Marked

by Denis Martin

  I tried to peep inside, but the curtains were drawn. Eased my way further along, towards the next window, pushing through Blissy’s garden as quietly as I could, cursing every leaf that rustled beneath me.

  At first I couldn’t see anything through the kitchen window. Just the back of the microwave sitting on the bench. Then I moved to the side and saw Kat. She was slumped on the kitchen floor, her legs bunched beneath her, the weight of her head and shoulders resting against the oven. Her wrists were bound with black tape and an angry red welt sketched its fury across her cheek. She was staring straight ahead, eyes unfocused. No one at home.

  It was a momentary glimpse, only a fraction of a second. I don’t remember ducking out of sight, but then I was on my knees below the window, with Kat’s impression frozen on my mind. My arms were wrapped across my chest and breathing was impossible. Tightness in my rib cage, a jabbing sharpness.

  Don’t know how long I stayed like that. I was trapped in a world that had stopped. A kind of brain seizure, what I’d just witnessed blocking out everything else. A stilled image in gigapixel sharpness. Kat, in trouble. Real trouble.

  Gradually, my world started moving again, and I found myself crawling to the back door. Still on my knees. Still struggling to breathe, but moving – driven. And no idea of what I was going to do.

  Who had slapped Kat around and then bound her? Where were they now? And where was Jed? Questions, but no answers. And no plan. Just blind movement towards the door.

  Kat. I have to get her out of here. Gotta find Jed.

  Fear didn’t come into it. Seeing Kat helpless on the floor had been a nightmare. And in some ways it hadn’t stopped. Nothing was real. Couldn’t be. I was floundering through a dream. Imagined myself tearing the bindings from Kat’s wrists, hoisting her over my shoulder, carrying her to safety. And Jed, dependable Jed. He’d be there somewhere, waiting to help. Wouldn’t he?

  The door was open and I stopped, mindlessly. “Jed?” I rose unsteadily to my feet. I could see him, but he wasn’t going to answer. He was lying on his side, his shirt front dark and sodden. It was blood. And beneath his shoulder more of its dark heaviness had pooled on the floor. Like glistening grout, I saw it thickening in the grooves between the tiles. I stood bolt upright, staring. Another nightmare. Jed’s eyes stared back, open in shock, but sightless. The top of his head was a mess of torn flesh and matted hair. A nightmare, a bad dream. The smell was real though. Fear and the sickening stench of blood.

  The arm was real too. It reached suddenly from behind the door and grabbed me by the shoulder. Then it dragged me into the kitchen. I was spun like a toy doll and thrust against the fridge. Held there at arm’s length by a man in black leathers with even blacker eyes. My mind was still playing tricks because I was back in the ring, crowded against the ropes. My arms were aching from Burger’s pounding fists. And again I’d done everything wrong. I’d been too slow, standing flat-footed, not using my eyes. I’d been looking one way – at Jed – and that leather fist had come out of nowhere.

  He wasn’t a big man. Shorter than me, and slender. But strong. Incredibly strong. I couldn’t do anything except stare at him. His face was pale and lean with firm cheekbones and sunken eye sockets. Dark stubble around his chin and lips made his skin seem even paler.

  “You are foolish, Culliford. Better to stay at home, I think.” His voice was soft and his accent vaguely European, maybe Italian. The corner of his mouth twitched as he spoke, as if it was a joke. But his eyes weren’t joking. The stench of Jed’s lifeblood, pooling at the man’s feet was terrifying proof that nothing about this man was funny. This man in leather who’d called me Culliford.

  He knows my name.

  “Well?” The lips twitched again. “The girl, we need. And the other woman – Blissy – we wish to have her too. We wait for her. But you?” He pulled me away from the fridge and then thrust me hard against it so the back of my head hit the handle and bottles clinked inside it. I caught a glimpse of Kat, still in the same position on the floor, but then he moved in front of me again, blocking my view. “You, we do not need. What a pity she is such an attractive child.” He jerked his head sideways towards Kat. “Better for you if she was fat and ugly. Perhaps then you wouldn’t have pushed your way into her business. It does not concern you, and you are a nuisance.” He shook me again, but I was ready this time and braced myself. “You are expendable. Like your silly brave friend.” He gestured towards Jed’s body with his free arm. “Your silly dead friend.” My stomach clenched into a squirming ball as I saw what he was clutching. A gun. A short-barrelled automatic, evil and deadly.

