Voices of Angels by Hannah M. Davis

Author:Hannah M. Davis
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781846948701
Publisher: John Hunt Publishing

Chapter Nineteen

They drove home in silence.

Ariadne’s fingers clenched the wheel, the knuckles of each hand were white. It was pitch black and even though she couldn’t see anything because they were on the dirt track and there were no streetlights, Lizzie looked out the window anyway. Outside the world seemed huge. There was no moon.

At last they pulled into Casa del Sol and she wrapped the blanket tighter around her and jumped out of the car. She ran her fingers over the rough metal table in the courtyard. Everything felt red and raw. She wasn’t ready for sleep. Not yet.

‘That was very brave of you,’ Ariadne said quietly.

Lizzie sank onto one of the chairs and put her face in her hands. She smelt of death.

Lizzie didn’t speak. What was there to say? No doubt Rafa thought she was a freak.

Ariadne switched on the courtyard light and strode back to the car. She returned carrying a battered packet of cigarettes.

‘You don’t smoke!’

‘I do now,’ Ariadne grimaced. ‘I’m sorry.’ She waved the cigarette in the air. ‘Only do it when I’m nervous. Or when I see someone die.’

Lizzie shuddered as she remembered Hooper’s body. ‘It was horrible.’

Ariadne took a puff and slowly exhaled. ‘I know.’ She stubbed out the cigarette after two quick puffs and ground it under her heel. ‘It reminded me of your grandfather.’

‘What about my grandfather?’

Ariadne groaned softly. ‘It was the same.’

Lizzie recoiled at the pain in Ariadne’s voice. ‘What happened to him?’

‘He drowned.’

Something tried to click in Lizzie’s head but the pieces wouldn’t quite fit.

Ariadne pulled up a metal chair. It scraped on the tiles. Sucking on her next cigarette, the hollows of her cheeks dug out like caves, she looked old. ‘Years ago.’ She waved her hand. ‘It’s in the past.’

The jigsaw pieces slotted into place. Lizzie jumped up and ran inside without a backward glance, into the gloom of the kitchen, and sprinted straight up to her bedroom without turning on any lights. ‘Where are you?’

She kicked aside stray garments of clothes and ran her hands over the tousled bed. At last her fingers touched the hard edges of the book. She’d finished it days ago. It had a predictable ending of course. The girl and the boy got together. That’s what always happened in books, wasn’t it? Real life was much more complicated. But it wasn’t the book she was interested in.

It was the newspaper article.

She carefully prized it out and unfolded it and laid it flat on the bed. The shutters rattled and Lizzie flicked on the lamp and read the article:

Freak Drowning Accident

On Cabo de Gato beach an Australian native, Seth Buchanon,

42, drowned in a freak accident. He leaves behind a wife and

one daughter, aged 15.

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