Poison Orchids: A darkly compelling psychological thriller Page 9

  Gemma rolled onto her side then to her knees. Raising her chin, she peered through the grille.

  Two people sat in front. Both of them wearing caps that obscured their heads.

  Who the hell were they, and where were they taking her? Should she demand that they tell her? She twisted her head, looking back at the van interior. No—better to plan an escape instead. These people had to stop sometime, didn’t they? She'd find a handsaw that could file the ropes free and sneak out. Or if one of them opened the back of the van, she'd be ready and waiting with the sharpest tool she could find. The guy in the passenger seat looked small for a man. Whatever—she'd make them both pay. After what happened to her in the past, she was going to do whatever it took to remain free.

  She froze as she met eyes with the smaller guy in the rear vision mirror.

  He turned his head sharply. “It's okay, Gemma, I'm taking you back to the best place for you.”

  The man wasn’t a man.

  “Hayley.” The name dropped leaden from Gemma's lips.

  The larger person, at the wheel, twisted their head around then.

  Eoin. It was Eoin from the farm, black hair sweeping above pale eyes.

  After a slight swerve, Eoin righted the van, switching back to watching the road. “Only a few minutes to go. You've been asleep.”

  “What did you two do to me?” Gemma cried, her bravado dissolving.

  “Just a little injection. Eoin brought it with him,” Hayley told her. “You were pretty drowsy, but not too hard to get out of there when the guard went to get a bite to eat. Eoin helped me walk you out.”

  Gemma gasped. They must have come in while she was sleeping. “You fucking bitch.”

  “Oh, Gemma, this is for your own good,” she said.

  Gemma struggled against the ties again. “Turn the van around, take me anywhere else. Anywhere. Whose van is this anyway?”

  She shrugged. “One of the vans from the farm. Eoin parked where no one was likely to see it.”

  “Please,” Gemma begged Hayley. “You have to remember what happened to us there. We can’t go back.”

  In response, Hayley fumbled with the radio, switching it on and turning it up full blast. It was an old song that Gemma only knew because her music teacher made the class learn it—Here Comes the Sun by The Beatles. Gemma could only just hear Hayley singing along above the music.

  Through the grille, she caught sight of the view ahead. A plantation of medium-sized trees, all swaying in the breeze.

  They were here.

  The farm.

  Ice-cold threads tugged and knotted in her chest.

  Eoin turned off the music.

  In stone-cold silence, they drove in through the open gates.

  Crawling to the back of the van, Gemma kicked at the door. In desperation, she looked for a tool to arm herself with, but the van had nothing good. Just spanners and screwdrivers. And the toolboxes were all locked up.

  She crawled back to the grille as Eoin parked the van. Someone was closing the gates.

  Eoin jumped from the van, stretching.

  “Hayley,” Gemma urged. “Please listen to me. I know that we grew apart. You went one way. And I went the other. But we can fix this. Quick! Slide across into the driver’s seat and start the engine. If you reverse and swing the car around now, we can get out. Slam through the gates. It's our last chance. Once you get out of the car, we’re as good as dead.”

  “What are you talking about?” Hayley snapped.

  “Just do it. We can go anywhere you like. Back to Sydney even. Or Cairns. It's directly East. You'd like Cairns. It's on the ocean and it's all tropical and—”

  “Gem, don't be silly. This is the only place either of us really felt safe. Rodney can never hurt us ever again. You'll be happy here, once you get used to it again.”

  Gemma tried to think fast. Maybe if Hayley recalled who she was before they came here, she’d realise what terrible danger they were in. It was risky, because Hayley could remember all the bad, crazy, nightmare stuff. But they were out of time. She had to try.

  “Try to remember,” Gemma cried. “Quick, because we're almost out of time. Remember back to when we looked out for each other. Before we came here.”

  Hayley angled her head around to Gemma, a frown pulling at the centre of her forehead like a needle tugging at cotton. “I… can't think clearly…”

  “You have to.”

  She shook her head. “Sorry. It's all fuzzy. I don't know why.”

