She bit her lip and took long, unsteady breaths. Her hands trailed down his arms, pulled him down to kiss his throat. ‘Sorry. I forgot.’
He groaned and smiled at the same time.
Cockatoos and rosellas took squawking flight to the wide expanse around them. A pair of frill-necked lizards performed their strange two-legged run toward the river. It felt right being here with her. No wonder he’d loved coming here from the first. He’d been reliving his and Elly’s childhood memories with Zoe, trying to make her less like Sharon, and more like Elly.
It was only then he realised the depth of all he’d done, and hadn’t done. Forgetting Elly had been on the surface only: he’d spent all these years looking for echoes of her, while refusing to break his word to Sharon.
Or that’s what he’d half-believed. The truth was deeper. Since Sharon’s death, he’d been terrified to look Elly up in case she was married, in love, in a relationship—happy without him. That she was still his Elly—down to changing her name to the one he’d given her—showed him she’d never forgotten, never stopped loving him.
Thank God, oh thank God she came to me.
‘Tonight,’ he whispered.
To his surprise, Elly buried her face in the shoulder she’d pulled down.
He felt his heart jerk. ‘You don’t want to?’ Damn it, he thought he’d scaled the barriers she’d put up against him. Or was it a case of history repeating itself?
‘You know I do.’ Her answer was muffled against his throat. ‘When you touch me, all I can think of is how much I want to make love to you.’
‘Is that bad?’ he teased, feeling the thrill clear to his toes at her husky confession.
She looked up, and it wasn’t the woman’s eyes; it wasn’t the woman’s voice speaking. Echoes of his wild child rang inside his soul with every word she spoke. ‘You left me. You were the only friend I had, the only person who I truly believed cared about me. But you didn’t even say goodbye. Even at your wedding, you forgot to say goodbye to me.’
He closed his eyes, hating the pain that never lessened, never went away. How could he be angry with her for fearing he’d desert her, when he already had? How could he doubt her when every time she mentioned it, it showed him how much he meant to her? ‘Elly, I was just a boy. We were playmates, soul mates even, but you were a little kid. I barely knew what you looked like. But I’m a man now. I couldn’t forget you if I tried. I’ve never been the kind of man who plays around with women.’
‘I know,’ she said softly, still the hurting child.
‘Then you know being with you now is a gigantic leap for me. I meant what I said when I offered to call Minyenbarra—but we have more than the two of us to consider. If you’ll give me time, a month or two, I know Zoe will love to have you—’
A harsh crack sounded right above them. ‘That was a gunshot!’
A queer, creaking groan came, just before another shot. Twigs and small branches cascaded around them—and Adam put the signs together with seconds to spare. Jumping to his feet, pulling Elly with him, he bolted for Zoe, shouting, ‘Run!’
Just as he snatched Zoe into his arms, the bough fell with a resounding crash. More debris showered father and daughter as he kept rolling them away, scratching arms, legs, faces until they were out of range. Zoe screamed, burying her face in Adam’s neck. He caressed her hair with a shaking hand.
A whimper snapped his eyes open. Elly lay sprawled beneath the furthest of the branches spreading from the bough. Jagged scratches ran up her skin from thigh to shoulder, and across her face from her fast-swelling lip to her temple. Her head lay at an odd angle where a branch pushed it.
He jumped back to his feet. ‘Elly!’
‘Daddy,’ Zoe sobbed, hanging onto his leg. ‘Daddy, don’t leave me!’
It was only then he realised he’d put Zoe down to go to Elly. Lifting Zoe back to his hip, he ran over. ‘Elly. Elly!’ She didn’t move, and he held off, terrified he’d hurt her. His first-aid knowledge, always current, felt completely inadequate for the injuries she’d sustained.
The remnants of the crushed satellite phone lay in pieces under the fallen bough.
Her medical kit; she took it everywhere. She’d packed it in the car this morning. It was like an extension of her body.
Carrying Zoe, he ran to the car—but he could see the kit wasn’t on the backseat. It wasn’t in the trunk, or under the passenger seat. The kit was gone, the satellite phone dead, and his and Elly’s phones were both out of range. He grabbed them just in case he found enough spotty reception somewhere here, and ran back to Elly, still prone beside the branch.
