Maybe we could climb our way out of here after all.
‘How high do you think the sea rises?’ I turned to Jam, wiping the rain off my face.
‘No idea.’ His hair was plastered to his forehead.
I explained my idea.
‘Let’s hope you’re right,’ he said.
The water was up to our thighs now . . . up to Madison’s waist. She was struggling to stay upright. I took Jam’s belt and threaded it through Madison’s jeans loops and my own. I fastened the buckle.
‘We’re tied together now,’ I said. ‘But you still have to move your arms and legs as much as possible to stay up in the water.’
Madison nodded. She was shivering again, her teeth chattering.
‘Keep moving,’ Jam ordered.
I kicked my legs under the water. The rain eased to a soft drizzle, then stopped.
‘I can’t touch the bottom any more,’ Madison said anxiously.
‘We’ll be fine,’ I repeated, hoping against hope it was true.
A few more minutes and the water cut my legs from under me. I was truly cold now – and bone weary, my limbs moving on adrenalin only.
The sea rose. There were still no lights out on the water, but the moon shrouded the bay in a misty glow. It was hard work staying close to the rock face. There was nothing to cling on to and the current kept dragging us away from the cliff and each other. I battled at the waves – one minute being sucked towards the sea, the next flung against the hard rock. Within minutes, I was bruised all over – and completely exhausted. Madison kicked and pulled at the water like we’d told her, but her movements were getting slower and slower and her weight was making it harder for me to keep myself afloat.
Water splashed against my chin. The wooden oval bobbed out in front of me. The salt stung my lips.
‘Let’s swim along the rock,’ Jam gasped.
I nodded, following as he pulled himself through the water. Madison struggled to keep up with me. None of us were moving fast. I watched Jam just a few metres ahead. His strokes were slow and tired; like me he was having to fight hard against the current. Suddenly I felt overwhelmed with exhaustion. All I wanted to do was sleep. My arms and legs seemed to grow heavy. I closed my eyes, feeling Madison’s weight dragging me lower into the water.
‘Lauren!’ Jam’s yell echoed faintly across the bay. ‘Look!’
My eyes sprang open. Madison was barely above water level. Her face was tipped back in the water: just her nose and tightly-shut eyes were visible. Jam was calling from about five metres away. He pointed up, towards the rock face above my head.
‘What is that?’ he yelled.
I followed his gaze to a vertical ridge in the rock face. The base of the ridge was an arm’s length above my head. Even if I could reach it, it wouldn’t provide a useful handhold.
‘It’s nothing.’ I meant to shout the words, but they came out all hoarse. Salt water filled my mouth. Ugh. I coughed.
‘No, look, Lauren.’ Madison was open-eyed now, scrabbling in the water like a little puppy beside me.
I blinked. Stared harder at the ridge. And then I realised what the others had already seen.
The ridge was actually a narrow opening in the rock, about two metres high. I trod water, still staring upwards, while Jam swam back towards us.
‘Must be a cave,’ he gasped, reaching up his arm. His fingers just reached the bottom of the opening. It was only about thirty centimetres wide. Would that be big enough for us to crawl through?
‘How far back d’you think it goes?’ I said, trying to keep my mouth above the water. The waves were still pushing in, the sea rising.
‘I can’t see more than a metre inside,’ Jam panted. ‘But it’s shelter.’
He was right. If we could just slip through the narrow opening at least we’d be safe from the tide, as long as it didn’t go much higher.
‘Worth a try,’ I gasped.
The current was pulling us away from the cave. I forced my way back through the swirling water. Time passed. The sea rose. I was so tired now that I couldn’t focus properly. Had it been one minute since we’d noticed the opening . . . or ten?
Madison had almost stopped moving. She was even lower in the water than before. Waves splashed at her nostrils. She spluttered, but clearly couldn’t raise her head higher.
The sea was still rising. I reached up to the opening. I could hook my arm through the narrow gap now. With fumbling fingers, I undid the belt that linked me to Madison and tied her to Jam.
‘Will you help me up?’ I said. ‘Then push Mo up to me?’
