Run to Me (32 page)

Zack watched Chase talking to her, trying to convince her. He could see the doctor moving his hands, pointing one way then the other. Mr Honesty. Mr Calm and Reasonable. Mr I-only-want-to-help.

Shyler didn’t seem any happier. She was still standing with her chin stuck out, holding the gun like she was ready to point
it at him again. It probably didn’t help that Chase was so much bigger than her. She’d feel scared no matter how calm he was.

Zack stood up. This was taking way too long; they had to get out of here. He didn’t like taking the doc’s side against Shyler but his way wasn’t just easier, it was faster. Maybe he could do
something to help convince her. Maybe if he showed her the log was safe . . .

Vanessa scanned the ground in desperation. She’d been bluffing her way for the last half hour hoping to pick up the trail again. So far no dice.

The bitch she was tracking had kept her group to rocky ground as much as possible and over the last such stretch their trail had simply disappeared. It didn’t matter how much training you had, no one could track a person over solid rock. But she knew
Tragg wouldn’t see it that way.

So, in the interests of self-preservation, she had been keeping it her little secret. She’d simply continued in the direction the others had been going before she’d lost them. She walked with assurance, gaze on the ground as though there was actually something there to see, and so far Tragg hadn’t caught on.

‘You sure this is the way?’ he spoke up suddenly as
though reading her thoughts.

‘Absolutely. Trail’s crystal clear.’

‘I don’t see anything.’

‘Trust me, it’s there.’

Another ten yards and she caught the sound of running water. A short distance further they pushed through some bushes to find a rocky fault line cutting across their path, disappearing into forest in either direction. At the bottom of the ten-foot-wide ravine, a stream followed
the gentle slope away to their left.

Vanessa pretended to check for traces, stalling for time while she made up her mind. Would the bitch have headed uphill or down? She chose the latter.

‘This way,’ she said, as though her decision had been based on physical evidence.

‘You wouldn’t be bullshitting me, would you?’ Tragg said after another twenty yards. ‘Back at the car you were sure they weren’t
more than half an hour ahead of us. So why haven’t we caught up to them yet?’

‘They must be moving faster than I thought.’

‘With one of them sick? How the hell –’

The pair stopped dead at the sound that echoed up the ravine. The exact words were indiscernible, but it was clearly a woman shouting.

Chase fought against his sense of urgency. They didn’t have time for this. Shyler was clearly distressed about something but they had to get moving. ‘Please, just tell me, what’s the problem with crossing here?’

‘We can’t. It’s too –’ She clamped off the words.

‘The log? It’s too what? Too thin? Too high? Too weak? What?’

She didn’t answer.

‘If you’re worried about Jesse, I told
you I’ll help him.’

‘No! He mustn’t go anywhere near it!’ Body hunched, gaze darting, she clutched the rifle.

Chase watched her in disbelief. This was the woman he’d seen in his office – anxious, hyper-vigilant and uncommunicative. A reaction to something beyond their current situation. Behaviour that worsened every time he mentioned crossing the ravine. Or, more specifically, whenever he mentioned
Jesse crossing it.

A thought exploded. Could that be it? The tree was a bridge? Hadn’t her ex said Shyler had thrown their son off a –

‘Hey, look at me!’

At the sound from behind them they turned in unison. Jesse
was standing in the middle of the log, legs braced, waving his arms. ‘See, Mom? It’s okay!’

Shyler staggered a single step, emitting a sound like a strangled sob.

‘Come on! It’s
easy,’ the boy called out. ‘Just follow me!’

He turned to continue his passage across when the peace was shattered by a gale of gunfire.

Resting the barrel of her Weatherby Mark V against a boulder, Vanessa paused to calculate drop to target.

On rounding a bend in their downhill course and glimpsing the boy standing on the log below, she and Tragg had had nothing to lose and everything to gain
by opening fire. And though the view from their vantage point was partially obstructed by overhanging trees, Tragg currently had their target pinned by a steady stream of automatic fire.

Placing her eye to the telescopic sight she caressed the trigger. ‘Hold it right there, you little shit.’

