Hayley walked through the car park, rummaging in her handbag for her keys. The basement echoed with the sound of car doors slamming shut and engines being started as the last of the day’s commuters settled themselves in for the journey home.
As she approached her car, Hayley hit the remote, killing the alarm system. Opening the door, she tossed her handbag onto the passenger seat and turned the key in the ignition.
The engine coughed, then stalled.
Cursing, Hayley turned the key again and lightly tapped the accelerator. The car roared into life and Hayley breathed a sigh of relief. It was old and temperamental but she wasn’t in a position to buy a new one just yet. Besides, she had a soft spot for it – it was a small two-door four wheel drive, ideal for getting around town without being a gas-guzzler.
While she waited for the engine to warm up, Hayley pulled off her three-inch heels, slipped on a pair of flat sandals and then released the handbrake.
As she pulled out of the parking space, she hit the brakes hard. A man had walked out in front of her car, obviously lost in thought as he polished his glasses. Hayley gestured at him to hurry up and he raised his hand apologetically before picking up speed and jogging past her through the car park.
Easing the car out of the space and weaving her way out of the basement area, Hayley noticed a stream of traffic queuing to get in – early theatre patrons, eager to find a place before they went for their pre-show evening meal.
Reaching the exit, Hayley leaned out the window and pushed her prepaid ticket into the machine. She tapped her fingers absently on the steering wheel as she waited for the barrier to rise. As she slipped through the exit, a white rental sedan pushed its way into the line of traffic, ignoring the frustrated gestures from other drivers and slipped into the queue behind Hayley, waiting for the traffic lights to turn green.
Hayley turned right, drove over the bridge spanning the river and switched on the radio. Water from a brief summer storm earlier in the afternoon glistened on the bitumen. The white sedan behind her kept a respectable distance, while all the time making sure no other cars could slip in between them. Unaware, Hayley pulled up at the next red light before making her way down Caxton Street and up through Paddington.
The temperature had dropped a little after the rain. Hayley powered down her window and switched off the air-conditioning, enjoying the breeze that blew through the car. Pulling up at a pedestrian crossing, she gazed at the restaurants to her right, already beginning to fill with the evening’s patrons. The lights turned green and she accelerated, turning right and headed towards Ashgrove. There would be no restaurant outing for her tonight, she thought sadly – too much work to do. She smiled. At least there was a good bottle of Verdelho waiting in the refrigerator.
Her house on Mount Nebo was a good twenty kilometres out of the city and it never ceased to amaze her that within an hour she could be winding her way up the mountain and into the bush, away from the frantic pace of the city. She passed the last set of traffic lights at The Gap and relaxed, pushing the accelerator a little. As she did so, she checked her rear-view mirror and frowned. The headlights of the car behind her hadn’t changed since leaving the city.
As Hayley eased the car round the left-hand bend, she accelerated hard, the small car protesting against the sharp incline at the start of the mountain road. Red dirt lined each side of the narrow bitumen highway before dropping away sharply to dry rainforest and granite rocks.
She reached the top of the first incline and glanced in the rear-view mirror – the other car’s headlights were still on her tail. Her heart beat faster as she tried to visualise the upcoming bends in the road. The road was the only direct route along the mountain – any roads leading off it for the next eight kilometres would simply lead to scenic viewpoints and picnic areas.
Properties along the road had long driveways, often sealed with steel gates. She wouldn’t be able to simply drive off the road and onto someone’s private property for help – if it turned out they weren’t home, she’d have nowhere to turn and no way to escape her pursuer.
Hayley forced herself to ease off the accelerator a little as she approached a notorious double-bend – the small memorials on the corner erected by friends and families of previous crash victims served as a reminder of the road’s reputation.
As she exited the bend, the car behind her accelerated hard, hitting her small four wheel drive and throwing her forwards in her seat. Hayley screamed and hit the accelerator, swerving round the next bend and almost hitting a car coming in the opposite direction. She forced herself to slow down again, her hands shaking as she changed gear.
Hayley braked hard, trying to steer the car round another sharp curve in the road. As she did so, the car behind her sped up and slammed into the back of her vehicle, turning it into the granite hillside. Hayley screamed and flicked the steering wheel to the right, desperately trying to avoid an impact but the back of the car began to slide across the wet bitumen. Instinctively, she stepped on the accelerator to try to control the skid but the vehicle swung too far the other way.
Hayley screamed and threw her hands up to protect her face as the car pivoted, smashed into the barrier at the edge of the ravine and crashed down through the trees lining the mountain road.
The car rolled side over side before landing upside down against an old eucalypt, the tyres spinning slowly as the engine spluttered to a stop.