‘Yes,’ Daniela said, and had to fight to stop her voice cracking.
Suddenly irritated, Stephanie sat back again. ‘There has to be a way out,’ she said. ‘We’ll get the mental health team to assess you—’
‘I’m not insane, Steph. I knew exactly what I was doing.’
Stephanie wasn’t listening. ‘We can claim self-defence. He’d already assaulted me. Half a dozen witnesses saw him chase you into the woods with that golf club. It’ll be tough, but with no independent witnesses to the attack it’ll come down to your evidence against his …’
No independent witnesses. ‘What’s Henry said?’
‘Very little. He’s in no condition to give a statement yet. All he’s given us so far is your name.’
At that time, Daniela couldn’t fathom why Henry would choose to protect Auryn.
Everything he ever did was to protect his own blood.
Daniela ran a finger over a nobbled burn on the table. ‘Have you spoken to Auryn?’
‘Briefly. I called round to make sure she was okay.’ Stephanie set her mouth into a thin line. ‘Who punched her?’
Daniela said nothing.
Stephanie let the silence hang for a moment, then said, ‘Leo’s looking after her. Apparently she followed you through the woods. Tried to stop you. That true?’
Daniela realised Stephanie had misinterpreted the scrapes on her knuckles. ‘I didn’t hit her,’ Daniela muttered. But she couldn’t tell Stephanie what’d actually happened without admitting Auryn had been in Kirk Cottage with her.
She wondered what Auryn had told Leo. Whether she intended to tell him the truth. Or whether the hurt and betrayal were too much, and Auryn was happy for everyone to think what the hell they liked about Daniela.
Stephanie watched her. ‘An officer’s on his way to the house now. He’ll take a statement from them both. Then I suspect Leo will go to the hospital for his dad.’ She let out a long breath, like she was deflating. ‘Dani, if you’d just called me … There has to be something we can do.’
Was there anything anyone could’ve done? The situation felt inevitable, as if Daniela had been sliding to this point for her entire life.
‘I don’t want your help,’ Daniela said quietly. ‘I never have and I never will. It doesn’t suit you to come here and be such a goddamn hypocrite, after you’ve spent your life lecturing me, just because you’re feeling guilty.’ She breathed the silence for a moment, then added, ‘Is that everything you came to say?’
‘Will you tell me what happened? All of it, from beginning to end, with no lies?’
‘I think I should wait till a lawyer gets here.’
‘Then I’m done.’ Stephanie was already getting up. Her expression showed no more emotion than if they were having the conversation in the kitchen at home. ‘This is the last time I break the rules for you. Understand me?’
‘Go home, Steph.’
At the door, Stephanie paused. ‘Tell them the truth,’ she said. ‘It’ll work out best in the long run.’
Would it? Daniela wasn’t so sure. From where she was sitting, she couldn’t see any kind of happy ending. She said nothing, and let her sister walk away.
47
February 2017
Halfway around the field, when mud had caked her boots so thickly she was questioning the wisdom of her escape route, Daniela heard an engine. She’d been dimly aware of it for a while, but tractors were such a feature of the landscape that she’d paid no more attention than to the continued noise of the wind in the trees.
Her instinct was to hide. But she wasn’t making substantial progress on foot. It was fully dark by now, and she’d covered maybe half a dozen fields. Each field was flooded out, with vast lakes at the centres and only thin, muddy strips standing clear of the water alongside the hedgerows. The rain had subsided to a sad drizzle. It might take her another five hours to reach Briarsfield. By then she’d probably be dead from exhaustion.
At first, she’d spent all her time looking behind her. The trees obscured the field where the helicopter had found a dry space to touch down, but for a long time she’d still heard the choppy sound of its rotors and caught glimpses of its searchlights.
They’ll look after Stephanie. There’s nothing more you can do for her.
Her conscience insisted otherwise.
Daniela angled away from the hedgerow and cut the corner of the field, hopping over flooded furrows, to reach a nearby gate. Just before she got there, a tractor hove into view, its big lights on its roof casting circles on the ground. The driver was a bulky outline in the fogged cabin. Daniela waved. She wasn’t sure the driver had seen her until the tractor lurched to a halt near the gate.
‘You lost, youngster?’ the driver yelled from the cab.
Tilly. The farmer who’d towed Leo’s car out of the water. She was also the one Stephanie had convinced to go across the flooded bridge to Hackett and pick up the scenes-of-crime officers.
An immediate and hopeful smile came to Daniela’s face. ‘Any chance of a lift?’ she called.
Tilly turned the engine down to an idle, then waved her over. Daniela awkwardly climbed the gate and splodged towards the vehicle. The fields were saturated, with several inches of standing water in the furrows, and each step was an effort. The tractor was following a raised track that was muddy but not impassable. When Daniela got close enough, Tilly leaned out to drag her up onto the footplate.
‘Seems like I’ve spent all weekend doing favours for you kids,’ Tilly said with mock annoyance. ‘Don’t you know I’ve got a farm to run? When am I supposed to get my tea?’
‘I’m sorry.’ Daniela leaned into the scant warmth of the cab. The smell of wet dog was quite strong in there. ‘Don’t suppose I could trouble you for a lift, could I? I’ve got to get to Briarsfield.’
