Shadow of Doubt

by S L Beaumont

  The passage narrowed until it was really only a crawl space with walls roughly hewn out of stone. Will dropped to his knees and began edging forward. I crawled a few meters before my tights ripped and small stones and pieces of rock scraped at my knees. It was slow going with Will stopping every few seconds, causing me to run into his feet.

  “Are you okay?” I called.

  “Yeah, trying to conserve my energy,” he said.

  A sudden wind gust up the tunnel extinguished the candle that he was cradling in front of him, plunging us into darkness.

  “Shit.” Will stopped again and this time I fell against his legs.

  “Sorry.”

  “It’s okay, we’re nearly there. I think I can see moonlight ahead of us.”

  We crawled a little further and the tunnel widened into a cave. A sharp cool breeze swept in from the sea. Will pulled himself to standing and stretched before leaning against the wall of the cave, sucking in shallow breaths.

  “Here,” he said after a moment, opening his arms. I went straight into them and rested my head on his shoulder being as gentle as I could. His arms came around me and held me for a long moment. The sounds of the waves crashing onto the rocks and then pulling back was rhythmic, almost soothing.

  “What now?” I asked.

  “Hopefully, your wire is still working and we can call for help,” he said.

  I reached down and unzipped my boot, reaching inside for the tiny transmitter. I pulled it out and gave it to Will, just as a beam of light swept across our hiding place. We scrabbled backwards into the darkness of the tunnel.

  “What was that?” I whispered.

  Will eased himself forward and peered out of the cave entrance before coming back to stand with me. “We are just below the lighthouse. That light is its beam sweeping across the entrance to the harbor.” He held the transmitter to his mouth.

  “Jake, did you hear that? We are at the bottom of the lighthouse on Campbell Island requesting immediate evac.”

  “How do you know if he heard?” I asked.

  “I don’t.”

  “So what do we do now?”

  “We wait.”

  We sat huddled together just out of range of the lighthouse beam, which swept by at regular intervals. In the distance, we could hear men’s voices and the occasional round of gunfire, which caused me to jump.

  “It’s okay, Jess, we should be safe here.” No sooner had the words left his mouth than we heard a scraping noise back up the tunnel behind us. Someone was moving the crates I’d stacked in front of the entrance. Our escape route had been discovered.

  “Quick.” Will climbed to his feet and reached for my hand as a flashlight beam flickered behind us.

  We rushed to the cave entrance and clambered across the rocks towards the base of the lighthouse, helping each other move as fast as we could with only the halo from the lighthouse to guide us across the uneven surface. This side of the island was comprised of large sharp boulders sloping down to a gravelly beach. My high-heeled boots were not made for this terrain and my feet kept slipping. Will’s good arm latched firmly around my waist was the only thing that stopped me falling a number of times.

  Behind the lighthouse, the island rose sharply, an exposed cliff supporting the plateau where the manor house was situated. Powerful flashlight beams danced among the trees along the ridge. They were searching for us.

  Then the heel of my right boot caught in a narrow crevasse between two rocks. My knee wrenched painfully as we kept moving.

  “Will, my foot,” I cried out, pulling against him and forcing him to stop.

  Will cursed as he looked over my shoulder back down at the tunnel entrance. He released me, reached down and, wrapping his hands around my ankle, pulled. There was a snap and my leg came free, leaving the pointed heel of my boot wedged in place.

  “Come on,” Will urged, pulling me around behind the lighthouse as the sound of footsteps thundering into the cave reached us.

  Chapter 47

  April 21

  “I know ya there. I’m coming to finish what we started,” Colin called in a strange slurry singsong voice.

  I looked at Will, terrified, and stifled a scream as a gunshot rang out, hitting the wall of the lighthouse with a sharp thud. “One, two, three, I’m coming,” Colin called.

  Will and I edged around the lighthouse until we came to a wooden door. Will tried the handle and it sprung open. He pushed me inside. “Find something to bar the door from the inside and I’ll distract him.”

