Beyond Fear (31 page)

Hannah threw the scissors to the floor. ‘I don’t
want
the scissors. We should just do what they say.’

‘No,’ Jodie said. ‘They want to hurt us. Pick up the scissors.’

‘No. I won’t fight them. If we don’t fight, they might just let us go.’

What the hell was she thinking? Jodie picked up the scissors, shoved them at Hannah. ‘Take them.’

Hannah pushed her hand away. ‘I know what happens. I’ve nursed rape victims. It’s always worse for the ones who fight. Much worse. We should just do what they want.’

The thought made Jodie’s stomach lurch.
You fought real hard, Angie.
‘Jesus, Hannah.’

Corrine drew her arms across her torso.

Above them, Matt swore quietly under his breath, dragged on the second rail with more urgency.

‘They’ve got a
gun
,’ Hannah said. ‘They can shoot us if they want to.’ She looked at Corrine, then back at Jodie, spoke firmly. ‘I just want to go home.’

Jodie shook her head. They’d all seen the rape in Kane’s eyes when he’d pawed Corrine. But Travis had held a gun to Lou’s head and shot her. She’d be dead if Matt hadn’t come through the glass. Rape was on the agenda but that wouldn’t be the end of it. Jodie grabbed Hannah’s hand, slapped the scissors into the palm. ‘You’ve only seen the rape victims who
survived
.’ She curled Hannah’s fingers around the scissors, held them there until Hannah finally took them. ‘No one is getting on their back for those animals.’

Jodie sat back down, breathing hard, watching as Corrine slid the nailfile into the back pocket of her trousers. She saw Angie again, her lovely face screwed up in pain and terror. Her killers hadn’t bothered to strip her naked. They’d wrestled her out of her jeans and underwear, ripped off her shirt and pushed her bra up under her arms. ‘No, put it in your bra. You too, Hannah.’

‘But . . .’ Corrine said.

‘Just do it!’

She turned as Matt groaned with effort and saw him pull the second rail from the wall. At the same moment, the crashing from the lounge room stopped and as the rod ripped its housing from the wall, the loud crack of breaking plasterboard seemed to echo in the sudden silence.

They stopped, waited. Matt held the rod with both hands centimetres from where it had hung. All five of them watched the door. Beyond the room, there were muffled sounds, voices, soft thuds, not the footsteps Jodie had expected to hear storming down the hallway. A door banged. They flinched as one. Then it was quiet.

It was so quiet, Jodie could hear herself breathe. She picked up the rail and the stiletto-heeled boot and propped herself against the door on the floor next to Corrine. ‘Do you want me to be the keeper of the light now?’ She didn’t have to ask twice. Corrine crawled quickly across the floor and huddled in the corner.

Matt limped to the other door, braced himself against it and slid to the floor next to her, his bad leg straight out in front. Jodie could see he was in pain but he hadn’t leaned on the wall for support this time. That had to be good. He ran a hand through his hair and settled his eyes on hers. ‘What the hell is going on?’

27

Jodie licked at dry lips. A distant thud told her Kane and Travis hadn’t left the barn altogether. She wanted to move, do something useful but short of surgically removing the bullet from Louise’s shoulder, there was nothing to do but wait.

‘I have no idea,’ she said. ‘At first, I thought they were here to hurt us but if that’s all they wanted, we wouldn’t be sitting here, right?’

Matt nodded as though he’d already come to that conclusion.

‘Who are they?’ Hannah said. Her voice was firm, a little too loud, as though she was making up for her earlier silence. Beside her on the floor, Louise opened her eyes and waited for Matt’s answer.

He looked at each one of them then took a long moment to examine the metal rod in his hand. Jodie’s stomach tightened. What didn’t he want to tell them?

‘They’re small-town thugs,’ he said at last. ‘Born and bred in Bald Hill. No mother, brought up by an abusive, alcoholic father. They spent time in juvenile together after they beat up a kid behind the school. Later, Travis joined the army and Kane did two years in maximum security for aggravated assault. Six months after Kane was released, Travis was back. They’ve been back here ever since.’ It sounded like a police report. He looked like he had more to add but didn’t.

