Free The Calling by Alison Bruce Page A

already, for all anyone knew.
    It will be OK. The family are looking for me. She wished she could say it aloud for reassurance. And the police will be looking. Yes, surely the police, too.
    The plummeting temperatures made her eyes ache. By mid-evening , she pressed them shut. Could they freeze over and crack, or would she be dead before then?
    The creaking of the trees and plops of dripping water both fell into a steady rhythm, as Kaye dozed.
    Hushed voices reached her.
    ‘Come on, Greg, over this way.’
    ‘Shhh.’
    ‘It’s all right, there’s no one around.’
    Kaye tried to make a noise but only managed to force a whimper. Nobody heard.
    A torch clicked on and its beam swung in an erratic arc before settling on the water’s edge.
    Kaye heard them coming closer, stumbling through the shrubbery , and she knew that the first one through the gorse would tumble right over her.
    Her heart began to pound and her muffled voice strained to rise above the breaking twigs.
    The torch zigzagged through the undergrowth. The man carrying it spotted her too late, tripped over her legs and crashed forward, dropping the torch into the water.
    Kaye awoke.
    And for a moment that tantalizing sense of elation hung in the air, dancing around her before the silence of the lake swallowed it whole. It had just been another cruel dream.
    But something was different. She twisted her head until facing towards the water. And there it was, a rowing boat bobbing and surging towards the centre of the lake.
    Whispers carried across the water. Impossible to hear the words but she could decipher several different voices. They had a torch, and it was being flashed along the shore to Kaye’s right.
    They’re looking for me! Thank God, thank God.
    Then the flashlight whipped around, pointing into the boat itself, and Kaye saw the face of a girl about her own age, laughing and flushed with excitement.
    ‘Hey, behave! Look out for the jetty,’ shouted a man’s voice.
    And the flashlight moved back to the reeds and back towards Kaye. She felt its light hit her face and sway over her legs.
    Utter desolation hit her as she realized that, from the boat, she was probably just a bumpy outline, nothing more than a mud- and-gravel feature of the bank.
    ‘Is that it?’ the girl asked, focusing the torch further to Kaye’s right.
    ‘Well done. I can’t wait to get out.’ The yellow beam of the torch moved on. They joked and laughed as they struggled to moor and step out of the little rocking boat.
    They headed away from Kaye. She listened hard until the last shreds of their voices vanished. Silence returned, but worse now. The only people she’d seen in three days; she knew she couldn’t bear three days more.
    What kind of decaying mess would she be by then?
    Tears trickled, leaving silted tracks down both her cheeks before sliding into her matted hair. No more , she decided and fixed herthoughts on the last face she’d seen: the face of a healthy young girl, just as she herself had been only a few days before.
    A greasy layer of rainwater helped her slide and writhe towards the lip of the bank. It took half an hour to reach the edge; then she stared into the water for several seconds longer before one final twist of her legs toppled her into the deep cold lake.

CHAPTER 13
WEDNESDAY, 30 MARCH 2011
    Paulette Coleman grabbed another jumper from the wardrobe and draped it over the top of her suitcase. Her mum shouted up from the hall, ‘I can’t believe you’re still going.’
    Paulette flew on to the landing and leant over the banister. ‘Of course I am. This is our holiday,’ she snapped. ‘D’you think we’d have just one row and then cancel all our plans? I don’t think so. We’re going to have a great time, and I’ll tell you what I’m looking forward to most. Getting out of this sodding house.’
    Her mother glared up at her. ‘You’re such a stupid little girl sometimes, running round the house, stamping your feet and