Fifty Fifty (Detective Harriet Blue #2)(58)

Kash was right. These men were not the town’s most upstanding citizens. They had every reason to want to get away from this life, and the willingness to do it in an underhanded way.

‘So what are they going to do?’ I said. ‘They’ve already killed two people. They think we’re well down the wrong track in the investigation. Are they just going to leave quietly?’

‘I don’t know,’ Kash said. ‘It worries me that they removed the massacre plan page. Maybe they just thought it was too much. But maybe they …’

He sighed, his voice uneven.

‘Maybe they’ll try to go out with a blast,’ he continued. ‘A smoke screen. Slip away in the chaos.’

The microphone crackled.

‘I sure as fuck hope so!’ someone shouted. ‘I hope he suffered big-time, the little … I tell you what, this place would be better off with a quarter … its inhabitants. Seventy-five was far too … many. Seventy-three now. We’re getting closer to perfect.’

The microphone crackled and went silent. I thumped the speaker sitting on the console between us.

‘ This thing is rubbish,’ I said. ‘We need to get closer.’

‘I’ve already conducted a risk assessment,’ Kash said. ‘This is our most effective reconnaissance base. We can do another assessment in forty-seven minutes, if the wind changes, maybe.’

I listened quietly to Kash’s reasoning, then opened the car door and got out. Kash was behind me by the time I got to the edge of the property, crouching in the bracken.

A handful of locusts, disturbed by my presence, fluttered up and around me. The sun was immediately blazing on my already burned face. I shielded myself against it and crept to the wire fence, to a collection of rusty steel drums.

‘Don’t get us killed, Harry,’ Kash murmured as he crept up behind me. ‘This is Jace’s property. If he shoots us he’ll have three witnesses to tell the cops it was self-defence.’

‘What if I kill them?’ I said. ‘What are you gonna say?’

He rolled his eyes at me, shifted forwards and signalled for me to wait. His combat tactics would get us up beside the house without being seen. I held on to the back of his belt, waited, sweating, for him to move.

He pointed forwards and we rushed into the field towards the house.





Chapter 87


THE GRASS WAS waist high. I huffed with exertion just keeping up with my partner. Though my injuries from the explosion had been mild, it taken a lot out of me. We flitted across the field and stopped short beneath a window. Kash checked under the house and then flattened on the ground and started crawling underneath on his belly. It was hard to commando-crawl with a broken arm. I dragged myself forwards with him, sweat sticking the dust to my cheeks.

The floorboards creaked a metre above our heads. I twisted onto my side and lay in the dirt, watching my partner’s face, his glasses fogging with condensation.

‘It’s not going to be a problem for much longer,’ someone said. ‘We get whatever the hell we can over the next couple of days, and then we go.’

‘Your wife’s going to be the one that’ll give us trouble, Johnno,’ someone else said. ‘Does she have any idea what we’re doin’?’

‘Nah, mate. No way. She doesn’t have a clue. If any of youse touch her, mate, I’ll fuckin’ stab ya.’

‘ Do as he says,’ someone said. It sounded like Jace. ‘Leave her alone. We don’t want anyone drawing attention to us until we can get everything into place. After it’s done we’ll be outta here.’

Kash and I stared at the dirt between us, listening to the micro-sounds as they came through the boards. Someone flipping the cap off a bottle of beer, the hiss of the compressed air escaping. Someone was standing right over us, causing dust to trickle down into our hair.

‘I know this probably sounds weird,’ a voice said. ‘But do youse ever, I dunno. Have you ever thought about maybe stayin’ once it’s over?’

‘Stayin’? Here? Mate, are you nuts? This place is a fuckin’ shithole. We’re talkin’ about changin’ everythin’. Why the fuck would you want to stay?’

‘I guess I feel like I would kinda miss my kids, you know.’

There was silence. The men moved around, open and closed doors. There was a horse race playing on a television or radio somewhere. At least two of them fell to cheering the horses on. Groans of joy or sorrow, I couldn’t tell, as the race ended.

‘What time do you want to go out there tonight, then?’ someone said.

Jace Robit replied. ‘Usual time. Get out there at eight.’

Kash and I looked at each other. I saw movement out on the road and twisted slightly, squinted in the light.

‘Oh, shit.’

‘What?’

‘Digger. The town dog. Look.’

Out on the road, the plump grey mutt was trotting along on its own, tongue waggling limply between its jaws. No clue where it was going, no sign of where it had come from. I knew that if there was one thing that dogs got excited about, other than food, it was humans lying on the ground. If the dog saw us, our risk assessment score would be through the roof.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

‘Oh God, don’t let it look over here,’ I breathed. I heard the floorboards above me creak. ‘Don’t move. Don’t look at it. Maybe it won’t see us.’