“Let him look at her,” Jacko said.
Olivia felt an arm wrap around her and pull her away from Heather. Heather tried to reach for her but the man in the leather apron pushed her down.
“What do you think, Danny?” Jacko said.
The one called Danny was staring at her. He was skinny and red and repulsive. His tongue was lolling, and spittle was dropping from his lips. He seemed very drunk. He reached out and touched her hair. Olivia flinched.
Some of the men started to laugh and someone shouted, “Go on, Danny, son!”
“How old are you?” Danny asked. His breath reeked of that same grog the other man had given her.
“Fourteen,” she said.
The old woman with the cane was coming over now, the one they called Ma. She tilted Olivia’s head back and looked at her. Her hands were cold and clammy.
“Well, Danny?” she asked.
“No one will ever replace Ellen, but it’s better than nothing,” he said.
“Life’s a balance. Nature treated you harshly today. This restores the balance. You can take her,” Ma said.
There were a few laughs from the assembled men.
Olivia saw that Heather was on her feet now. The man with the pliers moved in front of her. She went around him and took a step toward Ma. “You’ve done nothing wrong so far,” Heather said.
“What do you mean?” Matt asked.
“You haven’t done anything wrong. Not a thing. Everything bad that’s happened has been either Tom’s fault or his fault,” she said, gesturing toward Danny. “If you put us back on the mainland—”
“You’ll go to the police. Of course you will!” Ma said angrily.
“So we go to the police. But none of this comes back to any of you except him. You haven’t done anything,” Heather said.
“We kidnapped you,” Matt said. “We held you against your will.”
“No, you kept us in protective custody while you tried to reach the police on the mainland. If you let him take her now, then it’s all over,” Heather insisted. “You’re going to have to kill all of us. And the Dutch couple. Are you sure you’re going to get away with that? That’s a hell of a big decision.”
“I made my call,” Ma said.
“You said you were going to sleep on it. We’re not going anywhere. We’re locked in that hut. You can decide in the morning,” Heather said.
Matt looked at Ma. “There is something in what she says.”
Ma leaned on her stick and shook her head. “Where does it stop? Terry’s word was the law and that was the end of it in his day,” Ma said.
“Excuse me, but you won’t be going back on any decision. You’ll just be thinking about it overnight. What difference will that make? We’re not leaving,” Heather said.
“What difference will it make to you?” Matt asked her.
Heather looked at Danny and then at Matt. “It’s my job to protect these kids,” she said quietly.
“And what about the other two?” Ma wondered. “I suppose we’ll have to keep them as well. What are we going to do with them, Matt?”
“We can decide that in the morning too,” Matt said.
Ma took a handkerchief from a pocket in her skirt. She blew her nose into it and examined its contents. She looked at Matt and finished her cigarette. “I said I would sleep on it, didn’t I?” Ma said.
Matt nodded. “I think that’s a very good idea.”
“No! You said I could have her!” Danny wailed.
“And maybe I’ll say it again, but you shut your mouth for now, Daniel.”
“I just want me rights!” Danny said.
“And you’ll get your rights. But you’ll have to wait. All right, Jacko. Put them back in the shearing shed and lock them in. And put the Krauts in there too. We’ll fix all this in the morning. If Danny gives you any trouble, have someone throw him down the bloody well.”
12
Heather had won this battle. There would be many more. But she had bought herself some time.
Danny started howling and protesting behind them as Jacko led them back to prison. With her hands still tied, Heather put her arms around Olivia, but Olivia ducked under them. Heather knew the girl was still trying to take everything in.
Tom would have to talk to her about—
Wait. What was happening? Tom. How could Tom be…
She swallowed.
Tom, oh no. Oh God. Not Tom. It hadn’t been love at first sight, but it was pretty damn close. He was so funny and charming and smart. All the books he’d read. All the stuff he knew. And that old-world East Coast courtesy. It sure didn’t hurt that he was so easy on the eyes. So 1950s handsome. So 1950s calm and with his shit together. He couldn’t fix a gearbox like the Goose Island men, but he could make you a cup of hot chocolate and read you poetry on a rainy afternoon or put the kids to bed early on a Saturday night and lock the bedroom door and bang your brains out.
And now he was dead. And she was in a nightmare. In the middle of nowhere surrounded by crazy people. She was so thirsty. Her head was light.
How easy it would be to fall, to let that warm red dirt consume her too…
She was reeling. But she couldn’t reel. She had to keep her shit together, for herself and now for Owen and Olivia.
They reached the shearing shed. Jacko unlocked the door and shoved them both inside.
“We haven’t had food or water for hours,” Heather said.
Jacko leaned into her face. “I thought you would have learned your lesson, you mouthy bitch. Now you shut it or I’ll shut it for you.”
“We need water,” Heather said.
Jacko separated Heather from Olivia and sat her down. He put the noose around her neck and tied it tight to the roof beam. He tied a second rope around her neck to the back wall so she couldn’t move. Then he began the same process with Olivia.
“Not tight,” Heather said. “Matt agreed to that.”
“Matt’s soft,” Jacko said, and, looking deliberately at her, he slowly tightened the noose around Olivia’s neck so that she began to choke. Olivia tried to get a finger between the rope and her throat but it was already taut.
“Please!” Heather said. “Don’t!”
“Ma said make sure you’re all secure,” Jacko said.
“She didn’t say kill us!” Heather protested.
“She’s not dead. She’s as snug as a bug in a rug. Aren’t you, darling?”
“It hurts,” Olivia said, gasping.
“Please,” Heather said.
“I like it when you say please like that. Say it again,” Jacko said.
“Please, she’s just a little girl.”
Jacko shook his head. “Nah, she’s a woman now. Will be when Danny’s done with her, anyway,” he muttered.
“I’m a woman,” Heather said. “Please, leave her.”
Jacko nodded. “You are a woman, aren’t you?” he said, loosening the noose around Olivia’s neck. Olivia gasped for air in big gulps. Jacko padded across the shearing shed. He brushed the remaining strands of hair back on his head and grinned a yellow jackal smile.
He crouched down in front of Heather and looked at her. “A young one too—how old are you? Younger than him by a country mile.”
“I’m twenty-four,” Heather said.
“Twenty-four, eh? Well, twenty-four, it’s either you or her. What’s it gonna be?”