecting herself as well. A small village could be cruel to people who broke its rules, and running away would be regarded as a cardinal sin by many village folk.
Well, you’ve got me back again, Ivy whispered savagely into the darkness of her bed covers.
Chapter 13
As the alarm on her mobile phone went off at 5 a.m., Ivy awoke, quickly turned it off and sat shivering on the side of the bed. Today was D-day, meaning Dive-day, and she felt sick inside. She’d been so worried the previous night that she’d hardly slept at all, with the result that she now felt like someone with a hangover. Her head was pounding and her stomach was rebelling and she wanted to throw up. How on earth could she dive into the lake in this state? Perhaps she should call it off, and try again the following day. Then another part of her brain took over and urged her on – there was no point in wasting time since she wasn’t likely to feel any better the following day and, besides, she’d have to be back on the set of Bright Lights soon.
In the dark of early morning, Ivy couldn’t rid her mind of images of Joe Heartley as he lay trapped in the murky waters of the lake. As she dressed, she kept picturing him struggling to get out of the car, and she wondered if she could face seeing him again. But she desperately needed to remove her possessions from the car before the lake was drained and the car recovered. Otherwise, everyone would know she’d been in the car that fateful day, and they’d want to know why she’d hidden the truth for so long, and allowed the Heartley family to suffer so much.
The night before, she’d packed a sports bag with a towel, goggles and a change of underwear. She’d put a hammer in too, which she’d bought several weeks earlier in a DIY store, although she’d no idea if it would be of any use under water. She’d purchased an assortment of other tools at the same time, so that later on, no one could ever single out the hammer as something that soap star Ivy Heartley had bought. The sports bag also contained a large plastic sack, into which Ivy hoped to put the incriminating evidence when she brought it up from the floor of the lake.
Shivering violently from a mixture of cold and fear, Ivy quickly put on her bra and panties, covered them with a T-shirt and tracksuit bottoms, grabbed her sports bag and tiptoed down the stairs, leaving her previously prepared note on the hall table. Closing the door as quietly as she could, she listened outside the house for a few moments, until it was clear that no one inside had heard her leave.
Glancing around her as she ran down the quiet street, it appeared that the whole village was still thankfully asleep. The sky was already bright and it promised to be a fine day, but Ivy knew the sun wouldn’t have had time to warm the water of the lake, so it would be freezing in there.
As Ivy hurried along the country road leading out of the village and towards the lake, she felt confident that she looked like a typical jogger. Except for the sports bag, of course, but that couldn’t be helped. If anyone she met commented on it, she could always claim it contained either special energy drinks for a long run, or weights to make her running more effective.
Suddenly, as she neared the lake, Ivy was overcome by fear. What in God’s name was she doing? Was she totally out of her mind? She was about to risk her life!
Would the cold water prove too much of a shock to her system? Ivy had no wish to die of hypothermia, but there was no other option.
As she stood shivering on the bank of the lake, Ivy tried to envisage the hot coffee, and toast dripping with butter that would be waiting for her when she returned to her parents’ house. But it was no good. All she could see was the bleak expanse of water.
Local youngsters had always been forbidden to swim there because it was so deep. There had been a fatality many years ago, which had been used as an example to youngsters of what could happen if you disobeyed your parents. Ivy wondered if young people today still gathered at the secluded spot further down the shore to dabble in danger and risk their lives for prestige among their peers.
Bracing herself, Ivy stripped down to her undies and put on the goggles. She checked all around her, but as far as she could see, there was no one within miles. This is it, she thought, it’s not going to get any easier so I might as well get in. Taking the hammer from her sports bag, she stuffed it down the front of her bra. Hopefully, when she’d recovered her possessions, she wouldn’t need to bring the hammer back to the surface again.
When she jumped into the water, Ivy had to suppress a scream. It was colder than she could ever have imagined. How would she survive the even colder depths of the lake bottom? Her teeth were chattering as she swam around in circles, letting her body become acclimatised to the temperature.
