Accidents Happen A Novel

CHAPTER FORTY



Kate couldn’t believe how quickly everything came back to her.

‘I’ll wait for you in the canteen,’ Jago had said when they arrived, after introducing her to her instructor, Calum, an ex-army man, and giving her a reassuring kiss.

‘Right, this should be a doddle for you, Kate,’ Calum said, ‘let’s go.’

At his request, she demonstrated flaring the parachute before hitting the ground, then pointed to the altimeter, her reserve chute handle and the slider, telling Calum what each was for. She pushed her riser straps apart and kicked to demonstrate how to remove a line twist, and mocked up reinflating the cell-ends with the steering lines. Five times, he made her jump from the dummy plane to check she knew the positions and how to breathe. He made her jump five times in a harness from a twenty-foot-high scaffolding rig to show she could land with her feet together and roll.

All through the morning, as Kate heard the planes droning above, and saw the jumpers pulling on their suits, she waited for the figures to come and scream at her

• 1 in 80,000 jumps will end in a 'serious incident'.

But she knew that that would most likely be because if she did something stupid, like not buckling up her chest strap.

• The chances of both chutes malfunctioning are 1 in a million.

And probably better than that here with qualified packers who checked and rechecked.

The figures came . . . and then they went, half-hearted, on their way again.

They had absolutely no control over her.

They would not stop her doing this.

And, even better, to her astonishment, she was looking forward to it.

‘Right, you obviously know what you’re doing, Kate,’ Calum declared at the end of the morning. ‘We’ll have to get you to come back and jump with the club jumpers one day’

It was funny, she thought, this stranger’s perspective of her being a brave person.

‘That’s great that you can access my international licence online. Is that new?’ she said as they crossed the concrete area back to the canteen.

Calum frowned. ‘Can you? Never heard of that before. I thought you had to bring your licence and show it – but then I don’t work in the office . . .’

They shrugged at each other as he dropped her off beside Jago, who was sitting outside reading a newspaper at a table.

‘Right, you guys, we’ll jump at 1 p.m. – we’ll take the Islander up. It’ll be you and two others. I’ll give you a shout,’ Calum said, walking off to the canteen with a wave.

Jago gave him the thumbs-up and took Kate’s hand, beaming, as she sat down.

‘You did it! How was it?’

She saw him check his watch.

‘Good, actually.’ She sniffed, wiping her nose.

‘Seriously?’ He grinned.

She nodded. ‘How are you?’

‘Shitting myself,’ Jago said. The irony hit them both and they laughed.

Kate took the sip of his coffee that he offered. ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this.’

‘It’s amazing, honestly. I’m proud of you,’ Jago replied.

She reached out and took his hand, no longer self-conscious. ‘You know, I’d probably never have done this again, if you hadn’t made me. I just remembered today how much I loved it.’

He leaned over, kissed the side of her face, then stood up. To her surprise, she saw him check his watch again. He really was nervous. ‘Can’t tell you how pleased I am to hear you say that. Right. What do you want? Coffee?’

‘Thanks.’

Jago walked off to the canteen queue.

As she waited, Kate looked around the garden. Most tables were busy, dominated by an air of tension and excitement. She’d missed this. This world of people with adventurous purpose. The horse riding. Travelling with her friends. Skiing. Working at the parachute school in New Zealand. There had always been an element of it in her life till her parents died, and then Hugo.

She’d forgotten.

This was part of who she was. However crazy Jago’s methods, he’d really helped her. She was here. She was getting better.

Kate stretched back, feeling the sun on her face, watching an experienced-looking group of free-fallers walk towards a larger Caravan plane with the heroic gait of firemen or helicopter doctors. The club members that Calum had mentioned, she suspected. She saw the beginners at the tables around her watch the group with admiring glances.

That had been her once.

She thought about Calum’s offer.

Was Jago right? Could it be again?

There was a soft buzz in Kate’s bag. She pulled out her mobile, and saw that two voice messages had arrived when she’d been training with Calum: one from Jack, one from Saskia.

What would they think if they knew where she was now?

She lifted the phone to her ear, looking through the window at Jago standing with his back to her in the canteen queue, holding his own phone to his ear.

Vaguely, she wondered who he was talking to.

‘Mum. It’s Jack. Don’t be angry with me, but there’s something wrong with that man Jago Martin .. . .’

