by Anna Willett
Judith circled back around to section of the trunk that faced the clearing. She studied the branch and the surrounding ground, tapping her forefinger on her bottom lip. She could find absolutely no sign of anyone approaching the tree nor any explanation for how the pack ended up swinging from the branch.
Reaching out with her right hand she touched the pack. It felt slick and damp, unpleasant to the touch. “Harper, where are you?” Judith whispered and rubbed the strap between her thumb and forefinger.
How could the backpack have ended up here without someone putting it in the tree? It didn’t make any sense. Things don’t just fall out of the sky. Judith’s head snapped up. Maybe that’s exactly what happened. She gazed up at the swatch of grey overhead. The clouds hung heavy and threatening over the clearing with weak tears of light struggling to push through the gloom. She pulled the pack down. The nylon felt slippery, it made her think of snake skin. She swallowed and rummaged through the pack hoping to find water or food. Apart from a crumpled muesli bar, the pack was empty. She studied the snack bar for a moment. Nutty Cluster, Harper’s favourite. Her chin trembled. She blinked away tears that threatened to form and tore the wrapper open. The sweet smell of nuts and honey made her stomach groan and her mouth fill with saliva. Judith ate the bar in two bites then licked the paper. When she’d finished, she stared at the wrapper clenched in her grubby hand and a pang of disgust hit her. Judith dropped the pack and the sticky wrapper. She turned away and jogged back to the cliff, the hood of her jacket bobbing up and down against her back.
When she reached the base of the cliff, she stood back and gazed up at the ragged outline. If someone had been standing at the top, someone with a strong enough arm, he could have hurled the pack into the trees. She felt a burst of excitement. It was more than possible that Harper could still be up there somewhere and the pack only ended up down in the trees because someone threw it.
She had two choices. The first, walk back through the forest and come around the cliff. That way would take her anywhere up to three hours. Or, the second option, scale the cliff and make it to the top in maybe fifteen minutes. Or fall and break my neck, Judith thought and pictured the moment her sister fell and hit the ground with a sickening thump. Only yesterday Milly had taken a terrifying fall while trying to climb down, could she really be considering climbing up without any gear?
She tried to sort through the possibilities. Backtracking to the point where she’d left Lucas and Milly would take valuable time. Harper had been missing in the National Park for over twenty-four hours. The men might have even taken her and headed into the Boranup Forest. She didn’t know where one area ended and the other began, only that it would be easy to dispose of someone in such immense wilderness. Could she really waste another three hours playing it safe? But if she tried to climb the cliff and fell, she’d not only be injured and alone, there’d be no one to look for Harper until the police arrived.
Distant thunder rumbled ominously as if warning her to hurry. The wind icy and fresh lifted her hair. She shivered and pulled the hoodie’s zip up to her throat. She could smell the rain gathering in the air. If she intended to climb, she’d have to do it now before the rain started and the wind picked up.
She searched the rock face looking for an area that offered some ease of climbing. On the far right, the rock sloped backwards and after the first three metres or so, there were a series of ridges and shelves that might offer the safest way up. She’d take a chance and climb.
Her hands were damp with sweat. She rubbed them on her shorts, then placed them on the rock. The cold granite sent chills up her arms. Reaching up, she found an indent and began pulling herself up. She’d been climbing with Harper many times. Mostly at indoor facilities but a few times outdoors. Heights didn’t bother her, or at least they never had in the past. But then again, she’d never climbed solo without a harness or bilayer.
By the time she was a few metres off the ground, Judith felt the first patter of rain hit the top of her head. She saw the dark spots appear on the dusty surface of the rock and felt the wind slap at her face. She reached the top of the first slope and leaned her body against the flat rock, mashing her breasts and stomach flat on the cold granite. With her face turned to the side, she managed to look up and find a secure-looking edge. With her fingers crimped to keep her hand closer to the rock, she used a bridging motion to apply equal pressure with her hands and feet in opposite directions. Her body slid upward, thighs scraping the rock face.
