Seconds passed.
‘There!’ she exclaimed as she heard the faintest of cries. Her hand raised, she indicated a point well beyond where Nikolai and Irina were treading water. She pushed hard on the throttle, the engine now blocking out any chance of hearing another call from Rachel. Keeping her gaze fixed on the distant point where she was convinced the cry had come from, she steered the boat directly ahead, then dropped her speed and completed a slow circle, frantically scanning the water for any sign of movement.
Sick with worry that she had misjudged it, that this wasn’t where the cry had come from, she called out to her friend. A spluttering sound had her moving to the stern of the boat. ‘Rachel!’ she screamed into the darkness once more. ‘Wave if you can see me.’
There! There was a flash of white. A hand. And then there was Rachel’s face appearing ghostlike through the blackness of the water, her mouth open as if trying to call to her. But before Jenna could do anything, Rachel disappeared out of sight.
A sickness clawing at her stomach, her heart racing so fast it made her breathless, Jenna moved back to the cockpit and steered closer to where Rachel was struggling to stay afloat. Once there, she cut the engine, dropped the anchor over and rummaged in the locker for a life vest. Fumbling to get it on, she then grabbed a rope, threw it over the side of the boat, and slipping off her shoes, she jumped in.
Down she went, but the buoyancy aid meant she bobbed straight back up like a cork pulled from a bottle. Blinking the water from her eyes, adrenaline fuelling her blood, she looked around for Rachel and thankfully spotted her. With her legs kicking hard, Jenna swam over to her friend, but by the time she made it, Rachel had slipped below the surface again. It wasn’t easy diving down with the buoyancy of the life vest to combat, and more difficult still to locate Rachel in the pitch-black water. Her lungs bursting as she fought against the fear that it was a hopeless task to find her friend, her eyes stinging in the opaque water, her foot brushed against something smooth and soft. She dived down further and snatched at one of Rachel’s arms. Manoeuvring herself so that she could get her hands firmly under her friend’s armpits, she then kicked hard propelling them to the surface.
Once there, and gasping to fill her lungs with oxygen, Jenna was tempted to remove her life vest and put it on Rachel, but she knew the risk of that, that it might endanger them both. Instead, she flipped over onto her back and kicking with all her strength, hauled the dead weight of Rachel’s now motionless body towards the boat.
But the boat had moved, having dragged the anchor until it held fast to something. The weight of Rachel’s body burned into her muscles, but Jenna kept on kicking her legs, turning her head every now and then to keep the boat within sight. She was a few yards from it when she heard the noise of an engine. She twisted her head round again and saw red and green lights twinkling in the darkness, as well as a sweeping and dazzlingly bright white light that momentarily blinded her.
It wasn’t uncommon for a Broads Authority ranger’s launch to be patrolling late at night, keeping an eye out for drunken revellers wreaking havoc, and as relief surged through her that help was at hand, her grasp on Rachel relaxed and before she could stop it, her friend’s body slid out from her hands. She snatched at what she could, which was Rachel’s hair and hung on to it with all her might. She then managed to get a better purchase on Rachel, gripping her hard around her ribcage.
The boat was drawing nearer and above the noise of the engine, she heard her name being called. Rachel’s too.
‘Over here!’ she shouted, hoping her voice would carry across the water.
The arc of dazzling white light swept over her, followed by: ‘There they are!’
It was only when the boat was almost on top of her and she saw Nikolai and Irina looking down at her, that Jenna saw it wasn’t a patrol launch with a ranger at the helm, but her father, and leaning over to reach for her was Blake.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Together Blake and her father hauled Rachel’s limp body out of the water and laid her on the bottom of the boat, at the same time instructing Nikolai and Irina to give them space by getting out of the way. They then helped Jenna into the boat, grabbing her hands and pulling her up. Shivering with cold, and shrugging off her life vest, her wet clothes clinging to her body, she watched Blake drop to his knees and press a hand to the side of Rachel’s neck.