As Jack’s message continued, Kate sensed a cloud pass over the sun. The temperature dropped.

When Jack’s message finished, she pressed Saskia’s.

And when that message stopped, Kate looked up and realized there was no cloud. The sun was exactly as it had been before.

Jack walked slowly back from the village shop, clutching the bread, newspaper and milk in one hand, and Rosie’s lead in the other. He didn’t normally do bad things and now he was worried. Would Aunt Sass be cross with him that he’d told Mum about that dodgy book before she did?

He strolled under the canopy section of trees with Rosie, not even thinking about the strange feeling he normally had under here of being watched.

So when a very big man stepped out of the bushes, he nearly jumped in the air. The man was wearing a black beanie even though it was a nice day.

With a gasp, Jack stumbled over a twig. He tried to right his footing and race ahead, but Rosie saw the man, and strained her lead in his direction.

‘No, girl,’ Jack said, his chest pounding. He pulled her too hard, too scared to look behind him, and marched forwards.

‘Jack!’

He stopped.

‘Hi! It’s me. Your neighbour, Magnus! From Hubert Street. You recognize me? What on earth are you doing out here?’

With relief, Jack recognized the man from outside his bedroom window. He looked around but the path was still empty. What should he do? He didn’t want to be rude. ‘My grandparents live here.’ He pointed vaguely down the river path.

‘Oh. That’s funny. Hey, nice dog!’ the man said cheerfully, coming over. ‘Jack, listen, this is good I bumped into you – can you maybe help me, please?’ He pointed at the road behind the trees. ‘I’ve broken down in my car back in the lane. I was just walking to the village to find a bus back to Oxford. The phone in my house in Hubert Street is not working and I need to phone my housemates to come and pick me up. Could we ring your mum, and ask her to go next door and knock on my friends’ door? Tell them where I am? Then I won’t have to get the bus home and leave my car here.’

Jack hesitated. Rosie whined, pulling him.

‘Can’t you ring the AA?’ he said.

The man laughed. ‘Good idea, but it costs money. I’m a poor student, you know?’

‘Um. OK,’ Jack said awkwardly.

The man leaned down and patted Rosie. Rosie ignored him, whining and pulling away in the direction of her walk. ‘Your mum was telling me in the garden that you’re an Arsenal fan, huh?’ the man said.

Jack nodded shyly.

‘Me, too! You think we’re going to get the championship next year, huh?’

Jack shrugged. The man stood up.

‘OK. Listen. Do you know your mum’s number?’

Jack nodded.

‘Well, could you tell me, and I’ll ring her. Maybe you could speak to her for me? My phone is back at the car, actually – could you come with me?’

Jack shrugged again, wondering if he should offer his own phone for the man to use. But the man was already walking towards his car.

Jack decided to follow him. He was their neighbour, after all.

Kate sat frozen in the canteen garden, staring at her phone.

Her mind whirled trying to think what possible motives Saskia could have for making this up.

‘Kate?’

She turned to see Calum walking out of the canteen with Jago, who was carrying coffee.

‘Ten minutes in the packing shed,’ Calum called, with upturned thumbs, before walking off.

Jago sat down. ‘That’s interesting.’

‘What?’ she whispered.

‘He was saying that they’re filming a stunt for a Hollywood film here next week.’

Kate kept her eyes fixed on the table, trying to calm the rush of confused thoughts in her head.

It had to be a mistake.

Why would Saskia say this? Because she was bitter? Could she have really made this up? Involved Jack? She wouldn’t dare.

Why on earth would she say Jago was Tony from Essex?

She felt a hand on her arm and looked up to see Jago watching her. ‘Oi, mate. You’re not flaking out on me, are you?’

She kept her eyes down. Shook her head.

‘No,’ she said, trying to sound normal, starting to stand up. She’d ring Saskia right now, that’s what she’d do. ‘I’m, uh, just going to ring my sister-in-law and check Jack’s all right. I want to speak to him, tell him I’m jumping. If anything happened and . . .’

Jago’s hand came out of nowhere and settled on her arm. Firmly.

‘Kate. You’re joking, aren’t you? You’ll just worry him.’

‘No, but I . . .’

