No cars. She dashed across the dual-carriage way and climbed over the concrete divider in the middle of the highway. She stayed there for a moment, waiting for a car to pass. Thank God there wasn’t a lot of traffic at this time of night.
Crossing to the median strip, she eyed the bushland for a path through. Up ahead was an intersection, but it was a couple of hundred metres away and she was too exposed here. Tan might leave the suburb and check the highway.
The very thought chilled her bones, so she dashed into the bush. Just a couple of steps in, enough so she could crouch and hide behind a tree while she checked the transport app.
What she wanted was the next bus anywhere, but the farthest she could go was preferable. Home. If she left the country, Tan couldn’t hurt her.
She typed in the airport and discovered a bus would go past the nearby shopping centre in about half an hour. Now to get there.
She’d turn left at the traffic lights up ahead. Tess was about to stand when she heard the burble of Tan’s car. She froze, eyes on the highway, and the Mustang crawled by, going far below the speed limit. Searching for her.
Her pulse raced as he pulled up at the red light. How far would he go before he doubled back?
She glanced through the bush. The streetlights gave enough light to illuminate the shapes of trees, and it was maybe twenty metres until she’d reach the street. The lights turned green, and Tan continued straight ahead.
Tess had to do this. She would face her fears. She would channel Da’s courage. One of her university friends had laughed, saying there weren’t as many snakes in the city as tourists believed. She’d said vibrations scared them off, but Tess couldn’t risk stomping in case Salvatore crossed the highway too and heard her.
Staying crouched, she stepped carefully through the bush. Something soft and sticky covered her face. She shrieked and ran, swiping the spider’s web away, not caring about where she was going. Bursting free of the bushland, she stopped under a streetlight, running her hands over her face and then her body to make sure no deadly redback clung to her clothing. She shivered and kept brushing her hair and her clothes.
Exhaling slowly, she scanned her surroundings and then checked the app. She was on a street parallel to the road Tan would turn down if he came this way, but she enlarged the map to find the least obvious way to get to the shopping centre.
One which avoided as many roads as possible.
She had a bus to catch.
Almost there. She’d been forced to hide twice on her way to the shopping centre because cars had driven past. Now the bus stop was only a few hundred metres ahead across the deserted car park. Her skin crawled at having to cross such an open field with nowhere to hide. She glanced down the road and her heart jumped. That was her bus.
Her fear of missing the bus overrode her fear of the open ground and she ran, her feet slapping through puddles, her backpack pounding into her back. She lifted a hand and waved, yelling as loudly as she could.
The bus didn’t stop.
Tess’s steps slowed and she panted, staring at the red tail lights of the bus as it turned the corner and out of sight.
She hunched as nausea flooded her. What now?
She stood in the middle of an open car park in plain view of anyone driving past and had missed her last chance to get to the airport.
First, she had to hide. The shopping centre behind her was the most obvious place. She’d walked past its loading bays on the other side.
She jogged back the way she’d come as the rain that had been threatening all night, started to fall.
Faster. By the time she reached the loading bay, her black pants stuck to her legs around her ankles and her hair was soaked. She should have bought a jacket with a hood.
The loading bay’s ceiling overhung, providing shelter from the rain, and she tucked herself behind the dumpster at the back and took out her phone. The airport was still her best bet. A quick search told her it would take four hours to walk there, and the last plane left in half an hour.
She kept searching.
No buses, no trains, no hire car places open. Not even a taxi could get to her in time.
There was no leaving the city tonight.
Should she go to the police?
Would they even believe her? Those cops were good friends with Tan. Salvatore had probably already cleaned up the evidence.
But maybe she could call anonymously.
Over the patter of the rain on the roof, a low burble caught her attention, and she tucked her phone into her pocket. Then it rang, the sound terrifyingly loud, and her fingers fumbled to switch it to silent. Tan was calling.
