The view from here was of feet and sideways farm buildings.
Heather was a tiny little thing, and Danny was, by comparison, a big man. It wasn’t a fair fight, but Ivan and Matt were stepping in.
“You bloody arsehole!” Ivan was saying.
Danny was yelling something back.
The voices were fading. Everything was fading.
The fields.
The falling stars.
The sickle moon dissolving into vapor above the Earth.
His eyes were heavy.
Four thoughts went through his failing consciousness. Four thoughts that were four words: Judith.
Heather.
Olivia.
Owen.
He tried to surf the now but it was so hard; the now kept slipping between his fingers.
He felt a spasm of worry, anxiety, fear.
Regrets.
Mistakes.
The day was cooling.
The earth was warm.
When he closed his eyes, the world disappeared completely.
He couldn’t feel his fingertips.
He couldn’t feel his legs.
And then there was no “he” to feel anything at all.
10
Heather had the hemp rope around Danny’s neck and she just kept tightening it until Danny collapsed to his knees, dropping the knife.
“Stop this, Ivan!” Ma said.
Ivan grabbed Heather by the hair and tossed her into the dirt like she was nothing.
“I’ll have her,” Danny snarled, recovering himself.
“You’ve done enough mischief tonight, mate,” Jacko said, putting a boot on Danny’s back and flattening him. Matt took the rifle off his shoulder and pointed it at Danny. “That’s enough, Dan!” he yelled.
Danny laughed bitterly. “Oh, it’s come to this, has it? Who are you, anyway? You don’t give orders to anybody here. Least of all me.”
“I’m as much an O’Neill as anyone. And I am not going to have you tell me any different,” Matt said.
Heather wasn’t interested in any of this now. She crawled toward Tom.
He was lying on his side in a pool of blood.
“We have to call an ambulance!” she wailed hysterically.
“We’ve no phones here,” Kate said.
“You have to help him!” Heather yelled.
“That’s enough,” Ma said.
“No! We can still save him,” Heather said. “Please! We can help him!”
Heather grabbed Danny’s fallen knife in her tied hands and struggled to her feet. There were half a dozen guns pointed at her now.
“You have to help,” Heather pleaded, brandishing the knife.
“You should drop it, sweetheart,” Kate said.
Ivan smacked Heather on the side of the head and snatched the knife out of her hands as she fell.
And then Kate fired a barrel of her shotgun into the air and everyone froze.
“Thank you, my dear,” Ma said. “This is a bloody shambles, this is! Takes me to sort it as usual, eh? Never a moment’s peace. First things first—get the bodies up to the house. Take ’em to the old meat locker.”
“Krauts are up in the house. What about them?” Ivan said.
“Jesus wept! Don’t let them see anything. And don’t let them go. Keep them here until we figure out what we’re going to bloody do,” Ma said.
“We know what we’re going to do,” Jacko said. “We’re not letting the cops have Danny.”
With difficulty, Ma got out of her rocking chair. “Does anybody listen to me around here anymore?”
“Yes, Ma,” half a dozen men said.
“Get these bodies up to the house!”
Two men picked up Tom, one taking his ankles and the other his shoulders, and carried him away. Heather was sobbing now. Tom was dead. Tom, who was so calm and centered. Tom, who knew everything. What the hell was she going to do?
Another two men took Ellen up to the house. Killer and victim united. What were their ghosts talking about?
Tom, oh my God, Tom.
Heather squeezed her eyes tight.
Tried to erase the last few hours.
That lifeless face. That lifeless crow’s-wing fringe.
This can’t be happening.
I’m in Melbourne. Tom’s gonna wake me up and we’re going to go see penguins and koalas.
She attempted to open her eyes but had to wipe blood from her eyelids first.
Mosquitoes.
Upside-down moon.
Crowd of people with guns.
Black blood in the dead-Tom dirt under the dead-Tom stars.
A little kid pointing a toy gun at her.
Real men with real guns.
She sat up.
People talking in low voices.
Heather knew she wasn’t going to get many more chances to make them see reason.
“You have to let us go now. This has gone too far,” she said.
“Shut this bitch up, Matthew. If she talks again without my permission, break her jaw,” Ma said.
“You hear that?” Matt said to Heather.
She nodded.
“So what are we going to do?” Ivan asked.
“Get rid of them, sharpish!” someone said.
“Hold on,” Danny said, wiping the dust off his clothes. “You have to ask me what to do. They belong to me. All of them.”
“You stupid bastard,” Kate said. “You cost us five hundred grand. You always were a dumb arsehole. Thick as shit, you. Thick as shit.”
“Cut him some slack, Katie. Ellen’s dead,” Matt said.
“She is. She was all I had. You know that. No amount of money…” Danny’s voice trailed away.
People came over to pat Danny on the back and touch him and hug him. Some took the opportunity to spit at, pinch, or poke Heather.
She could feel herself sinking. She was so thirsty. Everything ached. She was sitting cross-legged on the ground. A blood trail was making its way toward her through the dust. She tried to breathe. Breathing hurt. Her ribs hurt. The air was thick. Her grandmother said the dead could see us through mirrors. Maybe Tom could see her somehow. What would he advise her to do?
“If I have to be out here, can someone do something about the bloody mozzies?” Ma said.
Someone lit a fire in a brazier. Cans of beer started getting passed around.
“The question remains: What do we do with the three of them?” Matt said.
“Top ’em. No choice,” Jacko said.
“No,” Matt said. “That will stir things up.”
“Who’s going to miss them? They’re not even Aussies, none of them,” Ivan said.
“Let’s find out who’s going to miss ’em, Kate,” Ma said.
Kate grabbed Heather by the hair and pulled her to her feet.
“Where are you from?” she asked Heather.
“What?”
Kate slapped Heather across the face. “Where are you from, bitch?”
“Seattle, Washington.”
“And what exactly were you doing down here?” Kate asked.
“Tom’s here for a conference and we came along for some sightseeing. We went to Sydney and Uluru and Melbourne, and the kids wanted to see some koalas in the countryside…”
Kate dropped her and she fell back into the dirt.
“Yank tourists, Ma, that’s about the size of it,” Kate said.
“Tourists. So who will miss them, do you think?” Ma wondered out loud.
“Somebody will,” Matt said.
“Yes! Tom’s the keynote speaker,” Heather said. “At the, um, at the International Conference of Orthopedic Medicine. You can’t just disappear us. The car-rental company knows too. We had to sign forms. The best thing to do is let us go and—”
“That’s enough!” Ma said.