Danger Point

Chapter 43

IT was the first thing that Dale asked her. “Did anyone see you?”

“No.”

“Nor me either.” He was laughing and breathing a little quickly from his run. “What conspirators we are! Come along quick down by the steps! It’s a marvellous evening!”

The sun had been gone for half an hour. The dusk was falling., but the sky still glowed, hyacinth blue at the zenith fading through turquoise-blue to turquoise-green. And from turquoise-green to primrose, daffodil, and one deep orange streak. Between the blue and the green the waning moon slipped down the sky, a slender crescent gaining brightness as the light withdrew.

At the foot of the steps Dale turned to the left. He put his arm about her and they walked in silence. Tane Head was behind them, and the Shepstone Rocks ahead. The flowing tide had almost reached and covered the sandy ridge which lay beyond. It was easier walking here than on the side towards Tane Head, because each high tide came up to cover the sand and beat it hard. Easier, that is, until they came among the rocks.

“Where are we going, Dale?”

“Down the ridge. We’ve just time.”

A spit of sand ran down between the rocks. Insensibly the dusk, the cool air, the calm beauty of sea and sky, were having their way with Lisle. The strain of the day relaxed a little. What had been numbness came a shade nearer to being peace. She no longer wished to go back. Dale’s arm guided her. It was strong, and he was kind. Her thoughts began to flow in the simplest channels – evening peace and calm – kindness – rest-

Neither of them spoke until they were standing on the ridge piled against the outworks of the Shepstone Rocks by the current which set from Tane Head.

“It’s nice here – isn’t it?” said Dale.

She said “Lovely-” in a dreaming voice.

“We’ll just have time to get round to the far side of the rocks.”

“Shall we? Can’t we stay here?”

“Just round the point, darling. There’s something I want to show you. But we must hurry.”

His arm was through hers now. They turned landwards and picked their way down off the sandy ridge to the rock and shingle which lay behind it.

At once the light seemed to have failed. The glow in the sky and its reflection from the sea lay behind them. They faced a flat strand strewn with dark seaweed-covered rocks running back to the steep rise of the cliff. They were in a hollow for the moment, but Dale made for a spit of shingle running up between the main Shepstone wall and another lesser ridge. They had hardly gone any distance before the wall on their left was so high that they could no longer see over it. The Tanfield side of the barrier was gone as if it had never been. Everything familiar was gone. There was only this gathering gloom, the lap of the tide behind them, and a stench of decaying seaweed.

Lisle stopped.

“Dale – I want to go back.”

“Why? It’s only a little farther.” His arm went round her waist again.

“It’s getting so dark.”

“That’s because we’ve got our backs to the sea. We’ll be turning in a minute, and then it will seem quite light again. Look – this is what I wanted to show you, just up here. Give me your hand and I’ll pull you up.”

He released her as he finished speaking, and scrambled up a long ridged slope, turning to catch her wrist and pull her after him. She came unwillingly but without the energy to resist. When he had shown her what he had brought her here to see he would let her go home again. It was never any good struggling with Dale – he had to have his way. And when he had had it they would go home and she would sleep.

She stood on the flat-topped rock to which he had brought her and looked down into blackness. High rocky walls shut in a roughly shaped triangle of which the base was the stone upon which they were standing. The blackness was a pit which went down and down to a faint gleam of water. The water seemed a long way off. A long way down – how far she did not know. She only knew that her head swam.

She would have stepped back but for the arm at her waist – Dale’s arm – very strong – and she had thought it kind-

It swung her forward with a sudden jerk. Her feet slipped and lost the rock. She caught at the empty dark and went down into it.

She went down into water, or there would have been nothing more to say about Lisle Jerningham. Down and under, with the scream choked on her lips, and then up again on her knees, seawater in her eyes, her ears, her mouth. And then with a convulsive effort to her feet again, head and shoulders clear of the water, hands catching at the rock sides of the pit.

Her foothold steadied. She pushed back dripping hair and looked up. Black walls all round her – very black – the sky a still, deep blue – light coming from it. And against the light and the blue of the sky, Dale standing there, black and tall and silent, looking down. She said his name in a gasping whisper.

“Dale-” And then, “I fell-”

It wasn’t true. He had thrown her down. She knew that, but she couldn’t believe it – not yet – not so soon – it was too dreadful. How do you believe a thing like that about your own husband?

She called his name again and stretched up her hands to him.

“Dale -get me out!”

He moved when she said that. She heard him laugh.

“What a silly woman you are, Lisle! Don’t you understand even now? Don’t you understand that all the things I told you this afternoon were true – only they weren’t true about Rafe, they were true about me? Lydia had to go because her going saved Tanfield. If it’s a choice between Tanfield and any woman on earth, Tanfield has it every time. That’s what you’ve been up against all along, my dear. You didn’t care about Tanfield, and why didn’t I sell it and go and live at the Manor? The very first time you said that to me I thought how much I should like to kill you. But you’ve had all the luck till now. I thought I’d done the trick the day you were nearly drowned. I heard you calling, but the others didn’t – I took good care of that. And if it hadn’t been for that damned meddlesome grocer or whatever he was, drowned you would have been, and a lot of trouble saved. You were lucky over the car too. I took a risk there and half tried to back out at the last minute, because somebody might have seen the file marks on the track-rod. Anyhow after my urging you in front of Alicia to have the steering seen to before you went home nobody could have pinned it on me. The disgruntled Pell came in handy there. I thought about that. And considering the way Lal had been chipping you, I didn’t really think you’d want to wait about at the garage with her.” He gave a sudden contemptuous laugh. “Oh well, you had the luck then, but it’s gone back on you now. Clever weren’t you, getting that detective woman down to watch me! Miss Silver – Private Investigations! You didn’t think I knew about that, did you? You shouldn’t have left her card in your bag. It was really very careless. But you needn’t think that either she or that damned policeman are going to have anything on me over this, because they’re not! You’ve provided me with a most convincing suicide letter – one of those pieces you wrote to Robson this morning. Do you remember it? I suggested it to you, and you thought it sounded a bit exaggerated. But you wrote it down, my dear, you wrote it down – and it would convince any coroner on this earth that you meant to do away with yourself.”

She said in a small, clear voice,

“Did you kill Cissie?”

His tone changed, became rough and unsteady.

“Why did you give her that damned coat?”

Her hair had fallen into her eyes again. She pushed it back. It was getting dark, but she could still see him.

“You took Rafe’s cigarette-case and it dropped there when you pushed her over, and Alicia found it. Even if Rafe saw you take it, you knew that he would never say-” Her voice broke suddenly. “Dale – let me out! I won’t say either – I promise I won’t – only let me out!”

She heard him laugh.

“What a hope!”

And with no more than that he turned and went away. She saw him go, the shortening of the black shadow standing up against the sky, and then the sky without any shadow there.

Dale was gone.