‘Christ! I’m going down there,’ Shane said, making to push past Daniel.
This time it was Daniel who put the brakes on. He caught the Traveller’s arm and turned him roughly back to stand face to face. Even in the gloom he could see the frustration and anger radiating off the youngster.
‘Get off me or I’ll flatten you!’ Shane growled.
Daniel had no doubt the lad could do it. His well-developed upper-arm muscles could be felt even through his jacket and he knew that bare-knuckle fighting was the chosen method of settling disputes in the Travelling community. Daniel had a few tricks up his sleeve when he was forced into combat but just at the moment, a scrap was way down his wish list.
‘For God’s sake, Shane, just calm down a minute! It makes no sense to go off half-cocked! That won’t help her. What exactly are you planning to do when you get down there?’
‘I don’t know – something; I can’t just stay up here and watch, can I?’ He looked over his shoulder to where Billy and Zoe now stood, in front of Johnny Driscoll. From Billy’s free hand trailed a length of rope and more black polythene. Even from a distance they could see Zoe’s gaze fixed with wide-eyed horror on the black-swathed shape lying on the edge of the flooded pit. ‘They can’t let her go; she’s seen too much, hasn’t she?’
‘I’m not suggesting we do nothing, but blundering in without a plan is plain stupid!’
‘What then?’ Shane demanded. ‘What do we do?’
‘Well, our advantage is that they don’t know—’
From down in the quarry the sound of raised voices interrupted him and they turned to look. Tempers were fraying. Johnny, obviously deeply unhappy at the latest development, was making his brother aware of the fact in no uncertain manner, and Billy wasn’t taking it lying down. As they watched, Zoe tried to take advantage of this distraction by pulling back suddenly and sharply in an attempt to drag her arm free.
All she succeeded in doing was pulling Billy Driscoll off-balance for a moment and inflaming his temper still further. Jerking her towards him, he raised his hand and dealt her a vicious blow across the face which brought her to her knees.
Almost in the same instant, with an exclamation of fury, Shane wrenched his arm from Daniel’s grasp and lowering his shoulder, cannoned into him like a charging bull. Caught hopelessly off-guard, Daniel staggered back winded, caught his heel in the looping brambles and fell sideways into a clump of blackthorn.
Taz, unsure of the protocol that applied when two people he knew and liked started pushing each other around, leaped first on Daniel in a frenzy of licking and whining, and then set off in pursuit of Shane, who had already been swallowed by the forest gloom.
‘No, Taz! With me!’ Daniel commanded as loudly as he dared, staring into the darkness. To his relief the German shepherd heard and obediently turned back.
Struggling to his feet to the accompaniment of heartfelt cursing, Daniel took a steadying breath, gritted his teeth and set off in Shane’s wake. He couldn’t really blame the boy for his reaction but he wished his frustration had found a less physical outlet.
It seemed that the forest was conspiring to slow his progress as he made his way down the slope through the scrub, brambles and whippy saplings towards the van. Twice, his knee almost let him down and he was forced to pause, holding on to whatever was closest to retain his balance. Taz stayed obediently at his side, panting with excitement, and no doubt mystified as to why Daniel was behaving so oddly.
Finally fighting clear of the waist-high bracken, Daniel slipped and slid down the last and steepest part of the bank beside the track and fell heavily against the van. There, leaning against the vibrating metal skin he had a clear view of the old slate workings and the drama playing out at its centre.
Closest to the gate but with his back to it was Davy, apparently caught in a fog of indecision, and a little further away was the bulky form of his brother Billy, still holding Zoe firmly by the arm. She was on her feet now, her pale hair rain-wet and straggling down her back and her free hand cradling her face. Facing them Daniel could see Johnny and slightly to one side stood Shane, his face intense, talking rapidly and urgently to the older man, gesticulating with his hands.
The boy, Frankie, hovered near the two of them, face upturned, patently excited by the charged atmosphere.