  And I knew what he planned to do with it.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Leatherman had taken me by surprise. I’d ignored every rule hammered into me by Dad’s sparring sessions and I’d walked into a king hit. Nothing I could do. The bout was over.

  But Kat didn’t think so. I couldn’t see her; I just heard her voice.

  “Jesus!” she said. “Thank God!”

  “What?” Leatherman spun around, but his grip on my arm didn’t weaken.

  She was still pressed against the oven, but her eyes were bright, excited, and she was staring at the far window.

  “What is it?” He stepped back, turning to see what she was looking at.

  And Kat’s body uncoiled. She struck like a snake. One second she was curled up on the floor and the next she was at full stretch, her feet driving into the side of Leatherman’s knee. All her strength went into that pile-driver blow, and he cannoned across the room, taking me with him. His feet tangled with Jed’s body on the floor, and we crashed against the bench.

  I was flailing for a handhold with one arm, fending him off with the other. My fingers brushed against one of the kitchen taps and I grabbed for it, but Leatherman’s weight dragged my hand away. Another frantic grab – missed again, but this time I felt something solid and heavy under my hand. My fingers closed over it – a bar of some kind – and I swung it wildly at him, trying to free myself from his grip. He ducked, catching a glancing blow above the ear.

  A savage snarl and he twisted towards me, his lips bared in fury. Desperately, I lashed out again and this time the bar struck him solidly on the side of his head. His feet slid from under him and he crashed to the floor, hitting the tiles with the sound of an apple splattering against a concrete wall. Then he lay still, sprawled awkwardly at my feet, his head at a strange angle.

  I stared down at him mindlessly. At the leather scuff marks on his knee. At the tracks of his heels on a blood-slippery floor. And at the gun that had slipped from his grasp. My whole body began shaking, my feelings numbed. Then, dimly, I could hear Kat’s voice.

  Her fingers were clutching at my sleeve, tugging at me. “For God’s sake, Cully! Get this tape off!” She thrust her wrists in my face. “Get a knife from the drawer!”

  I was struggling with a flurry of shadows inside my head and couldn’t stop the iron bar slipping through my fingers. It was a jack handle and vaguely I heard a metallic ping as it hit the tiles and rolled across the floor. Then I was sawing through the duct tape of her bindings with a serrated vegetable knife. Kat was shaking too, both of us breathing heavily. “Jeez, Cully.” Her voice was a whisper now, her eyes wide. “Is he dead?”

  I lowered my eyes. Didn’t want to look at Leatherman, but I couldn’t stop myself. He hadn’t moved, still lying where he’d fallen – no longer a threat though. My gaze shifted to Jed. The two figures were sprawled against each other, sharing the same pool of blood. “Jed …”

  “Jed’s gone,” Kat said tonelessly. She had pulled her wrists apart and was tearing the remaining strands of tape from them. “That bastard killed him. Never gave him a chance, just shot him.” She grabbed my arm. “Come on, we’ve gotta get out of here. They could be back any minute.”

  “They? Who?” My head was still whirling. Mechanically, I stooped to pick up the jack handle, but it was slimy with blood and I dropped it hurriedly into the sink.
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  “Who? Those guys in the Pajero. They’re still out there somewhere. Waiting for Blissy. They turned up here just after this monster shot Jed and then left again.” She moved to the door and peered out, tearing off the last of the tape. Then she glanced back at me. “Come on, for God’s sake! You haven’t got time for that!”

  I was trying to rinse the blood from my hands. Tap water running red in the drain. Suddenly, I couldn’t hold back. Head lowered, I threw up. Vomit puddled in the sink, bile in my throat, the bloodied stench of death in my nostrils. Still gagging, retching, nothing coming up now, but I couldn’t stop. My eyes were streaming.

