WILL TIME WAIT: Boxed set of 3 bestselling 'ticking clock' thrillers (55 page)

And
then Kate yelled again.  “Joe, look at me.  Help us, or you are so
going to pay for...”

Geordie
pointed his gun at me. 

“Joe!”
Kate screeched.

As
though breaking out of a trance, Joe whipped around.  He knocked the gun
out of Geordie’s hand and sprinted toward Kate.

“Backstabber!” 
Geordie grabbed the gun and fired.

Joe
dropped face down in the mud.

I
was powerless to help Dylan and John, but I sure as hell could attempt to
rescue Kate.  The zipwire would take me over her bench any second.  I
twisted in the harness.  “Kate!”

She
poked her head up from behind the bench, glanced right, and let out a
full-blown scream.

In
the few seconds it took me to glide down to Kate, a black Land Rover came
bumping and bounding up from around the lake.  Mud sprayed out from under
its tyres as it weaved right, left, and clipped Kate’s bench, upturning
it.  She dived across the grass.

I
glimpsed two men fighting in the front seats before it sped underneath
me.  The driver’s door flung open.  To my surprise, Steve jumped out
and rolled along the grass. 

Then
the car swerved toward the fire, confirming my lurid vision. 

“Dylan!”
 My heart squirmed. “Get out of the way!”  

Dylan
booted Geordie, cut a hard left and ran my way.  While whipping the belt
out of his jeans, he jumped onto a boulder, then a tree stump, and leaped into
the air.  He cast the belt over the zip wire, and snatched the other end.
 John ran to Dylan, jumped and grabbed his ankles.  His weight must
have given the boost needed.  They started gliding down the wire after me.

“Jenna!”
Kate hollered.

I
dumped the extinguisher, tilted horizontal and stretched out.  “Grab my
hands!”

Kate
mounted the toppled bench and leaped up.  We locked on at the wrists and
she lifted into the air beneath me.  

The
harness dug into my thighs and stomach.  My arms felt ready to pop out of
their sockets.

“You’re
the best!” she said, then her mouth fell open. 

A
series of gunshots rang out.  Then a thunder-rich explosion boomed through
the park.

One
brilliant orange fireball blasted the dark skies apart. Either the car boot or
a door cut past us in the air, spinning.  Fluorescent flying objects
rocketed in every direction.  Sparks, dust and glowing debris clogged and
littered the sky.

Sirens
grew louder.  Blue lights flashed in the car park. 

The
zip wire jounced up and down as we flew over the edge of the lake.  A wall
of raging heat and smoke surged over my skin and whipped up my top.  The
zip wire bobbed again, tossing us horizontally to the left.

I
dug my nails into Kate’s skin.

“Don’t
drop me,” she cried.

“I
won’t.”  Blood rushed to my head.  My muscles burned, my fingers were
numb.

One
of her hands slipped from my grip.

“Grab
me!” I sputtered.  Our hands were oiled with sweat.  “Reach up.”

Gliding
over the middle of the lake, Kate’s other hand slid down to my fingertips.
 Dear Lord!  It hurt.  I groaned, tried to curl my fingers to
keep hold... but... she fell away from me.

I
choked on dust and flipped my body upright in panic.  Dylan, with John dangling
beneath him, sped along the wire behind me.  I heard a loud splash and
stared down.  “Where is she?”  My stomach twisted tighter and
tighter, coiling in worry as I searched the dark waters.  “Kate!” 

Some
seconds later, Kate’s head and shoulders broke the surface in a glistening
moonlit ripple.  She looked up and waved.  

Relieved,
I threw my head back and took a breath, but then, I heard a disturbing
snap.  Metallic and twangy, it came from the other end of the park. 
Our zipwire slackened instantly.  My stomach took a sickening dive and I
screamed. 

We
all dropped. 

The
zip wire whipped toward me, slicing the air above my head.  Still
screaming, I plunged feet-first into the lake and got sucked under.  A
physical assault of chilly water slapped and pounded me from head to toe. 
The vile-tasting lake rushed into my mouth. 

Surrounded
by the cold swell and darkness, not knowing which way was up or down, I choked
on the water and ached for breath.  I kicked like crazy with my one good
leg, scooped with my arms until finally, I broke the surface. 