Daniel could just hear Shane’s voice over the sound of the van’s engine but not well enough to make out any words. He was reluctant to risk betraying his own presence by moving forward until he had had a chance to see how things were going to pan out. As things stood, with Zoe a hostage, there was more advantage in staying hidden.
He wondered what explanation Shane had given for his sudden appearance on the scene, but whatever his niggling doubts as to where Shane’s loyalties would ultimately fall if push came to shove, he was sure of one thing: the youngster loved Zoe, and would do everything in his power to keep her from harm, and that, at the moment, was of paramount importance.
It seemed, now, that Billy had rejoined the conversation and more heated words passed between the brothers as Daniel watched; Johnny indicating the black-wrapped corpse behind him and Billy shaking Zoe’s arm so violently that she staggered and almost fell again.
Shane stepped towards Billy, his face darkly furious, but Johnny was quicker. He stepped between them, his hands raised pacifically, and then grasped Zoe’s arm himself, saying something to his brother and pointing towards the bundle on the ground. His meaning was clear: the body was Billy’s problem and he could deal with it.
With a gesture of annoyed resignation, Billy picked up the bundle of rope and polythene he had dropped when he struck the girl, pushed past his brother and went over to the body.
Slanting a sideways look at Zoe, Shane followed him and the two of them began gathering a few of the larger lumps of slate that lay scattered around the quarry bottom.
Plainly, Harvey’s body, if it was indeed Harvey, was to be weighted in time-honoured fashion, to ensure its rapid and permanent descent to the bottom of the pool. It was possible, Daniel thought, that Billy’s failure to prepare properly for its disposal was the major cause of the friction between the brothers. It was all taking a long time and Johnny was naturally uneasy.
It appeared that Shane had offered to help but Daniel found it difficult to believe that he did so in the belief that it would help secure Zoe’s safe release. As Shane had rightly said, she had seen too much, and Daniel suspected that the only course of action the Driscolls would see open to them at this stage was for Zoe to join her stepfather at the bottom of the flooded quarry.
The lad wasn’t naive, so what was he planning? Daniel watched intently, waiting for a clue, while at the back of his mind another question jostled for attention.
Where was Lorna Myers?
It required no great feat of deduction to work out that Zoe had come to the quarry in defiance of her mother’s wishes, and Lorna’s concern for her daughter’s safety would understandably override the instructions Daniel had given her, so why had she not followed Zoe, on foot or in the Land Rover?
It was easy to imagine the strong-willed teenager refusing to listen to reason once her mind was made up, but Lorna should surely, at the very least, have followed her and been here, watching at the quarry gate with Daniel. He peered into the darkness surrounding the van but could see nothing. If she was there somewhere, he silently commended her strength of mind in not rushing recklessly out to the defence of her daughter.
Maybe she had gone for help, instead.
Impatient for action, Taz butted Daniel’s leg and pushed his muzzle into his hand.
‘In a minute, lad. Just wait, OK?’
Out on the quarry floor, Shane and Billy Driscoll had piled several rocks onto the torso of the corpse and were working to wrap more plastic around it. Shane’s face was contorted with disgust as they laboured over the awkward task.
Finally, it was done and the two men straightened up, Shane wiping his hands on his jeans as if trying to decontaminate himself. At their feet, the black plastic wrapped a shape almost unrecognizable as a body.
Johnny moved forward, pushing Zoe ahead of him while still holding her arm.
Daniel couldn’t see her face but everything in her body language spoke of a natural reluctance to go anywhere near the grotesquely bundled form. But against the Traveller’s brute strength her struggles were futile.
Johnny looked down at Shane and Billy’s handiwork and nodded, and with no further ado, they bent down and picked up the body between them. Shuffling sideways to the very edge of the flooded pit, they began to swing it from side to side, gathering momentum, before releasing it to fly out over the water.
It seemed an age that the corpse hung in the air, turning slowly, before it fell into the shining pool. The water erupted, rising in a curtain to hide it, and sending a glittering shower of droplets out to dapple the surrounding surface. Waves surged back in and then outwards to slop over the edge onto the gravel at their feet and all at once the body was gone.
