Stepping over fishing rods and almost tangling herself in the lines, Leanne trudged on. Beads of sweat had turned to ice at the nape of her neck, and her leather jacket was too thin to offer much protection from the freezing temperature. If Karin had wanted to cure her hangover with a shock of cold, there was no need to stay out long. She could be home already and in no mood to answer the door if Leanne turned up.
Deciding she was ill-prepared for another stakeout, Leanne turned about-face, but she didn’t immediately head back. The angler she had passed moments earlier was giving her a hard stare. He would need to move his rods again if she retraced her steps. She turned a second time and followed the curve of the canal.
Only vaguely aware of the tunnel ahead, Leanne reconstructed the events leading up to the fire. Claudia had just found out that she was pregnant and, whatever her feelings for Declan, the baby changed everything. Having Justin’s child provided the kind of security Claudia had yearned for, and it wouldn’t have mattered who the father was. It was only Declan who knew the paternity was questionable, and how fortunate for Claudia that the fire had neutralised that risk? Or was it luck?
Leanne’s boots thudded against the dirt path as her brisk pace became a jog. It was as if her subconscious had registered the two figures inside the tunnel before her conscious mind recognised Claudia in the same gym gear she had been wearing on their last encounter. It took only a fraction of a second to realise the second figure was Karin.
‘My God, you killed him!’ she heard Karin yell.
‘So what if I did?’ Claudia shouted back, her voice reverberating off the tunnel walls.
‘You bitch!’
Leanne broke into a sprint as she entered the tunnel. She could see the two women grappling with each other and time stood still as Karin’s back arched over the water’s edge. The canal was only one boat-width wide and if Claudia let go of her, Karin could swim easily to the other side, but that didn’t factor in the temperature of the water. Cold-water shock could be fatal, especially at this time of year.
‘You stupid bitch!’ Claudia cried. ‘Why did you have to remember?’
Leanne felt a fresh surge of adrenalin as she raced towards them. ‘Stop!’ she cried out, pushing Claudia away with one hand while making a desperate grab for Karin.
The only part of Karin that Leanne managed to grab hold of was her scarf. Karin’s arms windmilled over the water’s edge and her scarf began to unravel. Leanne yanked it hard, by which point Karin had built up enough momentum to propel herself forward. Their combined efforts meant Karin was thrust head first against the tunnel wall.
Karin’s cry was lost to the sound of a scream. Claudia had let go of Karin when Leanne ploughed into them and the shove had unbalanced her. Claudia could have fallen one of two ways, and fate decided that this was one disaster she wasn’t going to sidestep. There was a human-sized splash.
Leanne knelt down and made a grab for Claudia’s outstretched hand, but Claudia had done the one thing she shouldn’t. When she hit the cold water, she had gasped for air and, as her head submerged, she breathed in a lungful of water. Her arms flailed in panic and when she did rise briefly to the surface, she was coughing and spluttering. Her eyes were wide with fear and she was looking directly at Leanne.
Karin had risen to her feet and pressed a hand to her bloodied forehead as she watched on silently.
‘We have to do something,’ Leanne said, glancing left and right.
Beyond the tunnel there were no boats moored along the canal bank, no lifebuoys or poles to hook out Claudia, not even a fence post or broken branch that Leanne could recover in time to save her. She reached out her arm again, fingers stretching towards Claudia, who was busy swallowing more water than she was coughing up. Her movements slowed and she couldn’t keep her head above water. She seemed to know this and stopped struggling.
Leanne had trained for a situation like this and if it had been Lois slipping beneath the surface, she would have jumped in by now. It was probably for the best that she hadn’t. It gave her time to take off her boots and jacket.
‘What are you doing?’
‘I can’t watch her die.’
‘She would have let me die. I saw her push Declan off the balcony, Leanne. She killed my brother!’ Karin’s voice was loud enough to block out the sound of air bubbles breaking the surface of the water. ‘She’s … She’s not like us.’
‘No. And we’re not like her,’ Leanne said with grim determination. ‘You need to phone for an ambulance. Now!’
Without waiting for an answer, Leanne took a breath and held it as she jumped into the canal, her arms spread wide to reduce how far her head dipped beneath the surface. The pain was like nothing she had ever felt before. She knew she wouldn’t have long before she succumbed to the cold, but she didn’t act immediately. She floated on her back and waited for the shock to dissipate. When she allowed herself to move, she kicked her feet, exploring the dark waters with her legs until she connected with a solid form that she couldn’t see. She took another deep breath.
Leanne plunged beneath the surface and moved her arms blindly as she searched for Claudia. Her hand glanced against what might be an arm, but there wasn’t time to find purchase. Leanne’s ability to hold her breath was dramatically reduced by the cold, and with her lungs burning, she rose briefly to the surface before trying again. At first she felt nothing. Her fingers were numb, but as her hand dredged the water one last time, she felt resistance and grabbed something that was soft and flesh-like. She kept hold as she broke the surface, gasped for air, and opened her eyes, only to discover darkness threatening to overtake her.
She wasn’t going to make it. She was going to die and, although she didn’t believe in an afterlife, she clung to the hope that Lois was waiting for her. She didn’t need to conjure a tunnel, she was in one. She could see a hand reaching out to her.