The Ottoman Motel (26 page)

Madaline knew as soon as she got back to the car. A habit
returning she thought she had lost. Reaching to her hip for the cold comfort of her pistol's grip. ‘Shit.'

‘What?' Ned picked at the pocket of his coat.

‘My gun. My fucking
bastard
gun. I left it in my car at the Ottoman.' She turned around. ‘I'm going to drive.' They got in the car and Madaline gunned the engine. ‘You're going to want to use that seatbelt, Ned.' She hit the accelerator and Ned's station wagon hared down the driveway. She hooked the steering wheel and they swung out onto the main road.

‘Jesus,' said Ned, his arm reaching for the handhold above the passenger door.

‘Defensive driving course,' she said as the car rounded a bend and just missed a tree.

‘Madaline,' said Ned, ‘the resignation letter. I still mean what I said. You shouldn't blame—'

‘Forget about it,' she said. ‘We just need to get—'

A dark shape veered in front of them. A dark blue new four-wheel-drive shot quickly from a side road, roaring past. The tinted windows gave no clue as to who was inside. Madaline wrenched her head to catch the licence plate, but she already knew. ‘That's the Sawyers' car,' she shouted.

Another car sped past, the tell-tale yellow of Tarden's ute, a rust-streaked trailer rocking behind it. Madaline saw Kuiper's shark-face in momentary profile. ‘The fuck?' She noticed both the ute's tray and the trailer were stacked with blue and orange mesh, and inside the mesh were shapes that glinted silver.

‘That's the cans,' said Ned, but Madaline was already
turning, yanking up the handbrake and wrenching the steering wheel to the right.

‘Hold on!' she called. The car slammed itself in a tight circle, tyres screaming. They both shunted roughly to the left and Madaline felt the painful bite of her seatbelt. The car slewed to a precarious tilt before righting itself, fishtailing back onto the road. Madaline floored the accelerator and the car lunged, engine whining before the tyres caught purchase on the bitumen and they hurtled forward.

The cars had made a couple of hundred metres on them but Madaline did her best to keep up. She focused on the dim beacons of the trailer's tail-lights; tried to coax what she could from the wagon's motor, but she couldn't get them closer. The gearstick felt caught in honey. The engine complained with angry growls. She struck her hand on the steering wheel. ‘Come
on
!'

‘This beast isn't used to going much further than the shops,' said Ned.

‘Bloody hell.' She should have gone back to get her own car. If she had, she would have lost them anyway. ‘Shit.' The tail-lights were gone.

‘Where would they be taking the cans?'

Madaline racked her brain. They were heading the wrong way for the highway. Almost as if—

‘The wharf,' she said. ‘They're taking the drugs offshore.'

They sped through town in silence. It was only as they approached the wharf that Madaline realised they had almost doubled back on themselves. They were near enough to Ned's house to have walked. Madaline slowed the car and cut the lights. ‘Hopefully they didn't recognise your car,' she said. ‘If we're lucky, they won't think they're being followed. Better safe than sorry, though.' They approached the wharf, where the bluff provided a natural shelter for the large collection of fishing boats. Most of them were tiny things, fishing vessels made of aluminium with canvas strips for roofs. All around were heaped nets, the bright punctuation of buoys; a few were full-sized trawlers, with out-riggers that looked like giant feelers. Madaline parked the car a little distance away and unsnapped her seatbelt. ‘Ned, you don't have to…I mean, you can drive back into town and get Tommy. I don't need you here with me.' She rubbed her forehead. It was all coming out wrong.

Ned said nothing, just opened his door and stepped out.

Madaline let out a noise of frustration. Was there a time in Ned's life when he
didn't
want to please everyone? She got out of the car. ‘Just stay behind me,' she said. ‘Just stay quiet.'

They crept down the slope, picking out Tarden's ute among a handful of other parked cars. The trailer was empty. Kuiper had left the engine running and the headlights shone out over the wharf. Madaline edged up to the car, motioning for Ned to stay where he was. She withdrew her baton, snapping it out with a flick of her wrist. Cringed at the metallic crack it made. She carefully approached the left back passenger window, squinting her eyes at the car, trying to make out any movement inside. It was empty.

