BACKWOODS RIPPER: a gripping action suspense thriller (15 page)

Chapter Nineteen

Paige leaned the shotgun against the side of the backstairs taking care to make as little sound as possible. Before leaving the house, she turned off the light in the dormitory and closed the door. If Lizzy woke, Paige hoped she’d assume everyone was asleep.

She lowered herself to the second step from the bottom and winced as her thighs protested and the stair creaked. The moon, partially hidden behind gauzy grey clouds, offered only the faintest silver light. Most of the yard remained in darkness, the sheds and grevillea bushes only recognisable as jagged black outlines. By the light of the phone, Paige slipped on her dirty tennis shoes. They were dry now, but the canvas felt stiff and unyielding against her feet.

She used the banister to haul herself up, and picked up the shotgun. She felt strangely light, as if the weight of her belly had lessened somehow. Not unpleasant, but unsettling in its newness.
Adrenalin
, she told herself and hoisted the gun into the crook of her arm.

The wind kicked up a notch and the associated rustling and rattling provided noise cover. Not that crossing the yard was noisy, far from it. Paige followed the small arc of blue light past the Hills Hoist and towards the bushes. Once she was on the other side of the grevilleas, she’d be out of sight.

She rounded the bushes and a scraping thump brought her to a halt. She sucked in air as if jolted by an electric shock and fumbled with the gun. The light bounced around and slid from her hand, hit the ground, and landed near her feet. Her head snapped left and right searching for the source of the faint sound. Without the light, it was impossible to see more than a metre in front of her.

Paige clenched the handle of the gun and lifted it higher, without the light she had no idea where to aim. Her head still moving back and forth, she crouched down and snatched the phone out of the grass. This time she nearly lost her grip on the gun. She tightened her grasp and stood up.

Blood rushed through her ears and her breath came in sharp barks. If Lizzy had been walking behind her, Paige probably wouldn’t have heard her over the wind and her own panicked breathing. She moved the light in a wide arc, observing as much as possible before taking another step.

The noise had come from the left and at least a few metres ahead, somewhere in the direction of the sheds.
Could Lizzy be hiding in a shed?
It was possible. Maybe she’d heard Paige go upstairs and dashed outside to wait for her. Paige bit her bottom lip and stepped forward. She stretched out her arm trying to throw the blue beam as far as possible.

The coarse fabric of her dress blew against her legs as her hair flew forward over her face. She shook her head and turned back towards the house. It stood in darkness. Just on the other side of the bushes, she could distinguish the huge outline of the Edwardian building but with no interior lights.

Gun in her right hand, held just above her hip, and the phone in her left, Paige stepped forward. There came another noise. It sounded like finger nails scraping metal. Paige froze. A cry of terror built in her throat, big and solid like an avocado pit. She clenched her mouth and raised the phone higher. The blue light trembled, landing on one of the sheds.

She resisted the urge to call out. In her mind she was already formulating what she’d say when Lizzy stepped out of the shadows.
I’ve got the gun. Stay away from me or I’ll shoot you
. Even in her head, her voice sounded weak. Where was that cold dark voice that had whispered in her ear?

Paige let out a shuddering breath and edged closer to the shed. The light played over the grey wood of the walls. Bathed in the blue of her phone, the building looked washed out and grey like ancient bones. She skimmed the light over the grimy windows and up to the roof. When the glare hit the joint between wood and tin, another scraping shook the building. This time it sounded closer, frantic. The light made contact with something yellow and reflective. Paige sucked in air and then relaxed.

A creamy brown possum turned and pushed itself through a narrow gap under the roof. It disappeared inside, curly tail sliding after it. Paige realised her shoulders were hunched around her neck. She let them slump down and tipped her head back at the inky sky.
A bloody possum
, she almost laughed.
I nearly shot a possum
.