Another upward sweep and she found purchase in a bucket large enough for her whole hand. She raised her right leg and pressed her boot against a jagged outcrop. Her body now spread wide, her muscles quivered with the strain. She focused on keeping her breathing even and pushing upwards. The rain continued to spit fat drops on her head and face.
Now nearly at the halfway mark, wind blustered her bare legs and ice-cold rain splattered her cheeks. Her teeth felt numb like blocks of ice, her lips cracked and glued to her gums. She had the urge to scratch her nose. She ignored it and clung to the rock. One more push and she reached a mantle about fifteen centimetres wide. Using a move similar to getting out of a swimming pool without using steps, Judith hoisted herself up.
Scarcely wide enough for her feet, the mantle gave her a chance to catch her breath and allow her trembling muscles a minute’s reprieve. “Nearly there,” she spoke through gritted teeth, her fingers curled into tiny cracks in the granite.
The constant patter of fat raindrops worked its way through her hoodie and shorts until everything she wore felt damp against her skin. She craned her neck trying not to lean out. Only five metres or so until she reached the top, but the thought of leaving the mantle and grappling for footing became more terrifying with every passing second. If I don’t move, I’ll hang here until I lose strength in my arms and legs and drop, she warned herself. Yet still her body refused to move. This must be what Milly felt like, Judith realised. She was this afraid and I told her to climb down knowing she’d fall. She pushed the thought away and forced her fingers to uncurl and reach up. Driving upwards with her right leg, she hooked her hand into a narrow crevice. With her left leg swinging unsupported, she tried to swing sideways and up using her arms and one leg. It was an awkward crab-like jump that ended with both her feet on a narrow crimp and her hands clawing at rubble and swatches of vegetation.
Judith gulped in cold air and clung to the rock. Her fingers were stinging and raw and the tendons in her hands twanged with the effort of clenching so tightly. Keep moving, the words repeated over and over in her mind as if there were a direct connection between the thought and her fatigued limbs. A few more moves and she’d be at the top. Only, looking up, the cliff seemed to stretch for miles.
The climbing motion pulled her tattered shirt tail and hoodie, scrunching the clothing up around her ribs. Bitter wind slapped at the small of her back until she felt the cold working its way into her bones. Judith searched above her head first with her right hand and then her left. Finding nowhere to grab, not even a tiny crevice, she had no choice but to make a sideways movement. She turned her head to the right and lay her left cheek against the rough granite. The rain changed from a patter to a drizzle, soft yet cold and constant.
She squinted her eyes and searched for a way forward through sideward movement. Without thinking, she stuck out her tongue and let the rain trickle into her mouth. She spotted a jagged knob a metre or so to her right. Stretching her arm and leaning sideways, she crawled her fingers across the granite until her body leaned at nearly ninety degrees. With her fingers around the small outcrop, she slid her right leg across the rock and found a narrow dip. Hiking boots had thick soles and a chunky design which made them perfect for walking for hours over rough terrain, but almost useless when climbing. She managed to slide the toe of her boot into the dip. Balancing her entire weight on her toes, she inched sideways. Then very slowly, rain dripping from her eyelashes and blurring her vision, she slid her left foot over to the dip.
With both sets of toes balanced on the narrow dip, Judith looked up. Through the drizzle, she could just make out a series of sizable hand jams and outcrops. If she could pull herself up, it would be two easy moves to the top. She pushed down on her toes and strained upwards. Then, pressing down on the outcrop with her right hand, she swung her left up. As the fingers of her left hand curled into a crevice, the outcrop under her right gave way. Her right foot slid out of the narrow dip and skidded downwards. A shower of rubble tumbled past her dangling foot.