At the first burst of gunfire Jesse flinched, nearly losing his balance on the log. Arms outstretched, he started for the opposite bank. A volley cut across his path and with his next backward step his foot slid off the side.

Suddenly he was hanging from the log, not standing on it.

Chase sprinted towards him. Running beside him, Shyler fired blindly up the ravine. An effort he prayed
would give them all a few seconds’ cover.

They reached the log and started across. Jesse was clinging to the shattered remains of one of its branches, splinters flying about his head. Shyler fired her second round and as Chase reached down to pull the boy up there was a moment of silence.

Almost at once the din resumed. Heedless of the drop to the rocks below they raced for shelter. On the far
side Chase pushed the others behind a boulder, then turned and ran back.

The doc was nuts. They were safe, they’d made it! All they had to do was run into the forest. What the hell was he going back for?

Catching his breath, Zack stood gaping. Beside him Shyler was reloading her rifle. When she finished she jumped up and ran back as well.

Zack stretched up to see the two of them. Chase had
grabbed the end of the log and was trying to lift it. He was clearly struggling but Shyler wasn’t helping. Instead she stood at the bushes next to him, aiming her rifle into the foliage. ‘Come out of there! Now!’

From above them the automatic fire resumed. An arc of bullets struck the log and began swinging in Chase’s direction. ‘What are you doing?’ he yelled to Shyler. He’d managed to lift
the log an inch. ‘Either help me or get back.’

Shyler thrust her gun towards the bush again. ‘I know it’s you! I swear I’ll shoot if you don’t come out!’

Straining with his burden, Chase began walking it to one side. Zack finally got what he was trying to do. But the gunshots were almost to his hands!

‘Shyler, for God’s sake, there’s nobody there!’

The man’s desperate words gave Zack an idea.
Breaking cover he rushed to Shyler, grabbed her arm and spun her around. ‘They went back behind us!’ he yelled, pointing up the ravine.

Shyler swung the rifle around and fired. In the resulting brief silence she pushed Zack away then looked down and saw what Chase was doing. Firing her last round up the stream, she shouldered her weapon and dashed to help him.

‘I lost them!’ Tragg called from behind the tree he’d been using as cover. ‘Have you got a fix?’

‘Too many branches. Let’s move down.’ Before Vanessa had finished her sentence the man was running.

Together they raced along the ravine, pausing only where terrain or foliage provided cover for a possible ambush. When they reached the spot where Zack had stood on the fallen log, they
found both him and his accomplices gone.

Stepping to the edge, Vanessa peered into the ravine. There it was – their fastest, easiest way across, smashed to splinters on the rocks below.

She stiffened at the feel of Tragg moving up to stand beside her. Then flinched when, in unchecked frustration, he fired a volley blindly into the forest on the other side.

‘There’s got to be another way across,’
she said when the shots died away. ‘All this has done is buy them some time.’

Vanessa paused to catch her breath. It had taken them a good half hour to work their way down the rocky slope, and another
before the ravine had narrowed enough that they could jump across. Now, as they stood on the opposite side overlooking the flat stretch ahead, she suddenly had an uneasy feeling.

‘I think we should
go back to where they crossed and follow them from there.’

Tragg looked up the slope they’d descended then back at her. ‘They’re heading for town; that’s over that way.’ He pointed to their left. ‘We keep going straight we’ll cut ’em off.’

She frowned. ‘That’s what’s bothering me.’

‘What the hell are you talking about?’

‘I’m not sure the bitch would keep going that way. She’d know we’d expect
her to and change direction.’

‘So which way do you think she’s going?’

‘I don’t know. That’s why I’m saying –’

Tragg swore.

‘If we go this way we’ll be walking blind,’ Vanessa reasoned. ‘If we climb back up I can find their trail again.’

‘Which’ll put us at least two hours behind them.’

‘Better than losing them completely. Besides, if they aren’t heading for town we’ve got all the time in
the world to catch them.’ She held out the map for his inspection. ‘There’s nothing but wilderness in every other direction.’

Shyler stepped out on the narrow escarpment and looked to the distance. The last rays of sunlight warmed her face and formed a golden pool along the horizon. Undulating mountains, streaked in the sepia tones of dusk, sprawled like a giant bedded down for the night.

