Father Unknown (27 page)

Suzie came to a panting stop. Millie had plunged down the path most directly in front of them. Suzie could hear the sound of her daughter's progress as she pushed through the leaves.

Nothing else. Tamara – or was it Pet? – was too far ahead to be heard. Or else – her mind shrank violently from the thought – Pet had caught up with Tamara and stopped the sound of her running.

There was a new sound in the trees to her right. She spun round, tense and fearful.

The tall figure that broke out of the bushes was, she realized suddenly, the one she most wanted to see.

‘Nick!'

He came to an abrupt halt. ‘What the hell are
you
doing here? I thought you were watching the boat.'

It was not the welcome she needed, but she flew to him, all the same. She clutched his bare arms and felt the sweat of his running. ‘I heard you call out to Tamara. Why? I met Millie. We saw someone running from the summer house.' It came out as ragged and incoherent as her breathing.

‘I caught sight of Petronella climbing the hill. I wasn't near enough to stop her. All I could do was shout out to warn Tamara. I saw her make a run for it. I was trying to catch up, but I lost them.'

‘That way,' Suzie said. ‘Towards the road. One of those paths into the trees. Millie ran on ahead of me.'

She could see Nick thinking swiftly. ‘You take the left fork,' he ordered. ‘I'll go right. With luck, we'll make contact with each other when we get to the road. If one of us hasn't overtaken them first.' He darted a swift kiss at her. ‘Take care of yourself.'

‘And you.' She fled again.

The wood was doubly scary the second time, and on her own. Darker still, lower down. She lost the path almost immediately. She was dodging through tree trunks, hoping against hope she was running straight and not veering in a circle. She longed to stop and listen for others running. But the figure she had seen was a long way in front. She had to catch up.

She prayed that Millie was safe, plunging recklessly ahead on her own.

She gasped as a branch caught her across the face. She struggled free.

The wood was silent.

What if she had run too far? What if Tamara was crouching in some gully, waiting for the sounds of pursuit to move beyond her? How could they find one frightened girl in this vast darkness?

Petronella had seen her fleeing. How close was Suzie behind them?

There was a sudden brilliance of light between the branches. It was seconds before her panicked mind could make sense of it. The light swept past and disappeared.

‘The road!' She heard herself gasp the word aloud.

Her eyes had been dazzled by the passing headlights. She stumbled on blindly through the trees. She did not see the ditch until she tumbled into it. The leaf mould at the bottom was damp and sticky. Then there was a bank to climb before she felt the solid familiarity of tarmac.

She stood uncertain. If Tamara had got this far, what would she do? On the far side, there was the glimmer of open fields. She listened for sounds, of pursued or pursuers. The rustle of leaves mocked her. She could not tell whether it was a breeze in the branches overhead or someone running hard further away.

Even as she wondered what to do, another set of headlights swept towards her. She shrank back. It was foolish to think that the car could be personally threatening, but she had an overwhelming feeling that she did not want to be seen.

The car sped past her without stopping, then slowed for the bend. She watched the tail lights disappear.

Moments later, there was screech of brakes. It seemed to go on for ever. Then, silence fell, except for the sound of the engine, still running but stationary.

Suzie's shocked brain took seconds to catch up with the possible meaning.

‘
Millie
!'

She remembered her slim blonde daughter sprinting ahead of her, plunging into the woods alone. Had she come dashing out from the trees, while Suzie, clumsier, had fallen? Straight out on to the road, in the path of the car sweeping round the bend?

It seemed impossibly far to that curve in the road. Her feet would not pound the tarmac fast enough. Her breath was ragged, almost sobbing.

Even before she rounded the bend she heard the voices. High and agitated. At least two, a man's and a woman's.

She raced into the scene, brightly lit by the standing car's headlights.

She still could not see what lay in front of the bonnet. A young man standing over something. The woman was almost hidden as she knelt on the road.

Suzie could only see the feet that protruded beyond the nearside wheels. Trainers.

Millie had been wearing trainers.

