washed up with bullet-holes you’ll still be in the frame for murder.’
‘You’ll not get bullet-holes unless you ask for them,’ he snarled. He was standing in the shallows, close to where the motorboat was moored. ‘Get into the dinghy.’
Kirsty looked at the scenario and knew what was happening. They’d get in the ancient dinghy, he’d get into the motor boat and he’d tow them out to sea. To what?
Where was Jake? Jake, hurry!
Susie was clutching the side of the dinghy. She fell to her knees and Kirsty dropped onto the sand beside her.
‘We have to get in,’ she told her. ‘Come on. We can both swim. We’ll take our chances.’
‘He’ll kill us.’
‘Get in,’ Kenneth yelled, and Kirsty started to rise.
‘We’re working on it.’
Boris was suddenly with them again. He’d been chasing a gull further down the beach but now he came flying along the sand, quivering his delight.
‘Get the dog out of it,’ Kenneth screamed, and levelled the gun at Boris.
‘If you kill the dog it’ll still be evidence that you’ve hurt us,’ Kirsty yelled, and the gun lowered.
‘Shove him away, then. I don’t want him in the boat.’
‘Go find Jake, Boris,’ Kirsty said-hopelessly. Stupid dog. She needed a Lassie. Lassie would have brought a whole army of rescue personnel by now, and she’d have had Kenneth handcuffed to her collar and helpless.
Lassie was away playing movie star. Boris was all she had.
Boris… Lassie…
Her hand fell to the sand. There was a thin strand of dried seaweed lying beside her.
‘Go home, Boris,’ she said, and she pushed the dog away. Via her neck. Via her collar.
A seagull descended not twenty feet away and Boris was off again, barking wildly as he hared down the beach. The strand of seaweed was dangling from his collar. It stayed put as he ran.
It was all she could do, Kirsty thought bleakly. As a letter for help it lacked a certain
Please, don’t let it fall out. Please, let Jake see it.
She could do no more. Two minutes later they were in the dinghy. Kenneth was in the motorboat. He’d towed the dinghy off the sand and they were heading for the open sea.
‘Where are they?’
Jake reached the castle just as Margie and the twins returned, and they weren’t out of the car before he barked the question. ‘Kirsty and Susie. Where are they?’
‘They’ll be out in the vegetable garden,’ Margie said placidly. ‘Penelope, you carry the bag with the ice cream. Alice, you’re in charge of the meat.’
‘Daddy’s frightened,’ Alice said with perspicacity, but Jake wasn’t listening. He was striding through the garden gate, wanting to see for himself.
They weren’t in the vegetable garden.
They’d been here, though. He stared at Spike, with his high-tech drip-stand and his IV drip. Despite his unease he felt his lips quirk with amusement. Kirsty was one amazing doctor, he thought. He looked at the neat bandage wrapping the needle to Spike’s stem and thought, Wow.
She was no palliative-care physician. She brought patients back from the dead.
They’d be inside. They must be.
They weren’t.
‘No one’s home, Daddy,’ Penelope told him as he burst through the kitchen door. ‘We went to see if Susie wanted ice cream. Aren’t they in the garden?’
‘Are you worried about Kenneth?’ Margie asked, her eyes clouding as she caught his fear. She was speaking lightly so as not to concern the girls, but Jake’s daughters were bright.
‘Is the nasty man here again?’ Alice asked.
‘I don’t think so,’ Jake said, but his hand was already reaching for his phone. He wanted the police. He wanted help. Now!
‘Here’s Boris,’ Alice said as Boris raced through the open back door. ‘Yuck. He’s all wet.’
‘And he’s got stuff stuck in his collar,’ Penelope said. ‘Seaweed.’
Kenneth was crazy, but not stupid.
Once they were in the boat Kirsty had had a vague idea that they could jump out and swim. The day was hot and calm, and even if Susie couldn’t swim far, she could float. If he simply dumped them at sea then they had a chance. But Kenneth had never intended that they simply be dumped. He was crazy but there still seemed logic in his plan.
He kept his gun trained on Susie. She was the one who couldn’t move with speed, and he must have known instinctively that Kirsty would never leave her. He trained the gun on them until their boat was wrenched off the beach and the motorboat hit full throttle. Kirsty’s small hope died. The water was so still that even if they jumped, all he had to do was take pot shots at them until they were dead.
Maybe he knew where there were sharks, Kirsty thought, and the idea made her even colder, made her heart almost stop.
The old wooden boat was hardly seaworthy. It was taking in water but that was the least of her terrors. Susie was crouched in the bow and Kirsty had her arms around her, taking comfort as much as giving it.
‘What’ll he do?’
‘I don’t know,’ Kirsty said.
And then she glanced ahead and suddenly she did know.
They were a mile-maybe two-offshore. Here the smoothness of the sea was broken by a line of ragged rocks, seemingly emerging from the ocean floor. Eight or so rocks. A tiny reef. Like a row of vicious teeth, with a couple broken off.
Kenneth was heading straight towards it, faster and faster. He’d put his gun down, and in the full sunlight Kirsty saw the flash of a knife.
She knew what he intended.
He’d take them in so they were headed straight for the rocks and then he’d slice the towrope, Kirsty thought in horror. They’d continue so fast that their boat would splinter on the reef. And afterwards…
She never got to afterwards. She was hauling Susie away from the bow of the boat, screaming to her, hauling her to the side, to the lowest point.
‘He’s going to smash us on the rocks,’ she screamed. Dear God…
If they jumped now they’d still be in calm water, she thought. He’d still be able to get near them. Their only hope was in waiting.
And Susie knew. Her twin’s hand held hers, steadying. When one twin was in danger, the other knew, and how much more so now when they were both in deadly peril.
Kenneth had turned away, watching the reef. He had to. He needed to steer until he was almost on the rocks, waiting until the last possible moment so they had maximum velocity…
Wait.
She didn’t have to say it. They’d hauled themselves hard up on the side of the boat and for a sickening moment the boat lurched and Kirsty thought it might go over.
Too soon. Too soon.
Kenneth’s boat was a hundred yards from the reef. Fifty. Thirty.
Now!
It happened so fast. The cable was sliced through, the boat lurched with their sideways motion, but kept going, kept going…and the women inside fell backwards out of the boat and slammed hard against the surface of the water.
