The Fall Girl (24 page)

“We need to get out of here. Can you walk?”

Lexy nodded.

Tyman raised his voice. “I’m taking Lexy down to the cottage.”

“No.” Ward’s voice was harsh with pain. “Leave her... here... with me.” He fell back again.

“What’s the matter with you?” Tyman shone the torch on his brother. Ward was curled up on the ground, his face a study of pain. “My ankle,” he spat. “I need
help. Go on your own. It’ll be quicker.”

“No way.”

Lexy looked from one to the other. She had an overwhelming feeling that she was in danger from one of the Gallimore brothers. She just didn’t know which.

Ducking forward, she sprinted off.

Ward gave a harsh yell. “Don’t let her go!”

Lexy stumbled through the undergrowth until she found the path, rimed by silver moonlight, then she ran flat out, her breath coming in great sobs.

Running footsteps began to gain on her. That wasn’t just a dream she’d had – it was a bloody premonition.

Just as she thought her heart and lungs would explode, Lexy saw a bobbing light ahead of her.

“Lexy! Whoa!”

Milo.

She threw herself on him.

Tyman windmilled to a halt a few feet away, then tried to sprint past them.

Milo didn’t even hesitate. Seeming to swell in size, he pushed Lexy behind him and leapt forward in one movement.

Tyman crashed to the ground with a yell.

Milo knelt over the prone form. “Well, don’t just stand there,” he snapped. “Get my torch.”

Numbly, Lexy bent to pick it up from the path where he had dropped it.

Milo shone it over his victim. “Better make sure I haven’t killed him, I suppose.”

“And ... have you?”

“Nah. Just unconscious. He’ll come round in a minute. You’re OK, are you?” He shone a light over Lexy.

She nodded.

“So – and forgive me if this is a silly question – but what the sodding hell’s going on here?”

“Foxes,” came a voice from the darkness. They whirled around.

Ward limped into the halo of light cast by Milo’s torch, leaning heavily on a piece of wood, gun at his shoulder. He looked like a victim from the trenches. His face was Dover cliff white.
“We were... after foxes. We weren’t expecting to see her up here.” He jerked his head at Lexy.

“But when you did, you decided to take the opportunity to deal with me.” Lexy took a step forward.

Ward hesitated, eyes narrow. He was trying to remember where he’d said those words.

“Outside the pub,” Lexy prompted him, her voice rising. “That’s what you said, wasn’t it?”

Did Ward summon up a ghostly smile?

Lexy felt Milo’s restraining hand on her arm.

Tyman gave a faint moan from where he lay on the path.

“I should get your brother home and looked at if I were you,” Milo remarked. “He may have concussion. He fell rather heavily just now.”

Ward bent stiffly over Tyman, then with a grunt of pain, collapsed on to the path beside him.

“My ankle. Killing me.” He lay back with a grimace.

Milo produced a mobile phone.

“You won’t get a signal.” Lexy was right.

“OK. We’re going to get some help for you,” Milo told Ward.

“Just get my father. Down... at the farm. Don’t call an ambulance or... anything.” He meant no
police. Lexy wondered what he’d say if he knew he was talking to a detective inspector.

“And don’t be long.”

“Don’t be long?” She gave an incredulous snort.

Milo bent and picked up Ward’s gun, using a white handkerchief.

“Hey! Don’t touch that.” Ward tried to sit upright and yelled out in pain. “What are you doing?”

“This.” Milo cracked it open, removed the cartridges, and put them in his pocket. “I’ll take it down with me. So it’s out of harm’s way.”

“Who do you think you are? You can’t do that.”

“Watch me.”

“Great.” Ward lay back again.

“Ready?” Milo nodded at Lexy. They set off down the path at a jog, the torch lighting their way.

“You’ve done that before, haven’t you?” said Lexy. “That thing with the gun?”

“I may have had some training.”

She took a sideways glance at Milo. She couldn’t believe she’d hurled herself at him like that.

“Thanks for... back there,” she mumbled.

“Glad to be of service.”

“It was like something out of Superman.”

“I’m not usually like that.”

“What were you doing up there?”

“I came to see you. Bit late because I was tied up with work.”

“Thought I heard an engine.”

“You’ve got sharp ears. I parked further down the path and walked up, because I didn’t want to wake the whole cottage up. I was coming up into the clearing when I saw you
creeping across the lawn.”

