Chapter 51

Harry climbed onto the roof of the tower into rain that was now coming down so hard it almost hurt. Heathy was bent over, trying to keep his feet as he stood over Jess. Nearby trees thrashed back and forth. The sky boiled with thunder and lightning.

At first he thought the red and blue lights strobing off the nearby houses were a figment of his imagination. Then he saw how Heathy’s face snapped from side to side, like a caged animal. Harry followed his gaze and saw a street full of cop cars. Further up the road, a white van with a satellite dish on the roof and a TV channel logo on the side edged past a police barrier.

Cardinal clambered up after him. The smile withered on his face.

‘What the fuck?’

‘They came out of nowhere,’ Heathy said. ‘They got Crow!’

‘Crow! Crow? Who gives a fucking shit! I’m standing here with my fucking balls hanging out!’

A gust of wind pummelled the tower. Cardinal staggered, then regained his footing. He grabbed Harry and pressed the gun against his head.

‘What’s going on?’ he yelled. ‘Why are the cops here?’

‘Your boys confessed.’

He glared at Heathy. ‘What the fuck is he talking about?’

Heathy shrugged.

‘Back at the skate rink,’ Harry yelled. ‘A colleague of mine was recording. Live-streamed it to the internet. She followed us here and got the audio of you spilling your guts.’

Cardinal’s head swivelled frantically back and forth, looking for a woman with a camera. He couldn’t see her. He was probably blinded by the police flashers. But Harry could. Standing just outside the fence, still recording. Harry didn’t know if she’d managed to get any useable audio from the top of the tower, or inside it, but it didn’t matter anymore. He had Andrew Cardinal, standing in front of countless cops, waving a gun around.

‘It’s over, Cardinal.’

Harry pulled open his shirt, revealing the mic taped to his chest. Cardinal lashed out with his gun, catching Harry in the side of the head. Black spots bloomed across his vision. The top of the water tower skewed out of view as his head lurched, and he stumbled and fell.

‘Truss ’em up,’ Cardinal said.

Heathy hesitated. ‘Boss. We’re surrounded.’

Cardinal turned the gun on him. ‘I said truss them up!’

Heathy pushed Jess down on the water tower and reached into his back pocket. He pulled out a cable tie and secured her hands in front of her. Then he strode across the tower and secured Harry’s hands behind him. Jess was crying. Harry felt rage bloom inside him. He saw Jess but he also saw Kyla. A blue, shimmering mirage. The tattoos pulsing off her body like an aura.

Cardinal turned his head to the skies and howled.

‘How? How, how, how.’ He walked to Harry and slammed his shoe against Harry’s face, mashing his lips against the steel. Harry grunted and spat blood. ‘How does some shit-stain from the fucking Chronicle do this? Tell me! I killed them all! Left that fucking tattooist a vegetable. There were no loose ends! How, Harry? How!

‘Tell me, and I’ll kill you quick.’

‘There are cops everywhere, Cardinal,’ Harry said, but the wind whipped away his words. Cardinal leant down.

‘What’s that, Harry?’

Cardinal rolled him over onto his back, straddled him.

‘Cops…everywhere.’

‘Oh yeah, but they’ll dick around for ages down there. No air support tonight. No snipers – we’re at the highest point in the inner west. Thunder to disguise the gunshots. Plenty of time to have some fun with you and your lady friend. Just like we did with Rob and Kyla. I’m gonna kill you fuckers…again, and then I’m going to blow my brains out.’

Lightning raged across the sky, thunder roaring almost simultaneously, so loud Harry felt it in his chest. Cardinal yanked the microphone off Harry’s chest and cast it aside.

‘It was Rob, wasn’t it? These fucking tattoos,’ Cardinal said. He jabbed his pistol into one of them.

‘I told the boys to get rid of all the tattoos,’ he yelled. ‘Didn’t I, Heathy? Did they do what they were fucking told? No, of course not. Hard to get good fucking help. For identification purposes. You know, in case the body was found. But after…’ he looked up into the storm, then back at Harry, ‘I realised it was more than that.’

‘Because of your dad.’

‘At first I thought he was going loopy-loo. Then he strung himself up. I thought it died with him. Some kind of revenge mojo. Eye for an eye, and all that.’

Lightning struck at the end of the street. Thunder so loud it rattled the ground. Cardinal whooped. Heathy peered over his shoulder, away from Jess, watching in horror as the street continued to fill with police.

