Delicious Desires (15 page)

Chapter Sixteen

Cathy was completely shattered. The sunshine had brought more than the usual crowd to the beach even though it was windy. She had been inundated with hungry walkers and had nearly run out of the fresh stocks.

Caroline had been gone much longer than she had expected. She hadn’t realized how long it was until she looked at her watch. It was past midday. Caroline had been gone almost three hours and Cathy was suddenly very worried.

She climbed out of the back of the van and immediately felt the wind swirling round her. It was much stronger facing the sea front. She wondered where her friend had gone. It took her a few seconds to notice that the tide was now well up. There was hardly any beach to speak of and it only took her moments to see that Caroline wasn’t anywhere in view along the promenade. She felt in her pocket for her mobile phone and dialled her friend’s number. Immediately she heard it ringing inside the van where she had left her phone under the counter. She cut it off and dialled David.

“Is Caroline with you?” She asked him as soon as he picked up the phone.

“Cathy, is that you? No, she’s not with me here. I thought she was working on the van with you today.” His tone was relaxed as Cathy responded.

“The chocolate brownie
s set her off. They were still warm and smelled a bit rich. She was sick again and went for a walk. She hasn’t come back yet.” Cathy was now seriously worried. “She hasn’t taken her phone David and she’s been gone over three hours now.”

David gasped.

“What! She would never have left you for that long. Perhaps she met up with that Cavendish bloke. She was going to try and see him at the building site today.” He sounded concerned.

Cathy turned
and lifted her head to look towards the building site. She shielded her eyes from the blowing sand as she scanned along towards the building site.

“She didn’t mention
doing that to me, and even if she had met him I’m sure she would have come back by now. We’ve had to turn the van to face the site today. It’s too windy to face the front and I haven’t seen her go anywhere near the site. In fact it all looks pretty quiet over there.” She glanced back along the site that had once been buildings. There were one or two of the huge diggers moving about the new skeletal structures but there were no other hard-hatted men there today that she could see. It looked as though everyone else was having the day off.

David’s voice came back at her again.

“Where did you last see her heading for? I’ll come down and have a look around. She may be just tired again and sitting on the sand having a nap.”

Cathy could hear him moving about at the
other end phone as her eyes travelled over the beach again.

“She was heading along the beach towards the cliffs. She needed the fresh air.” Her voice was quiet. “David, there’s hardly any sand left for her to sit on and have a nap. The tide
’s coming in fast.” Cathy gulped and didn’t say anything else. There was a few seconds’ silence on the other end of the phone.

“Get off the line Cathy.” David was deadly serious. “I’m calling
the coast guard. I bet she’s fallen asleep and been cut off by the tide.” The phone clicked dead and Cathy immediately began to run towards the lifeboat house.

Caroline was half asleep listening to the soothing sounds of the crashing waves. She kept her eyes closed not wanting to let go of her dreams.

Suddenly her feet and bottoms of her legs were engulfed in freezing water. She leapt up and scrabbled back towards the rocks behind her as she saw another wave rushing up the sand to reach her.

My God!
She thought,
however long had she been there?
The thought was just a brief flicker in her mind as she gazed around her and realized the seriousness of her situation.

The sea was everywhere, a
lready hitting the cliffs and cutting her off from the town. Huge surges of frothing water sent up great plumes of spray into the sky. Terrified, she turned in the opposite direction and made for the wider end of the beach but that area was nearly cut off too. She could see just a slither of sand that might give her a fighting chance of getting out of the cove. She started to run along the sand, hoping that she could make it round the cliff end in time, but it quickly became obvious that she was hopelessly too late.

By the time she reached halfway t
he waves were already crashing in, frothing and spurting frigid water against the shore. Caroline looked back at the cliff. No way to climb up far, but there were a few higher rocks at the base that would give her some protection for maybe fifteen or twenty minutes.

She shoved her hand
in her pocket to grab her phone. She was going to need some help getting out of this situation and seeing how high the water rose normally just by looking at the difference in the colour of the rock face had her gasping in near despair. The waterline was far higher than the last rocks she could use for safety.

Her heart picked up a frantic beat as her hand met only
the soft cotton lining of her jacket and she realized that her phone wasn’t in her pocket. She spun and looked to where she had slept in the sun but that area was already covered by the frothing water. She scanned the waves, trying to gauge whether it was an option to swim and dismissed the idea immediately as another huge roller crashed into the sand and threatened to engulf her. The wind was blowing the waves in far too strongly for her to swim against them, even if it hadn’t been too cold.

She stood out on the now tiny piece of sand and waved her arms and shouted back towards the town. She didn’t know if anyone would see her, but she had to try something. Anything.

