Josh had a horrifying sight for a moment – the dancing fire in the foreground and the dead old woman lying there at the back. Then the flames roared higher, and he couldn’t see a thing. Black smoke billowed out and the heat blazed fiercely. They all had to step back, it was searing. There came a smell of cooked meat and Josh found himself holding his breath in case he threw up.

The barrel-top wagon and its contents burned briskly, and soon the flames went dancing away into the night sky, carrying Eva Milo’s poor tormented soul up to the heavens. Josh looked around for Trace, Claire’s sister, but she was gone.

96

96

Josh crawled into bed at gone one in the morning. Shauna stirred, turned toward him.

‘I’ve missed you, Josh,’ she said, and he saw the glint of her eyes in the moonlight.

Josh’s mind was a whirl, trying to sift through all he’d heard and seen tonight. ‘I’ve only been gone a few hours,’ he said.

‘Not just tonight. Before. When you were away so much in the States. I hate it every time you go there. I miss you.’

Well, I don’t miss you.

‘You smell smoky,’ she said, sniffing his shoulder.

‘Do I? Don’t know why.’

Pally’s words were echoing around his head. You might ask yourself about that, he’d said.

‘That right, you were in tight with Jeb Cleaver?’ he said. He couldn’t help himself.

Shauna was silent. He couldn’t even hear her breathing. Then there was movement, and she switched on the bedside lamp. The room filled with light. Josh screwed up his eyes, wishing he’d said nothing. He was tired and he needed to sleep. But the thing had been circling in his brain ever since Pally had uttered the words; he couldn’t get it out of his head. He’d been so dazed by it all, so shocked. He’d never confronted her about any of this shit. Anything for a quiet life, that was him. But now he felt he had to speak.

‘What?’ she said, sitting up, staring down at him.

‘Jeb Cleaver. You and him had a thing going.’

‘Who told you that?’

‘It don’t matter who told me. Did you?’