‘Oh well,’ Cardinal said. ‘It ends now.’ He put the gun down and pulled the knife out. Harry saw what was coming and tried to buck him off, but he was too tired, his back too sore. Cardinal grinned. He opened the blade, grabbed a patch of Harry’s inked skin and started sawing. Harry screamed.

Harry heard a low growling noise. Cardinal looked up. Jess, her body wreathed in an electric blue corona. She sprang and landed on him, knocking him off Harry and sending the gun skittering off the side of the water tower. The tattoos burned through her clothes, sending wisps of smoke into the air.

Heathy turned, waving his shotgun, looking for a clear shot. Harry rolled onto his side and pushed himself onto his knees. Cardinal was back on his feet. He closed his fists and turned on Jess but she was too fast for him, leaping up and wrapping her legs around his waist.

Harry welcomed Rob’s surge. Hands still behind his back and body bent double, he charged at Heathy. The shotgun went off, pellets grazing his back. Harry drove his shoulder into Heathy’s stomach. The bikie fell backwards, gasping for air. He groped for the shotgun. Harry stomped on his fingers, then with the other foot kicked the shottie off the side of the tower.

Cardinal slammed his fists into Jess’s kidneys and spun around, trying to shake her off. They teetered towards the edge. She gripped on tighter than ever. With both hands, she grabbed his face and ripped down, nails slicing his forehead and cheeks open. He screamed, blinking away the blood flowing into his eyes.

He snapped his head forward, catching the bridge of Jess’s nose. She cried out and fell off him, landing hard against the steel. She rolled away, back onto her knees, shaking her head to clear it. Harry kicked at Heathy, stomping down again as the bikie rolled away from him. His tattoos burned. He could feel the heat through his damp clothes, could smell the stench of singed meat. Blood pulsed from his wounds. Heathy rolled again, pushed himself back up onto his feet. But when he tried to stand his left boot slipped off the side of the water tower. His hands grasped at a mobile-phone antenna, but slipped. He dropped, screaming into the darkness.

Jess launched herself at Cardinal again, but he was ready for her this time. He lashed out at her shoulder. Jess staggered backwards, but left something there, standing toe-to-toe with Cardinal. A blue aura, like an after-image burning on Harry’s retinas. More than an aura. A woman, sketched in blue light. Longer hair than Jess. Tattoos up both arms, shimmering in the night like jewels. Cardinal’s eyes widened. Truly fearful for the first time.

‘No!’ he yelled.

Then Kyla’s ghost was pulled back into Jess’s body.

Harry ran for Cardinal, screaming as a burning sensation ripped through his arms. And then he saw Rob’s arms, ghostly blue, reaching out from his body, while his own arms remained tied behind his back. Rob’s arms grabbed Cardinal around the waist and lifted him off his feet, propelling him towards the edge. Harry screamed again, agony pulsing through his flesh as Rob tore free of his body.

The rain dropped away. Harry saw the world through two sets of eyes. Nausea washed over him. Cardinal tried to wriggle free.

‘You can’t hurt me,’ Cardinal screamed. ‘You’re dead.’

Jess ran screaming at Cardinal.

At the last moment Kyla tore free of Jess, who slumped to the ground, one arm hanging over the tower’s edge. Cardinal’s feet slipped on the wet steel. His face contorted in rage. His arms pinwheeled. For a moment his face cleared; he realised his fight was over. And then he, Rob and Kyla plummeted from view. Only Cardinal screamed.

Again Harry saw the world through two sets of eyes: St Elmo’s fire danced off the mobile-phone towers; the earth, bathed in the red and blue of police lights, rushed towards him. Harry felt the tower, firm under his feet; and he felt the crushing impact as Rob hit the ground.

‘Jess!’ Harry sat down heavily, slipped his tied hands under his bum and legs. He shuffled to where Jess lay unmoving at the edge, and with his tied hands outstretched he pulled her back towards him. She grabbed onto Harry and he looped his hands over her head. They held each other as the strange St Elmo’s fire intensified around them. Harry tasted the coppery tang of blood. The hairs on his arms and legs stood on end. His skin was burning. Far below, someone screamed. A corona of light bloomed, reaching up to the sky.

‘Oh shit,’ Harry said.

And the world exploded in white.