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After threatening to discharge himself if he wasn't allowed out in the sunshine for a few hours, Ray sat in the front seat of his Toyota while Bree drove. Jenny, Ken and Pattie crowded in the back seat.
"Don't worry about leaving Emily behind," Ken said. "She doesn't like the beach much anyhow."
"But look at that sun," Jenny said. "Who's coming swimming when we get there?" She glanced at Ray. "Is it a good swimming beach?"
"Great, but keep your jandals on," Ray replied. "The sand will scald your feet in this weather."
"Jandals?" Bree asked.
"Those things on your feet."
"Oh, thongs." Bree said. "I thought you called them thongs."
"No, that's in Australia I think."
"Oh, Ray," Bree laughed. "I'll never get used to all your strange words."
They arrived at Himatangi Beach and Bree followed a line of cars onto the sand. Waves rolled ashore and hundreds of swimmers frolicked in the surf between two red and yellow flags.
"Keep between the flags," Ray warned. "There can be rips, so the surf patrol always picks the safest spot. Also, you could get hit by surf boards further along."
"I'm going in," Ken announced. "Jenny is I know but what about you, Bree?"
"I am,"' she replied. "It's different from Mount Maunganui but that surf looks so inviting."
"Yes, West Coast beaches are more exposed and have higher breakers," Ray said. "God, I wish I could go in."
"What about Pattie?" Jenny asked
Ray laughed. "She'll go crazy in the surf. She loves it."
And Pattie did. She ran in and out several times and shook water over the two women, who were still dry. Next, she charged after Ken swimming out in the breakers. Bree found the water cool but once wet, she loved the surf. Jenny kept with her and time slipped by.
Meanwhile up on the beach, Ray erected a massive sun umbrella and gathered up driftwood. He settled down with his back against a log and watched Bree. When everyone arrived back, exhausted but happy, Ray lit a fire and began to cook some sausages on sticks. They crackled and hissed as fat dripped on the naked flames. He wrapped a slice of bread around each cooked sausage, squeezed some tomato sauce on and handed one each to Bree and Jenny.
"None of those namby-pamby things you guys have," he said. "This is the real stuff."
Smoke curled up around them, and Bree had a coughing fit with tears rolling down her eyes. Ray grabbed her and fanned the smoke away. He kissed her cheek and laughed when she almost dropped the sausage.
"Well, it's hot," she protested.
"And if you aren't careful you're going to get sunburned again," Ray replied. "Here, wrap a towel over your shoulders."
Bree gazed into his eyes and smiled. She sat down and began to spread sun block over her skin. "I'm covered in sand, " she moaned.
"The sand brushes off when it's dry," Ray said.
So the summer afternoon rolled by and, all too soon, they headed back to Palmerston North where Bree escorted Ray back to his ward.
"So I won't see you tomorrow?" he asked after a passionate embrace.
"We'll be back," Bree replied. "It doesn't take all day to drive to Wellington. It's only about a hundred and forty kilometres away." She grimaced. "It's a nuisance having to personally uplift our duplicate passports but I know they need the security." She kissed Ray and returned to the others waiting in the car.
"Emily will have a flash meal waiting for us," Ken said. "I didn't tell Ray but I can't stick those burnt sausages covered in sand."
"What!" Jenny retorted. "I loved them." She pouted. "They were pure fat, though. My hips are already complaining."
They arrived home to the smell of the casserole; Emily fussed around and told them nothing important had happened while they were away.
*
BREE WAVED GOOD-BYE to the Prestons and Pattie as they reversed their car down the drive, turned and headed towards the corner. She noticed a square shaped Landcruiser parked across the road and thought for a second that it was somewhat out of place in the suburban street.
Jenny sat with a map on her knees and chatted. It was another hot morning and the city limits meant just that. Straight away, they were in the country with green fields stretching away in every direction. The ranges formed a boundary to the southeast and the plains stretched ahead to the coast they'd visited the day before. The two-lane highway was straight but narrow, with only light traffic coming in the opposite direction.
"The road curves left ahead," Jenny directed ten minutes later. "Then it's over the river, a few bends and another long straight."
The road curled up over a stop bank, down into a flood plain over the Manawatu River and across the next stop bank. There were a couple of twists before they came to a small settlement. Bree slowed and pulled to the roadside when she noticed a country school with children playing in the playground.
"What a lovely setting," she said. "They've even got a swimming pool."
Jenny peered in the wing mirror. "That Land Rover has been behind us from before we turned off the other highway," she said. "It's still there."
"Probably a local farmer," Bree replied. "With so little traffic around it's just natural it is still with us."
"So why did it slow down and stop when we did?"
