Page 29 of The Island

“Use your head, mate. Yeah, easy, we’ll tie their hands,” Ivan suggested.

“Nah, you lot are as thick as pig shit. They can still just untie themselves,” Kate said. “We have to tie them to something. Tell Freddie to go get us some number three cord, I’ve got this. Meanwhile, let’s do what Ma told us to do and search the bastards.”

“My specialty,” Jacko growled. “Bloody cops frisked me so many times, I know all their tricks. Did we get their phones?”

“Yeah,” Ivan said. “No signal here, of course.”

“Grab that lad for me, will ya?”

Heather saw them push Owen against one of the walls of the shed. Jacko searched his pockets and ran his hands up his legs and back. They took Owen’s money and the twenty-sided die he always kept with him. They’d already gotten Tom’s wallet and phone. They took his keys and a pen and didn’t find anything else when they searched him.

“You next, missy,” Jacko said to Olivia.

“Could you please get one of the women to search her?” Heather asked. “She’s just a frightened little girl.”

Jacko made a fist and shoved it into Heather’s cheek. “You’re getting on me nerves. You better shut up or I’m going to break your bloody jaw,” he said.

“You better not!” Tom said.

“Or you’ll do what?” Jacko growled.

“I’m sorry, I—” Heather began.

“Didn’t I say shut up?” Jacko screamed.

Heather nodded. She was trembling all over.

“Just go easy on the girl, mate,” Matt said to Jacko.

“I know what I’m doing,” Jacko said and patted down Olivia. He turned to Heather. “You last, princess,” Jacko said.

“She’s the troublemaker,” someone muttered from the doorway.

“Yeah, I know,” Jacko said and pushed her face against the shed wall. Heather felt his rough hand move up and down her legs. He reached in her jeans pockets, took her money and the cigarette pack from yesterday, slapped her ass pockets, and ran his hands up over her back and under her arms. “Marlboro,” Jacko said, pocketing them.

“Cigarettes?” Tom blurted out. As if Heather’s secret smoking habit from that lost world mattered now.

“Is she clean?” Ivan asked.

“She’s clean,” Jacko said. “Now, what about tying ’em?”

“Yeah, I’ve been thinking about this,” Kate said. “What do you reckon, lads? Tie their hands, space them well apart, and then—see those ewe hooks on the ceiling?”

“Yeah?”

“A rope from each of those hooks to a rope around their necks. Take the slack out of it, and that way they can’t move around in here to help untie each other. What do you think?”

“Who knew it? Kate’s a bloody genius!” Jacko said and all the men laughed.

“This is madness! You can’t do that to children!” Heather begged them.

Jacko turned to Tom. “She really is a troublemaker. She is going to get you and your family seriously hurt, mate, if she doesn’t shut up.”

Heather shook her head at Tom.

“I think my wife is worried something might happen to the kids,” Tom protested. “You can’t possibly think about putting nooses around the necks of small children.”

“Eye for an eye, then,” Ivan said with an unpleasant laugh.