Chapter 1

When I woke up, I never realised that this would be the weekend that would change my life forever.

I had woken up that Saturday morning, I needed a long shower before I went downstairs, and I wanted a cup of coffee. No, let me get it right. I needed a cup of coffee. I got myself showered, dressed, and headed downstairs to the kitchen. I filled the kettle and spooned some coffee powder into my mug, I opened the fridge, and the fridge was bare. Now I know some folks like coffee black, but I do not, I need a good drop of milk in mine.

I took stock of what was actually in my fridge, which was basically nothing. I got a pad and pen from the chest of drawer to make a shopping list. I jotted down a few lines of stuff that was needed.

So back upstairs I headed, I grabbed a pair of shoes, my wallet, and my car keys and headed out into the early morning sun. We do not have a shop in our little village, so I drove down to the next, slightly bigger, village and did a little bit of shopping, just milk, bread, and stuff. I bought enough to last me over the weekend, I would do a big shop one night after work, there was a huge supermarket around the corner from my office. It was cheaper and they had a better range of groceries.

As I turned into the lane that led to my house, I had to quickly swerve as some idiot came driving toward me in the middle of the road and he was doing well over the speed limit.

I had to drive up onto the grass verge to avoid the nutter. I shouted a few expletives in the direction of the prick behind the wheel, not that he could hear me, and I guess he would not be bothered anyway. It always amazed me how some folks use the country lanes as their own private racetrack.

As I approached the entrance to my cottage’s drive, I saw a horse coming down the lane toward me, now that’s not unusual in the village, as there are two or three commercial stables as well as a few private ones dotted around the area.

This horse was different, it was on its own, and riderless. I noticed it had a saddle on and that pinged something into my head. If it was saddled up perhaps, there was a rider somewhere.

I quickly parked up and headed out into the lane. It only needed another speeding driver coming down the lane and there could be a nasty accident if the horse was left wandering around on its own.

I have to say I do not know much about horses, to be fair I know absolutely nothing about horses. I had not grown up in the country and had only moved into the cottage when an elderly spinster aunt passed away and left me the cottage and a little land, and just enough money to have the cottage refurbished and modernised.

I slowly walked toward the horse, and it was a big one, with my arms wide open and held low down. There was a white foam or froth around its mouth and the reins were dangling down. It was obvious something had happened, and my heart started to race faster. The first thing I had to do was to get this horse off the road. That would be easier said than done I thought to myself!

I approached it with caution, it seemed calm enough, but I knew that animals could change their mindset at any moment.

I reached out and took the reins. It looked at me and still seemed to be calm.

I had a small paddock to the right of my cottage, and it seemed a good enough place as any for the horse to go while I went in search of the rider. I tugged on the reins, at first, the beast was reticent but after a few tugs he or she, I was not sure and I was not going to go looking for evidence, followed me down the lane.

I soon had it in the paddock and the gate was locked securely behind me, I hooked the reins up onto the saddle, out of the way so, they would not be caught on the hedge or gate.

I climbed over the gate and then I headed down the lane at a brisk pace, I knew that the rider was somewhere but where was a he or she, I had no idea.

More importantly, what sort of state would they in I soon found them As it happened it was, she, and she was just around the next corner, and she was a real mess. She was on the grassy verge and if I had not been walking, I would have missed her, I was sure.

There was blood coming from a deep wound on her head and she looked unconscious. Her jodhpurs were badly ripped at one of the knees and there was evidence of some bleeding there as well. Her right foot seemed to be pointing out at a strange angle, and it had to be either broken or dislocated.

I looked around and there was no one else in sight, fuck I thought I need to do something and fast. I sprinted back to the cottage, jumped in the car, and grabbed my mobile phone. It took seconds in the car to get back to the girl. I positioned the car in the middle of the road, with the hazard lights on to warn other drivers to slow down. I had a first aid kit in the boot, so I grabbed that and called the emergency services.

As I did so I opened the first aid kit, there was one of those silver heat-saving blankets, the sort they put around runners after they have run marathons, so I pulled that out and laid it out over the girl. It was a summer’s day, but I thought it might help.

“Emergency Services, what service do you require Sir” the voice on the end of the phone asked.

“I need an ambulance and the police please “I replied. I was trying to keep my voice level and clear,

“Is the patient breathing,” the voice asked.

I checked and she was breathing but it was laboured.

“Yes, she is but she is bleeding from a head wound and she is unconscious,” I said, briskly.

“Sir have you got anything you can use to stem the bleeding,” the voice asked.

I checked the first aid kit; there were quite a lot of bandages. I ripped one from its packaging and placed it over the cut on the girl’s head.

“Yes, I have put a bandage over the cuts,” I said, I could hear the panic in my own voice.