She caught movement on the wharf and ducked down behind the car. Peering up, watching through the windscreen, she made out two figures dragging a flatbed trolley. It looked like they were hauling the crab pots down towards the boats. A mist had come up on the water, shrouding them further. She turned back to Ned, beckoning him closer.

‘They're down there,' she whispered. ‘I can surprise them.'

‘We can surprise them.'

‘Ned, I'll be fine. You need to get back to the kids.'

‘Like hell.'

‘Ned—'

‘Come on.' He got up and started down the hill.

By the time they reached the wharf Tarden and Kuiper had started loading the pots into a boat, the metal cans clicking and squeaking as they fell together. Madaline and Ned hid behind a heap of fishing nets. Poking her head over, peering through the swirling mist, Madaline could see they had stopped loading the pots in. They stood beside what looked like a bollard, arguing. The darkness ate their words but Madaline could make out their movements. Hands on hips. Angry hand gestures. Kuiper twisted his body around and a dark shape appeared in his hand. The familiar shadow of a gun. Madaline's stomach lurched, her mind racing ahead to dozens of possible scenarios. Her mind flashed back to training: disarmament techniques, siege psychology…it was too long ago. Her mind had been dulled by paperwork and inaction. Kuiper put the gun back into a holster that stuck out oddly from his hip. Oh, Christ. It was
her
gun.

The bollard moved and suddenly there were three figures. The third was too small, it couldn't—

‘Gin!' Ned sprang up, leapt over the netting and sprinted towards Kuiper; Madaline's lunging hand just grazed his shoulder as he jumped away. She gritted her teeth.

Kuiper swung around, coolly removing Madaline's gun from its holster. ‘Easy there, Ned,' he said. Tarden put his arms around Gin to stop him moving.

‘Dad!' Gin was in his Superman outfit. His hair was mussed, slept-on.

Ned slowed, but didn't stop. ‘Get the hell away from my son!' he shouted, his voice cracking out across the water.

Madaline had never heard him sound like this.

‘I don't think we will,' said Kuiper. He flicked off the safety, steadied the gun with his other hand, pointed it at Ned. ‘You're going to have to stay right where you are.'

Ned stopped. He clenched his fists.

‘I'm going to assume that your friend the police bitch is with you,' said Kuiper. ‘And I'm going to ask her to show herself, unless she wants two dead Gale males on her hands.' He giggled.

Madaline rose slowly from behind the netting, carefully stepping around it and out onto the jetty. She took in the scene, assessed the angles. Kuiper was a write-off. ‘You don't have to be stupid here,' she said, looking past him, talking directly to Tarden. ‘You don't want to throw away the rest of your life.' She focused on Tarden's hands, his grip around Gin's chest. She willed his fingers to loosen.

‘Hello,
Senior Constable
,' said Kuiper. ‘I think you're forgetting who has the gun and the hostage here.' His face held a half-grin. ‘Thanks awfully for that, by the way. I'll need the baton, too. In fact, give me that whole belt. Shame not to collect the whole set.'

Madaline slipped her baton back into her belt, unbuckled it and lowered it to the ground. ‘Where's Tommy?'

Kuiper laughed. ‘Probably asleep at home. Left me outside the pub. What a trusting gentleman. Slide that belt over.'

Madaline kicked the belt across the jetty. The one thing she needed Tommy to do for her the fat bastard had shirked out of. She had to put him out of her head. ‘You okay, Gin?' she shouted. ‘Are you hurt?'

Gin shook his head. His eyes were huge with fear.

Kuiper picked up Madaline's belt. ‘Shut the fuck up. Not our fault if the boy's wandering around the wharf in the middle of the night. Can't say that's good parenting, hey Jack?'

Tarden said nothing.

‘I was looking for her,' said Gin. ‘I was Superman. I went looking for her.'

