“It wasn’t Mum he saw in the woods,” I hear myself say. “It was me.”
A suffocating mass seems to collapse my chest with every breath. But my body doesn’t react. It freezes like it always does. My mind’s gone quiet, a dull hum repeating the words over and over again,He thought you were her. He thought you were her…and that’s why she’s dead.
Luke opens his mouth, his words slow and measured. “I’m sorry, Min. Truly.”
A flash of movement catches my eye. The water is disturbingly calm, pale moonlight reflecting off the waves, casting eerie underwater shadows.
But then…a dark shape slices through the water just beneath the surface. The water ripples around the fin as it moves along the side of the boat, circling. It happens quick. There’s a jarring thudagainst the side of the boat. It tilts sharply, and I’m knocked off-balance. I reach back for Luke, arms thrashing out, gripping his forearm to keep from falling.
They come in hard. And they come in angry.
Luke gazes at the water, his face lit with pure, wide-eyed excitement. A smile spreads over his mouth as he peers eagerly over the side of the boat, eyes sparkling like a child.
“Look at them!” he exclaims, transfixed. “Look at them!”
But I’m not looking at the sharks circling the boat. I’m looking at the hold near the skipper’s chair. In the cramped storage space beneath the hull, something’s moving. I squint in surprise, angling my body, staring. What is that? Past the coils of rope stiff with salt, and a cracked bucket, there’s something tucked away in the far corner. It’s half buried under a folded tarp, and it’s moving.
Bang.
Another low echoing boom vibrates through the fiberglass, up through the deck. I feel it in the soles of my shoes, the base of my spine, and the whole boat seems to shudder. My eyes flick to the water, but I see nothing. No shape or shadow. But I feel them, waiting impatiently under the surface.
“They’re here,” Luke whispers, “and they’re pissed!”
A flicker of light catches the edge of my vision. My heart skips as I turn from the water and scan the dark space of the hold. There! Another glint of light. Sharp, sudden, and gone just as quickly as it came. I freeze, trying to find it again.
The world feels too still. Too silent. But the air feels tighter, charged.
And then I see it. Jutting out from beneath the tarp’s crumpled edge is a hand, limp and pale. And something else: a flicker, a flash of light, a watch, glinting in the moonlight. My breath catches.
Gold-plated.
Black.
Maserati.
Chris’s watch.
Yes, I know you went to see Rachel’s mum, Min.
The other car is still there, silent and grave as the air itself. It’sparked under a tea tree, the white bonnet covered in crescent-shaped leaves.
It’s an Audi. White.
And it’s missing four hubcaps.
The tarp shifts, and a low groaning sound rises from underneath. The hand twitches before going still, and the groan comes again, louder this time. “Chris!” I call out. “It’s me, it’s Minnow.”
Luke tears his gaze from the water and fixes them on the moving tarp. “You’re finally awake, ya weak sack of shit?”
“You followed me to Bethanga,” I hear myself saying, tearing at Luke’s forearm that holds me in place. “You followed Chris.”
There’s no hesitation. No remorse. Just a bubbling glee in Luke’s voice as he watches a sharp silhouette rise slowly above the water. “Terry told me to keep an eye on him. And you. We just wanted to scare you away from finding out the whole story, Min.”
The shark tooth on my doorstep.
“You’re either the shark or the food. I’m the shark,” Luke says, cheek grazing mine. “What do you think Chris is?”
I stand motionless, body trembling. The tarp shifts again, fabric rising slightly with another pained groan.
