Darkhouse

‘Cool,’ said Duke. Bill hooked an arm around his shoulders and hugged the boy to his side.

‘You wanna try?’

‘Yes, sir!’ said Duke, beaming.

‘What you need to remember at all times is the target,’ said Bill. ‘Be steady and focus. Think about that target, watch that target, every step of the way. Never lose sight of it.’

The bow rocked Duke again, but he moved until he steadied his weight, keeping his legs wide. Bill stood behind him and smiled as Duke struggled to bring the bow to shoulder height.

‘This is all gonna happen a bit faster for me, Uncle Bill, ’cos I ain’t gonna be able to hold the bow too long.’

Bill laughed loud, a friendly booming laugh. Then he watched, amazed, as Duke followed every step. The arrow stopped short of its target, but only because the weight of the bow tilted Duke forward at the last second. Duke kicked the earth. ‘Damn,’ he said, twisting on his feet. ‘Damn.’

‘Don’t be so hard on yourself, son. Only thing wrong with that was the weight of that bow. Once I get you one of your own, I think you’ll be doin’ just fine.’

‘Get me one of my own?’ asked Duke.

‘Sure. I’ll get you a bow, long as you can promise me you’ll work hard at school, show up every day, don’t be swimmin’ around that creek when you should be sittin’ in class.’

Duke smiled. ‘Busted,’ said Bill. ‘Now, get along. I’ve got some shootin’ to do.’

FIFTEEN

Anna was alone on the sofa, lying on her back, rigid, when her eyes suddenly shot open. Her mouth was clamped shut and she couldn’t move. Eventually, she was able to lift her hand to the centre of her chest where she felt a pool of sweat soak into her T-shirt. Her heart thumped. Vague, broken images flashed through her mind, then slowed until she could see their true terror. Her heart beat faster. She knew what it was – sleep paralysis. It gripped her like this at stressful times, usually in the middle of the night when she never wanted to look at the clock in case time would root her in the moment until morning. She would turn to Joe and wonder if she’d ever wake him and let him know about the intense paranoia that followed each episode. But she didn’t like to wake him. So she would stay staring at the ceiling until her breathing slowed, then turn on her side, reach over him, lay her arm on top of his and pull herself close, kissing his shoulders, his back, closing her eyes and willing herself to sleep away the fear. This time with Katie and Shaun and everything else that weighed her down, she felt she was losing her grip. She couldn’t live with it all. Since she heard Katie had been murdered, her mind was taking horrifying turns and the paranoia seemed frighteningly real. She walked into the bedroom. Joe was lying on the bed with his arms stretched behind his head.

‘There’s something I need to tell you,’ she said. ‘I don’t think it’s relevant to anything, but it might be and I don’t want to take that risk.’

‘What? Relevant to what?’ asked Joe.

‘It’s about John Miller,’ said Anna.

Joe frowned.

‘I wasn’t just with him for eight months when I was in college,’ she said.

‘I don’t care how long you were with him.’

‘It’s not how long, it’s when,’ said Anna.

‘I don’t understand,’ said Joe.

‘I was with him again, when I came back here…’

Joe slowly realised what she was saying.

‘That time we were engaged?’ he asked, sitting up.

‘Yes,’ said Anna. Her eyes filled up with tears. ‘Yes. For the two weeks I was here. I don’t know why.’

‘Why?’ he asked.

‘I don’t know why,’ she repeated. ‘He was there and—’

‘I was miles away and you didn’t give a damn,’ Joe finished, his voice rising.

‘No. It wasn’t like that. I just, what can I say? It was a long time ago—’

‘Why are you telling me this now?’ But Joe knew how emotional traumas impacted on people and made them purge their souls. Dark secrets came out in dark moments.

‘I don’t know,’ said Anna. ‘Maybe…I don’t know.’

‘I can’t believe I’m hearing this.’ He shook his head. ‘Has he done something?’

‘He’s been weird. He pushed me up against a wall. He asked me to have sex with him. Then he was talking to you that time in the bar…’

‘He asked you to have sex with him?’ Joe was on his feet, furious.

‘Yes.’

‘Well, what did you say to that?’

‘No! What do you think I said?’

‘I don’t know. Yes, maybe?’

‘It was a long time ago, what happened,’ she said again, her voice louder.

‘Great. Well then it doesn’t matter. Hey, I slept with someone, but it was five years ago, so let’s all just keep going on as normal,’ said Joe.

‘Did you?’ said Anna, fear in her eyes.

‘Oh, for crying out loud – no, I did not! My point is it doesn’t matter when you are unfaithful, it matters that you were and that you lied and that there was some schmuck who married you anyway, without having all the facts. Do you think that’s fair? Do you think that’s a good basis—’

‘Do you regret marrying me?’ asked Anna.

‘Don’t you dare try and turn this around. You know what the answer to that is. But I’m not going to let this go. I have been faithful to you for twenty years, Anna. And not a lot of cops can say that to their wives. We have pros flashing their tits at us, exotic dancers who’d do anything to beat a drugs rap, women who get off on the goddamn uniform, for Christ’s sake.’

‘Good for you!’ shouted Anna, jumping up from the bed. ‘Good for you! Thank you! You didn’t sleep with some whore!’

‘Oh, I think I did,’ he said.

She stared at him. ‘You bastard.’ He grabbed her arm as she strode past. She jerked it away and kept going.

D.I. O’Connor stood at the top of the room in front of Frank Deegan and the thirty guards working on the case out of Waterford station.

‘Right, lads. Listen up. Here’s what we’ve got so far on Katie Lawson: time of death is consistent with the time of her disappearance, but she could have been held somewhere for days before her murder – putrefaction makes the estimate more difficult, as you all know. We also should consider the possibility that she was killed elsewhere and her body was left at that spot for a particular reason. Cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head, caused possibly by a rock and preceded by strangulation. We can’t rule out or in sexual assault, but the removal of clothing from her lower half would be suggestive thereof. Little was found at the scene that particularly grabbed us as significant, but trace evidence taken from the body has been sent to the lab, including fragments from a foreign object found in the skull. The results will be provided when received. For now, we are continuing to review our original questionnaires, follow up on vehicles that may have been seen in the area, root out further witnesses – we’ll be getting help from the media on that – and in the meantime, we’re looking at the boyfriend, Shaun Lucchesi. We know that his father, Joe Lucchesi, a detective from New York and on whose land the body was found, visited the scene late last night and possibly removed evidence that may have been overlooked during our initial search…’

The stereo filled the Jeep with a loungey Gainsbourg track. Joe slammed it off and sped away from the house