Jago shook his head and grabbed the phone out of her hand. ‘I think it’s a really bad idea. Poor lad’s been through enough. You don’t want to make him more anxious, do you? Tell him when you get back down – then he’ll be really proud without having to worry about you.’

Kate shrugged, uneasily looking at her phone in his hand. ‘OK. Well . . .’ She looked around. ‘Actually, I’m just going to get some sugar for my coffee . . .’

Jago jumped up before she could move an inch. Her feeling of disquiet intensified. Why was he not letting her do what she wanted to do? ‘I’ll get it. Stay there. Least I can do after making you jump out of a plane!’ he grinned.

She tried to smile back. As he walked off – still with her phone still in his hand, she noted – she sat rigid.

Saskia. Why would she lie? Why would she tell Jack the book was fake?

Jago’s small leather rucksack lay in front of her.

His phone.

She couldn’t wait. She had to ring Saskia.

She glanced into the cafe and saw him rummaging by the till among the salt and pepper. He was still looking at his watch. Kate prayed he wouldn’t see her. Quickly she grabbed it and opened it, looking for his phone and . . .

Something red caught her eye. She blinked, taking a second to compute seeing one of her own possessions in Jago’s bag.

Slowly, she pulled it out.

How the hell did Jago have this?

She heard the tinkle of the cafe door and turned to see him emerge.

Their eyes met.

His eyes fell to the object she held in her hands. The one she kept in her study drawer.

He ran so quickly she couldn’t move. But this time he sat beside her, on her bench, throwing the sugar on the table.

‘I don’t understand,’ she stuttered. ‘Where did you get this?’

She placed her international skydiving licence on the table. Jago said nothing. Just sighed, and reached over for his coffee.

‘Jago,’ Kate whispered. ‘Please tell me. What is this all about?’

‘Hmm?’ He sipped his coffee.

She looked about her, seeing the couples around her, feeling a crack appear in the dream of a future. Wanting to be wrong, but knowing she wasn’t.

‘This?’ She looked at him finally, motioning about the airfield with her hands.

He shrugged. ‘Er, jumping out of an aeroplane, back to life, etc.’

There was a new tone in his voice she hadn’t heard before. Hardened, cynical.

‘No,’ she said quietly. ‘You taking things from my house? And pretending to be a professor of mathematics from Edinburgh. What’s it about, Jago – the money?’

She lifted her eyes and met his. At first she saw the familiar warmth and humour in his blue eyes, as he registered what she knew. Then a cloud of icy mist passed through them. They froze in front of her like an Arctic icefield. She tried to look away but couldn’t. She saw dark crevices where the dark irises were, ice floes form in the intent of his pupils, so cruel and inhospitable that they made her shudder.

As a reflex, she leaned back. Yet Jago came with her, so close to her face that she could smell coffee on his breath. She tried to move away but realized he had placed his hand on her upper arm and gripped it tight.

‘Jago. Let go of my arm.’

‘No. So, what did you say – is it about the money?’ Jago said. She blinked. What was wrong with his voice? He was speaking in a different accent. English. West Country. Stripped of the paternal Scottish warmth, this new voice was infused with the threat of a stranger. ‘You mean, the one-point-eight million pounds?’

Kate froze.

She looked around the garden frantically, but the jumpers were talking in tight-knit groups, lost in their own world of facing their own fears.

‘Get off me,’ she repeated. Yet Jago’s grip just tightened. Tears formed at the back of her eyes as it began to hurt. ‘I said, let me go,’ she said, but it came out so weakly it was hardly there at all. She summoned everything she had. ‘Look. If you don’t let go of my f*cking arm, I’m going to scream.’

Jago pulled her so close she thought the bone would break in her arm.

‘Uhuh, and if you do, I’ll tell my friend the Viking – whom you might know better as the bloke next door – to throw your son in the f*cking river.’

Kate tried to call out ‘No!’ but the word stuck in her throat.

Jack walked beside the man back to his car on the lane. It was a black car.

He opened the door, and Jack glanced around nervously. The man saw him do it.

‘Hey, please, don’t worry, Jack. Your mum told you not to get in cars with strangers. That’s good.’

He waited nervously as the man brought out a phone.

‘What’s your mum’s number?’

Jack told him and watched the man put it in with his big fingers. That was strange. It looked different to Mum’s number.

The man looked up. ‘This is great, Jack. Really helpful.’