“So you followed me?”

“I wasn’t going to start yelling to you. Anyway, I was curious.”

“Lucky you were, as it turned out.”

“Why was he chasing you?”

“Who, Tyman?” Lexy paused. “You’re not going to like this.”

“Tell me anyway.”

“Milo – I was right all along. They’re trying to kill me. At least Ward is. He fired that gun straight at me tonight – deliberately.”

“And Tyman?”

“He was trying to stop him, but Ward told him to get out of the way. Tyman shouted at Ward not to shoot, but he did anyway. I couldn’t believe it. And when Ward realised he’d
missed, he ran straight for me. He was going to have another go, at close range. The only reason he didn’t was because he fell and dropped the gun – at which point he had the goddamn
nerve to ask me if I was all right.”

“Lexy, I know you’re stuck on this idea that the Gallimores are after your blood, but are you certain Ward was running in for another shot at you? Did he have the gun
raised?”

“Yes!” Lexy jogged on for a few more strides, then slowed. “Well, actually, no. He was holding it down low.”

“Has it occurred to you they simply didn’t realise you were there?”

It made sense, but Lexy wasn’t going to give in to reason yet. “I tell you, Milo – when he first saw me, Ward aimed that gun right at me. He must have known I was there. Tyman
was screaming at him not to shoot me. Stop a sec.” Lexy paused at the side of the path to get her breath, trying to think straight about what had just occurred. “You know, it would be
the perfect way to get rid of me, wouldn’t it? A shooting accident. After all, I’d been trespassing on private land – land I’d already been warned off... ”

“Give over.”

“Listen – the Gallimores definitely had something to do with Elizabeth’s death. They know that I know, and now they’re trying to arrange a similar accident for me.
It’s so... bloody obvious. I can’t understand why you won’t see it.”

“It’s not for lack of trying. Believe me, I’ve trawled those files – spent half of last night doing it, actually. I still can’t find a motive.”

“I’ll get you one.” She could have at least thanked him.

“Wish you would. Speaking of which, you haven’t mentioned what you were doing up the hill tonight.”

“I saw one of the Gallimores creeping up there earlier. At least I assume it was one of them. I wanted to know what he was up to. So I followed him.”

“Just can’t leave it alone, can you?”

They ran along in silence for a while, until Four Winds Cottage came into view, and they slowed. “Want to go in?”

Lexy shook her head. “No, I’ll come down to the farm with you.”

Milo led the way down the steep track to the farm, the grass, already damp with dew, soaking their feet.

Bruce was up when they got there, pacing the yard. He’d been waiting for his sons to get back. When Milo had given him an edited account of what had happened, leaving out Lexy’s
accusations against Bruce’s first born, the farmer ran for the Land Rover, his florid face wobbling in concern.

“Get in, get in.” He started the engine and swung the vehicle around. Lexy and Milo jumped into the back seat.

“So, what were you doing up there?” Bruce shouted above the engine as they bounced up the rutted track.

“Kinky ran off up into the woods earlier,” Lexy improvised. The farmer didn’t know she’d off-loaded the chihuahua. “Luckily Milo turned up, so he came to help me
look.”

“Did you find him?”

“Yes. He’s safe and sound.” In Edward de Glenville’s ancestral kitchen.

“Well, that’s something. Wouldn’t like to think of him...” Bruce’s voice trailed away.

He managed to get the vehicle part of the way up through the woods beyond Four Winds Cottage. They piled out and walked the short distance to where Ward and Tyman had been left.

Tyman was conscious again. He’d managed to bind Ward’s ankle with a torn-up t-shirt and get him up, supporting his brother along the path, but their progress looked painful. Bruce
pushed himself under Ward’s other arm.

He looked across at Tyman. “Understand you fell hard, son.”

“You could say that.” Tyman gingerly felt the back of his head, throwing a resentful glance at Milo.

Bruce helped his sons into the Land Rover. “We don’t need to mention this incident to the authorities, do we?”

“I don’t know. Do we?” said Milo.

“No one was shot. No real ’arm done.”

Milo gripped Lexy’s shoulder just as she opened her mouth to protest.

“Agh!”

“What’s that, pet?”

“Nothing. Lexy and I will walk down to the cottage from here,” said Milo. “It’s not far.”

“Right you are.” The Land Rover lurched off.

“Why’d you stop me?” Lexy shouted.

