‘Arsehole!’
‘Brat.’
‘I’ve gotta call my mother!’
‘Aww. Boo-hoo.’ Danny’s toddler imitation was like a slap in the face. ‘Izza poor liddle boy missing his mummy?’
I was suddenly so mad, I stopped caring about the dog. I think I might have wanted it to attack me, so I could kick its leathery butt clear across the International Date Line. But when I reached for Reuben’s phone, which was sitting beside the gearstick, it was Danny who pounced. He lunged forward and caught my wrist.
‘Nuh,’ he said. ‘No way. You wanna use someone’s phone, you ask ’em. Nicely.’
‘Screw you!’
‘See, that’s not the magic word. That won’t get yiz anywhere.’ Yanking me out of the van, he nearly dislocated my elbow. ‘You’re supposed to say, “Please Mr Ruiz, sir, can I use your phone?”’
‘Ow! Ow! Let go!’
‘“Please, Mr Ruiz, will you let go?”’ He was putting on a high-pitched whine that I probably would have found insulting, if I hadn’t been in so much pain.
‘Ow! Ouch! Okay! Please!’
Whoomp! He kicked the door shut.
‘We’ll have a talk, we’ll decide what to do, and then we’ll start making phone calls,’ he announced. ‘We’re not calling no one till we figure out what we’re gunna say to ’em. All right?’
‘All right! Jeez!’
‘Where’s me rifle?’
I explained that Reuben had it.
‘Good.’ He began to pull me towards the house. ‘And the other kid? Where’s he?’
‘Sergio? I’m not sure.’
‘That kid’s about to blow. I know the signs. You better watch that kid, he’s a mad dog.’ Danny seemed to find this amusing; he snickered to himself as he shoved me ahead of him, through the front door and down the central passage. I didn’t put up any sort of fight. Conscious of the fact that he was armed with a deadly weapon, I let him hustle me back into the kitchen – where Sergio was yanking open drawers and cupboards.
‘I can’t find a single one,’ he told Danny.
‘Huh?’
‘I can’t find any padlocks! You wanted padlocks!’
‘Oh. Right.’ Danny shrugged. ‘It’s no big deal. I might have something in the ute. Or Reuben might be able to help. Where is he, anyway?’
‘Down there,’ Sergio replied, pointing.
Danny raised his eyebrows. Then he dragged me over to the top of the stairs. ‘Reuben! Oi!’ he yelled. ‘You okay?’
During the pause that followed, I could feel Danny’s grip tightening on my T-shirt. At last, however, Reuben responded with a ‘Yeah! I’m good!’
Danny’s grip relaxed. ‘Need help?’ he queried, adjusting his volume a little.
‘Nah. I’m fine,’ came Reuben’s muffled answer. ‘This gate down here isn’t locked, y’know.’
‘I know. You got a padlock?’
This time the silence was so long that even I started to worry. Had Reuben been ambushed? Was he being held at gunpoint?
At last he said ‘Yeah,’ very reluctantly.
‘You wanna get it, then?’ Hearing no reply, Danny continued – with a distinct edge to his voice. ‘Once those bloody cells are secured, we can siddown and work out what we’re gunna do next, eh? Before this kid calls his mum.’
‘Yeah, yeah. Okay.’ All at once Reuben appeared at the foot of the stairs. He was looking ruffled and tense. ‘That American in there works for Forrest Darwell,’ he revealed, jerking his chin at one of the cell doors.
But Danny wasn’t enlightened. With a frown, he said, ‘Who’s Forrest Darwell?’
‘Jesus, Danny, I told you about him!’ Reuben snapped. ‘He runs werewolf fights in the us! He tried to buy me from the McKinnons! Don’t you remember?’ Appeased by a grunt from Danny, Reuben added, ‘I’m gunna kill Forrest Darwell. I’m gunna get ’im down in a pit and rip his goddamn throat out.’
This didn’t impress me at all. In my opinion, Reuben’s priorities were skewed. Why the hell should we be worrying about someone living in America, when we had so many more immediate concerns?
‘First we should warn the police!’ I exclaimed.
‘No.’ Danny’s tone was flat and hard. ‘First we get the padlock,’ he said. ‘Then we secure the gate. Then we siddown with a cuppa tea and work out our next move.’ He narrowed his eyes at Reuben. ‘You good with that?’
‘Yeah,’ Reuben replied. ‘I’m good with that.’