Shifting her gaze to the valley floor, she wondered for perhaps the twentieth time if her ploy had worked. Their pursuers
would no doubt have expected them to head for town after crossing the ravine so she’d done just the opposite and kept to high ground. If they hadn’t picked up on what she’d done they were down there right now, floundering in the dark, unable to find any trace of their quarry. Which meant for the moment Jesse was safe and they could allow themselves a much-needed rest.

But although she was tired
enough to drop in her tracks, she doubted she would get any sleep. Her behaviour at the ravine still haunted her. With every step she had taken since, she’d grown more convinced only a small part of what she’d experienced had actually been real.

The prospect was terrifying. It was as though a black hole existed in her mind, a well of secret unspeakable horrors. She
sensed that understanding those
images was vital to the decisions she was making now. Yet the thought of shining a light on that space and actually seeing what was there . . .

She shuddered as the forest’s chill washed over her. The sun was gone now, leaving her to face her dawning realisations with fading hope. If it was true, if she had lost touch, then she couldn’t be trusted to take care of Jesse. More than that, it meant
her lapses – face it, her madness – might actually place him in greater danger.

She heard a muffled grunt as Chase, having caught up to her at last, tripped over something in the deepening gloom. His footsteps halted at the forest’s edge. ‘You must have eyes like an owl. What do you say we stop for the night?’

She stayed as she was, unable to answer.

‘Yeah, I’m hungry,’ came a supporting vote.

At the sound of Jesse’s voice, tears were suddenly burning her eyes. And with them a phantom freed from its grave – a voice in her mind, repeating the same words over and over.
What have I done? What have I done?

Chase walked a stone’s toss back into the woods. He wanted to camp near enough to the cliff to profit from any moonlight available but not so close that one of them might wander off
the edge in the night.

Crouching down, he let his passenger slide from his back. ‘Looks like we’ll be camping here.’

‘It’s cold.’ The boy peered around at the deepening shadows.

‘I know. We can’t light a fire, unfortunately, but if we sleep close together we’ll be all right.’ Chase pulled the blanket around the boy and gave his shoulders a vigorous rub. Perhaps cold wasn’t the only thing bothering
him. ‘Get yourself settled and I’ll bring you some food.’

By the last of the fading light Chase walked over to stand beside Shyler. She seemed unaware of him, deep in thought. He lowered his voice so the boy wouldn’t hear. ‘Shyler, where have we been headed these last three hours?’

She didn’t answer.

‘Even I know we weren’t this far from town. Where have we been going?’

‘Away from where we
were.’

‘Could you perhaps be a bit more specific?’

‘I don’t know.’

Her voice had been even softer this time – he couldn’t possibly have heard her correctly. ‘What was that?’

‘That’s right, I have no idea.’ At last she turned to him. ‘All I know is what we’re running
from
.’

‘You mean we’re lost.’

‘I didn’t say that. I know exactly where we are. I just don’t know where we can go that’s safe.’

At the strain in her voice his chest grew tight. He gave her a moment then reached up and gently took her shoulders. ‘Shyler, we can’t wander around these woods forever.’

Her body sagged and for a moment he thought she might actually lean against him. Instead she straightened.

‘I know.’ She swallowed. ‘Which is why at first light tomorrow you’re going to take Jesse and head for town.’

‘I am?’

‘When the sun comes up I’ll show you the way.’

‘And what will you be doing in the meantime?’

‘Waiting here.’

‘For them, you mean.’ When she gave no answer he understood. ‘No, I’m sorry, that’s not an option.’

‘Look, I know what’s happening, I know that I’m –’

Her words cut off, somehow leaving him with the impression
it had been her own state of mind she’d thought to discuss. Or maybe that
was only what he wanted to believe.

Her behaviour back at the ravine had disturbed him. For a few crucial moments she’d appeared to disengage from reality. And she’d been distant and preoccupied ever since, even to the boy. Now he grew hopeful. Awareness that a problem existed was the first step in treatment. ‘What, Shyler? What do you know?’

But the moment had passed. She shook her head. ‘As
far as I can see it’s the only option. I stop them here or it never ends.’