From the front, Kate knew that Jago’s hold on her must look like an embrace. A boyfriend hugging his nervous girlfriend before her jump.

‘Why are you talking about Jack?’ she said.

Jago’s phone rang. He checked his watch. ‘And, finally, on cue . . .’ he said. He took it out with his free hand and answered it away from her. He murmured something into it, then turned to her. ‘Someone who wants to talk to you.’

She took it, with shaky fingers.

‘Kate!’ a man’s voice said in a Scandinavian accent.

‘Who is this?’

‘Magnus next door. I have your son, Jack, here by the river. He’s just giving me a hand.’

Kate’s eyes opened wide. She shook her head at Jago.

‘What are you talking . . .?’

‘Mum?’

‘Jack! Where are you?’

His voice was timid. ‘By the river near Granddad’s house. Magnus said, can you go next door and tell his friends to come and pick him up. His car’s broken.’

Jago hissed in her ear. ‘I would advise you strongly to say yes.’

Kate shook her head, and tried to pull away from him. ‘Jack!’ she started to shout.

‘If you don’t want him to end up going for a little swim right now in Granddad’s river, say yes.’

Kate’s heart began to thump so hard in her chest she thought she would vomit it out of her mouth.

Jago mouthed at her. One, two, three . . .

‘Yes, Jack. That’s fine. I’ll do it,’ she said. Jago began to pull the phone away from her face, she gasped, ‘Jack, Jack . . .’

But he was gone.

She sat on the bench, as Jago put the phone back in his pocket, fighting the urge to scream for help and knowing she couldn’t risk it. Desperately, she tried to think straight. They had kidnapped Jack. ‘Jesus, is this really about the money? Have it!’ she exclaimed. ‘I never wanted it in the first place. Just let Jack go.’

‘Oh, it’s always the same with you lot,’ Jago said, sounding disappointed. ‘You don’t care because you’ve always had it.’ He turned his voice into a high-pitched whine. ‘When I was a teenager I used to go skiing and jump five-bar gates on my pony.’ She shuddered at hearing her own words. ‘But the thing is, Kate, if it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have had half of it.’

‘What?’ she said, hating Richard and Helen with every part of her for letting Jack go to the shop alone. How long before they realized he was missing?

Jago shrugged. ‘Where do you think the quarter of a million pounds came from that Richard gave Hugo to start your business?’

Kate thought at first she’d misheard him. ‘How could you know that?’ she stammered.

‘How do I know?’ Jago continued. She looked at his mouth, unable to believe these vicious words were coming from those gentle lips. ‘Because I know everything. I know Richard and his partner Charley Heaven, the builder, took every penny my dad had one night in the pub and sold him a piece of shit house on a hill with rotten foundations that fell down. And because of that, our lives fell apart. My father killed my mother, then killed himself in jail. When I was nine.’ He pulled back, as if to enjoy Kate’s horrified expression. ‘And then Richard Parker took the profit and started his business. F*cked off out of Cornwall as soon as he could. That’s how I know, Kate. Richard Parker ruined my f*cking life.’

She felt a creeping sense of horror. ‘This is about Richard?’

He loosened his grip, but just a little. ‘Well, to be honest, Kate, it probably should have been Charley. But the fat f*ck died of a heart attack on the beach in Portugal, so I’m afraid the finger of fate chose your Richard. So yes, it is about Richard.’

Kate stared, fighting back frightened tears. ‘I’m sorry. But he’s not my Richard. It’s not my fault. Or Jack’s.’

Jago sighed. ‘I know that, Kate. But, the thing is, I don’t care.’

She saw him look over her shoulder and wave. Calum was summoning them.

‘Shall we go?’

‘No,’ Kate exclaimed, but he pulled her up, keeping his arm around her as they walked to the giant open-fronted packing shed. Calum pointed to the jumpsuits and their parachutes.

In shock, Kate did as she was asked, desperately trying to think as she pulled on her overalls and chute, with shaking fingers. Without being asked, Jago did up her chest strap, holding her tight when she pulled away, reviled as he touched her breast. He shuddered suddenly, as if he was experiencing a little thrill. ‘You know, this is a big day for me. I’ve been planning this one for five years.’

‘What do you mean, “this one”?’ she asked, terrified.