‘What else?’ Jodie said.

His eyes met hers. She could see him deciding what to tell. ‘They’re vicious but you already know that.’ He lifted his hand and passed a rough thumb gently across the bruise on her cheek.

The unexpected tenderness made her eyes tingle with the threat of tears. She blinked hard. He knew more. ‘What else?’

‘Nothing else.’

Hey, bro, we should leave him something this time.
‘They know you.’

‘Yeah.’

‘What happened between you and Kane?’

His pupils moved fractionally from side to side. He was thinking, fast. ‘Cop stuff.’

‘Is that why they’re here?’

‘No. It happened a long time ago. How did they get in?’

Jodie paused. Why had he changed the subject? Hannah spoke into the silence.

‘They said they used to live here and wanted to take a look at the renovations. We showed them around.’

‘They seemed really nice,’ Corrine said defensively.

‘So what happened?’ Matt said.

Corrine pointed at Jodie. ‘She started yelling at them.’

Matt turned to Jodie, a question on his face.

‘No, it started before then,’ Hannah said, as though she was piecing it together for the first time. ‘Jodie just caught on faster than the rest of us.’

Jodie raised her eyebrows.
Caught on?

Corrine was shaking her head. ‘If Jodie hadn’t been rude . . .’

‘Let it go, Corrine,’ Hannah cut her off. ‘We need to focus on what to do
now
.’

Jodie frowned at Hannah in the harsh light. She was over her shock, that much was clear. There was even a little colour on her cheeks. And she sounded like the real Hannah. The one who’d told Jodie she was having a breakdown. The one who stood her ground in an argument. Resentment lodged in Jodie’s throat. She pushed up her sleeves and wiped perspiration from her top lip. Her shin and hand ached. It was hot in the wardrobe now. The air was thick with the smell of blood, damp with sweat and fear, and heavy with the silence of unspoken words. They needed to be angry at the two animals on the other side of the door, not each other, Jodie thought.

‘Where are your car keys?’ Matt said.

Jodie shook her head, reined in her thoughts. ‘On the floor in the lounge room somewhere. But there’s a spare under the chassis above the front wheel on the driver’s side.’ The uninjured half of Matt’s mouth turned up just a little. He was impressed with her contingency planning, Jodie thought. The man had no idea. ‘Have you got a spare?’

He shook his head. ‘I was in my brother’s car. It sits in a shed most of the time. I doubt he keeps a key in it.’

‘Where is it now?’ she asked.

‘Down on the road. If I can get to it, I can hot-wire it. Where is their car?’ He cocked his head towards the lounge room. ‘I only saw yours out front.’

Jodie frowned. ‘I didn’t see a car either.’ She looked at Hannah and Corrine for an answer.

Corrine shook her head.

Hannah shrugged. ‘They didn’t come in a car. At least, I didn’t hear one.’

‘They didn’t have a car last night either,’ Jodie said.

Matt’s eyebrows sat up. ‘They were here
last night
?’

‘Hannah and I spoke to them outside,’ Jodie said. ‘I didn’t recognise Kane. It was too dark and Travis did all the talking. They said they were camping over the ridge. I think they broke into the barn earlier today, too.’ She looked at Hannah, who didn’t meet her gaze. Would it have made any difference if they’d called the police this afternoon instead of yelling at each other? Would a police officer turning up have scared the Andersons off? Jodie frowned, remembered something Travis had said about her going into town. ‘I think they’ve been watching us.’

Matt said nothing but his eyes narrowed and a frown slowly deepened between his brows.

‘What?’ she said.

His eyes did that tiny side-to-side movement again. ‘Nothing.’

Her fingers curled tighter around the clothing rail. ‘You know something.’

The thinking had stopped. His eyes were flat and decided. ‘No. I don’t.’

