Molly was pointing ahead. Luke and Roddy were just behind him, and the three of them hurried to reach her.
In the far distance Adam could see a light. It was a couple of miles away at least, and the night encroached all around, but there was definitely something there.
‘Looks like a farmhouse,’ said Molly.
Adam peered into the darkness. There was an outline of a building nestled tightly into a cove just before the next headland. He couldn’t see any other buildings, or any road or path leading to the place, but then it was hard to make anything out in the creeping gloom.
As they watched, the light blinked out, leaving a thin outline behind.
‘Maybe they’ve closed the curtains,’ said Molly.
‘It’s a bit in the arse-end of nowhere, isn’t it?’ said Roddy.
‘Lucky for us it is,’ said Adam. He squinted and thought he saw a whisper of smoke drifting up from the black shape, but couldn’t be sure.
‘Come on,’ said Roddy in a strained voice. ‘Let’s get the fuck over there.’ He held his injured arm tight to his body. ‘I’m dying here.’
‘You’re not actually dying,’ said Adam pointedly, glancing behind them.
‘I might if we don’t get a fucking bend on.’
It was slow going, even with the thought of the building spurring them on. The terrain was uneven, large slabs of rock and loose shingle-strewn slopes making it hard to find a way across, forcing them to take a time- consuming, circuitous route. They found themselves looping in and out, scrabbling up and over, having to detour around freezing pools of seawater and crumbling stone arches to make any headway.
Coming away from the sea and up the shore they found a path of sorts, a break in the stones underfoot, and they quickened their pace a little. It was dark now, and they kept losing the path in the snow, stumbling over rocks and into potholes, getting frantic as their fingers and feet began to sting with the cold. Adam wondered about frostbite: how did you know if you had it? He could still feel his extremities, but his whole body was visited by occasional shivering spasms as the snow got heavier all around. He looked ahead but all he could see was the thick black cliff face vaguely silhouetted against a gunmetal sky.
As he looked, an electric light appeared then disappeared, throwing the shape of a farmhouse into the inky night for a brief moment. It was enough to get their bearings. They were close now, just a few hundred yards away, and they hurried on, Molly and Adam ahead, Luke helping Roddy behind.
The path flattened out and Adam could suddenly hear something over the sound of the sea, the insistent rhythmic chug of a generator. He and Molly were almost at the building now, and he could make out a sliver of light at the bottom of the door. As they approached Adam realised it was a barn rather than a farmhouse, with no windows but a big, wide wooden door on the side facing them. He caught a whiff of a familiar smell as they reached the door and pushed it open.
‘Hello? Anyone here? We need help.’
Adam and Molly walked inside.
The room was taken up by two large stills of beaten-up, discoloured copper, linked by ramshackle pipes to a rusting still safe. In one corner of the barn sat a grubby mash tun and a large steel washback, in the other were dozens of hogsheads and butts of different sizes and colours of wood.
‘Holy crap,’ said Molly.
‘Is this what I think it is?’ said Roddy.
‘Yeah,’ said Adam, looking around. ‘An illegal still.’
‘What the fuck’s going on here?’
The voice from behind made them all turn.
Standing in the doorway was Joe in his police uniform, an impassive look on his face and a shotgun cradled in his elbow. Behind him was cousin Grant, tapping a side-handled baton against his leg.
20
Molly was first to move, walking towards him, hands out in front of her.
‘Joe, thank God,’ she said. ‘There’s been an accident.’
‘Accident?’
‘We drove our car over a cliff a few miles up the coast.’
‘And you walked all the way here?’
Molly nodded.
Joe turned slowly from Molly to the rest of them.
‘What happened to you?’ he said to Roddy, pointing at his shoulder.
Roddy’s face was pale in the striplit room. ‘Got a piece of shit car stuck in me.’
‘That Audi I pulled you up in?’
‘Yeah.’
‘ Vorsprung durch technik, eh?’
‘Fucking tell me about it.’
Joe looked around. ‘Wasn’t there another one in your gang?’
They all looked down.
‘Ethan,’ said Adam. ‘He died in the crash.’
‘So there’s a smashed-up Audi and your mate’s body at the bottom of a cliff round the coast?’
‘Yeah,’ said Molly.
‘Which way?’
Molly looked confused and flustered. ‘East, but never mind that just now, we need to get to Bowmore Hospital, Roddy’s shoulder needs fixed, the rest of us are probably close to hypothermia.’
‘I’m just trying to get things straight,’ said Joe. ‘What were you doing on the Oa anyway?’
‘Looking at the old Stremnishmore distillery,’ said Adam.
‘What for?’
‘I want to start it up again.’
Joe laughed. ‘Did you hear that, Grant?’
Grant smiled to reveal a snaggle of browning teeth.
‘He wants to start up an old distillery, and now here he is standing in the middle of an illegal bootlegging operation,’ said Joe. ‘A bit suspicious, isn’t it?’
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ said Molly. ‘We got here just before you did.’
Roddy spoke to Joe. ‘What are you doing here, anyway?’
Joe looked at him, then at Grant.
‘Are you here to shut this place down?’ said Adam.
Joe laughed and Grant joined in, a sharp bark of a sound.
‘Not exactly,’ said Joe, stepping further inside with Grant and closing the door behind him.
He lifted the shotgun and pointed it at them.
‘We run this operation.’
The thrum of distillery equipment filled the silence between them for a few moments.
‘Oh fuck,’ said Roddy.
Molly looked at the shotgun and laughed nervously. ‘Come on, Joe, don’t be ridiculous.’
Joe levelled the gun at her as Grant took a pistol from the back of his trousers and pointed it at the rest of them.
‘Get over with them,’ Joe said to her.
‘This is stupid,’ said Molly. ‘What are you doing?’
Joe walked up to her. ‘I’m giving you an order, and I expect you to fucking obey it.’
‘Why? Because you’re the police, or because you’re my dickhead ex-husband?’
He jabbed the shotgun butt into her stomach, winding her. She doubled over. He backhanded her across the
