He pulled his car keys from his pocket as he ran for the front door.

*

Jake had pulled away from the curb in front of the Kelly house before the danger of the situation hit him.

On the one hand, he shouldn’t go charging up to the manor.

On the other, if he didn’t another life might be lost.

He needed a plan. He only had two options—neither of them great.

He made two calls, first one to Hobart and then one to Murphy. He just had to hope they paid off.

As he turned the key in the ignition for a second time, his phone rang. He grabbed it hoping it was a return call from headquarters in Hobart.

It was Meena again.

‘Diane has been searching old files for me all week.’

‘You didn’t say anything …’

‘Didn’t want to get your hopes up.’

‘Meena, it’s crunch time on my end. As fast as you can?’

‘Right. Fifty years ago there was an incident—I guess you’d call it a suicide, but there was a lot more to it than that.’

‘Okay?’

‘Tom Kelly, a farmer in Dunton, was brought in with a gunshot wound to the head. He didn’t survive.’

‘Right.’

‘He was your Kelly’s father. From the looks of it, it was a failed murder-suicide. Along with Kelly there were five children and his wife, all of them maimed and suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning.’

‘Bloody hell.’

‘It looks like Tom Kelly subdued his whole family, tortured each of them, then locked them in the garage with a running car in order to kill them. Then he turned a gun on himself.’

As common as such stories were, they always made Jake’s blood run cold.

‘A neighbour heard the shot as they were going past, dropped in to see what was happening, and called for help.’

‘You said he maimed the children?’

‘He’d mutilated them by removing something different from each one. One boy’s little toes had been cut off; another had a chunk of flesh excised from the back of her arm, another the back of his leg.’

‘And Aiden?’

‘A large area of skin and muscle over his ribcage. But the mother …’

‘Yes?’

Like father, like son. Jake couldn’t delay, he had to get to the manor now. ‘Meena, I’m going to the Campbell manor. I’ve called Hobart to send back-up, and I’ve let Murphy know where I’m going.’

‘Him?’

‘Exactly. So I’m letting you know in case, well …’

‘I understand. I’ll call Hobart as well and emphasise the urgency.’

Jake could only hope they listened.

*