‘What do you suggest?’ said Adam.
Molly looked back at the barn, getting her breath back. ‘Once he gets the fire sorted he’ll come after us. He’ll have guns and he’ll use the car. Which means we have to get off this path, it’s too exposed. He can find us too easily.’
Adam turned the torch on and swept it around them. There was just snowy heath and moorland in every direction.
‘And we can’t use the torch,’ said Molly, ‘except in emergencies. It’ll only flag up our position.’
Adam switched the torch off.
‘It would be good if we could find some trees,’ said Molly, scuffing her feet in the snow. ‘We’re leaving tracks.’
‘We’re fucking dead,’ said Roddy.
‘Don’t say that,’ said Adam.
‘We are,’ said Roddy. ‘We can’t move fast, we’re in the middle of fucking nowhere, we’re leaving tracks in the snow, it’s pitch black and freezing, I’m bleeding to fuck, and we have no idea which way to go to get help.’
‘Not entirely true,’ said Molly. ‘Remember, I said there was a farmhouse near the American Monument, at Upper Killeyan? I’m pretty sure it’s that way.’
She waved off to the left in an unconvincing gesture.
‘If we make it there, we can get help. If there’s no one in the place, we can use the phone.’
‘Shit,’ said Adam. ‘We should’ve taken the police radio from the table, shouldn’t we? Used that to get help.’
Molly shook her head. ‘We can’t use a police radio, we’ve no idea who’s listening in, whether they’re on Joe and Grant’s side or not. Joe used the radio to contact his pick-up guys, remember?’
‘So if there’s no one at this farmhouse and the phone works, who do we call?’ said Roddy.
‘Ash.’
‘Ash?’ Roddy sounded incredulous. ‘She’s our big escape hope?’
‘Screw you,’ said Molly. ‘She’s my sister, and if I call asking for help, she’ll come get us.’
‘What about that cop you mentioned to Joe?’ said Adam.
‘Eric?’ Molly thought for a moment. ‘I know he won’t be messed up in any of this, but he’s only one old guy, I don’t know how much he can do. He could maybe come get us, but I wouldn’t want him taking on Joe.’
‘Is there any chance of a mobile reception anywhere out here?’ said Adam. ‘Should we have got our phones from the barn?’
‘No point,’ said Molly. ‘We’re further from Port Ellen than we were at the crash site, so if we couldn’t get anything there, there’s no chance out here.’
She looked into the darkness in the direction of the American Monument.
‘The only problem with getting to this farmhouse is that there are loads of sea cliffs over that way as well.’
‘Fucking great,’ said Roddy.
‘But if we’re careful, we’ll avoid them.’
‘In the dark without the torch? Great plan.’
Molly stared at him in the gloom. ‘You got a better one?’
Roddy glared at her for a long time then lowered his head. ‘No.’
‘Right. How are we all doing?’
Adam nodded. ‘Good to go, I think.’
Roddy sighed. ‘Fucked, but no more than when I woke up with half a fucking Audi in my shoulder.’
‘You can move OK, yeah?’ said Molly.
Roddy snorted sarcastically. ‘Think so.’
Adam looked at Molly. ‘And how are you?’
‘Fine.’
‘I mean, after… you know. Back there.’
‘I said I’m fine.’
‘What a fucking cunt,’ said Roddy.
‘Yeah, well,’ said Molly.
They heard a noise and looked down the path. The snow was falling thicker now, but they could see a spread of light splaying out from the barn as the door opened. There was the metallic click and clunk of a car door opening and closing, followed by a pair of headlights suddenly blazing, beaming across the moor. The engine revved.
‘Time to move,’ said Molly. ‘Any questions before we get going?’
‘Yeah,’ said Roddy, ‘how the fuck did we get into this mess?’
25
They staggered frantically across the peat moors as best they could in the darkness, torn between watching where their feet were going and looking nervously behind them. After a couple of minutes they saw the sweep of the police car’s headlights emerge over the hill, fingers of light reaching across the landscape. They flattened themselves into a small snowy crevice in the heather, freezing and soaking their stomachs, Roddy stifling a cry of pain.
The car crawled along the path, the beam of a torch coming from the driver’s seat, spraying this way and that as Joe hunted for them. The car seemed to take forever to drive on, but eventually it crawled further along the path, heading inland, the headlights and torch beam arcing further away.
‘Come on,’ said Molly, picking herself up and trying to brush the wet snow off. ‘This way.’ She pointed uphill.
‘Why that way?’ said Roddy.
She helped him to his feet. ‘Because it’s the opposite direction from Joe. Good enough?’
‘That’ll do for me.’
They walked on, almost getting used to the rough terrain, the spongy feel of the heather under their feet, the snow smothering everything, the faint whiff of peat crystallising in the frozen air. The snow seemed to muffle all noise except for the squeak and scrunch of their footfalls in the white wilderness.
‘Think he’s lost us,’ said Adam eventually, looking back. It had been quite a few minutes since they’d seen the lights from Joe’s car.
‘Fucking idiot,’ said Roddy, as faint headlights appeared again on the horizon. ‘Don’t you know anything about tempting fate?’
‘Remind me to kill you when we get out of here,’ said Adam.
‘Get down you morons,’ hissed Molly, hitting the deck.
They did likewise as the car beams played over the hill they were on. They were more exposed than before, Adam suddenly regretting his dark jacket, an easy target against the white blanket covering everything.
The headlights passed over them. Adam looked up to see where the car was, just as the thinner beam from the torch pointed right in his face.
‘Stay down,’ said Molly, but it was too late.
The sound of a shot cracked the heavy silence, making them all jump.
‘Shit,’ said Molly.
She hauled Roddy up and started running, the three of them tumbling over rocks and holes, running for their lives. They darted from side to side, zigzagging as best they could.
The car headlights disappeared, but the beam of torchlight occasionally found them, causing them to scatter like panicked deer.
‘Stay together,’ shouted Molly over her shoulder. ‘Or we’re screwed.’
Adam grabbed Roddy and dragged him towards Molly, all of them trying to dodge the torchlight. His heart pounded in his ribcage and his head throbbed with the effort of trudging and slipping across the moors. This couldn’t go on forever, something had to give one way or the other. He had a flicker of memory, sitting in front of a log fire in
