Then his stepmother rises from the ground, knife held high, her face filled with hatred and fury. She looks him in the eyes and plunges the knife into his abdomen. He looks down at the hilt in disbelief and she watches as his face contorts in agony.
She pulls the knife out sharply and he drops to the ground.
His stepmother stands over his body, watching his blood spill out over the muddy ground until his pulse fades to nothing.
CHAPTER 79
FAYE
Claire’s fingers slip into mine as we stare down at the dead man. It’s over. It’s finally over.
My stomach lurches when I bend down to take the keys, phone and wallet out of his pocket. I find a penknife in there too.
“Penny’s tied up in there.” I gesture back towards the building.
“See to Penny first,” Claire says. “Then we’ll have to see to him.”
I nod.
Stumbling back to the house, I see the fog slowly clearing but the sun will set soon. Magnus had a shovel. My skin chills. I know what he was doing. He was digging a grave for my daughter.
The bothy is eerily silent as I use Magnus’s key to enter.
“Penny, it’s me.”
“Mum! Mum you’re okay!”
I speed up. “I’m fine, darling. I’m okay.” It takes a few minutes to work through the thick ropes with the penknife.
Finally free, she folds into my arms and I let out a long sigh of relief, one I’ve been waiting to release since I saw Magnus drop her onto the cold, cellar floor.
Her tears fall against my chest, thick and full of misery. She is so small, so thin and lightweight, like a baby bird fallen out of a tree. But she’s here and she’s alive.
“Mum, what did you do?” she asks, gasping for air. “How?—”
“Shh. It doesn’t matter.”
I pull her away from me so that I can examine her. She’s gaunt. They haven’t been feeding her properly. Her eyes are bloodshot and her skin is grey. She’s shaking. The room smells strongly of vomit and there are rope burns on her wrists and ankles. Hot rage floods my veins.
“They drugged me,” she says. “I kept trying to throw up the pills but some of them worked.” She is shivering in my arms.
I touch a patch of blood on her forehead. “He hurt you.”
“I’m okay,” she says.
“You need a hospital.”
Penny clasps my hands. “Mum, what did you do to him?”
I pull in a deep breath. My throat is thick with emotion. The answer to her question is so terrible I can barely admit it, but I have to. She deserves to know. “We killed him.”
Penny closes her eyes and lets out a deep breath. “Then I can’t go to the hospital.”
* * *
I guidePenny over to the campervan and wrap her in blankets. This is the safest place for her. I can’t trust that Dina won’t reappear. I give her water and rub her forehead, trying to wipe away the trauma of her experience, but knowing that nothing will take it away. I leave her lying on the bed and lock the door, before going back out to help my sister finish what we came here to do.
I find Claire further up from where we were, breathless after dragging Magnus’s body several feet. She points to a deep hole in the earth, so black I can’t see the bottom.
