The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group (27 page)

But at least he wasn’t the mysterious Third Man. That’s what I told myself, anyway.
Better the devil you know
, I thought.

‘It’s okay,’ I said to Nina, who had uttered a little cry of fear. ‘It’s just Danny. He’s come back.’ I cocked my head at him. ‘Did the truck break down?’ I queried.

Danny didn’t respond. He stepped across the threshold, his coat-tails flapping, his dogs at his heels. The screen door banged shut behind him.

As he scanned the room, I realised that he’d pulled on a pair of jeans, though his chest was still bare.

‘Where’th Reuben?’ he snapped.

‘Downstairs,’ I replied – and this time I made an impression. He rounded on me.

‘Where’th the gun?’

‘The pistol, you mean?’ I felt a twinge of unease. ‘Reuben’s got it.’

Nina tried to introduce herself. ‘I’m Nina,’ she said, rising from her chair. But Danny brushed straight past her, ignoring her outstretched hand. I figured that he must be heading for the basement.

Instead, he slammed the hatch down.
Crash!
I couldn’t believe my eyes when he started to drag the heavy table across it.

‘What are you doing?’ I yelled. Without a second thought, I sprang out of my seat to stop him. And the pain, of course, knocked me straight back down again. ‘
Yeowch!
Ah! Ooh!’

The dogs were growling at Nina, their hackles raised. Danny was doing much the same thing; his gun was now trained on her. ‘So what’th your angle? Huh?’ he rasped. ‘What are you up to?’

She lifted her hands, shaking from head to toe. She was much too scared to say anything.

Meanwhile, someone was pounding on the underside of the hatch. But it wouldn’t budge. There was too much weight pushing it down, now that Danny had parked himself on the tabletop.

‘Danny,’ I spluttered, ‘what the hell . . .?’

‘They were in the back of the van.’

‘What?’ I gaped at him.

‘
They were in the back of the van.
I thaw ’em. I wath out there, watching. Down the road.’ He was squinting along the barrel of his gun; his hands were rock-steady, though the table beneath him kept shaking. (
Bang-bang-bang
went Reuben’s fists – or was it Dr Plackett hammering on the hatch?) ‘I thought I’d wait till Reuben had gone,’ Danny explained. ‘And then I’d come back and help. I didn’t think he shoulda left ya. Not without a gun.’

‘Hear, hear,’ Sergio squawked. He obviously believed that Danny had been concerned about our welfare.

I didn’t. I figured that Danny had wanted to return when the coast was clear, so he could blast a hole through each of our prisoners.

‘Reuben didn’t drive to Cobar,’ Danny went on. ‘He parked down the road and opened the back of the van. Then he let
them
out. Her and the other two. And they waited for a while.’

I didn’t understand. ‘You mean—’

‘They were in there all day. In the back of the van.’

‘Don’t be stupid.’ I didn’t believe a word of it. ‘That’s impossible.’

‘Athk her,’ said Danny. ‘Go on.’

I turned to Nina, whose dry lips were moving slightly. When she looked back at me, there was something in her dark-ringed eyes that made me wonder.

No
, I thought.
No, that’s crazy. Danny’s got it wrong
.

‘You couldn’t have stayed in the back of that van,’ I argued. ‘Not all day. You would have died in there. It was too hot.’

‘Maybe it’s a refrigerated van,’ Sergio interjected. He might have been joking; I’m not sure. But Nina didn’t tell him to butt out. She seemed lost for words.

So I said, ‘If it was refrigerated, there wouldn’t be enough air. Would there?’ Sergio shrugged. Nina remained speechless. In the silence that followed, Reuben’s muffled voice was faintly audible. ‘. . .
out
. . .
open
. . .
’

More violent thudding ensued. Danny ignored it.

‘And gueth what?’ he snarled. ‘D’you know who wath in that van with Morticia, here? I’ll tell you who.’ He paused for effect. ‘It wath Barry McKinnon.
Barry bloody McKinnon!
’

I’m not sure what kind of reaction he was expecting. Shock, maybe. If so, he didn’t get it.

‘Oh, yeah.’ Sergio nodded. ‘We knew that.’

He cringed as Danny’s rifle swung towards him.

‘You
what?
’ Danny barked.

Sergio raised his hands. When he spoke again, his voice was a tiny thread of sound. ‘He – he told us. I mean, Reuben did . . .’

‘Barry McKinnon built the tankth!’ Danny roared. ‘Didja know
that
?’

Sergio licked his lips.

