‘It’s shelter,’ Kit says grimly. ‘Of a kind.’
‘But there’s obviously no one inside,’ Josh points out. ‘Shouldn’t we keep moving, find a road, maybe flag down a car? Get help?’
‘Yes,’ I agree, ‘there might be lights and people if we go a bit further.’
‘Isn’t it dangerous to be wandering about in the middle of the night?’ Anna asks plaintively.
‘Well, I’m not going anywhere,’ Pepper says. ‘I’m freezing cold and I ache all over from steering that stupid boat.’
She sets off towards the house.
‘She’s right,’ Josh concedes. ‘Let’s rest here till dawn and see what we can see in the morning.’
We follow Pepper to the house. As we get nearer, it becomes obvious that it was once quite grand and far bigger than I first thought, stretching back into a low-walled garden. Though every window is boarded up and the front door so rotten that it collapses with just a few quick pushes, the remnants of lights and carpets and patterned wallpaper are dimly visible in every room.
We find a room upstairs at the back of the house and huddle together for warmth. Outside, just visible through the cracks in the boards at the window, the sky lightens to grey, and pink swirls gather at its edges.
‘I can’t wait to get a proper meal,’ Kit muses sleepily.
‘Yeah and a shower,’ Pepper adds.
‘I want my guitar back,’ Josh says with a grunt.
‘Did you know a human head remains conscious for about twenty seconds after decapitation?’ Samuel asks.
‘Er, thanks for that, Samuel,’ Josh says.
‘I really need to see my mum.’ That is Anna. She looks at me anxiously. ‘I guess you’ll be wanting to go to the police, Evie?’
‘I’m going to call my dad first,’ I say.
Kit squeezes my hand. ‘I can’t wait to meet him,’ he says.
An uncomfortable knot tightens in my stomach. I nod, feeling helpless. I sense Josh’s eyes are on me, but I can’t bring myself to meet his gaze. Josh, like everyone else, thinks I’m happy with Kit. He accepts that; he hasn’t even asked me out himself.
And I am happy with Kit.
At least I think I am.
I fall asleep, wedged between Pepper and Kit, waking to find Josh shaking our shoulders and hissing in our ears: ‘Someone’s here, on the stairs, listen.’
We’re all awake suddenly, alert, leaning towards the door.
The creak of a floorboard sounds outside. A light flashes through the crack in the door. Beyond, on the landing, comes the low muttering of voices.
Beside me, Pepper gasps. Anna clutches Josh’s arm. I hold my breath, still half-asleep, as two long seconds pass.
And then the door is flung open and a torch glares in our eyes.
‘Evie?’ a familiar voice calls.
I jump to my feet as the torchlight dips and I come face to face with the last person I expected to see.
Thirty-five
Uncle Gavin stands in the doorway, his forehead knitted in an anxious frown.
‘Evie?’ he says again.
‘Oh!’ I let out a strangled sob of shock, delight and relief as I hurl myself across the room and into his arms.
‘What are you doing here?’ I gasp. ‘How did you—?’ I stop, suddenly aware that my uncle is standing stiffly, his arms by his sides, not hugging me back.
Behind him, another figure moves. I back away as the torchlight reveals Miss Bunnock, her hair swept off her face in a tight ponytail. Her gun glints in her hand. I turn to my uncle.
‘What? I don’t . . . what’s going on?’ I stammer.
‘Come with me.’ Gavin drags me into the next room and slams the door shut. It’s smaller than the one everyone else is still huddling in, though just as empty, with boards over the window and a threadbare carpet on the floor. Behind us, I can hear the others shrieking my name and then Miss Bunnock threatening them.
‘Evie, listen, I need the password—’ Gavin starts.
‘How did you find me?’ I ask. It’s not the question I really want to ask. That seems too big, too terrifying.
‘We tracked the Aurora,’ he says. ‘Using the tracker Francine planted on the boat when she hid it in the cave.’
‘Francine?’
‘Francine Bunnock, my girlfriend,’ Gavin says matter-of-factly.
‘Oh,’ I say, flatly. I suddenly remember how he told me back in Scotland that he was single. It’s only a small lie on top of all the other ways in which Gavin has clearly deceived me, but it still hurts.