Beside Johnny, Zoe stood staring with horrified fascination at the point where it had slipped from view, as substantial ripples continued to radiate outwards, lapping at the water’s edge.
Turning from his own contemplation of the water, Billy said something to his brother, glancing significantly at the girl as he did so. Whatever it was shook the teenager out of her trance and she instantly tried to back away, tugging frantically against Johnny’s grip.
At the same time, Shane reacted, pushing in front of Billy and speaking urgently to Johnny. What passed between them, Daniel couldn’t tell, but when Shane turned and pointed towards the slope upon which he and Daniel had recently hidden, things became a whole lot clearer.
Immediately, Johnny turned to look in the direction the youngster had indicated, a frown creasing his dark brow, and then said something to his brother which sent Billy striding towards the gate, a look of eager anticipation on his bronzed features.
‘Oh, shit!’ Daniel said to the dog. ‘Here comes trouble!’
Keeping Taz with him, he retreated swiftly from his position beside the van, moved round the back and came up on the other side.
The chain-link fencing jingled as Driscoll came through the gap out of sight from Daniel’s position behind the van. At his side, he heard the German shepherd draw a preparatory breath and quickly clamped his hand over the dog’s muzzle to stifle the snarl before it properly got going.
‘Quiet!’ he hissed.
The steady throb of the engine effectively masked such small sounds as might be made by feet on chippings, and Daniel had no way of knowing if Driscoll had headed up the slope as Shane had obviously intended or whether he might even now be circling the van in search of him.
It was impossible to watch both the front and back of the vehicle simultaneously from where he stood and feeling perspiration running to join the rainwater on his face, he started to back away towards the treeline, glancing rapidly one way and then the other.
It was Taz who spotted the man first, and shaking his muzzle free of Daniel’s grip, strained against the hand on his collar and emitted one of his best deep, blood-curdling growls.
Daniel turned to face the greyhound trainer, but even as he did so, Taz’s head snapped round and he barked an excited warning.
Daniel threw a hasty look over his shoulder and saw a second, smaller dark shadow approaching from the rear. From its size it could only be the boy, Frankie, and Daniel relaxed a little.
‘Gotcha!’ Billy Driscoll declared with deep satisfaction.
‘Oh, I don’t think you have,’ Daniel countered.
Diminutive as Frankie was, Daniel felt he would be happier keeping him in sight and began to back further away from the side of the Transit to bring both the Driscolls into view at once. Unfortunately, Billy recognized his strategy and moved parallel with him, the boy following suit. Space between the van and the tree-clad slope was limited and Daniel stood still once more. Running wasn’t an option, even had he been in a fit state to attempt the bank behind him. It was either submit or fight.
There was no mistaking the option that Taz favoured, but Daniel wasn’t quite ready to loose the dog just yet.
‘I’ve called the police,’ he told Driscoll. ‘They’re on their way.’
‘You must have a loud voice, then, cos there ain’t no signal down here and you ain’t got no phone, anyway,’ the trainer responded, and Frankie cackled.
‘What do you think you’re going to do? Throw us all in the quarry?’ Daniel asked. ‘Give up, man, you can’t get away with this! Don’t make it worse than it already is.’
‘Well, that’s where you’re wrong. That’s a very deep hole and I happen to know it’s scheduled to be backfilled in a couple of days, for safety reasons,’ Driscoll stated. ‘And guess what … Johnny’s got the contract.’
Daniel felt fear wash over him. He had no idea whether Driscoll was telling the truth but it sounded ironically plausible, and although he had faith that in this technological age their whereabouts would eventually be discovered, that would be of little comfort to any of them in the here and now.
‘OK. So what now?’ Daniel asked.
‘Now you come with me, sunshine.’
‘Why would I? You haven’t exactly sold the idea to me.’
‘Because if you don’t, the little girlie gets hurt.’
‘But you’ve already said you’re going to kill us all. How much worse can it get? Why wouldn’t I just cut and run?’
