Redundancy Pay by JRL Anderson

Author:JRL Anderson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bonnier Publishing Fiction

VII

The Cliff Road

ELIZABETH RECOVERED FIRST. She sat up, and said, ‘Thank you for saving my life. What do we do now?’

David had slipped into near-unconsciousness, compounded of shock, relief, and sheer physical exhaustion from his climb and the effort of hauling Elizabeth to safety. He dragged himself back to wakefulness by an effort almost as great as that of pulling Elizabeth up the cliff.

‘Well, I suppose the first thing is to try to work out what happened.’

‘Oh, David! And I’ve always thought of you as such a practical person. Yes, there’s a frightful lot to talk about, but we can’t stay here all night. I’m sure you’ve got hurts that ought to be looked at, and I’m scratched and torn all over. And my clothes are in a fearful state – I must look a dreadful sight.’

‘You couldn’t look a dreadful sight, and anyway, it’s quite dark. And what we do must depend to some extent on what we think happened.’ David went on pulling himself together. ‘But I see what you mean. I think we’d better find a telephone and ring somewhere for a taxi. And we ought to do something about the car.’

‘Have you any idea of the time? My watch has gone – the strap wasn’t very good. I’m sad about it, because it belonged to my mother.’

David’s watch was still on his wrist, and still going, although the glass was cracked. It was just after ten o’clock.

‘It feels like hours after midnight, but it isn’t really very late. Do you know what I think would be the best thing to do? Let’s telephone Sergeant Blundell at the home number he gave us. I’ve got the bit of paper with the number on it in my bag – if we can find the bag. It was in the car, between the front seats.’

‘Then it’s probably still somewhere in the car. I don’t remember coming across it when I was hunting for the torch, but I wasn’t thinking about it, so that doesn’t mean much. I’ll go and have a look.’

‘No, David. You’ve had a worse time than I had. You stay here, and I’ll go. Can you lay hands on the torch?’

‘Yes, it’s still in my pocket.’

He gave her the torch, and Elizabeth got up. ‘Ouch!’ she said. ‘No – I’m all right. Only I haven’t any shoes, and my tights don’t seem to have any feet left. I just stood on a sharp stone.’

‘Be very careful. We’re horribly near the cliff edge. You’d better let me go.’

‘No, you’ve done more than your share already. I’ll be all right when I can see where I’m going.’

A few minutes later she called back, ‘I’ve got it, David! And I’ve got the car keys, too. We passed an AA phone box not so very far back. Now I’ve got the key, we can use that.’

She returned to where David was still sitting on the ground, and sat down beside him. Hunting in her bag with the torch she found the bit of paper with Sergeant Blundell’s telephone number.

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