The Outback (26 page)

‘Rhett, but that’s
impossible; he’s dead.’

Although her words did
not make any sense to him, he could see in her eyes that she was telling the
truth.

‘I told you that we
don’t have time,’ she said. ‘Rhett took Rose and the deputy is still in there
attempting to set fire to the caravan park. He’s in the dining hall, so he
didn’t see me sneak away, but we have to go quickly. If he catches us he will
kill us.’

‘What about Niall and
Jonas; where are they?’

She began to tremble
with panic.

‘Oh my God; they’re
still inside. He’s going to burn them alive.’

Matt knew that they
could not leave their friends to die. As much as it pained him to say it, Rose
would have to wait a little longer for their help. If the pair of them acted
quickly, they could take the deputy by surprise. They would only get one chance
to stop him. He hoped that Jenny had the strength and understanding to see
this.

‘We have to go back.’ He
put his hands on her shoulders and looked her squarely in the eyes. ‘Are you
able to do this?’

She nodded, gravely.

‘Good, because I have an
idea. I want you to wait until I am in position and then you’ll need to try and
draw the deputy out of the dining room. We’ll only get one shot at this, so we
have to make it count.’

Matt peered around the
first caravan to make sure that the coast was clear and then he and Jenny both
crept quietly back into the centre of the park. Whilst the girl got back into
the position in which the deputy had left her, Matt crouched down low behind
the door to the dining block. He then picked up a log from the timber pile and
readied himself for the diversion. He gave Jenny the signal and she began to
scream as loudly as she could. She knew that this alone may not draw the deputy
out, but she thought she knew what would.

‘He’s alive!’ she
shouted. ‘The sheriff’s still alive. You have to come help him. Please, he’s
still alive.’

As she had hoped, it was
not long before the deputy came to the doorway to see what the commotion was
about.

‘What’s gotten into you,
bitch?’ he cruelly demanded.

Careful not to let him
see that she had escaped her bindings, she remained on her knees with her hands
behind her back.

‘The sheriff is still
breathing. You have to help him. It’s not too late; you can still make this
right. Help him, please.’

The deputy was unmoved,
but all Jenny needed was to get him to take just a couple of steps forward. She
knew that he did not have an adequate enough view of the stricken sheriff to
determine for certain that the man was dead. If he wanted to confirm the girl’s
claims for himself, he would have to move closer.

Sure enough, the lawman took
a few, short steps toward his former commanding officer. This was the
opportunity that Matt had been waiting for. He quickly leapt to his feet and
brought his crude weapon to bear above his head, ready to swing down towards
the corrupt lawman. Unfortunately for him, the deputy was stood directly
between him and one of the caravans. As soon as the Englishman had taken to his
feet his reflection appeared on the window in front of the deputy, as the
moonlight transformed the glass into a mirror.

Before Matt could complete
his intended swinging arc the deputy turned and parried the blow with the stock
of his shotgun. The policeman had at least 20lbs weight advantage over the
younger Englishman, which he quickly put to good use. After blocking the
initial attack, the deputy retaliated by using his firearm as a club and caught
Matt with a fierce blow to his forearm. The pain was crippling and caused the
Englishman to loosen his grip on the log, which slipped from his grasp.

Matt had no time to
gather himself before he was brought to his knees by a second swing of the
shotgun, which the deputy now wielded like a baseball bat. Battered and bruised
into submission, the young backpacker was now completely at the mercy of one of
the cold blooded killers whom had helped tear this small traveller community
apart.

‘I was going to let you
burn along with your two friends in there,’ the deputy said. ‘But now you are
not going to be let off quite so lightly.’

Matt barely had the
strength left to face his attacker. If getting burned alive was what the man
considered to be getting off lightly, he knew that his death was not going to
be quick. As he tried to crawl away on his hands and knees, all he could think
about was how he had let Jenny and Rose down. His greatest regret was that
their deaths would involve much more suffering because of his own failure.

The rogue lawman threw
down his shotgun and unclasped a small knife from his belt.

