Page 111 of Sisters

‘BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH! Too much information.’

Ellie laughed.

Abby shook her head. ‘God, to think all this time...Hey, for the record, it is still not cool to date your sister’s ex.’

‘Don’t know why I bothered. He was boring. Always on about various muscle groups and how important it was to do daily exercises.’

‘He was, wasn’t he? Hey, did he get you doing those weird squat things?’

‘You mean, with your legs bent out a bit?’

‘Yes!’ Abby laughed and pulled away, back onto the road.

Ellie looked across at her sister and for a moment her vision swam. Abby became two until Ellie blinked and held her head still. She was sick of feeling unwell. Ever since they’d left Elba, it had been getting steadily worse.

Recognizing she was also hungry, she reached for her bag, where she had a bar of chocolate stashed. Inside, Ellie saw the gun. She stared at it, recollecting that she had handled it, that both her and her sister’s prints were on it. Ellie found herself wondering, if it had been Abby who’d had the knife to her neck, and she had been the one driving, whether she would have been able to pull the trigger and save them both. Would she have had the guts? She wasn’t sure, and anyway...She stopped, her mind whirring, suddenly struck by something. Neither of them knew how to use it – they’d even laughed about it. And yet...

‘Abby?’

‘Yes?’

‘You know yesterday, when we were laughing after I pointed the gun at you?’

‘That sounds weird, but yes?’

‘And how we said we didn’t even know how to use a gun?’

‘Yeah...’

Ellie shrugged. Where was she going with this? ‘Just...you seemed to make it work quite easily in the forest.’

Her sister looked at her. ‘I checked,’ she said flatly. ‘Looked it up online when you were in a shop or something. I can’t quite remember.’

Ellie looked at her curiously.

‘I guess I was intrigued. Why, you want a lesson?’

Ellie shuddered. ‘No, thank you. In fact, I don’t even want it in my bag anymore.’ She picked it out between her thumb and forefinger, holding it at arm’s length, then turned to put it on the back seat.

‘Better not leave it there,’ said Abby. ‘In case we get stopped.’ She saw her jacket on the seat. ‘Put it in my pocket. We’ll get rid of it someplace.’

Ellie leaned over and, taking Abby’s jacket, tucked the gun inside the pocket.

‘Junction,’ said Abby.

Ellie quickly turned back to the map on her lap. ‘Right,’ she called. As they turned, she got out the chocolate bar and, breaking it in half, handed one piece to her sister.

They drove on.

EIGHTY-FIVE

Susanna stepped out of the helicopter, holding her hair tight against the downwash from the rotors. As she walked across the field, away from the chopper, she could see Lieutenant Colonel Baroni heading towards her, her face set in a humourless expression. Further back, Matteo was waiting by a police car, his arms folded.

‘Now for your side of the bargain,’ said Baroni, as she approached. ‘And this better be good.’

‘Thank you for bringing me here,’ said Susanna. ‘You may have just prevented a tragedy from happening.’

Baroni was impatient. ‘Where are they?’