he liked the symmetry here. That Jojo was going to die just as Aleksy had. He had the smallest of doubts: That it would be too similar. That Sheens would see through it. That everything would unravel.
But that feeling of anxiety fought with decades of getting away with this. He’d planned it all carefully, and they wouldn’t be able to connect him. Not with Stavely off laying a confusing scent to Daniel Benham’s house.
And besides that, Jojo had let him down. In the end, she’d turned on him. And she had to be punished for that.
* * *
—
O’MALLEY GOOGLED THE Dagger-Edge climb, and checked through climbing-club sites until he’d found directions for getting there. Then they called the switchboard and told them to send the closest squad car.
Jonah put the call through himself. “You need to park in the car park off Station Road,” he told the operator, “and follow the central path. It forks right. Take that, and then ignore any turn-offs until you’re at a sign-posted fork toward Burley Ridge. They’ll be up there.”
“How long ago did he leave?” O’Malley asked quietly.
“I don’t know,” Jonah said. “But Jojo must have been there for more than an hour by now. Maybe two.”
* * *
—
JOJO HAD LEFT Dagger-Edge till last. It was still her nemesis, this climb, with its final lunge onto a hold that should be easy, but which was just too high and too far. Even with a rope, she had never managed to make herself do it.
And today, she didn’t have a rope. It had been Aleksy she’d been thinking of on the drive here. Aleksy, whom she was beginning to think hadn’t betrayed her, and who hadn’t fallen because of her. Aleksy, and his ability to fling himself without any support at climbs that would make other people blanch.
Sometimes I think I only make it because I don’t have a choice, he’d said to her.
Well, today, she wasn’t giving herself a choice.
Her hands found the jug that started the route. They closed on it and her feet swung into place on the ridge below it. She knew this. She was at home on it.
The next move was another quick one. She pulled her left foot up and dug her toe into a narrow depression. The toehold felt like nothing, but she was light with adrenaline and she pushed up on it anyway.
She had her weight set for the next move when she heard a noise behind her. Shifting slightly, she looked down and to her left, and saw Brett below her, pausing for breath with his hands on the back of his head, elbows out to each side. He was in running gear, and there was sweat on his forehead.
“Hello, Jojo,” he said, and despite the fact that it was Brett speaking—Brett, who had been kind to her for thirty years—a chill ran right through her.
She was aware that she was only just out of his reach as she called, “What are you doing here?”
“You brought me here,” he said with a sad smile. “I warned you not to, Jojo. Why have you been talking to them? Why are you no longer my ally?”
Jojo looked at him for a moment. “Your ally?”
She had found the next hold with her left hand—a sloper with a good grip to it—and she pulled her right foot up to a crack and pushed upward. She was definitely out of his reach now, but he was stepping closer.
“You know I didn’t mean for her to die,” Brett said, looking hurt. “You knew that then, but now you seem to have forgotten it.”
He was talking about Aurora. Of course he was.
Jojo had the sudden sick feeling that this was how Aleksy had died. That Brett had spoken to him like this, with disappointment and a little anger, and had then killed him. Had he climbed up below him and pulled him off? No, he had been at the foot of Mechanical Vert. Brett had probably walked up the easy way and waited at the top, then pushed Aleksy off.
“I haven’t forgotten anything,” Jojo said. She took the next move with less certainty. She couldn’t stop imagining Aleksy’s cry as he’d fallen. “I’ve just realized a lot of things. You killed him, didn’t you?”
She knew she ought to be mollifying him, but she had a burning need to hear him say it.
“Aleksy?” he asked. “Of course I did. The stupid prick went snooping when he should have kept his nose