Before walking on, she skimmed the light around the building just to be sure nothing else lurked in the dark. Apart from a few spiders, the shed looked unoccupied. Paige stole another glance back, but the bushes obscured her view of the house. It was as though the yard had closed around her. The thought of walking across the huge property at night seemed like the easiest part of her plan, but now every nerve in her body jangled on edge. Every sound and every shadow seemed menacing and sinister.
I’m a city girl
, she thought and let out a dry laugh that sounded more like a moan when it hit the wind.

Only this morning, Soona had shown her the way to the car; with the sun shining, every detail of the property was crisp and clear. In the dark, the difficulty lay in remembering which way to turn. By the time Paige cleared the sheds, she could smell the rich aroma of freshly turned earth mixed with the sharp smell of tomato plants.
The earth hadn’t been freshly turned this morning
. Paige remembered the tomato plants, but they’d been at least a metre and a half high. That meant that they’d been planted some time ago.

Worried that she’d taken a wrong turn, she played the light to her left across the rows of vegetables. The taller plants shimmered as the wind rustled through their dark leaves. She could make out smaller plants and seedlings by their outlines. Then an area about the size of a surfboard stood apart from the rest of the greenery. The earth had been piled over in a mound. Along the centre ran a neat row of seedlings, each plant about ten centimetres high. It looked and smelled fresh. Paige frowned and moved to continue when realisation hit her like a cold shower on a hot day – Wade.

She shivered, not from the wind, but with the realisation that if she didn’t get them out tonight, there’d be two more new plots in the veg patch. It didn’t matter that Lizzy couldn’t possibly hope to get away with what she’d done
or
what she planned to do. Lizzy had made up her mind and nothing would shift her from the course she’d set for herself. If there’d been any doubt in Paige’s mind that the woman would carry her plan through to the end, Wade’s makeshift grave put it to rest. Paige turned away and plodded on towards the paddock.

The soggy grass underfoot told her she was getting closer. Grateful for the feeling of lightness the adrenaline had given her, she lifted her knees and took loping steps to avoid the marshy ground sucking her down. The smell of manure hung thick and heavy in this area, but it was not distasteful. Paige glanced over at the paddock, the cows were silent hulks against the dimness.

The barn rose like a tombstone out of the blackness, its peaked roof cutting a sharp outline against the cloudy expanse. The entrance to the trail was somewhere between the end of the paddock and barn. Paige readjusted the shotgun against her hip and felt the twinge of a cramp in her side. She’d been carrying the hefty gun for at least fifteen minutes, balancing it against her side and hip. She considered stopping and swapping hands, but the ground was too soft. If she stopped for any length of time, her feet would sink.

The feel of the dampness seeping into her shoes and squelching against her soles made her hurry. The stiff edges of her tennis shoes scraped against her ankles and the beginnings of cluster blisters carved their way into her skin. Her thighs trembled with the effort of lifting her legs so high.
A few more steps and I’ll be clear of the mud, then I can rest
. Counting each loping step, when she reached seven, the ground began to firm up under her feet.

The effort of walking through the mud left her light-headed, and the stitch in her side spread its way across her back. She balanced the gun on her thigh and used her right hand to massage her side and back. At the same time, she listened for any sounds of movement from behind her.

A gust of wind blustered against her neck and shoulders tipping her forward, making it difficult to catch her breath. She let go of her side and clutched the front of her dress. She had to keep going, if she wasted time resting, the battery in her phone would die, and then she’d be stumbling around looking for the dirt track until sunrise.
Straighten up and get moving!

The left side of the barn was barely visible by the glow of the phone. To the right, massive swaths of trees and shrubs crowded in, their shadows drawing together to make them seem impenetrable. Paige felt tiny against the immenseness of the wilderness and the night. She stood before the thick twists of trunks and branches, defeat threatening to overtake her. Finding the entrance seemed impossible, she’d been an idiot to think she could retrace her steps and find the track using a phone light and her memory. Lizzy had chosen to hide the car on the disused dirt road because of its hidden location. She should’ve left something behind to mark the way. Tied something to a tree, anything.

