Keogh hesitated. It might be better to wait a few seconds. If Amanda and the canoeists thought they’d gone, they might come back out to the canoes, and he could put a bullet in her leg. He didn’t want to have to kill the kids. He was pretty certain he could have taken at least one of them out earlier, but he’d deliberately avoided them. After all, he wasn’t an animal, although he was pretty sure Mehdi, and probably even MacLean, wouldn’t hesitate to do them. But they were less important targets than the adults, because they were always going to be less reliable witnesses.

Squinting down the sights, taking his time now that his target was moving nice and slowly, Keogh made his decision. Business was business.

He lowered the rifle ever so slightly as the man reached the trees, his dead wife in his arms, then pulled the trigger and watched him fall.

It was a perfect shot.

Fourteen

THE SHOT CRACKED across the water, shattering the silence, and Tim fell to the ground like a stone, dropping Jean in the process. Casey cried out and Jess pulled her close, shielding her eyes.

There was a long second of silence and then Tim cried out in pain, grabbing his leg. He was lying on his side facing Jean’s body, gritting his teeth. Only his head was inside the tree line, but he was trying to crawl further in.

‘Uncle Tim!’ cried Casey, struggling to get out of Jess’s grip.

‘Stay where you are,’ hissed the mystery woman, who was crouching down a few feet away. ‘They’ve wounded him deliberately. If we try to pull him in, they’ll shoot us too.’

Jess turned to her. ‘But why? What do they want us for?’

The woman put a finger to her lips, motioning towards Casey, who was still struggling in Jess’s grip. ‘It’s just too dangerous. Please. Trust me.’

Tim inched forward on his belly, his progress painfully slow. ‘Ah Jesus,’ he hissed, through clenched teeth. ‘Girls, you’ve got to get out of here. Get to Tayleigh. Now . . .’

‘We’re not going to leave you, Uncle Tim!’ cried Casey, tears streaming down her face. ‘We’re not going to leave you!’

His face contorted in pain. ‘You’ve got to.’

But then suddenly Casey had broken free, and she was on her feet and running over to her uncle.

‘No!’ yelled the woman, jumping up from her crouch and sprinting forward in a single movement to cut her off, before Jess even had time to react.

Casey was only a yard from Tim when the shot rang out.

And then she was flying through the air as the mystery woman caught her in a sideways rugby tackle, and the two of them landed together in the dirt, rolling away as a third shot cracked through the air.

Tim’s body kicked wildly as the bullet struck him somewhere in the back, and he lifted his head, his mouth open in an expression of surprise, before he slumped forward and lay still.

But it wasn’t Tim Jess was interested in. It was Casey. Where was she? Had she been hurt?

Another shot rang out, and another, and Jess had to lie flat on her front as the woman and Casey rolled along the ground towards her and out of the line of fire.

Just as suddenly as it had begun, the shooting stopped, and Jess scrambled over to where the woman lay on top of her sister. Casey’s eyes were closed and Jess felt a terrible, gut-wrenching panic. ‘Casey, Casey, baby. Are you okay? Please tell me you’re okay.’

For a second nothing happened, and a strangled sob rose up in Jess’s throat. She couldn’t lose her sister. Not Casey. Anyone but her. Anyone . . .

And then her eyes opened and she was staring up at Jess. ‘I’m scared,’ Casey said simply.

Jess sobbed with relief and pushed the woman aside as she took her sister in her arms, holding her close.

For a few seconds, the girls clung to each other, both shivering from the shock and the cold. Then slowly Jess got to her feet and looked over to where the woman stood looking at them, an expression of regret in her eyes.

‘I’m sorry to have got you involved in this, I really am,’ she said.

Keeping Casey’s face pressed into her shoulder, Jess looked across at the bodies of her adoptive aunt and uncle, as still as ghosts, then back at the woman. ‘Why the hell do these people want to kill you?’

The woman sighed. ‘I have no idea. But I do know one thing. We can’t stay here. They’re going to be coming after us and we’re still a long way from help.’ She looked at Casey, and then at Jess, and Jess was once again struck by the way she held herself and the calm manner in which she took charge. ‘My name’s Amanda,’ the woman continued, ‘and I’m going to get you both to safety, get you some warm, dry clothes, and then everything’s going to be okay.’ Her voice was soothing in its tones, almost patronizing, and Jess could tell that she’d never had kids. She didn’t really know how to handle them.

‘It won’t be,’ said Casey, looking over towards the bodies of Tim and Jean. ‘My new mum and dad are dead.’

‘I know, and I’m sorry. But we’ve got to protect ourselves now. You both saw the faces of two of those men. That means you’re in danger too.’ She turned and looked up into the thick, dark forest. ‘Let’s go. We need to get to Tayleigh before dark.’ Without another word, she turned and headed into the trees.

Casey looked up at Jess, her big blue eyes still wet with tears. ‘I don’t want to leave Uncle Tim and Auntie Jean,’ she said. ‘It doesn’t seem right.’

But Jess knew it was a time for hard decisions. ‘Neither do I,’ she answered, stroking her sister’s wet hair. ‘But we’ve got no choice. You’ve got to be strong for me, okay?’

Casey nodded, managing a weak smile. ‘I’ll try.’

‘I know you will.’ Jess helped her to her feet and together, hand in hand, they started after the woman who’d got them into this nightmare.

Fifteen

16.35

KEOGH LOWERED THE rifle, wondering if he’d hit either Amanda or one of the kids with his last shots. He hoped he hadn’t killed a kid, but he knew he’d be able to handle it as long as he didn’t actually have to see his handiwork. He also knew he’d be in a lot of trouble if one of the shots had accidentally killed Amanda. He didn’t think it had, but you never knew, and he cursed himself for being so reckless.

Turning away from the lookout point, he made the call he’d been dreading on the satellite phone he was carrying.

His employer answered after three rings. ‘Is the situation resolved?’ he asked brusquely.

‘Not quite, sir,’ said Keogh, and briefly explained what had happened. As he spoke, he realized how bad it must be sounding.

‘I don’t pay you to fuck up,’ growled his employer, ‘but that’s exactly what you’ve done. If you want to live to see another job, you’d better deal with this and get hold of this woman.’

Keogh was only too aware that such a threat from his employer wasn’t idle. He had the type of money, power and resources to kill almost anyone he wanted to. He had the ruthlessness too. ‘I will, sir,’ he answered, ‘but I can’t guarantee that we’ll take her alive. That’s what’s been the problem so far.’

‘I pay you very well to resolve problems like that. She has information I need very badly, you know that. You need to find her now, and if anyone else gets in the way, kill them too. Kill anyone you have to kill. It doesn’t matter, as long as you get her back to me tonight. Do you understand me? And I mean alive.’

Keogh fought down his irritation at being talked to like a servant. ‘Yes, sir.’

‘Then do it. Otherwise I’ll have to find someone who can. Call me when you have news.’

Keogh put the phone away, knowing now that his life depended on what happened in the next few hours. It was time to be ruthless. He’d already sent MacLean off to get the dogs, which would give them a much better chance of successfully hunting her down. In the meantime, they needed to make sure the canoe company didn’t raise the alarm. It was inconvenient that both the canoes were currently stuck on the sand spit over the other side of the river in full view, but now that the afternoon was moving inexorably towards dusk, Keogh considered it highly unlikely that any other boats would come down here.