22

ROBBIE COULDN’T move. His hands and feet were tied.

He could feel, though. He could do that. His whole body was consumed with pain, not all of it the same pain. The top of his head felt as if he had been scalped. There was dried blood on the side of his head, and one of his eyes had closed.

He thought he might lose consciousness. There were a lot of flies around, it must have been the blood. He could see it on his t-shirt. He rolled over and was sick over the side of the sofa he was lying on, which smelled of cat’s piss.

He had taken everything he could now. He couldn’t be hurt any more.

He was in a big barn with a high roof, filled with junk. There was lots of rusty machinery, and the tractor and the Land Rover he could remember from his previous visit. As the flickering in his head slowed and the pain receded he could see the light outside was fading. The great doors were silhouetted in the dusk, and against the wall there were bales of sweet-smelling straw.

He wondered how long he’d been there.

He had a thirst that made his throat feel like sandpaper.

He wondered if anyone was out looking for him.

You know, Robbie, he thought to himself, this might not have a happy ending. And he didn’t even know what they wanted.

Actually, that wasn’t true. He knew exactly what they wanted, what he had over them. They wanted what they thought he knew.

He only had that one card, but it was a trump. He had to play it well.

*

He was beginning to drift again. He tried to roll over to get his head away from the cat smell, and then he got the smell of his own sick. The rope, or whatever it was around his wrists, was tight and his hands were sore from lying on them. He wondered if this was the first time the Stricklands had done this.

A light went on.

‘Oh, he’s been sick.’

They were behind him.

‘The little lamb. Dear, dear me.’

Now they were looking down at him, and Tommy was turning something over in his right hand, long and thin and shiny, which Robbie didn’t like one bit.

The younger brother reached out and pulled him upright, kicking his feet so they swung into line. They got some old chairs from the back of the barn and slammed them down in front of him, sitting on them and folding their arms. The knife blade flashed in Tommy’s hand as the reflected light shone momentarily into Robbie’s eyes.

Flash, flash.

‘You like running away, don’t you?’ said Tommy. ‘Nobody’s going to be surprised much.’

‘Maybe you could tell me what this is about? It seems kind of excessive.’

‘You ran away from us.’

‘Like you said, I like running.’

‘Why did you do that?’

‘I’m guessing I’m not top of your friends list, right?’

‘Maybe. But there’s only a little something we need to know, and we’re thinking you could help.’

‘And that is?’

‘Where’s Maggie Carr?’ said Billy.

‘I don’t know.’

‘Man, we hit you enough, you want some more?’ said Tommy.

‘I don’t know where Mags is.’

‘You don’t know? Yeah, you know,’ said Billy, leaning forward in his chair.

Don’t start again, mate, please don’t, thought Robbie. This head’s falling apart already.

‘Why would I? She didn’t tell me she was going anywhere.’

‘When did you last see her?’

‘I don’t know. Before she left, I s’pose.’

Billy looked as if he was going to make a move, but Tommy waved a hand to stop him.

Flash, flash.

‘It was at her dad’s house.’

‘What were you doing there?’

‘Just watching TV and stuff.’

‘What were you watching?’

‘Can’t remember.’

‘Mags’s dad doesn’t have a TV.’

‘Yes, he does.’

‘Not one that works.’

‘Well, I was watching it.’

‘No, you weren’t. Want to know why? He owes us money, right? But he doesn’t pay it. So Billy goes to see him and, weirdly, somehow his foot goes straight through the TV screen. Imagine that.’

‘Yeah, weird,’ said Billy.

‘An accident,’ said Tommy.

‘Easy to do,’ Robbie said. ‘Anyway, he must’ve got a new one.’

‘Thing is,’ said Billy.

‘Every time he gets a new one, Billy goes over and there’s this accident again.’

‘So weird,’ said Billy.

‘So I think you probably weren’t watching TV with Mags,’ said Tommy. He got up and walked behind Robbie.

Suddenly Tommy was pulling up his arms and pain was shooting along them.

For a moment he thought it was all over and tensed, waiting for the first thrust of the blade. But instead he found his arms swinging back round in front of him and he could move them. He’d been cut free. Billy looked at his brother as if he thought he’d gone mad, but Tommy just jerked his head and Billy slunk sullenly off into the darkness.

Tommy sat down again with his feet up on his brother’s chair. He brushed his hair casually back over his head and stared up into the recesses of the barn roof.

‘Feet?’ Robbie asked hopefully.

‘Feet can wait,’ Tommy said. ‘See, Robbie,’ he went on, ‘it’s really important I find Mags.’

‘Yeah, I know.’

‘You know why?’

‘No.’

‘You sound like maybe you do.’

‘No, I was just, I mean, I could get that, like, from what you were saying.’

‘And, until you tell me where she is, you’re staying here.’

‘And then what?’

‘So you do know something? You must know something or you wouldn’t be thinking you’ll be getting out of here.’

‘My head hurts, I’m not getting this.’

‘Yeah, I’m sorry about that.’

‘You’re sorry?’

‘It’s a bad idea to upset Billy. Lots of people find that out. The best thing is to keep him smiling.’

‘I’ll try to remember.’