‘Francine loves me very much,’ Gavin says with a nasty smile. ‘She’d do anything for me.’
I gulp, edging my way nearer to the question that’s now filling my mind. ‘You got her to do . . . all the stuff on the island? The ghost and everything? It was you?’
‘Yes.’ In the flickering light of Gavin’s torch, I can see the impatience on his face. No concern, just frustration. ‘Come on, darling, what’s the password to Irina’s safety-deposit box?’
‘You want to kill me?’ The question shoots from my lips at last.
Gavin brushes it away with a wave of his hand. ‘The password, Evie,’ he repeats. ‘It must have been among the papers that lawyer gave you?’
‘Password?’ I echo blankly as the horrific, sickening reality settles inside me: my uncle wants me dead and is prepared to go to any lengths, including murdering my friends, to make it happen. ‘I don’t know about any password.’
Gavin studies my face. ‘Come on, darling. This isn’t anything personal. I just want the information so I can get some of the money straightaway.’
‘Money? I’ve never heard of a safety-deposit box. Or a password. And I’m not your darling.’ I take in a quick, trembling breath. ‘What are you doing this for? Is . . . is it about my inheritance from Irina?’
Gavin paces across the room, then turns to face me again, his hands clasped behind his back.
‘Irina . . . your mother . . . wasn’t what you think,’ he says slowly. ‘She didn’t set that trust fund up for you . . . She barely knew what she was doing when she signed the papers.’
I stare at him. ‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean that our parents organised it. They were the ones trying to make Irina get a grip on her life. I think they hoped if she was on top of her finances, she might get on top of her life and start taking responsibility. It wasn’t about leaving money to you. They hoped that it would turn things around for her.’
‘Turn what things around?’ I ask, bewildered. ‘I don’t understand what you’re saying. Irina was successful. OK, so she didn’t plan on getting pregnant, but she was a brilliant dancer. She was getting back to ballet after having me and—’
‘She was mentally ill,’ Gavin interrupts. ‘I don’t think there was a definite diagnosis, Irina refused to accept she had a problem, but she was very unstable. She took a lot of drugs – a few of them prescribed for her, most of them not, which made the situation worse – and—’
‘No.’ I was on my feet, my fists clenched. ‘No, she was just a bit different from other people. She was special, not ill, not some drug user who—’
‘She couldn’t cope,’ Gavin says flatly. ‘Especially after you were born. I’m not saying she didn’t love you, but she sure as hell wasn’t able to look after you. Your dad did all that. My parents helped when they were still alive, but Irina’s suicide pretty much destroy—’
‘Her what?’ My blood runs cold. ‘Irina didn’t kill herself. It was a traffic accident, a hit-and-run.’
Gavin shakes his head. ‘That’s just how we all agreed to present it – my parents and your dad . . . but none of us were in any doubt that Irina walked out in front of that lorry deliberately. She’d threatened to kill herself that way enough times.’ He pauses. ‘It wasn’t her first attempt.’
My mouth feels dry. What Gavin is saying can’t be true.
‘She made my childhood a nightmare,’ Gavin goes on. ‘She got all
the attention, all the energy. And of course she was a beautiful dancer too, so she got most of the praise and the plaudits as well. I was just the stupid younger brother,’ he says, a bitter note to his voice. ‘I was a sideshow. And then she died, and our parents lost the will to live, and they died within a year or two and I’ve been living on their money ever since, but it’s gone now and I need yours. I’m next in line if anything happens to you and I’m owed it, for all the chances Irina took away from me.’
My hand flies to my mouth. ‘And you think that justifies killing me?’
Gavin says nothing.
I try to process what he has said. ‘Does what you’re saying mean my dad didn’t keep me away from my grandparents, like you told me before?’
Gavin makes a face. ‘I guess not,’ he says. ‘Truth is that after Irina died they pretty much gave up on their own lives.’
‘Oh my God.’ I can’t believe it. So Dad didn’t stop me from having a relationship with my family after all.
Another thought hits me. ‘What about the car that nearly ran me over in Edinburgh? Were you behind that?’