Bree shrugged and pulled back onto the road. The highway was now built higher than the surrounding land. Grass fields turned to an expanse of cultivated land with potatoes growing in rows. The road shoulder consisted of a narrow grass verge beside a deep drainage ditch. With no opposing traffic in sight Bree had to be careful to stay within the speed limit.
"Bree!" Jenny suddenly screamed in alarm. "That Land Rover! It's not slowing."
Bree glanced in the mirror. The Landcruiser was closing the distance between the two vehicles. If anything, it appeared to increase speed but did not pull out to pass.
Bree accelerated and their car pulled away. The road surface made it vibrate and difficult to control. Her eye caught the speedometer that hovered around a hundred and twenty. Even in kilometres an hour that was too fast for the rolling surface. She slowed and Jenny screamed. The Landcruiser was so close only its front bumper and grill were visible.
"Go faster, it's right behind."
But it was too late.
The vehicle hit their back bumper with a shuddering crunch. Bree swung the steering wheel towards the centre of the road and accelerated rather than braked. This deft movement helped her remain in control.
"It's coming again!" Jenny yelled.
The Landcruiser had also braked and swung diagonally across the road in a cloud of tyre smoke. It straightened and accelerated towards them. The car was faster though and slowly pulled away.
"A bend." Jenny pointed to a sign ahead.
"I see it," Bree whispered.
It wasn't just a curve, but a ninety-degree turn, well sign-posted but still there. Bree braked and swung into it. Her driving skills proved to be successful for the car made it and headed along another straight section of road.
The pursuing vehicle had lost twenty or more metres before it accelerated back up behind them.
"Go!" Jenny screamed.
But Bree didn't. Her hands were covered in perspiration but her mind was on overdrive. If she accelerated, she might lose control. It was too much to hope that they could continue at this deadly speed. She never touched the brake but lifted her foot off the accelerator and the car slowed.
"Are you crazy?" her passenger howled.
"Look for a side road," Bree replied but there was no time for more conversation. The Landcruiser was right behind.
The driver's tactics also changed. The vehicle moved out to the opposing lane and moved up beside them. Bree glanced sideways and shrieked.
There, peering across the intervening space was Colin, her husband. She knew that dark look; those almost closed eyes and determined lips. He always appeared that way before he attacked her with a violence that she wouldn't talk about.
The panic disappeared as quickly as it arrived and was replaced by sheer determination to survive. "You won't kill us, Colin," she whispered and went on attack.
If the heavy vehicle sideswiped them they'd be pushed into the ditch. Braking probably wouldn't help and it was too late to accelerate so Bree did the only other thing possible. She swung the tiny car into the Landcruiser.
For a microsecond, Bree's eyes met those of her husband. The uncertainty was now his!
Steel screamed and buckled, sparks flew, the scenery spun and the car's passengers plunged forward to the extent of their seat belts. They dropped back behind the Landcruiser, spun around and stalled in the middle of the road.
The Landcruiser was not so fortunate. It headed across the road, Colin over-compensated, and his vehicle hit the grass verge, wobbled and bounced back on the road. Smoke howled from screaming brakes. The vehicle hit the grass on the near side; inside wheels lifted and the cab toppled.
Outside wheels spun and the centre of gravity was breached. A noise like thunder cut through the air as the Landcruiser skidded across the grass on its side and plummeted into a deep ditch, that was really a drainage canal to take water away from adjacent swamp land.
The silence that followed was unnerving.
"Jenny," Bree cried. "Are you okay?"
"Fine, Bree," Jenny panted. "And you?"
"I'm not sure," Bree replied. She found reverse and backed the car off to the edge of the road.
There were no other vehicles in sight, only black tyre marks across the road and a massive gouge of bare soil where grass had been uprooted.
"It was Colin," Bree whispered. She hit the gas, swung out to avoid the Landcruiser tyre marks and would have accelerated away to put space between her and the man who had violated her so much in the past.
Jenny, however, placed a hand on her shoulder. "You have to stop, Bree," she said in a loud but unexpected calm voice. "I doubt if he will be any condition to do anything to you."
Bree braked and pulled the car to the road shoulder. For a moment, she leaned over the steering wheel gasping and staring ahead.
"Are you all right?" Jenny asked.
Bree turned. "Of course I'm not bloody all right," she gasped. "That bastard... Oh hell." She opened the door, staggered out and vomited on the grass.
Jenny followed and tucked an arm around her shoulders. "Come on, Bree. You'll be fine. We're safe and it was your driving that did it."
Bree glanced up with lips quivering. "My husband tried to kill us, Jenny," she repeated. "The bastard. What have I ever done to him?"
"But he didn't, Bree. We survived. I'm going to tell Ray how you saved us."
"Come on," Bree said and climbed back into the car.
"Bree." Jenny pleaded. "We have to go back and see what happened. Stay here if you wish and I'll do it."