‘My old man always said
that a blade is the best way to kill a man. He told me that it allows you to
get in close and look your foe square in the eye as you take their life from
them. I guess that I’m going to get to find out for myself now.’

As the deputy slowly
stalked his intended victim, delaying the inevitable to extend his own depraved
pleasure, he had left the shotgun unguarded on the ground behind him. This gave
Jenny her only chance to save her boyfriend.

‘Leave him alone or I’ll
shoot,’ she said.

Jenny had never handled
a weapon before, but at the range she was at, simply pulling the trigger would
be enough. The deputy was surprised, but not worried as he turned and took a
step towards her.

‘You haven’t got what it
takes,’ he sneered.

She could feel her
finger begin to shake on the trigger and knew instantly that the deputy was
right. There was no way that she was capable of killing. The deputy took
another step toward her.

Matt was still on the
ground and his head was groggy from the beating he had taken. As he crawled
away from his attacker, he moved closer to one of the caravans. It was the same
van that had alerted the deputy to his earlier assault, but the van was also
notable for another reason. Underneath it was where Colin had hidden the elicit
stash of beer and spirits that he had stolen from Pierro’s storeroom on the
night of the party.

With the killer’s full
attention planted firmly on the barrel of the shotgun that was pointed at him,
he was not giving any thought to Matt. The Englishman knew that Jenny could not
hold off the corrupt policeman for long, but she could delay her attacker long
enough for Matt to creep up behind him. He was not about to make the same
mistake twice and this time it was not a log he had in his hands, but a bottle
of vodka.

Unlike in the movies,
the bottle did not shatter as Matt forcefully brought it down onto the back of
the deputy’s skull. Instead, there was merely a chilling thud and then the
policeman’s eyes rolled back and he slumped to his knees, before falling face
down onto the ground. Blood began to pool around his head.

There had been a crack
after all, just not in the bottle.

Matt offered an
exploratory kick to the man’s side. There was no movement, but the slight give
of flesh against his foot. He crouched down and extended his index and middle
fingers to feel for a pulse. He detected none.

‘Be careful,’ Jenny
warned.

‘I hit him hard. I think
I killed him.’

He did not feel remorse,
but he did have a heavy, sickly feeling in the pit of his stomach. Somehow, he
knew that something inside of him had changed irreparably.

‘Are you certain?’ Jenny
asked, careful to keep her distance.

Matt placed his hands
under the man’s chest and rolled over the body. The deputy’s eyes and mouth
were both open. They were forever frozen, providing a lasting snapshot of the
moment that his life left the corporeal realm. Matt looked up towards Jenny and
his eyes said all that was needed. She turned away in distress.

‘It wasn’t our fault. He
brought it on himself.’

‘I know.’ She nodded,
sadly.

‘Come on, we have to
find Niall and Jonas,’ he said, hoping to take her mind off the dead man.
‘Hopefully, they are okay.’

Their two friends were
found bound and gagged in the kitchen. Jonas was conscious, yet unharmed,
whereas Niall had a nasty wound on the back of his head, but was thankfully
still breathing. They untied them both and Jonas helped the pair carry Niall to
the police car.

‘What now?’ asked Jenny.

Matt checked that
everyone was in the car and then he started the ignition.

‘First we go to the
station and get Colin. Rose is going to need all of the help that she can get
and I want him by my side when I catch up with Rhett.’

‘What about outside
help?’ asked Jenny. ‘There must be somebody that can help us.’

Matt glanced at his
reflection in the rear view mirror. He had a deep cut on his bottom lip and his
whole face was bloodied and bruised. This had become about more than just
stopping Rhett and rescuing Rose. Now it was personal.

‘We cannot afford to
take any more risks,’ he told her. ‘I just killed a policeman and another one
is lying dead not six feet away from the body. By the time that we manage to
convince anybody of our story, Rose will be dead. It’s down to us now and
nobody else.’

He shifted the police
car into gear and pulled out of the caravan park. The night was far from over
and he knew that the lives of several people now depended on him. He was
determined not to let any of those people down.

