‘Slipped it in his pocket when I nudged him at the intake desk.’
‘You sly fox. Ignoring the fact this is illegal, of course.’
She went silent as a burly male nurse entered, holding the requested folder with all of Eliza’s details, including photos of her injuries. Gabriella winked at the nurse, who winked back.
‘Plus, given he’s Jasmine’s dad, if she takes the chance to apologise to him and ease some of that guilt she’s carrying, we should be able to get to the point much quicker when we go in.’
‘Your compassion is overwhelming,’ said Gabriella, her finger to her ear.
CHAPTER 7
MURPHY
Murphy stepped into Eliza’s room.
Eliza was upright in bed, propped up by pillows. Her head was wrapped in bandages, her honey hair falling around her face. She wore a thick white bathrobe, the blankets pulled up to her waist, and she was speaking with a plump, grey-haired nurse who sat beside her.
‘Who’re you?’ demanded the nurse, standing up. ‘If you’re another journalist, I swear to the Lord Jesus that I’ll —’
‘Murphy!’ said Eliza, leaning forward. ‘Have they found them?’ Her voice was hoarse. ‘Tell me they’ve found them.’
Murphy shook his head.
Eliza swayed, putting one hand to her head. ‘No . . . Murphy. It’s . . . it’s all my fault.’
‘You know this man?’ said the nurse. ‘Is he family?’
‘He’s the father of one of the girls.’
The nurse’s face softened. ‘Oh, you poor thing,’ she said to him, changing her attitude instantly. ‘If there’s anything I can . . .’ She saw the blood on his bandaged wrists.
‘It’s fine,’ said Murphy.
Undeterred, the nurse quickly snapped on some gloves, lifted his hands and began unravelling the bandages.
‘Who wrapped this, a child? This is woeful . . .’ She hissed at the cuff wounds once they were exposed, still oozing blood.
‘Are you okay, Murphy?’ said Eliza. ‘You must want to kill me . . .’
‘What happened up there? They’re not telling me anything.’ He ignored the nurse as she rummaged in a trolley, returning to spray sharp-smelling antiseptic onto his wounds.
‘It . . . it’s hazy, Murphy. I think I took a blow to the head. But . . . I was with the four of them. Cierra, Georgia, Bree, Jasmine. We were trailing behind the main group.’
‘Why weren’t you with everyone else?’
‘I held them back. I did. This morning . . . there was a fight. I thought it would be better to keep them separate.’
‘A fight?’
‘Between Madison and Jasmine.’
Murphy’s stomach lurched, even as he recognised it was an irrational thing to be concerned about, considering she was missing. ‘Was Jaz alright?’
‘Madison ended up with a black eye, and Jasmine had a cut lip. Tom and Jack had already left with all the other girls. I still had Madison and Jasmine, as well as Georgia, Cierra, and Bree Wilkins. Do you remember Bree?’
‘She was friends with your Denni.’
‘Yes,’ said Eliza. ‘Friends with my Denni. And now I’ve lost four more girls . . .’ Her voice wavered.
‘Don’t say that. It wasn’t your fault,’ said Murphy. ‘Not Denni, not these girls. But what were they fighting about?’
‘I don’t know, Murphy! I think it was about a boy. The five of them were lagging behind everyone else at the campsite. I thought they were just being lazy, and I knew better than to let Tom or Jack try to hurry them up. You know what those girls are like.
‘But before I knew it they were pushing and shoving and shouting. Madison punched Jasmine and Jasmine hit her back, then it was just chaos. I broke it up, with the help of the other girls. Madison was still fuming, and I was sure they would start up again, so I sent her on ahead to catch up with Tom and Jack.’ Eliza spoke quickly. ‘I know that was a mistake, but they hadn’t gone that far ahead . . . I thought it was best . . .’
‘But Jasmine was okay?’ said Murphy. The nurse had finished treating his wrists and led him to the chair beside Eliza’s bed.
‘She seemed fine. You know that she’s strong, Murphy. I tried to find out what had happened, but the girls were all tight-lipped. I made the rest walk with me . . . slowly, so we wouldn’t catch up with Madison. Cierra was crying and Georgia looked like she was going to vomit. Bree was blaming Jasmine, but Jasmine was fine, just kept chewing on her drink bottle.’ She paused. Her lip trembled for a moment, but she brought it back under control, seeming irritated at her weakness. ‘If I hadn’t made them walk so slow —’
‘Then what?’ Murphy hated himself for rushing her, but he was desperate.
‘We walked together, I don’t know, maybe thirty minutes? I was at the front and Georgia was talking to me, but the other three kept dragging their feet – Bree especially – and everyone was getting spread out and . . .’ Eliza made a conscious effort to slow down. ‘It took me too long to realise we had become separated from Jasmine, Cierra and Bree. I told Georgia we needed to go back and find them, but she sat down on the ground and said she was too tired, she was going to wait for me. And . . . and . . . I went back, and . . .’ She took another breath. ‘This is where my memory goes . . . funny. It’s almost like it’s a dream. Does that make sense, Murphy?’
Murphy put a hand on her wrist. Eliza was shaking like a leaf, and her skin was hot to the touch.
‘Murphy,’ she said, ‘things went strange.’
‘What do you mean?’ Murphy moved closer, now sitting on the bed beside her. He ignored the nurse, who was still hovering, keenly listening in.
‘It’s crazy to say it now, but it was like walking into a bubble . . . All the noise stopped. The birds, the wind. I couldn’t hear anything except my own footsteps, and they were so loud . . .’ She took a shaky breath. ‘I got scared. I’ve never felt so scared in my life. It wasn’t even normal, I was running – it was like I was running for my life.’ She grunted, tears now running down her cheeks. ‘It sounds so stupid!’
‘Eliza, what happened?’
‘I don’t know! I don’t know! I kept walking, shouting, until – something hit me on the head? I remember waking up in bare feet – one of the other girls, Carmen, she was the one who found me. I told her to run back to safety, but she came back with Jack. They found me under a flower bush further down the track, I was curled up and vomiting. I don’t remember how I got there, but I remember them finding me. The doctors say I was vomiting because I was concussed. They brought me back to the bus, and that’s when they called . . . everyone. It feels like . . . I can’t explain it, but things just went so weird up there . . .’
Murphy felt a pain in his hands. He looked down to see his knuckles were white from clenching so tight. ‘Who hit you? Did you see them?’ he asked.
‘No,’ said Eliza, her voice full of pain. ‘I didn’t see a thing.’
CHAPTER 8