Force of Nature (Aaron Falk #2)(91)

Lauren could see Alice’s backpack leaning against a rock. Ready to go. She took another deep breath. ‘Listen, we need to get the others. They’ll want to know about the signal. I won’t tell them you were leaving.’

Alice said nothing. She tucked the phone into the pocket of her jeans.

‘Alice. Jesus. You’re not seriously still thinking of going?’

Alice bent and picked up her backpack. She slung it over one shoulder. Lauren grabbed her arm.

‘Let me go.’ Alice shook her arm loose.

‘It’s not safe on your own. And we’ve got a signal now. It’ll help them find us.’

‘It won’t. It’s too faint.’

‘It’s something! Alice, it’s a better chance than we’ve had in days.’

‘Keep your voice down, will you? Look, I can’t wait around for them to find us.’

‘Why not?’

No answer.

‘For God’s sake.’ Lauren tried to calm herself. She could feel her heart pounding. ‘How are you even going to do it?’

‘Walk north, like we should have been doing today. You know that’ll work, Lauren, but you won’t admit it because then you’d have to try.’

‘No. I don’t want to do it because it’s not safe. Especially on your own. You’re walking blind, you haven’t even got the compass.’ Lauren could feel the plastic disc in her own pocket.

‘If you’re that concerned, you could give it to me.’

‘No.’ Lauren’s palm closed around it. ‘No way.’

‘Thought not. Anyway, we know this track’s heading north. I can work it out if I have to. I did it at McAllaster.’

Bloody McAllaster. Lauren felt her chest tighten and her blood start to pump a little faster at the mention of the name. Thirty years ago, standing in the middle of nowhere as close together as they were now. The trust challenge. Lauren, homesick, sad and blindfolded, and the feeling of sheer relief at Alice’s firm hand on her arm and her confident voice in her ear.

‘I’ve got you. This way.’

‘Thank you.’

Alice leading and Lauren following. The sound of footsteps around her. A giggle. Then Alice’s voice in her ear again. A whispered warning: ‘Watch out.’

The guiding hand on her arm lifted, suddenly as light as air, and disappeared to nothing. Lauren had reached out, disoriented, her foot catching on something right in front of her and she felt the sickening sensation of falling through space. The only sound was the distant sound of a muffled laugh.

She had fractured her wrist on landing. She was glad. It meant that when she lifted the blindfold to find herself completely alone, surrounded only by dense bushland in the encroaching dark, she had an excuse for the tears in her eyes. Not that it mattered. It had been four hours before the other girls came back for her. When at last they had, Alice had been laughing.

‘I told you to watch out.’





Chapter 29



Falk stared at the red and silver thread caught in Alice Russell’s jacket zip, then turned the screen to face Carmen. She blinked.

‘Shit.’ She had her hand scrabbling in her own jacket pocket and before he said a word had pulled out Rebecca’s woven friendship bracelet. The silver threads glinted in the light.

‘I know Lauren said she lost hers, but was she definitely wearing it out there?’

Falk grabbed his own jacket, rummaging through until he found the crumpled Missing Person flier he’d picked up from reception. He smoothed it out, ignoring Alice’s smiling face and instead focusing on the last shot taken of the five women together.

They stood at the entrance to the Mirror Falls trail, Alice’s arm around Lauren’s waist. Alice was smiling. Lauren’s arm was placed around Alice’s shoulders, hovering rather than resting, Falk thought now as he leaned closer. At the edge of Lauren’s jacket sleeve, a clear band of woven red encircled her wrist.

Carmen was already reaching for the room phone to dial Sergeant King. She listened for a moment then shook her head. No answer. She dialled reception. Falk had his jacket on by the time she’d checked the room number and wordlessly, they went outside and walked the length of the accommodation block. The late afternoon sun had dropped behind the trees and darkness crept in from the east.

They reached Lauren’s room and Falk knocked on the door. They waited. No answer. He knocked again, then tried the handle. The door swung open. The room was empty. He looked at Carmen.

‘In the lodge, maybe?’ she said.

Falk hesitated, then glanced past her. The start of the Mirror Falls trailhead was empty, the wooden sign barely visible in the growing dark. Carmen saw where he was looking and read his mind, alarm crossing her face.

‘You go and check,’ she said. ‘I’ll find King and follow.’

‘Okay.’

Falk set off at a brisk pace, crunching across the gravel driveway, then sinking a little as he reached the muddy path. He was the only one around, but he could see boot prints underfoot. He entered the trail.

Was he right? He didn’t know. Then he thought about the thin girl and the red thread and her mother’s bare wrist.

Never underestimate how far you’d go for your child.

Falk’s steps grew faster and faster until, with the roar of Mirror Falls growing louder in his ears, he broke into a run.