“Please don’t do that. I’m looking after two children. I just came to take some water,” she said.
“Steal some water, more like. You didn’t ask anyone, did you? Broke in here and took what you wanted, didn’t you? I told you people to leave. You should never have come here in the first place!” the man said and began fiddling with the radio.
“Please don’t call Matt. Please just let me go. I can tell you’re not part of the family.”
“Oh? How can you tell that?”
“You have a different accent than them.”
The man found the on switch to the walkie-talkie. He adjusted the volume and the room filled with the ominous sound of static. If he called Matt, she was dead and the kids were dead.
“You’re Irish, are you?” she guessed.
“Yeah, I’m Irish, what of it?”
“Where are you from? Are you from the same place as Ma?”
“Ma was a ten-pound Pom. You probably don’t know what that is.”
“No.”
“She come over on the boat all the way from Liverpool but she’s as Irish as me. That’s why I was allowed to stay here. I’m the only outsider that didn’t marry in. Have you heard of a place called Ballymena?”
Heather shook her head.
“That’s where I’m from.”
“How did you end up here?”
“I come over to work in the prison. Help close it down, really. Sort of stayed after that.”
“I saw your photograph on the mantel. You were a corrections officer in Ireland.”
“No, I wasn’t. I was a police officer.”
Heather’s heart started beating faster. “A police officer?”
“Yeah, something called the RUC. You heard of that?”
Heather shook her head again. “What’s your name?” she asked.
“Rory.”
“Nice to meet you, Rory,” she said.
He grunted a response and continued to fiddle with the walkie-talkie.
She leaned forward on the sofa. “I’m looking after two children. Owen is twelve. Olivia is fourteen. Owen is badly dehydrated. He’s going to die tonight if I don’t get back with water. And the rest of us—you know what they’re going to do to us, don’t you? They’re going to kill us all. They’re going to rape me and Olivia and then kill us.”
“That’s none of my business,” he said.
“Back in Ballymena would it have been your business?”
“I suppose,” Rory said and smiled. “You think you’re smart, don’t you?”
“No. I’ve screwed everything up.”
“Matt told me about you. He said you were crafty. That I was to watch out for you.”
“You have to help us! Against them.”
Rory shook his head. “I can’t afford to do that, can I? If they find out I helped you, they’ll be after me next, won’t they?”
“Tom’s…my…the kids need water.”
“It’s not my problem, love. I didn’t ask you to come here, did I? This was your choice. None of this is anything to do with me. You hit Ellen with your car. You can’t involve me in it. I’ve nothing to do with it and if they find out I was even talking to you, I’ll be for the bloody chop, won’t I?”
“You can’t just let us have a little bit of water?”
“And then what?”
“If we can get to a boat—”
“There’s no boat. They have the only boat. The ferry. We’re on this island with them. It’s theirs. They grew up here. Old Terry used to say that Dutch Island was never legally incorporated into the State of Victoria. They consider Australia to be a foreign country. They’re a law unto themselves. They know it like the back of their bloody hand. They know every nook and cranny and everything that goes on.”
“How come they haven’t caught me and the kids yet?”
“That is a bloody miracle. You are living on borrowed time. They’ll find you. This is their backyard. They’re only toying with you.”
She shook her head. “They’re scared now. I—”
“Are you having a laugh? You have no idea. You seriously think you’re outwitting them? They’re letting you live. They’re just having a wee bit of fun. They don’t tell me everything, but they told me to watch out for you and they told me they’re bringing dogs over from the mainland tomorrow. Bloodhounds. If I let you go, they might track you to here and they’ll ask me questions, and if they see that broken window I’ll have to make up some bullshit about it. You’ve already got me in the crapper. Now, you just sit there and I’ll call Matt, and if you move an inch I’ll blow you in half, so I will!”