  Gemma’s wrists burned from pulling against the ties. “Hayley, please…”

  Behind them came a sharp clanging sound as the farm's metal gates were shut tight.

  Part II

  THREE MONTHS EARLIER

  14

  Hayley

  “I don’t think you should be doing that.”

  Sam froze, with his meaty paw still underneath Gemma’s shirt. He had his head turned towards Hayley, who had nipped back to ask Sam about an extra shift at the weekend. She hadn’t expected to find her colleague pushed up against the wall of Sam’s office, his mouth an inch away from her neck, and her face turned away, screwed up in disgust.

  The moment hung in the air, and Hayley wished she hadn’t opened her mouth at all. But she couldn’t stand there and watch what was happening. Finally, Sam dropped his hand, and he broke out into a grin.

  “Whoops! Red-handed,” he said with a laugh. “Looks like she caught us, Gem. We’d better be more careful next time.” He backed away from Gemma, who hurried away from him towards the door. “What did you want to talk about, Hannah?”

  “It’s Hayley,” she said. “Erm, can I knock off early today? I have a doctor’s appointment.” There was no way she was going to sit in Sam’s office with him after witnessing that. She watched as Gemma hurried past her to get out of the room.

  “Sure. It’s quiet enough. You go.”

  “Thanks,” she said.

  His attempts at making a joke out of the whole thing hadn’t worked. She’d seen the look on Gemma’s face. There was no way they were in a relationship, that man was trying to force himself on her. He was sexually assaulting her. She made her way out of Sam's office and through the bar to catch up with Gemma as she left.

  “Hey, are you okay?”

  When Gemma saw Hayley approaching, she slowed down slightly, but her expression was hard, as though she wanted to be left alone. There were tears in her eyes, but she sniffed and wiped them quickly away. “I’m fine. It was… it was nothing. But… thanks for what you did in there.”

  “You didn’t look like you were enjoying that at all. He made all that stuff up about you two, didn’t he?”

  Gemma just nodded. They walked together along the street, passing cafés and fast food restaurants. It was boiling hot as always, and Hayley worried about the sun. She worried about everything. But then she lived in a dirty little room in a shared house with three students who didn’t care about leaving dishes in the sink for weeks and who never knocked before entering a bathroom.

  “We could go to the police, you know,” Hayley suggested.

  The shake of Gemma’s head was barely noticeable. Instead, she said, “Want to go to the beach? I snuck a bottle of vodka out of the bar.” She gestured to her bag. “That’ll teach him for copping a feel.”

  It didn’t seem like enough justice to Hayley, but at least it was something. Plus, she wasn’t sure about leaving Gemma alone. “Okay, sure.”

  Gemma immediately seemed brighter, and she broke into a grin. They turned off at the end of the street and made their way down to Bondi Beach, passing the pavilion on the way. As usual it was crowded—Bondi’s famous beach was a mecca for Sydneysiders and overseas backpackers alike. Today, it was a place for herself and Gemma to run away from Sam the sleaze.

  It was a beautiful beach, but Hayley had never felt completely comfortable here. She couldn’t strip down to a bikini and play volleyball like so many of the other girls she saw. They were all her age, but they s
eemed so much happier and together. She wasn’t ashamed of her body, but she didn’t have the same confidence as the others. Maybe that was the difference between English and Australian girls. Maybe it was the confidence. Or maybe it was the pale skin underneath her T-shirt that she was ashamed of.

  As they reached the sand, she kicked off her flip-flops and let it flood in between her toes. At least she was here. At least she was living.

  “You’re from England, right?” Gemma flopped down onto the sand and reached into her bag for the drink.

  “Yeah.”

  “Thought so. How long have you been here?”

  Hayley tensed up. She hated talking about herself, and she hated thinking about what happened with David in Thailand. “A week.”

  “You’re not on holiday though, are you? Are you travelling alone?” Gemma took a swig of the vodka, wiped her mouth and passed it to Hayley.

  She took it and sipped from the bottle. “Yeah, I guess so.”

  Gemma’s brow furrowed, and her eyes narrowed. Hayley squirmed against the sand, realising that she sounded crazy.

  “Well, I guess I need a new job,” Gemma said.

