The Devil To Pay (Hennessey.) (99 page)

This was the most dangerous part, if he had come in while she was trying to cut her hands lose at least they would be concealed behind her back and she would just have to hope  he wouldn't look, but she could not hide her unbound ankles. She thought of crawling inside the sleeping bag but that would arouse his suspicions as it was so hot in the room.

No, she would just have to risk it. Once her feet were free she massaged them although they were not anywhere near as numb as the last time he had untied them, nevertheless she wanted to be fast on her feet. She looked at the broken toothbrush in her hand, she did not waste valuable time congratulating herself on her own ingenuity but it crossed her mind that necessity was indeed the mother of invention. Or maybe they should exchange necessity for desperation.

Never taking her eyes from the door she very slowly stood up ready to lie back down again if he came in the door, what she would do then she had no idea except hope that he would just look in see her lying there and go away again. She had been lucky being able to free herself with the toothbrush and hoped that her luck would last.

She took a few sips of water then stood up and it was only then she realised that she had no real plan; she had been so taken up with cutting herself loose that she had not thought about what she would do next.

She racked her brain but the only thing that came to mind was her original idea of hiding behind the door and clobbering him as he came in.

She looked at the sleeping bag, perhaps she could throw that over him but then what? Take his gun and shoot him with it? She knew she couldn’t do that, partly because she had no idea how to use it. She knew guns had a safety but where it was situated on the weapon she had no idea…again so much for all the crime books she had read, they had not helped her one iota since all of this had begun. But mainly because she knew she would not be able to shoot anyone, no, not even him. Maybe if she hit him hard enough with something he would be knocked out and then she could take the keys to the car and drive away.

She picked up the water bottle he had left, unfortunately it was plastic so would not be much use as a weapon and she could see nothing else in the room she could use as a weapon, so the idea of hitting him was out. Besides she could be standing waiting for hours and then she might fail and she would be back where she started, except he would be very angry indeed, and she didn’t even want to think about how that anger would manifest itself.

Clutching the bottle of water tightly in her sweating, trembling hand, she very slowly and cautiously crept across the room towards the bathroom, maybe there was something in there, something she had overlooked before. She hoped and prayed that none of the floorboards creaked or that she wouldn’t bump into anything in the semi-dark. Her heart beat so fast and loud as she walked past the door that led to the living room that she was sure he would be able to hear it.

Despite her qualms she made it to the bathroom without any boards creaking, knocking anything over or her heart beat giving her away. The door had been left open for which she was grateful, she recalled it had squeaked when he had opened it earlier.

She entered the darkened bathroom, fortunately there was a little light coming through the stained, cracked window so she could just about make out objects in the room.

She looked around and saw nothing she could use to incapacitate him, no aerosols she could use to blind him temporarily, nothing to stab him in the leg with, except the other part of the broken toothbrush and she didn’t think that would cause much damage. That left the chair, but again she could be standing here for hours, hours that she could use to better advantage. She was conscience all the time of the door leading to the living room, she expected any moment for it to open and Hennessey to come in and catch her free and walking about.

She looked more closely at the window, it seemed pretty secure. She put the bottle of water on the toilet cistern stood on the toilet seat and studied the window as best she could in the dim light. The catch was at the bottom of the window and looked old and
worn; she pushed it gently upwards, then with slightly more force until it moved sideways. She pushed at the window until it gave a little creak; she stopped and looked towards the door her hand still on the window her heart pounding fit to burst.

She waited a full minute before she permitted herself to relax but gave up on the pushing idea, the glass might fall out and he would surely hear it and come running and she would have no time to climb through before he caught her.

She leaned back and sighed heavily, she was stuck. She had freed herself but had no idea what to do now, there seemed no way out of this predicament.

As she began to climb from the toilet seat she became suddenly dizzy, obviousl
y with hunger not to mention fear. She snatched at the curtain to steady herself; it tore from some of its hooks but to her relief did not come away. She once more looked at the door but heard no movement from the living room.

She was about to step down from the toilet when she noticed a small handle sticki
ng out of the side of the window frame. It had been partly hidden by the dingy old curtain and if she had not grabbed it she would have not have noticed the handle in the dark. The handle at the bottom was obviously the lock; this one was the lever to open the window.

She
pushed it upwards, nothing happened and her stomach plummeted. She pushed it down it nothing happened, she pushed up again even harder and this time it gave. Her hands began to tremble as she pushed the window all the way open.

The question now was would she be able to fit through? It looked small but then so was she
, but was she small enough? Well she would soon find out. One foot on the toilet seat the other on the sink she heaved herself upwards then climbed onto the toilet cistern where she paused and looked once more towards the living room wishing she could have closed the bathroom door, she felt so vulnerable standing here, if he came in now he would see her immediately.

Well it was now or never, get through this window or die. She heaved herself up and pushed her head through the gap. She could see the ground below and thanked God there were no stairs to this place and the ground was only five feet below the window. She was about to push her shoulders through when she remembered the water bottle, she would need th
at. She grabbed it and dropped it through the window then pushed her head through then her shoulders. That was good, if they went through then she should have no trouble with the rest of her body.

