‘Felicity, wake up. Come on, wake up, we have to get you out of here.’
She knows that voice. Freddie is here. She is afraid of Freddie, isn’t she? And yet leaning against him, feeling the warmth of his body, even through the thick clothing, is nice. Even nicer than the cold sleepiness he has dragged her from.
‘Arm hurts,’ she says.
‘I know, and I’m sorry, but I have to get this harness on you. I have to pull you out. Felicity, listen to me, there are other people coming. They’ll be here in an hour, maybe less, but I don’t think you can wait. You need to be out of the wet.’
The pain in her arm brings her out of her stupor. She opens her eyes and sees Freddie by her side. They are up to their thighs in water and he is tugging a climbing harness over her shoulders. Behind him, she can see a double rope hanging down over the side of the moulin.
‘How will you get out?’ she says.
‘Shush. I need to bring your arm through here. Steady now.’
She cries but he is ruthless and she can hear the harness being clipped together at her chest.
‘Ok, let’s get you to the rope. Just a few feet. Come on, I’ve got you.’
The world around them shakes again, a bigger tremor than any they have felt so far and a thundering sound fills their ears. For a second, she can’t place it. Then she does. It is the sound of a great quantity of water falling.
‘It’s too late,’ she says.
The ice is trembling. The river they are standing in rises rapidly now, reaching their waists.
‘Shit,’ Freddie says.
Felicity follows her father’s gaze to see a wall of blue water hurtling towards them down the tunnel. The plug at the lake has broken at last, the water is draining and a hundred thousand cubic metres are heading their way.
‘Come on.’ Freddie reaches up for the pulley that will fasten her to the rope and give her a chance of getting out, but she squirms in his arms and with her left hand, clips the front of her harness on to his life jacket.
‘What the fuck?’
He brushes her hand aside, and tries to undo what she’s just done, but the wall of water hits them and sweeps them both away.
87
Joe
Joe and Ralph catch up with the other two at a small equipment hut at the foot of the Konig Glacier.
‘They’ve been here,’ Skye tells them. ‘It looked like the hut had been ransacked when we arrived.’
‘Not Felicity’s doing,’ Jack adds. ‘She’s incapable of leaving a cupboard untidy.’
‘She may not have been herself,’ Joe tells him. Not allowing himself to hope, he is keeping the information from his mother at bay. But another body in the drain with Dora? A third person spotted that night, someone small and thin and unusually aggressive?
‘We normally land in the next bay along, Fortuna Bay, when we’re working here.’ Jack hands crampons to Joe and Ralph. ‘It’s a shorter walk. Here, you’ll need poles, the ice is very unstable. Everyone ready?’
‘What’s that?’ Joe has spotted a yellow flag in the ice.
‘Good question,’ Jack replies. ‘There are more higher up.’
‘Jack went up a short way while we were waiting,’ Skye explains, as she and Joe follow the other two up onto the ice. ‘There’s a trail of flags going up the glacier. And he thinks he saw tracks. Two sets of footsteps. One much bigger than the other.’
‘Freddie,’ says Joe. ‘He’s followed her up.’
They begin to climb, Joe at the rear. Ahead, he hears Ralph telling Jack and Skye what they’ve recently learned from Delilah. Behind them, the sun is rising higher and the glacier comes alive with sound that is almost musical. Melting water drips into blue pools and snow particles in the air glint like diamonds.
‘She’s definitely heading for the ice sheet,’ Jack calls back. ‘Can we step it up a bit?’
The climb already feels punishingly steep, and Joe has barely slept the previous night, but he forces his feet to move faster. They pass a red flag, and an orange one.
‘So, what does it mean,’ Skye asks, when Ralph has finished. ‘Is she not this Shane after all?’
‘Oh, she’s Shane all right, there’s no doubt about that,’ Joe calls up. ‘But Shane may not have killed anyone.’
So where did Bella Barnes fit in? If Dora’s death was a result of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, what happened to Bella? A different killer or the same? And who have his mother’s team found in the cellars beneath Peterhouse College? He has no answers, and so he stops asking questions.
They continue up. The ice turns into a landscape that belongs on another, frozen, world. Around him, Joe sees abstract sculptures that could have been carved from human hands, so perfect are they in form and structure.
‘What was that?’ Skye turns pale when the second tremor halts them all in their tracks.
‘The ice sheets are moving.’ Jack is stony-faced. ‘Come on.’
They carry on. When both Skye and Ralph have fallen behind and Joe isn’t sure he can go much further, he hears a cry from Jack. The man actually steps up his pace.
‘This isn’t Felicity’s.’ When Joe catches up Jack is holding a rucksack. ‘Can you see up there?’ He is pointing to several feet higher up the slope.
‘Rope?’
Pegs have been hammered into the ice and two lines of rope disappear into the ground. Scattered around is more equipment, and the bag of flags that they’ve been following.
‘Stay there!’ Jack yells down to Skye and Ralph. ‘Don’t move. Stay still and wait.’
‘What’s going on?’ Joe is suddenly very afraid.
‘The ice is very unstable. Stay exactly behind me and move slowly.’
Joe does what he is told, following the other man the short distance to where the rope has been hammered into the ice. Before they reach it, the sound of the running water has become almost deafening, all the more unnerving because no water can be seen. Joe spots the moulin a few yards before he reaches it and without being told, follows Jack’s example when the other man drops to all fours. Side by side, they crawl to the edge of the shaft.
Twenty feet below they see Freddie and Felicity standing face to face, as though embracing. Then a torrent of water sweeps into the moulin and washes them away.
* * *
For several seconds, both men stare down at the rushing water. Then Joe leaps to his feet.
‘Pull them up!’ He throws himself towards the rope.
Jack is still staring down as Joe starts to pull. The rope comes up too quickly, too easily. There is no weight attached to it at all.
‘The water’s not rising,’ Jack says. ‘It’s flowing out again somewhere. They’ve been swept under the glacier.’
Joe closes his eyes in horror.
Jack jumps to his feet. ‘Can you run?’ he says.
‘What?’
‘You look fit, you’ve kept up with me. Can you run?’
Joe stares at him for a second. The idea seems madness but doing nothing feels infinitely worse. ‘I can run.’
‘Come on then. Stay behind me. Take care but we have to go fast.’