  The change in subject was a relief for Hayley. She took another sip from the bottle and passed it back to Gemma. “I guess we both do.”

  They started to laugh. Gemma took a long swig, and then Hayley did the same. Before long the bottle went down to a quarter full as they talked about music—Gemma also loved live DJs more than listening to music at home. And they swapped travel stories—Hayley told Gemma about the beaches in Thailand and trekking through the jungle on an elephant. Hayley felt a warm glow spreading all over her body from the alcohol, but bringing up Thailand just reminded her of David.

  “We ran out of money there,” Hayley said. “And then he wanted… he wanted me to do something awful that I just wouldn’t do.” Her throat clogged up as unshed tears built behind her eyes. “When I said no to his… plan, if you can call it that, he threw my suitcase out on the street and called me worthless.”

  “The fucking arsehole,” Gemma said, reaching across the space between them to rub Hayley’s arm. “He’s not worth those tears.” With her other hand she brushed one away.

  “And now I’m stuck,” Hayley said. “I don’t have enough money to fly home. I can’t ask my parents after running away from Uni. I live in the most disgusting shared home you’ve ever seen. And now I guess I’ll need a new job.”

  “That’s my fault,” Gemma said, shaking her head.

  Hayley took another swig. “No, it fucking isn’t. It’s that… that… pig’s fault.”

  Gemma laughed a little. “I’m liking angry Hayley.” She took the bottle back and drank some more. “But seriously, I do owe you for what you did today.”

  There was dew on her eyelashes as she thought about the incident again. “We should just get out of here, you and me. Fuck Sam and his dingy little bar.”

  “I’ll drink to that.” Gemma raised the bottle in the air.

  Hayley dug around in the depths of her bag and fished out a creased, crumpled piece of paper. “Hey, remember those leaflets someone left at the bar a week or so back? About fruit picking?” Already tipsy, she fumbled as she unfolded it. “Most of the farms on this list sound pretty basic. But what about this one on a mango farm? Sounds too good to be true. Hot springs and waterfalls. Kayaking. Parties. Says it’s near a place called Deep Springs, near Kakadu. Hmmm, can we catch a train there?”

  Gemma snorted. “Kakadu? That’s right up at the top end of Australia. And we’re both out of cash. No can do.”

  With a huffing sigh, Hayley grabbed the bottle from Gemma and downed the rest of the vodka. “Shame, it sounded perfect. So, we’re stuck.”

  Gemma’s face was hazy now, and every time she shook out her hair, the edges of her face blurred. She was drunk.

  Gemma frowned. “Maybe we can do it. I’ve got an idea. Everything is going to be okay.”

  “Well, if you say so,” Hayley said with a grin. “Hey, look, the sun’s setting.”

  An orange glow began to spread its way along the sea, broken only by deep red clouds. It was stunning. Hayley would never see anything like this stuck at her parents’ house in York. And what would she get to see in Kakadu? She’d never kayaked before. She’d never swum beneath a waterfall.

  “Why don’t we just sleep on the beach?” Gemma said. “It’s going to be a beautiful night.”

  Gemma said we’d be okay, Hayley thought. We’re going to be just fine. Just fine. Just fine. It was her new mantra. But as they walked along the side of the Stuart Highway with the early summer sun beating down on her pale English skin, she wondered if she’d been foolish to throw all of her trust into this girl who she hardly knew, who had remained unnervingly quiet since they’d left Sydney.

  They’d run out of cash pretty quickly, despite stealing as much as they dared from the till at Sam’s. Hayley had nothing left after her abrupt departure from Thailand, and she was too ashamed to call her parents back in the UK and admit how destitute she really was. She was such a failure.

  They’d taken a bus out of Sydney with tickets to a town en route to South Australia, but they'd stayed on way past their stop before the new change-of-shift bus driver realised they’d stayed on longer than the ticket they’d bought. Then they were turfed out on the side of the highway. Hayley was forced into her first experience of the Australian outback, terrified of snakes and spiders emerging from the dusty roadside.

