Beyond Fear (35 page)

Matt kept moving forward and to the left, standing higher than he should, daring to call out to Jodie in a loud whisper.

Behind him, the bush fell silent and Matt hit the ground again.

‘You think you’re smart, don’t you, Wiseman?’ Kane was out of breath, treading slowly through the scrub now. ‘You’re not. You’re an arsehole.’

Takes one to know one, Matt thought, crawling again, trying to go quietly, grimacing in pain as he lifted his leg instead of dragging it. He heard a soft rustle not far ahead. Keep going, Jodie. He picked up his pace, heading towards the sound, feeling his way. It was so dark, Kane would have to be almost on top of them before he saw them. Then the bush was crashing about again. Kane was moving faster, was heading their way.

When Matt saw Jodie, fear tightened his throat. She was on her hands and knees, crawling under the overhang of a bush – and her white sweater glowed like a streetlight in fog.

‘I can see you. Get ready to die,’ Kane yelled.

The guy had a limited repertoire but he wasn’t blind, Matt thought. And he was close. Too close. All that sweater needed to make the shot easier was a big, red circle. Damn the noise, he thought as he drove to his feet and ran. Bent almost double and limping like his leg was hanging off, he dived through the undergrowth towards her.

‘Pissant chicken shit!’

Matt could hear the pounding of Kane’s boots over the thrashing of the bush, saw Jodie look behind, rise to a crouch. If she took off running, he’d never catch her.

He braced himself for the pain in his knee and launched himself at her. She was on her feet when he reached her, half revolved towards him, hands pulled back ready to strike. He got both his arms around her thighs, turned his face away but she still landed a solid hit to his collarbone as he pushed her to the dirt. He heard her breath whoosh out, felt the momentary stunned stillness as she hit the ground, took the advantage and scrabbled over her, cupping his hand across her mouth. He’d apologise later. For now, he had to stop her bucking around. She drove hips and knees at him, scratched at his face, whipped her head about. Her eyes were open but she wasn’t seeing. He found her ear, pressed his mouth against it.

‘It’s me. It’s Matt.’

He held her head still, one hand over her mouth, the other with a handhold of hair, forcing her to look at him. He felt bad about it but it was better than letting her scream. When recognition hit, her eyes went wide, her body fell still and the hands that had been pushing him away grabbed at his shirt and pulled ferociously at him. He took his hand away from her mouth and she pressed her face into his shoulder, breathing hard. Yeah, Jodie, I feel the same way.

Kane was moving around nearby. Matt tugged at the front panels of his jacket, tried to cover Jodie’s sweater with it. She tucked her arms inside his coat, slipped her hands around his back, leaving cold palms flat on his shoulderblades.

She was out of breath, puffing loudly and trying not to, burying her face in his neck, moving her lips against his stubble as she gasped for air. He eased down a little, taking the pressure off his arms, felt her chest heaving against his, her neat, round breasts pushing against his rib cage. She was lean and toned and soft in all the right places. She was tough and strong and she’d just saved his unworthy arse. It was like a cruel joke. He gets his dream woman in a clinch hold thirty seconds before a bullet through the head.

‘Hey, tough bitch. You ready to die?’ Kane’s voice was right above them.

Jodie froze. Foliage whispered, leaves shuffled under boot. A branch snapped. Her mouth on his neck stopped moving, her chest stopped heaving. Matt’s heart was a mallet at the back of his throat.

‘How ’bout you, Wiseman? You ready to spill your brains?’

A voice boomed and echoed in the night. ‘KANE. Where the fuck are you?’ Travis was yelling from the barn.

‘Wiseman and the tough bitch are out here. Bring the torch.’ Kane’s voice had moved past them. Matt took a slow, quiet breath. Felt Jodie do the same.

‘There’s no time for a fucking search party. I found it. Get your arse back here,’ Travis yelled.

‘I want Wiseman and the bitch on a spit.’

‘Fuck that. You got three more up here.’