He put Zoe down beside him. ‘Sweetheart, Aunt Elly’s hurt,’ he said over her repeated wails to pick her up. ‘I have to make her better. Can you help me?’
Gulping down hiccups, Zoe glanced at Elly, and fear filled her eyes. She fell to her knees beside Elly. ‘Annelly …?’
He cleared branches from Elly’s inert body, fear chilling his heart. Tyres slashed, shot at, threatening phone calls—and now this. How would she be when she woke?
If she woke …
Stop it.
When he caught the maniac doing this, he’d squeeze the life out of him with his bare hands.
You’re the one who put her in danger today. You’ve failed her, even as a cop. You ought to have known this would happen. They’re still here, with a bloody gun, and you have nothing.
With careful fingers, he opened her eyes. She had slow-reacting pupils, but they weren’t uneven, which meant possible concussion, but no brain damage. He pressed around her head—a big lump at the back told him why she had concussion. The bleeding was sluggish. With extreme caution he moved her, fingering her spine, feeling no undue swelling or cracks.
A moan rumbled through his questing hands as he sought to find anything else broken or bleeding. With exquisite tenderness, he caressed her tangled curls. ‘Elly, don’t give up now. Come on, darlin’, please wake up!’
Calming down at last, Zoe saw what he was doing, and made a mewing sound of distress. ‘Annelly, Annelly, wake up. Wake up! Look, here’s your bag!’ Before he could stop her, Zoe threw the medical kit on Elly. It must have been near him the whole time. How had his little girl noticed and he hadn’t? ‘Make her better, Daddy!’
Another moan of pain. Elly stirred, one hand feebly pushing the bag off her body.
Zoe opened it, scrabbling inside. ‘Wake up, Annelly. Look, here’s a Band-Aid!’ After throwing a small shower of Band-Aids over them both, his little girl fell on Elly, wetting her face with tears. ‘Don’t go ’way like Mummy and Zacky. Wake up! Wake up!’ She shook Elly hard. ‘Wake up and tell me what hurts, Annelly! I’ll put a Band-Aid on it!’
Adam watched Zoe tugging at Elly, too distressed to pull her off. He’d shown her pictures of Sharon and Zack, of course, and talked of how they hadn’t wanted to go away—but he’d never dreamed she’d taken it so far inside herself. At four, his baby girl understood death too well—this had probably awakened her patchy memories of the accident—and she’d extended her fear of being left alone from him to Elly.
Which meant the thing he’d feared most had already occurred. Zoe was under Elly’s spell; she’d fallen as fast and hard as he had all those years ago. Like father, like daughter—and the frenzy of worry in Zoe’s eyes as she bent over Elly’s form was more eloquent than her simple words. ‘Annelly, oh, please wake up! Put Band-Aids on her, Daddy. Make her better! Please!’
Elly’s eyes opened with the little girl’s sobs. ‘Mmm … Zoe?’
With a glad cry, Zoe fell on Elly’s breast. ‘Annelly, Annelly, you waked up! Good girl!’ She kissed Elly’s face with salt-wet lips. ‘I got you some Band-Aids.’
‘Thank you, sweetie.’ Her voice was a cracked whisper. ‘I’m sure they’ll make me all better real soon.’
What the hell was he doing? Standing around watching a tender moment, when the maniac could shoot again at any time? He hauled his daughter up. ‘Zoe, wait, swe
etheart. She might have a sore back.’
Elly wriggled fingers and toes, moved her arms and legs, and gave him a slow, reassuring smile. ‘All in one piece,’ she reported in a stronger voice, reaching out to hug Zoe. ‘No numbness or double vision, nothing broken. Just scratches, a fat lip and a fatter headache. Stupid tree.’ With a half-smile she held out an arm, the other still holding Zoe close. ‘Want to come feel for yourself?’
‘Zoe, let go of Aunt Elly, and run to the car.’
His voice came out harsher than he’d intended. When she obeyed, looking frightened, he hauled Elly up in his arms. ‘We have to get out of here. Whoever did this might start again.’
The sweet teasing faded from her eyes. ‘You mean this wasn’t an accident?’
