Accidents Happen (44 page)

Highgate Woods came back to her. There was no such thing as the hunter and the victim. Anyone could be both. It was their choice. He’d taught her that.

Be the monster.

She pointed to the gate where he’d been looking. ‘So, I expect they’ll be here by the time you hit the ground,’ she yelled.

‘Yeah, yeah.’ He shrugged, but she knew he was rattled. It gave her strength.

‘And another thing, Jago, even if I do what you ask of me, Jack will be fine. Because he has this sweet heart, just like his dad. He’s had so much love from all of us. And I’m sorry. What happened to you was awful, Jago, but what you’ve done is so much worse. What you have done is evil. People who are bullied have a choice whether to do it themselves.’

He sneered. ‘You did it, Kate. I watched you. Hurt people just like you’d been hurt, and enjoyed it. I know what you did to those girls.’

She nodded. ‘I did, Jago, and the difference is that I felt bad. And that was what I was going to tell you tonight, before we went back to your pretend room at Balliol. About who I really am. And who I am is not someone who can hurt and scare people like that. I was going to tell you that I bought the old man a rowing boat this week and had it delivered when he was out. And yesterday, I sent a note via the Highgate rangers to tell the girls that they were safe. That it was a student prank gone wrong, and we apologize. I sent the same note to the health shop and asked them to tell the woman with the dog next time she came in. So you’re right, I felt what it was like, and I didn’t like it.’

She touched the black plastic inside her sleeve with one finger, more certain now. She had him on the back foot. Now was her chance, her only chance. But who would she ring?

Richard and Helen? Saskia? The police? But the weirdo might throw Jack in the river before they could get there. Same reason she couldn’t call for help from Calum.

As she thought, instinct told her to keep distracting Jago. ‘The thing is, I am not like you,’ she said, trying to keep thinking. ‘And my son would never be like you, and if your mother could see you now, she would thank God she didn’t live. You have a choice how you let life affect you and we don’t all make the same choice as you. Monsters are made, not born.’

Jago grabbed her arm again, and pulled her close against the back of the plane. With a growl, the engine on the wing burst into life in front of them.

‘You know what, Kate,’ Jago shouted above the noise. ‘Let’s see, shall we? See what happens if you don’t do what I say?’

Calum waved the first two jumpers onto the plane, then turned to Kate.

‘OK?’ he yelled over the engine.

There were only seconds now.

USE YOUR INSTINCTS.

And then, suddenly, Kate knew who to ring. She pushed Jago’s arm off and climbed in the door of the plane, knowing she only had seconds.

As Jago started to follow behind her, she spun round.

‘Calum, could you just recheck Jago’s altimeter? I don’t think he’s reset it right?’ she shouted, pointing at Jago’s arm.

Angrily, Jago tried to follow her onto the plane but Calum blocked him.

‘Let me have a quick look, mate.’

Kate moved forwards into the tiny long tube, with her back to Jago, knowing Calum would not let Jago on till he was happy. Ignoring the smiles of the other passengers, she frantically pulled her phone from her sleeve.

JACK. She would ring Jack.

Without any of them seeing, she texted Jack’s number with shaking fingers.

its mum – where r u?

She turned and saw Calum was carefully checking the little machine on Jago’s left arm. Jago was glaring at him, his fury no longer disguised. His hands gripped firmly onto the side of the plane door, waiting to climb on.

A message pinged back.

at nana’s – u get my message?

‘Oh,’ Kate gasped.

He was safe. Jago was lying.

She held the phone tight inside her hand as Jago climbed on behind her, followed by Calum. She felt him come up behind her but kept her back to him.

Calum checked their hooks were connected to their static lines, then gave the pilot the signal. With a roar, the little plane powered up the runway like an angry fly.

‘Nice day for a swim,’ Jago said.

Calum talked into his radio with ground control.

As the plane buzzed into the air, bumping on the currents, Kate gripped the floor.

Jack was safe.

Now what?

Jago shuffled up behind her, his legs touching hers.

‘We should go out on the river later,’ he said.

Just don’t think about it, she thought. Not till you’re on the ground. Concentrate.

The plane flew upwards, till it was at 3,500 feet. Kate looked ahead as Calum opened the hatch.