  I felt Kat’s arms around me as she dragged me away from the bench. Then she bent down, lifting one of my arms over her shoulder, and next thing we were outside, leaning against Jed’s ute. The air was cool, but the smell of blood hadn’t left me.

  “Come on,” she muttered, massaging her wrists where they’d been bound. “We’ve gotta get out of here. They’ve got radios. They were talking to each other. Won’t take them long to work out something’s wrong.”

  I’d almost recovered my breath now and even my mind was beginning to sort itself out. “What about … what about Jed? We can’t leave him there.”

  “We have to.” She held a closed fist against her forehead and pressed her eyes shut. “He was fantastic. He saw the gun, but still grabbed the jack handle from the ute and went for him, screaming at me to get away. He wouldn’t want us to stick around for him – we’ve gotta leave.”

  “How?” I asked hopelessly. “They’re waiting out there. I saw them by the bridge. We can’t go that way.”

  “I don’t know how. But let’s get out of sight while we think about it. Come on.” She tugged at my sleeve and set off across the yard towards the edge of the bush.

  I followed her. Couldn’t believe how strong she’d become. And not just physically. It was her mental strength that really blew me away. The way she’d kept her wits about her the whole time. I’d been jelly in Leatherman’s grip. I’d walked into a trap with my guard down and my eyes shut. Soft as custard.

  But Kat? Leatherman had beaten her, bound her and tossed her to the floor – and she’d still come out on top. The way she’d distracted him, staring out the window, relief in her eyes. She’d fooled me too. And it wasn’t only the acting – though that had been worth an Oscar on anyone’s scoresheet – it was the planning and timing too. Even after Leatherman was down, and I’d lost it, she’d still been in control. Couldn’t believe it was the same Kat I’d seen retching helplessly on the foreshore after she’d seen that burnt-out car. And again when we’d seen Kreigler’s Toyota coming into town on the salvage truck this afternoon. But it was the same Kat, though I could see the strain was getting to her.

  “Jesus,” she said as we slid into the undergrowth bush. Her head was in her hands and she was shaking it slowly. “Oh, Jesus.” It could’ve been a prayer, but I doubted it. “I didn’t think we were gonna make it out of there.” She lifted her chin and looked at me with dazed eyes. Her grit had overcome Leatherman and got us both out of that hellhole kitchen, but I didn’t think she had much left. She was trembling, and I reached out to put my arm around her shoulders.

  “Haven’t got time for that.” She pushed me away. “It’s not over yet. We’ve gotta keep moving.” She squirmed onto her knees and peered through the foliage, back towards the cottage.

  I followed her gaze, picturing Leatherman lying on the floor where he’d fallen. Was he really dead? In my mind I saw him stirring, coming to, struggling to his feet. “What if he … what if he comes after us?”

  “Comes after us?” She turned to me sharply. “You saw him hit the floor. No way is he gonna come after us.”

  “Shit!” I closed my eyes and shuddered, reliving the horror.

  “Those guys in the Pajero, they’ll be after us. We’ve got to get away from here.”

  “Okay,” I whispered. “But where to?” God, I wished Dad was coming home.

  She was breathing deeply, like she was trying to suck in energy. “Don’t know,” she said at last. “I’m out of ideas.”

  “You’ve done okay so far. You were great in there.”

  “Thanks.” She turned to me suddenly. “Did you get hold of Blissy?” Her tank might be low, but the grey matter was still working.

  “No. Got her voicemail. Left a message telling her about Kreigler.” I lowered my face into my hand and then pulled it away quickly. It stank of blood. “They’re waiting out there for her. What’s gonna happen?”

  “She won’t come now.” She glanced at her watch. “She’s never as late as this. Maybe she got your message. Jeez, I hope so.”

  “What’ll she do?”

  “Don’t know.” She sighed, shaking her head miserably. “I think she knows how to contact Kreigler’s people. Or she might’ve gone to the cops.”

  “Would she?”

  Kat shrugged. “I don’t know. She doesn’t like them much. They weren’t any help back in Sydney. Come on, we’re dead meat if we stay here.” She rose to her feet, peering back at the cottage.

