The String Diaries Part 30

Hannah nodded.

'I'm coming in.'

'Front door.' Moving from the window, she handed the shotgun to Nate.

'Mummy, what are you doing?'

'It's Sebastien, sweetheart. I'm going to let him in.'

'What if it isn't? What if it's the Bad Man?'

'I don't think it is. Moses wouldn't ride in a car with the Bad Man, would he?'

'What if he trapped Moses in there with him?'

'OK, Leah, here's what you do. When I bring Sebastien in, I want you to watch Moses very carefully. If he starts acting strangely hostile I want you to nod at Daddy. He'll know what to do. OK?'

'Please be careful.'

Hannah went to the front door, seeing the distorted shape of Sebastien's head through the central bulb of gla.s.s. She hesitated, hand on the latch, and then she opened it.

Sebastien stared at her, his emerald eyes unreadable. 'Your father's favourite Bordeaux.'

'Chateau Latour. The name of your second dog.'

'Cyrus.' He blinked. 'Where are the others?'

'Follow me.' Hannah led him into the dining room. Moses jumped up to greet him.

Sebastien ruffled the dog's head. He turned to Nate, noticing first the pain in his eyes, and then the blood. 'h.e.l.lfire. They've torn loose.'

'Kind of bad timing,' Nate replied.

Sebastien turned back to Hannah. 'What happened?'

'I don't know yet. What's worse, Seb, I don't even know how you fit into all this.'

The old man frowned. 'Meaning?'

'We were out riding yesterday, near your cottage. Quite a party you were having. Not exactly the hermit lifestyle you'd led me to believe. What's going on?'

'Riding? Riding what?'

'Answer the question, Seb. Who were those men you were with?'

'It's good that you're suspicious. But there's a time for that. You need to tell me what happened here. So I can help. Your husband is injured. We need to-'

Nate lifted the barrels of the shotgun. 'Answer my wife.'

Sebastien hesitated. He looked from Nate to Hannah, and then back to Nate. 'b.l.o.o.d.y-minded, the pair of you,' he snapped. 'Fine. I didn't realise you were spying on me. The two men you saw were Eleni.'

'I thought you'd severed your ties,' she said.

'I had.'

'So what? That was just a social visit?'

'Of course not. I contacted them. Just one of them. In confidence. I thought they might be able to help.'

'Just one of them?'

'That's what I said.'

'And yet two showed up. Some confidence, Seb. How many others know about us now, I wonder?' She paused, expecting a reply, but he remained silent. 'You didn't think we might want to be consulted about that? It didn't occur to you to ask us about involving another one, two, three or however the h.e.l.l many more of those people now know about us?'

'I was trying to help,' he said quietly. His tone was so incongruous it made her pause, and with sudden clarity she realised how deeply she had wounded him.

And yet he'd had no right to do what he had done. She was absolutely right to be furious with him. 'Where are they now?' she demanded.

'They've gone back to town. They've rented a place there.'

'You tell them to stay the h.e.l.l away from us.'

His jaw tightened. 'Can I examine your husband now?'

Then, upstairs, Hannah's phone began to ring. She had left it on the dressing table. 'I need to get that,' she said. 'It could be him. Could be Dad.'

'Mummy, don't go.'

Sebastien moved to the door. 'I'll do it.'

Hannah locked eyes with him. Then she stood aside and let him pa.s.s. She listened to the tread of his boots as they moved up the stairs, on to the landing, across the first-floor hall. Above, the bedroom door creaked. A loose floorboard squealed.

Hannah moved to the window. She scanned the nearby hills, the river, the road. No one. No people. No animals. No movement. Sebastien's Defender stood on the track, silent and alone.

Upstairs, the phone stopped ringing. A thump. Another creak, followed by footsteps back down the stairs and across the hall. Hannah opened the door and Sebastien slipped into the room. He handed the phone to her.

She checked the missed call log. No number had been recorded. She was about to put the phone on the dining table when it rang in her hands.