‘You don’t remember the shots?’ he asked, with a flicked glance at Zoe, who hadn’t gone far, and was watching them, wide eyed.
She frowned and carefully nodded. ‘Right.’ When she spoke again, her voice cracked and broke like the tree branch. ‘I’m so sorry, Adam.’
He sat her in the passenger seat and saw Zoe safely into her car-seat before he answered with two soft, brief kisses. She winced.
‘I hurt you. I’m sorry.’ He traced the purpling swell on her lip with a gentle finger.
‘I’m not.’ She smiled crookedly, not using the bruised side. ‘I have years of fantasies about you to catch up on.’
Even injured, she knew how to make him feel so damn glad he was a man.
‘What’s fantasties, Daddy?’ An interested voice piped up from the backseat, a voice holding no resentment or underlying fear about the kiss she’d just witnessed. Whether that was a good or bad thing right now he didn’t know.
‘Oops,’ Elly whispered.
He grinned. ‘I’ll leave that one to you, Annelly. Stay here. Bring the roof up, and shut the windows. I’ll scout the area.’ He started the keyless ignition.
She frowned. ‘Where’s the phone you brought?’
‘Crushed,’ he said tersely. ‘Our phones are out of range.’
‘How did they know we’d come here?’
That was the question he’d asked himself. ‘I’ve come here dozens of times with Zoe.’
‘But how could they possibly know which tree we’d sit under?’
‘I always come to that tree. Zoe’s fair, and it has the most shade. No other tree had branches as big as the one that fell.’
As he’d expected, the light left her eyes. ‘So … you think this is about you this time?’
He nodded. At this moment he’d do anything to lighten her burden of terror and guilt. ‘I’m sorry, Elle. I need to think about being less predictable now, obviously.’
Her face only grew darker. ‘Nothing happened to you here until I came.’ She turned to bring Zoe to the front of the car, as she brought up the roof. ‘Let’s put Band-Aids on each other, while Daddy does his policeman thing,’ she said to the little girl.
‘I’ll bring your kit back.’ He ran back to the picnic site. When he returned to the car, he opened the kit, grabbed tweezers and a scalpel, and a few specimen jars and plastic bags. He glanced at Elly, and saw the too-calm knowledge in her eyes. ‘I need the passcode for your phone.’
She frowned at him. He mimed clicking with a camera, and she told him, even more calm than she’d been seconds ago. The quiet screamed her intention. She was going to run for his sake and Zoe’s, and he didn’t know how he could stop her.
‘Back soon,’ he said, because there was nothing else to say. Stupid, inadequate. How did he make her want to stay?
Putting the rest of the medical equipment on the driver’s seat, she pulled Zoe onto her lap. ‘Look at this, Zoe! Loads of Elsa and Anna Band-Aids right here, and a special cream that’ll make you all better.’
‘I’ll put the cream on you, too,’ Zoe said solemnly, and as he returned to the glade, Adam heard his daughter give Elly a big, smacking kiss. It unlocked something in his brain he couldn’t take the time to identify now.
Once I make Elly safe, then I’ll work on making her want to stay. In Macks Lake. With me.
Closer to the tree, he unlocked both phones and turned on the cameras. He took hundreds of shots of the entire scene. Ten feet long, two feet thick and rotten more than halfway through, the bough would have fallen sooner or later, but two bullets had made it fall earlier.
Looking up, he turned hot, then cold. There was a rope hanging from above the broken-off branch. The shots had come from directly above the branch—which meant the shooter didn’t have to be a good shot, only a good climber.
This case only became more and more insane.
Though he’d known it since he heard the gunshots, he saw the truth with new eyes. Someone who’d known his favourite haunt had prepared for this attack in advance. All they’d have to do today was follow them long enough to know where they were going, speed to get here ahead of them, climb the tree and wait. When he and Elly had laid out the picnic beneath his usual tree and gone to swim, whoever had attacked them had climbed up, waited for them to return, shot down the branch, and moved up to a higher branch well out of sight.
They were probably still up there now, laughing at him.
None of this made sense. Why go to all this trouble? Why not just shoot them all?
The slashed tyres. The drive-by with a BB gun. Painting Elly’s window. The ridiculous letter. Now this. And though the attacks were escalating, and people had been injured, not one of the attacks had killed anyone. Even the madness of these attacks felt—purposeful. Like something rehearsed.
