He looked at her with amazement, incomprehension. He was about to make a lunge towards her when something stopped him. A sound. There were footsteps coming towards them.

Kate breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness. It was Josh. Or the cops.

‘In here. Help!’ she cried.

A moment later Kate saw a woman walk into the room carrying a gun by her side. She looked vaguely familiar. Was she a cop?

‘Here. Help me. Cover me, will you?’

But nothing happened. The woman holding the gun just kept on looking down at them as if they were some kind of strange act in a sideshow.

‘I said, help me, goddamnit.’

Gleason smiled, suddenly realising that she wasn’t a cop. But his face froze when the woman slowly raised her gun and pointed it at him.

‘What the fuck?’ he said.

‘You don’t know who I am, do you Mr Gleason?’

There was no response.

‘I said do you?’

Slowly, he shook his head.

‘I’m the mother of the little girl you killed.’

Of course, it was Sara-Jane’s mother.

‘Susan,’ Kate said quickly, remembering her name. ‘Look, you know what he’s capable of. You need to help me here.’

‘Not so fast,’ she said, moving her gun so it was trained on Kate.

She walked over to Kate and gently removed the gun from her hands. Oh my God, thought Kate, she was deranged. Losing her daughter had driven her insane.

‘Susan,’ she said, softly. ‘You know I did everything in my power to save your daughter.’

‘But not enough!’ shouted Susan, her eyes stretching wide with fury. ‘Not enough.’

She pointed the two guns at them. ‘Both of you – get up,’ she said. ‘Get the fuck up!’

Gleason released Kate’s legs from his grip and started to stand up.

‘Slowly!’ shouted Susan. ‘I’ll fuckin’ blast your brains out if you try to come anywhere near me.’

As Gleason moved off her, Kate took hold of the side of the trestle table and eased herself upwards. With each movement upwards the pain in her arm intensified. But she had no choice but to do what Susan said; in her condition there was no telling what she might do.

As she reached the top of the table she pushed herself upwards. She cried out in pain.

‘Come on,’ said Susan. ‘You don’t know what pain is. You won’t know until you lose a child.’

Kate saw her looking down at her distended stomach. Automatically, her hand reached down and covered her abdomen. Surely, she didn’t mean that. She couldn’t be that insane, could she?

‘It was here, wasn’t it?’ said Susan. ‘Show me. I want to see.’

‘To see? To see what?’

‘Where you found her,’ she said to Kate. ‘Where she died.’

‘Susan – she was dead before –‘

‘Shut the fuck up! Just show me. Move!’

She trained the guns on them as Ryan and Kate trailed out of the room. Kate watched Gleason’s back as he walked, a stain of blood spreading through the fabric of his shirt.

‘If you make a sudden movement I’ll shoot, you know I will,’ said Susan. ‘Don’t so much as fuckin’ sneeze.’

As she walked, Kate felt the curve of cheese wire move in her pocket. It was out of the question. She would never get close enough to use it.

‘It was on the beach, right?’ said Susan.

Kate nodded.

‘Okay. Lead the way.’

70

He stepped back quickly as soon as he saw them. Was he too late? He caught his breath and then, as he heard footsteps, slowly strained his head around the corner. Gleason led the way, head bowed, his shirt spotted with blood. Then Kate Cramer, her face contorted by pain. She looked like she was holding her right arm in a strange way, almost as if it could be broken. Then behind them there was Susan Gable, her eyes bright with fury. In each of her hands she was holding a gun.

‘Move, you fuckers,’ she said, pointing the guns at them. ‘Down to the beach.’

She looked deranged, insane. What kind of monster had he created?

He waited around the side of the house until they had passed out of sight. He listened to the clatter of their feet as they descended the wooden steps to the beach below. His hand moved down towards the gun in his holster. He had been in situations like this countless times before. He knew what to do. He knew who was in the right and who was in the wrong. But he just hoped that it was in his power to do the right thing. Surely, his lord wouldn’t forsake him now. He envisioned the scenario as some kind of judgement day. The holy ones would be saved. But if the all knowing, in his righteousness, chose to take them away who was he to argue? God did work in mysterious ways, after all.

But was that not akin to doing nothing? Was it not the same thing as absolving responsibility? He had brought about this ghastly situation and he had a duty to see it through.

He moved down the side of the house and came to a standstill by the enormous jacaranda tree, which hid him from sight. Slowly, quietly, he took out his gun and, through the branches, established a line of fire. He trained his gun first on Susan Gable and then on Ryan Gleason. He knew that he had to be prepared. Anything could happen.

He watched as Susan waved one of her guns and forced Gleason to kneel before her. She said something to him, something he couldn’t quite catch, then Gleason slowly stumbled to his feet. He reached out a hand, stretching it towards Susan, almost in a spirit reconciliation.

‘If you try anything I’ll kill you, you know that, don’t you?’ she said.

He nodded, smiled. Then she passed him one of her guns.

71

‘Susan, what are you doing?’ said Kate. She tried to make her voice as calm as possible, but she could hear the terror in her throat.