from the party come wandering into the reserve and stumble across it. Sam reasoned that he was already wanted for murder so it wouldn’t matter much if someone saw him with a headless body, but Winter could do without the attention.
Kicking leaves across to camouflage their progress, she listened to Sam’s quiet chatter and tried not to look at the bleeding corpse he was dragging. She felt sick and exhausted, able to function only because of the residual adrenaline coursing through her body.
‘After that night . . . on the mountain,’ Sam said, his voice a little laboured with the physical strain of pulling the body. ‘I tried to leave the country – I have relatives in France who I hoped would take me in – but when the police released my picture to the press it was impossible to travel. I managed to draw some money before my accounts were frozen, bought a car and just started driving. I drove halfway around the country, never staying in one place too long. Avoiding people as much as I could. You can’t imagine what it’s like to feel like you’re being chased constantly. To not be able to trust anyone.’
‘You want me to feel sorry for you?’ Winter asked, her voice betraying just how upset and frightened she was. ‘After everything you did? To Blake. To Jasmine. To me!’
Sam kept his eyes on Sidaris rather than look at her. ‘No, I don’t. I don’t expect anything.’
It was impossible not to find some grim satisfaction in the fact that after hunting Blake with the Bane for so many years, Sam now found himself the hunted one, but there was such sad resignation in his tone that Winter felt guilty despite herself. After all, he’d just saved her life. For the second time tonight she pictured Jasmine and the others back at the party, laughing and enjoying themselves, and felt a pang of envy that she was denied such beautifully ordinary happiness. Why did her life have to be so painful and complicated?
‘I kept moving,’ he continued, still unable to meet her gaze. ‘I had no destination, no direction. I just tried to survive without getting caught.’ Sam’s expression hardened. ‘And then I read about the killings in the paper and knew what I had to do.’ He dropped Sidaris’s feet and turned around to see where they were. ‘I don’t think we’re far from the road.’
He was right. She could see the orange fluorescents glowing through the trees ahead.
‘What now?’
‘I have a shovel in my car. You can wait here if you —’
Winter was already moving towards him. ‘I’m not waiting by myself. ’ As conflicted as she felt around Sam, his company was preferable to that of a headless corpse.
‘Okay then. Follow me.’
An uneasy silence enveloped them as they passed through the forest. There was so much Winter wanted to say. Should she scream at him for the part he’d played in Blake’s death, or thank him for rescuing her? In the end, she decided it was safer to let him talk until she got a handle on her own confusing emotions. If nothing else it would satisfy her curiosity about where he’d been for the past three months.
‘You were saying about “the killings”?’
‘Right.’ He seemed eager for a chance to break the silence. ‘It wasn’t a front-page article or anything. Just a column talking about a drifter found on the outskirts of Laurieton. The paper described his body as unmarked, no knife wounds or gunshots. No signs of strangulation. I called the coroner’s office pretending to be with the Sheriff’s department to see if I could get more information. Something about the article just didn’t feel right. Sure enough, the coroner told me that the body was found desiccated, shrunken. Like all the juice had been sucked out of it. The police were baffled. I wasn’t. I drove to the town and picked up the trail of the Demori. I first came across the one back there,’ he nodded towards the spot they’d left Sidaris, ‘in the Hopeland Country Fair. He was about
Kicking leaves across to camouflage their progress, she listened to Sam’s quiet chatter and tried not to look at the bleeding corpse he was dragging. She felt sick and exhausted, able to function only because of the residual adrenaline coursing through her body.
‘After that night . . . on the mountain,’ Sam said, his voice a little laboured with the physical strain of pulling the body. ‘I tried to leave the country – I have relatives in France who I hoped would take me in – but when the police released my picture to the press it was impossible to travel. I managed to draw some money before my accounts were frozen, bought a car and just started driving. I drove halfway around the country, never staying in one place too long. Avoiding people as much as I could. You can’t imagine what it’s like to feel like you’re being chased constantly. To not be able to trust anyone.’
‘You want me to feel sorry for you?’ Winter asked, her voice betraying just how upset and frightened she was. ‘After everything you did? To Blake. To Jasmine. To me!’
Sam kept his eyes on Sidaris rather than look at her. ‘No, I don’t. I don’t expect anything.’
It was impossible not to find some grim satisfaction in the fact that after hunting Blake with the Bane for so many years, Sam now found himself the hunted one, but there was such sad resignation in his tone that Winter felt guilty despite herself. After all, he’d just saved her life. For the second time tonight she pictured Jasmine and the others back at the party, laughing and enjoying themselves, and felt a pang of envy that she was denied such beautifully ordinary happiness. Why did her life have to be so painful and complicated?
‘I kept moving,’ he continued, still unable to meet her gaze. ‘I had no destination, no direction. I just tried to survive without getting caught.’ Sam’s expression hardened. ‘And then I read about the killings in the paper and knew what I had to do.’ He dropped Sidaris’s feet and turned around to see where they were. ‘I don’t think we’re far from the road.’
He was right. She could see the orange fluorescents glowing through the trees ahead.
‘What now?’
‘I have a shovel in my car. You can wait here if you —’
Winter was already moving towards him. ‘I’m not waiting by myself. ’ As conflicted as she felt around Sam, his company was preferable to that of a headless corpse.
‘Okay then. Follow me.’
An uneasy silence enveloped them as they passed through the forest. There was so much Winter wanted to say. Should she scream at him for the part he’d played in Blake’s death, or thank him for rescuing her? In the end, she decided it was safer to let him talk until she got a handle on her own confusing emotions. If nothing else it would satisfy her curiosity about where he’d been for the past three months.
‘You were saying about “the killings”?’
‘Right.’ He seemed eager for a chance to break the silence. ‘It wasn’t a front-page article or anything. Just a column talking about a drifter found on the outskirts of Laurieton. The paper described his body as unmarked, no knife wounds or gunshots. No signs of strangulation. I called the coroner’s office pretending to be with the Sheriff’s department to see if I could get more information. Something about the article just didn’t feel right. Sure enough, the coroner told me that the body was found desiccated, shrunken. Like all the juice had been sucked out of it. The police were baffled. I wasn’t. I drove to the town and picked up the trail of the Demori. I first came across the one back there,’ he nodded towards the spot they’d left Sidaris, ‘in the Hopeland Country Fair. He was about
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