‘It'll be okay, Gin,' said Ned. His voice had lost its strength.

Madaline stepped slowly over to Ned. ‘What are you trying to achieve here, Kuiper?' she said. ‘The evidence in that storage shed of yours'll already put you both away for what, five years? Eight? This is just off the top of my head.' She was pleased to see the confusion that momentarily crossed Kuiper's face. ‘Backup's on the way,' she went on. ‘Give up now, score yourself some points. Or you could wait until this place is swarming with cops.'

Kuiper barked another laugh. ‘Backup?' He turned to Tarden, keeping the gun pointed at Ned. ‘Hear that?' he said. ‘There's
backup
coming. Would that be your boss, snoring on the couch? Give me some credit.'

‘Believe what you want,' said Madaline, ‘but they won't want to negotiate. We can resolve this first.'

Kuiper backed away, and Madaline knew. She had taken the wrong tack. Kuiper moved towards Tarden and lowered the gun until it was pointing at Gin's head. ‘I appreciate the effort,' he said. ‘Highly entertaining, but it's probably time we stopped fucking around.' He pressed the gun into Gin's temple. Gin started to cry, and Tarden tightened his grip around the boy. ‘The way I see it,' said Kuiper, ‘the only way this is going to
resolve
is for you three to disappear. How many bullets in here Madaline? We got enough?'

‘Touch him and you're dead,' said Ned.

Kuiper laughed.

‘You'll make us disappear?' said Madaline. ‘Just like you made Bill and Louise Sawyer disappear?'

Kuiper cocked his head. ‘Detective work, is it?' he said. ‘Lovely. But I'm afraid we didn't touch them.'

Madaline's body shivered with exhaustion. ‘If you're going to kill us, you can at least be straight with us.'

Gin's voice: ‘I don't want them to kill—' Tarden put his hand over the boy's mouth.

‘I'm not saying I wouldn't have liked to do away with them,' said Kuiper. ‘Amount of trouble they've fucking caused. But I've never even met the damn people.'

‘Why do you have their car, then?'

Kuiper cleared his throat. ‘A souvenir,' he said. ‘Couldn't resist. Nice car like that?'

‘So you admit you were at the lake?'

‘Jesus. Shall I remind you again who has the gun? I told you I've never even met them. Jack saw them last. Maybe you should interrogate him?'

Madaline was positive she saw doubt in Tarden's eyes.

‘So I'll ask you again,' said Kuiper. ‘
How many bullets?
'

Madaline turned to Tarden. Her final throw of the dice. ‘There doesn't have to be any more trouble,' she said. ‘You know what's right and wrong Jack, I'm sure of it. You can't let him ruin your life. Let him get the help he needs.'

Kuiper let his head fall back. ‘For fuck's sake!' he shouted. ‘Can't answer
one
simple question! Can't even count a couple of bullets! I guess I'll have to find out for myself.' He shoved the gun back into Gin's head. Gin whimpered and shut his eyes. ‘You all had your chance to keep things quiet.' Kuiper's arm trembled. He took a deep breath and his finger moved on the trigger.

A bright flash ambushed Madaline's senses, freezing a scene before her eyes. She saw Kuiper, lit for an instant in a crisp, perfect portrait. In the next moment his shadow grew out, not around him but somehow through him, enveloping his body in a monstrous dark mass. She heard Ned cry out, saw him running towards the men who had his son. Madaline sprinted forward, knocking Ned aside from harm's way, her instincts taking over. She saw the gun and went for it, felt a weight hit her and went to strike back but connected only with air as heat flashed in her knee and she knew she'd been shot, the sound following the thought. She saw Gin in her periphery and grabbed for him, driving her shoulder into the ground to protect his body. She felt a deadweight hit her: another body landing on her and slamming her into the wooden boards, her vision jagging sideways in time to see Kuiper's face next to hers. She saw the zigzag cartilage of his nose. His eyes had rolled up, leaving red webs. When she looked down, she saw his shirt soaked with the dark stain of blood.