She felt physically sick.

She had not realized that she had stopped running. She forced herself to walk forward. Past the dark rear of the car. Into the beams that illuminated the road in front.

The girl lay face downward. Wavy dark hair tumbled about her head. Not Millie.

Tamara.

Guilt swallowed up the first wave of selfish relief. Guilt, and pity.

The young man was talking fast. ‘Is she all right? I jammed the brakes on as fast as I could. It was my first emergency stop. I didn't even stall the engine.'

She read the shock in his voice, gabbling inconsequential things. Probably a newly qualified driver.

He knelt beside the body. The headlights shone full on his face.

‘Tom!' she cried, incredulous.

The woman looked up. ‘She's still breathing, thank the Lord.'

The unmistakable Pennsylvanian accent of Prudence.

TWENTY-NINE

I
ncomprehension paralysed Suzie. She must have passed from reality into waking dream.

Prudence had a practical hold on the situation. ‘Get your emergency services,' she ordered Tom. ‘I don't know the number.' She turned her face up to Suzie. ‘And don't you blame Tom. He slowed right down for that bend. We couldn't see a darn thing outside the headlights. She just came rushing out on to the road. And he's right. He did a really good stop. Couldn't help hitting her, but it might have been worse. He didn't run over her.'

Tamara stirred and moaned.

‘Should we move her off the road?' Suzie asked. Other questions whirled through her head. How could Tom and Prudence possibly be here, in rural Warwickshire, when she had left them more than a hundred miles away?

‘No, I think we'll just get her into the recovery position until we see how bad she's hurt. Could you get in the car and find those – what do you call them? – those lights that flash on and off.'

‘Hazard lights.'

‘Right. And there's a coat of mine on the back seat.'

As she turned to obey, Suzie was relieved to find that Tom had got control of his panic. He was talking crisply into his mobile. ‘. . . Just west of Little Fairings. We must be pretty close to a place called The House in the Forest.'

She set the orange lights flashing and came back with Prudence's jacket. The other woman had turned Tamara's head sideways. Her face looked ghostly in the artificial light, between the heavy waves of dark hair.

Suzie knelt beside her and eased the jacket under her head. There was a panicked skip of a heartbeat as she felt the stickiness of blood. ‘It's all right,' she said, forcing a smile. ‘Just lie still. The ambulance is on its way.' She took the girl's hand.

‘How are you feeling?' Prudence asked. ‘Do you have a pain anywhere?'

‘My head hurts.'

An enormous relief took hold of Suzie. Tamara's speech was slurred, but at least she was alive, conscious, coherent.

She felt ashamed that part of her terror was not just that Tamara would die, but that Tom might have killed her.

She realized she was shaking.

‘Now, before you get mad with Tom,' Prudence said, ‘let's just get one thing straight. The hire car's mine. I got this idea. If I'm flying out of Birmingham airport tomorrow, Warwickshire is kind of on my way. So why not? Well, I was having kittens, having to fly back to the States not knowing how this all was going to turn out. It was my idea to bring Tom along as the second driver.'

‘But how did you find us?'

‘Seems you told Tom where you were headed. Since then, he's been imagining goodness knows what, when you folks weren't answering your phones.'

Suzie had a guilty memory of seeing Tom's name on an incoming call and switching her mobile off. ‘No, sorry.'

‘We covered the distance in pretty good time. He drives well, your Tom.' She bent over Tamara. ‘What were you running away from?'

‘Someone . . . up to the summer house . . .' Tamara's speech was heavy with silences.

Suzie squeezed her hand. ‘Nick was coming to help. Did you know it was him?'

‘Someone else . . . woman . . .'

‘Petronella,' Suzie said softly.

She felt the spasm of the girl's hand within her own.

‘It's all right. She's not here. She can't get you now. You'll be safe in hospital. We'll look after you.'

Tamara's eyes closed. Suzie tapped her cheek. She had a feeling you weren't supposed to let the victim of an accident drift into unconsciousness. She shouldn't have blurted out the most frightening subject.

