Force of Nature (Aaron Falk #2)(33)

Bree picked at her bandage.

‘When the others said we should leave – leave without her – I didn’t argue. I walked where I was told. Lauren managed to get us north until we found a road. I don’t really remember much about it. The doctor says I was probably in shock by then. I had this idea that Alice had gone ahead to get help and would be waiting for us at the meeting point.’ Bree looked down. ‘I think I even asked for her, but my head was really in a bad state. I didn’t know what I was doing.’

The tears finally brimmed over and Falk handed her a tissue. They waited, listening to the hum of the machines, while she wiped her eyes.

‘Alice had her phone out there,’ Carmen said. ‘Did she make any calls while she was with you?’

‘No.’ The answer came quickly. ‘I mean, she tried, obviously. She called triple zero a lot, but we never got through. It was completely useless.’

‘But she still took the phone when she left?’

A tiny shrug. ‘It was hers, I suppose.’

She looked fragile against the pillow, with her long loose hair and bandaged arm. Her chipped nails, her story.

‘You say you know Alice well,’ Falk said. ‘Were you surprised she left you?’

‘Under normal circumstances, I would have been.’ Bree’s eyes were wide as they looked back into Falk’s. She knows how to lie to men. The thought came out of nowhere.

‘But like I said, it’s different out there. I wish now we’d listened to her. Then maybe none of this might have happened.’

‘But then all of you could be lost.’

‘Maybe. But maybe anything else would have been better than the way it’s turned out.’

She shifted her bandaged arm and a jolt of pain crossed her face. Falk and Carmen exchanged a glance.

‘That’s probably enough for now. We’ll let you get some rest,’ Carmen said as they stood. ‘Thanks, Breanna.’

She nodded. The shadows under her eyes looked darker than when they had arrived.

‘When you see my sister out there, tell her to either send in the nurse with the painkillers, or to bloody leave so they can put me on a drip. Please.’

The room was cool, but as he pulled the door closed, Falk could see that a fresh band of sweat had broken out across Bree’s forehead.





Day 2: Friday Afternoon


The pale sun had moved across the narrow band of sky and the grass was as high as their ankles before someone finally said it.

‘Is this right?’

Beth breathed a silent sigh of relief at Jill’s words. She had wanted to ask the same question for twenty minutes but couldn’t. Bree would have killed her.

Her sister stopped and looked back.

‘It should be right.’

‘Should be? Or is?’

‘Is.’ Bree didn’t sound sure. She glanced down at the map. ‘It has to be. We haven’t turned off anywhere.’

‘I realise that. But –’ Jill swept a hand at their surroundings. The overgrown path, the trees closing in tighter every few dozen steps. Forget what the map said, it didn’t feel right.

All around, hidden birds shrieked at each other in call and response. Beth couldn’t shake the feeling that the bushland was talking about them.

‘We haven’t seen a marker flag all day,’ Jill said. ‘Not since the one in the tree yesterday. There are supposed to be six. Surely we should have seen another one by now. At least one.’

‘Maybe that fork we took after lunch was wrong. Can I see?’ Alice had plucked the map from Bree’s fingers before she could answer. Bree froze with her empty hand extended, looking lost in every sense. Beth tried to catch her eye, but wasn’t able to.

‘Look.’ Alice was frowning at the paper. ‘I bet it was. I thought we’d got there too soon.’

‘I really don’t –’

‘Bree.’ Alice silenced her. ‘It’s not right.’

For a moment, there was nothing but the strange hush of the bush and Beth looked up at the gum trees. Their bark hung off in slack strips like flayed skin. They seemed very close and very tall, all around. Boxed in, she thought suddenly.

‘So what now?’ There was a subtle new note in Jill’s voice that Beth couldn’t quite place. Not quite fear, not quite yet. Concern, perhaps. Keen interest.

Alice held the map out so Jill could see.

‘If we’d made the proper turn, we should be here.’ Alice pointed. ‘But if not, I don’t know. We’re probably somewhere more around here.’ She made a small circling motion on the page.

Jill leaned close, then closer again, the lines deepening around the corners of her eyes.

She couldn’t read the map, Beth realised. The print must be too small. Jill might have been scanning the page, but that paper could be blank for all the good it was doing her. Beth had seen her grandmother pull off a similar pretence, when she didn’t want to admit her reading vision was shot. As Jill did a reasonable job of pretending to examine the page, Alice was watching her with an interested look on her face. She had clocked it too, Beth thought.

‘Hmm.’ Jill made a noncommittal noise and handed the map to Lauren. ‘What do you think?’

Lauren looked a little surprised, but took the map. She bowed her head, running her eyes over the paper. ‘No, I don’t think it’s right either,’ she said. ‘Sorry, Bree.’