‘We should call the emergency services,’ Jenna’s father said, putting his arm around her, and holding her tight. ‘Blake, do you have a mobile with you?’
‘No,’ he said, and tilting Rachel’s chin and head backwards, he pressed his cheek next to her mouth. He then pinched her nose, and breathed into her mouth. He repeated this several times, taking a deep breath in between each attempt to fill her lungs with oxygen. Jenna looked on in shocked silence, glad of her father’s body to lean against. The adrenaline that had fuelled her to bring her friend to safety now gone, she felt hollowed out. She dug her nails into the fleshy pad of her palms and willed Rachel to spring back to life, for that hideous bluish colour to her skin to disappear. Near to tears, she was convinced her hope was in vain.
Changing position, Blake drew himself up so he was leaning over Rachel, and placing his hands one on top of the other across her chest, his arms straight, he pushed down hard. Again, and again, up and down, up and down, a calm and perfect rhythm to his movements and the amount of pressure applied.
It was the policy at Heart-to-Heart for every employee to sign up for a course inCPR– a mix up over dates meant Jenna had missed the slot assigned to her – but clearly Blake had completed the course. But as much as he looked like he knew what he was doing, was he too late? Blinking back tears, she rammed her fists to her lips, pressing them against her teeth that were chattering with cold and shock. Jenna knew she would never forgive the two people responsible for causing this tragedy: Nikolai and Irina.
‘I’ll get us back to Linston End,’ Jenna’s father murmured, letting go of her. He started up the engine, shattering the deathly silence. Still on his knees, Blake stopped pressing down on Rachel’s chest and reverted to pushing her head and chin back again while breathing into her open mouth. It was useless, thought Jenna miserably, her body trembling with panic and despair. Her heart was beating so hard she could feel her pulse hammering inside her head. Poor Rachel, so full of life one minute and now …
She gulped back a wave of sickening dread at the thought of what they would have to tell Simon and Sorrel when they returned to the house. They would be devastated; Callum too. They would never get over it. And how would Jenna ever live with knowing that she should have done more to stop Rachel? The guilt would never leave her.
She glanced briefly at Nikolai and Irina, and at the sight of them huddled pathetically together, wet and shivering, she knew real hatred. It made her want to launch herself at them, to kick, scratch and punch them until they said sorry for what they had done. But sorry would never be enough, not if Rachel was dead.
Then out of the corner of her eye, Jenna saw one of Rachel’s legs twitch, followed by what looked like her body convulsing, as if an electric current had passed through it.
‘She’s alive!’ Jenna cried. ‘Oh my God, she’s alive!’
Taking yet another deep breath, Blake pressed his mouth firmly against Rachel’s, then drew back and rolled her onto her side, just as she seemed to take a choking breath of her own.
‘We need to keep her warm,’ Blake said, ripping off his own T-shirt and covering her with it. ‘Danny, give me your shirt.’ Jenna’s father did as he was told, removed his shirt, and flung it back over his head as he pulled on the throttle and steered the boat at speed out of the broad.
‘Talk to her,’ Blake told Jenna, ‘and rub her arms; I’ll do her legs.’
Her teeth chattering even more, Jenna threw herself down onto the floor and rubbed her friend’s icy cold body. Miraculously, as Jenna urged her to wake, Rachel’s chest gave a great heave and she coughed and spluttered, then spewed water out of her mouth. Her eyes opening and shutting now, she began to move as if to turn herself onto her back, but Blake kept her firmly on her side, just as she vomited again, the revoltingly acrid smell of alcohol now filling Jenna’s nostrils.
‘It’s all right, Rachel,’ Jenna soothed as the poor girl began to whimper. ‘You’re going to be fine. Just stay where you are, don’t try to move.’ The tears Jenna had been trying to keep in check began now to flow freely down her cheeks and she shivered violently.
‘Thank you,’ she said, through chattering teeth and looking up at Blake. ‘You were fantastic.’