‘D’you know what he did to
me
?’ Danny raved, his eyes nearly popping out of his head. That’s when Nina spoke up, at long last. Don’t ask me why. Maybe she was trying to protect Sergio.

‘He’s very sorry,’ she bleated. ‘Barry’s very sorry for what he did.’

Once again, Danny whirled around. He shoved his rifle at Nina.

‘Oh, he’ll be thorry, all right,’ Danny promised. ‘Now where ith he?’

Nina swallowed. Her hands were still in the air.

‘You – you don’t understand,’ she stammered. ‘He’s already been punished.’

‘Not the way I’m gunna do it.’ Danny was grinding the words out between his teeth. ‘Now
tell me where he ith
.’

‘He’s in the bathroom,’ I volunteered.

You may be wondering why I said that. You may be thinking, ‘What a weasel!’ But the fact is, you weren’t there. You didn’t see the way Danny was looking at Nina. I did, and I was dead sure of one thing: he wasn’t bluffing. Two more seconds, and he would have beat the answer out of her – or worse.

There was something else, too. I happened to be sitting between Danny and the door, so I knew that, when he ran towards it, I’d have a good chance of stopping him.

I just wanted to get his gun out of Nina’s face.

Yeah, yeah, I know. What a moron. Danny had a loaded rifle and four vicious dogs, and what did I have? An injured foot. Good one, Toby.

Mind you, I did manage to take him by surprise. He probably didn’t think that I could get up at all, let alone grab his gun as he went past. Not that I had a hope of actually getting the gun
off
him. I just thought that if I could keep him occupied for a few seconds, Nina would have enough time to open the hatch and let Reuben out.

I didn’t factor in the dogs, though. They went straight for me.

‘
No! Stop! Get them off!
’ Nina screamed, as I staggered backwards. My ankle gave way because the dogs were dragging me down; mostly they were pulling at my jeans, but Psycho had leapt right up and bitten my arm.
Snap!
It wasn’t really a bad bite. He let go of me the instant I let go of Danny. Still, I was bleeding – and hurting, too.
Man,
did it hurt! (Dog bites hurt like you wouldn’t believe.)

‘
Stop it!
’ Nina had picked up a chair. She was using it against the dogs, trying to drive them away. She looked like a lion tamer. ‘
Get off! No! Stop!
’

By that time, however, the pain had kicked in. And when that happened, I stopped being scared. I got angry instead. I got so angry that I hauled off and punched Psycho straight between the eyes. It was chaos, for a moment. Blood was dripping and dogs were barking and people were yelling and Nina was reeling back, looking sicker than ever. As for Danny, he’d freed himself and was heading for the hallway.

‘Open the hatch!’ I shouted at Nina. She’d dropped her chair, for some reason. Not only that; she’d retreated to the farthest corner of the room, where she was clinging to a benchtop as if she needed propping up.

It was Sergio who came to my rescue. I don’t know why, unless he was afraid that he might be the dogs’ next target. He weighed in and gave Tagger a huge kick, before treading on Mutt’s tail. I had Psycho in a headlock by then, and he was hysterical, thrashing about like a shark on a hook.

‘Nina, will you
open the hatch?
’ I bawled.

She nearly passed out while she was moving from the sink to the table, but she did it. She got there. In the meantime, I was trying to keep Mutt away from my bad ankle. Sergio was waving a chair at Tagger. Somewhere down the hallway, Danny was bellowing at the top of his voice.

Scr-e-e-e-ech.
A heavy piece of furniture scraped across the floor. Nina had leaned against the table and used her weight to slowly, noisily, push it a metre or so to the right. I didn’t see Reuben lunging out of the basement. I was too busy fending off snapping teeth.

But I sure heard him fire his pistol.

bang!

It was so damn
loud.
Even the dogs froze. For a split second I thought that Reuben had shot someone, until I saw that he’d aimed at the ceiling.

‘geddown!’ he roared. His eyes blazed and his veins throbbed and he stamped his foot at the nearest dog – who happened to be Tagger. When Tagger growled, Reuben growled back.

Mutt was already slinking away. Psycho whimpered. They knew who was top dog in that kitchen.

Then Dr Plackett said faintly, ‘Oh Christ. Is someone bleeding?’

I looked around to discover that he was halfway up the stairs. I had to think for a moment before answering. Was mine the only fresh blood in the room?

‘It’s just a dog bite,’ I croaked. The words were hardly out of my mouth when a terrible scream rent the air. It was coming from down the hallway.

‘Out.’ Dr Plackett wasn’t talking to the dogs. ‘Get out. Quick. Everyone.’

