Chapter 40
JACK
She was pale, paler than I’d ever seen anyone before, and her eyes stared at me, tortured.
‘I don’t understand,’ I said. ‘Taylor?’
She shook her head, clearly in shock. ‘This isn’t happening.’
I gently but firmly gripped her upper arms. ‘Hey, look at me. If that is Hannah down there, we need to help her, OK? I need to get down there and I need you to call for help, just like you did when Casey fell off the cliff, OK? Can you do that for me?’
The mention of Casey was like a slap across the face. She blinked rapidly, then focused on my face and nodded.
‘Say the words, Taylor, so I know you understand.’
‘Yes, I can do that.’
‘It’s going to be OK,’ I reassured her. ‘Just stay off the road. I don’t need anything happening to you too.’
She nodded, then stood on her tiptoes and kissed me on the mouth, pressing hard, as if imprinting her touch on me. ‘Be careful,’ she said after she broke away.
‘I will.’
Clutching handfuls of the brush to stop myself from falling down the steep incline, I slowly made my way down into the gully, following the brown branches and dirt until I came upon the wreckage we’d seen from the road.
A silver Toyota Camry, latest model. Hannah’s car.
It had come to rest against a tree, the front bonnet crumpled as easily as if it had been paper.
Steam was slowly escaping from the engine, and the front windscreen was shattered.
‘Hannah,’ I called, shining the torch at the driver’s window. There was no reply.
I yanked at the handle, tugging. The door had been warped by the collision, making it hard to open, but after a few solid pulls it gave way with a screech of twisted metal.
Hannah was slumped in her seat, blood trickling from a gash on her forehead.
Her eyes were closed, and for a brief, heart-stopping second, I thought she was dead. Then she groaned.
I gently touched her shoulder. ‘Hannah, it’s Jack. You’ve been in an accident. Help is on its way. Can you open your eyes for me?’
She groaned again. ‘Jack?’
‘I’m here.’
‘What happened?’
‘You ran off the road.’
‘I don’t remember anything,’ she mumbled.
‘Don’t worry about that now. The important thing is to get you out of here. Are you hurt anywhere besides your head?’
She reached up a hand to her head, touching the blood. ‘I don’t know.’
I reached over and unbuckled her seatbelt. There was an empty bottle of vodka in the passenger footwell, and the smell of alcohol was strong. Anger rose in my throat but I swallowed it down. This wasn’t the time for recriminations.
‘Jack.’
I jumped at Taylor’s voice behind me. ‘What are you doing down here?’
‘I needed to tell you that Gerry is on his way, and he’s organizing help.’ She peered past me into the wreckage. ‘Is she…?’
‘Alive, yes.’
She exhaled audibly. ‘She got lucky.’
‘I’m not sure I’d call this luck.’
‘She could have easily killed someone,’ Taylor snapped. ‘Or herself.’
‘I know, and believe me, I’m upset with her too. But this isn’t the time.’
‘When would be the right time? At her funeral?’
I could hear how upset she was, her voice raw.
‘She needs to understand how badly this could have ended,’ she said hoarsely.
‘And she will, believe me. If the courts don’t drum that into her, her family sure as hell will.’ I knew this for a fact. Hannah’s parents were conservative and traditional. This would horrify them.
We heard the sound of a vehicle, then red light illuminated the scene. Taylor’s face turned towards the source. She looked sad, vulnerable. I wanted to take her in my arms but that would have to wait.
‘Sounds like the cavalry has arrived,’ I said.
A door slammed, then a man yelled. ‘Jack?’
‘Down here,’ I called back, as we heard the sound of more vehicles arriving.
I ducked my head back into the car. ‘Help is here,’ I told Hannah. ‘They’re going to look after you.’
‘I’m sorry,’ she replied, starting to cry. ‘I didn’t mean to cause any trouble.’
Gerry and two EMTs arrived beside the car. I knew one of them, a guy named Todd. He did a double take when he saw me.
‘Search and rescue get called out to this?’ he asked.
I shook my head. ‘We just came across the scene and called it in. She has a head wound, and she’s intoxicated. Breathing is shallow but she has been responding.’
‘She’s lucky she didn’t kill herself,’ Gerry muttered.
‘These roads are windy enough when you’re sober.
She’s not the first drunk driver to do herself some mischief on these roads.
’ He noticed Taylor for the first time and I watched his expression change, the color draining from his face.
‘Shit, I’m sorry, Taylor. I forgot you were standing there. ’
‘It’s OK,’ she said quietly.
We stood back and watched as Todd and a couple of firemen from the truck who had turned up extracted Hannah from the car and got her onto a stretcher, securing her in place before assessing her.
‘What are you thinking?’ I asked Todd as the firemen began their careful ascent up the hill carrying the stretcher.
‘She’ll need a CT to check that head injury, but nothing else seems to be broken and there are no indications of internal bleeding or anything else untoward. You know I can’t make any promises, but I think she’s going to be OK. Thick vegetation like this, she’s just lucky you spotted her.’
‘It was all Taylor,’ I told him. ‘She’s the one who noticed the broken branches.’ I turned to smile at her but she was gone.