Cat was shining the torch in his face, and he raised a hand, squinting at her. ‘I don’t think blinding me is going to be very useful, under the circumstances.’
She lowered the torch towards the bags. ‘Let’s get out our secret supplies, then.’
He unclipped the top flap of his bag. ‘Are you OK? You sound a bit tense.’
She sat down on the floor, crossing her legs. ‘I think “exhausted” is the word you’re looking for.’
He laid a hand on one of her knees. Squeezed. ‘It’ll be over soon. Then you can sleep for a week in the most comfortable bed in the world.’
‘Oh yeah? Are you taking us to the Premier Inn?’
‘Funny. You know where we’re going. We need to hole up for a bit. Wait things out.’
‘Separately,’ she said.
‘Yes. Separately. But away from home. Just in case the press hounds get wind of the accident and come sniffing.’
She started fumbling with the clips on her bag. Wouldn’t look at him. ‘I really hope they don’t.’
He pulled out a candle. One of those travel ones in a tin. She’d insisted on buying these in that outdoors shop in Reading they’d gone to, while they were planning everything. He’d wanted to go back to the hotel, but she’d insisted they get all this overpriced hiking kit that they would never actually need. He took out another candle. This one was citronella – to ward off mosquitoes and other flying pests. The smell of it even unlit was giving him a headache. He laid the candles on the floor, then took out the big box of extra-long matches and lit the wicks. The cloying smell of the citronella hit the back of his throat, and he slid the candle away.
‘Can you put that one as far away from me as possible, please? It reeks.’ He took out the other two candles, and lit those too. ‘And we talked about the press. It’s going to be a story of interest. Just don’t talk to them, and we’ll be fine. Even if they stand outside your house and shout through the letterbox asking if you killed your sister and her lover—’
‘I’m not going to be at home though, am I?’
He opened the bottom section of his rucksack and took out the vacuum-packed blanket. As far as hiking shit went, this item was probably the most useful. He hadn’t noticed until now, because he’d been too pumped on adrenaline to realise – but it was actually getting cold. ‘Well done,’ he said. ‘You were paying attention.’ He grinned. ‘I, however, will no doubt have to put up with that nonsense. But I’m very good at ignoring people when it suits me. Just ask Ginny.’
He felt a small pang of something as he said her name. Like someone had pinged an elastic band against his chest. Poor old Ginny. Cat didn’t think she’d deserved such a gruesome fate. But what happened had happened. The job had been done.
The way he’d spun it to Cat was that Ginny would be zonked out on Valium before she slipped and fell to her death. She might’ve had a brief moment of panic as she tumbled off the slippery slope, not sure what was happening. But then she’d have hit her head on a tree stump, and it would be over quickly. Simple.
As it turned out, that wasn’t what happened at all. The first part, where Cat had pushed her, was similar to their initial plan. The problem was, because Cat had done it instinctively, he had no way of knowing how far Ginny would fall, and how long it would take her to die.
It was extreme bad luck that she’d landed on that ledge and winded herself so badly she couldn’t call out. It had looked like her arms were broken, and at least one leg – from the strange angles of her as she lay there watching him descend in his harness. He’d had to look away from her pleading eyes as he’d smashed her head with a rock before pushing her over the side.
Poor Cat. She’d have to live with the guilt of killing her baby sister.
Except she hadn’t. He had.
He watched Cat as she wrapped her own blanket around herself. Each movement making shadows dance around the room. He thought about the fact that she might be carrying a baby, and that it might not be his. Was he wrong to trust her? She was no fool. But he’d just have to give her the benefit of the doubt until they knew for sure. She was rummaging now for something else. She lifted her head, sensing him watching, and gave him a wary smile. ‘Have you got any more of those energy gels? I think we finished the sweets.’
He fished one out of his bag and handed it to her. Then he took out a bottle of water from the side compartment and took a long, slow drink.