“Because I want to get my head around what happened first.”

“Why don’t you believe me?”

“Tell me about the shooting bit from the beginning.”

Lexy sighed. “It was dark, and I’d gone off the path. I heard Ward shouting at Tyman to get out of the way. I heard Tyman shouting at Ward not to shoot. Then I heard an explosion
right next to me. Practically deafened me.”

“So Ward might have been aiming at a fox all the time.”

Lexy shrugged. “Then why did Tyman warn him not to shoot?”

“That’s one of the two questions we have to ask ourselves.”

“And the other?”

“Why did Ward ignore him?”

“There you are!” Steve strode out of the garden shadows when they reached the cottage. “I heard a shot on the hillside. It woke me up, and the girls too. Then
we heard the Land Rover – we went downstairs and found you were missing. Didn’t know what to do – whether to call the police, or go up there ourselves and try to find you. Are you
OK, Lexy?”

He had taken her hands. She was aware of Milo looking on. “Yeah, of course I am.”

Rowana ran out of the cottage, looking hysterical. “You’d gone from the sofa. We thought you’d been shot.”

Gabrielle stood framed in the doorway in a flimsy nightdress.

“Oi – get a dressing gown on,” Steve called.

Lexy withdrew her hands. “I was...” Damn, she couldn’t use the Kinky line here. “... out badger-spotting and the Gallimores were out shooting. Bad combination.”

“Shooting badgers? That must be illegal – shouldn’t the police be told?”

“They were shooting foxes, apparently,” said Lexy, eyeing Milo.

“And I am the police,” he announced.

Steve’s head jerked up. Rowana went white.

“Technically, the only person who’s broken the law is Lexy. She was trespassing on private land. But I don’t think they’re going to prosecute,” Milo added.

“I should bleedin’ well think not,” Lexy muttered.

“So what exactly happened?” Gabrielle asked. They were all in the kitchen, sipping hot tea.

Lexy felt like she’d scream if she had to go over this one more time. “I was just heading up the path to where I knew the um... badger sett was, and there was this sudden commotion,
and I heard Ward and Tyman yelling.”

She didn’t bother repeating exactly what she had heard Ward and Tyman yelling. It wasn’t going to do her any good.

“Then I heard a shot, and I threw myself to the ground, thinking I’d been hit. Ward came rushing up, fell over and injured his ankle, then Tyman turned up, I ran off, he came after
me, and Milo suddenly appeared and knocked Tyman out.”

“Bit like a Carry On film, in fact,” Milo remarked.

“Yeah, it was a laugh a minute.”

“But Ward
is
all right?” Gabrielle demanded.

“Think so.” Lexy drained her tea. “I’m fine as well, thanks.”

“I’d better be off.” Milo pushed himself up.

Lexy went to the door with him.

“Why’d you come and see me so late, anyway?”

He looked beyond her up the hall.

“It was about your husband again.”

“What?”

“He caught up with you earlier, didn’t he?”

“How do you... ?”

“Someone reported an incident in the supermarket car park earlier today. Involving a lime green Fiat Panda and a bloke with a wrench.”

“Oh... crap.”

“Let me see your arm.” Milo pushed Lexy’s jacket sleeve up before she could stop him. “He do this?”

“Just before he smashed my windscreen.”

“Never a dull moment with you, is there?”

“Well, you know – I like to keep busy.”

“Where is Kinky, by the way?”

“That’s why Gerard was smashing his way into my car. He decided he wanted him back.”

“Seriously?”

“Yup. For some reason it seemed to annoy him when I explained I’d donated his half million quid to a bird sanctuary. He made a sudden decision to take Kinky in lieu.”

“I take it he didn’t succeed.”

“’Course not. But it was a close run thing. I left Kinky with Edward – told him to keep him shut in for a few days over at the manor. The mutt won’t like it, but at least
he’ll be safe. Just in case Gerard’s looking for me.”

“Probably for the best.” Milo hesitated, as if he wanted to say something else.

“Can you look in on Kinky?” Lexy asked. “If you get a chance?”

“What – and run the gauntlet of Edward and Peter?” Milo gave her his crooked smile. “No problem.”

Lexy awoke with a jump the next morning. It took a few moments for her to register that she was safe on the sofa in Four Winds Cottage, rather than at the wrong end of a
shotgun barrel. Or a long-handled wrench. She really had to get more choosy about who she associated with in future.