‘Well, it’s not easy. The important thing is that Richard doesn’t find out that it’s about him. Because that way I can keep going right to the end. So I mean this step. First the dog . . .’ he murmured. He put his hands up like two little paws desperately scrabbling in the air, and began to whine.

It took Kate a horrible moment to register. ‘Hugo’s dog?’ She remembered Hugo talking about the dog, how he’d never wanted one since, he’d been so upset as a teenager. ‘You drowned his dog?’

Jago put on his own helmet. ‘That’s what gave me the idea. Honestly, seeing Hugo’s face. Seeing the cracks in Richard’s face, not being able to fix it for him. It just helped, you know?’

Kate put her hands to her face. ‘Jago, I’m sorry; this is crazy. You’re telling me you drowned Hugo’s dog because of Richard. But that was twenty years ago!’

Jago held out a helmet for her. He was so calm.

‘I know it’s hard to understand, but what you’re seeing today, Kate, is my life. What I do for my parents. Putting cracks in Richard Parker’s world, and then watching it crumble, brick by brick. Just like he did to ours. Trust me, it’s nothing personal against you.’

Kate stared. Then, with an explosion of understanding, she reeled backwards.

‘What else have you done?’

Magnus waved goodbye to Jack and he set off home, relieved.

‘Snores!’ he heard Sass shout as he came up to the house.

‘Here,’ he said feeling guilty.

‘Are you OK? Why did you take so long? Granddad’s gone that way down the lane looking for you.’

‘I was helping that man.’

‘What man?’

They peered back out of the gate.

‘Oh,’ Jack said. That was weird. ‘He’s gone. His car must have started working again.’

Saskia followed his eyes. ‘Well, never mind. Listen, I think I’m going to take you back to your mum’s this afternoon. I need to speak to her not in front of Nana or Granddad.’

‘What about?’

‘Don’t you worry.’

He hoped when she found out what he’d done she wouldn’t be cross.

‘I said, what else have you done?’ Kate repeated, weakly.

‘Guys, over by the manifest, please,’ she heard Calum shout. He held out a small cloth bag. ‘I’ll need to take your mobiles, keys, anything loose that could fall out – in here, please.’

Jago put his hand on her back and firmly guided her forwards. Kate’s brain felt under fire. Bullets of information that made no sense flew at her from all directions. Shaken, she found herself clutching at her car keys, to stop them dropping from her damp palms.

As they approached Calum, and the open valuables bag that he offered, she looked over and saw their plane waiting on the field. Jago was taking her on a plane. Telling her things that made no sense. Taking her up in the sky. Why?

Jack!

THINK, Kate yelled to herself in a panic.

Pull yourself together.

Jack’s in trouble.

THINK.

She forced a long deep breath through her body in a desperate attempt to calm herself. And, then, from somewhere through the fug of shock, in the tiny space she created for herself, Jago’s voice miraculously drifted into her head. Not the Jago standing in front of her, the frightening stranger with the unfamiliar West Country accent who had stolen her son, but kind, sweet Jago from last week. From the night in Chumsley Norton, from the canal boat, from Highgate Woods. ‘Trust your instincts, Kate,’ said the kindly Scottish accent in her head. ‘Trust your instincts.’

She had to.

She had to stop trying to work out what he was saying to her, and work out how to survive this, for Jack’s sake.

Jago stepped in front of her. As he moved forwards, she took her keys into her shaking right hand.

Jago dropped his phone into the bag, then turned to her. Calum, too, watched Kate expectantly.

‘Anything, Kate?’ he asked.

‘Yeah,’ she said, quickly, sticking her closed right hand quickly into the bag and dropping her car keys in heavily.

Jago placed his hand on her back. This afternoon, the touch of it there had sent a shiver of anticipation through her. Now it felt like a steel rod.

His eyes fixed on hers, cold and hard.

STAY CALM, she thought. She searched for a phone, any phone. Grasping the smallest in the bag, as subtly as she could, she formed a cage around it with sweaty fingers.

‘Is it safe to jump? It seems more windy suddenly,’ she asked Calum, to distract Jago.

‘’Course it is, darling,’ Jago interrupted, the steel rod pushing further into her back. He winked at Calum.

Praying, hating him, Kate gently pulled out the phone.

KEEP YOUR NERVE.

Jago blinked.