‘You tell me? You’ve had time. Why haven’t you already done it?’ the trainer countered. ‘Besides, you’d have to get past me first.’
Daniel decided the time for talking was over.
‘Taz?’ he said, quietly, and saw the gleam of the German shepherd’s eyes as he glanced up enquiringly. He pointed at Billy Driscoll. ‘Take him!’
Taz needed no second bidding. Silent and swift now the talking was over, he rocketed from Daniel’s side and launched himself at Driscoll. The dog needed no light to perform and Daniel needed none to follow the sequence of events.
Driscoll cried out in fear and shock; a scraping footfall or two sounded, followed by the hollow booming of something hitting the side of the van and then a heavy thud.
Taz had got his man down.
‘Aahh! Call the fucking dog off!’
Driscoll’s demand was answered by a muffled growl, the nature of which told Daniel that Taz was giving the trainer’s arm a good shake. This was borne out by a second cry of pain.
Daniel took the little torch from his pocket and switched it on.
The trainer was lying near to the rear wheel of the Transit with his head and shoulders propped against the wheel arch. The arm that Taz held clamped in his jaws was forced up close to his jaw and Daniel imagined that he would be feeling the dog’s hot breath on his face.
‘See, here’s my problem,’ he said, conversationally. ‘If I call the dog off, what am I going to do with you?’ His tone was light, but the problem was real enough and the only solution not one that sat easy on him.
‘I’ll stay down, I swear it!’
‘The thing is: I don’t believe you. I think you’d swear to just about anything, right now.’
‘Get ’im off, for fuck’s sake!’
‘All right,’ Daniel said, moving forward. He leaned down as if to take hold of the dog’s collar but instead, grasped the heavy leather lapels of Driscoll’s coat, pulled him away from the side of the van and then slammed him back again with as much force as he could muster. The trainer’s free hand, which had started to rise as he divined Daniel’s intent, now fell away and the grunt that was shaken from him died away into silence. Excited by the movement, Taz growled again and shook the arm he held between his jaws, but the action elicited no response. Billy Driscoll was out cold.
Shining the beam of the torch on the closed eyes and lifeless face, Daniel searched for a pulse then let go his pent-up breath in a relieved sigh. Much as he disliked the man and everything he stood for, it was no part of his plan to remove him from the action on a permanent basis.
‘OK. Out!’ he told the dog.
Taz, however, was having too much fun and shook the limp arm again, which drew a severe reprimand down on his head.
Reluctantly, he unclamped his jaws, watching his victim eagerly for signs of renewed activity, but there were none.
Daniel straightened, ruffling the dog’s fur.
A whisper of sound from behind had him and the dog whirling round as one and the sharp pain in Daniel’s side coincided with a high pitched scream of fright as, without waiting to be commanded, Taz launched a second attack.
‘No-oo, get ’im off me, pleeease!’ Frankie sobbed. ‘Get ’im off!’
‘Taz, no! Out!’ Daniel said, instantly, his torch picking out the screwed-up face of the boy.
This time, Taz stood back, instantly, and Daniel reached down to haul the kid to his feet. The torchlight gleamed on metal at his feet and moments later he held a knife with a four-inch blade alongside the torch in his free hand.
That explained the sharp pain, which now manifested itself as a deep soreness in the muscles that ran over his hip. It seemed the strike had hit the bone, with the result that it was painful but not disabling. However, he knew if he hadn’t moved at the critical moment, upsetting the boy’s aim, the point might well have plunged home a couple of inches higher, which would have been a different matter altogether.
Shrinking away from the hold on his arm, his eyes on the dog, Frankie was doing his best to swallow the sobs which were still rising and in spite of the situation, Daniel was aware of a tinge of pity. However tough and streetwise he seemed, he was only a little older than Daniel’s own son, Drew, and could hardly be blamed for his upbringing. It made what Daniel was about to do even more distasteful, but he could see no alternative.