He nodded. ‘Go.’
I hooked my arm through the opening. The rock was wet from the rain and difficult to grip, but I clung on as Jam made a stirrup with his hands under the water. I stepped into it, giving him my weight for a second.
With a roar, Jam shoved me upwards. I hauled and clawed my arm all the way into the opening, reaching for something to give me purchase. There. I found an edge on the rock and pulled my upper body sideways through the narrow gap. My ribs scraped painfully across the rock floor, but I was in. I dragged myself further into the cave. It widened . . . opened out. It was dark – I couldn’t see how big it was, but there was room for me to twist round. Still on my side, I hauled my legs in after my body. I could barely feel them, but I struggled onto my knees and reached back through the opening.
I felt Madison’s hand grasping for mine. I clutched her and pulled and she came slithering into the cave after me.
She gasped for breath. I lay her on the rocky ground. My eyes had adjusted to the darkness. I couldn’t see where the cave ended, but I was certain it was big enough for the three of us to shelter in.
‘We’re going to be OK.’ Hope rose inside me as I reached back through the opening for Jam. His hand met mine. I could see the surface of the sea beyond him. Still rising.
I pulled hard. One arm was through. His face appeared in the gap.
‘Turn sideways,’ I ordered.
Jam’s eyes were screwed up with the effort of hauling himself up. He was trying to turn . . . to twist himself round so that he would fit through the opening. But his shoulders were too broad.
‘It’s no good,’ he gasped. ‘I can’t get through.’
26
Through and Out
Jam forced both arms through the opening and twisted sideways. His shoulders were still too broad to pass.
‘It’s no good,’ he said. ‘I can’t do it.’
Madison let out an agonised whimper beside me.
‘Yes, you can.’ I clutched Jam’s wrist and braced myself against the side of the cave. I could feel the muscles in his forearm tighten.
‘One, two, GO!’ I yelled.
With a roar, he hauled himself forward. I pulled. He pushed. Both of us were yelling our heads off.
Again. He was almost through, his shoulders wedged tight against the sides of the opening. Again. A final effort and he squeezed through the entrance, the sharp rocks tearing through his shirt. He lay panting, on the ground.
Madison crawled over and the three of us clutched at each other.
‘We’re safe,’ I said, needing to say the words out loud to make them feel real. ‘We’re going to be OK.’
My voice echoed round the cave. How big was this place? I stood up, my legs trembling, and felt round the walls. We seemed to be in an oval space in the rock, about three metres square.
‘Lauren,’ Madison said. ‘I think the sea’s coming in.’
I reached down and patted the floor of the cave. Water was trickling through, waves lapping at the opening we’d all just climbed through.
My stomach gave a sick lurch. If the sea was still rising then finding this hiding place didn’t save us at all – it would flood and we would drown here.
‘She’s right,’ I said, trying to hold in the terrible feeling of panic that swirled in my guts.
‘That’s not good,’ Jam muttered. He was on his feet, feeling round the wa
lls too. I could make out his shadow, moving across the floor.
Madison scuttled over beside me. ‘Will the water fill this cave up?’ she said.
‘I don’t know. It depends how much further in the tide comes and how far back the cave goes.’
‘Why don’t we walk through there?’ Madison pointed to the darkest part of the cave, where the wall dipped towards a jagged archway.
It was a tunnel. Not a man-made concrete tunnel like the one under the beach hut at Norbourne promenade, but a narrow, rocky crevice – like a split running through the heart of the rock.
Jam and I rushed over.
‘That is awesome, Mo.’ I reached down and hugged her. ‘You’re a star for finding it.’
Madison beamed.
‘Let’s see where it goes,’ Jam said.
He set off first, Madison behind him and me bringing up the rear. There was only room for us to walk single file and Jam and I both had to stoop. The tunnel was very uneven. The walls grew narrower, then wider, and the ceiling was low for ages, then suddenly opened out.
