Dead Man's Footsteps

here – we need the space right now.’
    ‘I have a business meeting,’ Ronnie said. ‘I – I – ‘ he pointed – ‘I have to see—’
    ‘I think you’d better reschedule. I don’t think anyone’s meeting anyone right now.’
    ‘The thing is, I have a flight to the UK tonight. I really need—’
    ‘Sir – I think you’re gonna find your meeting and your flight have been cancelled.’
    Then the ground began rumbling. There was a terrible cracking sound. The two cops turned in unison and looked up, straight up the silver-grey wall of the North Tower. It was moving.

27
OCTOBER 2007
    The lift was moving. Abby felt the floor pressing against her feet. It was rising, jerkily, as if someone was hauling it up by hand. Then it stopped sharply. She heard a thud, following by the sloshing of liquid.
    Shit .
    Her boot had fallen over. Her latrine boot.
    The lift swayed suddenly, as if it had been given a massive push, and boomed into the side of the shaft, throwing her off her feet, against a wall, then slamming her on to the wet floor. Jesus .
    There was a massive bang on the roof. Something struck it with the force of a sledgehammer. The sound echoed, hurting her ears. There was another bang. Then another. As she tried to scramble to her feet, the lift lurched violently sideways, striking the shaft with such force she could feel the shockwave running through the steel walls. Then it tilted, throwing her across the small space, thumping her into the opposite wall.
    Then another bang on the roof.
    Christ, no .
    Was he up there? Ricky? Trying to smash his way into the lift to get her?
    It rose again a few inches, then swung wildly again. Shewhimpered in terror. Pulled out her phone, pressed the cursor. The light came on and she could see a small indent in the roof.
    Then another bang and the indent grew larger. Dust motes swarmed crazily.
    Then another bang. Another. Another. More dust.
    Then silence. A long silence. A different sound now. A dull thudding. It was her heart. Pounding. Boomf…boomf…boomf. The roaring sound in her ears of her blood coursing. Like a wild ocean racing inside her.
    The light on her phone went off. She pressed the cursor and it came back on again. She was thinking. Desperately thinking. What could she use as a weapon when he broke through? She had a canister of pepper spray in her bag, but that would only stall him for a few moments – maybe a couple of minutes if she could get it in his eyes. She needed something to knock him down.
    Her boot was the only thing. She picked it up, aware of the wet, soft leather, and touched the Cuban heel. It felt reassuringly hard. She could conceal it behind her, wait until his face appeared, then swing it up. Surprise him.
    Her brain was all over the place with questions. Did he know she was in here for sure? Had he been waiting for her on the staircase, then somehow stopped the lift when he realized she had taken it?
    The silence continued. Just that fast thud of her heartbeat. Like a boxing glove pounding against a punchball.
    Then through her fear she felt a flash of anger.
    So close, so damned close!
    So tantalizingly close to my dreams!
    I have to get out of this. Somehow I have to get out of this!
    Suddenly the lift began to rise slowly again, before stopping with another sharp jerk.
    The grinding sound of metal against metal.
    Then the angular tip of a crowbar screeched in through the crack between the doors.

28
SEPTEMBER 2007
    The grinding whine of the winch. The rattle of the idling diesel of the R&K 24-Hour Rescue tow truck.
    Lisa batted away a whole bloody cloud of flies. ‘Piss off!’ she shouted at them. ‘Just go away, will you!’
    The rattle turned into a roar as the steel hawser tightened and the guy in the cab accelerated, giving more power to the winch.
    She was intrigued to know what would happen next. To find out what the car was doing there in the first place. No one drove three klicks down a dirt track and then into a river by accident, MJ said. Then he’d added, ‘Not even a woman driver,’ for which he had received a kick on the shin from her.
    One of the local Geelong cops who had turned up, the shorter, calmer of the two, told them the car had probably been used in a crime and then dumped. Whoever had put it here hadn’t reckoned on the drought causing the water level to drop so much.
    A fly landed on her cheek. She slapped her face, but it was too fast for her. Time was different for flies, MJ had told her