‘Oksana is pregnant,’ he said.
I forced myself to sound happy. ‘Wow, that’s great news! Congratulations, my friend.’
‘We had the first scan the other day. You should have heard the heartbeat. You know, it’s the most amazing thing in the world, that this little human is growing inside her. I’m going to be a father.’
His eyes shone, but his smile held a hint of fear or apprehension and I saw in this the boy I once knew.
‘You’ll be great,’ I said.
‘I’ve started to do up the nursery. I’m painting murals on the walls.’
‘What are they of ?’ I asked.
‘Oh, kids’ stuff. You know, a waterfall, mountains, hot-air balloons, that sort of thing.’
‘Sounds nice.’
We proceeded to place the lime sticks on the bushes and trees in the dark. We didn’t use torches in case the area was being patrolled. We worked in silence, listening carefully for any unusual sounds or movement.
So, Seraphim was going to be a father. Seraphim. It made my intestines turn. A flash of blood in the toilet bowl. Nisha with her hands crossed over her stomach. I watched Seraphim’s movements in the darkness – they were fluid and discreet, like a shadow. I wanted to ask him again about that Sunday. Had Nisha really not turned up? Did he have something to do with her disappearance? He couldn’t. I mean, he couldn’t. Seraphim was an arsehole, the lowest of the low when it came to certain things, but he couldn’t possibly be involved in something as sinister as a missing person, or even five missing women and two children, if they were connected. I could see the fuzzy outline of his mouth and eyes. He seemed to be smiling. He was pleased with himself.
Seraphim, of all people, was going to be a dad. The prick.
When we finished setting up, we lit a small fire and waited for dawn, for the birds to descend into the trees. The calling devices sang in the dark in preparation and the mechanical but beautiful song reached us as if in a dream. The caged birds wouldn’t sing until the sun rose. We toasted olives and haloumi on skewers over the fire. Seraphim had his rifle close
to him.
‘What are you hoping to kill?’ I said.
‘Maybe some hare, that sort of thing, after we’ve collected the birds. Wait for the wildlife to wake up.’
I nodded and removed a warm olive from the skewer with my teeth. A black olive, bitter and grainy. There was not much conversation between us. Seraphim was alert all the time, his head darting about whenever he heard a sound. I kept my eye on the rifle. It bothered me, the way Seraphim fingered the trigger, the way he kept it so close.
It was the moment when the light of dawn cracked through the darkness and the birds in their cages and all the free birds began to sing, that I heard the crunch of leaves. Of course, Seraphim heard it to, and he was up immediately, gazing into the dawn light. I thought that was it, finally we would be caught, and more than anything I just felt relief.
But what appeared seconds later in the clearing beneath the trees was not a man in ranger’s uniform, but the mouflon ovis.
I stood up too and it peered at me as it had that day, with weary, amber eyes. Once again, it stood straight and strong and its fur and horns shone gold.
‘Look at that,’ Seraphim whispered. ‘Extraordinary!’
He gently crouched down, levelling the rifle, without averting his eyes from the animal.
The mouflon, following his movement with its eyes, took a step back so that it was now directly in a pool of light in the rising sun. And, just then, birds came in their thousands, cutting across the sky.
‘Seraphim,’ I said, urgently. ‘Don’t shoot!’
‘Don’t be stupid! This is a prize!’ His raspy whisper was full of excitement.
He nestled the gun more securely on his shoulder, preparing himself, watching the creature.
‘It’s protected,’ I said.
He chuckled, a low soft sound, but it came from deep in his chest. The animal took another step back, now into the shadows beneath the trees, and it seemed to be looking straight past Seraphim, at me.
I moved closer and grabbed Seraphim’s elbow. He pushed me with so much force that I stumbled sideways.
‘What the hell are you doing, man?’ His voice back to normal. The animal shuffled back further into a darkened, shrouded space, but its fur and horns caught the light.
I straightened up and quickly positioned myself between him and the animal, while Seraphim repositioned his gun.
He held the rifle steady on his shoulder, left eye squinting hard, right eye aiming through the muzzle. ‘Come on now,’ he said. ‘Get out of my way.’