It felt like we walked for miles, but maybe I was just scared and exhausted. Stumbling through a tunnel in the dark, where you can’t see your hand in front of your face and you don’t know where you’re going, isn’t easy – and when you’re tired and cold, every step seems to take forever.
As we walked on, a breeze blew down the tunnel towards us.
‘That’s a good sign,’ Jam said. ‘We must be heading outside.’
We kept going. Madison tripped frequently and I was so tired I could barely place one foot in front of the other. But the wind coming through the tunnel grew stronger and cooler, encouraging us on.
At last the tunnel lightened.
‘I can see a way out,’ Jam exclaimed.
We hurried on and a couple of minutes later we emerged onto the slope of a high cliff, surrounded by other higher cliffs. It was dawn at last and the sky was a swirl of misty blues and pinks and oranges, with the sea just visible in the distance. We scrambled away from it, over the rocks. After a few minutes’ hard climbing, we found ourselves overlooking a large, but empty car park on the edge of a town. It didn’t look like Norbourne, but the buildings were similar in size and design. The car park itself was deserted but traffic zoomed along the road beyond.
We made our way down to the car park. Jam went over to the sign to see where we were. We were all exhausted, and shivering from cold. Madison’s hair was stuck to her face and she had a graze on her cheek. Jam’s shirt was ripped to pieces. And yet, in that moment, I felt euphoric.
‘We’ve done it.’ My heart raced with relief. Black smudges appeared at the edges of my vision. I felt light-headed . . . giddy.
Madison looked up at me, her huge brown eyes soft and solemn.
‘What about Shelby?’ she said. ‘What about—?’
But I didn’t hear the rest of what she said because the black smudges were spreading and filling me up and my head whirled and my legs buckled underneath me.
I woke from the blackness to warm, dry sheets and the distant smell of coffee. A small body was squeezed up close to mine. I opened my eyes. Madison was curled up beside me on the bed.
Was I at home?
No. It was a hospital room – we were on one of those trolleys, a curtain drawn all round the bed. An IV was hooked into the back of my hand. I sat up, feeling drained. A jug of water stood beside the bed, but I was no longer desperately thirsty.
I glanced down at the plaster covering the place where the IV fluids entered my hand. I was seriously contemplating yanking it out so that I could get off the bed and see exactly where I was, when the curtains opened and Annie appeared, a polystyrene cup of steaming coffee in her hand. Her face creased with relief as she took in the fact that I was awake.
‘Oh, Lauren,’ she said. Annie’s eyes were red and sore-looking and her skin drawn and grey. Misery was etched into her face, yet she attempted a weak smile. ‘How are you feeling?’
‘I’m OK,’ I said.
‘Are you sure?’ Annie said anxiously. ‘They examined you . . . said you were just suffering from exhaustion and that you were a bit dehydrated.’
I nodded, touched my side where I’d scraped it across the rock. A little tender, but no more than a graze.
‘Where’s Jam?’ I said.
‘He’s on the phone to his mother,’ Annie said. ‘I’ve called your mom and dad. They’re getting the next flight home.’
‘Oh.’ I sat back against the wall behind me, adjusting to this news. If Mum and Dad were cutting short their holiday to come back to see me then they must be really worried about me. Which meant a lot of fuss though, if I was honest, I was glad they were on their way. ‘What’s the time? When will they get here?’
Annie consulted her watch. ‘It’s 4 pm. They’ll be here by tomorrow morning and they’re coming straight down to the holiday home to pick you up.’
‘Right.’ I frowned. Surely the sun had only just been rising when we’d made our way out of the cave? ‘Is it really four o’clock?’
Annie nodded. ‘You fainted just before some passers-by turned up. They called for an ambulance. Jam said you woke up for a second, then you went straight to sleep. Madison insisted on staying with you.’ We both looked at Madison, who was breathing deeply and evenly beside me. Annie hesitated. ‘Shelby’s still missing.’
I stared at her, suddenly remembering everything that had happened yesterday.
Annie looked me in the eye. ‘Jam told me what happened . . . how Rick was behind the kidnapping and . . .’ She tailed off.
‘Sam’s letters?’ I asked.