Judith croaked out a panicked scream. Her body bounced jarring her chin against the granite. Her heart seemed to vibrate in her ears. For a fraction of a second, the sensation of falling overwhelmed her and she screwed her eyes shut. Grasping the crevice with her left hand and leaning into the rock face on her left foot, she managed to steady herself and control her downward slide.
“Oh God. Oh God.” The words tumbled out like a mantra.
Holding her breath, she opened her eyes. The urge to freeze came fast and strong. Judith realized that if she hesitated, she’d quickly become paralysed by fear. Jamming the toe of her right boot back into the narrow dip, she pushed up and found solid purchase on a ridge almost half a meter wide. Within seconds, she found herself standing on the ridge head and shoulders just above the top of the cliff.
She leaned forward onto her stomach then flung her right leg up and rolled over until she lay atop the cliff staring at the dark, menacing sky.
Rain pelted her face and body, filling her mouth with sweet tasting water. Numbness engulfed her. The effort of her chest rising and falling took all her remaining strength. She had no desire to move or think, yet her mind turned with images of her mother falling, her sister hitting the ground below the cliff and finally, Drew. She didn’t see him fall, but her mind threw up gruesome flashes of what his final seconds would have looked like.
She sat up. Her chin stung, absently she pressed the back of her hand to the graze left from hitting the granite. Could everything that had happened be contributed to coincidence? Three people all connected. Drew, Milly and their mother. Two fatal falls and one near miss. It might be possible, but unlikely. She looked at her hand and saw a streak of blood.
Maybe exhaustion and fear were twisting her thinking. Either way, something sinister was at work and the need to find Harper felt stronger than ever. Judith stood, groaning like a senior citizen. With no idea where to go, her only option was to head back to the coast and hope the rain hadn’t washed away all traces of Harper and the two men who took her.
Chapter Twenty-two
“Your mum’s had a fall,” Harper’s voice, husky and solemn, cut through Milly’s alcohol-dazed mind.
She’d been asleep. Not asleep, passed out when the phone rang. The shrill ringing melted into her dreams where Drew’s face, distorted in terror, loomed over her as she hung from the edge of a knife-shaped black rock. Milly, jolted awake by the phone, gasped out a startled shriek.
With her bedroom still swathed in darkness, she fumbled for the phone. By the time Milly realised what Harper was saying, she’d already stopped speaking. There was silence on the line.
“A fall?” Milly tried to form her jumbled thoughts into words. “Where is she?”
Harper let out a breath. A tired sound somewhere between a sigh and a groan. “She’s… she passed away. I’m so sorry, Milly. It must have happened yesterday afternoon. Susan, your mum’s cleaning lady found…”
“What? How did she pass away?” Milly pressed the phone against her ear and reached out her other hand to flick on the bedside lamp. A circle of dim yellow light chased away the darkness.
“It looks like she fell down the stairs. I don’t know how it happened. The police were there when I spoke to Judith. They think it must have been an accident.”
“My mother can’t have passed away.” Milly now fully awake began to realise what was happening. Her best friend was calling in the middle of the night. No. In Perth it was earlier. Yes, Milly thought, she’d forgotten the time difference. She picked up her watch from the bedside table; her hand shook.
“Are you there, Milly?” Harper sounded different. Her voice deeper.
“Milly?”
* * *
Lucas’s dark eyes bored into hers. Milly blinked and her vision cleared. The light surrounding him, a dim haze, but his features were in sharp focus. She moved her head and realised the buzzing had stopped but the pain remained. “I must have fallen asleep.” Milly knew she was laying on the ground, but couldn’t remember how she got there. The smell of damp leaves and woody earth hung over her.
“You passed out.” Lucas continued to regard her, as if fascinated. “Your nose is bleeding.”
Milly touched her nose and felt the warm wetness. She looked at her fingers coated with blood. “Did I fall?” She sat up, pulled the edge of her shirt out of her shorts and wiped her nose.
“No. You just toppled to the side after your sister left.” He was hunkered down next to her, his hands dangling between his legs. His face only centimetres away from hers. “I called you a few times, but you were out for the count.”