Gavin gives a swift nod. ‘But then straight afterwards your dad whisked you off and I realised I was going to have to be a bit cleverer about it so I looked into Lightsea, where I remembered Irina being sent for a few weeks in her late teens.’
I gasp. ‘That’s how there was a photo of her at Lightsea? She was a patient here before I was born? Before she met my dad?’
He nods. ‘I saw there was a job going, at the institute so I got Francine to apply for it, then once she was in I gave her the photo to plant where you’d find it.’
My mind rushes back to the night Josh, Pepper and I broke into Mr Lomax’s office. ‘So David Lomax doesn’t know anything about it?’
Gavin snorts. ‘He knows Irina was once a patient at his father’s mental-health institute. But your dad was adamant none of us should tell you about Irina being ill. Lomax was going along with that.’
‘So Irina didn’t die on Lightsea,’ I say.
‘No. I just wanted you to believe Lomax pushed her off Easter Rock to encourage you to think Irina was trying to tell you he was her killer.’
‘So I’d follow her to Easter Rock where that Bunnock woman could push me off.’
‘And everyone would think it was suicide after you becoming obsessed with your mother’s ghost. Your own fixation on Irina gave me the idea.’
I bite down hard on my lip, misery consuming me. I had thought my uncle loved and cared for me, when all along he was just plotting how to take my money.
‘Hey.’ Miss Bunnock pokes her head around the door frame and gives Gavin an adoring look. ‘Did you get what you need?’
‘Evie doesn’t know,’ Gavin says. ‘No matter, we’ll get the info soon enough ourselves.’
‘You’ll inherit everything if I don’t?’ I ask, though the answer is obvious.
‘Yes, but only if you die before inheriting yourself at the end of August.’
‘Gavin, babe?’ Miss Bunnock says, her tone far softer than I’ve ever heard it before. She hands Gavin a small silver lighter. ‘I’ve filled this like you said.’
‘Coming.’ Gavin takes the lighter and turns it over in his hand. As he flicks the lighter on, then off again, I recognise it as Samuel’s.
‘What are you doing with that?’ I demand.
But Gavin just slips the lighter back in his pocket and walks out of the room. A split second later, Bunnock ushers Kit, Josh and the others in. Her gun is tightly gripped in her hand.
‘You can’t do this, you bitch,’ Pepper snarls.
I stare numbly as the five of them file inside and the door is closed and locked. Josh rushes over to the window and pulls at the boards, but they’re nailed firmly against the frame.
Kit thumps on the door. ‘Let us out.’
Anna stands, trembling, in the middle of the room.
I turn to her. ‘Did you know my uncle was behind all this?’ Anna shakes her head. ‘I only ever talked to Miss Bunnock. I swear I didn’t even know the plan was to hurt you. I told you, I thought it was just some weird psychological experiment.’
‘It’s true, Evie,’ Kit says quietly. ‘Anna talked to me those first few nights. No details. I didn’t know it was about you, but . . . but she was asking about whether it was ever ethical to deceive people for scientific reasons. She wanted my opinion.’
‘I just thought Kit seemed smart and . . . and more serious than everyone else,’ Anna admits. ‘I wanted his advice about what I’d been asked to do without explaining in detail.’
I nod slowly. So that was what Anna’s interest in Kit was really about.
‘Evie?’ Josh’s voice is low and intent. ‘We need to focus on how we get out of here.’
‘Right.’
‘What will they do?’ Samuel asks, his voice small.
‘They’re going to get rid of us,’ Kit says tersely.
‘Yeah, Bunnock wasn’t messing with that gun,’ Josh adds. ‘That was real.’
‘It wasn’t an AK-47 though,’ Samuel says. ‘And AK-47s are the most popular guns in the world.’
‘Thanks for that, Samuel,’ Pepper says, her voice hollow. ‘But a gun doesn’t need to be popular to shoot straight.’
Josh crosses the room to join Kit at the door. ‘D’you think we can break it down?’
Kit nods. ‘We can give it a go.’
‘What’s that sound?’ Pepper asks.
I listen hard as a crackling noise drifts towards us. A whiff of pungent smoke fills the air.
‘What is it?’ Anna asks, sounding desperate.
