by David Moody
“Hiding from what?”
“From whoever killed your friend.”
Nils walks farther away. He’s found yet more prints.
“What is it?” Rajesh asks.
“There was definitely someone else here. Look. These tracks are different. Bigger and heavier. You realize what this means?”
Paul looks blank.
Rajesh gets it straightaway. “Whoever killed the people on the boat and Joy and this girl is here on the island.”
Natalie’s still working on the girl. Her face looks beaten like Joy’s, though nowhere near as badly damaged. She’s wearing a short, buttoned-up pink crop jacket that’s covered with bloodstains. Innocent and helpless.
“We should move them,” Rajesh says.
“Agreed,” says Nils.
“Shouldn’t we leave them where they are?” Paul argues. “This is a crime scene. We need to—”
“All of you shut up and help me,” Natalie shouts, silencing their conversation. “This kid’s still alive.”
9
The light’s already fading by the time they’ve moved Joy’s body. Through necessity, during the day the stores building has become a makeshift morgue: Vanessa, the washed-up ferry corpses, and now Joy have been draped with sheets and laid out in line along the center of the drafty, hangarlike building.
Lockdown and roll call.
The loss of the light has emphasized the gravity of the situation. People have died here—been killed here—and nothing makes sense. The day’s almost over, and they’re no closer to finding any answers or getting off the island. In the steadily increasing darkness, home feels further away than ever. It feels surreal, like a bad dream. Collective hysteria.
Stuart sits at a table at the end of the mess hall. He’s holding a bunch of papers, and the way they’re shaking makes it clear just how nervous he is tonight. He’s not alone. They’re all feeling it. Matt sits opposite, chewing his fingers. He takes another puff of Ventolin to try to stop his chest’s rattling. He’s so scared he can barely think straight.
Ronan’s pacing.
“Will you just quit and sit down,” Gavin shouts.
All that does is make Ronan pace faster. “I’m thinking,” he snaps. “I can’t sit still when I’m thinking.”
“Then go think somewhere else. Jeez.”
Rajesh and Nils have been outside, and their sudden return to the building makes everyone stop what they’re doing and turn and look, terrified that they’re under attack from whoever killed Joy and those poor kids. Nils dumps armfuls of supplies just inside the mess hall, then swings two bows and several quivers full of fiberglass arrows from the archery range off his shoulder.
“All done, Stu,” Rajesh says. Stuart nods approval. “We grabbed a few things and did a quick circuit of the buildings. There’s no one around. No indication anyone’s been around here either.”
“Good.”
“And your bungalow’s clear too. No sign of any trouble.”
“Great. Thanks.”
“Is that it?” Ronan asks, turning and glaring at Stuart. “That’s the full extent of your security checks?”
“It might have escaped your notice, Ronan, but security has never been a major concern here. We had a light-fingered kid on-site a few weeks back who helped himself to another kid’s phone and a few quid out of his teacher’s wallet, but on the whole, crime rates have tended to be pretty low on Skek.”
“There’s no need to be sarcastic.”
“And there’s no need to ask bloody stupid questions.”
Ruth appears from the female-staff dorm. In the low light she looks tired, old beyond her years.
“How’s the girl?” Matt asks.
“No change. Rachel’s sitting with her.”
“What’s the prognosis?”
“She’s catatonic, and that’s probably for the best. I’ve given her something to keep her under and give her body chance to recover. Poor little thing must have been through hell today. I can’t even begin to imagine it … escaping what happened on the boat, then getting caught like that on the beach. She had a purse in her pocket with a library card and some cash. Her name’s Louise. Only just turned fourteen.”
Natalie and Paul have been preparing food. It’s not much of a meal, but it’s warm and a welcome distraction. “Sorry about the grub,” Natalie says as she hands out plates of beans and spaghetti hoops on toast.
“I’m not hungry, thanks,” Gavin says. “Not after today.”
“You need to eat,” Frank tells him. “Keep your strength up.”
Rajesh has taken off his jacket and is sitting down. Nils, however, is still on his feet. If anything, he looks like he’s getting ready to go out again. “Nils, man, come over here and rest,” Stuart says to him.
“Can’t rest. I need to go down to the beach in case the coast guard turn up.”
“They know where we are.”
“I’d rather go and make sure.”
Stuart shakes his head. “I know you too well, man. That’s not the real reason you want out, is it?”
Nils thinks for a second, almost like he doesn’t want to admit it, like the kid caught stealing whom Stuart just mentioned. “I need to find whoever did this before they come looking for us.”
“Not tonight, mate,” Rajesh says, his mouth full of beans. “We talked about this. We stay here until first light, then we go hunting. It’ll be better if we both go.”
“I can’t just sit here with that maniac running wild out there.”
“Yes, you can. Neither of you are going anywhere,” Ruth tells them. “Nils, you know this island as well as I do. There’s no possibility of anyone getting away, and I’m not having you going out there again tonight. I know you can look after yourself, but you’ve got to bear in mind that we’re dealing with a sick little monster here. Someone who’s capable of doing that to all those kids won’t think twice about having a pop at you. Like Raj says, wait till morning when it’s light. There are plenty of us ready to help.”
