Here and Gone(75)

The blade’s thick root slotted into the handle easily, so the two halves simply needed to be tightened around it. Something to tie it with. He looked at his feet and saw the laces of his shoes. Less than a minute later he was ready to tie the knife back together. But he paused for a moment. There was a better way, wasn’t there?

Yes. Yes, there was.

He turned the handle sideways so that it formed an inverted T with the blade. The picture formed in his mind: the pieces bound together with his lace, maybe a little more material from his shirt to cushion his hand. It didn’t take long to put together, once he’d made up his mind.

Sean set back to work, the new tool held in his fist, the blade protruding from between his fingers, most of it wrapped in cotton, only an inch or so of the tip exposed. Now he could expend less effort and dig away more wood. Even so, it took hours, but he didn’t mind. Especially when he heard that glorious crack as he pushed up on the door.

At that moment he had known for certain everything was going to be all right.

Now he wasn’t so sure.

He stopped, turned in a circle, looking for a break in the trees. A clearing, a building, a road. Anything at all. There was nothing else to do but walk and hope.

‘Can we stop?’ Louise asked.

‘No,’ he said, his voice harder than he’d intended. ‘Keep up.’

He reminded himself that she was still sick. The worst of the fever had gone, but it had left her weak and tired. He would give her some more antibiotics when they stopped.

‘Is this the wilderness?’ Louise asked.

‘I guess so,’ Sean said.

‘Don’t people die in the wilderness?’

‘Maybe,’ he said. ‘Sometimes.’

‘Are we going to die?’

‘No,’ Sean said. ‘We’re not.’

They kept walking.





44


AUDRA AIMED THE Glock at Collins’ forehead. ‘Where are they?’

Collins stood in the clearing, her hands raised. ‘I left them here last night. I don’ t—’

‘Where are my children?’

Audra stepped off the porch, advanced toward her, the pistol steady.

‘I swear to God,’ Collins said, ‘I locked the door last night. They were here, I promise you, they—’

Audra’s left hand lashed out, slapped Collins hard. She staggered back at the force of the blow, a red bloom on her cheek.

‘What kind of animal are you?’ Audra said.

Collins put her hands up once more, and once more Audra struck her. And again, this time catching her nose, drawing blood. Danny stepped back, watched with an impassive expression.

‘Get on your knees,’ Audra said.

Collins’ eyes widened. ‘What?’

‘On your knees,’ Audra said, a calmness washing over her. ‘Right now.’

Collins lowered herself to her knees, her hands up, palms facing Audra. ‘Whatever you’re thinking about doing, please don’t.’

‘Shut up,’ Audra said. ‘Look away.’

‘Please,’ Collins said.

Audra curled her finger around the Glock’s trigger, put the muzzle against Collins’ temple.

‘Please don’t,’ Collins said.

Audra looked at Danny.

‘You do what you need to do,’ he said.

‘Oh Christ, oh Jesus,’ Collins whispered, her hands trembling. She brought them together. ‘Oh God, forgive me for my sins.’

A dark stain spread from the crotch of her jeans.

‘Please, Jesus, forgive me. Look after my boy, Lord, please, and my mother. Please, God, have mercy on me.’

Audra watched her pray, imagined the bullet tearing through this woman’s head, her existence spread over the forest floor.

‘Goddamn it,’ she said, and lifted the Glock’s muzzle away from Collins’ head. Then she brought it down again, slammed the butt into her skull. Audra felt the force of it up through her wrist, her arm, into her shoulder.

Collins collapsed forward, her eyelids flickering, a rivulet of dark red snaking past her ear to her jaw. She muttered something incomprehensible into the pine needles.

Danny looked at Audra from the other side of the clearing. ‘What now?’ he asked.

Audra turned in a circle, studying the faint currents of mist between the trees. ‘We look for my children.’

‘Out here?’ Danny came to her side. ‘They could be anywhere by now.’

‘Then how do we find them?’

Danny pointed at Collins, still half conscious on the ground. ‘We take her back to town. Hand her over to Mitchell. They can organize a search, now we know where to concentrate it.’

‘That’s two hours back the way we came,’ Audra said. ‘God knows how long to get Mitchell and the state cops to move.’

She turned in a circle once more, wondering which way they might have gone. If they knew where it was, surely they would have headed for the trail and followed it to the road? She strained her eyes, looking for something, anything.

Audra stopped. What was that? Something had snagged her eye. She turned back again, slowly, seeking it out, whatever it was. Look, look, look.

There.

A glimpse of pink against the brown carpet of needles. She lost it again as the breeze moved the lower branches of the trees, obscuring the pinpoint of color. Without a word, she set off at a run, into the trees, ducking the low branches, skipping over the roots.