The rocks were her only option. They were not easy to climb. She clawed her way up their craggy faces knowing that she could only do this because she was down to her last resort. Her hands protested at the sharpness of the stones, all covered with tiny barnacles and horribly pointed shells. Her nails cracked and her bleeding palms stung painfully as she heaved herself up, the waves snatching at her ankles all the time.

Minutes passed as she clawed her way from one rock to the next
, barely outrunning the ever crashing waves. She was at the highest point she could reach and she knew it was useless. There was nowhere on the cliff to hang onto, nowhere else to cling to. The stone was polished smooth from its twice daily battering.

The sea was going to get her. Tears came to her eyes as she thought of her baby. They were going to die together. The water was just below her feet and she was soaked through and cold from the spray.

She stood up on the last part of the rock showing above the swirling white froth and screamed at the waves in a show of defiant frustration.

A
huge rush of surf knocked her off her feet, dragging her across the sharp stone before sucking her back into deeper water. She gasped for air as she was turned over and over, but only felt cold wetness flooded her mouth.

Choking, she struggled to raise her head above the water, for once hating her long hair as it caught round her
neck and dragged her downwards.

Another
wave crashed over her, sending her tumbling towards the jagged rocks again. Her head struck one of the massive stones sharply and she felt herself going limp just as she caught sight of the orange form of the life boat as it roared around the cliff edge towards her.

Chapter Seventeen

Adam leapt out of Daniel’s car and charged towards the lifeboat. He didn’t even glance at the woman wringing her hands at the side of it, talking quickly to the skipper, her hands gesticulating as she spoke but he stopped dead when he recognized who she was.

“Cathy?” He questioned
to make sure. He’d never been introduced to her before but had called her the day Caroline had stayed in his spare bed. He had seen her in the shop with Caroline and at the nightclub. “What’s going on?”

Cathy rounded
on him at the sound of his voice and stepped right up to him, her face contorted with anguished fury.

“This is all your fault, you arrogant pig!” She shouted at him. “If she dies today, you can blame yourself for it. I’ll never
forgive you for what you’ve put her through.”

Adam staggered back under her verbal attack.

“What?” The shock in his voice was audible as her meaning became clear. Caroline was the only person they knew in common. “This callout is for Caroline? Where is she?” He took hold of Cathy’s shoulders and gave her a tiny shake, trying to hold back the sudden feeling of his body imploding.

Cathy tried to shake him off.

“She went for a walk along the beach, she felt so ill but she hasn’t come back. She left me in charge of the van hours ago and went to clear her head. David and I think she’s walked along the beach and fallen asleep. She’s been exhausted recently what with everything going on and now we think she’s cut off by the tide.” Cathy almost spat the words at him and tore herself away from his grasp, tears now evident in her eyes.

Aghast at the implications Adam turned; he looked at his worried
skipper and then back at the sea. It was obvious the tide was nearly fully up. He scanned the whole bay before turning back to the chief. He was breathing hard and fast, his look telling them all they needed to know. There wasn’t much hope of saving her now.

“Let’s get out there and try to find her. There may be a small chance.” His voice was tortured and even Cathy could see that every drop of blood had drained from his face as he spoke. His bandaged hands shook as he joined the rest of the team in the boat and they la
unched a few seconds later as David ran across the road to meet them.

Daniel was out of his car, staring after Adam in horror as his friend went off, possibly to find only the body of the woman he loved.

If only Trish and Alf had called him a day earlier. He used his phone to call an ambulance. The coast guard had probably done it already, might have even had a direct line but he wasn’t going to take a chance and he needed something to do while he waited for their return. There was no way he couldn’t be here when they returned. Adam would be inconsolable, dangerous possibly, if they either couldn’t find her or if they were too late.

All six of the team had their binoculars focused on the sea’s edge as they rounded the cliffs at the end of the bay. The waves were crashing right up against the rocks now, spray flying high as it hit the jagged stones. There was virtually no place that a person could find refuge.

“We’ll go another four miles, she could have walked that far if she’d had a couple of hours.” The skipper
’s face was grim and he didn’t dare look at Adam. He hadn’t understood exactly what the woman on the quayside meant when she had been shouting at Adam, but it was obvious that there was some involvement there. They pulled round the next point.

T
here was a triumphant shout from one of the men.

“There
, I can see her! Look! She’s going under again.” He was pointing directly at the cliff, fifty meters in front of the boat. The skipper couldn’t see anyone but he trusted his men and if one of them said they had seen something then that was enough for him. He turned the boat in the direction of the man’s pointing finger. The crewman pulled a flashlight and shone it on the water highlighting the point where he had seen the figure going down.