Annie looked away and lowered her voice. ‘I never wanted you girls to know about any of that,’ she said.
I didn’t know what to say. I still felt numb when I thought about my own biological father being some anonymous sperm donor. After all, Dad was Dad and Sam was the man who’d originally fathered me . . . there wasn’t room in my brain for anyone else.
As for Shelby, it was just too embarrassing to imagine Annie having an affair with that horrible Duchovny.
Thinking of Duchovny brought me back to Cooper and how he’d rescued me on that cliff top.
‘Did Jam tell you what Cooper did to Rick and the other kidnappers?’ I shivered as I remembered the sound of the bodies falling from the cliff.
‘Yes.’ Annie twisted her hands together. ‘And I know it means Shelby’s in terrible danger too . . .’
‘Are the police looking for her?’
‘Yes, but they have no idea where Cooper is renting this house of his.’
At that moment Jam came in, swiftly followed by a doctor who examined me. As the doctor removed my IV and checked me over, Madison woke up. After that, Annie bought us all sandwiches from the canteen and a police officer came to interview me. I told him everything I knew – including how I’d stolen the painting from Duchovny’s house. The man nodded and grunted and took a few notes, but he couldn’t – or wouldn’t – answer any of my questions.
It was soon clear to me that, as Annie had said, the police had absolutely no idea where Cooper was keeping Shelby. Or why.
It was 7 pm and a light drizzle was falling when we got back to the holiday home. Two police officers drove us home. They helped us inside, then went back to their car where they were going to stay, keeping watch over us, all night.
Madison hadn’t left my side all day, but once we got indoors, Annie insisted on taking her up to bed.
‘Come on, Madison,’ she said firmly. ‘You can’t stop yawning.’
‘Can Lauren read me a story first?’ Madison pleaded.
Annie rolled her eyes. ‘Not tonight. Come on.’
‘Night, Mo.’ I gave her a hug and watched her follow Annie up the stairs.
I heated up some soup and Jam and I sat at the kitchen table. We didn’t say much. I knew that Carla, Jam’s mum, was on her way down here to pick him up. Jam had said she was angry with him for running off to be with me.
‘D’you think she’ll try and stop us seeing each other?’ I said.
‘It doesn’t matter what my mum says,’ he said, leaning closer to me. ‘Nobody will ever be able to stop me from seeing you.’
I closed my eyes and we kissed.
As we drew apart, I cleared my throat. It was scary to speak my feelings out loud, but I knew I had to say this:
‘Thank you for . . . for everything,’ I said. ‘It made all the difference you . . . you being here with me . . .’
Jam tilted his head to one side. His expression was simultaneously exasperated and tender.
‘I know,’ he said.
I grinned.
At that moment, the phone inside Annie’s bag started ringing.
‘D’you think that’s your mum or mine?’ I said, reaching into the bag.
‘Your mum’s on an aeroplane.’ Jam frowned. ‘So I guess it’s mine.’
I took out the mobile. The number was flashing up on the screen. Jam peered at the phone.
‘That’s not Mum’s number,’ he said.
For a second I wondered if it could be Cooper Trent. I shivered.
I glanced towards the door. Annie was still upstairs. It was highly likely she’d fallen asleep next to Madison. I didn’t want to disturb them. ‘It’s probably just one of Annie’s friends.’ I lifted the phone to my ear. ‘Hello?’
‘Lauren?’ It was Shelby, her voice cracking as she spoke. ‘Listen, you have to get everyone out of the house. Cooper knows you’re alive and he’s on his way to kill you all now.’
27
Carter’s of Norbourne
I froze. ‘Shelby?’ I gasped. ‘Where are you? What—?’
‘There’s no time,’ Shelby insisted, her voice rising shrilly. ‘Cooper saw a news report that you and the others were alive. He’s coming for you. Keep Mom’s phone. I’ll call you again in a minute. Just get out of the house.’ She rang off.
I put Annie’s phone down on the kitchen table. My head was spinning. I knew I had to act . . . and act fast, but I couldn’t think straight.