Here and Gone(62)

Sean lay still for a moment, staring at the sky, looking for the plane. He found the trail, followed it until he saw the craft through the branches. Then he got to his feet, dusted the browned pine needles off his T-shirt and jeans.

Collins waved the pistol back in the direction of the cabin. ‘Move,’ she said.

Sean did as he was told, breathless, his head down as he walked.

‘I don’t think you’d do it,’ he said as they entered the clearing.

‘Shut up,’ Collins said.

‘I think the sheriff would,’ he said, risking a glance back at her. He saw the pistol still trained on him. ‘But you wouldn’t. Because you have a kid my age.’

‘Shut your mouth and get inside.’

A shove between his shoulder blades sent him stumbling across the porch and through the door. He walked to the trapdoor and the top of the steps. Louise still lay where they’d left her, eyes staring up at him from her sweating face.

Collins followed him halfway down before she stopped. He paused at the bottom to look back up at her. She indicated the paper bags on the floor.

‘There’s your food,’ she said. ‘And a bottle of antibiotics. Give your sister three now, and another three later tonight. She needs to get better if you want to leave here.’

Sean got down on his knees, looked through the bags, set aside the sandwiches and fruit. There, a small bottle that rattled when he lifted it. Amoxicillin, it said.

‘You try that shit again,’ Collins said, ‘then you’ll see what I will or won’t do.’

She turned and climbed the steps, let the trapdoor slam shut, locked it.

‘You left me,’ Louise said.

Startled, Sean turned his head to her. ‘What?’

‘You ran away and left me,’ she said, her eyes hard and unforgiving.

‘No, I didn’t.’

‘Yes, you did,’ she said. ‘I saw.’

Sean crawled across the floor to kneel beside the mattress. ‘I didn’t run away,’ he said. ‘I just needed to get something.’

‘Get what?’ she asked, lifting her head.

He reached inside the front of his jeans, found the metal with his fingertips. ‘This,’ he said. ‘Look.’

‘What is it?’

Before her eyes he opened the lock knife he’d taken from Deputy Collins’ pocket, let her see the shining blade.





35


AUDRA WATCHED THE news report, her hand over her mouth.

The studio handed over to Rhonda Carlisle, Silver Water’s main street darkening behind her.

‘Another major development in Elder County this evening, following the earlier shocking statement given by Audra Kinney,’ Rhonda Carlisle said. ‘An anonymous source within the investigation into the whereabouts of Sean and Louise Kinney has leaked images of physical evidence taken from their mother’s car, which was stopped outside this small desert town forty-eight hours ago.’

The photographs of the stained T-shirt and torn jeans. Audra wanted to look away, but she couldn’t.

‘The source tells us these items were found hidden beneath the front passenger seat of Audra Kinney’s station wagon by a team from the FBI’s Phoenix field office. The source also tells us that traces of blood were found around the rear of the car, deepening the authorities’ fears for the children’s safety.’

Back to the studio, and the male anchor addressed the reporter.

‘Now, Rhonda, is it possible this leak is a direct response to the accusations against the Elder County Sheriff’s Department that Audra Kinney made earlier today?’

The reporter again, her expression stern.

‘It’s certainly a remarkable coincidence, Derek. Of course it’s only speculation, but a good guess might be that the investigation team wanted to undo the damage done by Audra Kinney’s statement. Given the find of bloodied children’s clothing, and what we know of this woman’s emotional and mental health problems, along with her issues with addiction, it doesn’t paint a very bright picture for her, or her son and daughter.

‘And the source has gone further and told us that with this physical evidence in hand, the Arizona Department of Public Safety’s Criminal Investigations Division has all it needs to arrest Audra Kinney for the suspected murder of her children. But, we’re told, the FBI’s Child Abduction Response Deployment team, who are heading up the search operation, have been holding the state police at bay in hopes of Mrs Kinney giving up the location of her children, dead or alive. According to the source, the authorities’ patience is at an end, and they are scheduled to execute a warrant for her arrest sometime in the next twenty-four hours. When that happens, this will officially no longer be a missing persons investigation: it will be a murder investigation.’

Audra switched off the television and said, ‘Whiteside leaked the photos. It had to be him.’

‘I told you he’d hit back,’ Danny said. An empty cup and a plate of cake crumbs sat on the floor beside his chair. ‘If they were going to arrest you today, they’d have done it by now. My guess is they’ll come for you in the morning. If we’re going to move against Collins, we have to do it tonight.’

‘We can’t,’ Audra said. ‘I can’t. I’m not …’