Jodie’s body went rigid. Matt grimaced as her fingernails dug into his shoulder. There was silence except for Kane’s breath rasping in and out.

‘
Now
, Kane. Get up here and help or I piss off without you.’

The foliage overhead shook violently. Kane was flaying about, cursing his brother. Jodie seemed to be struggling for air. He tried to take more of his weight on his arms but she pulled him tighter against her.

‘Hey, Wiseman.’ The scrub stilled. ‘I’m coming back for you. You hear? I’m gonna beat your brains out and cut you up in little pieces. I’m gonna dig a hole and put you in the ground.’

Matt stiffened.
Like the holes under the barn?

Leaves swished and swayed against each other as Kane started walking away.

‘You and your tough bitch and all her friends,’ he yelled.

31

Matt was heavy. He was crushing her. But he was the only thing holding her together.

Oh God, Kane was going back to kill her friends.

The bush fell silent as he reached the clearing. He must have turned around because his voice came at them loud and clear, amplified by the crisp night, sounding cold and hard and cruel.

‘And I’ve got the perfect spot for you, Wiseman. Right next to that slut you never found.’

Above her, Matt turned to stone. Then, without warning, he pushed his palms flat to the dirt, lifted himself clear of her. She knew in an instant what he was doing. He was going after Kane. And Kane would shoot him. She grabbed him in a bear hug, locked her legs around him.

‘No!’ she hissed in his ear.

Matt pushed against her, trying to break free. Her arms were weak from hauling him across the grass and she wanted to hit him for trying to be such a goddamn hero back there, for telling her to run like he had any right to make that decision, but she just held on for dear life. He was going to survive this thing whether he liked it or not. The battle seemed to ease some of her crazy, uncontrollable shaking. Or maybe it was just being wrapped around his warm body that did that. He was tall and strong and determined – and he was protecting all of her with all of him. There wasn’t much more she could ask of a man. Then just as suddenly, the tension left him, as though he’d slapped the book closed on that idea. His weight settled on her again. She let her arms go slack, breathed into his neck, filled her nostrils with his sweaty, dirt-covered man smell. Felt a whole lot less shaky.

Kane’s footsteps landed heavily on the timber steps, stomped across the verandah. He was shouting as he went through the door. Travis shouted in answer. Jodie squeezed her eyes shut. She should have made it down the hall. She should have gone back to her friends.

‘Are you okay?’ Matt whispered. He was close enough for her to see most of the detail of his face in the dark. There was a new bloodied scratch down his cheek, a match for the graze on the other one.

‘What was with the crash tackle?’ she said.

‘Your sweater was glowing like a light bulb. Kane was right behind me.’

She pushed him off her, sat up, suddenly freezing without his body heat. ‘What the hell did you think you were doing back there? I told you to run and you sat on your butt.’

There was a beat before he answered. ‘I couldn’t get up. My knee . . .’

‘What about later? You were up on your feet, running just fine.’

‘I was trying to save your life.’

Anger and fear burned in her throat. She wanted to put her arms around him, hold onto him tight but instead she poked a finger into his chest. ‘I don’t need a goddamn hero. I need you to stay alive.’

He looked down at her finger. His eyes narrowed a little. She couldn’t tell if he was annoyed or amused. Maybe he was both. ‘Come on. We need to move,’ he said.

Jodie got to her feet, watching Matt hobble awkwardly, favouring his bad knee. How far would they get?

She looked at the barn over the top of the bush. Its high, A-frame roof and towering facade dwarfed the lounge room’s long span of windows. Light seemed to bulge through the glass into the almost moonless night, illuminating the verandah from the kitchen to the right-hand corner of the old building. The pale curtains looked undisturbed except for the stretch missing from the centre where the pane had been smashed. Jodie could see into the room through there – the big table askew, a couple of toppled dining chairs, a lounge and a corner of the island bench. Travis was further inside the room, standing side-on. The half of his face she could see was covered in blood. He was shouting, throwing his arms around. Somewhere out of view, Kane was shouting back. She couldn’t catch the words, just angry, guttural barks of sound. An argument. The other end of the barn looked dark and ominous. Fear gathered like a fist in her stomach. She moved towards the clearing.

