I held his gaze. “But Austin didn’t know that until this morning, did he? When this was already in play.”
Mads swore, “Shit. You’re right. But how would he convince her to leave with—” He stopped. “Goddammit. The Valium.”
I nodded. “Which means he already knows where she is. And he could be on his way to cover his tracks as we speak.”
“While Belinda is at the hospital,” Mads finished. “All right. You follow them and I’ll talk to Samuel, then walk back to Chloe’s to see if I can get Wright to listen. It can’t be more than a couple of kilometres, right?” He looked through the windscreen at the persistent drizzle and grimaced. “Dammit, you owe me.”
“More than you’ll ever know.” I kissed him soundly and his cold cheeks lit up.
Mads muttered something that sounded likesweet-talking arseholeas he grabbed his jacket from the back seat and got out of the car. He looked at me through the open door. “Promise me you’ll be careful. And I meancareful.”
“I promise,” I rushed.
Mads stared a moment longer, his worried gaze boring into mine.
“Mads, Ipromise.” The lights turned green and the Honda’s taillights disappeared into the gloom. “I’ve gotta go. I love you.”
He gave me an odd look before answering, “I love you too.” Then he slammed the door shut and I peeled away from the kerb.
At the traffic lights, I glanced in the rear-vision mirror to find him still staring after me, his phone to his ear.
The hospital was largerthan I’d expected for the size of the town, the car park bursting at the seams in the inclement weather. Rather than find a park, Austin drove into the busy covered drop-off area by the main entrance, and I was forced to watch from about fifty metres away over the top of two rows of cars.
In-between all the comings and goings, I almost missed Belinda emerging from the Honda and heading into the main building. Curiously, Austin didn’t head into the car park itself but pulled around the side of the building. I couldn’t follow without giving myself away and so I waited. A few minutes later, the Honda re-emerged and Austin headed for the exit.
I frowned.Austin had implied to Wright that he would be staying with Belinda at the hospital while she applied for extended leave, so where in the hell was he going on his own? My Spidey senses were crawling and I hurried to follow.
At the main gate when Austin turned south on the road out of town, my suspicions grew. I let two cars get between us before I followed. After a couple of kilometres, the Honda made a left turn onto Wickham Pass—according to the GPS—a narrow country road which afforded almost no cover. Since I was the only car to take the turn with him, that put me front and centre in Austin’s rearview mirror.
I slowed, putting some distance between us. If it meant I lost him in the gloom, too bad. Austin had seen the Ford rental at Chloe’s. There’d be no explanation if he clocked me in his mirror.
A mix of farmland and vineyards bordered the road, or at least what I could see of it through the gloom. That quickly changed when Wickham Pass began a steep climb out of the valley. The fog thinned to a dull grey sky, the terrain becoming increasingly rugged. Steep hills planted in forestry and native bush replaced the gentler patchwork of viticulture and river flats below. The snaking twists and turns made it harder to keep tabs on the Honda, and it wasn’t long before I completely lost him. Somewhere along the way, he’d taken a turn off the road and I’d missed it.
“Shit.” After a couple of hundred metres without sighting Austin again, I made a U-turn into a rest area on the opposite side of the road and parked to gather my thoughts. He couldn’t have got away from me. Not in a few seconds. There had to be a turnoff that I’d missed. I put the car in gear and retraced my path at a virtual crawl, scrutinising every break in the tree line no matter how small or overgrown.
I was almost back at the last spot I’d sighted the Honda when I finally found it—a narrow overgrown gravel track heading off along the eastern edge of a pine plantation. The track was barely wide enough for a single vehicle to pass and disappeared into dense bush, past an unreadable sign lying on the dirt to the side. I made another U-turn and pulled to the side of the road, weighing my options.
Promise me you’ll be careful.Mads’ final words gnawed at my brain.
Then I thought of Austin. Of his mountain of debt and the Crow brothers’ propensity for making life miserable for peoplelike him. How desperate would that kind of scrutiny make a man? It didn’t take much imagination.
Did I really have a choice?
But I’d promised Mads.
I reached for my phone to call him. To let him know where I was and that I wanted to follow Austin and see what he was up to.
But the console was empty.
I swore and rifled through it again, flinging pens and notes into the back seat before opening the glove compartment and emptying that as well. I was checking the door pocket when it came to me—an image of Mads talking to Samuel after I left him at the traffic lights. Talking onmyphone.
“Fucking fuck, fuck!” I slammed my fist on the steering wheel, cursing my stupidity and knowing that the second Mads realised he had my phone, he would’ve been consumed with worry until he heard from me again. I pictured him pacing with his phone in his hand waiting for me to call, and here I was in the middle of fucking nowhere with no way to get in contact.
Dammit.I’d screwed up... again.Together.We were supposed to be in this thing together.
I glared at the gravel track, contemplating my options. As far as I could see, there were two. Leave and head back with no answers and potentially put Chloe in further danger, or risk doing what I’d come to do without anyone knowing what I was up to.
In the end, there was no decision. I couldn’t risk something happening to my mother. I had to know why Austin was here. And I had to trust that Mads would have my back. That he’d understand. I had to believe he’d do the same if it was Shirley. That he’d put Shirley above his own safety. Above my worry for him.