She was going to jump out of a plane.

‘Right, guys. You’re up!’ Calum shouted over the rasping engine noise, signalling from the open hatch.

Kate began to shuffle forward. She felt Jago coming behind her.

‘NUMBER ONE!’ Calum shouted, signalling to Kate.

Kate turned behind her, to see Jago. Calmly, she took the phone from her sleeve with Jack’s text message, and lifted it to Jago’s face.

‘Before you hit the ground, I’m going to get someone to ring the police,’ she mouthed clearly over the engine so that he could understand every word.

Then she saw it. The ice cracked. Fear flooded into Jago’s eyes. He put his hand out but Kate was ready for him. She moved swiftly forwards in front of Calum before Jago could touch her.

She looked back and saw a man alone, stranded alone in a terrible life, and she was no longer scared. Hugo’s love and her parents’ love and Jack’s love wrapped tightly around her.

‘Sorry, Calum, I did forget to put this in the bag,’ she shouted, handing the phone to Calum. He frowned and waved her forwards, taking it from her hand.

Jago tried to lunge forwards again, but Calum was in the way now, helping Kate to the door.

She shuffled along to the edge, refusing to look back. As Calum did her pre-jump check, she pushed her legs into the powerful wall of air that rushed past the open door of the plane, feeling calm descend on her, remembering that this was who she was. She knew how to do this. She placed her left hand on the door, her right on the floor, ready to push off.

She looked down and saw fields 3,500 feet below her.

She saw death and knew she could face it, just as she’d faced it 26 times before.

‘Go!’ Calum shouted.

And with that she lifted her arms, flung back her head and jumped.

‘ONE THOUSAND!’ she yelled to make herself breathe. ‘TWO THOUSAND! THREE THOUSAND! FOUR THOUSAND!’

Her parachute exploded into life above her, and she felt the welcome tug.

‘CHECK CANOPY!’ she yelled, looking up. A beautiful billowing parachute greeted her. Her lines were clean, her slider down, her cell-ends inflated.

She pulled her brake toggles down a couple of times to be sure, then leaned into her flight.

It all came back so suddenly, but as if it had been yesterday.

Hearing the loud drone of the propellers dropping away into silence.

Feeling the wind whistling on her face.

Her limbs losing all resistance.

Falling into the void.

Utter euphoria descending.

Flying like a bird.

She flew for a couple of minutes, gently pulling her steering line to take her towards the arrow on the ground.

She could see for miles in every direction.

Patchwork fields and road and trains, and places to go.

The world laid out before her, waiting for her.

Relief surged through her.

It had all been Jago, the whole time.

Her instincts had been right.

She had protected herself and Jack, while everyone said she was mad.

She was going to be all right, and so was her son. She knew it.

She had kept them safe. Her and no one else.

‘I did it, Hugo,’ she whispered.

Then a movement below her.

People gathering. Pointing. Running backwards as if trying to see better.

Looking up at the sky.

She turned.

Jago was plummeting head first, upside down, towards the ground, his main chute wrapped around his legs. As he hit 1,500 feet, his reserve opened automatically, and she thought for a moment that it might save him, but it too became tangled in his legs and main chute, and flapped uselessly.

She looked down again.

Someone had a camera. Someone was filming Jago’s fall.

And even though the monster had finally come out of the shadows, and shown himself, she couldn’t watch his end.

So she looked up at the sky.

Heard nothing when he landed.

Just knew it was over.

The boy climbed out of the back seat of his father’s Jaguar and ran up the hill to the ruin, holding his toy soldier aloft.

This was exciting. It was like a proper ruin that you saw in war films, that soldiers had hit with a tank. Broken walls and a collapsed roof and belongings strewn all around the ground.

The little boy turned and saw his dad talking to the fat man who’d come up the hill with them in the car. Dad was shaking his head. He looked worried and angry at the same time.

‘His own bloody fault, Charley,’ he was saying. ‘Bought the bloody thing without a survey, or insurance. Trying to keep it together with a car jack, apparently. God knows what damage that did. Now we’ve got a bloody court case to deal with.’

The little boy shrugged. He didn’t know what Dad and the man were talking about; he just knew that they were not smiling.

