Jail Bird

thing hit her cheekbone. She staggered back and fell. Lily clapped her hands over her mouth to stifle the scream of rage and terror that almost escaped her.

‘Where?’ bellowed Jase, standing over the poleaxed Saz. ‘You want some more of this? Do you?’

Saz was prone, clutching a hand to her bleeding cheek, sobbing. She shook her head wildly.

‘Tell me where,’ said Jase.

Saz said nothing.

Lily swallowed hard and stepped out, started to move around the door. Fuck it, she couldn’t let him hit Saz again. She couldn’t.

And then Oli’s voice from the top of the stairs said: ‘Jase? What the hell are you doing here? Oh my God. Saz? What’s happened? What’s he done to you?’

Lily heard Oli start down the stairs.

‘She up there?’ Jase was saying, and she heard his tread, heavier, bulkier, he was going up the stairs. Shit, Oli was up there, the cash, oh Christ in heaven, Oli was pregnant and he could hurt her, throw her down the stairs, make her lose the child, anything. He could hurt both her girls, and she couldn’t let that happen, she just couldn’t.

She stepped out around the door.

Saz spied her instantly. But Jase and Oli couldn’t see her, they were on the stairs. Lily looked straight at Saz. Honey, be quiet. Say nothing, Lily’s eyes said urgently to her daughter.

‘You can’t come in here just like this. How the fuck did you get in here?’ Oli was screaming at Jase as he thundered up the stairs towards her.

Got to do something quick, thought Lily. She crept out into the hall, Saz watching her dazedly, and eased open the cupboard under the stairs. Tools in there. A hammer. She snatched it out of the box.

‘You bastard, what are you doing?’ Oli was shouting.

Lily’s eyes fell on the fusebox. She flipped up the cover and looked at the pop-out fuses there. Showers. Ring circuit. Water heaters. Cookers. Lights. She pulled out the fuse.

Suddenly, The Fort was plunged into darkness.

63

‘Hey!’ Jase yelled.

He’d seen her at the edge of his vision as he climbed up the stairs, seen her moving quickly across the hall in that split-second before the lights went out. And now he was on the staircase and Oli was up ahead, at the top of the stairs. He couldn’t see fuck-all, he was blind. But he knew she was up ahead and once he had hold of Oli, the King bitch was going to have to toe the line, he knew that much for sure. He started edging up, thinking there were maybe eight or nine steps to go before he reached Oli and grabbed her.

‘Oli?’ he said, tightening his grip on the cash.

Just speak, you silly cow, because the minute you open your yap, I’ll know exactly where you are.

He could feel sweat breaking out all over his body. His chest was a tight, painful knot. He wished he could see. Wished she’d speak. But she was silent.

‘Oli?’ he said again, more urgently.

And then he felt the impact, something thumping him hard in the chest. No, she wouldn’t, she…he teetered wildly, trying to keep his balance, his mind’s eye supplying him with a dizzying picture of the drop behind him. If he fell, he could break his damned neck.

‘Jesus!’ he roared, furious, because yes, it was Oli. She’d pushed him and he was…oh shit, he was pitching backwards, losing it, hands splaying out, the cosh going flying from his fingers. He felt a stunning pain as his head struck a stair, then his shoulder; his arm was wrenched, his leg…fuck it, fuck, fuck, this was not how it should be going, this was not meant to happen.

Pain exploded in his body and erupted in his head, and he fell, he plummeted, backwards into the darkness.

‘God, do you think he’s dead?’ Oli asked in a trembling voice. ‘I pushed him; I shouldn’t have done that. Oh no, oh Christ, do you think I killed him?’

When Lily had heard Jase going arse over tit down the stairs, she had thought he had merely lost his balance. But Oli had pushed him.

Good going, girl, she thought.

She’d popped the fuse back in. Blinked a bit as the lights flared back on, illuminating the hall to a dazzling degree. She saw that Saz was on her feet, swaying like a drunk, blood dripping steadily from her cut cheek. Jase was on his back at the bottom of the stairs, and Oli was standing three-quarters of the way down them, watching him as if he was going to leap up like a jack-in-the-box, grinning like a maniac and yelling Surprise! before killing them all.

Lily, still clutching the hammer, went over to where Jase lay. His neck wasn’t at an awkward angle; she didn’t think he’d broken it, which was a pity. His chest was rising and falling, Oli hadn’t killed him, also a pity. The cosh was feet away, but she didn’t want him coming round and grabbing that again, so she kicked it across the hall, well out of his reach. Then she went back to the cupboard under the stairs, speaking quickly over her shoulder.

‘Oli, take your sister upstairs,’ she said.

She was peering in the box. No rope, no string. Fuse wire. That would do. She grabbed it and was turning when suddenly Oli said: ‘Uncle Freddy…?’

Then Lily knew their troubles had only just begun.

64

Lily whirled around. Freddy was walking across the hall to where Jason lay. He’d picked up the cosh. He flicked a look at Saz, at Oli. Then he focused his attention on Lily, and grinned.

Lily felt all her bones turn to water. Freddy’s eyes said it all. His intentions were very clear. But she still thought of the girls, her girls; she had to keep them safe, but how was she supposed to do that? She looked over at Saz, who was now near where Jase lay, just a step or two away from the stairs.

‘Oli!’ said Lily sharply, because Oli was staring at Freddy as if hypnotized. Oli’s head flicked round and she looked at her mother. ‘Take your sister up to the master suite. Right now. Go on.’

‘No.’ Oli was looking at Freddy, seeing that all his attention was focused on Lily.

‘Yes. Go on, Oli. Move it,’ said Lily.

And finally Oli moved. Saz staggered toward her and Oli put a supporting arm around her shoulders. Together, they started up the stairs. Lily watched them go. There was a lock on the master suite. It wouldn’t stop Freddy, but it would certainly slow him down if he went after them.

And he has to do that, doesn’t he?

Because he was going to kill her, and he couldn’t leave witnesses. Even if they didn’t see him do the deed, they’d know he was here and that Jase couldn’t have done it because Jase was out of commission. They’d know.

What the hell am I going to do? wondered Lily wildly.

She was still holding the hammer.

She wasn’t a killer, and Freddy was built like a brick shit – house. Even if she could get past his guard – and that was a laughable idea – would she truly be able to beat his thick skull in with the hammer? Would she be able to find that strength in herself? She didn’t know. To protect the girls, maybe. But as she watched Freddy leaning over the fallen Jase, as she saw the girls reach the landing at the top of the stairs, all she could think was, I am in terrible trouble here.