‘But I’d made a deal with Roy, you see? Promised him I’d sort him out before he went totally sick. So I told the water to get lost. When I got back later, I assumed Roy was asleep. The sun was high in the sky. But as I was sitting in the yard, reading a book, I heard something, and there he was, crawling across the ground, dragging his legs behind him, a look of pure murder on his face. The sun was burning into him. His skin was all red and blistered, and there were boils on him like you see on the really sick ones. They’d come up fast, hadn’t been there the day before. I backed away from him. It wasn’t difficult. I mean, he could only move slowly. And then I realized he was guarding something. He’d got it into his sick mind that he needed to protect the tank that they’d buried. The big metal barrel thing that they’d never told me what was inside. He was sort of lying on top of it.

‘As I watched him, the look on his face went away. First his expression went blank, then sad, then he seemed to recognize me. He smiled and I went to him. Crouched down. He was trying to say something. I could just hear the words.’

‘What did he say?’ asked Ella.

‘“I’m just going outside and may be some time.”’

Chapter 27

27

‘Before I killed Roy, though, I had to know something. And I wanted to let him know something. So I spoke to him for the first time. I asked him a question.’

‘What did you ask?’

‘I just asked him what was in the barrel and what it was for. He really smiled then, came alive. Laughed. Like a little kid. Happy for me, I guess. Pleased to be alive. Just like the old days, the old Roy. Told me it was full of petrol. But they’d been paranoid that somebody would want to steal it, so they’d been keeping it secret and guarding it all this time.

‘I helped him up and I moved him into the shade.

‘“It’s yours now,” he said. “All this. The whole world is yours. Don’t muck it up like we did.”

‘I hugged him and he said I was a sly one. “Always knew you were holding out on us,” he said. “Now you stay alive for me, yeah? Make things right again.”

‘I told him I would and I thanked him for everything and that made him happy and then I shot him.’

‘You must have been sad,’ said Ella.