‘Okay.’ Danny released me at last, before slapping me on the back. ‘Let’s get this show on the road, then.’
Reuben’s padlock was attached to the rear door of his van, which he wouldn’t let anyone touch. ‘That van is borrowed,’ he said. ‘If you guys lay a finger on it, I’ll tear you apart.’
He then went off to retrieve the padlock, taking his crowbar with him. He also parked the van in a shed that stood near the house. ‘I don’t want it getting too hot,’ was the explanation he gave, when asked why he’d even bothered. Danny muttered something about mollycoddling perfectly healthy vehicles, before wondering aloud why Reuben had brought a van in the first place. ‘Why not a four-wheel drive?’ Danny wanted to know.
Reuben had a ready answer for that, too.
‘I thought it would be a good way of transporting things secretly,’ he declared. ‘Just in case.’
Though he didn’t elaborate, I figured he was talking about Gary and Lincoln. Danny must have thought the same thing, because he immediately stopped arguing. Instead he trudged downstairs with the padlock, while Reuben and I pieced together a scrappy meal consisting of milkless coffee, corn chips, pickles, diet cola, and fifteen slices of heavily buttered toast.
There was beer in the fridge as well, but only Danny had the stomach to drink that for breakfast. Upon finally sitting down at the kitchen table, he consumed three full cans of the stuff, one straight after the other. Then he produced a small bag of kangaroo jerky.
‘It’s homemade,’ he revealed, offering it around.
Since there were no takers, he ate about half the bag. The rest went to his dogs, which had followed him into the kitchen. According to Danny, they were no longer needed downstairs. With Gary and Lincoln now safely locked up, the dogs were well overdue for a break.
‘I guess so,’ said Reuben, who had taken charge of the shotgun. It lay on the table in front of him, along with Lincoln’s keys. Danny sat opposite, nursing the rifle; to his left was Sergio, facing me across a sticky expanse of red-checked plastic. Sergio couldn’t take his eyes off Gary’s pistol. It had been placed within easy reach, between the salt and the corn chips, like a tasty appetiser.
There was certainly no shortage of firearms. But I couldn’t see a phone anywhere – and I wondered what had happened to my phone. Was it still in Lincoln’s sedan? Or had he thrown it out the window during our trip to Cobar?
‘As long as those dogs aren’t allowed to wander,’ Reuben warned Danny. ‘They’ve gotta stay put, all right?’
‘Yeah, yeah.’
‘I mean it.’
‘Lay off,’ Danny growled. ‘They’ll be fine.’ As he knocked back another beer, I said to Reuben, ‘When can I call my mum?’
‘Not yet.’ Reuben looked around the table. ‘First there’s something I’ve gotta tell you. It’s important. It’ll affect the way we handle things from now on.’ He paused for a moment to regard Danny, who belched as he stared right back. ‘Danny? Are you listening?’
‘Do I have a choice?’ said Danny. Reuben sighed. He wasn’t eating much, I noticed. And he kept squirming around in his seat, though this mightn’t have been because he was anxious. It might have been because he was sitting on a pile of upturned kitchen drawers.
There weren’t enough chairs, so we’d been forced to improvise.
‘Before I left,’ he began, ‘I talked to Sanford and Nina and Estelle—’
‘Who?’ Sergio interrupted.
‘They’re friends. Good friends. They know about u
s.’ Reuben turned to me. ‘Toby’s met ’em. Haven’t you, Toby?’
‘Yeah.’ I couldn’t deny it.
‘Sanford’s a doctor,’ Reuben went on. ‘That’s why I decided to bring him along.’
‘You what?’ Danny yelped. Even I was gobsmacked. But Reuben just held up his hand.
‘Wait,’ he said. ‘Hear me out.’
‘Are you joking?’ Danny snarled, ignoring Reuben’s request. ‘I thought you said we had to keep this quiet?’
‘We do. We will. That’s why I brought Nina with me, too.’
‘How?’ I broke in. ‘Where is she? Did you leave her in the back of the van, or something?’
‘Hell, no!’ Reuben’s eyebrows snapped together. ‘She’s at a motel in Cobar. That’s the nearest town. I was worried that things might go pear-shaped out here, and I didn’t want her getting caught up in a gunfight.’
‘This doesn’t make sense, though.’ I still couldn’t get my brain around it. ‘Why bring Nina? I understand the doctor, but why her?’
‘That’s what I’m trying to tell you!’ Reuben barked. ‘If you’d just let me get a word in edgeways!’
