Bempton by Jo Cameron-Symes

 

My heart flutters as I drive through the wind battered lanes bordered by tufted grass. It might seem like an odd place to meet, but it’s remote and I feel safe here, despite the lonely surroundings.

I park up in a passing place. There’s never anyone here at this time of day as the visitor centre is shut. A chaffinch lands on the bank and stares at me accusingly. I’m used to these avian judgements, why do birds seem to mock me so? I step out of the car and am assailed by screaming gulls and the sound of waves breaking on the cliffs. The salt edged breeze freshens my mind and awakens my senses.

I notice an unfamiliar car arriving, a Land Rover, obviously a lost tourist unaware that the visitor centre is closed now. I smile and prepare to wave them down but the man in the car just glares at me and drives on. He stops the car in the car park and turns off the engine. I sigh and head back to my car and phone Jim. He doesn’t answer and I know he’ll be driving, unaware of the rock in our path. For we can’t meet today, not with another person present.

I see the man getting out of the car and he starts to approach me. I lock my door in fear, for there is something about him that makes me uneasy. I shake my head and try to reason with myself. Perhaps he is a new park ranger? Or someone working at the visitor centre? Or maybe even a scientist, looking at the birds? He turns to walk towards the car and I realise he’s holding what looks like a crowbar in his hand. I decide my best option is to run, so I unlock my doors and head into the fields. The grass is long here and makes running difficult but I find a gorse bush, and hide behind it, breathing as quietly as I can. I hear his footsteps on the road and realise he is calling me. How does he know my name?

A flutter of white catches my eye, a ghost appears, that silent hunter of fields, a barn owl. It floats silently above the grass stalking its prey. Mesmerised, I forget my troubles momentarily, but a car approaches on the road and I look up. It’s Jim, he’s here and the man himself has disappeared. His car stops and the man emerges from the ditch. He’s been waiting for him. He knocks on the car window

“Hello? Can I help you?” Jim asks.

The man pulls the crowbar and fires, for it wasn’t a crowbar after all, it was a rifle.

I inhale and stifle a scream. My legs then find their nerve and I run as fast as I can without looking back. I head towards the cliffs and spy a gannet soaring overhead. I decide to follow it. These birds would normally be a salve to my mind, but today, I feel as if they are trying to tell me something, perhaps they are leading me to safety?

The cliff path is uneven in places and I try to be careful in my haste. The gannets have multiplied and are busy feeding their chicks along with the monochromatic guillemots.

I look behind me and see the man gaining ground. He’s huge, around six foot five and I realise that he’ll find me sooner or later, so I briefly think about stopping, but something spurs me on. A flutter of wings takes off in my path. A short-eared owl soars and screams, vocalising the panic that I feel.

“Louise! Wait!,” the man shouts behind me.

“Leave me alone, I’m calling the police!” I say reaching in my pocket for my phone. I gasp again as I realise that I must have dropped it in the field. I look back and then the world changes as I fall into darkness.

I wake and see the man standing over me.

“You, didn’t kill me?” I say.

“No,” he replies.

“You killed Jim?”

“Yes,” he says.

“Why?”

“He was going to hurt you. Come over to his car.”

“No, I don’t want to. I don’t want to see him, like that.”

“Ok, wait here then,” he says as he walks towards Jim’s car.

I lift my head and find a huge bump upon it. My arms and legs are also covered in bruises from my fall. My left ankle in particular feels very sore. Everything hurts. I can’t outrun him anymore, I think and lie back and close my eyes. The gannets circle overhead gleefully laughing at my predicament like a circus full of clowns.

The man trudges back.

“Look here,” he says and he opens the cloth he has in his hands to show me a pistol.

“Another gun,” I say. “Is this the one you’re using on me then?”

“No, this is what Jim was carrying. He was coming here to meet you one last time and then he was going to kill you. He first of all thought of pushing you off of the cliff, but then decided to shoot and bury you. There is plenty of desolate land here further in from the cliff. Chances are you wouldn’t ever be found. Or he might have taken you for a drive and buried you in a wood. These were all options that he thought about.”

“But, I don’t understand. Jim loved me! He was going to leave his wife for me, get a divorce, he promised!”

“No, he loved his wife and three children. You were the inconvenience, the danger to him, he had to let you go.”

“Well then, why not just break up with me? Why would he want to kill me?”

“Sometimes, love is cruel. You’ve had a lucky escape. Now go, don't come back here again.” he says as he puts the gun in his pocket. He lends me a hand and pulls me up and I hobble back to the car.

“Think you can drive ok?” he asks and I nod.

“Good. Oh, and you’ll be needing this. I take it you don’t want to involve the police?” he says.

I shake my head and reach out for my phone.

“Who are you?” I ask.

“Think of me as your Guardian Angel,” he says, as he stares at me and smiles.

I start the car and turn it around. I look in my rear-view mirror at the man standing there, arms folded, watching me as I leave.