‘Not me,’ said Reuben.

‘Yes, you.’

‘He’s got a gun, Sanford!’

A huge
thud
made the whole house tremble. There was a distant moan, followed by a series of uneven little thumps.

‘For God’s sake, get out!’ cried Dr Plackett. Psycho was wriggling and whimpering. I had to let him go because Reuben grabbed my arm, hauling me upright.

It was Sergio who first spotted Danny. He yelled and pointed. I turned to look, vaguely aware that Nina was wringing her hands.

Danny stood on the threshold, swaying like a tree in the wind. His lips were blue. His expression was shell-shocked. His neck was streaming blood.

In a faint voice, he said, ‘The rotten bugger bit me.’

N
ext thing I
knew, I was outside. Reuben had hustled me through the back door.

‘Get in the van,’ he instructed.

‘What?’

‘
Get in the van!
Quick!’ He darted into the house again, ignoring the fact that I was practically crippled. How was I supposed to get in the van when I couldn’t move without some kind of support? As it was, I had to stand on one foot. And there was so much
junk
between me and the van, I could easily have impaled myself on a tangle of auto parts or a set of rusty bedsprings if I’d tried to hop through it all in the darkness, unaided.

Luckily, Reuben was back within seconds. He was dragging Sergio behind him.

‘A vampire?’ Sergio was saying. ‘What d’you mean, he’s a
vampire?
’

‘They all are.’ Reuben caught sight of me. ‘Why aren’t you – ?’ he began. Then his gaze dropped to my foot, which was dangling off the ground. ‘Oh. Right. Your ankle.’

‘He reckons they’re all vampires,’ Sergio told me, in tones of dismay. ‘Because Danny got bitten . . .’

‘And you’ll be next, if you don’t get in the bloody van!’ Reuben snapped. Then he caught his breath, listening intently. At first I couldn’t hear anything except the shouts and thumps and frantic pleas that were coming from the kitchen. Gradually, however, I picked up another sound: the faint hum of a distant car.

‘Oh, Christ,’ said Reuben. He dashed around the side of the house, past his van, to get a good look at the road.

Sergio and I stared after him, completely gobsmacked.

‘What’s all this about vampires?’ I finally asked.

Sergio shrugged. He couldn’t seem to stop shaking his head.

‘Who’s supposed to be a vampire?’ I pressed. ‘Barry McKinnon?’

‘And Danny, now.’

‘Jesus.’

‘Are they crazy?’ Sergio demanded, his voice cracking. ‘You know these people. What are they up to?’

‘I – I dunno . . .’

‘We gotta get outta here.’ Sergio winced as something heavy hit the floor inside. The noise sent him scuttling towards Reuben’s van.

‘Wait!’ I cried. ‘Come back! What about me?’

But he didn’t hear – or he didn’t
want
to hear. I had to cast around for a crutch of some kind. It wasn’t easy in the dark; eventually I came up with an old piece of fence-post, which I leaned on as I picked my way between all the clumps of garbage.

When I caught up with Sergio, he was tugging fruitlessly at one of the van doors.

‘It’s bloody locked,’ he muttered, before whirling around and shrieking at Reuben, ‘
It’s bloody locked! Where are the keys?
’

Reuben stood in a golden patch of light that was spilling through a kitchen window. Above him arched a glistening canopy of stars. Beyond him, in the middle distance, I could see a pair of headlights.

They were growing larger and larger.

Reuben hissed something under his breath. Then he whirled around, plunging a hand into his pocket. His other hand was still wrapped around the pistol.

‘Is it – is it that third guy?’ I quavered. ‘The one from Broken Hill?’

‘I dunno.’ He pulled out his keys and hurried towards the van. I stepped aside so he could unlock it.

‘Are we leaving?’ Sergio exclaimed. When no one answered, he said, ‘Who has Danny’s rifle? Where is it now?’

‘Here.’ Reuben yanked open the driver’s door. ‘Get in.’

‘Are we making a run for it? Are you gunna drive?’ Sergio was becoming more and more shrill. ‘I’m not getting in if you’re not!’

‘Just do it, will you?’ Reuben ordered.

‘No! I won’t! We’ll be sitting ducks in there!’ Sergio shook him off, stumbling backwards. Meanwhile, I was watching the car as it bounced towards us. It was low to the ground. It had rectangular headlights. It seemed to be a dark reddish colour. And the softly illuminated numberplate read . . .

‘Hey!’ I squeaked. ‘Hang on! That’s our car!’