‘So Nina’s a doctor? Is that it?’ Sergio queried, sounding lost. I decided to set him straight before his brain exploded.
‘Nina’s fifteen and looks anorexic,’ I informed him. ‘Which is why it’s so weird that Reuben brought her all this way.’
‘I brought her because of what you told your mum!’ Reuben hissed. ‘Doesn’t your mum think that Nina’s your girlfriend? Isn’t that what you told her?’
Danny laughed. I flushed.
‘Yeah, but—’
‘So if your mum finds out that you’ve run off with Nina, she’s gunna believe it. Right?’ said Reuben.
I nearly fell off my chair.
‘Are you crazy?’ I squeaked.
‘No. I’m not crazy. I’m using my bloody grey matter.’ Reuben tapped his head as he thrust it towards me. ‘Nina’s grandma is gunna tell your mum that you and Nina eloped, yesterday.’
‘But—’
‘Estelle will say she had a call from Nina’s uncle Barry, who lives right here at Wolgaroo. The story’ll be that Nina dragged you out here, and Barry’s worried, and Estelle wants to drive over with your mum and talk some sense into you both.’
‘Hang on,’ Sergio interjected. ‘Who’s Estelle?’
‘Estelle is Nina’s grandmother,’ said Reuben, then resumed his conversation with me. ‘Estelle will tell your mum that she doesn’t want the police involved,’ he explained. ‘That way, we’ll be able to talk to your mum, and show her this place, and convince her that you’re a werewolf. Before she can freak out and spill everything to the cops. Understand?’
‘Yeah.’ I did, too. Not only that; I could see how it would work. Mum didn’t know that Estelle had any dealings with Reuben. In fact Mum might actually believe Estelle, because Estelle was a little old lady. I could just imagine them on a road trip together, fretting about the out-of-control kids in their care.
There was only one problem.
‘I wouldn’t run off just because Nina told me to. It’s not like me. Why would I do that?’
Reuben spread his hands. ‘I dunno, Toby. Why would you wake up in a dingo pen one morning? That’s not like you either, is it?’
‘Oh.’ He had a point. ‘No, I guess not.’
‘You’ve run away once already. Why wouldn’t you do it again?’ Instead of waiting for me to answer, he ploughed on. ‘This is our best chance of turning your mum around. Before she screws things up. And once we’ve done that, we can start thinking about Sergio’s parents.’ His gaze swung towards Sergio, who was slowly munching on a pickle sandwich. ‘Whaddaya think, mate? Do your mum and dad know you’re a werewolf? What would they do if you turned up outta the blue, after ten months – would they call the police?’
Sergio didn’t answer at once. He chewed, swallowed, licked his lips and cleared his throat.
Then he said, ‘I think they’d shoot me.’
Reuben blinked. ‘Ah,’ he murmured. Danny grimaced.
‘I don’t wanna go back home,’ Sergio continued in a hoarse voice. ‘I don’t wanna go back there ever again.’
‘Right.’ Reuben nodded awkwardly. ‘Gotcha.’
‘Weren’t you in foster care, though?’ I couldn’t help butting in, because I’d just remembered something that Sergio had told me about his recent past. ‘I thought they put you in foster care. Because of the pizza oven.’
‘The pizza oven?’ Reuben echoed, before Sergio’s expression made him backpedal. ‘No. It’s okay. Don’t tell me. I’d rather you didn’t.’
‘I don’t wanna go into foster care, either,’ Sergio said.
Reuben reached over and patted his arm in a clumsy, unpractised sort of way. ‘We’ll work things out,’ Reuben promised. ‘If there’s no one you’ve gotta contact, then that just makes it easier for us.’
But Sergio hadn’t finished. He turned his mournful gaze on Danny.
‘Maybe I can live with him,’ was Sergio’s suggestion.
Danny gave a snort.
‘Like fun you will,’ he said. Even Reuben seemed alarmed at the prospect. The look on his face made me wonder what kind of rat-hole Danny occupied. Was it a windowless shack? A caravan smelling of dog piss? Or did he live in the back of his truck?
‘Uh – I don’t think that would be a good idea,’ Reuben mumbled. ‘Maybe we need some more input. Maybe we should ask Sanford. Or Toby’s mother, when she arrives. They might know what to do. Or I could call Father Ramon – he knows lots of social workers . . .’