“I don’t need help.”
“And I don’t need you dead.”
Nils smirks. He’s taller than Ruth. She’s relatively large and far from athletic, he’s toned and lithe. He’s lived off the land for most of his life, she’s mostly worked in offices. “You think I’m at risk from this kid?”
“How d’you know it’s a kid?”
“From the wounds. From the bodies.”
“That’s not conclusive.”
“There were supposed to be seven adults on the ferry. I counted six dead on the boat and one in the water. The killer is definitely a kid.”
“Okay, but we’re still dealing with a seriously deranged, badly screwed-up kid. Look, I’m pulling rank on you here, love. Not tonight.”
“We don’t have rank.”
“I’m Rod’s deputy, then Stu. So as your boss and as a friend I’m asking you—telling you—that you’re not going back out there until morning. Got it?”
It takes Nils a few seconds to consider all the options. He and Ruth have known each other for several years and they have a deep, mutual respect. His instinct says fight, but his brain says stay. “Got it,” he reluctantly answers.
Both Ruth and Nils visibly relax. The respite in the tension is short-lived.
“We should let him go and do it,” Gavin says. “There’s a killer on the loose out there. I can’t believe you’re just going to sit here and do nothing about it.”
“No one’s saying we’re not going to take action,” Ruth tells him, “just not yet. Not tonight. There’s no sense us taking any more risks than we have to. As I said, we’ll wait till morning.”
“And how many of us will be left alive by then?” A definite hint of panic is in Gavin’s voice.
Matt picks up on it. It makes him feel uneasy. “We’re safe as long as we stay together and stay indoors.”
“You think? You can be so naïve at times, Matt.”
“It’s logical. Since Joy died
we’ve all been in this building and—”
“Think about what you’re saying … since Joy died. We don’t know for sure who did that to her.”
“No, but—”
“We don’t know exactly where everybody’s been. We don’t know anything about these people.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Rajesh asks. “What are you implying?”
“We’re just a bunch of strangers, stuck here together. None of us know what the others are capable of or what they’ve already done.”
Gavin looks across at Stephen. For a split second it looks like Stephen’s going to react, but all his fight is gone. Instead he remains slumped over the table, head in his hands, trying to block everything out.
“Hang on, you think one of us killed Joy, is that what you’re saying?” Paul asks, double-checking because he’s having trouble believing what he’s hearing.
“No one’s saying that—” Ronan starts to say.
Gavin interrupts, “All I’m saying is we can’t be sure someone here didn’t do it, that’s all.”
“I think we need to calm down and regroup here,” Ronan says. “Everything’s getting blown out of all proportion.”
“You think? Joy and those kids on the boat were murdered, Ronan, don’t you get it? Or is it that your head’s so far up your ass you can’t see it?”
“You can’t talk to me like that.”
“I can talk to you how I damn well like.”
Paul positions himself between the two of them. “Leave it, Ronan,” he says to his boss.
“He needs to learn some respect.”
“And you need to learn when to let go. This isn’t the time or the place. It’s been a hell of a day. We’re all on edge.”
Frustrated, Ronan leaves the room and looks for somewhere quiet where he can shut everything and everyone out for a while. But there’s nowhere.
He’s trapped.
They’re all trapped.
10
The waiting is endless. Matt sits alone in the mess hall and stares at his outdated mobile phone. Paul calls it Matt’s brick, and it might as well be for all the good it’s doing him right now. In fact, he reckons he’d probably get better reception from a house brick out here. He keeps willing the NO SERVICE indicator in the top left of the screen to disappear. Just one bar is all he wants, just enough signal to let him get a message home to Jen to tell her he’s okay and that he’ll be home as soon as he can. It was hard enough coming away for the weekend and leaving her behind, but this is unbearable. He knows she’ll be worrying. He’ll have to find a way of making it up to her when he gets back.
“That’s a fancy case,” Natalie says, startling him. Matt’s unremarkable, years-old phone is encased within a rugged suit of rubberized armor.
“My girlfriend bought it for me. Waterproof, shockproof, bombproof … all that shit. I think she thought I was climbing Everest this weekend or something. It’s probably worth more than the phone.”
“Bit over the top, isn’t it?”
“That’s Jen for you. She’s very cautious.”
Natalie points at Jen’s picture on his lock screen. “That her? She’s pretty. I’m assuming that’s your girlfriend and not just some random woman off the internet?”
“Yeah, that’s Jen. And, yeah, she is.”
“She’s a lucky girl.”
“Not sure she’d agree with you there. Anyway, I’m the lucky one.”
“That’s sweet. And they say romance is dead.”
“Don’t know about that, but I reckon I might be if I don’t get home soon.”
Natalie looks at him, not sure how to take that.
“She worries,” he explains.
“That’s not a bad thing. It shows she cares.”
“No, she really worries. She suffers with her nerves. She doesn’t cope well with unexpected stuff like this.”
“But it’s not your fault, is it? Life doesn’t always go to plan. She’ll just be relieved to have you back home safe. It’ll be fine.”
“Will it?”
There’s an awkward pause. Natalie doesn’t immediately answer.