Air
filled my lungs in a hefty rush.  I spat gritty water out of my mouth,
wiped my eyes and scanned around.  “Dylan?”

I
couldn’t see him.  Uniformed police and an ambulance crew lined the
water’s edge near the car park.  Two Officers waded in toward us, but
where was Dylan?

As
I spun a half circle, Dylan and John popped up out of the lake a little further
from the shore.  “Christ!”  Dylan shook his head, sending water
flying in all directions.  “That cable nearly took our heads off!” 
He spotted me and swam over.  “Jenna.”  He kissed me while treading
water.

I
winced in pain.

“You’re
safe now.”  He smiled, but it trembled at the corners.  “I have to
get you out of the lake, get you to the hospital,” he said, his voice unsteady
but still comforting in my ear.  “Come on.”

I
cast my eyes over his shoulder and reached out to point at Kate, but my head
lolled.  A numbing haze descended on me while Dylan pulled me through the
cold water to the sandy edge. 

T
he doors leading
out of the hospital slid apart.  Kate pushed me through in a
wheelchair.  Three days in a whitewashed room was more than enough for
me.  I held my crutches across my knees and breathed in.  Fresh air
swirled into my lungs, transforming me from a patient to a human again. 
“Thanks for coming to get me,” I said, reaching back to squeeze Kate’s hand.

Bright-eyed
and smiling, she ruffled my hair.  “I’ve missed you.  And Dylan’s
practically chomping at the bit!  Steve’s ready to punch him so he’ll shut
up talking about you.”  She leaned down to whisper.  “Between you,
me, and this old clunky wheelchair, I’d say you’ve got him well and truly
hooked.”

Hooked!
  The word
sent delicious shivers across my skin.  Considering Dylan could have died
because of me, a part of me expected him to come to his senses and cut me
loose.  “He must have banged his head in the park,” I joked.

She
laughed and pushed me along the pavement.  “He thought he was going to
lose you.  I guess that confirmed his feelings.”

“Thanks
for keeping me updated in the hospital.  I wish Dylan could have come in
to see me.”

“You
know that wouldn’t have been wise.”

I
nodded and fidgeted with the crutches on my thighs.  “But now that the
nurses aren’t around to listen...”  I paused.  It hurt to talk. 
I cupped my swollen jaw and looked over my shoulder.   “Can you
believe it?”

She
leaned over me.  “No.  I bloody well can’t.”

I
gnawed at the inside of my cheek.  What I’d been told had come straight out
of the mouth of a police officer.  Therefore, it must be true, surely?

Kate
dropped her voice to a whisper.  “I swear to you, Jen, if that nurse
hadn’t insisted the police wait before questioning us, then God! I’d have told
them everything.”

“Same
here.”  I tried to twist around in the wheelchair.  “When they told
me they’d found Alan and his security guys dead in my house, and then what they
think happened, well...  put it this way, I didn’t need to pretend his
death was a shock.”

“You
didn’t?” 

“Christ,
no!  I was stunned.  I don’t even think I heard half of what they
said.”  I hesitated when two nurses walked by, then lowered my
voice.  “What was all that stuff about home-wrecker and...”

She
leaned over me again.  “Steve slipped out to my place and then to yours to
get us some toiletries for the hospital.”

I
cut in.  “But he knew Alan would be at my house.  Dead.  He knew
they’d killed him.  Why did he go?”

“Yes
he knew, but we were drugged and counting stars.  He and Dylan didn’t know
what to do or what to tell the cops about any of it.  So they figured
they’d play dumb until they could speak to us.  They told the cops that we
were friends booked in for midnight ziplining when two gangs turned up with
drugs.  That’s why Dylan has kept his distance from you.”  Her lips
bunched to one side.  “I mean, having a dead husband when the cops see
you’re with another man is a bit suspect, right?”

“Very.” 
Dylan’s face flashed into my mind.  “I’m itching to see him.”

“So
anyway, Steve figured he’d do what normal friends would and fetch underwear,
toiletries for us.”

I
touched her hand.  “He loves you so much, you know?  Keeping you
alive and out of jail is all he’s been thinking about the whole time.”

She
flicked her hair over her shoulders.  “I’m one lucky girl, aren’t
I?”  She laughed.  “So anyway, by what Steve saw at your place, let’s
just say that I don’t think the cops are gonna connect the dots on this one.”

