Beyond Fear (32 page)

She shook her head. Come on, you told him you could handle it, don’t make a liar of yourself. And think. This can’t be just about you. ‘Okay, hang on. Travis made Kane go outside and look for something. They both went out. At different times.’

‘I saw Travis outside. He was in the garden at the back,’ Matt said.

‘In the garden? Kane had dirt on his hands when he came in. Before that, he said something about getting their stuff. I can’t remember exactly.’ She looked at Hannah but it was Louise who spoke.

‘It was Travis and it was just before he hit you the first time.’ Lou’s eyes were open and her voice was weak and breathy but she licked her lips and went on. ‘He said, “A meal isn’t too much to ask, is it? Then we’ll get our stuff and get out of here.’’ ’ She winced as she shifted her head a little. ‘After they tied us up, he said, “Now we check it out properly.’’ ’ Said they should start out the back, that they’d “wasted enough time making nice with the wine”. Then later, when we were in the kitchen, he told Kane they’d do what they came for, “shut the bitches up and hit the road. In that order.’’ ’ She closed her eyes and opened them again in a slow blink, gave Jodie a small smile. ‘Impressive, huh? Who says you need shorthand to quote accurately?’

Jodie returned her smile. ‘How are you doing?’

‘It only hurts when I breathe.’ Lou looked at Matt. ‘What did you say the murdered man’s name was?’

‘John.’

She pressed her temple with the tips of her fingers. ‘Kane said Kruger was a prick. Travis told him he should’ve waited till they were paid before he beat the shit out of him. Is that the man’s name, Matt? John Kruger?’

Matt turned his face away, stared into the empty corner of the wardrobe. ‘Yeah. It’s John Kruger. And he wasn’t a prick. Not even close.’

Louise’s eyes were closed when she spoke again, as though she was too tired to open them, but her voice was firm, assertive. ‘So what’s their connection to the barn, Matt?’

He stood up. Suddenly. Well, the movement was sudden but it took him a few seconds to deal with his bad knee as he got to his feet. Jodie watched as he tested his weight on it, made a couple of attempts to bend it. Was he deciding if he could walk or was he stalling?

‘Matt?’ Jodie repeated Louise’s question. ‘What’s their connection to the barn?’

She jumped as he slammed both hands against the door. She wanted to say, ‘Hey, it’s okay.’ She wanted to tell him to stop making so much damn noise.

‘They said they lived around here when they were kids,’ she said. ‘Was this their house?’

He turned around, leaned against the door. ‘This place was never anything but a barn. It was probably already derelict by the time they were born. The pair of them squatted here before Travis went into the army.’ His eyes moved around the room, as though he couldn’t believe it was the same place. Jodie watched as his lids closed, as he took a breath and let it out. When he looked down at her, she wondered if she really wanted to hear what he was about to tell them.

‘A teenage girl went missing seven years ago,’ he said. ‘We thought they were involved. We searched this place. Just about tore it apart. Would’ve got a bulldozer in if the damn heritage people had let us. We searched the whole area.’ He lifted his eyes to the wall opposite, stared at the blank space in front of him as he spoke. ‘Kane killed her. I have no doubt about that. Travis either helped or helped him cover it up. We never found anything we could pick either of them up on. About a month after she went missing, Travis decided he was a patriot and joined the army. Not long after, Kane used a knife on a guy in a pub brawl and ended up in jail. Kane finished his sentence, Travis was dishonourably discharged. Now John Kruger’s dead and they’re here, smashing the place up and it makes no sense.’

28

The four of them stared at Matt for a long, silent moment. Jodie didn’t know what the others were thinking but she couldn’t get the image of that teenage girl out of her mind – trapped in this isolated barn with Kane and Travis.

The brothers had scared the hell out of her before but now, knowing they’d killed, probably twice, made her pulse hammer against her eardrums.

‘Why was Travis dishonourably discharged?’ Lou said into the silence.

Jodie looked at her, surprised it was that fact that had bothered her.

‘I’ve spent some time with military people. You don’t get kicked out easily. Did he hurt someone else?’ Louise asked.

‘His crimes were more sophisticated in the army. He got in on a big weapons racket,’ Matt said.