Small talk isn’t Matt’s forte, but he quickly decides he much prefers noise to silence and tries to restart the conversation. “So what about you?”
“What about me?”
“Do you have anyone or…?”
“Nope. I’m very happy on my own at the moment, thanks very much. I’ve learned my lessons and had my fingers burned by…”
She stops midsentence. Matt looks up and sees Ruth standing in the kitchen doorway. She’s been gone for some time. All eyes are on her again now she’s back, everyone waiting expectantly.
“Everything all right, love?” Stuart asks.
She clears her throat. “I finally got through to the coast guard.” Though they’re all waiting for her to expand on that, she doesn’t immediately.
“Well?” Frank demands, his nerves wearing thin.
Ruth clears her throat again. “I don’t know who it was that I spoke to. I think … I know … something’s wrong. There’s some kind of problem on the mainland.”
Ronan closes the lid of his laptop and asks the obvious question on behalf of everyone else. “You’re going to have to give us a little more to go on than that. What kind of problem?”
“That’s the thing.” She sounds increasingly uncertain. “I don’t know. It’s hard to explain.”
“Well, try,” Ronan shouts, unexpectedly aggressive.
“Take it easy, mate,” Stuart says, and gets up from his seat to stand alongside his wife.
“The woman on the radio just now … she wasn’t from the coast guard. She didn’t know what she was doing. It was just luck that I caught her. She heard me calling in and managed to answer.”
“So who was she?” Stuart asks.
“I don’t know. Said her name was Yvonne. Said she worked in one of the offices near the docks.”
“What was she doing in the coast-guard building?”
Ruth pauses, almost as if she’s doubting herself. “She said she was hiding.”
“Hiding?” Natalie repeats, as if there’s been a collective mishear. “Hiding from what?”
“She wouldn’t say. Couldn’t say. She was barely making any sense, to be honest. Started talking about someone she knew coming after her, whispering like she didn’t want to be heard.”
“Was she drunk?” Paul asks unhelpfully.
“Probably stoned,” Gavin suggests.
“I’ve had enough of this,” Ronan says, looking like he’s about to lose it. “Show me how to use that radio. I’m going to sort this out.”
“Be my guest,” Ruth says, unfazed. “It won’t make any difference. She’s gone now.”
“Gone? You let her go? Did you tell her where we are and what’s happened here?”
“I didn’t have a chance. She was the one who ended the conversation, not me.”
“You said you thought there was a problem on the mainland,” Frank says in an almost-accusatory tone.
Ruth looks exhausted. She leans against the wall and drinks from a half-empty bottle of water. “It’s just a feeling. A combination of things. There’s the kids on the boat, Joy, that business you were talking about on Friday, Raj, and now this woman. She sounded frantic. Bit more than just coincidence, I reckon.”
“And Vanessa.” It’s the first time Stephen has spoken in hours.
They all just look at him.
Matt has a question. “Wait, what did you see, Rajesh?”
Rajesh looks as confused as everyone else.
Ruth prompts him. “You know … that trouble you said you saw.”
He remembers, but that just seems to make him more confused, not less. “What’s that got to do with anything?”
“What happened?” Matt asks, feeling increasingly uneasy, sick to his stomach.
“I went home for a couple of nights last week. There was a bit of trouble on the road when I was driving back
here, that was all.”
“A bit of trouble,” says Stuart. “That’s not how you described it. You said it was more than just a bit of trouble. You said it was a deliberate attack.”
Rajesh is conscious that he’s now the center of attention. “It all happened so fast I couldn’t be sure.” He looks around and sees that everyone’s staring at him, and he feels obliged to keep talking. “It was rush hour, right, so it’s not like problems are unusual. The roads were all snarled up. There’d been a crash and the highways people were clearing it up.”
“And?” Paul senses there’s more to this. “Road rage?”
“No, this was different.… It was on the trunk road into town. I was driving over the top of it on the bypass, the part where it loops down from the motorway. I got stuck at the lights on the bridge, looking down, and … and it was just the weirdest thing.” Rajesh pauses, checking himself more than anything else. He turns to Ruth. “I don’t see how you think this can be connected to anything else though.”
“Just keep talking,” Ronan says.
“So they’d got two out of the three lanes all coned off, and there were a couple of traffic officers and a few police in the middle lane clearing up the debris. Looked like a truck had clipped a car and shunted it into the central reservation, nothing major. Anyway, they’d got the traffic coming through dead slow along the one open lane, and this one driver just lost it.”
“Lost it? What do you mean, ‘lost it’?”
Rajesh swallows, his mouth dry. “This guy in an Astra just swerved out of the traffic into the middle lane, then accelerated and hit one of the police full on from behind. Poor fucker didn’t stand a chance. The impact threw him right across the road. He ended up in the middle of the traffic coming the other way. But the bloke just kept on driving. Crazy fucker started chasing down the other folks out on the road like it was some kind of game. Death Race 2000, remember that film? It was just mad. Surreal. Couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The truck that had crashed was blocking the carriageway, and the one open lane had slowed to a stop, so there was no way he was ever gonna get away. Police started swarming out from everywhere and boxed him in, and there were other people getting out of their cars and…”