‘Yeah, but hang on a minute.’ Danny had been slumped in his chair, chomping on strips of sun-dried kangaroo as he listened to the rest of us. Now he straightened up and addressed Reuben. ‘Are you saying we’ve gotta wait around till all these people get here? How long’s that gunna take?’
‘It took me just under eight hours,’ Reuben rejoined. ‘If we call Estelle now, and she calls Toby’s mum, they should be here early this evening.’
‘Not the others, though,’ I reminded him. ‘They’re staying in Cobar. You just said so. We could drive over there after breakfast and—’
‘No!’ Reuben stamped on this option as if it were a bedbug. He was so abrupt, I think he almost startled himself. ‘No,’ he said quickly. ‘Sanford and Nina – they’re asleep, by now. They need their sleep. They were up all night.’
‘So was I. So were you,’ I pointed out.
‘Yeah – and look at us.’ Reuben flapped his hand, encompassing the whole table in a single gesture. Glancing around, I could see what he was getting at. Everyone had bloodshot eyes, hunched shoulders and creased, puffy faces. ‘I don’t know about you,’ he went on, ‘but I’m trashed. I can hardly think straight. We need to be on the ball before we make any major decisions. That’s why I’ve gotta rest up.’
‘And in the meantime?’ Danny rumbled. ‘What are we supposed to do with those bastards downstairs while you’re sleeping?’
Reuben shrugged. Then he rose to his feet, taking care not to topple the unsteady stack of kitchen drawers.
‘They can wait an extra day,’ he replied. ‘I was down there five years.’
‘Yeah, but suppose their mate comes along?’ Danny was sounding more and more irritable. Snap went the ring-pull of yet another beer can. ‘What’s the plan for him? Do we blow his head off?’
Reuben frowned. ‘Don’t be stupid.’
‘How’s that stupid?’
‘D’you want the police involved?’ Reuben folded his arms. ‘Because that’s one sure way of bringing ’em down on top of us!’
When Danny opened his mouth to argue, I jumped in ahead of him – though not because I disagreed. On the contrary.
‘Danny’s right,’ I said. Like Danny, I wanted to discuss the third partner. ‘If that other guy does show up, he’ll know someone’s here. He’ll see all the cars.’
‘Not if we hide ’em,’ Reuben assu
red me. Danny, however, was unimpressed.
‘Screw you!’ he spat. ‘I’m not gunna skulk in here, hoping he’ll go away! I wanna get that guy!’
‘Me, too.’ Sergio raised his hand, like someone casting a vote.
‘Hell, I reckon we should hunt the bastard down,’ Danny continued. ‘Lure him out here and get stuck into ’im.’
The way Danny was talking, you could tell that he’d mapped out a really horrible fate for all three of the kidnappers. It was there in the depths of his chilly gaze and harsh, gravelly voice. Even his dogs picked up on it; they raised their hackles as he took a swig of beer.
But Reuben wasn’t intimidated. Though smaller than Danny, he could match the bigger man scar for scar. And his baleful green glare was just as menacing as Danny’s jagged brown teeth.
Even without the dogs to back him up, Reuben had a lot of muscle.
‘Well . . . fine,’ he said, grinding out the words. ‘Sure, we need to deal with the third guy. But not right now. Right now, we’ve got the other two guys to deal with. Not to mention Toby’s mother, and her missing person’s report.’ Seeing Danny lift his torn lip in a sneer, Reuben sharpened his attack. ‘You might have a police record, mate, but these kids are clean! And I want ’em to stay clean! I don’t want you messing things up for ’em! Maybe when the kids are gone, we can tackle Forrest Darwell’s crew. Until then, though . . .’ He took a deep breath. ‘Let’s just say we keep it low key, all right?’
Danny shrugged. He seemed resigned, though peevish; Reuben had obviously struck a chord, though I wasn’t sure how. Danny had never impressed me as someone who’d be concerned about protecting teenagers.
‘You’re right about the third man,’ Reuben conceded, still addressing Danny. ‘We should keep an eye out for him. That’s why I need you on guard duty while I phone Estelle. As for you kids . . .’ he nodded at Sergio, then at me, ‘. . . you should have a nap before things hot up again. I’ll do the same myself, when I’m done making calls.’
‘Can I make some calls?’ It seemed worth asking, though I could sense that Reuben wouldn’t approve. ‘Can I talk to my mother?’
Reuben heaved a longsuffering sigh. ‘Toby, what did I just tell you?’ he said. ‘Estelle will be talking to your mother. You’re not supposed to know they’re on their way.’