‘What?’ Reuben froze.

‘That’s Mum! In our car! It must be!’

It was. By that time I could see her face – a pale, narrow blur behind the windscreen – and I hobbled forward to greet her. You can imagine how happy I was. I forgot everything else: Danny, Gary, my foot, my empty stomach, Reuben’s insane jabbering about vampires – everything. All I wanted to do was crawl into our car and drive straight home.

‘Dammit,’ Reuben muttered. ‘I can’t let her see me. Not yet.’

He must have slunk away, behind the house. I’m not sure, because I wasn’t looking. My attention was fixed on Mum’s car, which had braked near the front veranda. The engine stopped but the headlights stayed on. The driver’s door popped open.

‘Mum?’ I said, picking up my pace a bit.

‘
Toby?
’ She emerged from behind the wheel, her eyes round with horror. ‘Oh my God! What happened?’

‘Huh?’ For a second I didn’t understand. Then I realised that she was staring at my foot. It was spotlit by the headlight beams. ‘Oh. Right. This,’ I mumbled, stopping to glance down.

‘And your head!’ she squealed. ‘And your wrist! What happened to your wrist?’

I didn’t know where to begin. With the overturned truck, perhaps? With Danny’s assault? With the dog bite? All kinds of thoughts and images rushed into my brain as she threw her arms around me; I still hadn’t settled on a good starting point when Nina’s grandmother climbed out of the front passenger seat.

‘Where’s Nina?’ she croaked, then erupted into a fit of coughing:
hack-hack-hack.
If it hadn’t been for the cough, I might not have recognised her at first – not without her cigarette. Even her steel-wool hair was engulfed in one of those old-lady scarves that you see on the Queen, sometimes. She also looked older than she had before, all creased and stiff and colourless.

Mum looked pretty bad too. She was wearing trackies, for one thing. And she didn’t have any makeup on.

‘Nina’s inside,’ I confessed. ‘But—’

‘She’s here? Nina’s here?’ Mum broke in.

‘Yeah.’ I took a deep breath. ‘There’s a whole bunch of people here. That’s what I have to tell you. It’s a long story . . .’

Estelle, however, wouldn’t let me finish. ‘Who’s this?’ she squawked, nodding at Sergio. ‘I don’t think I’ve met
him
, have I?’

‘That’s Sergio. He’s – we’re —’ I didn’t know how to put it. Did Mum know the truth or not? Had Estelle filled her in, yet?

‘Let’s go,’ Sergio said abruptly. ‘
Now
. Come on.’ He was dancing from foot to foot, as if he needed to empty his bladder. I understood how he felt, but I also realised that Mum wouldn’t be going
anywhere
unless I provided her with an explanation.

So I opened my mouth to give her one – just as somebody roared like a wounded buffalo inside the house.

Mum gasped. ‘What on earth . . .?’ she said, pulling away to listen. A muffled
crash
made her cover her mouth in alarm.

That’s when I decided not to waste time explaining things. Not yet, at least. Not until we were well on our way. ‘We should go. Right now,’ I urged.

‘Not without Nina,’ Estelle insisted. She slammed the car door behind her, then trudged towards the house in what looked like a pair of orthopaedic sandals. She was wearing something that could have been a nurse’s uniform.

‘I wouldn’t go in there if I were you,’ Sergio warned. It sounded so much like a threat that I quickly tried to clarify the situation.

‘It’s not safe,’ I said. ‘There’s a guy in there – Danny – who’s had a bit of a meltdown.’

‘You mean Danny Ruiz?’ Estelle didn’t seem especially concerned. As she waved a dismissive hand, I suddenly remembered that she knew all about Danny. ‘So what’s new?’ she said. ‘He’s always having meltdowns.’

‘Yeah, but he’s
really
mad this time.’ I couldn’t stress this enough. ‘It’s because Barry McKinnon’s in there, and Danny doesn’t like him.’

‘Because Barry bit his neck,’ Sergio added.

Estelle stopped in her tracks.

‘He
what
?’ she cried, in a strangled voice. ‘Oh,
Christ
, no!’

‘What on earth are you talking
about?’ Mum sounded frantic. She flinched as another distant, animal roar split the night air. ‘Isn’t Barry Nina’s uncle?’

Bang!
The front door flew open. Danny Ruiz stood there, silhouetted against the light in the hallway. ‘
a-a-a-u-u-gh!
’ he bellowed.

Then he lurched onto the veranda, still clutching his neck.