‘You’ll be fine, Kate,’ Calum said, tying the top together. Jago’s face broke into what she could see was an attempt at a relaxed smile. ‘Now, could you follow the others over to the manifest board?’

She felt Jago’s fingers between her vertebrae, prodding her forwards, as they walked to the manifest area, where the other two passengers were writing on their names, checking they were doing it right. He took his arm from behind her back, put it around her shoulders and whispered intently into her ear. Kate glanced at the others. She knew what they saw: the kind boyfriend, soothing her nerves.

‘Anyway, now back to my story – do you remember you used to meet Hugo in a pub in Archway when you were at college? Your local?’

Kate felt her legs start to shake uncontrollably. She gripped the phone.

‘Well, I used to watch you there.’

What was he saying?

THINK, she screamed in her head. Breathe.

‘Well, one day, you left, and Hugo watched you,’ Jago sneered into her ear, ‘and I could tell he was dreaming. Thinking about you. The future. And then I thought, what could I do to take the smile off his big fat face?’

‘No,’ Kate said. ‘No,’ she shook her head. ‘No.’

He pulled her in more tightly. ‘What could I do that would make Richard’s son’s marriage shit from Day One. What could I do to put a great big f*ck-off crack through it?’

A cramp in her stomach now. Nausea. She bent her middle finger hard, and pointed it hard inside her palm, pushing the bottom of the phone inside her sleeve to keep it safe.

‘. . . Something that no one would trace back to me.’

She shook her head. ‘You can’t have,’ she whispered. ‘Their car hit a stag . . .’

Jago rolled his eyes. ‘If you’re as pissed off as me, honestly, Kate, anything’s possible. Remember, I lost my parents, too. No, it wasn’t easy, but I shot it with one of my dad’s old poaching rifles, dragged it onto my truck tailgate with a rig, and waited till dark.’

The words came out of her mouth, broken into pieces. ‘You caused my parents’ car crash?’

One of the two other jumpers, a middle-aged woman, came over with the pen. Jago pulled back and smiled.

‘Nervous?’ she asked.

Kate nodded.

‘Me too,’ she said sympathetically. ‘We’ll be fine.’

‘Well said,’ Jago said, taking the pen from the woman with a wink.

As she walked off with the other jumper onto the field towards the plane, he took the pen and wrote both their names on the manifest board.

‘And then . . .’

Kate’s mouth flew open as a new horrific vision came into her head. ‘No,’ she repeated. She tried to turn, but he pulled her close again and shouted in her ear above the passing noise of a small aircraft that was taxiing to another part of the field. Tears came into her eyes again.

She fought them back.

STOP CRYING. THINK.

‘Every week. Sat on the bench outside your house in Highgate, bought with my family’s blood money. Saw him bring that car home. Saw him looking to see what the neighbours thought.’

‘But those men . . .’

He kept his nose pressed hard into her ear. ‘The Viking gathers information when I need it, and he gives it to people too. He opened his big mouth beside them in their pub one night about this fifty-thousand-pound sports car his neighbour had bought. All I had to do was slip in after they’d left with his keys. The door was open. Hugo was just about to phone the police.’

Kate held out her hands, aimlessly, as if she were trying to fight off something she couldn’t see.

‘And, you know what the best bit was?’ Jago said, putting down the pen, and guiding her onto the field behind the others. ‘I told him all of this. Told him it would be you next. But I’d give it another five years. Because first I wanted to enjoy watching Richard trying to keep the cracks together with his big, smiley, desperate face. Waiting until you’d had enough of the cold nights. Were ready to be warmed up again.’ He forced Kate to look at him. ‘Hugo particularly liked that detail. Actually, it was a long wait, so I practised on your sister-in-law, and caused Richard and Helen a little embarrassment in the process . . . crack . . .’

Kate took his hand, beseeching him with her eyes as she started to realize what was coming. ‘Please, Jago. Please. Not Jack.’

He shook his head as if soothing a child. ‘Kate, honestly, I’m not going to touch him. I’ve worked it out. I reckon his foundations will be so rotten after I’ve finished with you lot, I can sit back and watch him f*ck up his own life.’

‘What do you mean, finished with . . .?’

‘Well, his grandparents, his father, and now . . .’ He pushed her along as Calum marched ahead to the plane fifty yards away, her feet almost off the ground.

