But this… robbery. Breaking and entering into a total stranger’s home, then stealing… a pre-meditated act… an involuntary moan came from her lips. Her eyes were wet with fright.
What if it all went wrong?
Ronnie had a knife stuck up his sleeve and another in the pocket of his jeans.
What if the burglary escalated? What if this night was to plunge them from petty teenage deviants to full-blown killers?
Despite the excruciating bundle of nerves dancing about in her chest like jolts of electricity, she leant her head back against the cold pane of glass; her forehead pressed on the car window. Somehow, the incessant drumming of her heart that thundered rhythmically in her ears sent her spiralling downwards into unconsciousness.
It was the crunch of a nearby car locking that jolted the teenager awake a few hours later. Her eyes snapped open, and her brain blurred as she became aware of the hot fug of her breath, indicating that her lips had been closed for quite some time. She glanced down at her wrist, where the moonlight lit up the face of her watch.
It was almost 11. Almost two entire hours since Ronnie had left.
“Fuck,” she whispered beneath her breath, cheeks immediately reddening as she heard herself swear. The word didn’t feel right in her mouth, rolling across her tongue like the rusted drag of a blade or the bad taste of poison. She breathed out and peered through the glass of the window. Some way down the road, a shadowy figure moved quickly, then turned right into the front garden of a house.
With clammy hands, Minnie swallowed and slowly pulled the handle of the car door, allowing a rush of cold air into the car, which stung her skin and made her let out a gasp of shock. She forced herself to step out of the passenger seat and carefully closed the door behind her. On wobbling knees, she stood beside the car and stared meaningfully across the road at the house that she knew Ronnie had broken into.
Had he been arrested?
She reasoned not, considering the owner of the house’s relationship with the guy who was selling them fake IDs. But then, what would that mean for Ronnie?
Something worse?
The back of her clothes stuck to her back which had broken out into a nervous sweat. She shivered with nerves as she stood there, and her brain buzzed and whirred as she considered her next move. A small flicker of hope ran through her as she remembered the wads of cash that Ronnie had hidden beneath some blankets in the boot of the car.
What was it her father had always said to her?
Money is a language that everyone can speak. Or something along those lines.
Licking her lips, she forced her feet forwards and scampered across the street, her hand instinctively cupping the tiny, barely-there bulge in her abdomen. As always, the tiny bundle of cells stowed away safely in her womb engulfed every corner of her thoughts. What she was about to do was bold and terrifying. But what was the alternative? She could go back home, where her parents would force her to get an abortion. Or, she could call the police, which would almost certainly result in Ronnie being arrested and locked away. Alternatively, she could stay huddled in the car and hope for the best, but what if something awful was happening to Ronnie right at that second? None of these options would do.
She needed to keep her family together.
She needed to walk up to the house, peer in through a window and see if she could assess the situation. If Ronnie had run into trouble, she’d need to negotiate him out of it.
Chapter Thirty
2019
With one last final, mutual sigh of satisfaction, Minnie and Ronnie collapsed back onto the bedsheets, their naked bodies covered in a thin sheen of passion-induced sweat.
“Stolen RV sex is better than I’d ever anticipated,” gasped Ronnie, pulling his wife closer to him and nuzzling his nose into her musty-scented hair. She looked up at him, her eyes shining brightly as she returned his contented smile. Their fingers intertwined above her head, their palms squeezed together.
They’d had sex on the top deck of the RV, in the lavish bed that was comfier than anything the two had slept on in months. And there was no rush to follow- no urgency to get up and go- to get back on the run before they were rudely interrupted by law enforcement of meddlesome civilians.
They were home.
Minnie’s phone buzzed on the side table, the vibration deep enough to make the bed frame vibrate.
“What the fuck is that?” Ronnie asked, his voice tinged with minor irritation. “Kept going off.”
She laughed and sighed, then lazily rolled over to reach out for it. “It’ll be one of the kids,” she said, extending her fingers. “You can’t be moody with them for texting; it’s not like there’s a lot for them to do around here.”
Ronnie nodded, “I suppose. Maybe we can drive to that theme park we saw on the way down? I quite fancy a go on a rollercoaster, might as well while we’re taking a bit of downtime.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” groaned Minnie, hitting the button on the phone so that the screen illuminated and the first couple of lines of a text message from Flo appeared. “Did we, or did we not tell them we were laying low?”
His face falling into a concerned frown, Ronnie turned his head. “What’s happened?”
Tutting and rubbing her temple, Minnie showed him the screen of the phone.
Flo:
How can we hide two bodies quickly? Xxx
Chapter Thirty-one
Summer, 1999
The house, or at least the front of it, appeared to be dead inside.
As she peered nervously in through the glass, Minnie could make out no sign of life or soul through the windows. A cold chill crept over her, breaking her skin out into a ripple of hard goose flesh. She shuddered and tightly hugged herself to stop
