Force of Nature (Aaron Falk #2)(32)

Falk thought he saw Carmen suppress a smile. She recovered fast. ‘What does that involve?’

‘At first it was mainly administration duties, but then the role became more of a mentorship. I shadow Alice, learning skills to help prepare me for internal promotion.’

‘Good boss?’

A fraction of a heartbeat. ‘Yes. Definitely.’

They waited, but Bree said no more.

‘So you feel you know her well?’ Falk said.

‘Yes. Very well.’ There was an odd note in Bree’s voice. Falk watched her, but could see no sign of recognition when she looked back. Like Daniel Bailey, if Bree knew who they were, she wasn’t letting it show.

‘So how did Alice seem to you on the retreat?’ Carmen said.

Bree picked at her bandage. The edges were already growing frayed. ‘Before we got lost she was her normal self, really. She can be snappy sometimes, but none of us was at our best out there. After we got lost?’ Bree shook her head. ‘Everyone was scared.’

‘Did she mention anything she was worried about?’ Carmen said. ‘Other than being lost, of course?’

‘Like what?’

‘Anything. Work, home, any issues with colleagues?’

‘No. Not to me.’

‘But as someone who knew her well,’ Carmen said, ‘did you sense anything wrong?’

‘No.’

‘What about back in the office? Before the retreat. Any strange requests or appointments that caught your eye?’

‘What does that have to do with what happened out there?’

‘Nothing, necessarily,’ Falk said. ‘We’re trying to get a sense of what went wrong.’

‘I can tell you exactly what went wrong.’ Something rippled across Bree’s face. ‘And it wasn’t all my fault.’

‘What wasn’t?’

‘Us getting lost. It was that stupid kangaroo trail on the second day. That’s what the other officers said. They said it was an easy mistake to make.’ Bree stopped, and the only sound was the gentle beep of the hospital machines. She took a breath. ‘The others shouldn’t have dropped me in it with the navigation. I didn’t know what I was doing. I got sent on a half-day course with coffee breaks every twenty minutes and I’m supposed to be an instant expert?’

She moved her injured arm and grimaced, sweat breaking out on her forehead.

‘What happened when you realised you were off track?’ Falk said.

‘Everything went wrong after that. We never found the second campsite so we never got our supplies for that night. We were low on food. We were stupid and the tents got damaged.’ A small laugh. ‘It’s almost funny how fast it all fell apart. But we weren’t thinking straight, and we were making bad decisions. It’s difficult to explain what it’s like out there. You feel like the only people left in the world.’

‘How did Alice react to being lost?’ Falk said.

‘She was quite pushy about what we should do. When she’s feeling stressed that can make her seem aggressive. She’d done a lot of camping and hiking when she was at school – one of these outdoor campus years. I think she felt that gave her more of a say than the rest of us. I don’t know.’ Bree sighed. ‘Maybe it did. But Lauren – Lauren Shaw? She was in our group too – she’d done the same course at school and she didn’t think Alice was always right either. Like when we found that cabin on the third day. I mean, it was horrible. I didn’t like it there, but it was the best of our bad options. The weather was getting worse and we needed the shelter. So we stayed.’ Bree paused. ‘Alice was the only one who didn’t want to.’

‘She couldn’t convince you to leave?’ Falk said.

‘No. And she wasn’t happy about it. She said she knew how to find our way out, wanted us all to keep walking. But we wouldn’t. That’s what got us in trouble in the first place. Walking blindly. There was a bit of an argument. Alice said she’d go alone but Jill wouldn’t let her. In the morning when we woke up, Alice had taken the phone and gone.’

‘Did Jill Bailey say why she didn’t want to let Alice go?’ Carmen said.

‘Because it was dangerous, of course. And obviously, she was right.’

Bree looked from one to the other, daring them to argue.

‘What did you do when you realised she wasn’t there?’ Falk said finally.

Bree shook her head. ‘I’m not the best person to ask. I thought I was the first one awake so I went out to go to the toilet in the bushes. I was walking back when I tripped. I didn’t realise what had happened at first, I thought I’d fallen onto something sharp. Broken glass maybe. Then I saw the snake disappear, and I knew.’

Bree bit her bottom lip so hard it turned white. Her gaze went straight through them.

‘I thought I was going to die out there. I really believed that. We’d been told there were tiger snakes. I had no idea where we were. I thought I would never see my family again, never get to say goodbye to my mum.’ She took a shaky breath. ‘I remember feeling dizzy and like I couldn’t breathe. The doctor here told me I was probably having a panic attack, but at the time I thought it was the venom. I made it to the cabin, and I don’t really remember the rest well. They put something tight around my arm. I was in pain. I’m not sure at what point I realised Alice wasn’t with us.’