She looked at it up ahead. ‘No,’ she said desperately. ‘There are people all around us. You can’t.’

‘I know, which is why, when you jump out, you’re going to . . .’ Jago whispered something in her ear. It was something that in this morning’s safety refresher Calum had reminded her never to do.

She pulled back, horrified. ‘But my chute will get entangled.’

Jago shrugged. ‘Kate, don’t worry. There’s a note on your computer called “Sorry”, explaining why you did it. That you were a shit mother and you knew it.’

She shook her head, trying to suck in air, but he kept pulling her towards the plane. Forty yards, thirty . . .

He was telling her to jump out. Sabotage her own chute.

THINK, her brain screamed. Stop listening to him. Think what you’re going to do.

Jack NEEDS YOU.

Jago’s arm pulled her faster towards the plane. Twenty yards, ten . . .

‘The thing is, if you don’t do it, Kate, if the Viking doesn’t hear you did it, in twenty minutes, Jack’s going to dive into the river to save Rosie. I’ll be out of here before you can check. And, thanks to the money the Viking took out of your internet account yesterday, I’ll be gone for a long time. But when they stop looking for me – and they will – I’ll come back for you, anyway. This way, you save your son at least. If you don’t, he goes in the river and I come back for you. It might be a year, or five. In a wardrobe, behind a door, in a window, who knows?’ He kissed her ear and said in a playful scary voice: ‘The monster in the dark.’

‘Get off me,’ she gasped, as they finally reached the back of the plane.

He embraced her, making her want to retch at the forced intimacy, hiding her from Calum who strode ahead to talk to the pilot. ‘It’s a shame you had to run off last Saturday and that we couldn’t finish what we started in the kitchen. But it doesn’t matter. Because one day, when Richard is an old man, lying in the ruins of his family, just like my mother was, I’ll tell him about today, and your sad, scared face. Watch his.’

‘All right, Kate?’ Calum said, coming over to check her equipment. She saw him note her expression. ‘You sure?’

Could she tell him, shout for help? Tell him she’d lost her nerve, didn’t want to jump?

But what if Jago was telling the truth? What if they hurt Jack?

She forced herself to shrug casually, her finger touching the phone in her hand.

THINK.

It had been Jago, the whole time, for the past eleven years.

He had killed Hugo and her parents, and had been frightening her ever since.

None of it had been imagined.

She had been right. Her instinct had been RIGHT.

And now he wanted to kill her.

THINK. Her instincts. She needed to use her instincts.

Kate forced herself to breathe deeply, to keep the oxygen coming. To remember the power she’d felt in Chumsley Norton, in Highgate Woods.

Her eyes danced about. She was nearly out of time.

She thought about everything that had happened. Meeting him in the cafe, the book, the waitress, the dog, the canal boat, the woods . . . And then, a thought came spinning furiously into her head.

An image of Jago’s book. Locked in her shed.

She looked him in the eye. Slowly. She saw him register her revelation. Saw the ice melt, momentarily. ‘I’ve got your book!’ she said, as Calum looked over her straps. She saw Jago glance at him, checking if he’d heard.

‘No, you don’t,’ Jago said casually.

‘Yes, I do. You left it in the juice bar. The waitress gave it to me.’

Jago dropped her gaze. He turned round as Calum now checked his straps.

‘No. I went back. Twice. She said I didn’t leave it there.’

Kate remembered the waitress’s earnest expression. ‘Interesting guy.’ Had she known something was wrong about Jago? ‘Well, she lied,’ Kate said.

Jago shook his head again. He waited till Calum walked away to check the others. ‘No, Kate. The Viking checked your house, top to bottom.’

He had faltered. A moment of weakness. She felt new power surge into her.

‘It was locked in the shed.’

Jago turned his face further from her. Trying to hide his disquiet, Kate realized.

‘Yeah, nice try, Kate.’

‘Jack has it,’ she said triumphantly as Calum called out to them that they would board in three minutes. ‘And this morning, he gave it to Saskia and she recognized you. Tony from Essex, she said. She’s showing it to the police right now. She thought you were after my money.’ The words tumbled out. Desperately, she hoped her face wouldn’t give away her bluff. She saw the middle-aged female passenger, her shoulders shaking hysterically, laughing nervously with her friend.

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.