BooksBarbecue
Back The Last Guests
Chapters (54)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Epigraph
  4. PROLOGUE
  5. PART ONE
  6. ONE
  7. TWO
  8. THREE
  9. FOUR
  10. DEADLY SAS RAID IN AFGHANISTAN UNDER SCRUTINY
  11. FIVE
  12. SIX
  13. SEVEN
  14. EIGHT
  15. NINE
  16. TEN
  17. ELEVEN
  18. TWELVE
  19. THIRTEEN
  20. FOURTEEN
  21. FIFTEEN
  22. SIXTEEN
  23. SEVENTEEN
  24. EIGHTEEN
  25. NINETEEN
  26. TWENTY
  27. PART TWO
  28. TWENTY-ONE
  29. TWENTY-TWO
  30. TWENTY-THREE
  31. TWENTY-FOUR
  32. TWENTY-FIVE
  33. TWENTY-SIX
  34. TWENTY-SEVEN
  35. TWENTY-EIGHT
  36. TWENTY-NINE
  37. DANIEL MOORE: ‘A SINGLE BLOKE, HAPPY-GO-LUCKY, A BIT OF A DUNCE BUT WITH A GOOD HEART,’ BEST FRIEND SAYS.
  38. THIRTY
  39. THIRTY-ONE
  40. THIRTY-TWO
  41. THIRTY-THREE
  42. THIRTY-FOUR
  43. THIRTY-FIVE
  44. BREAKING: POLICE CONFIRM DANIEL MOORE ACTED ALONE
  45. THIRTY-SIX
  46. THIRTY-SEVEN
  47. THIRTY-EIGHT
  48. THIRTY-NINE
  49. SECOND ARREST MADE IN WESTAY HIDDEN CAMERAS CASE
  50. EPILOGUE
  51. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  52. Discover More
  53. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  54. Also by J. P. Pomare

He leads us downstairs; I’m tucked in behind him, holding the lighter, which is casting a meagre glow. I don’t reach for the phone. I don’t want to see the streams and the comments, I just want to get out. We get to the switchboard and he opens the circuit-breaker, the lights come back on.

Two people are watching us just outside the door. I leap before I realise it’s only our reflection in the glass. The night is black and the storm continues to pound down.

We set out through the front door, over the deck into the hard rain.

TWENTY

‘WHO THE HELL was that back there?’ Cain says.

‘I have no idea.’ The lie comes instantly. ‘There could have been someone else with him. There were cameras. He showed me… footage from the house, it was live. I saw him dragging you.’

I follow him down the steps, he’s still unsteady on his feet.

‘I saw something,’ I say. ‘It looked like someone was behind him at one stage.’ My head swims. I don’t know what I saw, it was probably a shadow.

His doubt is palpable. The way his silhouette shakes its head. He doesn’t believe it, or doesn’t want to.

‘We need to get away. We need to phone the police.’

I don’t say what I’m thinking, Someone could be hunting us right now.

‘Can you run?’ I ask.

‘No,’ he says. ‘I still feel groggy. We’re just going to work our way up to Wiremu’s.’

I grab his shoulder, turn him gently. ‘I’m scared, what if there’s another one?’

Even in the darkness, I see his eyes are wide. ‘We will make it. I only saw one and the only choice we have is to keep moving and stay vigilant.’ He shakes his head.

I think about those cameras in our house, are they still watching? A chill passes over the skin of my neck. A ghost whisper, Grandad would say.

Cain squeezes me against him for a moment, there on the gravel in the rain. I know we don’t have time, but it settles my nerves just a little. ‘Stay close,’ he says. ‘I’ve got us covered.’

He releases me, raises the shotgun so it’s hard against his shoulder and continues moving. I feel the effervescence of adrenaline. Epinephrine stimulating alpha-adrenoreceptors. Narrowing blood vessels, filling muscles with oxygen, enhancing eyesight. My body is prepared for danger, prepared to do what it takes to protect this baby.