They were dangerously close to the cliffs now, but there was n
o way they could launch the jet-ski in this swell and they could see nothing on the surface. The skipper corrected the position of the lifeboat time and time again as the waves crashed against it.

Adam was frantic as he shifted along the side
rail of the boat, his eyes never leaving the ever swirling water, scanning this way and that as he prayed for a miracle. He glanced back at his teammate. The flashlight remained focused in the same position, the man’s eyes never leaving the last spot he had seen the woman go down.

A
great heave of water pushed them in close to the cliff and the boat tipped violently with the back surge. The skipper shoved the engines into reverse just as Adam caught sight of what looked like a great patch of dark brown seaweed floating on the water’s surface.

He didn’t need to look twice, he
knew exactly what he was seeing and he plunged over the side and into the freezing water.

He floundered about for a few seconds, diving twice and coming up empty handed, his life jacket
for once more hindrance than help, then suddenly his hand was surrounded by the thick brown tendrils. He closed his fist on them and pulled as hard as he could.

She broke the surface as limp and pale as the dead and Adam cried out as
he yanked her up by her hair towards him. Her clothes were waterlogged and threatening to drag them both down again but he strained against the extra weight and kept her head above the water.

He turned his head to look for the lifeboat and had the shock of his life when he saw it just a few feet behind him. The skipper was shouting and
waving frantically from the deck but Adam couldn’t hear a word above the noise of the waves.

It was just then that his brain registered that the crashing waves were all he could hear. The engines in the lifeboat had cut out, perhaps swamped by the big wave that had threatened to tip them. The skipper had virtually no control over the boat at all.

They were too near the cliff and the lifeboat was being pushed towards them by the incoming tide. Adam knew he could swim out of the way but not with Caroline slowing him down. He made his decision. There was really no decision to make.

He’d rather die with her than live a single day more without her.

He turned his back to the boat, pulling her into the space between his arms, lifting her head as high as he could and balancing her on his thigh. He braced himself against the cliff face, his broken hands protesting sharply as he pressed them into the barnacle covered rocks. His legs struggled against the surging current sloshing between him and the lifeboat. He could only hope that his life jacket would cushion the blow.

The boat
was pushed up on the next crest and Adam felt the crack in his shoulder as it hit his back. He ignored the screaming, burning pain and clamped his jaws together as he turned his body into a steel cage around the woman he loved. The crushing feeling was over for a second as the receding wave sucked the boat backwards. He braced himself for the next onslaught. This time it was harder and he bellowed in fury as the boat threatened to break his resolve and crush them both against the rocks.

H
e lifted his head and gasped in relief as he heard a great spluttering roar as the engines picked up and the lifeboat immediately edged away from them.

Adam couldn’t move from the cliff face. He had locked his body down so hard
that for a moment he didn’t know how to release it. He felt hands on his screaming shoulders, pulling him away and upwards as he clung on to Caroline’s limp form, dragging her through the water with him.

He fell onto the low deck and immediately slithered to the floor, his freezing legs unable to support him. He could see two of the crew already working on Caroline. Breathing into her and givin
g counted chest compressions. Adam tried to stand up, but the agonizing pain in his back was now almost impossible to bear. His face was contorted with the effort as he hauled himself towards her, using the little power he had left in his arms. His shoulder felt as though it were coming out through his chest, his right arm was clunky and awkward and his legs were scrabbling oddly, almost dragging behind him.

“Caroline!” He shouted as he touched her body at last, grasping at her arms. She was cold and limp. He grabbed her from the two men, every muscle straining with the effort
. All pain was forgotten for a moment. He pulled her to him sharply, cradling her limp, waterlogged body in his arms. He shouted her name again as huge gasping sobs threatened to overtake him. He wasn’t sure if the pain in his chest was from an injury or something that would be impossible to mend. His heart shuddered as he saw her bloodless white face and he shook her in desperation as he called her name once more.

A
great heave of water spouted from between her blue lips and she started to cough, more water coming up after she choked in a huge gasp of air. He slumped back at last, giving her up to his colleagues again, relief sweeping over him as Caroline was lifted away.

Adam lay
flat on the deck trying not to move, giving in to the intense pain in his chest and back.

He thought he must be dying as he
gasped in the cold air. His lungs wouldn’t expand, his breath rattled in his chest. He felt the blackness closing in around him, pressing on his bones and constricting his limbs. He fought to keep himself conscious but it was a losing battle. He felt other arms around him and people shouting over the top of him as he was moved and then his eyes began to lose focus and he drifted into the dark.