‘Get in the car,’ Estelle snapped. She beat a hasty retreat, waddling back towards the seat she’d just vacated. But the rest of us were rooted to the spot.

‘Who – who—’ Mum stammered.

‘That’s him,’ I said. ‘That’s Danny Ruiz.’

‘
O-o-o-a-a-a-gh!
’ More bellowing. Danny kept losing his balance; he swayed and stumbled on his way down the veranda steps.

That’s when I realised that he was twitching like someone with epilepsy.

‘Let’s – let’s get in the car,’ I croaked. Mum didn’t argue. She grabbed my elbow, supporting me as I hopped along.

Sergio was ahead of us; he reached the car before we did, plunging into the back seat like a rat into a drainpipe. I was crawling in beside him when Reuben charged out of the house, waving Danny’s rifle.

‘Oh my God!’ Mum shrieked. ‘He’s got a gun!’ Then she dropped her keys.

I don’t think she recognised Reuben at first. She was too busy scrabbling around in the driver’s footwell. As for Reuben, I doubt he even noticed
her. His attention was fixed on Danny, who was struggling to his feet again.

‘For God’s sake, Rowena, will you
close the door
?’ Estelle said fiercely.

Mum did as she was told, groping around for her keys with one hand while she pulled her door shut with the other.
Whomp!
‘Oh my God,’ she kept whimpering. ‘Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God . . .’

‘What’s wrong with Danny?’ Sergio’s voice was high and frantic, like a police siren. ‘Is he bleeding to death?’

‘No,’ Estelle replied. By this time Danny’s dogs had surged onto the front veranda. But they were strangely subdued. Instead of running to join him, they hung back, looking disoriented.

Reuben ignored them. He advanced towards Danny, adjusting his grip on the rifle.

‘For Chrissake,’ Estelle hissed, before lowering her window a few centimetres. ‘
Reuben!
’ she squawked. ‘
Get back inside!
’

Danny heard her. He must have, because he turned his head. He even took a step in our direction.

Something was wrong, though. His leg buckled. He fell to one knee.

Estelle quickly wound up her window again, coughing like a machine gun.

‘I don’t get it,’ Sergio whined. ‘Where’s the doctor? Why doesn’t he do something?’ At that very instant, Dr Plackett emerged from the house. He was wearing his sunglasses, and he seemed to be arguing with Reuben.

‘Where the hell is Nina?’ growled Estelle.

Suddenly the engine roared. Mum had found her keys, at long last. She released the handbrake, craning around to check that nothing was behind her. Then she reached out to change gears.

‘No!’ Estelle yanked at the handbrake. ‘Not yet.’

‘
What are you doing?
’ Mum screamed.

‘Wait. Just wait.’

‘
Let go!
’

Next thing I knew, Mum and Estelle were wrestling for control of the handbrake. I couldn’t believe it. Outside, Danny was flat on his stomach, groaning and shuddering. Reuben was edging towards him, rifle raised. Dr Plackett was trying to grab Reuben’s arm, without success; Reuben repeatedly shook him off.

‘Nina’s in there!’ Estelle snapped. ‘We can’t go without Nina!’

‘He’s got a
gun
, can’t you
see?
’ Mum shouted back.

‘Yeah, but he won’t use it,’ Estelle insisted. ‘Not on us.’

‘How do
you
know?’

‘He won’t, Mum.’ I could be sure of that, at least. ‘It’s okay. Swear to God.’

‘It’s not Reuben we should be worrying about,’ Estelle confirmed, before she dissolved into another fit of coughing.

Mum caught her breath. Her head swivelled. She stared through the windscreen.

‘Reuben?’ she echoed. ‘Is that – is that
Reuben Schneider?
’

‘Mum—’

‘Oh, my God! It
is
him! It’s that lunatic!’

‘Mum, listen—’

‘It’s all a plot! We’ve been kidnapped!’ Mum rounded on Estelle. ‘You
bitch!
’

She launched herself at Nina’s grandmother, who raised her arms in self-defence. If I hadn’t intervened, God knows what would have happened.

‘Mum, don’t!’ I thrust myself between the front seats, before Mum could do any serious damage. ‘Stop it!’

‘
Get out! Get out of this car!
’ she screamed at Estelle, past my left ear.

‘Mum, listen! Someone
else
tried to kidnap me! Reuben was the one who stopped them!’ I appealed to Sergio. ‘Isn’t that right? Isn’t that what happened?’

‘Yeah,’ Sergio agreed, in a distracted sort of way. He was watching events unfold outside the car, where Reuben and the doctor were yelling at each other.