"I wasn't going anywhere," Bree whispered. She waited while Jenny went around and sat in the passenger seat and reversed back up the road to where only the wheels of the Landcruiser showed above the crumpled grass.
"Oh God!" Jenny gasped after they had made their way through the ripped and flattened grass. The Landcruiser was upside down in the dry ditch but there was no cab beneath, just tortured metal, broken glass and stream hissing up from a ruptured radiator. The smell of petrol and burning rubber whiffed through the air.
Bree stood, transfixed and watched while Jenny made her way down the slope and bent down to gaze through the gap that was once the driver's window. For a moment, she just stared before she turned and made her way on all fours back up the bank to Bree. Her face was ashen.
"Well?" Bree stuttered.
"I think he's dead, Bree. By the look of him I'd say his neck and just about everything else in his upper body, was broken."
Bree nodded and stood shaking in her friend's arms. Tears rolled down her cheeks. That could have been them rather than Colin in that mangled wreck.
*
THE FOLLOWING DAYS after the accident were ones Bree wouldn't wish on her worst enemy and it was still not over. She had been summoned back to the police station and waited nervously for yet another interview. Even though Ray had tried to reassure her everything would turn out okay, she was not confident. She had already admitted she had recognized her husband as the driver of the other vehicle and had purposely turned her car into it. Back home, the authorities would be ruthless in a similar situation and now she had just been told an Inspector Cosgrove wanted to speak to her. This sounded ominous. Constables or sergeants had taken all the previous interviews.
A middle-aged man in blue uniform with pips on his sleeve walked out to meet her. "If you would come into my office, Mrs. Ashworth," he said in a soft voice and glanced up at the constable behind the counter. "Could you bring us both a cup of coffee please, Tami?"
"Yes, sir," the officer replied and gave Bree a smile. Whether it was of pity or sympathy, she wasn't sure.
The inspector invited her to sit and opened a document. He read for a moment before looking up. "It has been a harrowing week, Mrs. Ashworth," he said.
"It has, Inspector Cosgrove."
"I see you are a primary school headteacher back in Hammersmith, London. You have done well."
"Thank you," Bree muttered. Her heart raced and she wished he'd get on with the grim truth.
However, the man smiled, thanked Tami who arrived with two coffees, and handed one to Bree. She thanked him, added milk and waited.
"We have a witness that confirms your statement that the Landcruiser driven by your husband was trying to ram your vehicle, Mrs. Ashworth," the police inspector said. "We also believe your action in those last seconds before the accident was the only possible one."
Bree blew a sigh of relief and waited while the police officer continued.
"We further believe it wasn't an accident but a premeditated attempt by your husband to drive you off the road. However, since he was killed in the resulting collision, and no third party was involved, we have decided not to investigate the matter further. No charges will be laid against you. I wish to extend my deepest sympathy to you and your family."
"Thank you, inspector," Bree replied. She sucked on her lip. "...And the other matter?"
The police officer glanced up. "It is true your husband was wanted for questioning by us. A young woman laid a complaint of sexual assault against him."
"A prostitute?"
"I am not at liberty to say, Mrs. Ashworth."
Bree sighed. "It doesn't matter, Inspector Cosgrove. It's happened before."
"Will you need any assistance with the funeral arrangements?"
"No, thank you. The funeral director has been excellent. Colin's body will be cremated here in Palmerston North and his ashes returned home."
The inspector stood and shook Bree's hand. "It's been a tragic visit to our country, Mrs. Ashworth," he said. "First, the plane crash and now this accident."
Bree nodded, smiled at Tami who held the door open and walked out into the sunshine.
"So it was as I predicted?" Ray said after he'd kissed her.
Bree nodded. "Jenny's statement helped and apparently another witness saw everything. I guess it was that driver who stopped a few minutes after the explosion." She sighed. "There's only tomorrow's funeral service and we can put all this behind us."
"Did the police reveal anything new?" Ray asked.
"Not really. Colin had been in the country only two days and beat up a woman the night before. They found no motivation for his actions, so I guess we'll never know."
"It was jealousy," Jenny said. "He found out about you and Ray and was insanely jealous."
Bree glanced at her. "But who would have told him?"
"Who knows?" Jenny shrugged and dug Ray in the ribs. "Helps though, aye?'
"What do you mean?" Ray replied.
"Well, you aren't chasing a married woman and have to wait for her divorce now, do you? Here's only a grieving widow to look after."
"Jenny!" Bree gasped.
"Yeah, I know... shut up. But it's the truth, you know."
"And told with your usual finesse and charm." Ray chuckled. "Come on, ladies. I'll shout you both some lunch. That's the least I can do."
Bree smiled and followed as Ray swung his crutches out and headed for the nearby mall.
*