All the time her heart hammered. She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. Eduardo didn’t take his eyes from her face. In the dark of the shadows Eduardo’s eyes were dark chocolate drops floating in saucers of milk—he clung to her.

Alex shouted again.

‘Believe me, I am so sorry for what happened to you. I would not have hurt you for the world. I am truly sorry, Becky. Can you hear me? I will make it up to you. We can have children, how many would you like? Five? Six? Please, Becky. I will do anything to make it better.’ His voice was beginning to break. At the same time as he was shouting Becky could hear him remonstrating with his companions. ‘Becky, do you have a gun? For Christ’s sake give me something to fight with. They are going to kill me. Open this fucking door. He’s just one homeless boy. He knows no better. He’s a beggar, an orphan. He doesn’t matter, Becky.

We

matter. You matter to me…please, Becky, I am begging you…’

Becky moved the rifle onto her lap. From outside there was the sound of fighting, crashing, then Alex screamed. Afterwards there was silence before a man spoke.

‘We have your husband, ma’am. You can save him if you wish. Give us the boy. We will look after him. No harm will come to him, you have our word.’

Eduardo clung to her harder. She drew him closer.

‘It’s my only chance, Becky. It’s all gone wrong for me. I regret everything. Please forgive me. I never stopped loving you. It was everything else. Please don’t let them kill me.’

Silence followed. She buried her face in her hands. Eduardo held on to her arm. She closed her eyes tight. There was the sound of a scuffle and someone being dragged, and Alex’s shouting growing quieter.

‘No. You can’t kill me—please…Becky!’

Alex’s voice was screeching. He was not near the door any more. Becky’s heart pounded in her chest. She held on to Eduardo tightly and clamped her eyes shut. There came an awful silence. Then three precise, perfectly spaced gun shots:

pop pop pop.

She drew in a breath and held it as she listened intently. The men were near the house again, but Alex’s voice was not one of them. They were moving around the outside of the refuge. Fredrico gave the order:

‘Torch the place.’

74

Amy lifted the wet necklace from the sink. She pulled either end of it as hard as she could. She put one foot on one end and stretched it. She wanted it to be perfect. Amy had woven many beads into it, the biggest, Suzanne’s favourite colour—red—was right in the centre.

Suzanne was snoring heavily now. She had drunk the entire bottle of gin. Amy went back into the bathroom to retrieve her necklace. She dried it off a little and then knelt beside Suzanne. Suzanne’s hair was still caught up at the top of her head where Amy had arranged it, out of the way. Amy fed the necklace carefully around Suzanne’s neck and she positioned the big red bead right at the front. She pulled the ends to the front and tied them over the knot, as tightly and as carefully as she could. Amy went to the radiator, reached down the side and turned it up full, the way that Lenny had shown her she must do if she was cold. But Amy wasn’t cold.

She washed her face, took off all the makeup and changed into her school uniform. She collected up her belongings and put them into her bag, neatly and quietly, and then she slipped the brace into her mouth and gave a few sucks of it to position it right. She smiled to herself—she liked its cold raw plastic taste—it was a welcome familiar sensation. It made her feel like she was halfway home. She took the keys and the phone from Suzanne’s handbag and tiptoed out, gently closing the door behind her.

75

Mann and Father Finn saw the smoke from half a mile away. Neither of them looked at each other. Both understood what it was that they were racing towards.

‘Our father, which art in heaven…’ Father Finn prayed.

‘What provisions have you for putting out fires?’

‘We have just the hoses outside.’

‘Can we expect help from anywhere else?’

‘No. The local council have been trying to get rid of us for years. We are on our own, Johnny. I pray that everyone is out.’ The air around was already carrying a hint of smoke in it.

They were getting nearer now. People were out of their houses on the side of the road. They were shouting at the Father, waving their arms for him to slow and hear what they had to say. He leaned out of the window to listen as they hurtled past, inevitably slower on the dusty road than they had been on the highway.

‘The black riders came,’ they shouted. ‘Motorbikes and cars.’

Mercy met them as she ran towards the car as it spun into the driveway. She was screaming.

‘Quick, Father. Becky and Eduardo are inside. We cannot get them out.’

She lumbered after them. Ramon was working the water hose. The older children were handing buckets of water to the adults. Mann looked up and saw Becky at the bedroom window. She was holding Eduardo. The wooden balcony was already alight. She was trying to open the balcony door. She was yanking it. Mann could see that she was panicking so much that she wasn’t functioning. He knew what he had to do. He had no choice.

‘I am going in the main entrance,’ said Mann.

‘No, Johnny. You are too weak. You’ll never make it.’

‘Ramon, point everything you have at the entrance. We will come out on the balcony. Father, get ready for us to jump onto something.’

‘I will clear as much as I can here, Johnny. I have the sacks of rice in the Jeepney still, the ones we picked up in Manila. You can jump onto those.’

‘Ready, Ramon?’ Ramon’s head nodded but his face was set in fear. Mann looked up at the window. He could no longer see Becky. ‘Hose me down, Ramon.’ Ramon drenched Mann with the water. Mercy handed him a wet towel and he put it over himself.

‘Okay Let’s go.’

Ramon came behind Mann and blasted the front door as close to it as he could. Mann kicked it open. Clutching his side, he reeled back from the explosion of heat that hit him. Ramon hosed all around and the others threw buckets inside.

Mann kept the towel over his head and raced inside and up the stairs. The hot air heated his lungs like breathing in a furnace. Ramon followed him in and was keeping the flames in control as far as the upper landing. Mann beat the flames around the bedroom door with his wet towel and kicked it open.

Becky and Eduardo had passed out on the floor. Mann hit the floor himself, crawled towards them and dragged them back towards the balcony. He would have to be ready to get them out the second he opened the balcony doors. It would create a through-tunnel of air and the place would be a furnace in seconds. He was choking now. The acrid cinders were catching in his throat and making him retch. He cursed his useless side that stopped him pulling them both at once. He got them to the window and looked down. He saw Father Finn below, the children dragging the sacks towards the house. Father Finn saw him, his face said that they were ready, and Mann reached up, turned the handle of the latch, pulled it all the way down, gave it a good yank, and opened the window a fraction. He shook Becky. She did not stir. There was no way he could carry them both together and jump far enough beyond the balcony. He was going to have to do them one at a time. Mann picked up Eduardo, ready in his arms. He looked back at the door. It would be burning through soon. If he opened the balcony door it would be in seconds rather than minutes. He looked back at Becky; he had no choice, he had to do it. He steeled himself, then he opened the balcony door and threw Eduardo out over the burning balcony and onto the waiting sacks below.