Hannah stared down at it, watching it warble and vibrate. She wondered what chance there was that her father was calling. Silly to torture herself. Thumbing the call b.u.t.ton, Hannah raised the phone to her ear. She heard empty static. And then a voice.

'This isn't really working out, is it?' Jakab said.

'If I'd had another half a second to aim, it would have worked out a lot better.'

'Ouch.' He laughed. 'Come on, this isn't like you.'

'You don't know me.'

'I feel like I do.'

'Then you're deluded.'

'Ah, Hannah, it pains me to hear this anger in your voice.'

She stepped back to the window and looked outside. Was the purpose of his call a distraction? 'You tried to kill Nate. What did you expect?'

'We've talked about this. Your husband shot me. What did you want me to do? Lie down and die?'

'That's exactly what I want you to do.'

'I have no interest in harming your family.'

'You murdered my mother.'

'Another misunderstanding. I don't blame you for being confused. You've been fed so many lies over the years, so much vitriol. No one seems to recognise the truth any more.'

'And you do.'

'I know my truth.'

'What do you want?'

'The only thing I've ever wanted, Hannah. A small and simple thing: something so inconsequential it would cost you virtually nothing to grant it. I want to see you, just once. I want to sit down in a room with you and look at your face while I talk. I want to show you who I really am. And if at the end of all that, you still want to walk away, if you still insist that this has to end, then so be it. I'll honour your wishes.'

'As simple as that?'

'As simple as that.'

'What have you done with my father?'

'He's perfectly safe.'

'Put him on.'

'I can't do that right now, Hannah. But he's safe, I promise you. In fact, you'll have him back with you very soon.'

'You're lying.'

'Lying gives me indigestion. I prefer to tell the truth.'

She turned away from the window. Saw her daughter, balancing the last of the shotgun cartridges at the rear of a curving line. Saw the fear and the determination in her face. She looked across to the armchair where Nate sat, met his eyes, glanced down at his abdomen and the spreading stain of blood.

'OK. I'll meet you.'

An intake of breath. 'You will?'

'I just said so. Come on, then. Tell me where.'

'Tell you . . . now?'

'I can't think of a better time.'

'This is unexpected. I-'

'I'm sure it is. So you'd better hurry up. I might change my mind.'

Silence at the other end. Then: 'I'll call you back. Goodbye, Hannah. You've made the right decision.'

She hung up the phone and closed her eyes, leaning against the door.

'It's a trick,' Sebastien said. 'He doesn't want to meet you like this. It's against his nature. He won't simply let you show up and confront him. He prefers masks. Subterfuge.'

'I have no intention of meeting him. I have every intention of killing him. If he's distracted, if he's busy thinking about that instead, maybe it gives us an edge.'

Nate shrugged. 'It's the only tactic we have.'

'Now we need to think about how we get out of here.'

'We have to a.s.sume he's watching the house,' he replied. 'We've got two cars. Only one obvious way out. Over the bridge and up to the main road.'

Hannah turned to Sebastien. 'Any other routes out?'

The old man grimaced. 'Plenty. But all across open ground. The river flows in and out of the lake. There's no crossing to the east. To the west, about two miles upstream, there's a ford. The other option is behind us. The long way round. But the terrain is pretty unforgiving. I don't think we can risk it.'

'We've got 4x4's.'

'It's not that.' He inclined his head, ever so slightly, in Nate's direction.

She knew he was right. Now that her husband's wounds had reopened, they couldn't afford a lengthy traverse across broken ground. They needed to get off the mountain. Shake Jakab loose. Find a hospital. Fast.

'So we take the main road,' she said. 'a.s.sume he'll follow. Try to lose him in the mountains. Some kind of diversion.'

Sebastien nodded. He looked about as pleased at the prospect as she felt. 'Two cars or one?'

'We go together.'

'Two cars gives us more options.'

'I'm not splitting the three of us.'

'Then don't. You go in one car. I'll take the other.'

Her phone rang. They all stared at it. It rang a second time. She activated it and held it to her ear.

'Me again.'

'That was quick.'