Beyond Fear (37 page)

She pointed a finger at him. ‘You have no idea what I’ve been through. I am not most people. And I don’t care how safe you want me to be. Last time I ran for help, my best friend was murdered. This time I’m not leaving. If people died because of you, then you need to do it better this time, Matt. Because I have no idea if this is the right decision but it’s the only one I can live with. So get the hell over it and tell me what the fuck we’re going to do now.’

Man, she had more guts than most of the cops he knew. And she was going to make him stare his own history down. She wasn’t giving him a choice. She wasn’t taking any excuses. ‘Okay. Tell me about the barn.’

Over their heads, Kane and Travis took turns shouting obscenities while Jodie told him everything she knew about the building. Seven years ago, it had been one big room so she walked him through the new layout. She had great recall, knew what was worth noting – which way doors opened, what was in cupboards, places to conceal a person.

‘Ever thought of being a cop?’ he said.

‘I’ve seen what they have to do. No, thanks.’ She paused. ‘Look, Matt. I just want to get my friends out. I know you want justice for that teenage girl. I do too. I want it for all of us. But I think we should let Kane and Travis dig up what they came for and leave. Keep them away from my friends and let the police hunt them down when we’re all out safe.’

Matt thought about the holes in the dirt under the barn, wondered what else the Anderson brothers had buried there. Tina, for sure. A large metal box. Was there more? He wanted Jodie’s friends out. That was a given. But he wasn’t going to leave it up to a police roadblock to find Travis and Kane. They’d lived in this area most of their lives, they knew how to get away without being found. No, Matt was determined to make sure they were stopped this time. ‘Absolutely.’

Three minutes later, Jodie stood and warmed up her legs for the run.

‘No heroics, Jodie. Just like we talked about, okay? Then come straight back.’

‘That goes for you, too.’ She narrowed her eyes, tried to look stern but he could see the fear in them. ‘Don’t be a hero.’

‘Absolutely,’ he said again. She was stretching her quads, standing right in front of him. He wanted to take hold of her, tell her if she never saw him again, she should know he was grateful to be doing something. He just looked at her instead, in her dirty sweater with her funky short hair and her huge dark eyes.

She stepped forward and kissed him. Not a peck on the cheek. Nothing remotely like that. Not even long and lingering, the way he’d have done it if he’d had a better time and place to kiss her for the first time. She took his face in her hands and kissed him fast and hard and desperately. Her fingers were freezing and her mouth was hot. It was a sensational combination. He caught her around the waist as she pulled away, hauled her against him and kissed her right back. He ditched the fast bit but stayed with hard and desperate, cupped her face with one hand and held her against him with the other. It was a damn fine first kiss.

When they were done, she stepped away and looked him over again. She smiled a little. ‘Don’t forget I promised you that steak.’

‘You cook. I eat. It’s a deal. Now shut up and run.’ He turned away from her so he wouldn’t change his mind and drag her back. Watched over his shoulder as she disappeared into the dark bush.

He checked his watch. She’d said six minutes.

But it was five minutes too long.

33

A minute after Jodie left, Matt heard screams from inside the barn. Female voices. Then just one female, screaming as she moved through the barn. The sound got suddenly louder, as though a muffler had been removed. She was outside, somewhere around the front. And she was wailing. It sounded like a siren, and it made Matt’s hair stand on end.

‘Wiseman!’ Kane shouted. ‘Get out here or I’ll put a bullet through her.’

Matt hobbled through the bush towards the front of the barn. Five minutes sitting on the cold earth and his knee was already stiff. He stopped adjacent to the corner of the verandah, looked through the foliage along the deck. Saw Kane and Corrine. His arm was around her throat and he had a pistol at her head.

Matt checked his watch. Jodie wouldn’t be close yet. Maybe it didn’t matter now.

‘I mean it, pig. I got no problem putting a hole in her.’ Kane was moving slowly along the verandah, with a wailing Corrine pinned to his chest. He was getting closer to Matt but looking up and down the length of the deck. Kane had no idea where Matt was. ‘Got two more bitches inside. Be fun to do one now.’