Tilly puffed out her cheeks. ‘I’ve already been out to Hackett and back. What do I look like, a taxi?’
‘I know, it’s an awful imposition.’ Daniela put on her best smile. ‘Please?’
Tilly sighed greatly, but her expression softened. ‘Aye, I suppose you’ve been through a lot, haven’t you? It’s a terrible situation with Auryn. The policemen at Hackett were kinda surprised when I rocked up there with my trailer, I can tell you. But—’ she wrestled the tractor into gear ‘—they got here safe and sound. That’s the main thing.’
Daniela hung on as the tractor lurched forwards. There was no room for her in the cab with Tilly, so she remained on the footstep, clinging to the handrail.
‘Decided not to stick around in Stonecrop then?’ Tilly said. She had to yell to make herself heard. ‘Can’t say I blame you. It might be days before they reopen the Hackett bridge. Did you decide not to wait?’
‘Pretty much, yeah. When it’s time to leave …’
Tilly laughed. ‘Oh, I hear ya. Why d’you think I spend so much time out in the fields? I’d go spare if I had to stay home all day. You look like you’ve been in the wars,’ she noted.
Daniela glanced at her clothes. The tracksuit bottoms and fleece were a uniform muddy brown. ‘I fell,’ she admitted. ‘A few times.’
‘Didn’t think to bring a change of clothes, huh?’ Tilly asked, looking at Daniela’s bag.
Daniela tucked the green gym bag more securely under her arm. ‘I remembered spare socks and the bus fare,’ she said. ‘Didn’t think I’d need anything else. That’ll teach me, right?’
Tilly swung the tractor to follow the raised track south along the hedgerow. The chill morning air made Daniela shiver. But it smelled clean and fresh, and she was happy to be away from Stonecrop. She didn’t look back. It seemed unlikely she would ever return. What did she have there now? Auryn was dead, although really, she’d been lost years before, through solitude and guilt and internal darkness. Franklyn had escaped, but in doing so had fractured her family, whether she’d intended to or not. Stephanie … well, maybe one day those bridges could be mended. Just not any time soon.
And Daniela …<
br />
Fourth to the devil, Margaret had said. That sounded more apt for herself than for Auryn.
‘You grew up here, didn’t you?’ Tilly said, breaking her train of thought. ‘I only moved back to Stonecrop a few years ago so I don’t remember you kids. Oh, apart from Steph and Auryn, everyone knows them.’
On impulse, Daniela asked, ‘Do you remember my mum and dad?’
‘I don’t know if I met your old man more than a few times. He died not long after I came home. Sorry, I don’t think I knew your ma at all.’
‘Me neither.’
The engine noise changed. No, a second noise had cut into it. Daniela leaned out of the cab and looked back towards Stonecrop, in time to see a black shape veer up out the trees, its lights glaringly bright in the darkness. The helicopter hung, pinned to the sky for a moment as if getting its bearings, then nosed away, off to the east, in the direction of Hackett. The thump of its rotors faded until Daniela could no longer hear it over the tractor. Still she felt the rhythm internally, like a counterpoint to her own heartbeat.
Holding on to the tractor with one hand, Daniela fumbled her phone out of her pocket to see if she could get reception. Somehow the mobile had survived the traumas of the weekend. Daniela intended to send the manufacturers a delighted email when she got home.
An icon flashed on the screen to inform her she had an unread message. Daniela couldn’t remember when it’d arrived. She opened the message and a slow smile spread across her face as Annetta’s number popped up.
Can’t sleep, junior’s given me indigestion, lol. Hope all is going well. We miss you! xx
The noise of the tractor was too loud to let Daniela make a phone call. But once they stopped, as soon as she had a signal, she would call and tell Annetta that everything was okay, that she loved her, and that she was coming home.
Acknowledgements
It’s difficult to know where to start, because so many people have helped me in so many ways to bring this book into the world.
Thank you to my agent Leslie Gardner, my editor Rachel Faulkner-Willcocks, and all the wonderful team at Avon. I’m still amazed and delighted that I can refer to ‘my agent’, ‘my editor’ and ‘my publishing team’ in everyday conversation.
Thank you to various health care professionals and members of the police force who answered a string of increasingly ridiculous questions from me (like ‘what would happen if someone got tasered whilst standing in a puddle?’ and ‘pepper spray – is it really that bad?’). All mistakes are my own and I apologise.
Thank you to the team at Manx Litfest, who gave me the courage to put my work out into the world in the first place. Equally, mega-thanks to my various writing groups, to Helen and Roz, to my NaNoWriMo friends, to the Happy People, to CT Phipps who read a shockingly early draft, and to everyone who has helped and encouraged me over the years. I owe you all a pint.
Thank you as always to the voices in my head, who do the real work here.
And, of course, to my family, who are really very lovely and supportive and nothing like any of the characters in this book. And first-last-always, thank you to John, Jacob, and Elliott for always looking after me. I couldn’t do any of this without you.
About the Author
Rachel Bennett was born in England but is currently based on the Isle of Man (home of fast motorbikes, tailless cats, and very changeable weather). She shares her home with two kids, one angry cat, and an exceptionally patient husband.
About the Publisher
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