But Ahab was barely listening. There was something else, swelling up from underneath all the other sounds.

A distant drone. The sirens were singing.

The Black Wind.

‘Kill me! You promised!’

‘That’s the thing about us Dempseys,’ said Ahab, ejecting the second cartridge and throwing the shotgun out of the man’s reach. ‘We lie.’

CHAPTER 53

FOREST

Forest sat on a rail-back chair, his arms bound behind him, a rag in his mouth and a silk pillowcase over his head. He could see the pillowcase billowing in and out with his rapid breathing. He was trying to stay calm but he was failing. Oh, was he failing.

He was still at Frankie’s. He could hear seagulls through the window. His wrists were chafed raw from the zip ties.

Someone else was in the room with him – he could hear shallow, gasping breaths in the pattern of fitful sleep. He guessed it was De Corrado. He wished he could help her – this was all his fault. All of it. His fault.

And now they were going to kill Huck.

Footsteps approached, familiar voices.

The pillowcase was pulled from his head almost tenderly.

Ivy and Davey stood in front of him, the pillowcase in Davey’s hand. Ivy, dressed in a pantsuit with a red scarf in her hair, appeared triumphant. Davey, now dressed in a tailored shirt and expensive slacks, was fidgeting with uncomfortable awe.

Forest looked around the room, trying to grasp the situation. It was De Corrado, lying on the bed, her arms and legs bound.

Forest shouted through the rag. His words were muffled. ‘Wake up, detective!’

‘You’re sure about this, Mum?’ breathed Davey. He glanced between Forest and Ivy, wringing his hands.

‘He has to die,’ she said. ‘He knows too much.’

Through the gag, Forest forced out: ‘Why?’ Tears sprang into his eyes, but he felt no sadness, only hate. ‘Why, Ivy?’

She looked down at him as one would examine a particularly troublesome puppy. She spoke to Davey. ‘Jesse told me he’d drowned Alexandra and Forest, right before he lost his mind at what he’d done, poor dear. I think there’d be some poetic justice to you drowning this imposter in Jesse’s stead. You deal with the boy, and I’ll deal with the detective. That way we both have skin in the game, should anything go amiss.’

Davey visibly swallowed, licking dry lips. ‘Mum . . .’

She put a hand on his shoulder. ‘You’ve killed men before, Davey.’

‘Not by my own hands!’

‘You can do this.’ Her fingers were a claw. ‘I’m your captain, now.’

She caressed Davey’s cheek. ‘Chop chop, dear.’