“How long?”
He seemed to be about to say something but changed his mind. “Not long. A few minutes.” He stood and picked up her pack. “It’s going to rain.” He held out his hand for her to take. “We should keep going.”
Milly reached out and took his hand. His skin, warm and rough felt good against her cold palm. He pulled her to her feet. She winced and let out a gasp.
“Your head?” he asked, still holding her hand.
“No. Well yes. My head and my back.” Milly pulled her hand free and rubbed the back of her head.
Lucas turned and started walking. Milly wiped at her nose again and followed him into the trees. She could feel the moisture in the air, it wouldn’t be long before the rain started. Her thoughts turned to Judith. Maybe we’ll reach the trail before she finds Harper … or those men find her. Milly didn’t want to dwell on what might happen to her sister or what might have already happened to her friend.
Lucas walked ahead of her, head up and shoulders moving. He seemed to know exactly where they were heading. Milly tried to match her pace to his, but her legs seemed to be out of sync with her brain. When they veered left and began heading upwards, Milly felt her chest heaving as if she’d run a marathon.
“I can’t keep up this pace.” She leaned against a marri tree for support. “I’ve got to stop and catch my breath.”
Lucas stopped walking but didn’t turn around. Milly slid down the tree and felt her butt hit the ground with a thump. She turned her body sideways and slumped against the trunk. Lucas stood motionless, his back to her. He seemed to be listening for something. Milly thought of the two men. Maybe he could hear something she couldn’t? She didn’t blame him for being on edge.
She lifted her head off the tree and looked around. Trees, shrubs and creepers, thinned out now but still no open ground. A bird squawked; a piercing shriek that reminded her of a baby crying. She shuddered and wrapped her arms around her body. She was about to call out to him and ask what he was doing when he turned and his gaze fell on her.
“It won’t hurt to take a break,” he said as if she’d asked him a question.
He moved back to her and sat down a metre or so away on a hunk of granite. “I always wanted to go camping when I was a kid, but we didn’t have the money for gear.” He dumped the pack between his legs and fished out the water bottle. “Here.” He held the bottle towards her.
Milly frowned and took the bottle. She had to clamp it between her knees to get the top off. She took a sip and handed it back without speaking.
“We never had the money to go away on holidays,” he continued. “I was always jealous of other kids who had parents that could take time off work.” His voice was low and conversational. “What about you?”
The question startled her as did his sudden talkativeness. “What?”
Lucas took
a sip from the bottle and then put it back in the pack. “Did you get to go on holidays when you were a kid?”
The question struck her as strange, then again at least he was trying. “I… we went on holidays.” Milly leaned her head against the tree thinking about her mum and dad and the car trips to their holiday house in Busselton. Her and Judith in the back seat playing Uno. Sometimes a song would come on the radio that her dad liked and he’d turn the music up and sing. It always made her mum laugh. That sound, her mum’s laughter. Milly realised she’d never hear it again and a sob caught in her throat.
“What did you say?” His words jolted her.
Milly’s eyes snapped open. She hadn’t realised she’d closed them. “Sorry, Lucas. I was just thinking about my mother.” She swallowed. “What were you saying?”
“We should get moving. Are you ready?” He stood over her and swung the pack onto his shoulder. “A storm’s coming.”
Milly looked up at the sky. Clouds gathering above looked dark and threatening. She thought about hiking in the rain and wished for comfort. A warm bed, clean clothes. It seemed like she’d been in this place for an eternity and the weariness that consumed her felt like a physical weight draped over her body.
She pushed up with her knees and steadied herself against the tree. Lucas was already on the move, his boots crunching over the carpet of forest debris that seemed to cloak every inch of the park. A moment ago, he’d been trying to engage her, open up. Now he’d fallen back into mute indifference. Not that she cared. All she could think of now was Judith and Harper. And getting out of the wilderness.