  “Will, no,” I said, reaching for him.

  “Help is on the way, I can buy us a little time.”

  “He has a gun, Will, and we don’t know that Jake even heard us.”

  “Even if he didn’t, I have a GPS tracker embedded in my arm. They will be tracking me with that. Listen, I can hear a chopper.” He leaned in and kissed me hard on the lips before pushing me away and pulling the door closed between us.

  I looked around. I was in a circular room with a spiral stone staircase winding upwards against one wall. A couple of old chairs and a table sat beside a grimy window opposite. I grabbed one of the chairs and wedged it under the door handle, as a shadow passed by the window. I ducked down low, pressing myself out of sight, as the door handle rattled. I bit down on my hand to stop myself crying out in fear.

  The rattling stopped and I could hear footsteps moving away from the lighthouse followed by shouting and another gunshot.

  I raced towards the staircase and began climbing the stairs. The second floor was empty, so I kept going. The third and fourth floors that would once have been home to the lighthouse keeper were now storage rooms. I was out of breath by the time I reached the top level where floor-to-ceiling windows surrounded a large lamp in the center of the room. A doorway led out onto an external walkway which wrapped around the entire structure, two feet below the level of the light. I ducked and retreated down several steps so that I was hidden but could still see out. The light turned a full 360 degrees, shining across the coastline and beach.

  I caught a glimpse of Will scrambling across the rocks towards a cluster of trees. Several meters behind him, I watched a second figure moving at a faster pace after him, before the light moved. I blinked several times and squinted, trying to adjust my vision to the darkness. In the pale moonlight, I could just make out the two figures.

  “Come on, Will, run,” I urged as my heart raced. I could see that he wasn’t going to make it to the trees before Colin caught up with him. In the gloom I saw Colin raise his arm and Will stumble, but keep going. Colin raised his arm again and this time Will fell.

  “No,” I cried, rushing across the room and opening the door onto the external walkway, my gait uneven as I hobbled in my broken boots.

  The rhythmic thump of a helicopter’s rotors filled the air. I looked out to sea. In the darkness, I could just make out the lights of an approaching aircraft. I watched as a dark shape appeared over the island. The noise of the rotors intensified as it passed low over the lighthouse, before swooping around and training a spotlight on Colin. Colin’s hunched figure was illuminated as he scrambled across the rocks to where Will had fallen. He stopped and turned his head to the sky, shielding his eyes with his arm for a moment before firing his gun towards the helicopter. I heard a loud ping as the bullet hit the undercarriage. The helicopter hung in the air for a moment, before I watched in dismay as it tilted its nose down and flew away from the island and back out to sea.

  The lighthouse beam swept across the landscape once more, this time illuminating me for a brief instant standing at the outside railing. At that exact moment, Colin looked up. He saw me and grinned, before picking his way across the rocks to where Will lay. Colin turned around to make sure that I was still watching as he shoved the gun into the back of his jeans and bent down with one arm, hoisting Will onto his shoulder. He took a few steps to the edge of the boulders and threw him into the churning surf below. I screamed as the tide pulled Will out, before
tossing his inert body back onto the sharp rocks. Colin turned and called out to me, but the sound of the helicopter returning drowned out his voice.

  I raced back inside the lighthouse looking around for something to use to defend myself. There was nothing. I hobbled back to the doorway and waved my arms at the helicopter, just as a small rocket, fired from the ridge behind me, whizzed past the lighthouse towards the aircraft. The pilot took immediate evasive action and the rocket cut underneath, missing the landing skids by millimeters. The helicopter banked and flew out to sea again, as I heard the door of the lighthouse crash open, followed by footsteps thundering up the stairs. I closed the outside door behind me and scampered to the opposite side of the walkway just as Colin arrived at the top floor.

  “Hey, Jessie,” he called, spotting me through the window.

  The beam rotated again, blinding me for a few seconds, long enough for Colin to cross the floor and join me on the walkway.