  “We’ll hitch,” Gemma had said. “Hey, don’t look so scared. I do it all the time. It’s perfectly safe.” She’d wrapped an arm around Hayley’s shoulders and squeezed her.

  At least Gemma had rung ahead and told whoever runs the farm that they were on their way. Maybe when they finally got there, they’d have baths waiting for them. Or a meal. Or an air-conditioned room at the very least.

  Hayley glanced dubiously at her sunburnt arm and frowned. “We’re nearly out of sunscreen, and I’m not used to this heat.” She didn’t have a hat either, and they were short on water. For once she longed for the drizzly summers of York and hoped she wasn’t too close to sunstroke.

  That was three hours ago, and the girls had been walking without a break for almost all of that time. Every time a car or truck came past, Gemma stuck out her thumb and Hayley held her breath. She was no longer afraid of creepy drivers, now she just wanted to get out of the heat. The sun was the real danger. Her feet were dirty, they had no water left, and she’d thrown away the empty tube of sunscreen on the side of the road.

  From the distance, Hayley heard the quiet rumble of a large truck and pushed her sweaty hair out of her face.

  “Gemma.” She gestured towards the truck, an enormous blue monstrosity with a steel grille.

  They both stopped walking, and Hayley dropped her bag to the ground sticking out her thumb as far as it would go, but when the truck showed no sign of stopping, she began waving her arms and jumping up and down, pleading with her eyes for the driver to stop.

  “Please,” she whispered. “Please.”

  “Come on!” Gemma joined in the waving, her flip-flops slapping against the dusty tarmac.

  When the truck started to slow, both girls cheered and hugged, before Hayley reached down and snatched her bag from where it rested next to her dirty legs. They wasted no time hurrying to the cab. Hayley was terrified that the driver would change their mind and drive off, leaving them at the mercy of the sun. Even Gemma had been struggling with the heat over the last few hours, and at least she was used to the Aussie climate.

  “Where you girls heading?”

  Hayley craned her neck up to the driver who had swung open the truck door. To her surprise, the driver was a woman, and she immediately felt a surge of relief. A woman was safer.

  “Up to Katherine,” Gemma replied.

  “Well, I’m not going that far,” said the trucker. “But I can take you as far as Port Augusta. You can get a Holiday Inn or something there, right? It’s
gonna take you a while to get as far as Katherine.”

  “That’d be great. Thanks,” Gemma said.

  But as Hayley followed Gemma into the truck, a sense of panic washed over her. This journey was going to take far longer than a day, and they had no money left. Where were they going to sleep?

  The woman let out a low whistle. “You girls look like shit. What, have you been walking along here all day?”

  Gemma nodded.

  “No sunscreen? No hats?” she shook her head. “Ladies, really.”

  “We were in a hurry to get out of Sydney,” Gemma explained. “And… well, we ran out of money.”

  Hayley gave Gemma a sharp look, wondering what she was playing at telling a stranger that they had no money. But perhaps that was the Brit in her, always reluctant to talk about money because it was tacky. It didn’t make much difference if this person knew their circumstances.

  “What are your names, girls?” the trucker asked.

  “Gemma.”

  The trucker turned to Hayley, and she shrank back in her seat under the piercing gaze of her grey eyes. “Hayley.”

  “English?”

  Hayley nodded.

  “Well, I’m Eileen. I’m sixty-five years old. Too old for this job, it has to be said. And I don’t think I’ve seen a sorrier pair of kids in all my life. I’ve got grandkiddies a few years shy of you two, and I wouldn’t want to see them sunburnt and sweaty on the highway. There’s water in the cooler and bananas too. Help yourselves.”

  Gemma reached across, eager to get to the water. Hayley noted the way her fingers trembled and helped her lift the lid from the cooler box.

  “Thank you,” Hayley said, holding those piercing grey eyes for a moment before Eileen turned back to the road. And she meant it. As her life had been spiralling out of control over the last few months, she held onto these small moments of kindness. First it was Gemma befriending her at the restaurant, and now it was eccentric Eileen in her truck, which she now realised was decorated with Oriental charms hanging from the rearview mirror, and a gold and red cat on the dashboard.