“Well please keep some pressure on the wound, Sir,” the voice said.

“I will do” I replied, I could hear the nerves in my voice.

“That’s great, now please give me your location, “the voice on the end of the telephone said.

I gave her my address and postcode but told her I was down the lane just past the cottage. The bandage was soon red, and I had to rip another one open and put it on top of the first one.

“The emergency services are coming to you with blue lights on,” the voice said.

The woman on the end of the telephone had a soothing but authoritative voice and that was helping as I was shaking like a leaf. The call handler’s voice was comforting me in a strange sort of way, even though I was shitting myself.

“Please tell me what you know about the patient and her injuries,” the voice asked.

I gave her a quick rundown about how I had found the horse and then went looking for the rider. I described her injuries as best I could. I could only guess at how bad her ankle was, her riding boot masked the injury, but it was the weird angle of her foot that worried me.

“That’s great, you’re doing well sir,” the voice on the end of the phone said, “Is the girl breathing still good and strong”

“Yes, she is but she is bleeding heavily,” I answered.

“The ambulance is coming sir and will be with you in less than ten minutes,” the voice told me.

She kept asking me about the girl, asking if I was keeping pressure on the wound and stuff like that. The line went quiet for a few seconds.

“Right Sir the ambulance tells me its seconds away,” the voice said.

As if by magic, at the same time I could hear the tell-tale ‘nee nor nee nor nee nor’ blaring of the sirens of the ambulance in the distance. That familiar noise was also very comforting. I ripped open another bandage and placed it on the girl’s head. She was a cute looking thing, blonde slim and with a gorgeous face.

“Are you still their sir,” the voice on the end of the phone asked

“Yes, I am here,” I said, I could hear the nerves in my own voice, “I was just replacing the bandage.”

“You’re doing a great job, sir...” said the faceless voice.

“Thank you,” I said,” You have helped so much.”

I realised I did not know her name,

“What’s your name,” I asked, she paused a little. I wondered if they were not allowed to give their name out over the phone.

“It’s Sarah and what’s yours?” she replied. The blaring of the sirens of the ambulance was getting louder and louder.

“My names Zak,” I told her.

“Well Zak you are doing an amazing job, “she said, as she said it the ambulance pulled up beside me.

“The ambulance just pulled up Sarah,” I said.

“I will leave you in the hands of the paramedic’s zak,” the voice said and then the phone went dead.

The paramedics jumped out, the first one was an older guy, and he ran straight over to me, the other was a younger lady and she ran to the back of the ambulance and opened the doors, coming out with a huge green backpack.

The guy knelt beside me on the grass verge.

“Hi, I am Dan and my partner over there is Cerys,” he said, “you’re doing well, and any minute now we will be able to take over”

“Thank you, my name is Zak, by the way, “I said, glad the professionals were on site.

“Good to meet you, Zak,” he said, “It looks like you have done a good job so far mate!”

He took the girls wrist and checked her pulse, as he did so the young lady paramedic sat down the backpack and started pulling kit out of it. She passed some gloves to Dan and pulled on some herself, then pressed an oxygen mask onto the girl’s face.

“Right Zak, if you step aside, we can take over from here mate, “Dan said, and his hand replaced mine on the wound on the girl’s head.

“So please tell me all you know about what happened,” Dan asked.

It took me two minutes to give them the full story and whilst I was telling them, they were working hard on the girl. They soon had some sort of monitor equipment on her, and Cerys was using some wicked looking scissors to cut off her riding boot. I stood up and stepped away, giving the ambulance crew more space to work in around the girl.

I heard another car pull up and looked around to see it was a police car. The driver got out and ran over to me; she spoke briefly to the paramedics and then turned to me.

“Sir ... Sir are you okay,” she asked, there as a look of real concern on her face.

To be fair at that moment I was not, I had turned and seen Cerys pulling off her riding boots, the girl’s ankle was a mess, and my head had gone a bit swirly. There were bits of bone sticking through her skin and it did not look at all pleasant.

“Yes ... I am okay, sorry, “I said and turned away.

I stood up and walked away from the action on the floor, the police officer followed me.

“Hi there, its Zak isn’t it?” she asked, she had a friendly, caring voice.

“Yes, but how did you know...” I was sure I had not told her my name.

“Oh, the emergency services call handler gave me your details,” she said with a smile. She was cute and her uniform did little to hide the fact she had killer curves.

“My name is PC Bailey, and I will be the officer in charge of this case,” she said and handed me her business card, which I slipped into my pocket

“Thanks, PC...” I was not sure what to call her.

“It’s Kaylee; just call me Kaylee, please,” she said, “So do you live far away?”

“No, it’s only a few hundred yards up the lane,” I told her.

“Then how about I drive you home?” she asked and gave me a concerned smile.