  “Now, we’re gonna have some fun before I kill you, bitch,” he said, advancing towards me.

  I backed away from him, trying to assess my options. I could get back inside and run down the stairs and out onto the shore where there was nowhere to hide or I could stay out here, where I would be seen if the helicopter returned. Neither option was ideal. The wind up on the walkway was cold and I could feel it seeping into my bones. I kept moving, trying to keep out of his reach until he pulled the gun on me.

  “I don’t want to have to use this yet, but I will if you don’t stop,” he said.

  I watched as the beam swung again and timed my move for the moment it blinded him. Instead of continuing to move away, I hurtled towards him, catching him by surprise. I grabbed for his hand and smashed it against the railing. The gun fell from his grip and clattered onto the walkway. I lashed out with my foot and kicked it over the edge, but by the time I had regained my balance, he had grabbed me from behind and had his arm tight across my throat. I stamped down on his foot as hard as I could with the heel of my boot and shoved my elbow back into his stomach. His grip loosened as he let out a breath and I twisted away so that I was facing him.

  His twisted grin widened. “I didn’t know you liked it rough.”

  “Get away from me, you creep,” I shouted.

  “It’s because of you that I look this way,” he said, his lip curling and pure hatred filling his eyes.

  “I hate you,” I said. “You ruined my life.”

  “And you ruined mine, so I guess that makes us even,” he said, reaching for me.

  I batted his hand away and started running, but I wasn’t quick enough. Colin grabbed a handful of my hair, pulling me to an abrupt and painful stop. He slammed my head into the lighthouse window and for a moment blackness encroached on my vision. He began dragging me back towards the door. Over his shoulder I could see more flashlights moving around on the ridge and suddenly the sound of two sets of rotors filled the air, drowning out the sound of the waves hitting the rocks. Two large black helicopters rose up from behind the island and flew over the lighthouse.

  Colin stopped moving for a moment and turned his head to watch as one helicopter banked right and began firing on the ridge behind the lighthouse, while four dark-clad figures rappelled from the second helicopter before it turned and flew back in the direction it had come. The first helicopter stopped firing and hovered for a moment longer as though assessing the situation. There was no returned fire from the ridge, but the smell of smoke wafted on the breeze. A woman wearing a helmet and camouflage gear watched us from her seat in the cockpit, before speaking into the mouthpiece of her communications headset. Seconds later the aircraft pulled away from the island towards the mainland.

  I struggled against Colin’s viselike grip on my arm as I watched the four figures make their way towards the lighthouse. A cloud had moved across the moon and it was only the residual light from the lighthouse beam’s last pass that allowed them to be seen.

  “Don’t come any closer, or I’ll throw her off,” Colin shouted down to the figures, as two crouched behind large boulders and trained their weapons on us. The other two continued to inch closer to the lighthouse, moving through the terrain with a lot less effort than Will and I had expended earlier. Colin pulled me in front of him to shield his body from any gunfire.

  “Let her go,” one of the men called up.

  Colin leaned around me and laughed. “Yeah, right.”

  I took advantage of his distraction to pull away and twist enough to land a hard kick into the knee of his bad leg. He staggered and released me, reaching for the rail to maintain his balance. I kicked him again, this time in the back of his other knee. There was a loud cracking sound as the railing and part of the walkway gave way. A look of horror crossed Colin’s face as he slipped and started to fall. The metal groaned as the rivets sheared off propelled by his weight. Colin clutched at the air for a moment before clasping his hand around a piece of the railing. The walkway shuddered dangerously as the boards beneath our feet began to crack and splinter, pieces falling like hail onto the rocks below. I scrambled backwards, clinging on to the window frame of the lighthouse as the boards under Colin gave way and he swung over the edge, still hanging on to the broken railing.

  “Jess, give me your hand,” he cried.