Matt limped closer to the clearing. Don’t be early, Jodie. He rubbed his knee with both hands, trying to get some heat into it, hoping Jodie didn’t lose the plot when she saw Corrine or heard her cries. That she just did what they’d planned and came straight back.

‘Get the fuck out here, Wiseman.’ Travis’s bellow was distant. He was somewhere around the other side of the barn.

And that was bad news. Matt checked his watch again. Jodie had been gone two minutes. She’d be running through the bush along the rear of the barn by now. She wouldn’t go too deep into the scrub. It was denser there and she needed the glow from the floodlights to see where she was going. If she got too close to the clearing, Travis might see her. Matt took a deep breath.

‘I’m here,’ he shouted. Loud enough for the sound to reach the other side of the barn. ‘Let the woman go.’

Through the trees, he saw Kane’s head snap around. ‘He’s out here, Trav.’ Kane pushed Corrine ahead of him along the verandah a couple of steps. ‘Move into the light.’

‘I’ll move into the light when you let her go.’

‘You got nothing to bargain with, pig.’ It was Travis’s voice and he’d moved.

Matt loped along the edge of the bush a little further to get a wider view of the verandah. Saw Travis just beyond the front door, a shotgun horizontal at his waist. It wasn’t a great situation, both brothers armed and waiting for him, but at least Travis had his back to Jodie now.

‘Get out here, Wiseman, or I shoot the blonde,’ Travis barked. ‘Then I go get another slut and shoot her if you don’t come out. I got three hostages. How many are you gonna make me kill?’

There was an edge to Travis’s voice now. He’d had enough. He meant it.

How many, Matt?
He took a deep breath, stepped into the lit clearing. ‘I’m here.’

Kane looked at him over Corrine’s shoulder.

Travis swung the shotgun around. ‘Where’s the tough bitch?’

‘Don’t know. She took off.’

‘Bullshit.’ Travis raised his voice, bellowed into the night. ‘Get out here, tough bitch.’

‘She won’t hear you. She took off. Last I saw, she was heading that way,’ Matt hooked a thumb over his shoulder. Travis and Kane scanned the dark bush behind him. With any luck, Jodie was already around the other side of the barn. ‘She’s gone,’ Matt said. ‘Forget her. She ran like a scared rabbit.’

Kane sniggered. Travis said, ‘Put your hands in the air, pig, and start walking. Up here. Nice and slow.’

Matt kept his eyes on the shotgun as he moved across the clearing. Corrine was still wailing but the sound was thin and tremulous now. As Matt approached the end of the deck, Travis came forward to stand next to his brother. His face was smeared with trails of blood from a wound on his forehead. Jodie’s handiwork.

‘Stay in sight,’ Travis said. ‘Climb over the railing.’

Matt did as he was told, kept his movements slow, looked at Corrine as he swung a leg over the handrail. The gun was at her temple, her eyes were wide and she was breathing in short gasps. He wanted her to look at him, needed her to calm down.

‘Corrine?’ he said as he dropped both feet to the timber deck. ‘Are you okay?’

She looked at him but she was too scared to focus.

‘Shut up and get your hands in the air,’ Travis said. He stepped forward and patted Matt down one-handed.

Matt looked at Corrine over Travis’s shoulder. ‘Are you okay, Corrine?’

‘I said shut up.’

‘Just making sure your hostage doesn’t freak out. Could get messy for all of us. Especially while your arsehole brother is standing behind you with a gun.’

Travis paused a beat as he patted down Matt’s leg then stood and backed off all the way to Kane’s side. The brothers looked at him for a long drawn-out moment. Kane grinning like a lunatic, holding a whimpering Corrine. Travis was pissed off, that much was obvious. He was eyeballing Matt with barely contained fury but it wasn’t some macho staring competition. He seemed stalled. Like he hadn’t planned this bit and he was deciding what to do next. That could be good or bad, Matt thought. Unplanned meant they wouldn’t be organised, which could be good. Or it might make Travis reckless, which could be very, very bad.

