Page 99

Arlo froze.

Someone had injected a paralysing toxin into his veins. He couldn’t take a single step forward as he felt every effect of the psychological poison surging through his bloodstream.

From the rear of the cave, he heard Katie calling Ned’s name – and his own.

Memories overwhelmed him. The smell of dank decay, the pain in his arm and his friend crying out as the water rose up and carried him away.

Then the crushing guilt afterwards. Having to meet his dead comrade’s widow. Their kids playing in the front garden, smiling at him as he arrived, unaware that Arlo had deprived them of a father. The inquiry. No blame, not your fault, heroic efforts – the urge to run away, having to stay put, trapped in the hot, stuffy suffocating inquiry room as he was absolved from all blame. You couldn’t have done more …

Yet he had led them into that cave. He’d led them into danger. He could have waited for back-up, but he hadn’t.

He heard a splash, louder than before, and a shout.

‘Oh God! He’s here! Arlo, Ned’s in here. Help him. He’s trapped.’

Trapped. Trapped. Trapped. The words resounded like the water dripping into the pools and became louder and louder.

A scream tore through the air, like a gun going off, catapulting him out of his torpor.

Ignoring his raging heartbeat, he forced himself to run forwards into that great, gaping mouth in the crag. He’d stood by and let her go into danger. The thought made him retch but he ran forwards.

Nothing would stop him from helping Katie.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

‘Arlo!’

Katie’s heart rate had gone through the roof. A hardback-sized rock had fallen from the cave ceiling and landed metres away, crashing into a pool and sending icy water spraying over her.

Ned groaned in pain. ‘Katie. Get me out of here. Rocks. They keep falling. Big ones.’

‘We will do. I will do.’

Yet she could see no way of moving the chunk of slate that had trapped Ned’s leg from ankle to knee. It was as big as a dustbin lid and it must have broken his leg, judging by its size and how much pain he was in. He said he’d stumbled while exploring the rear of the cave, and before he could get up, the slate had fallen on to his leg.

‘It’s b-broken. I’m sure. It’s agony!’

‘I know. We’ll get you out. I’ll fetch Arlo. He’ll get you out.’

‘H-hurry because I don’t think I can take the pain and the roof could come down again.’

‘I’ll be just a second, I promise.’ With a squeeze of his hand, she tore herself away, mind whirling with confusion. Where was Arlo? Had he even heard her? Had he gone back to call for help?

‘Arlo!’ she shouted, wading back towards the entrance through calf-deep water.

‘I’m here!’

The light almost blinded her.

Arlo stood a metre away with a light shining from his head torch and the beam of another torch lighting up the pools of water on the floor.

Her body slumped in relief. ‘Thank God! I thought you’d gone.’

‘I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t do that. Where is he?’

‘At the back of the cave, trapped under a piece of slate. I think he’s broken his leg. I’ve tried to move the rock but it needs two of us. At least.’

They splashed through the water to the rear of the cave where Ned was lying on a raised area. She swept her torch over him, feeling sick at the whiteness of his face. He was soaked and shivering and she knew hypothermia must be setting in.