His instincts switched on and glowed. It’s something to do with Spencer. He’s not here—that’s been established.
Was Jeremiah Spencer behind this? What had Elly said? He’ll do anything to keep Danny alive and free until he has a sane, legal heir for Gundawin.
Has he paid people to attack us now, when his barristers can prove Danny was nowhere near Macks Lake? All of this does just enough damage to make Elly decide to leave Macks Lake, before Danny gets here. Then whoever he’s sent here can take her quietly, without fuss, and present her to Danny.
He used the zoom feature on Elly’s camera-phone to look up the tree, but there was no sign of anyone in the thick foliage—especially with the thick grey clouds rolling in from the south, turning the day dark before its time.
Whoever this was had to be someone who knew Adam well—or had come here with him before. Grimly, he accepted the few candidates, putting it together with the information leak at the station. Evidence would be hard to find if the perp was a cop, but Adam was an expert.
This couldn’t have been Rick; his friend was the sanest guy he knew. But still …
He used the tweezers to pick up smaller pieces of the bough and the bullets with their casings, and dumped them in Elly’s little ziplock bags. Almost no chance there’d be fingerprints on them, but DNA had been found in the weirdest of places before.
He hoped they’d find something incriminating. But even with Spencer’s upgrade to murder, it would take weeks to get the results.
Before he left, he looked up at the tree one more time, almost hearing the mocking laughter. Their stalker had been with them again, and he’d ignored the signs because he’d been too focused on what he wanted from Elly. Exactly as Rick had told him he was. Dear God, he’d been so bloody selfish with Elly. Even now that her life was in danger, he’d forgotten protocol for a kiss.
Never again.
After searching the glade for signs of movement or how the stalker had arrived there, he returned to the car. He composed an email to Sarge and attached the pictures. But he still had no signal, and the email didn’t send. Why hadn’t he realised how vulnerable they’d be out here?
He was too damn accustomed to the conveniences as a city cop, and too unused to danger here in Macks Lake. I won’t make that mistake again. First thing back in town, he’d buy a high-speed mobile Wi-Fi device to take wherever they went, a personal satellite phone, and a dozen burner phones if h
e had to.
‘I’ve collected all the evidence I could find,’ he told her. ‘I got the bullets and casings. Shoe heels left gouge marks in the branch. I took photos. The size could be either an average male or a tall female. Looks like the whole area’s been cleared of branches before we got here. I can’t see any recent signs of another car. I’m guessing they got here by boat, but traces are impossible to find. As soon as we’re back, I’ll call Sarge. Simon and Baz can get whatever evidence they can to send to the nearest forensics lab.’
‘How did they make it up a tree that size?’ She cuddled Zoe on her lap.
‘There aren’t any low branches, no sign of a ladder in the vicinity, nothing but the rope. I’m guessing they climbed up.’ Despite the solemn look on Zoe’s face as she swiped half a tube of antiseptic cream over Elly’s cheeks, mouth and nose like it was zinc cream, putting Elsa and Anna Band-Aids wherever she saw a scrape, any lingering urge to laugh at the comic decoration died when he saw the stricken look in Elly’s eyes.
‘I warned you.’
‘It can’t be him. He couldn’t possibly have got to Macks Lake, found out about this place so fast, and set it up in time with absolutely no evidence left behind. We’d know he was here.’
Her face only hardened. ‘We should go.’
‘We’ll get him, Elly.’ Wishing his reassurance hadn’t sounded like a broken record, he reached for her, but she shrank from his touch. He took Zoe from her instead.
As he strapped Zoe into her car seat, he spoke in a gentle tone. ‘Elly, I’m the detective. I’m telling you Spencer couldn’t have got here in time, let alone found out about my favourite picnic area and the tree I always go do. He was in northern Pitjantjatjara lands only a few days ago, still asking about you. He doesn’t know where you are yet. This has to be someone else. Something to do with me, or my past as a cop.’
‘Yet nothing happened to you before I came. That’s the truth,’ she whispered, the shaking not just in her voice this time. ‘You know Danny may not be working alone.’
Beneath the Skin Page 19
