“What is it you want, Daniel?” Ma asked.
Danny strode into the center of the circle. Someone had passed him an earthen drinking jug and he took an enormous sip of liquor that was so strong, Heather could smell it from where she was sprawled on the ground.
“What do I want?” Danny said after a pause.
“There’s nothing they can give you now, mate,” Matt said.
“Yeah, no, look…I lost a wife and I heard there’s a girl. I want to see the girl. Bring her to me,” Danny said, wiping his mouth.
“Ivan?” Ma asked.
“Maybe not a good idea, Ma. If we’re going to go down this route, there can’t be any survivors,” Jacko said.
“I want my rights,” Danny insisted.
“You lost a wife, not a kid,” Matt said.
“I can’t take this violent bloody bitch. We can’t trust her,” Danny said, pointing at Heather.
Kate laughed. “You’re right. She’d cut all our throats, this one.”
“It’s my right, innit?” Danny said.
“What would the cops think, Ivan, if there were only three bodies?” Ma asked.
“I suppose the girl might have survived the crash, gone wandering for help, got lost, and her body was never found,” Ivan said.
“It might even help us,” Jacko said. “The cops will be focused on finding the missing girl over on the mainland. We won’t be part of the story.”
“Kill them all!” someone yelled.
Ma put her hands up for silence. “I’ve listened and I am going to sleep on my decision,” she said. “We don’t need to do anything tonight, do we, Matt?”
“No. And we don’t want to be running the ferry at night anyway. Nothing unusual,” Matt said.
“Tomorrow, if I decide that way, we can take the car over to the mainland and have Jamie crash it up the Red Hill Road. The rest of us can get to bed now. My legs hurt. I forgot me good ciggies,” Ma continued.
“What about me?” Danny said.
“Bugger you, Danny!” Jacko snarled.
“All right, we’ll let Danny take a look at the girl. Someone go get her!” Ma said.
“So the plan is we kill this one and the boy?” Kate asked, gesturing toward Heather.
Heather shook her head no. This was unreal. They couldn’t mean that. This was all some kind of mistake. A nightmare. A— “Maybe,” Ma said. “Where’s those ciggies?”
A little girl handed Ma a pack of cigarettes. She lit one up and passed the box around.
“Where are the Krauts now?”
“They’re still up at the house,” Jacko said. “I told them we were getting the ferry repaired and they bought it, but then the geezer said something stupid.”
“What did he say?” Matt groaned.
“He noticed the snorkel on the Porsche was bent and asked if someone had had an accident.”
“Shite!” Ma said. “You’ve really screwed things up for us, haven’t you, Daniel?”
“Ellen’s dead. I want me rights.”
“You’re getting your rights, Danny,” Kate said. “But, mate, because of you we’re going to have to kill two more people to be on the safe side.”
Heather got to her feet. “You cannot be serious about this! Have you all lost your minds?” she cried.
“I warned you! I bloody warned you. Didn’t I warn her? Take out her tongue, Lenny,” Ma said.
A large, tanned, lean bald man began moving through the crowd. He was wearing a leather apron and a singlet coated with filth. His eyes were black; his expression was dull. He reeked of dried blood and offal.
He grabbed Heather violently by the head and locked his arm around her neck.
She punched and scraped at his arm as he shoved two enormous fingers into her mouth. She bit the fingers, but it was like biting into blocks of wood.
“Yeah, I can do this. Jodie, go get me scissors, I’ll take care of her,” he said. Heather tried to scream but she couldn’t breathe or make a sound.
11
Olivia was listening to the yelling. She was very scared. She didn’t know what was happening out there. She didn’t know what she was supposed to do next. They had taken her phone, but the phone wasn’t her go-to source. Most kids her age asked Google or Siri or Alexa when they wanted to know stuff, but she had always gone to her dad. Her dad knew everything. Her dad knew everything about the world, and her mom had known the answers to any problem she’d ever had at school with friends or teachers or body image. Her mom had been as smart as her dad but she hadn’t liked to show off about it so much. One of her parents had always known what was going on and what she should do next.