She watched as the flashlight danced over the flower beds. Trish was using the light, but she wasn’t moving. She was letting the beam do the work for her and staying in a place where she had the best view of the whole garden.
The light moved away from the flower beds and for a moment, it flickered over the grass.
Then it was shining right at her, through the branches, and she knew that Trish had seen her.
“Come on out, Cassie. The game’s over now.”
Trish’s voice was hoarse and breathless, but it sounded triumphant.
She didn’t wait for Cassie to obey. A moment later, she was sprinting over the lawn toward her.
Breaking from her cover, Cassie ran for her life, stumbling in the dark, because the light had dazzled her and she was temporarily blinded. Her plan had been to head to the laundry room and, from there, try to scramble over the fence into the property next door.
Terrified and disoriented, she found she was heading in the same direction she had sleepwalked—out toward the bluff.
“The phone—it’s in—the bedroom,” she gasped, turning to face Trish.
The flashlight pinned her and she flinched away, averting her eyes as the beam bobbed toward her.
“I am not interested in the phone now,” Trish spat.
Cassie dove to her right, with Trish following close behind. The thought of that knife was making Cassie’s blood run cold with dread. All it would take would be one thrust of its sharp, lethal blade—and she had no doubt that Trish would put all the strength she had into that thrust.
As she was gaining some ground, disaster struck.
Her foot caught a rock and she sprawled onto the grass, falling headlong, jackknifing out of the way in case the blade came down.
But she twisted in the wrong direction.
Cassie screamed as she felt herself slip off the cliff’s edge. She grabbed desperately for purchase, hoping to find something—anything. Tussocks of grass sliced at her fingers but offered no grip.
The crashing of the sea filled her ears. Below her, she knew, was a dizzying drop to the crags. The tide was in; she could hear it. She would land broken and injured, and be swept out to sea by the cold and unrelenting waves.
Then her clutching fingers found a rocky outcrop.
The sandstone was wet and slippery and, worse still, it felt as if it was about to break loose from the cliff side.
Sandstone crumbles; she’d told Dylan so. Now this fragile hold was all that was keeping her from certain death.
Cassie grabbed onto it and held with all her might, knowing that she didn’t have much time, because her flailing legs could find no purchase, and her arms were already burning.
This had bought her a minute or two, at most. She couldn’t climb back up and when her arms were exhausted, they would release their hold and she would fall.
Her nightmares rushed back.
She remembered Jacqui’s taunting words, her face as she looked down with evil glee, ready to abandon Cassie to her fate.
Then, above her, the flashlight blinded her again.
“You’re hanging on?”
Trish gave a breathy laugh, as Cassie saw the glint of the blade.
“Not for long.”
CHAPTER FORTY TWO
Even if she was not within arm’s reach, Cassie knew she was within knife’s reach.
She clenched her teeth, willing herself to keep on holding even when she felt the knife stab into her. Even though it would slice through her skin and her tendons, ripping her flesh from the bone and opening her veins, she must still hold on. She was going to keep gripping the rock until Trish cut her away from it, or until her own strength gave out.
Then, suddenly, the flashlight veered upward.
She heard Trish shriek, and the babble of voices above, and she knew that, despite all the risks, all the things that could have gone wrong, help had arrived.
Trish would be arrested now and receive the justice she deserved.
The only problem was that it was too late for her.
Her arms were shuddering and the sweat on her palms was causing her fingers to slip.
She felt them releasing and a strange peace filled her. She felt as if Jacqui was with her, offering her comfort, and she knew that as she fell, as her bones shattered, she would not be alone.
And then, another light blazed—this time a brilliant floodlight that illuminated the entire area. Even as her nerveless fingers lost their grip, she felt two strong hands clamp around her wrists, catching her as she fell, holding her in a tight, firm grasp.
“It’s OK. You’re safe. I won’t let you go.”
Cassie stared up into the intense blue eyes of Detective Parker.
*
It took a few minutes for Cassie to be hauled up, and it was only when she was safely on the grass, lying on a blanket because her shaking legs would not hold her, that she realized the personal risk Parker had taken to save her.
He’d dived halfway over the cliff to grab her before she fell, trusting that his team would somehow be able to hold him and stop him from falling with her.
They had managed. Bruton was looking visibly shocked by the close call, and the friendly constable, who had introduced herself as Trainee Detective Chandra, was in tears.
“I’m so glad you’re OK, Cassie,” she sniffed. “Parker, you’re a hero. I can’t believe you did that.”
He shook his head.
“I couldn’t stop thinking about what you said. That I should try as hard to save her as I had done to lock her up. You’re the one who made me take that risk.”
“But how did you know where she was? We’d planned to search the house first!”
Parker frowned.
“Did you not hear her? As soon as I got out the car, I heard her screaming.”
He turned to Cassie. “You were yelling, ‘Jacqui! Jacqui! Help!’ I didn’t know who was screaming, I just followed the sound.”
“I