Chapter 34

Once they got to the
station, Jenny went straight for the first aid kit in order to tend to Niall’s
wounds. She remembered where it was stored from her previous visit following
the mugging.

Matt, meanwhile, headed
directly to the cells, but when he got there he did not unlock the one that
held Hiro. One of the others could do that after he had left. He did not yet
feel up to facing the man he had wrongly accused of murder. Colin was the
prisoner that he had come to set free and his friend was lying on his mattress,
but not sleeping when Matt found him.

‘Isn’t it a little late
for visiting hours,’ said the Irishman.

There was little light
in the small cell and Colin was unable to make out the cuts and bruises on
Matt’s face.

‘This isn’t a visit;
we’re getting you out of here.’

Colin swivelled around
so that he was seated on the edge of the bed.

‘A jail break, are you
crazy?’

‘It’s a long story, but
you were right about Rhett; he’s back.’

Colin was not as
surprised as the others had been. He always suspected that they had not seen
the last of their old foreman. The news, however, did bring one thought
instantly to his mind.

‘He’s killed again,
hasn’t he?’

Matt confirmed his
friend’s fears with a nod.

‘The two cops are dead
and Rhett has taken Rose,’ he said.

‘He has Rose?’ Colin
asked, this time allowing stress to show in his voice.

‘That’s why I’m here. We
stand a much better chance of getting her back if we do it together.’

As they left the cell
and stepped out into the lit corridor, Colin saw Matt’s injuries for the first
time.

‘Jesus Christ, what
happened to your face? Are you hurt?’

‘I’ll be fine, but Niall
has not been quite so lucky. He took a nasty knock to the back of his head.
Jenny and Jonas are with him now, administering first aid.’

‘What about Hiro?’ Colin
asked.

‘He’s fine too.’ Matt
did not feel the need to elaborate further. ‘Right now we have to figure out
where the old man has taken Rose. Any other questions can wait.’

They quickly retrieved
the killer’s police file and tore down a street plan from the wall of the sheriff’s
office. Rhett’s house was no more than a five minute drive away and would not
be difficult to locate. They both prayed that was where Rose would be, as it
was the only lead they had. Before leaving they went to check on Jenny and the
others to make sure that everybody knew what was expected of them.

‘We do not know when
Rhett will be expecting the deputy to turn up, so he may already know that
something is wrong when we get there,’ said Matt. ‘We need you to contact the
police stations in the surrounding towns. Try and get them to send officers out
as quickly as possible. If we can’t stop Rhett, maybe they can.’

Jenny reluctantly agreed
to his plan. She did not like the idea of Matt and Colin taking on a killer by
themselves, but she knew that they were the only ones who could save her
sister.

‘Before you go, there is
something that you should know,’ she said. ‘The deputy was Rhett’s son. That is
why he helped him. The two of them have been in this together the whole time.
He was the one who faked the autopsy results to make us believe that Rhett was
dead and he also planted the drugs under Colin’s mattress. We cannot let Rhett
know that his son has been killed.’

Matt became unsteady as
the news sunk in, but Colin was still too far behind on events to make the
connection to the death of Naomi Green.

‘That was why she killed
herself,’ Matt said, more to himself than those with him.

‘Are you talking about
his mother?’ asked Jenny.

Matt avoided looking her
in the eye.

‘Her name was Naomi Green.
She was a nurse at the hospital in Cooper’s Creek. Rhett raped her thirty years
ago and the deputy was obviously a result of that ungodly tryst. We told her
about the murder and the idea of a copycat killer came up in our discussion.
She must have thought that the copycat was her son. That is why she killed
herself and it is our fault.’

‘There is no time for
regret now,’ said Jenny. ‘Rhett is to blame for all of this; not you. You
cannot allow yourself to think like that if you want to help Rose.’

Matt knew that what
Jenny said made sense, but with two deaths now on his conscience, he feared as
to where the path he was now on would lead him. Even if he survived the night,
he would have to live with the consequences of his actions for the rest of his life.
He gave the car keys to Colin and the two of them reluctantly set off to face
Rhett for the final time.