Fifty Fifty (Detective Harriet Blue #2)(54)

‘Unless he’s already got a gun,’ Snale said. ‘And he’s just going to surprise me and upgrade from whatever he has to one of the semiautomatics.’

There was a moment of tense silence. Kash put a finger on the paper and traced the dotted line.

‘He then goes and plants what I can only imagine is one of his bombs in the car park behind the pub. He takes a semitrailer and uses that to block off the street, effectively making a trap. This first bomb must be to drive everyone out of the pub, into the street. The truck explodes, blocking off an escape that way. Everyone is herded into this space.’ He pointed to the centre of the map, the U-shape made by the buildings and the burning truck. ‘They’re rounded up like cattle. The road up past the post office is the only way out. And from the balcony, with a semiautomatic, he’s ready to pick them off one by one as they run for their lives.’

‘It’s …’ Snale was lost for words. She pursed her lips.

‘It’s very sophisticated,’ Kash finished for her, looking over the page. ‘It uses crowd-herding tactics to maximise the death toll. He’d have learned that from the spree killers he’s studied. Anticipate where the victims will cluster naturally. Predict their movements when they panic, and channel them into the line of fire by securing the exits. It’s interesting, though, that he doesn’t channel the survivors of the initial blasts into a final explosion. He wants to shoot them down one at a time.’

‘It’s the same reason he left the note on the steering wheel,’ I said. ‘The same reason he was pacing at the site of Theo Campbell’s death. He wants to give them time to think about what’s happening to them. Time to …’ I shrugged. ‘I don’t know. To feel …’

‘Sorry,’ Kash said.

‘Sorry for what?’ Snale said.

I flipped through the diary. The only thing I could think that united all the spree killers in the diary was their rage. Their desire to be punishers.

I didn’t want to die, but I would have no choice. Vengeance is the only path.

I will get you all back.

You could have stopped this.



‘ You were right, Harry,’ Kash said. ‘You were right from the start. It’s not terrorism. He’s not trying to make a political statement. To get people to act. This is pure vengeance. He wants the people of Last Chance Valley to feel sorry for whatever it is they’ve done to cause this.’

‘What have we done?’ Snale asked. There were tears in her eyes now. She sighed helplessly. I watched her leave the table for the bathroom, swiping at her cheeks.

I turned back to the map. ‘The plan really seems to be all about maximising casualties,’ I said. ‘So we can assume it’ll go off when the most people possible are at the local pub, if the killer hasn’t abandoned his plan.’

‘I don’t see why he would have,’ Kash said. ‘He knows we have the diary. But he doesn’t know we have the plan page. He has no reason to suspect that the plan has been compromised.’

‘So when are most people down at the pub?’

‘Most of the town is there every Saturday night,’ Snale said from the doorway.

We all looked at the calendar on the wall. We had two days to stop a massacre.





Chapter 84


WE CALLED DEZ and asked him to get the word out that people weren’t to congregate in the town. Snale left us for Zac Taby’s parents’ house with a pair of counsellors who had flown in from White Cliffs.

I sat in the passenger seat of Kash’s car and deleted the many text messages from journalists on my phone, some about Last Chance Valley’s deaths, more about Sam. I looked up the EFIT image of the man Caitlyn McBeal was telling the world was my brother’s accomplice. I didn’t know him. I wanted, so desperately, to feel some spark of recognition. I ran my eyes over his long, straight nose and dark eyes, over the shape of his shaved head. Like most EFIT images, I knew this would be a cleaner, slightly dimmed version of the real man. But there was no trigger in my brain. Not even the softest soundings of alarm.

I looked at the time. In four minutes, Sam would have access to the prison phones. Kash was walking towards the car. I had my finger poised over the answer button.

‘ My brother’s going to call me in a minute.’

‘Oh. Do you want –’

‘No, it’s fine. Let’s get rolling.’

The phone rang. Kash shifted uncomfortably in his seat as he started the car.

‘Hi, Sammy,’ I said.

‘This is a reverse charge call from Silverwater Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre, a division of Silverwater Correctional Complex. If you wish to accept the call, press one.’

‘Urgh. I always forget about the automated message,’ I sighed. Kash gave an awkward smile.

‘Harry?’ It was Sam.

‘Hi.’ I could feel myself smiling, despite the heaviness in my heart. ‘Are you OK?’

‘I’m a bit numb, to be honest,’ he said. ‘When they said they had a picture of the guy I was so ready for it to be someone I knew. I mean, it would have to be, right? I was ready to be in an absolute rage. But this guy – I don’t know him. Do you?’

‘No,’ I said. ‘Never seen him before in my life.’