  I looked up at her. “They’re watching the bridge. But what about taking the four-wheel drive track? Getting back to my place that way? Then maybe we could ring the cops.”

  “No way!” she said, brushing the idea aside. “I’m not heading back in that direction. And anyway – they could easily be at your place by now. Waiting.”

  She had a point. “Okay. But I don’t think they can see the road outside your gate. Why don’t we take the ute and go the other way? Head over the hill to Jed’s place? He never had a landline, but his boat’s there. Maybe we can use it to get back to town. Get help.”

  “D’you know anything about boats?” She was staring at me as if I was mad.

  “Yeah, It’s only an outboard. Spent tons of time in them. Specially when we lived in New Guinea.”

  “Okay.” She stooped and helped me to my feet. “Let’s go then. I don’t have a better idea.”

  She followed me across the yard to Jed’s ute, both of us moving quietly. I opened the driver’s door. Damn!

  “The keys aren’t here. He must’ve taken them with him.” I stared at her over the cab, but she avoided my eyes. “D’you want to go and get them?”

  She shook her head. “Not in there – not now.”

  “Me neither.” My hands were still bloodied and I almost gagged at the thought of fumbling through Jed’s clothing for his keys. I had a better idea. “Let’s take the motorbike.”

  I led her around to the back of the woodshed. She’d already caught a glimpse of the bike, but doubt was written all over her face as she watched me kick the stand up and wheel it into the open. I handed the helmet to her, but she shook her head and tossed it behind the shed.

  “You know how to ride it?” she asked uneasily. “You ridden one before?”

  “Yeah. Well, not exactly the same.” I threw my leg over the seat and felt for its balance. It was much bigger and heavier than anything I’d ever ridden. Much higher too – I’m fairly tall, but I could only just reach the ground with both feet. And everything seemed arse about face. Even the gear lever was on the wrong side. Could I ride this thing? I twisted around to face Kat. “We’ll be right. Let me start her up and then you can hop on.”

  “Hold it a second.” She was fumbling in her front pocket and then produced what she was looking for.

  “Holy shit!” It was a gun. An ugly, squat little automatic. I’d seen it before – it was Leatherman’s. “What the hell are you gonna do with that?”

  Her eyes narrowed and she threw me a savage look. “I’m going to use it if those bastards give me half a chance. They didn’t give Jed one.”

  How much did Kat know about guns? I shuddered and pressed the starter. The engine rumbled into life, and I nudged it nervously into gear. The bike tilted heavily, and I shifted my weight in a panic to keep balance, but Kat didn’t seem to notice. “Okay?” I asked, and held it as steady as
I could while she swung herself up behind me. Her arms were tight around my waist, and I could feel the butt of that ugly little gun digging into my stomach as we wobbled across the yard. Then we turned into the driveway.

  Second gear, past Jed’s ute, picking up speed as we headed for the road. I could feel the tension in Kat’s body pressed against me and I was hunched low, handgrips in a white-knuckled clench. I listened, waited for the first shout of discovery. Or the first shot.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  But none came. A lifetime passed – several lifetimes – and finally we were at the gate. I thought about dropping a gear, decided not to and then we were turning unsteadily onto the road. I didn’t have time to be scared. Too busy with a shingle road, potholes and a motorbike I barely knew – a bike that had more power than anything I’d ever dreamed of. The slightest twist of the throttle and it would buck wildly, trying to throw us both off.

  And Kat on the back, arms wrapped rigidly around me. Normally, I’d have been on cloud nine at that, but not this time. I don’t think she’d ever been on a bike before. She sat upright on every corner – and every time she turned to look behind, I had to balance us by leaning the other way.

  And then my stomach lurched at the words I was dreading. “They’re coming!” Her grip tightened even more and she leaned forwards to shout in my ear. “Behind us!”

  My mirror was out of adjustment, but I caught a glimpse of them as we slithered through a rutted bend. The black Pajero, headlights blazing. I suppose they’d turned them on to make us panic. They were like the eyes of some savage animal. A long way back, but I knew they’d be gaining on us. They weren’t struggling to stay on the road.