‘This way.’ Matt grabbed her arm and pulled her in the other direction.

She shook off his hand. ‘No. We have to go back for them.’ She swung her head to the barn. Lights were coming on inside. Quickly, as though Kane or Travis was running down the hall, flicking the switches in the rooms.

‘Come on.’ Matt dragged on her arm. ‘We have to go.’

‘We can’t leave them.’

‘Come on, Jodie. Now.’ As he said it, lights started coming on along the verandah, too. Two at a time. Starting at the lounge room then past the kitchen, the bathroom, around the bedroom end. Two seconds later, the deck that ran behind the fireplace lit up. The verandah was a solid square of light.

Kane’s voice boomed from the house. ‘I’m gonna get you, Wiseman.’

A powerful floodlight on the roof at the bedroom end of the barn opened up. The stretch of grass from the verandah to the scrub was lit like a prison yard, the top of the bush beyond it silhouetted in the glow. Another came on at the rear of the barn. The clearing to their left lit up. The scrub beside them switched from darkness to reflected low light.

‘For Christ’s sake, Jodie.’

She looked at Matt. He had her by the wrist, half turned away as he tried to pull her with him, his head above the foliage line. ‘Get down,’ she hissed, dragging at his hand as she ducked below the scrub.

Suddenly the texture of the darkness around them changed. The sky went from black to deep purple and through a silhouette of branches, the clearing glowed a ghostly green.

‘
Move
,’ Matt said.

He didn’t need to pull this time. She took off behind him, bent low, her arm outstretched where he still held her wrist. Branches thrashed around them. A shot thundered into the night. She held her breath, expecting to feel the bite of a bullet in her flesh.

They stumbled on until the light was well behind them and they could stand up straight without being seen as they pushed further through the scrub. The piercing cold of the night finally penetrated her adrenaline rush and the sweat on her skin felt like ice. Corrine’s sweater could have been mesh for all the warmth it gave her. The sky was huge and star-filled with a white sliver of moon that gave off no light. Matt’s hand had slipped to hers and she held on tight, not wanting to lose him in the dense scrub. Close as he was, he was just a darker shape in the darkness.

‘Where are we going?’ she asked.

‘Somewhere we can see more of the barn.’

‘We have to go back.’

‘You want to go ask Kane to let you into the wardrobe?’

‘No, but we have to help my friends.’

He said nothing, just pushed on through the bush. They’d changed course, no longer moving deeper into the scrub but parallel with the barn, heading towards the bedroom end.

‘What did you dig up?’ he asked.

She remembered the bristle of apprehension she’d felt when her pick hit softness. ‘I don’t know. It looked like some kind of thick fabric. Felt, maybe. Like maybe it was wrapped around something.’

Matt’s hand tightened on hers. ‘Was it red?’

‘I don’t know. It was too dark to see colour. It wasn’t pale and it wasn’t black. In between. Yes, it might have been red. Or brown.’
I’m gonna dig a hole and put you in the ground.
Something worse than apprehension scuttled like a rat down her spine. ‘What’s red, Matt?’ He held a branch back, stopped it from slapping her in the face as she walked past. His hand was so tight on hers it was starting to hurt. ‘Matt. What’s red?’

‘Tina had a red coat.’

She swallowed hard. ‘Who’s Tina?’

‘The girl who went missing.’

Jodie stopped walking. She felt sick. She’d dug up a body. A teenage girl. In a red coat. Bile burned at the back of her throat. ‘Jesus, Matt. I . . . Was she . . . ?’

‘Keep moving, Jodie.’

She stumbled on, not watching where she was going, letting Matt pull her forward while her heart banged in her chest. Kane and Travis killed a teenage girl called Tina. They’d buried her in her red coat. They’d made Jodie dig her up.

Matt stopped. ‘This is good.’