‘Fire.’ I turn to her. ‘They’ve set the house on fire.’
Thirty-six
There’s a moment of total silence as the sound of the flames outside builds. Then Pepper points to the first wisps of smoke curling under the door and Anna lets out a high-pitched scream and panic fills the room.
Samuel shrinks back against the wall. Kit hammers on the door.
‘Let us out! Let us out!’
Josh turns to me and Pepper. ‘We have to break the door down.’
I nod, the smell of the smoke filling my nostrils. Pepper calls to Anna.
‘Stop shrieking and get over here.’
Anna does as she’s told. I run over to Samuel, grab his arm and drag him to the door. Kit squares up to it. He points to the area level with the handle.
‘That’s where it’s weakest. Kick there.’
We line up. The smoke coming under the door is thicker now, dark grey in the dawn light. My head reels. Uncle Gavin has left me and the others here to die. It’s unthinkable. Horrific.
‘Bunnock gave him Samuel’s lighter,’ I say numbly. ‘He’ll leave it downstairs. Everyone will think we took it and filled it with fuel and set the fire by accident.’
‘Or they’ll think Josh did it on purpose,’ Kit says. ‘Weren’t you excluded from one of your schools for lighting a fire?’
‘Let’s just break this door down,’ Josh says with a frown. ‘One, two, three, go!’
I put all my force into the kick. So does everyone else. A series of hammer blows rain against the wood. The door shakes, but stays locked.
‘Again,’ Kit urges. ‘Together this time. One, two, three . . .’
This time we all kick together. Even Samuel is in synch. The door cracks.
‘Once more,’ Pepper cries. ‘Hit it!’
I lunge out, imagining it’s my uncle I’m aiming at. The door splinters. Flies open. A gust of acrid smoke whooshes into the room. Kit plunges past it, Pepper at his heels. I take Samuel’s hand.
‘Come on.’
Ahead of us, Josh propels Anna onto the landing. The smoke is so thick here I can barely see them. I’m coughing, choking. I let go of Samuel’s hand to cover my mouth.
Someone grasps my arm and pulls me sideways. It’s Josh.
‘This way,’ he yells, directing me towards the stairs.
Flames writhe up from
the hall. The bottom of the staircase is hidden in dense smoke. We rush down to the ground floor. A wall of fire blocks our way to the front door.
‘Over here,’ Pepper shouts.
My eyes sting with the smoke, my lungs burn as we follow her into what was clearly once a living room. The base of a lamp on a wooden sideboard and a couple of tatty old sofas are the only pieces of furniture remaining. Across the room, Kit is pulling a long rotten board from across the two small windows. We race over as it hits the floor.
The glass in both windows is broken, with jagged pieces sticking out. Kit and Pepper smash the shards sticking out in the first window. I snatch up the lamp base and swing it at the second. A large piece of glass crashes down outside. Josh shoves at the remaining slivers that stick out from the frame, knocking them away.
‘Gavin!’ It’s Miss Bunnock.
‘Francine! Where are you?’ Gavin cries.
They sound close. Are they in the house?
“Hurry!” I urge as Josh helps Samuel over the sill. Next to us Pepper is hauling Anna outside. Smoke swirls around them as they pelt across the garden.
“Come on, Evie!” Kit follows Pepper through the window.
‘Evie!’ It’s Gavin, he sounds closer than before. I glance over my shoulder. The door and the far walls are hidden by smoke. Is he inside the room?
‘You next.’ Josh reaches for my hand. He helps me scramble out of the window, my pumps crunching on the glass as I land next to Kit. Smoke is pouring out of the house, swirling into the sky. Pepper, Anna and Samuel are at the other end of the garden, almost at the low wall. There’s a field on the other side and a road beyond that. Its rough tarmac glistens in the dim dawn light.
‘Run, Evie!’ Kit yells, haring across the grass. I set off after him, As he leaps over the low wall into the field, I’m suddenly aware Josh isn’t with us. I turn round and face the house. The windows we just climbed out of are shrouded in smoke. Where is Josh? Is he still stuck inside? Panic swirls inside me. I race back to the house.
‘Stop!’ Gavin’s voice rings out across the garden.