Derek tried to turn to look at her and she kicked him hard in the back, sending him forward onto all fours. He grunted and shook his head. Saliva dripped from his mouth onto the dirt. With difficulty he pushed himself onto his knees.

‘Please don’t hurt me, Mrs,’ he slurred, ‘I’ve got a kid.’

‘Tell me about Emma.’

There was nothing I could do but stand there and watch. Derek seemed to be trying to find the right words. He frowned and wiped his nose, smearing blood across his cheek. Tears dripped down his cheeks.

‘I don’t know no Emma.’

‘The little girl she left here a few hours ago. You know exactly who I’m talking about. Tell me or I will shoot you.’

Derek dropped his head and closed his eyes. He went very still and for a terrifying moment I thought he was dead, thought fear had killed him. Stopped his heart. Then his whole body jerked and he threw up again.

The air swelled with the sickly-sweet scent of vomit. My insides recoiled and I shifted my gaze from Derek to Mother. In the dimly lit yard she looked like a scarecrow, her straw-coloured hair sticking out at disturbing angles, her dark eyes staring blankly, unseeingly, and her skeletal body looking as if it had been frozen in time. For too long she stood there, unmoving, unblinking, the silence stretching on and up into the eternity of the space above our heads, into the stars, beyond the stars. She was all-powerful in that moment. Derek and I were nothing. She abruptly tilted her head to the side. Her eyes caught the light from the house and glinted. She smiled a smile that did not meet her eyes and then she fired a bullet into Derek’s head.

I didn’t scream. I was too shocked to scream or move or breathe. I stared as Derek’s face exploded into a million pieces and his body dropped to the ground like a stone. I stared as she walked over to me and guided me to the car, opened the passenger door, reached inside and placed the shotgun on the back seat. I stared as she sat me down. Stared as she strapped the safety belt around me then got behind the wheel. Stared as she drove away, face calm, hands calm, movements fluid. I stared the whole drive back to the cottage, unable to think anything except for the same four words over and over and over again.

Chapter 36