As he ran around the ruin, something shiny caught his eye. He bent down and pulled a little plastic dome from the rubble. He stood up, wiped the dust off it and shook it. It was a snowdome. Glitter exploded over a little mountain.

The boy smiled, then put it in his pocket.

‘Hugo!’ his father’s voice came from behind him. ‘Right, boy. Time to go.’

And Hugo ran off down the hill, with the snowdome, wondering about the boy called Peter who lived here before the house fell down, and wondering where he was now.

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Kate stopped in front of the juice bar mid-afternoon. It was a Tuesday and the auburn-haired waitress was behind the counter. She locked her bike up and went in.

The girl came over, her eyes widening.

‘Oh it’s you. Oh my God, was that the Scottish guy, on the news?’

Kate nodded.

The girl flung a hand over her mouth. ‘That’s so awful. I wasn’t sure. It looked like him in the photo, but I thought he was called Jago, and on the news they said “Peter something”?’

Kate shrugged. ‘It’s a long story. But, yes, it was him. I just wanted to ask you how you knew there was something weird.’

The waitress rolled her eyes. ‘I’m so sorry. The first time you came in here, he followed you in and gave me £50 to pretend that I fancied him to you, to say that he had a sexy accent et cetera. I thought I was just helping him out because he was shy. Then when I saw him do that thing with the dog, I felt bad. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be rude, but you looked so fragile and vulnerable, and he just seemed weird. I thought, if I gave you his bag you might find something in it that told you what he was up to, some strange porn or something. He came back twice looking for it, and to be honest, he scared me. He was so angry that it had gone, and I knew there was something odd about him.’

Kate touched the girl’s hand. ‘Well, thanks. You were right.’

‘They said it might have been suicide? On the news?’

Kate shook her head. ‘They don’t know yet. He jumped in a way they teach you never to do. He knew what might happen if he did, so either he did it on purpose, or he genuinely made a very bad mistake then froze and couldn’t release his main chute when his reserve opened. The odds of it happening are tiny, so maybe he was just unlucky.’

‘Got to be someone, I suppose, eh?’ the girl said.

Kate nodded, ‘Got to be someone.’

She arrived home fifteen minutes later, and Saskia answered the door.

‘He’s in his room,’ she said.

‘Thanks.’ She put down her bag. ‘How are your parents?’

Tears filled Saskia’s eyes, which were already red from crying. She shook her head. ‘Dad won’t speak to anyone. He just looks so gaunt, Kate. He can’t even look at us. He keeps going out on his boat. It’s horrible. I think Mum’s too scared to come over to see you. She keeps saying that Jago Martin – or Peter or whoever he was – his dad was an alcoholic, and it was his fault because he took his wife’s money without asking and bought that house off Charley for cash without a survey or insurance. They knew each other from the pub, apparently. It wasn’t Dad’s fault. That regulations were different back then.’

Kate avoided Saskia’s eyes. Richard’s monsters were his own to deal with now.

‘How did you get on at the police station?’ Saskia sniffed.

‘They’re telling Stan the taxi driver’s family in Shropshire today. And the lawyers for the guys that took Hugo’s car have filed for an immediate dismissal of the murder charges.’

‘What about the weirdo next door?’

Kate shrugged, shivering at the thought of that horrible man so close to her and Jack. How Saskia had tried to warn her, and how she’d ignored her. ‘They questioned him this afternoon and they’re going to search his house later to find out how he knew all that stuff about me. He’s a serial burglar – he absconded from prison years ago, abroad, apparently,’ she said, rubbing her eyes, exhausted. ‘The police think he came to London, and met Jago through some dodgy bloke they both knew. Jago helped him get a new identity, then the weirdo said Jago kept blackmailing him into doing shady stuff for him.’ She rubbed her upper arm. ‘He was so clever – the weirdo thought he was Scottish too, never even knew his name. He had me believing this whole incredible lie, too, about him living in America, and having a girlfriend there – I think to make me jealous and to distract me from what he was really up to.’

Saskia turned one way, then another in the hall, shaking her head. ‘Oh God, all those people. Your parents. Hugo. It’s such a mess. I’m so sorry, Kate.’