Page 74

Of course, there was no romantic future or anything like that. Not at their age and not with his job, plus they were two very different people. Graysen Hughes, as well being a renowned photographer who lived out of a suitcase and had visited a hundred countries, and Sandra Porter, mother of three, grandmother of one, who lived in a small apartment in a suburban area of Darwin and had never had a passport.

The highlight of her days was maybe a shopping trip, or going for a swim in the pool at the apartment complex, but most of all visiting her wonderful family.

She wondered how Ellie was, and hoped she was staying well. It was awful not being able to pick up the phone and talk to the girls and she hoped they weren’t too worried about not being able to talk to her while she was out of range.

Sandra sat up with a sudden gasp.

‘What is it? What’s wrong?’ Sandra heard Graysen jump to his feet and he was instantly by her side. It was too dark now to see him. The light on his watch came on.

‘Oh my God.’ Her voice was panicked. ‘I was just thinking what if the news has got back to Darwin? What if they know that we’re all missing? They must. We didn’t get to Jodie tonight and she’ll have raised the alarm. What are we going to do? What if it gets to the girls?’ Her voice rose in pitch and Andrew stirred.

Graysen faced her and put both hands on her shoulders. ‘Take a deep breath, Sandra, the news won’t be out there yet. It’s only been a few hours, and I’m sure as soon as Jodie turns up and we’re not there, there’s going to be people out looking for us straight away. The company will have plans in place for such an event.’

‘What, a murder?’

‘No, missing trekkers. I wouldn’t be one bit surprised to see a helicopter flying over at first light. If there is, I want you to get out there and wave and jump and yell as much as you can.’

Sandra took a deep breath. ‘I’m sorry. Here I am bragging about how strong I’ve been and one thought about my girls worrying sends me into a panic.’

‘Take some deep breaths. You know worrying’s not going to achieve anything. Lie down and I’ll lie beside you for a while. Andrew’s okay, and I’ve had some sleep.’

Sandra lay back and closed her eyes. She focused on breathing evenly and tried to clear her thoughts. Graysen lay beside her and when his arms went around her, she began to relax and soon she drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

***

Graysen kept his arm around Sandra to keep her as warm as he could. The temperature was plummeting quickly. Once she was sound asleep, he’d go back to the other side of Andrew and try to give him some warmth. Sandra’s cheeks were cool but the rest of her body was warm. He rested his cheek on her hair and breathed in her scent. She was a strong and beautiful woman and he was looking forward to spending more time with her.

Away from all this shit.

Sandra breathed peacefully in his arms and Andrew murmured occasionally in his sleep. Graysen kept his eyes open, fighting sleep. At the moment, all was quiet and safe, and he lay back and looked up. The clouds had cleared and a myriad of stars brightened the night sky. He lay there trying to plan the route he’d take tomorrow. Despite his promise to Sandra, he was tempted to climb up to the trail because that would be by far the quickest and the easiest way to get down to the chasm and help. He weighed up the chances of Zed and Miska being up there on the path. The trail would be the fastest route to Standley Chasm. It was probably worth the risk; he could keep an eye out and make sure that there was no sign of them.

Logic told him they’d be trying to do one of two things. Maybe they got away, and maybe they’d taken the truck from Jodie and headed off. Or maybe they were still roaming the trail trying to find the rest of them. Something had obviously happened to Paul and Cecily and PD because if they got back to the Chasm, there would have been help come by now. He had to worry about Clive and Jenny, and hope that Zed and Miska hadn’t caught them up on the trail. Clive was a bigger man, but despite his size, they had seemed fit and moved quickly when they had to.

Being a detective, maybe Jenny had picked up something was not right. He could only hope that was why they’d taken off very quickly when Zed headed off with the pack and attacked Andrew.

The night settled in around them cocooning them in its darkness. The wind dropped and there was only the occasional crack of the occasional branch dropping, and rustling in the undergrowth as the wildlife headed out to feed and to drink. Sleep threatened, but Graysen fought it as best he could, but he must have drifted off because a short while later, Sandra’s mouth was against his ear and her hand gripped his arm.

‘Graysen!’ The urgency in her whisper brought him back to full awareness. ‘There’s somebody here. I can hear somebody. Listen.’

‘Stay completely quiet and don’t move.’ He turned his head to her ear and whispered. Cocking his head, he listened but all was quiet. ‘Are you sure you heard something?’

‘Yes. I heard voices. Look, look!’ She stiffened against him and he sat up. ‘There’s a light at the end of the gorge. It looks like a torch.

Andrew started to murmur in his sleep and as he began to toss and turn, his murmurs got louder.

‘Oh God, they’re going to hear him.’ Sandra sounded as though she was on the verge of tears.

‘It’s alright, sweetheart. We’re enough away from where they are. The lights a fair way away.’

‘I’m scared, what should we do? Move away from Andrew? Or it that the wrong thing to do?’

‘Just stay calm. We’re here behind the rock, they can’t see us. I’ll take a look in a minute and see what’s out there.’

As he prepared to creep to the edge of the rock, Andrew let out a loud groan.

Graysen stiffened and Sandra was up beside him like a shot.

‘I can’t stay here by myself,’ she said. ‘I thought about putting my hand over Andrew’s mouth but that would hurt him.’