“I’m
still confused about that.  Give me details.”  I held my hand in the
air.  “But nothing gruesome.  Alan was still my husband.  I did
use to love him.”

She
pushed me off the path and wheeled me across the car park.  “I think there
was more to the murder than met the eye.  Steve said that Alan had
knickers stuffed into his mouth, his shirt was ripped open and the words ‘home
wrecker’ had been written on his chest.” 

I
nodded.  “Yeah.  It’s sick.  I heard all that, but I don’t
understand why Geordie did it that way.”

“The
short of it is, we reckon either Geordie staged one top notch murder scene to
throw the cops off the scent of the takeover, or it is
exactly
how it
looks.  A revenge kill!”

I
gasped and brought my hand up to my gaping mouth.

Her
eyes glittered.  She was bursting to tell me the rest of her gossip.

“Spill. 
I can take it.”

She
eyed me.  “You sure about that?”

“No. 
So get it over with.”

She
nodded.  “Perhaps Alan did actually... sleep with Geordie’s girlfriend or
wife.”

“You’re
fucking kidding me?”  I gripped the armrest, jarred by her words. 
So
that’s what the cops were getting at
.  “I know Alan cheated, but...
Christ.  Geordie’s woman. 
That
never once entered my
head.”  I narrowed my eyes and my thoughts shot off on a tangent.  “I
bet that’s how Geordie found out about the scam.”

“He’s
dead.  We’ll never know for sure.”  She softened her voice. 
“But perhaps Alan’s pillow talk with—“

“Something
slipped out.” I nodded to myself.  Alan might have been sloshed on whiskey
and trying to impress his way into her pants.  That’d be right.

“That’s
what I think.”  She played with my hair.  “Sorry, Jenna.”

“Don’t
be.”

She
pointed at the far side of the car park and pushed me in that direction. 
“Anyway, if Alan told Geordie’s girlfriend about the scam, then she might have
told him.  Geordie probably wanted to kill Alan for sleeping with his... girlfriend
or whoever, but—”

“Taking
over the business would have been a lucrative sweetener.”  I finished for
her. 

She
stopped pushing my wheelchair to let a car reverse. 

I
narrowed my eyes.  “And you didn’t mention any of this to the cops?”

“Not
the part about the scam.”  She shrugged.  “It’s just a theory.”

I
sagged in the chair.  “I hate Alan for threatening you, Kate.  It
explains why you were so closed off whenever I asked about your job.  To
be honest, I thought Alan might have been flirting with you and you just didn’t
want to tell me.”

“Really? 
Ugh!”

“I
wish I’d had the nerve to kick him to the kerb long ago.  I’m sorry he put
you in that position.”

“I
don’t want to hear any apologies from you.  We’re best friends,
Jenna.”  She reached down and squeezed my arm.  ”Best friends protect
each other.  Like I told you on Sunday, Alan tricked you into signing
those papers.  He only let me glance at them, but I really think that you
own the business.  Even if it’s not registered, the paper trail leads to
you.”

What
a bastard!  Alan had practically thrown my whole life away by framing me
for fraud.  “Why would he do that?  It’s so cruel... but then, so was
he.”

“Maybe
it was his way of ensuring that you never leave him.  Let’s face it, he
treated you like shit and must have suspected you’d leave at some point.”

“And
he wanted to absolve himself of all responsibility if he got caught,” I
murmured.  I racked my brain and briefly recalled something Alan put in a
text after I walked out on him on Friday.  At the time, the words,
‘You
can’t leave.  You’ll blow everything,’
baffled me.  I thought he
was referring to our life, our marriage.  But it made complete sense now,
like pieces of a jigsaw coming together.

The
car drove off and Kate pushed my wheelchair further along.  “None of this
is your fault, Jenna.  And we haven’t said anything to the cops yet. 
We wanted to speak to you, first.  It just wouldn’t be fair if Alan’s
affairs were splashed all over the morning papers because of us.”  Kate
rubbed my shoulder.  After a pause, her voice became jolly.  “Anyway,
that’s enough doom and gloom for now.  Hey!  What about you on that
zipwire?  I’d never have thought.” 

I
laughed.  It all seemed like a rotten, blurred dream.

