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And that was how he knew he could help.
FORTY-ONE
It was almost nine when Bryant pulled into Oak car park. It was the closest they could get to the Nesscliffe Countryside Heritage Site, which Kim had learned on their hour-long journey up the A458 covered seventy acres. She had considered telling Bryant to turn back, knowing that finding Alison would be like finding a needle in a haystack. Further reading had told her that the acreage encompassed two wooded hills, a heather-covered ridge and an Iron Age hill fort. The former quarries that were now cliffs of soft red sandstone only accounted for a small portion of the site.
She spotted Alison’s Citroën as she got out of the car.
The sun was just starting to peep out from behind the clouds, offering a pleasant temperature of nineteen degrees, with a gentle breeze. Perfect rock-climbing weather – or not, Kim thought as they headed towards a well-worn trail that she was hoping led them to the climb site.
‘Why do people do this?’ she asked, entering a wooded area.
‘What? Take time off?’ Bryant asked.
‘Well, no, I get that, kind of, but why subject yourself to something like this?’
‘Adrenaline? Doing something completely different?’
‘Fine, go to Spain, get a tan, read a book.’
‘It’s an adventure, guv. A time to test the nerves, step outside your comfort zone,’ Bryant offered with a smile in his voice. ‘I mean, the woman is on leave.’
She wondered if this was Bryant’s last-ditch attempt to stop her harassing Alison on her break.
‘Cool, send our guy a message and ask him to take a pause until she’s back at work.’
‘There are other psychologists, guv,’ Bryant said as the trees started to thin.
Yes, there were, and she trusted them all a lot less than Alison.
‘Jesus, is she really gonna climb that?’ Kim asked, looking up. The cliff face in front of them rose up almost fifty metres.
Kim couldn’t get her head round the fact that nothing more than a piece of rope lay between you and instant death.
She spotted Alison at the foot of the rock, amongst a group of six or seven climbers, already geared up and ready to climb.
‘Well, fancy seeing you here,’ Kim called out. She definitely wanted to keep Alison on the ground.
The woman froze before turning. When she did, her face was a mask of pure horror.
‘No way,’ she said, shaking her head.
‘Yes way,’ Kim said, reaching her. ‘We need your help.’
The instructors and climbers were watching with interest.
‘Erm…I’m not at work,’ Alison hissed. ‘Did my out-of-office email and voicemail not give it away?’
‘Yeah, but like I said, we need you.’
Kim looked around the group. ‘Can you give us a moment, folks?’
They started to move away, but the instructor holding the rope attached to Alison stepped back just a couple of paces.
‘We’ve got a killer on the loose,’ Kim said, lowering her voice.
Alison looked at her as though she still couldn’t believe what she was seeing. ‘Do you have any idea how messed up this is?’
‘How many times do I need to say we need your help?’ Kim said, wondering why Alison wasn’t already untangling herself from the complicated-looking harness.