Travis suddenly lowered his shotgun. ‘Get them inside,’ he told Kane then turned, stomped along the verandah and went into the barn.

‘Corrine,’ Matt said quickly, before Kane had a chance to start in on him. ‘Hang in there, Corrine.’ She looked at him like he was crazy.

‘Move.’ Kane motioned Matt forward with his head, keeping the gun to Corrine’s temple and pulling her backwards. She stumbled and her hands flew up to grab Kane’s forearm, the one around her throat.

Any time now, Jodie, Matt thought. He walked slowly forward, watched the panic on Corrine’s face grow as she stumbled again, dragging against the arm that was tight around her neck.

‘Just do what you’re told, Corrine,’ Matt said.

She nodded.

‘Just like Jodie said.’

She squeezed her eyes shut and nodded again.

He hoped Jodie was right about her. That Corrine was going to be angry enough when she needed to be because right now she looked a mess. ‘Corrine.’

‘Shut up, pig,’ Kane said.

Matt pushed the heel of his hand into the upper left side of his ribs, like maybe he was in pain, and lowered his eyes to Corrine’s chest. ‘Remember what Jodie told you. Just do what you’re told.’

Two big tears ran down her cheeks.

Jodie reached the edge of the bush and dropped to a squat opposite the chimney on the lounge room end of the barn. She was out of breath, her shin where Travis had kicked her was pounding and her feet were in agony. Her leather-soled boots weren’t made for running – she had blisters on both heels – but at least they’d stopped her turning an ankle on the rough ground.

The shouting had stopped now. She’d heard it over the thrashing of the bush as she’d charged through the scrub. No distinct words, just angry noises. Now everything was quiet. She didn’t like it. She had no idea what it meant but she didn’t like it.

The bush didn’t wrap around this end of the barn the way it did outside Hannah and Corrine’s bedroom. She’d gone as far as she could under the cover of the bush but there was still a big, open stretch of cleared, grassy land between her and the front corner of the verandah.

The shortest distance was a straight run to the chimney end of the deck. There was a window on either side of the bricked-in smokestack and both sets of curtains were pulled wide. If she took that route, she’d be a sitting duck under the floodlights – unless she climbed the handrail, stayed close to the wall and ducked down below the window casement. She ran her eyes along the verandah, saw a crate of firewood, a wicker chair under the power box and a small coffee table. No, too many obstacles.

She turned her head to the corner of the deck, estimated the distance at forty or so metres. Further if she ran it like a right-angled bend to stay out of the light for as long as possible.

How long would she be exposed? Running in a crouch in her bad shoes – longer than thirty seconds. Maybe less than a minute. Plenty of time to get shot.

She fingered the rock in her hand. Matt had found it before she left. It was bigger than a tennis ball, smaller than a baseball, heavy like a cricket ball. It had kept her company on the run around the barn. Reminded her what she was doing. That she wasn’t just running. She had a job to do.

She flexed the fingers of her right hand, pulled her arm over her head and stretched the triceps. It felt tight but it would have to do. She was out of time for any serious warming up. She took a couple of deep breaths, filled her lungs with oxygen, bent to a crouch and took off across the clearing as fast as she could.

She skidded into the garden like she was making first base, let her feet slide right in under the deck, held her breath, listening to make sure no one was after her. Voices came from around the front. She lifted her eyes over the edge of the timber, saw she had ended up just shy of the front wall of the barn and couldn’t see around the corner. She inched forward, keeping low, craning her neck. When she finally saw someone, anger fired in her chest.

Matt, you bastard. She’d left him for five goddamn minutes and he’d jumped straight back into the danger zone. What the fuck did he think he was doing?

He was halfway along the deck, over near the handrail, his hands up – elbows bent, real casual. And he was walking. Towards her – but not to her. To something out of her view.

She slid a little further forward and the anger turned to fear. Matt was walking towards Kane.

The crazier Anderson brother was close to the wall, walking backwards, moving awkwardly, like maybe he’d been injured. From where she was crouched, Jodie could only see half of him but the half she could see had the pistol and was holding it up high near his shoulder.