‘Closer to what?’ I said.
‘Closer to Sadie! To … to proof. Or something! Closer to the truth.’ Mason looked at me, Abi and Cora, one at a time. ‘How’s that knee of yours?’ he said to Cora. ‘Because I noticed you moving a bit faster when you saw the barn. When you figured you were free and clear.’
‘Oh, piss off,’ Cora spat at him. ‘You think I’m faking? You think I’m the one playing games? Take a look at yourself before you start accusing the rest of us, Mason! Remind yourself why we’re even out here! Do you know, I actually meant what I said to you before. About believing you. About being certain you had nothing to do with Sadie’s disappearance. But now …’ She sniffed. ‘Now I hope they lock you up and throw away the key.’
Mason took a step forwards. He raised the bottle.
‘Turn out your bags,’ he hissed. Then, when none of us moved, ‘I said, turn out your bags!’
I was closest, and he ripped my rucksack from my shoulders. I was helping Cora stand, and when Mason pulled me like that, she lost her balance and fell on to her hands and knees. She cried out, but Mason acted as though he hadn’t heard. He’d wrenched my rucksack open, and was shaking it the way a dog would shake a rat it had caught between its jaws. I saw my Snickers bar fly off into the undergrowth.
‘Here,’ said Cora, tossing Mason her bag. ‘Help yourself.’ He caught it and emptied it out the way he had mine. Next was Abi’s. She held it out to him the way she would have offered a tiger a piece of meat. Luke turned out his own bag, then tipped it upside down to prove to Mason that it was empty.
When it was over, our belongings were scattered all over the floor. Mason checked one way, and then the other, swiping at the ground with his feet. But there was no knife.
‘Mason?’ said Abi. Quietly, tentatively. ‘Mase? It’s not there. You can see it’s not.’ She paused but Mason didn’t respond. ‘Please, Mason. Just try the phone. Please. At least tell us if there’s any recep –’
Now Mason spun. ‘Shut up,’ he spat. ‘Just … just shut up, will you? I told you already. I said to you. No one’s calling anyone until we get this straightened out.’
I don’t think Mason realised how close he was holding the bottle to Abi’s throat. I’m not sure he was really aware what he was doing by that point, nor what he planned to do next. And Abi clearly didn’t know either. She started crying, whimpering really, as though she was genuinely afraid she was about to die. And I guess she realised there was no way she could get through to Mason. So she turned to Cora instead.
‘Tell him,’ she said, through her tears. ‘Just tell him, Cora! He’s not going to let us go until you do!’
I looked at Cora, frowning.
‘Shut up, Abi,’ Cora hissed. ‘Just shut the fuck up, will you?’
But Abi wasn’t listening. ‘Just tell him!’ she said again. ‘Tell him what you did!’
Mason whipped his head towards Cora.
‘Me?’ said Cora, who was still only halfway standing. ‘What I did? What about you? Both of you!’ She was back on her feet now, and her eyes, this time, landed on me.
And really, from that point on, all I can remember clearly is shaking my head. And a voice inside of me saying, Deny it. They don’t know. Nobody knows.
But obviously, somehow, they did.
I sensed Mason turn to face me. I felt the others looking at me, too.
And then, after that, that’s when it all came out.
The truth.
About what Abi did, about what Cora had done, about what I had. And the only reason I didn’t tell you before – why none of the others told you either – was because we were scared of what you’d think. It was like Cora said to Mason: after the way it all ended, if you found out what we’d been hiding … you’d lock us up and throw away the key.
And maybe that’s exactly what we deserve.
DI Robin Fleet
‘Your business card?’
‘Yes, sir,’ said Fleet. ‘And I added a message.’
‘What message?’
‘Just a few words,’ Fleet said. ‘Nothing consequential.’ What he’d written on the back of the card was: I want to help you. And I want to help your friends. But he had a feeling that, when it came to explaining to Superintendent Burton, it would be in everyone’s interests for Fleet to keep the details hazy.
‘I left the card on a tree stump near the barns,’ he said. ‘In a place it appeared likely someone had been hiding. Nicky here was the one who found the evidence.’
Nicky seemed about to protest, to perhaps insist it was Fleet who deserved the credit, but there was no need. Burton didn’t even glance in her direction.
‘Evidence? I thought we’d searched that entire area!’ Rather than worrying about assigning credit, Burton appeared more concerned with trying to decide who to haul over the coals.
‘It’s unlikely there would have been anything to find at the time of the search, sir. The truth is, it was more of a … feeling.’
Burton made a face. He didn’t have to say anything to make it clear what he’d come to think of Fleet’s feelings.
The superintendent pianoed his fingers on the surface of a nearby desk. They were standing in the open-plan office at the station, the workspace full of officers trying to look busy, all of whom would have been following every word.
‘It doesn’t change anything,’ Burton announced at last. ‘The press conference goes ahead. The arrest goes ahead. You have him here, I