But she had forgotten about her ample breasts, they just about scrapped over the window ledge,
stifling a grunt of pain she stayed still for a moment before pushing herself forward. Half her body was out of the window now and the ground was only three feet from her hands. With a mighty heave she pushed herself forward and that’s when she froze as her foot hit something then she heard a crashing noise from inside the bathroom. She knew she had caught the jar with the toothbrushes in and sent it crashing to the floor. The toothbrushes had freed her and now they might be the cause of her being caught, if her mind had not been blank with terror she might have seen the irony of that.

She thrust herself with all her might and her right hand hit the ground with a painful smack the gravel cutting into her already bloodied fingers. Her left hand landed on the bottle of water and slid forwards scraping her forearm across the gravel but she did not even feel it. Nor did she feel it when her knees hit the ground with such force that it tore her jeans leaving gravel embedded in her skin.

She just about had enough rational thought to pick up the bottle of water before she heard a shout behind her then cursing. She staggered to her feet but slipped on the gravel and went down again but was up in an instant. She had no idea where she was or where she was going she just reacted to the desperate need to get away, to run as far and as fast as possible.

He might hear her, he might see her, he might catch her, she might not make it, but she would die trying.

CHAPTER 33.

            
Adela heard Hennessey’s running footsteps on the gravel just as she ran into the cover of the trees that surrounded the house. She knew he could hear her but panic and terror left no room for stealth. She ran blindly on, heedless of where she was going and what might be ahead of her, her only conscious thought was to get as far away as possible as fast as possible.

The branches whipped her face as she ran pulling her hair from its confines and her
sandaled feet slipped on the wet ground, but she ran on, spurred on by the sound of Hennessey’s footsteps crashing through the trees close behind her. She was so blinded by terror that she almost missed the gap in the trees ahead of her that led to a clearing. She hesitated, instinctively she knew that he would expect her to go that way into the clearing and out of the trees, she didn’t, instead she ploughed on straight ahead into the thick undergrowth.

She heard him calling out to her but from a distance now, so knew he had gone into the clearing. This spurred her on, she ran as fast as she could fighting her way through the low hanging branches that smacked at her legs and arms but she felt no pain only the overwhelming need to escape him.

She saw the branch lying across her path an instant too late and she was running too fast to stop. She tripped over it but instead of falling face down she kept on falling down a huge hole. She couldn’t prevent herself from crying out as she fell down and down until she thought she would keep falling forever into the abyss. But suddenly her fall came to an abrupt and painful end, she cried out again as her shoulder hit the ground first followed by the rest of her.

She lay there winded and in shock. She made an effort to get up, but with a small moan lay back down the agony in her shoulder intensifying. She steeled herself against the pain and tried once more to rise but dropped back down again as she heard a noise directly above her. She froze.

She could hear him breathing hard then she heard him curse savagely and the sound of something being thrown or kicked. Although it was day time the ravine into which she had fallen was deep and dark and she hoped would hide her from him. She knew that even without the injured shoulder she would not be able to fight him off or even to run from him.

She looked up and realised she must have fallen at least twenty feet and only the soft wood and grass she had landed on had prevented serious injury.  She looked around at her surroundings, the ravine, or whatever it was; was like a small cave with no roof and the walls were made up of what looked like slimy tree bark.

She noticed a little niche a few feet to her right, small but just about big enough for her to squeeze into if she could get to it without making any noise. She gritted her teeth and slid sideways towards it, she had just about wedged herself in to it when she saw his head came into view at the top of the ravine, she stifled a gasp.

With the sun shining through the trees behind him she could not make out his face only the outline of his head leaning over the edge. She felt a scream rise up in her and put a hand over her mouth to stifle it. Keeping perfectly still she held her breath as she saw his head come closer and realised he was kneeling down

She almost jumped out of her skin as his voice came to her, ‘Miss. Faraday? Miss. Faraday, I know you’re around here somewhere and that you can hear me. Just listen, you’re in danger out here, I told you it isn’t safe in the swamps.’ She closed her eyes willing him to shut up and go away. He didn’t of course. ‘I know what you’re thinking, that you’re probably safer out here than back at the cabin with me but that’s not so.’

There was a silence in which she thought she would have a heart attack and die right there in this God forsaken place, her skeleton to be discovered years from now and no one ever knowing who she was. She heard him move but kept her eyes tight shut willing her thudding heart not to give her position away. But her eyes opened again quickly as his voice came again this time closer, he wasn’t climbing down so how was he getting closer to her? She could not see another way down here but there must be because his voice suddenly came from her right.

He said, ‘Miss. Faraday, I know what you think of me and I don’t blame you. I know you’re scared, make that terrified of me, and I don’t blame you for that either, you have no reason to trust me, none at all, and every reason to think I’m lying again. But please believe me when I tell you that I’m not going to hurt you, I never was. I wanted to frighten you yes, with the threat of Glissando, but I swear I never had any intention of handing you over to him. I’m many things but not sadistic, and that’s what I would be if I handed you over to a man like that.’

Adela listened to this and thought how sincere he sounded, how genuine in his concern. But she knew him now, knew what an accomplished liar he was and if he expected her to believe him and hand herself over to him then he didn’t know Adela Faraday, never again would she be taken in by him, or anyone else.

But she visibly jumped when his voice came again even closer this time. ‘I know I’ve hurt you but I never intended to, I know that doesn’t make you feel any better but it’s true. All I wanted was information about Desi but I would never have killed you. I planned to tell Glissando I had and buried your body in the swamp then sneak you out of the country, that’s why I brought your passport.