“This must be the grave he dug for Penny,” she says.
“Thank God we got here in time,” I say.
The rain soaks our clothes as Claire and I roll him into the hole together. I am solid and cold like ice. I can barely breathe.
Is this what it’s like to have a sister? I’ve wondered for so long, and now we’re here standing over a grave that holds a man we just murdered. I never pictured this kind of sacrifice.
I grab the shovel, and I start filling in that dark abyss, slowly concealing Magnus Blackburn’s cold, black eyes that stare up at us, witnessing his final incarceration.
“Someone might find him, you know,” I tell her. “It could be next week. In a year. In twenty years.”
“I know,” she says.
The fog clears as we’re throwing the last of the soil over the body. We pad it down as best we can and cover it in grass and twigs and stones, trying to blend it in with the natural growth of the terrain.
Next, we head back to the bothy to scrub ourselves, every surface, and every dish, fork or mug that may have been used by Magnus, Dina or Penny. Once the rain stops, we find a packet of kitchen matches in a drawer, burn our clothes, and pretty much everything Magnus and Dina brought with them, aside from the phones we find in the lounge and Magnus’s penknife. Those we’ll have to throw away somewhere between here and home. It takes a long time for the clothes to turn into ashes but once the clean-up is over, we change into items of Dina’s clothing that we kept to wear, and get back in the campervan.
I rush straight to Penny lying on the bed and wrap my arms around her.
“I’m okay, Mum,” she says, over and over again.
I stroke her head until she falls asleep, exhausted.
Claire is waiting in the driver’s seat, when I make my way up front.
“I’m sorry,” she says. “My stepson did all of this. I’m sorry for what he did to Penny.”
“It wasn’t your fault. You helped me save my daughter.”
We stare at one another, the same face looking into the same eyes. Two halves united.
And as we drive away, I can’t stop thinking about the kitchen knife scrubbed and dried and left in the drawer of the small stone building by the loch.
CHAPTER 80
CLAIRE
We’ve been on the road for hours, oppressive silence hanging over us as we process what we’ve done and try to come to terms with what it means. The road home is long but the journey towards peace of mind will be much longer.
I check my rearview mirror obsessively for blue lights speeding up behind us, sure that justice is hot on our heels. But the sirens never come. The motorway is dark and almost empty as the digital clock on the dashboard transitions to 2 a.m.
Penny sleeps soundly, finally safe and able to rest. And that’s what it was all for, to end Magnus’s psychopathic rampage and make sure he never hurt anyone ever again. She’s back where she belongs now, with her mother, and I’m happy I’ve helped make that happen. I’m happy I was able to help Faye, who has barely said a word to me since we rolled my stepson into that grave.
While crossing the border into England, Faye finally speaks.
“What did he mean?” Her voice is small and cautious.
“What did who mean?”
“Magnus. Back there.”
Panic rises in my throat, strangling me into silence. But eventually I answer.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“He said he wanted you to pay for what you’d done to his father.”
She’s staring at me, observing my discomfort. I pull in a deep breath and try to remain calm. Faye and I have been through so much together in such a short space of time. I didn’t want us to have to endure any of it, but it’s done, and now we are tied together through our actions, even more tightly than we were tied together by our birth. I want to believe our bond is unbreakable, but I worry what she will think of me. I’m worried she will hate me when she finds out I have killed before.