  I hesitated, then dropped to my knees and holding the remains of the railing with one hand, I reached out with the other. As my fingertips grazed his hand, I saw a shrewd look pass across his ruined face.

  “You’re coming with me, it’s only fitting,” he hissed.

  I pulled my arm back as though stung, just as the remains of the walkway beneath my feet cracked and the railing supporting Colin gave way. I scooted backwards until I ended up pressed against the outside wall of the lighthouse.

  “You bitch,” Colin screamed as he lost his grip and plunged from the lighthouse landing with a sickening thud on the rocks below.

  The walkway continued to give way and I struggled to my feet trying to find something to hold on to as the boards beneath me broke one after the other, falling in large chunks onto the rocks. Shouts went up from below and I heard running footsteps.

  All of a sudden, there was nothing beneath me and I felt myself falling. I made a desperate grab for the ledge of the window and got one hand to it before swinging my body around and reaching up with my other hand, my fingers finding purchase on the narrow frame. I clung to the ledge with my cold fingertips as my body dangled helpless over the edge, high above the treacherous rocks. I tried to steady my breathing, as my heart raced out of control. I glanced down, which was a mistake. In the eerie light cast by the lighthouse beam, the sea crashed onto the rocks below, foaming white before retreating leaving the sharp peaks glistening. I could see Colin’s leg twisted at an odd angle below me, being lapped by the waves. A scream of terror escaped from deep within me.

  The first camouflaged officer arrived at the top of the internal lighthouse staircase. I was relieved to see that it was Will’s mate Sean.

  “Sean, find Will,” I gasped but he couldn’t hear me.

  “Hold on for just a few moments longer, Jess,” he shouted. “Turn your head away.” Seconds later I was showered with broken glass.

  “I can’t hold much longer,” I said, beginning to lose feeling in my fingers.

  A second man arrived at his side with a piece of heavy material which he laid over the edge of the broken window. I screamed as the fingers of my right hand slipped from the ledge and lost their grip. I swung precariously just as Sean’s hand clamped on to my forearm. The second man grabbed my right arm and they hauled me back inside the lighthouse.

  “Will?” I asked as I landed in a heap on the floor.

  “If you mean Charlie, we’ve got him,” Sean said.

  “Is he alive?”

  “Just. Come on, let’s get you out of here.”

  They helped me down the stairs and out through the broken doorway. As we rounded the side of the lighthouse, another man stood with his gun pointed at the
ground beside Colin’s body.

  “Don’t look, love,” he said when I hesitated.

  “I need to, otherwise he will haunt my dreams. I need to know that he is really dead this time,” I said, looking down on the bloodied, broken body of my husband, his head twisted at an unnatural angle, his eyes open and unseeing.

  “Are you saying this is Colin McDonald?” Sean asked.

  I nodded. “He survived the explosion at the warehouse. Have you arrested his father?”

  “His father?”

  “Ewan Campbell. He’s the mastermind behind the recent London terror attacks and they’re planning to assassinate the British PM at the G7. He’s on the island somewhere.”

  “Don’t worry, we’ll get him.”

  Chapter 48

  May 31

  “This is quaint,” Marie said, peering through the windscreen of my little Fiat as we pulled up to the cottage.

  “Wait ’til you see the inside,” I said, turning off the engine and climbing out. I dug into the pocket of my jeans for the keys as a second car screeched to a stop behind mine. I grinned as Jimmy and Dave jumped out. Dave leaned on the roof of the car, taking in the vista back down towards the village.

  “Great view, Jess,” he said.

  Marie held the passenger door open and tipped her seat forward, allowing Rachel to alight. She unfolded her long limbs from the tiny backseat and stretched.

  “You could have come with us, Rach,” Jimmy said.

  She gave him a sidelong glance. “Ah, thanks, but I think I was safer with Jess.”

  Jimmy clutched his chest and attempted to look hurt at her insinuation.

  I shifted my gaze from the cottage towards the garden and Buffy’s grave. I felt Marie’s hand on my arm.