Her mind turned to Hal, waiting for her; putting his trust in her. There was no getting around it, his life was in her hands. If she gave up, whatever ghastly things Lizzy did to him would be on Paige’s shoulders. If she lived, which seemed highly doubtful, it would be with the burden of Hal’s suffering. Her body trembled, and a sob burst out of her mouth. Within seconds she cried so hard, it felt like the sobs would tear her apart. She let the gun slip to the ground with a dull thump and sank down next to it.

“How the fuck did this happen?” She said around big, wet sobs.

They were on holiday in the South West. Things like this didn’t really happen to people.
This is supposed to be wine country
, she thought stupidly; as if evil things couldn’t grow in the same ground as grapevines.

Paige wiped at her face with the back of her hand, it came away with a mixture of tears, snot, and blood. The cut on her cheek had re-opened, she could feel it stinging but her mind barely registered the sensation. Sticks and honky nuts bit into the skin of her legs, but she remained motionless, her already grazed knees pushed into the debris carpeting the edge of the bush.

When there were no more tears, she wiped her face with the hem of her dress. The coarse fabric pulled at the graze on her cheek, bringing fresh pain and a dribble of blood. The emotions that had overwhelmed her subsided, leaving her raw with exhaustion. The phone lay on the ground between her legs. She didn’t remember putting it down, but that didn’t surprise her; the enormity of her situation had swallowed her up, and for a few minutes everything else disappeared. Now the reality of the dimming light hit her like a fist.

She pounced on the phone and looked at the battery indicator; almost empty. She’d wasted precious time sitting on the ground snivelling at the weight of her problems, while the only chance of finding the car was the light. Light she’d wasted.

Paige climbed to her feet, noticing the cuts and grazes on her legs for the first time. If she found the car and got the hell out of this circus, she’d have plenty of time to examine her wounds, but for now she had more important things to do. The gun felt heavier than before, its stock bulky against her body. She tried to picture the morning she’d spent with Soona; walking past the cows, past the barn, and then where? Paige screwed her face up with the effort of trying to remember.

“We came from the dam … and then …” She looked in what she thought was the direction of the gully dam, but could have been anything in the blackness. “Then we …” Her mind kept telling to go past the barn, but that couldn’t be right because that would walk her straight into thickly thatched trees.

Paige turned back towards the hulking outline of the barn. She closed her eyes and shut out the night so she could picture the scene in clear brilliant morning light. She saw the cows, their big black noses snuffling in the grass. Soona’s back was to her as she ducked under the fence. Paige nodded to herself and moved her lips.

“I have to stop for a minute,” Paige said, and her eyes sprang open.

They’d walked behind the barn and she’d had a stitch, that’s why Soona went back to the cows. Paige turned to her left and headed towards the barn. She picked up the pace, not quite jogging, but definitely past walking. She reached the barn just as the wind kicked up another notch. It whipped her hair up and flattened her dress against her body. The temperature dropped fast. The wind felt like a cold hand pushing her forward. As well as propelling her, it blew the clouds to the west and the moon lit up the night. Paige gave a little cry of joy and pushed on.

The way was clearer now. The ground partially visible, the sudden change from deep green weeds to a carpet of twigs and fallen leaves revealed by the silvery moonlight. She remembered being on the far side of the barn and heading slightly to the right. She took a few more steps when the light of the torch fell on something white.

Her breath caught. She didn’t believe in miracles, not the sort that opened up paths through the seas or cured the blind. Those things were no more real to her than the fairy-tales she read to her class, but the scrap of her white sundress fluttering in the wind seemed like a miracle. Maybe it wasn’t a burning bush, but after the evil she’d experienced over the last four days, that scrap of fabric hanging on the spindly branch of some crazy bush shrub, clinging on despite the wind, seemed like a sign from heaven.