Page 35 of The Hideaway

Ben held the picture up; the rest of them stared at the woman in it, took in her pretty, smiling face.

Naya frowned. ‘But who is she?’ she said.

Ben shrugged. ‘No idea. I was hoping one of you might know.’

Naya looked at Carly and Mira. They were both staring at the picture, wide-eyed. No one spoke.

‘Well, I’ve never seen her before in my life,’ said Naya.

‘Me neither,’ said Carly.

Mira shook her head vigorously. ‘Where did you find it exactly?’ she said.

‘It was in one of her hands, all crumpled up,’ said Ben.

Naya considered this for a moment. ‘Perhaps it’s someone close to her – doesn’t she have a sister?’ she said. ‘There’s a slight resemblance in their faces – maybe it’s her?’

Ben looked stricken for a moment. ‘I mean, I don’t see thatexactly, but you’re probably right that it’s someone she is... I mean,wasclose to.’ He wiped a droplet of something – sweat, or was it tears? – from the side of his right eye. ‘It’s just strange, is all.’

And that’s not the only thing that’s strange.

‘Hang on, Ben – I don’t get it. Why didn’t you just show us the photo at the time, when you found it?’ Naya asked. ‘Why keep it a secret and only tell us about it now? And you’ve tampered with possible evidence – what if there were fingerprints on there, or something the police could have used to find out what happened to her?’

Ben shifted on the spot. ‘I know... I’m sorry, I don’t know what I was thinking. I felt like maybe it could help – if the police can’t find her body or something, the photo might help incriminate the person who killed Hannah, you know? But then I thought, if—’ He broke off abruptly and Naya wondered what he’d been about to say.

‘Listen, guys, can we discuss this later?’ said Mira, her voice betraying a note of irritation, Naya thought. ‘I really think we need to start looking for Scott, before he gets too far away from us.’

‘You’re right – and I’m sorry for doing this now,’ said Ben, sighing. ‘I just didn’t want to keep it a secret any more, I guess. Let’s start walking, then – he went this way, right? Carly – hand me the knife, I’ll lead the way.’

Looking uncomfortable, Carly gave Ben a curt nod and passed him the knife. Grasping it in front of him, Ben started to cut a path through the leaves in the direction Scott had run, Naya close at his heels, Carly and Mira behind them. It was still early in the morning and the sun had only started to peekover the trees in the past few minutes; visible through the foliage were patches of a blue, cloudless sky.No rain today, then, at least.

‘Hey,’ said Ben, pointing to some flattened leaves, a few thin branches that had been snapped and fallen to the ground. These hints – left for them, helpfully, by the dense jungle, where a human body would have to mark its surroundings when passing through – were enough for them to pursue. ‘See here?’ Ben called behind his shoulder to the others. ‘Look at the bend in these branches and vines – he must have pushed his way through here.’

‘This could be a bad idea,’ came Carly’s voice, from the tail of the line. ‘Ben, are you sure we’ll be able to find our way back after this? We don’t want to end up going around in circles...’

‘I’m sure we’ll find the way,’ Ben reassured her. ‘If Scott’s leaving a trail behind him, then we will too. We’ll be able to follow it when we find him.’

‘Ifwe find him,’ Carly muttered.

Naya stopped dead, turned to face Carly, met her gaze. ‘We aregoingto find him.’

She kept the rest of the thought to herself:Or at least, I am –and nothing is going to stop me.

SCOTT

With each step forward, Scott was slowing down; even his bulky arms were no match for the thick jungle, and already he had tripped, stumbled on vines and branches, the huge leaves surrounding him clouding his view, making it tough to see where he was stepping. Without the others and the knife to help cut through the dense foliage, and trying to go at a pace, he was gathering cuts and scratches with almost every movement. Every minute or so, he was letting out a yell, stopping in his tracks, and then pushing himself on, making it a little further through the trees. But he forced himself to carry on, making the slowest and most painful progress he could imagine.

As he walked, harsh thoughts battered at him, rattling around his brain.What are you doing, you idiot?He was always making stupid decisions; doing things like this on impulse, not thinking things through properly. And he could never come up with the right thing to say, especially under pressure, with people looking at him, waiting for him to speak, expecting an answer.

It was like when Justine had first told him that she wasn’t happy with him; and then again when she’d told him she wasleaving. That she couldn’t cope any longer with the loneliness she felt being married to Scott. He remembered how baffled he’d been; how dumbstruck. How the words he needed to express how he felt about her, the words that would help him fight for her, completely eluded him.

He loved her so deeply –could she really not see that? Not feel it?He just didn’t always say the right thing – or anything at all. Sometimes he didn’t know how to react in the ways she wanted him to. And he was useless with his phone, which used to drive her insane; sometimes he’d forget to message when he was away with work for a couple of days, even though she’d asked him to stay in touch. It wasn’t that he didn’t think about her – he just couldn’t keep track of the days sometimes, couldn’t keep everything in his head. But that didn’t mean he didn’t love her. He’d have done anything for her.

He just didn’t know how to tell her that. And he didn’t know how to tell the others – Naya, especially – what he’d done either.

A large bird – something colourful, a macaw, maybe – flew out of one of the nearby trees, shaking the branches, startling him out of his thoughts. With the shock came a jolt of adrenaline, and a new realization: he knew loads about nature, about the wilderness. He could identify most of the birds out here just by their colours. Wildlife was literally what he lived and breathed for his day job – OK, the bush he was used to wasn’t exactly the jungle, but still, working as a ranger in Yarra Ranges National Park meant he’d been on his fair share of hikes in remote places. He’d had to find his way back enough times, when he and his team had been out monitoring conditions in the furthest reaches of the sites.

He could get himself out of here – even without a map to guide him, he could probably manage it. He could just disappear now, quietly slip away, out of the rainforest, back to the house, and away home. He could get away from them all without ever having to explain himself.

---