Her anger flared. ‘Don’t lie to us, Matt. You know something. I know you do and you’ve got no right keeping it from us.’

‘I don’t
know
anything.’

‘Then tell us what you
think
. Whatever the hell those two bastards are doing out there, they’re not planning to leave us in this wardrobe for the cleaners to find. They intend to come back. We need to know what we’re up against.’

His eyes moved to Corrine. Jodie followed his gaze. She was huddled in the corner, horror on her tear-stained face.

‘Look, Corrine’s freaking out because she’s never had a sadistic bastard put his hands all over her. Give her some time. She’ll surprise the hell out of you.’ She saw the doubt on his face and grabbed his arm, pulled him around to face her. ‘Don’t make assumptions about what we can handle. You have no idea what we can handle. You don’t even know us!’ She saw his eyes drop to her stomach. The scars were covered by the sweater now but he’d seen them. He’d had a good long look at them when he was untying her. Plenty of time to decide she wasn’t up to an awful truth. Was it too late for him to understand about the cold steeliness inside her? Or was he like everyone else? Would he try to shield her? Had he already decided one trauma was all she was engineered for?

His eyes lifted to her face. ‘Okay. Tell me what time they were here last night.’

Right response, Matt. Ten points. Go to the top of the class. ‘It was just after we arrived. We were still unpacking the car. Nine-thirty maybe.’

‘And there were lights outside later,’ Hannah said.

Jodie frowned a question at her.

‘Jodie saw them,’ Hannah said to Matt, as though it had never been in question. ‘And there was a car during the night.’

‘Is that right?’ Jodie said. ‘You sure it wasn’t just thunder?’

Hannah attempted to look indignant. ‘Well, I wasn’t sure before but it makes sense now.’

Makes sense
, Jodie wanted to shout but now was not the time to have it out. Leave it. Just forget it. The only thing that mattered now was getting home to their families. Jodie could argue with her about it later. Over a glass of wine.

She turned to Matt. His eyes were already on her, as though he’d seen her struggle and was saying ‘hang in there, you’re doing fine’.

‘I saw lights outside the barn around eleven-thirty,’ she told him. ‘Two, like two people walking around with torches. Close to the verandah, out the back. Then there was a big, souped-up car driving around the barn at three this morning.’

‘Your poachers pointing torches at the wildlife?’

Jodie nodded, thinking back to their conversation in the park. She’d thought she was going nuts but apparently it was just the world going nuts around her. Then she remembered what they’d talked about on the way to the park, the police cars in the street, and a couple of dots connected. ‘Have they got something to do with that murdered man?’

‘Jesus,’ Corrine said.

‘What man?’ Hannah said. At her side, Louise lifted her head and winced in pain.

‘It’s possible,’ Matt said tentatively.

‘Wait,’ Jodie said. ‘After they tied us up, they argued a couple of times. Travis said something about the cops. And something about not wanting to go into town with the police there.’

‘That’s right,’ Hannah said. ‘Travis told Kane he’d hand him over to the cops if he didn’t do what he told him.’

Matt ran a hand through his hair. ‘The detective on the case was asking about the builders at John’s house. Kane and Travis were working there. It doesn’t mean they did it but . . .’ His lips flattened into a tight line. ‘But they are both capable of it.’

A quiet whimper came from Corrine’s corner of the room. Hannah closed her eyes and put her hand in Louise’s. Jodie thought about Kane at the pub, the dark splotch on his collar, the rusty smear on his neck. The muscles in her legs twitched. She wanted to run – fast, long strides that would carry them all to safety.

She wiped her hands on her jeans. ‘But why would they come here? Why wouldn’t they hide or hit the road or, or . . . ?’ What did murderers do? ‘Christ, he went to the pub. Kane killed a man then went to the pub. He was drinking beer and trying to pick me up. Bloody hell, I pitched him across the hall!’ She rubbed a hand around the back of her neck. ‘Is that why they came here? Because of me?’

‘Jodie.’ He held his hand up like a stop sign. ‘It might not have been Kane who did it.’