Susannah screamed so loudly that the crows took off. Through the agony of her grief, cold, lethal anger spread through her. She closed Kate’s eyes, laying her to rest on the grass. Taking one of the sheets that had blown off the line during the storm, she covered her sister’s body. Kate had nearly made it to the sea at the edge of their garden. That was where she’d been running. Leading her demented husband away from her children and into the storm, into the wild waves. She would have drowned to save them.
Susannah stood up and clasped her cold hands together. Took a deep breath. Icy vengeance began to cloud all reason. Where was the monster? And where was her mother?
Back inside the house, she tried the door again to Matthew and Kate’s bedroom, but it wouldn’t open. If Ava were with her, she’d tell her to take the children and go find help. The police would come and arrest Matthew, and he would spend the rest of his life in jail. That would be the proper kind of justice. But Ava wasn’t here, and she couldn’t wait for that. He must be in that locked room, and she was going to make him pay. Running upstairs, she went into her mother’s bedroom to see if she could find the key. To her shock, her mother was in there. Sitting at her dressing table, quite still, as if a ghost.
‘Mom! Mom!’ Susannah screamed. ‘Katie’s dead. Mom, he killed her!’
Her mother looked in the mirror and their eyes locked. She lifted her hand, with the key in it.
‘He’s downstairs,’ she said to her daughter, clearly dazed. ‘I locked him in.’
‘Mom, go up to the girls; they need you.’
Her mother rose from her chair obediently.
Susannah grabbed the key from her hand, and charged out of the room. She was all fury and instinct. Nothing, not even her love for Ava, would stop her now. She went down to the end of the hall and opened the cupboard. Took out her father’s old hunting rifle. Opening the drawer, she found two bullets. She cocked the gun and loaded it. Snapped it shut. She walked down the hall, ready now.
As she unlocked the door to the room where her sister had been abused every day of her marriage, and where she herself had been raped, she had never felt so clear-headed in her life. She was going to the slay the beast for her sister, and for those little girls upstairs.
37
Emer
31st October 2011
Henry had been right. It was perfect walking weather. A crisp, bright fall day, not a breath of wind.
‘I’m off out for a hike again this afternoon,’ Emer told Susannah as she brought her breakfast. Now her patient accepted it in bed every day. No comment made.
Susannah pushed around her toast and jam. Looked up at her.
‘You’re not going for a big long hike on your own are you, Emer? That’s not wise.’
‘No, of course not.’
‘Who are you going with?’
She thought about telling her the truth, but Henry had been adamant this would be a bad idea. She didn’t want to upset Susannah, and besides, she needed to meet him right now, before things went any further. Tell him that in fact they were not dating.
‘Shirley from the diner,’ she said quickly, because she couldn’t think of anyone else on Vinalhaven apart from Peggy Steel, who was in the library all day.
‘Shirley?’ Susannah looked at her in astonishment. ‘She doesn’t strike me as much of a hiker. Where you going?’
‘Don’t know.’ Emer shrugged her shoulders. ‘She’s surprising me by taking me to her favourite place on Vinalhaven.’
‘Okay, well, be careful of the ticks! Don’t go off the trail.’
As soon as she got in his pick- up, Henry gave her a big kiss on the lips. It took her by surprise and his mouth banged against her teeth.
‘Ouch!’ He grimaced.
‘Sorry,’ she found herself apologising to him. Then was immediately cross with herself. Why was she saying sorry to Henry for giving her an unwanted kiss?
Before she had a chance to say anything, he was speeding off down the road, chattering away about the place they were going to.
‘Okay so, my number one place on Vinalhaven is Big Tip Toe Mountain,’ he told her as they drove along the island roads. ‘It has the most fabulous panoramic views of the whole of Penobscot Bay. You’re going to love it.’
He put a hand on her thigh, gave it a squeeze. She began to wish she’d arranged to meet him in town in the diner.
‘Henry, you know I had to take the morning-after pill yesterday?
‘But why did you do that, baby?’ he asked her as he parked the pick-up, turning off the ignition and looking at her with concern. ‘You didn’t tell me.’
‘I texted you, and you texted back! Although I suppose you didn’t respond about that in particular.’ She wanted to say, You sent me all these lovey-dovey gushy messages, but stopped herself. That would be mean.
‘I didn’t get any texts from you,’ he said. ‘God, I’m so sorry, because you didn’t need to do that.’
He took a breath, looked out of the windshield. Took one hand off the steering wheel and held her hand.
‘One of the reasons Mandy left me is she wanted kids,’ he sighed. ‘We tried for years. Had tests. My sperm count is non-existent.’
‘Oh, I’m sorry,’ Emer said, colouring and feeling immediately awful. ‘But at your place, you were talking about wanting to have lots of kids?’
‘It’s just a dream,’ he said. ‘But you know, I want to adopt when the time is right.’ He squeezed her hand. ‘When I meet the right lady.’
She didn’t know what to say.