“Forget
it now,” Kate said.  “Let’s get away from this hospital.  I can’t
stand the smell in these places.”

I
took a deep breath.  “I can’t forget what happened, Kate.  I should
be dead.  We all could have died at the park because of Alan.  And we
could still both end up in court for it unless...” 

“Unless
what?” she said, a note of apprehension in her voice.  When our eyes met,
hers widened and she brought my chair to a sharp stop.

I
dug my teeth into my lip.  “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Depends. 
You speak first.”

I
put my hand on hers, nervous about what she’d think of me for suggesting it if
I was reading her all wrong.  There had to be a reason, other than
worrying about newspaper headlines, as to why she’d not yet spilled everything
to the cops.  “Innocent people lost money to Alan’s scam, and I feel so
bad about that.”

“I
do, too.”

“Alan,
Geordie, Machete... their men.  The people who should be in jail aren’t
gonna talk.  They’re dead, aren’t they?”

“Or
heading that way,” she muttered. 

“And
Joe?”

She
shook her head and glanced away.

“Oh,
Jesus.”

“If
any of them survive, they won’t tell the cops what happened.  Why would
they shoot themselves in the foot?”

“Depends
if they get offered a deal.” 
If the cops knew nothing of the real
story, then perhaps there’d be no reason to offer a deal.
  “I don’t
particularly want to go to court or jail on charges of fraud which I knew
nothing about.”

“I
hear you,” Kate said.  “We didn’t spearhead the fraud, and certainly
weren’t a party to it by choice.  Why should we suffer?”

“It’d
be a long battle to prove our innocence, and there’d be no guarantee.  And
I’ll be damned if I let you cop any blame!”  I glanced skyward,
deciding.  From what Kate had told me, Alan, the weasel, had set it up to
look like Kate and I had been running the show.  “I’ve been
thinking.  If the cops do buy this home-wrecker story...”

Kate
squeezed my shoulder.  “So far, they have.  Geordie did one fine job
on that score.  That’s why I think it could be true that Alan shagged his
woman.”

Finally. 
A dot of light.  Hope. 
“Then there might be no reason for them
to dig into Alan’s finances, or certainly not dig beyond the scrap
business.  If you’re right about the scam being in my name, they might not
discover it at all.  Well, not because of the murder.” 

“Spit
it out.  What’s going on inside that crazy head of yours?”

My
dark thoughts were immoral, but we’d been through too much to let our lives
slip away without a fight.  Guilt thudded through me.  But maybe,
just maybe, I could bury my weasel husband’s illegal world under the crust of
the home-wrecker one created by Geordie.  It was worth a shot.  I
cast my eyes down to the tarmac and forced the words out of my mouth. 
“I-I say we... keep quiet about the scam.”

She
walked around and stood in front of me.  “Have you been smoking something
you shouldn’t have?”

“No. 
I’m serious.”  I let my words sink in for a moment. 

Her
lips parted, but no response came out.

I
stared into her wide eyes.  “I’ve not come this far to give up now.”

“But
the police are bound to find out.  I know we haven’t told them anything
yet, but...  Come on.  Murder!”

“If
what you said earlier is true, that I signed documents that put the software
scam into my name, then perhaps the cops won’t find out about it at all. 
I don’t want to spend my life running from one court room to another because I
was framed.  Perhaps I can find a way to return the money to those who got
ripped off, and just shut everything down.  But if we do get caught,
I’ll
take the rap and keep you out of it.”

She
crouched and wrinkled her forehead.  “No, Jen.  You’ll do no such
bloody thing!  Think I’ll stand by and let my best friend take the rap on
her own?”  She flashed me a mock-smile.  “Think again, misses! 
We’re in this together.”

Kate
stood and moved to the back of my wheelchair. 

The
thought of my best friend in jail for fraud twisted my gut.  Alan had
threatened her.  She kept quiet to protect me.  I wanted to protect
her in return.  Maybe one day it would all come out, but until then, we’d
have the chance to build a new life.  I could create good memories to
override the bad.  That was all I’d ever wanted.  “This is not just
about what happened this weekend.”

“Then
what?”

“It’s
about me.  For once in a long time, I’ve got the reins.  I’m not
letting anyone control my life ever again!  And if that’s wrong, then I’ll
accept the consequences.”