filled with a high-pitched whiny whir.
‘Cut it out,’ said Adam, taking out the blowtorch. He turned it in his hands, getting a feel for it. It was quite flashy, like a modern hairdryer or something. He found the gas valve and turned it, then clicked the ignition and a jet of blue flame shot out the nozzle towards Roddy.
‘Easy, Tiger,’ said Roddy, backing away.
Molly took two aerosols out of the bottom of the toolbox and displayed them — one pesticide, one anti- freeze.
‘What do you reckon these are for?’
Adam looked at the moonshine canister and sucked on the chemical aftertaste in his mouth. ‘Hmmm.’
She chucked them back into the box and surveyed what they had.
‘This is all good, but we don’t have anything to match a gun.’
Adam switched the blowtorch off. Roddy whirred the power drill in the air.
‘We’ll just have to use the element of surprise.’
‘How exactly do we do that?’ said Adam. ‘He knows we’re here.’
‘I have no idea,’ said Roddy. ‘It’s just the kind of thing people say in situations like this.’
Molly sighed.
‘Well, he’ll be here soon enough, so we’d better think of something quick.’
‘Too late,’ said Joe, grinning at the barn door and pointing a gun at them.
Their faces crumpled.
‘I told you we should’ve had a bloody lookout,’ Adam said to Roddy.
‘Fuck you,’ said Roddy.
‘You should’ve listened to your bumchum,’ said Joe. ‘He was right for once.’
29
‘How the fuck did you get here so quick?’ said Roddy.
Joe pulled car keys out of his pocket and dangled them.
‘After sending you that wee signal with the torch, I cut inland back to the road. I knew you’d think I’d follow you across the cliffs. I also knew you’d come back here. Actually, I hoped I might get here first, but no matter.’
Adam looked at Joe. His cheeks were red and there was a watery sparkle in his eyes. He looked like he was having the best time of his life.
‘Don’t kill us,’ pleaded Adam.
‘Succinct and no-nonsense,’ said Joe. ‘But completely pointless. Of course I’m going to kill you, why do you think I’ve just fucking chased you halfway around the Oa in the snow at night? To give you a pat on the back? Dickhead.’
Radio static jumped out at them.
Joe kept his eye and gun on them as he reached for the radio on his belt.
‘Yeah?’ he said into it.
The voice on the other end spoke, but they couldn’t make out what was said.
‘Half an hour’s cool,’ said Joe, winking at them. ‘I’ll have everything ready for you then.’
He put the radio back in his belt.
‘How are you going to explain all this to your mates on the radio?’ said Molly, waving an arm around the scene behind them.
Joe put a finger to the corner of his mouth. ‘They never need to know about you three fuckwits, or laughing boy over there.’ He waved the gun at Luke’s body.
He turned to look at Grant. ‘And let me tell you, no one is going to miss that arsehole, least of all the people I work with. Grantie was a liability, and we all knew it. As for the still, well that can always be fixed. There’s enough money being coined in here to make it worth our while.’
‘But how are you going to explain away our deaths?’ said Adam.
Joe sighed. ‘You really have no fucking clue, do you? I won’t have to explain anything, there won’t be any bodies. I’ll get rid of the evidence in the still furnace over there. No bodies, no crime. You cunts came to the island, then you left and took Molly with you.’
‘People will come looking for us,’ said Roddy.
‘You think so?’ said Joe. ‘You’ve got a pretty high opinion of your own importance. Even if someone does come, I just put on the friendly policeman face, say I’ll look into it, and everyone buggers off thinking I’ve got it in hand.’
Molly gave it one last go. ‘No one from the island is going to believe I just upped and left with four guys from the mainland, without a word to anyone.’
‘Then you’ll just have to be a missing person.’ Joe shrugged. ‘What else can I do?’
‘You don’t have to do anything,’ said Molly. ‘Let us go. Don’t make it any worse than it already is. There’s still a way out of this for all of us.’
Joe snorted a sickly, desperate laugh. ‘Look around you, darling.’ He waved his gun around the room. ‘Does it look like there’s a way out for me now? Does it?’
‘You have to stop all this,’ said Molly calmly.
Joe shook his head and lowered his voice. ‘I can’t stop, Molly. That’s just it. Can’t you see? I can’t stop. This is what I do now. This is who I am.’
He looked at her for a moment then suddenly snapped back into focus, raising his voice. ‘Now, I can’t believe you fucking pains in the arse are still standing here talking and not dead.’
He lifted the gun and pointed it straight at Adam.
‘You first, I think,’ he said to Adam, then nodded at Roddy. ‘Bigmouth next.’ He turned to look at Molly. ‘Then it has to be you, love. Sorry, but there’s nothing I can do.’
‘You’re not sorry in the slightest,’ said Molly.
Adam stared at the gun barrel pointing at him and felt faint. All the blood in his body seemed to pump into his head, which felt like it was about to explode. A raging gush filled his ears as he stood, unable to move. He watched Joe’s finger begin to squeeze the trigger. It seemed to be happening excruciatingly slowly. Then he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. To begin with his brain couldn’t work out what it was.
Suddenly a flood of clear liquid was spraying all over Joe and the gun, soaking him and making him screw up his eyes. He clawed at his eyeballs and the gun went off, the bullet close enough to Adam’s head that he felt the wobble of air past his ear.
Adam heard a voice screaming at him and turned to see Roddy shouting, but couldn’t work out what he was saying. Roddy was pointing at Adam’s hands. He looked down and saw he was still holding the blowtorch. Roddy waved the moonshine canister at him, showing him it was empty. That’s what he’d thrown in Joe’s face. Seventy per cent alcohol right in his eyes.
Adam’s fingers fumbled as he tried to turn the gas nozzle of the blowtorch, eventually hearing the hiss. He looked at Joe, who was righting himself and opening his eyes, red raw and tear-stained. Adam clicked the ignition and heard the soft whoosh of blue flame in his hands. He lifted the blowtorch over his head and hurled it at Joe, whose eyes just had time to focus on the swirling blue flicker heading straight towards his doused head.
Joe ducked but it was too late, the body of the blowtorch hitting him on the cheek, the flame igniting his head in a sucking whump of sound, his whole upper body engulfed in flicking blue and orange heat that Adam could feel on his own face from a few yards away.
Adam stepped back as Joe staggered screaming towards them, gun waving around. The gun went off and they all scattered, then it went off again and again as Joe stumbled into the table, knocking chairs flying and clawing at the burning flesh of his face. The fire spread downwards until his whole body was bathed in persistent, consuming flames, the rancid smell of it making Adam retch.
The gun went off two more times as Joe staggered desperately towards the door, collapsing onto his knees and dropping the gun, his arms still flailing around. He slumped sideways onto the ground and began rolling
