Sebastian was where he’d left him: tied to a tree by the lagoon, his head hanging limply forwards. Scooping up a handful of lagoon water, James tipped it over the South African’s head. Woozily he came to, the makings of a black eye gradually forming.
‘Morning,’ greeted James. Sebastian didn’t answer. ‘Storm’s passed,’ he added, looking around. ‘How you feeling?’
‘The…the girl,’ Sebastian murmured gingerly.
‘Yeah, the girl. I’ve got some bad news for you, chief. Danielle is strictly off-limits to you now. I know what you are, I know what you do, and you don’t get to go near her again, understand?’
‘You don’t know anything about me,’ Sebastian countered defiantly.
‘I know enough. Like I knew you’d take the bait if I left you alone with the girl.’
‘The bait?’
‘You think I’d leave Danielle in your care? I’ve seen the way you look at her, Sebastian. I knew something wasn’t right with you, I just couldn’t put my finger on it. But when I heard you were the one Eric saw in handcuffs at the airport, I kind of did the math.’
‘What math?’ he muttered miserably. ‘What do you know about it?’
‘Granted, there are a couple of things I don’t understand. Like how did you manage to get free of the handcuffs, and what did you do with Elaine’s body after you killed her?’
Sebastian smirked. ‘I didn’t kill anybody and you know it. I no more killed those people than you did.’
‘So molesting minors is okay where you come from?’
‘That’s a matter of opinion,’ Sebastian said wryly.
‘It’s a matter of the law.’
Sebastian sighed, his head still hanging limply. ‘You’re just another one of them. You rant on about the law and the rights of others, but you don’t see what’s going on in my head, the torture I deal with every day. Do you permanently pine for something you morally can’t have, huh? Have you ever considered suicide more times than you can count because nobody understands you? I’m guessing not.’
‘So make me,’ James implored. ‘Make me understand.’
Hocking a gob of phlegm to one side, the South African finally looked up. ‘In Johannesburg…I was in a maximum-security facility. I was a prisoner to the state. I’m sick, okay. I’m sick because society says I’m sick. I can’t help what I am, I was born this way. Adults repulse me. And so they lock me up. I can never be around children. But they have me all wrong, I never meant to hurt those girls, I meant only to love them. Nobody ever bothered to learn that. Instead they threw me into a rat-infested cell and left me to rot. Understand yet?’
‘Don’t confuse understanding with empathy, Sebastian. The girls you molested didn’t have a choice. They didn’t know of such things as sex or the kind of relationship you sought. All they knew was innocence, and you stole that from them with your perverted ideas of love.’
Sebastian sneered. ‘Preach to somebody who gives a shit.’
Realising he’d become sidetracked, James said, ‘None of this explains why you were on the plane.’
‘I’ve been in prison for thirteen years. I expected to die in there. I just considered myself lucky I wasn’t castrated.’
‘How did you escape custody?’
‘I didn’t. I was being transferred to New Zealand for my father’s funeral. I would’ve been back in my cell within a week. When the plane started down, the marshal removed my handcuffs so I could assume the crash position. It saved my life. Un-fortunately it didn’t save his.’
Rising to full height, James scanned the lagoon resignedly. This was getting him nowhere.
‘So tell me,’ he said, ‘where’s Elaine’s body? It has to be here somewhere.’
The South African frowned. ‘I told you, I had nothing to do with Elaine’s or anybody’s death.’
He slapped Sebastian hard across the cheek, flat palmed. He watched the man’s head snap to the side like a jack-in-a-box, watched his eyes swim. ‘Tell me the truth!’ he demanded. ‘Where have you hidden them?’
‘I don’t know what you want –’
James slapped him again. And again, this time leaving an angry red mark. Sebastian began to cry. ‘Please, I don’t know what you want me to say!’
‘Who have you killed, Sebastian?’
‘I haven’t killed any –’
‘Who have you killed?’
James was screaming his questions now, Sebastian cowering from the torrent of slaps, the crack of each one reverberating across the lagoon.
Crack.
Crack.
Crack.
‘Okay!’ he cried. ‘There was one girl. I couldn’t help it! Please!’
James rose to his feet unsteadily. ‘What…one girl?’
‘Just one!’
‘Where? Where was this?’
‘In Johannesburg! There was one girl who tried to run away. I chased her and she…she fell down some stairs. I’m sorry…’ he began to sob freely now. ‘…I never meant for it to happen. It was an accident, I swear.’
James took a step back, his coercion extracting unwanted information. Sebastian was a coward, a control freak, but it was obvious he wasn’t their man. He was a bully only of minors. He wouldn’t dare tackle someone his own size.
In the ghostly calm of the morning a resonance swam atop the still lagoon, pricking James’s ears – a brittle snap, as if somebody had stepped on a dry twig. He scanned the trees beyond the trio of waterfalls, the image of the light two nights ago driven to his mind’s forefront. Oli and Anthony were still out there, Eric and Sol too. Whoever stalked through the mist wasn’t far away.
‘Did you hear that?’ said James quietly.
‘I heard something.’
‘I should probably check it out.’
‘You don’t have to be the big shot all the time,’ Sebastian advised. ‘It’s probably nothing.’
Another brittle snap. This time it was no accident. Somebody was baiting them.
‘I don’t like this, Sebastian.’
‘So untie me, I’ll
