The Hike

THE HIKELucy Clarke CopyrightHarperCollinsPublishers Ltd1 London Bridge StreetLondon SE1 9GFwww.harpercollins.co.ukHarperCollinsPublishersMacken House, 39/40 Mayor Street Upper,Dublin 1, D01 C9W8, IrelandFirst published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2023Copyright © Lucy Clarke 2023Jacket design by Claire Ward © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2023Jacket photographs © Ebru Sidar/Arcangel Images (mountain in cloud) and Mehul Patel/Arcangel Images (forest)Lucy Clarke asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.Source ISBN: 9780008462420Ebook Edition © April 2023 ISBN: 9780008462444Version: 2023-02-27 DedicationFor Matt Clarke ContentsCoverTitle PageCopyrightDedicationPrologueArrival DayChapter 1: LizChapter 2: HelenaChapter 3: MaggieChapter 4: JoniChapter 5: LizChapter 6: MaggieChapter 7: LizChapter 8: HelenaChapter 9: MaggieChapter 10: LizChapter 11: JoniChapter 12: MaggieChapter 13: HelenaChapter 14: JoniChapter 15: HelenaChapter 16: LizChapter 17: HelenaDay 1Chapter 18: MaggieThe SearchChapter 19: LizChapter 20: HelenaChapter 21: Joni Chapter 22: LizChapter 23: Helena The SearchChapter 24: MaggieChapter 25: LizChapter 26: HelenaThe SearchDay 2Chapter 27: LizChapter 28: MaggieThe SearchChapter 29: HelenaChapter 30: MaggieChapter 31: LizChapter 32: MaggieThe SearchChapter 33: JoniChapter 34: MaggieChapter 35: JoniChapter 36: HelenaThe SearchChapter 37: Liz Chapter 38: MaggieChapter 39: JoniChapter 40: MaggieChapter 41: HelenaChapter 42: LizDay 3The SearchChapter 43: MaggieChapter 44: HelenaChapter 45: JoniChapter 46: LizThe SearchChapter 47: MaggieChapter 48: HelenaChapter 49: LizThe SearchChapter 50: MaggieChapter 51: JoniChapter 52: HelenaChapter 53: JoniChapter 54: MaggieChapter 55: LizDay 4Chapter 56: JoniThe SearchChapter 57: LizChapter 58: JoniChapter 59: LizChapter 60: JoniChapter 61: LizThe SearchChapter 62: HelenaChapter 63: Liz The SearchChapter 64: HelenaThe SearchChapter 65: LizThe SearchChapter 66: LizChapter 67: MaggieChapter 68: JoniChapter 69: LizChapter 70: LizChapter 71: HelenaChapter 72: MaggieChapter 73: JoniChapter 74: LizChapter 75: MaggieChapter 76: HelenaChapter 77: MaggieChapter 78: JoniChapter 79: LizAfterwardsChapter 80: HelenaChapter 81: MaggieChapter 82: LizAuthor’s NoteAcknowledgementsKeep Reading …About the AuthorAlso by Lucy ClarkeAbout the Publisher PROLOGUEHer body lies broken on the mountainside. It rests on a bed of dark rock, a thin pillow of green lichen beneath her cracked skull. Her irises hold the reflection of the sky, clouds travelling across unseeing pupils. Her face is undamaged – almost unnervingly so – her skin pale and clear. The breeze carries the scent of earth, salt, blood. It toys with a wisp of hair at her temple, then worries the collar of her top. Other than that, she is still. Blafjell mountain towers above her, an impassive, brute witness. It saw everything but tells nothing. In a few hours’ time, the first person on the scene will check her pulse. Radio in. They will speculate about what went wrong. Question why her pack is missing. Why there are crescents of dried blood beneath her fingernails. Why four heart-like bruises kiss the top of her left arm. Police will want to speak with the witness who last saw this young woman alive.Locals will ask why a female hiker was found on the mountain alone. Loved ones will pilgrimage to the spot, feet pounding the trails in their search for answers. For now, her body lies alone, undiscovered. The mountains give away none of their secrets. Yet out there, hidden within their granite folds, someone knows exactly how this woman died.And why. ARRIVAL DAY 1LIZLiz knotted the laces of her hiking boots, then eyed herself in the hallway mirror. Her friends would tease her for wearing them to the airport, but there was no space in her backpack. She’d been scrupulous with her packing. She enjoyed the efficiency of it, the paring back, whittling down, every gram counting. It was pleasing to be able to step out with everything she needed on her back. There was an autonomy about it that she liked – maybe a little too much. She checked her watch. If she left now, she’d arrive at Helena’s fifteen minutes ahead of schedule. Her backpack was waiting in the car. The tank was filled with petrol. Her checklist was ticked. There was nothing left for her to do except say goodbye. Hard to believe that, by this evening, she, Helena and Maggie would be in Norway. It had been her turn to choose the holiday destination. In previous years she’d picked Corfu, Madeira, the south of France. She’d loved those beach holidays – the kiss of the sun, the buzz of being with girlfriends, the languid days poolside – but recently she’d been thirsting for something different. She was thirty-three, a wife, a mother, a GP. Her everyday life was organised, buttoned down, scheduled. What she needed was an adventure. ‘You’re serious?’ Helena baulked when Liz pitched the idea of four days wild hiking and camping in Norway. Liz was. ‘I’ve always wanted to see the fjords and mountains.’‘So book a cruise.’ A few months earlier, thanks to a broken fan belt that the garage took an age to repair, Liz had been forced to walk into the surgery. As she’d walked, something magical seemed to happen; with each step, it was as if she were shaking off the chaos of lost homework, packed lunches and missing uniform items. She noticed birdsong, learned the names of the trees she passed, took the time to wave good morning to neighbours. By the time she arrived at work, her thoughts felt more spacious, her body grateful for the movement. She had been out in the weather and felt the day. The action of moving her feet, step after step, meant she arrived fresh and energised. Liz