Turning Frankie round, but keeping a firm hold on his arm, he started to walk towards the gate, pushing the boy ahead of him. Pain spread from his hip into his lower back and down his leg as he walked, and he felt the warm slipperiness of blood running.
At the front of the van they stepped into the brilliant glare of the headlights and their appearance plainly unsettled those already there, who had clearly been waiting, with widely differing emotions, for Billy’s return, with or without Daniel.
Keeping the boy in front of him, with the knife held conspicuously close to his face, and Taz close to his heel, Daniel started to walk towards Johnny.
They had covered half of the forty or so feet between the perimeter fence and the pool before Johnny reached behind him and produced a small but deadly pistol from somewhere on his person.
‘Stop there! Now!’ he said, jabbing the muzzle of the gun into Zoe’s neck.
Shane started towards Driscoll and then stopped, his fists clenching, as the older man added, ‘And you!’
Zoe whimpered, her face crumpling with terror and her whole body visibly shaking. Under the relentless rain, her silky blonde hair was silky no more, flattened to her head and straggling over her shoulders, and her customary dark eye make-up had run, staining her cheeks and accentuating the waiflike fragility of her face. Her eyes, reddened with crying, begged silently for help.
Daniel stopped dead, another such scene playing across his mind. A corner shop: a strung-out addict with a knife, and a petrified girl, willing him to do something, anything, to help her.
The flashback was so real, so powerful, it threatened to overwhelm him. His breath caught in his throat as his pulse rate doubled and he screwed his eyes shut momentarily, willing the memory away.
He couldn’t allow the past to colour the present. Although terrifyingly similar at first glance, the situation wasn’t the same. Johnny Driscoll had already proved to be coolly calculating, far removed from the irrational crackhead, desperate for a fix, who haunted Daniel’s nightmares.
He took a deep steadying breath.
‘Let her go, Johnny. It’s over.’
‘And how do you reckon that?’
‘You’re on your own, mate. Billy’s out of it. You can’t win; surely you can see that?’
‘But I’ve got something you want.’
‘And I’ve got something of yours,’ Daniel responded.
‘Frankie, you OK?’
‘The dog bit Uncle Billy,’ Frankie said in a shaky voice. ‘And then it bit me.’
‘Did it hurt you?’
‘A little bit. It’s my arm.’
Johnny returned his attention to Daniel.
‘You’ll pay for that,’ he promised.
Daniel didn’t attempt to justify what Taz had done. He didn’t want Johnny Driscoll to know he’d sustained further injury, and he had no doubt that the Traveller would applaud his son’s attack rather than considering it ample provocation for the dog’s attack.
‘He’ll live,’ he said. ‘But that’s nothing to what he’ll get if you don’t let the girl go.’
‘You won’t hurt a kid,’ Driscoll stated confidently.
‘You don’t know me. And you don’t know what I’m capable of.’
‘You won’t hurt the boy.’
‘I was a police officer. I got thrown out because I almost killed a child,’ Daniel told him, aware that Shane had turned to look at him, frowning.
‘An accident.’
‘No.’
There was a pause, then Driscoll said, ‘I don’t believe you.’
‘You’ve got no worries then, have you?’
Driscoll eyed him narrowly.
‘Let the girl go,’ Daniel repeated.
‘In your fucking dreams!’ the Traveller growled. ‘I can shoot you and the girl before you can scratch your arse!’
‘Taz, behind me!’ Daniel said and, hating the necessity, hooked an arm round the boy’s chest, lifted him off his feet and held him in front of his own body like a shield. Frankie kicked and squealed briefly and then fell silent, trembling.
‘Just how good a shot are you, though?’ Daniel asked. He walked forward a few steps, stopping on the edge of the flooded pit, which looked bottomless and blackly menacing. Johnny Driscoll swore; the boy wriggled again, and Daniel suddenly realized that what he was scared of was not the gun in his father’s hand but the water.
‘He can swim … can’t he?’ he enquired.
This time the response from the terrified boy was unmistakable and Daniel was hard put to hang on to him.