‘We heard there was something you told someone about something she’d seen.’

‘You want to be more specific?’

‘You know what I’m saying.’

‘So this is my fault, right?’

‘No. ’Cos now I know. I know what she’s seen. What I need to find out is what she’s doing about it.’

‘Well, I don’t know. Last time I saw her, I mean the real last time, was just down on that bridge, where we always hang out.’

‘Cute.’

‘She’s not my girlfriend.’

‘’Course she isn’t, you little runt.’

‘So that’s all I know. I mean, I s’pose she doesn’t trust me now, so she’s not going to tell me anything, is she?’

This went home. Tommy got up and walked about, his boots thumping on the concrete floor.

‘So what’s happening to me?’

‘You’re staying here. Like I said.’

‘You going to feed me? I really need something to drink.’

Robbie started unwinding the rope around his ankles. Tommy didn’t try to stop him, but stood in front of him, looking at him long and hard. Robbie thought, they’re going to try and work me over again some time, and I so don’t want to be around for that.

But all Tommy said was, ‘She’s out there somewhere.’

And Robbie knew it wasn’t Mags he was talking about. Something in Tommy’s voice nearly made Robbie feel sorry for him.

‘I’ll give you the night to think about it,’ Tommy said. Then he was gone. Robbie heard the key turn in the lock.

The barn doors looked solid, and apart from them there was the one back door with a cat flap in it. Up in the ceiling there were skylights, but there were no ladders around to help him reach them. There was some water in a bowl for the farm cats, it looked disgusting, but he didn’t have a choice. He took a sip, spat it out, then forced himself to drink some more.

Okay, what else did he have on him? No phone, they’d taken that, it was locked so they couldn’t use it. He still had his lighter, but no cigarettes. And that was about it.

The barn was rank. Broken boxes, a dilapidated boat and three sets of oars, two rusting engines, some empty plastic containers that smelled like they’d had cider in them, a length of green hose hanging on the wall. Four tables, one that had been used for table tennis. White goods – clapped-out fridges and washing machines. There was something that looked as if it had once been an iron staircase lying on its side. Some bookcases. The old tractor and the Land Rover.

The tractor had lost its engine; maybe it was one of the two lying by the wall like big broken hearts. It was sitting at the top of a shallow ramp that sloped to the doors.

The thing about the Land Rover was, did it have a lock on its fuel tank? To Robbie’s surprise and relief, it didn’t. This might all just turn out to be possible.

So this was his plan. Get the hose, cut it on the edge of the iron staircase, put it in the tank, suck hard and siphon the petrol into the plastic container.

All he needed was some light to see what he was going to be running into out there. He wasn’t going to sleep, that was for sure. He needed to sit tight and wait, and he was going to have to be very, very speedy.

Finally, dawn came. There was light in the sky and through the gap between the barn door and the concrete floor Robbie could spy the outline of the farm buildings. There was the barn with one side open to the world over to the right that he remembered from before, and another beyond it, and behind that the ground rose to a ridge.

He was on the old tractor beginning to ease off the brake.

It happened so fast it was over in a second. He was lying nearly out cold by the tractor and the door had been broken open, only a bit, but enough, held there by the tractor’s nose. His head was spinning again. He hadn’t thought it would work at all really, so he hadn’t considered the effect of the impact.

He squirmed through the gap in the door with the container full of petrol, heading for the next barn, taking off the cap from the container and swinging it so the petrol sprayed all over the back of the barn wall.

A door slammed. He waited.

There was a shout from Billy, ‘Robbie?’ He must have made a bit of a racket. ‘You won’t get far. You know what Tommy can do with a gun.’

Robbie took out his lighter.

The flames blew up the side of the barn with that sweet soft sound and then they took hold. It was a bone-dry summer. Perfect.

He ran up the hill, and by the time he looked back the flames were piling into the sky. It was beautiful in the early dawn light, like big sails billowing on before a yacht.

He could see Tommy running towards the barn, carrying two buckets of water. He was going into the barn. What was he doing that for? It could collapse any second. The fire’s way too big for him. That barn’s going to go, and he’s going to be inside it.

There was a wild feeling rising in Robbie: it was panic and it was fear, and in a weird, weird way he wanted to protect Tommy, who was hurrying back again with more buckets. Where was Billy? They’d be calling the fire brigade, he’d better go. But he couldn’t move. Tommy was going inside the barn again.

There was something else in the yard. At first Robbie thought it was Billy, wearing a white hat, or a white hoodie or jacket or something. But it wasn’t. It was white, though.

It was her.

Just sitting there.

There was a yelling like a thousand devils. Billy was running out of the house, calling Tommy, pointing at Fleet, raising his gun.

She didn’t move, she stayed still. The light from the dawn seemed to flow into her, she was luminous, like the first time he’d seen her.

Time slowed.

Nothing happened. Nothing moved.

Then Tommy came running out of the barn.

With a roar the roof crashed down.

At the same time Fleet ran and there was a shot.

It was as if Robbie’s insides flooded with acid, with flames.

But Billy had missed. She was away so fast Robbie could hardly see where she went. The speed of light. Of moonlight, of dawn light.

She had saved her lover.

Just as Mary Allardyce had said she might.