She lifted her head a little, winced as she did it. ‘The one out of the training bases?’

He frowned. ‘Yeah.’

‘I did a freelance job on that story. My old paper was investigating missing weapons and called me in because of my military contacts from Afghanistan. It was a massive cover-up, we couldn’t get anyone to talk on record.’ She stopped, licked her lips. ‘It was rifles, wasn’t it?’

‘Yeah. About a hundred and fifty of them.’

She nodded. ‘About ten grand a pop on the black market. The guys just drove them off the bases in their cars, one or two at a time, handed them over to the officer running the scam for a wad of cash. The brass was scared shitless some terrorist group had them. I thought they all got sentenced.’

‘There wasn’t enough evidence against Travis.’

Lou closed her eyes, shifted awkwardly. ‘He seems to be good at that.’

Oh, Jesus, Jodie thought. She looked at her friends, at Matt. They’d all seen Travis and Kane, knew who they were. ‘We’re
evidence
.’

No one said anything. They didn’t have to. She wanted to yell and scream for help, pound her fists against the door. Then she heard a noise that made her thoughts stop dead.

Thunk.

Since the crashing sounds had ceased, there had been irregular distant thuds. But this one was close. Probably from the lounge room. Not as loud as before but loud enough to let them know Kane and Travis were close by.

Jodie’s head snapped up. Someone gasped. Lou groaned quietly.

You already knew they could kill, Jodie told herself. Nothing she’d heard had changed that. The clock was still running. She didn’t know how long they had left to play but the game wasn’t over yet.

‘Okay, listen,’ she said. ‘There are five of us and only two of them. And they only have one gun. They can’t hold it on all five of us all the time. So if you get a chance to run, do it. Take the first exit out of the house and run like hell to the bush. Stay down, don’t go out in the open and don’t come back inside. Not for anything. Okay?’ She waited until all three of the girls nodded. ‘If you think you can make it to the front of the barn and down the hill without using the track, go to the house at the bottom and phone the police. And don’t come back until they get here. Okay?’ As they nodded again, there was another thud from the lounge room. She got to her feet, leaned against the door to keep the light on, clutched Corrine’s boot in one hand, the metal rod in the other. There was still nothing to do but she couldn’t sit any longer.

She looked around the small room. Corrine was in the back corner, furthest from the doors, knees pulled to her chest. Hannah was propped in the other corner, Louise curled up on the floor between them. Matt was on his feet too, leaning on the door. If she couldn’t see his eyes, she’d think he was lounging. His arms were folded across his chest, the other metal bar hanging loosely from his fingers but his eyes were alert, watching the way she stood there, the clothing rail in her hand, the boot, her face.

‘Jodie,’ he said. His voice was low. He dipped his head for a private kind of chat. She stepped over and leaned close, felt the warmth of his cheek where it almost touched her face. ‘Don’t try anything in here.’

She looked up at him. The brown flecks in his green eyes glowed under the light from the bare bulb. ‘I’m going to take whatever chance I can get,’ she said.

Outside the room, something banged against a wall. Jodie flinched. The sound was closer than before. Not in the bedroom. Maybe the hallway.

He grabbed her arm. ‘But not in here. There’s not enough room to swing a cat here, let alone that rod in your hand. And if a gun goes off, there’s going to be a lot more blood on the floor.’

She glanced quickly around again. He was right. There was barely enough room to walk between the bodies huddled on the floor.

Footsteps in the hall.

‘Jodie,’ Matt said. ‘If you do anything, do it somewhere else. And make sure they don’t get up.’

She nodded, her heart in her throat. Then someone was at the doors. Whatever was holding them closed was being moved about. Matt jerked away and the light went out. Corrine let out a terrified sob.

Matt pulled Jodie against him. It wasn’t a tender, protective move. It was fierce and urgent and insistent. His hand was tight around her upper arm, his torso hard against hers and in the pitch darkness, she could sense the way he loomed forcefully over her. ‘Take your own advice, Jodie. Run if you can. Get the hell out of here. Don’t wait for anyone.’

Then the doors opened and light flooded the room.

‘Get back from the door.’ It was Travis. He had the gun in his hand, raised and ready to fire.