In truth, she dreaded diving further down into the lake. She was filled with horror at the thought of seeing Joe again, or what was left of him. Twenty years earlier, she’d been horrified by the sight of his freshly dead body, with his blond hair weaving in the current, his mouth open in the rictus of a scream. After all this time, would there be any flesh left? Or would there be a skeleton sitting in the driver’s seat? And would the skeleton still resemble a human, or would parts of it have begun to disintegrate? Ivy felt the urge to vomit, but there was no food in her stomach, so she was left with the taste of bile in her mouth.
There was nothing for it – she might as well get on with what she had to do. Taking a deep breath, Ivy dived beneath the ice-cold water and began to swim towards the bottom of the lake.
In the cold, dark water, Ivy felt panic. It was like being entombed in a watery grave from which there was no escape. There was algae and waterweed all around her, which seemed to be clawing at her as she swam through it. In order to stay calm, she had to keep reminding herself that there was daylight and sunshine up above.
At last, she could make out a large shape, and her heart gave a jolt as she recognised Fred Heartley’s much-loved red Ford, although now it was covered in algae and mud. Quickly she surfaced, filled her lungs with air and dived down again.
Ivy hoped she’d be able to reach her possessions through the open front window through which she’d escaped all those years ago. The hammer was just a precaution in case her task wasn’t as straightforward as she hoped. When she and Joe had set out on their journey, her handbag and weekend case had been stashed behind the front passenger seat, but her possessions might have been thrown around when the car plunged into the water. Brushing away several clumps of floating weed, she swam towards the vehicle, averting her eyes from the driver’s seat. She didn’t want to see Joe if she could possibly avoid it.
Ivy felt a vague sense of unease as she surveyed the closed front passenger window. Hadn’t it been open, twenty years ago, when she’d got out through it and fought her way to the surface?
After trying unsuccessfully to open the back door, she turned her attention to the back window and tried to swing the hammer but, given the pull and weight of the water, smashing the window proved impossible. She felt as though she was swimming through treacle, and she had to surface several times between tries. By now she was exhausted and emotional, but finally the force of the hammer and the rust of the window frame helped to knock the glass out, and Ivy took a quick look inside. But there was no handbag or weekend case where she’d left them. In th
e semidarkness, Ivy leant in and frantically ran her fingers along the back seat and the floor. Where on earth were they?
Abandoning the hammer, Ivy surfaced again, gasping as her lungs filled with fresh air. She longed to scramble out of the water and hightail it back to her parents’ house, but she simply had to find her possessions. They had to be down there somewhere, because she’d checked them herself before she and Joe left Willow Haven.
Feeling the desire to cry with frustration, Ivy filled her lungs with air again and dived back down. Now she’d have to steel herself to look in the front of the car, in case they’d been moved by the impact of the crash or carried there by underwater currents. Ivy wasn’t sure what effect water and time would have had on her possessions, but it was essential she found them.
On the periphery of her vision, Ivy could see the remains of Joe’s body, unrecognisable now as the handsome boy he’d once been, lumps of a soft blubber-like substance still clinging in places to his bones. She’d hoped he’d look less human by this stage, but obviously the depth of the lake and the lack of sunlight had preserved his remains far longer than if they’d been in the sea. She wanted to cry out, but couldn’t because she’d only ingest the murky water. Nevertheless, she felt overwhelmed by emotion for what might have been. She’d never allowed herself to grieve for Joe, because she’d needed to suppress her feelings in order to survive. But he’d always been there in the background and often, when playing sad roles, memories of Joe’s untimely death had been the catalyst that enabled her to weep. It was ironic how those very occasions had elicited praise for her ‘realistic’ performances. But apart from those rare opportunities to express her pain, she’d always maintained tight control of her feelings.
Now, she felt the searing pain of loss pervade her whole body once again. Twenty years ago, this man had meant everything to her. Now, in the depths of the lake, the two of them were alone again. Oh Joe, she thought, I wish I could have saved you. And if I hadn’t lied to save myself, you wouldn’t be entombed here forever. Those who loved you could have mourned your loss. Instead, I let people believe you were a callous adventurer who abandoned your family without a backward glance …
Still Waters Page 6