‘Tut, tut,’ he said, shaking his head reproachfully. ‘All little boys should learn to swim. You can never be sure when they might fall into a river, or … a flooded quarry, maybe.’
‘Dad!’ Frankie squealed and Daniel saw Johnny make an involuntary movement towards him, then stop.
‘You’re fucking dead, Whelan!’ his face was filled with loathing.
‘So,’ Daniel went on. ‘You have to ask yourself this: if Frankie were to accidentally fall into the water, would you waste time trying to shoot me and the girl, or would you jump in to save him?’
Driscoll’s eyes darted towards the water and back to Daniel, and he licked his lips.
‘You won’t do it.’
‘My God!’ he said wonderingly. ‘You can’t swim, either!’
For the first time, Johnny Driscoll began to look unsure, and it occurred to Daniel that with all the available light behind him, his own face would be unreadable to the Traveller, no doubt adding to his uncertainty. He kept the pressure up.
‘So what is it to be?’
What Driscoll’s answer might have been he was never to know, because in that instant their attention was claimed by the wild revving of the Transit’s engine. Daniel turned to look over his shoulder just as the van accelerated and with a ringing clash hit the chain-link panels that formed the gates, partially ripping one of them from its steel support and pushing it inwards. The vehicle travelled forwards a few yards before the front wheels ran onto the panel, which snagged on something beneath it, bringing it to a screeching halt.
Behind Daniel a shot rang out, so shockingly loud that it was a moment before he gathered his wits and realized that he hadn’t in fact been hit. Glancing back at Johnny, he was just in time to see Zoe take advantage of the distraction to drive her elbow into his midriff.
She must have been stronger than she looked or maybe desperation lent her strength because the man doubled forward with a grunt of pain and Zoe lost no time in twisting out of his grasp. As she tore herself free and stumbled away, Johnny straightened and started to take aim at her, one hand still on his solar plexus but deadly intent in his eyes.
Too far away to do anything, Daniel watched helplessly but just as Johnny’s finger tightened on the trigger there was a blur of movement and Shane hit the big man in a flying tackle from the side. Both the shot and the gun were thrown wide as the two of them fell in a tangle of limbs at the water’s edge. Rolling a time or two, they came to their feet and started to slug it out with their fists in the time-honoured way of the Irish Traveller men.
His ears still ringing from the report, Daniel stood Frankie back on his feet and gave him a strong push in the direction of the gate.
‘Go on! Get out of it,’ he urged and to his relief the lad stumbled away as fast as he could.
The van’s engine was still revving repeatedly as Billy – if Billy it was – tried to break it free of the tangle of metal underneath but it showed no signs of doing so.
Looking round for Davy, Daniel found him standing a little way off to one side with his eyes screwed shut and hands clamped over his ears. He was swinging his head slightly from side to side, presumably distressed by the gunshots.
Daniel turned back towards Johnny and Shane, just in time to see the youngster floor his opponent with a terrific racking uppercut to the jaw. Johnny Driscoll spun round, hit the ground and rolled onto his face. Pushing himself to his hands and knees, he shook his head as if to clear it while Shane hovered over him, breathing hard.
‘For God’s sake, don’t let him get up! Finish it!’ Daniel urged, but Shane, it seemed, was following some sort of unwritten code of bare-knuckle fighting and merely shook his head as the older man started to get back to his feet.
‘Shane – look out!’ Zoe cried suddenly. Having broken free, she had moved only a short distance before turning to watch the confrontation and now she stood a few feet from Daniel.
Daniel saw the rock in Johnny Driscoll’s hand just a split-second before he brought it into play but it was doubtful whether Shane ever saw it. As the youngster piled in once more with a jab to Driscoll’s stomach, the hand holding the chunk of slate swung in a vicious arc to catch Shane on the side of his head and knock him off his feet and into the flooded quarry.
The surface of the water surged upwards as the youngster hit it in much the same place as Harvey Myers’ corpse had done just minutes before. Zoe screamed and Daniel saw her run forward even as the black water returned to close over Shane’s body.