Jodie took two small steps back. That was all there was room for. She felt Hannah try to shuffle out of the way behind her. Matt stepped in beside her, his arm out like a tollgate in front of her, the elbow locked straight.

‘Planning a sword fight, huh? Guess what? Gun beats pissy piece of pole, you fucks. Drop them,’ Travis said, waving the gun at their clothing rails. Jodie tossed hers to the floor and it clattered against the timber boards with Matt’s. Travis looked around. ‘You got anything else in here you want to try against a
gun
?’ His eyes stopped on Jodie. ‘You, tough bitch?’

She felt the heel of Corrine’s boot in her hand behind her back, shook her head, let it fall to the floor.

‘How ’bout you, Wiseman, you want to be a hero?’

The muscles in his arm flexed before he answered. ‘No.’

Travis moved the gun about in his hand, scanned the room. He was sweating, she could smell it, see it damp on the short strands of hair around his face and the wet stains under his armpits. His sleeves were rolled to the elbows and his forearms were specked with dark grains of dirt. His eyes stopped on Corrine. ‘You. Blondie. Get up.’ Corrine whimpered and shrank further into the corner. ‘Get up!’ She slid slowly up the wall, her mascara-smudged eyes brimming with tears again. ‘Throw them into the other room,’ he ordered, indicating the metal rods. Corrine did as he said, limping on her sprained ankle, then backing up into her corner again. ‘Not so fast,’ he told her. ‘You’re coming with me.’

Corrine clasped her hands across her chest. ‘No. Please, no.’

‘And you, too,’ Travis said, pointing the muzzle of the gun at Matt. Travis swung his head back at Corrine, who was frozen in the corner. ‘Now. Move.’

One loud beat of Jodie’s heart drove movement to her legs. She stepped forward, into the path of the gun. ‘No.’

‘Get out of the way.’

‘No.’

‘Move, Blondie.’

‘No,’ Jodie said again. She could hear Corrine sobbing behind her. A hand was on the back of her calf, she guessed Hannah had reached out across the space between them. Jodie wasn’t sure if she was holding her back or pushing her on. ‘She can’t. She’s hurt her ankle. She can’t walk far.’

Travis’s dark eyes shifted slowly to Jodie. The gun followed them. ‘You then.’

She took a deep breath. ‘No. We stay together.’

His mouth turned up in a nasty grin. ‘Nu-uh. Two of you come with me. Him,’ he cocked his head at Matt, ‘and one of you.’

Fear gripped her chest. She looked at the pistol, licked her lips. No one stays behind, Jodie. ‘We stay together. All of us or none of us.’

The grin disappeared. ‘Him and one of you. You choose or we see who’s left standing after I let off a couple of rounds.’ He inched the gun to Jodie’s left, angled it down, pulled back the cock. Hannah’s hand fell away from the back of her leg.

‘No, wait!’ Oh Jesus, no. Blood pounded in her veins. They had to stay together.

‘Who is it?’ Travis said.

‘Wait.
Wait.
’ Panic rose in her throat.

‘Just take me.’ Matt stepped up to Travis, got in his face, pushed the gun away from Hannah with his body. ‘Leave the women here. You’ve got no business with them. This is between us now.’

No, Matt, don’t.
They needed to stay together. All of them.

‘Fuck off, Wiseman.’ Travis stepped sideways, aimed the gun at Corrine and roared. ‘Choose now or I will!’

There was no choice in the end. Corrine was a mess, Louise was injured and Hannah needed to stay with her. ‘Me.’ Jodie pushed the word out as forcefully as she could. ‘I’ll go. Leave them alone. Take
me
.’

Matt kept himself between Jodie and the gun as Travis hustled them through the hallway. A cold wind blew down the narrow corridor from the lounge room. Through the door, he could see furniture had been shunted around. Two sofas were butted against each other at odd angles in front of the fireplace. What the hell had they been doing out there? And where was Kane? If he was waiting to jump them on the other side of the door, Matt wanted to be the first through. But he was limping and Jodie had marched ahead, back straight, arms stiff, like she was making a statement – you want me out here, then get on with it. Guts of steel.