Page 42 of The Island

“Matt! I told you to shut that bitch up,” Ma said coldly and calmly. “This is your final warning, girl. If you speak again without my permission, I’m going to have Lenny, our blacksmith, cut your tongue out with his leather-cutting scissors. Nod your bloody head if you understand. Not one bloody word from you. Do you understand?”

Heather nodded.

“Just the Krauts, eh? Matt, what if we dumped the car somewhere on the mainland?”

Matt nodded. “The car’s GPS will have stopped well before Stamford Bridge.”

“Jamie, could you smash the car up bad?” Ma asked someone whom Heather couldn’t see.

“Oh, yeah. Easy. Lotta drop-offs on the Red Hill Road. Some as deep as twenty-five meters. Car goes over one of those, little tampering with the fuel lines…boom.”

“What do you think, Ivan?”

He thought for a long time before finally clearing his throat. “I like the plan, Ma. Cops will find the car in a few days and just think, Ah, too bad, dumb Americans forgot which side of the road to drive on,” Ivan said.

“The Melbourne cops are smart, though—what if they come over here?” Kate asked.

“We don’t know nothing about any Americans; we keep ourselves to ourselves.”

“Oi, look, this is my decision, innit? Mine,” Danny said. “Under the old laws. They done me wrong, not any of you.”

“You cost us half a million bucks, Danny! You can shut your mouth!” Ivan said.

“What is it you want, Daniel?” Ma asked.

Danny strode into the center of the circle. Someone had passed him an earthen drinking jug and he took an enormous sip of liquor that was so strong, Heather could smell it from where she was sprawled on the ground.

“What do I want?” Danny said after a pause.

“There’s nothing they can give you now, mate,” Matt said.

“Yeah, no, look…I lost a wife and I heard there’s a girl. I want to see the girl. Bring her to me,” Danny said, wiping his mouth.

“Ivan?” Ma asked.

“Maybe not a good idea, Ma. If we’re going to go down this route, there can’t be any survivors,” Jacko said.

“I want my rights,” Danny insisted.

“You lost a wife, not a kid,” Matt said.

“I can’t take this violent bloody bitch. We can’t trust her,” Danny said, pointing at Heather.

Kate laughed. “You’re right. She’d cut all our throats, this one.”

“It’s my right, innit?” Danny said.

“What would the cops think, Ivan, if there were only three bodies?” Ma asked.

“I suppose the girl might have survived the crash, gone wandering for help, got lost, and her body was never found,” Ivan said.

“It might even help us,” Jacko said. “The cops will be focused on finding the missing girl over on the mainland. We won’t be part of the story.”

“Kill them all!” someone yelled.

Ma put her hands up for silence. “I’ve listened and I am going to sleep on my decision,” she said. “We don’t need to do anything tonight, do we, Matt?”

“No. And we don’t want to be running the ferry at night anyway. Nothing unusual,” Matt said.