‘And Kevin Streeting? Is he here?’
‘Who?’ Paul asked.
Her eyes darted around and she caught Johnny looking for a trap too. Her nerves were threadbare. She twisted the ring on her middle finger on her right hand. How many times had shewondered what it would have been like to have it on another finger on her left? It felt heavy, and she always said she’d stop wearing it to work but she couldn’t bring herself to leave it at home in a box when it symbolised something quite different to that. It attracted her energy for good reasons, and it never got on her nerves; even when she and Johnny split up and she considered taking it off, it was a source of comfort. The sturdy nature of the gold and the never-ending lustre of the rubies provided a silent strength that kept her going and she rubbed it now.
The gesture gave her reassurance and Johnny noticed what she was doing.
Paul and Melvin were on opposite sides of the kitchen space, and they were now stuck in the middle. In no man’s land. Like the lone tree at Buttermere, exposed. Vulnerable.
‘It’s OK, Melvin, you can stop with the story now; I know who you are,’ she said to him.
He looked at her with a confused look and she almost fell for the innocent old man trick, but something in the way he held his body, which was not quite without intent, put her own body on high alert.
‘Melvin, it’s me, Johnny Frietze,’ Johnny said. Kelly wanted to stop him from becoming involved, but he was doing it to buy time. In that moment, she wanted to kiss him. He was doing it for her, but she was still angry with him for taking so many risks. That was her prerogative.
‘We served in Iraq together, years ago, pal. I couldn’t place you, but now I do.’
Johnny got nearer but Kelly wanted him to stop. She looked at his feet and watched them inching backwards as Johnny moved forward. Then she saw that Paul was wearing just socks and Melvin boots. CAT boots. Melvin saw her and followed her stare and looked at his own feet, then smiled.
‘I borrowed his boots,’ he laughed.
‘You do that often, Melvin?’ Kelly asked.
‘I do!’
‘Our most successful subject,’ Sandy said from behind them.
‘I knew you were somebody I recognised!’ Melvin said.
‘Sandy, what are you doing?’ Kelly asked.
‘She’s controlling them. It’s straight out of the military playbook.’ Johnny stepped forward and blocked Sandy’s view of the others. But it was too late. Something had triggered Melvin, and he looked down at his trouser pocket and pulled out a large kitchen knife.
Chapter 61
‘She’s their handler,’ Johnny said. His voice was monotone. Disarming. Neutral.
‘I need you to take these off,’ Sandy said to Kelly, holding up her bound hands.
‘Are you nuts? Why should I trust you? Just stay over there and shut up or I’ll have to take you outside.’
‘Because your back-up won’t get here in time. I’m the only one who can stop these two from continuing their programming.’
Now Kelly was jammed against a cupboard as Melvin held the long knife up to examine it. She watched Johnny out of the corner of her eye inch towards him, but she also noticed Paul doing the same thing.
‘Paul, stop,’ she said. ‘Don’t get into any more trouble. I know you didn’t kill Jamie.’
It was a delaying tactic in the hope that Johnny wouldn’t get trapped between them, but like a pair of vultures, they’d encircled them, and they were indeed stuck.
The sirens got louder but as Kelly got her hopes up, the noise whizzed past the end of the tree-lined driveway. She kept her face set in stone and Johnny did the same.
‘Melvin, I think you should put that knife down. You’re not the type of man to have a handler, are you? She can’t tell you what to do. You’re dispensable, Melvin; they’ve hurt you, haven’t they? We can make you well again.’ Kelly tried to appeal to the human inside the shell.
‘They’re using you,’ Johnny chipped in. ‘Take it from me. From one military man to the other.’
Melvin laughed. ‘Of course they are! Isn’t that the point? Were you ever a free soldier, young man?’
Johnny grimaced and Kelly looked curiously between the two of them. She glanced at Johnny, who blinked ever so slightly at her, and she took it as a sign that he was somehow in control. Did they really know one another, or was Johnny just bluffing and playing along? Was he playing along to buy time?
