Chapter 70
FAYE
We are getting close now.
My daughter is waiting for me. I’m coming, Penny. Just hold on.
It might be summer, but the weather doesn’t know it.
The fog thickens, obscuring the visibility on the single-track road.
I keep a white-knuckled grip on the door handle while Claire drives cautiously forward.
I watch the windscreen wipers sweep back and forth, hypnotised by their movement.
The sky is so dark the automatic lights come on and we sweep the road ahead with our beam.
The road swings around unexpectedly, and Claire jerks the steering wheel suddenly to move through the bend. We screech around the corner and tilt to the side, almost ending up careering onto the sodden moor grass. My heart pounds and Claire lets out a relieved breath.
This road wraps around the coastline. The fog is so low that it dips below the cliff edge, replacing the distant sea.
I am used to the North Yorks coast, but there’s something different about this Scottish coastline. It’s dark and rugged and mean. I don’t like how close the road gets to it. How easy it would be to fall off the edge, without anyone knowing we were ever here.
The bandage across my face is loose and dirty. I slip it off and touch the wound underneath. Sore but healed enough not to worry about it too much now. There are more important things at stake.
“Take a left,” I say, looking at the dot on the map.
The campervan judders along the road, the wipers repetitive in front of my face. They annoy me, like flies buzzing around my head. I want to swat at them but the glass is in the way.
“Faye, are you all right?”
I turn to the voice and panic floods through me, adrenaline spiking my veins. There’s another me and she’s driving this van.
“Faye,” she says.
I grab the woman’s arm. My arm. “How do you know my name?”
She frowns.
I blink. “Why am I so tired?”
“Oh, Faye,” she says. “I’m so sorry. This must be hard for you. You’re just tired. You’re okay. Everything is going to be okay.”
“Claire?”
She nods.
There’s relief but also sadness. It comes rushing back. Magnus Blackburn and Penny in the silky nightdress. The threatening message. All of it. I look to Claire. My sister, my partner in crime, my mirrored mime. I need her and she needs me.
I lean forward and open the glove box, checking the knife is where we put it.