‘OK. No worries.’
Danny watches, his arms folded over his chest as Meg reaches for her day pack. Unlike everyone else who packed waterproof bags in shades of grey, black or navy, Meg’s got a canvas bag she bought on a Bangkok market stall, embroidered with flowers and birds. As she pulls it towards her Jefferson sighs audibly. He’ll make them turn the camp upside down to find that knife, Danny thinks with a stab of irritation. He won’t let it lie if he thinks one of his prized possessions is lost.
As Meg opens her bag Danny’s pulse pounds in his ears. Meg seems to freeze, so do the others. Even the sea seems to pause its gentle lapping of the shore. But Danny’s heart hasn’t stopped. It’s thumping in his chest, every beat a weighty punch that makes him feel sick. Lying just inside Meg’s bag, with its eyes closed and mouth stretched wide in a silent scream, is a monkey head. And it’s swimming in blood.
Meg doesn’t scream. She’s doesn’t tremble or cry. As she stares down into the bag her eyes don’t betray the fact that her phobia has just come true, but Danny spots something else – a grin – the smallest of smiles that plucks at her lips.
And that makes him run.
Chapter 31
HONOR
It’s damp, dark and cold inside the cave but it’s far less scary than what lies beyond the jagged, rocky mouth. As darkness fell Honor shuffled as far inside as she could, frantically checking the moss-lined walls and leaf-strewn ground for spiders as she inched her way backwards. She kept on moving until her back hit a cold, rocky wall, then she gathered her knees to her chest and burst into tears. She didn’t cry for long. She couldn’t risk her nose becoming so stuffy she couldn’t breathe. Instead she channelled her fear and her frustration into anger and, using all the strength she had, she tried to pull her bound wrists apart. The tape held firm. And it didn’t budge from her ankles when she frantically wiggled her feet back and forth in an effort to loosen it.
She hadn’t planned on spending the night in the cave. After her kidnapper left her there, she tried to escape. She shuffled out of the cave on her bum, the fabric of her shorts catching on rough bits of stone, her breath coming in short, sharp, terrified bursts.
When she finally made it to the entrance of the cave she stared out at the small clearing and the wall of trees behind it, trying to get her bearings. If she could just find her way to her friends – even if she had to bum-shuffle or hop the whole way in her bare feet – her nightmare would be over. They’d pull the tape from her lips and the gauze from her mouth. She’d tell them what had happened and they’d help her, they’d protect her. They’d make sure she was safe until her mum turned up to rescue her. The thought of her mum, sipping cocktails by the pool with the other parents, totally oblivious to what her daughter was going through, brought fresh tears to Honor’s eyes. It had just been the two of them – Thea and Honor against the world – for so long. They had a brilliant relationship, the best, and her mum was happy, finally, for the first time in years. It was almost a relief when Adrian, Honor’s dad, moved out five years earlier and the rows finally stopped. Her dad’s bellowing voice and her mum’s desperate, screechy retorts had had a big impact on twelve-year-old Honor. She swore she’d never have a relationship like her parents’. She wouldn’t put a child, or herself, through that kind of hell. She crept into herself, hiding bubbly, exuberant Honor away, only bringing her out when she stepped out on stage. Danny was there for her when she went on her first group holiday without her dad and she was so grateful. She stopped seeing him as a loud, annoying boy. Instead she viewed him as a kindred spirit. Someone who understood how lost she felt. They grew closer on the next holiday, and the one after that, and when he asked her to be his girlfriend on his fifteenth birthday she felt like the happiest girl in the world. That was two years ago and she’s been playing the part of the perfect girlfriend ever since.
Exhausted and trembling, she sat in the mouth of the cave and tried to work out which way to go. Was the beach to her left or to her right? She couldn’t hear the sea or feel a breeze on her cheeks. The air she drew into her nostrils was thick, cloying, hot. Where was she? It was as though she’d fallen asleep on the beach and had woken up in the heart of the jungle. Even if she hadn’t been utterly terrified when she’d been led through the jungle, there was no way she could have memorized the route. Other than the beach, the waterfall and the clearing at the top of the cliffs, there were no other distinctive features on the island, no way of orientating herself. As she looked from left to right, searching for footprints, for trampled vegetation, for something, anything to tell her which way to go, movement at the base of a palm tree made her turn sharply. She watched, heart pounding, as a grey-black monitor lizard slowly emerged from between the fronds of a shrub. It moved slowly on short stubby legs and scaly clawed feet. It was huge, maybe a metre and a half long. Honor held herself very, very still as its head swung slowly from left to right and its snake-like tongue flickered in and out of its mouth. It was tasting the air, she realized with horror, and picked up on her scent. Were monitor lizards dangerous to humans? Was it venomous? Jeffers would know. Why hadn’t she listened to him? Why had she laughed along with the others when he’d tried to share what he knew?
The lizard stopped moving its head from side to side. Its head wasn’t pointed towards her but Honor could tell that it was watching her with its unblinking black eye. She wanted to scream. She wanted to stand up and jump up and down as she shouted at it to ‘Go! Go! Get away!’ But she couldn’t do either of those things. All she could do was inch herself back into the cave, praying that the lizard wouldn’t follow.
She wouldn’t leave the cave that night, she decided as she slowly shuffled backwards. The jungle was too dangerous, her hands and feet were bound and if she got lost in the dark she might never find her way out. Better to remain in the cave and escape when dawn broke.
Now, as the darkness of the world outside the cave begins to lift, it is as though someone has turned up the volume of the jungle too. The incessant chirping of crickets that kept her company as night fell is joined by the hollow whoop of macaques and the caws, shrieks, hoots and cries of birds. The world beyond the confines of the cave is waking up but Honor hasn’t slept. She’s remained awake, staring into the darkness, listening for animals and insects, praying that her kidnapper won’t return until she’s made her escape.
The tape around her wrist is weakening. She’s been rubbing it against the sharp spots on the wall behind her for hours and now there’s mere millimetres between her and freedom.
She grits her teeth against the pain that’s burning through her forearms, biceps and shoulders and speeds up, sawing the last few threads against the jag of rock then stops, dropping her hands to the floor. She inhales deeply through her nose then wrenches her wrists apart. She feels the tape tighten against her skin and then – SNAP – it breaks. She slumps forward and slowly, tentatively rolls her shoulders forward. Her anguished scream is smothered by the mesh in her mouth and the tape still binding it closed. She rips it away, not caring as it lifts a layer of skin from her lips, and pulls the gauze from her mouth. She grabs at the bottle of water by her feet, unscrews the lid with trembling hands and gulps desperately, barely swallowing as she tips the water into her parched mouth and down her throat. She drains every last drop then tosses the bottle away and reaches for her ankles, running her fingernails over the tape, looking for the edge. She finds it, but as she picks at it a noise makes her look up. It’s coming from outside the cave. Someone, or something, is crashing through the undergrowth.