‘Millie's here,' she said. ‘We were coming to find you. We talked to your aunt. She's nice, isn't she? Millie guessed you might be staying here.' She spoke as lightly as if Tamara had just come away for a summer holiday.

‘Millie?' Tamara murmured.

A new fear grasped Suzie. Where
was
Millie? She had gone running ahead into the darkness of the woods.

Tom called sharply: ‘Someone's coming!'

Suzie twisted round, trying to see past the dark bulk of the hire car. She couldn't hear the expected siren of the ambulance, or see flashing lights. Through the purr of the engine they had left running she began to make out the sound of footsteps crackling through the undergrowth.

‘Tom!' Nick's voice made the same incredulous cry she had herself.

Nick came running into the shaft of light. There was someone with him. A slight blonde figure.

Millie let out a small scream and dropped to her knees beside Tamara. ‘Is she dead?'

‘No.' Suzie's reassurance was for Tamara, as well as Millie. ‘She's going to be all right.' She hoped it was true.

Nick cast a look round the scene. ‘I can't begin to imagine what's going on here. Explanations later. Have you called the police?'

Police? The word rang oddly in Suzie's mind. It was the ambulance they needed, wasn't it?

Tom's voice was emphatic. ‘Too right. We should have done that long ago.'

Suzie heard the catch of Nick's breath.

‘What's
that
?' he asked. He was staring into the wood at the roadside, shading his eyes from the glare of headlights. As she followed his gaze, Suzie caught the glimpse of something pale through the lower branches.

That running figure had been wearing light-coloured trousers. She glanced down. Tamara's jeans were black. It had been someone else they had seen. Someone chasing Tamara. Someone who was lurking even now to watch this unplanned outcome. To take the news to Reynard.

‘Pet!' she cried, leaping up. ‘Get her!'

Nick and Tom leaped for the bank and plunged into the wood. The dim shape that must be Petronella wheeled and darted away.

Suzie threw an anxious look behind her. Millie and Prudence were kneeling beside Tamara. The ambulance was on its way. She gave in to the desire for action and scrambled over the bank herself.

It was bafflingly dark beyond the headlights. But Petronella's trainers betrayed her progress as they swished and crackled through the leaves. Nick and Tom charged after her. Suzie sped in their wake.

She heard Pet cry out. The sounds of trampled leaves and snapping twigs gave way to human shouts.

‘Lie still,' Nick ordered. ‘You're not getting away with this. A girl may die because of you.'

Might she? Suzie's initial relief had been founded on so small a thing. That Tamara was conscious.

She stumbled upon them, almost cannoning into Tom. The two men were stooped over a small, prostrate figure.

‘The police are coming,' Tom grunted as he struggled with her. ‘Dad, have you got something to tie her wrists with?'

‘I'll get her shoelaces,' Suzie offered.

She knelt in the damp leaves and felt for those trainers. Pet kicked once as Suzie's hands closed round her ankle. Then she lay obstinately still, refusing to move her foot.

It was fiddlesome work, unthreading the laces, when she had only the feel of her fingertips to guide her. As she moved to the second leg, Suzie's knuckles connected with something hard. She finished her task and handed the laces to Nick. ‘Try these.'

She heard, rather than saw, him twist Pet's arms behind her and lash her wrists. It was reassuring to have Nick and Tom with her. Not to be alone in the dark wood, fearing what or whom she might meet. Or to be on the riverbank with only the mocking charm of Reynard for company. She shivered.

As she sat back on her heels, she remembered that moment when, instead of the soft fabric of Pet's trousers, her hand had met something harder under the cloth.

On an impulse, before her mind made sense of the memory, she reached out in the gloom. Her eyes had adjusted enough to see the pale fabric clothing Pet's legs. Her hand closed round it. She felt the long pocket of cargo pants. Yes, there was something under the cotton. Something long, narrow and hard. She ripped open the Velcro and drew it out. ‘She had this.'