She called out to the children to suggest they finish off their games and come in. Stinky barked as he tried to join in and the sound echoed over the quiet, tree-lined street.
Tammy glanced at her watch again. He’d be here soon. The questions she’d asked herself itched like a raised rash at the back of her mind and she gave in to the urge to search out Louisa for some of the answers before it was too late.
Her mind wandered to whether or not Leon would visit her house tonight as well.
Wandered to the night after he left for his home country and how empty her den would feel.
Wandered to whether the tension she could feel heating between them could be contained to prevent an inferno, a conflagration that could damage them both as they went their separate ways in the very near future.
Her hip buzzed and she reached for her phone. It was Misty and she opened it with a smile.
Her smile fell at the unease plain in her stepmother’s voice. ‘I’ve got a bad feeling.’ Misty sounded shaky and Tammy felt her stomach drop. Misty went on. ‘Where’s your car?’
Tammy frowned into the phone. ‘Outside. Why?’
‘I’m coming over.’ Misty hung up.
Outside, the girls were happy to quit but the boys had one more point they wanted to settle and the ultimate test was Jack’s idea.
‘Just one last race. A longer one. I’ll race you past the last tree and around that car down the end of the road and back. No stopping.’
Paulo looked at the distance, pondering the slight incline in the hill over the rough stones and the fact that they both had bare feet. He’d always run well in bare feet. And he was fast.
‘Sì. Then we must go in, for my father will be here soon.’
‘You’re on.’ Jack looked at the girls. ‘Grace? You be starter.’
Paulo looked confused and Grace whispered, ‘I say, “Ready, set, go.” On “go” you run like the clappers.’
Paulo nodded. He understood ‘go’.
The other girls were silent as Grace counted. ‘Ready. Set. Go.’ The two boys took off like deer in the bush, along the path, down the hill, and Stinky ran with them, barking the whole way. The girls cheered as the two distant figures ran neck and neck and then split each side of the car as they came to it and turned for the return journey. Then a strange thing happened.
The car doors opened wide and two men got out and suddenly the boys disappeared. Almost as if they were sucked into the vehicle. Both of them. The doors shut and the car pulled away on the road out of town in a skid of gravel and the roar of an engine even the girls could hear.
All that was left was the dust and the tiny four-legged figure of Stinky chasing the black sedan down the road.
Grace blinked and looked at Nicky and Peta and then she spun on her heel and raced into the house. ‘Tammyyyyy. Someone’s taken them!’
Grace ran full pelt into Tammy, who’d just shut her phone and was staring at it as if trying to understand. She steadied the girl against her chest. When she realised Grace was crying, dread curled like a huge claw in her chest and she looked at the empty lawn. Where were the boys?
She thrust Grace aside into Louisa’s arms and rushed out into the street. A white car backed out of a driveway down the road and drove away; otherwise, the road was deserted in every direction. No Jack. No Paulo. Just Nicky and Peta with their arms around each other in fright outside the door.
Tammy spun on her heel. ‘Who took them, Grace?’ Her brain searched for a reason. More kidnappers? ‘What did they look like? It wasn’t a white car, was it? What were they driving?’
Grace sniffed valiantly and her mouth opened and closed helplessly. Louisa hugged the little girl into her side as the older woman, too, tried to make sense of what had happened.
Grace swallowed a sob that blocked her throat. ‘It was a black car.’ She sniffed hugely and then the words tumbled out. ‘It was parked down the road. The boys had a race and, when they ran past, men came out of the car and pushed them inside and drove off. Stinky’s run after them.’
Tammy grabbed the keys to her own car off the table. ‘Mind the kids, Louisa. I’m going after them.’
‘Is that wise?’ Louisa’s vice trembled. ‘It could be dangerous.’
‘Dangerous for them,’ Tammy snarled. ‘Ring Dad to find Leon. Let Leon ring the police if he wants to.’ Tammy was having trouble seeing through the thick fear in her head. How dare they take her son? And Leon’s.
‘They had black shirts and black trousers on,’ Nicky said suddenly.
‘And it was a car like Grandpa’s,’ Peta added.
Tammy’s brain was chanting Jack’s words over and over. You’d find me, wouldn’t you, Mum?
Peta’s words sank in as she threw her bag over her shoulder. ‘A Range Rover?’
Peta nodded. ‘Sort of. A big black four-wheel drive.’
‘Right, then.’ And Tammy was gone, running for her car and roaring away from the kerb as she fumbled with her seatbelt. They probably only had about three minutes head start on her and she knew the road. Misty’s phone call came back to her. ‘Where’s your car?’ And here she was in her car. She hoped to hell that Misty’s premonition had seen a good end to the scenario.
The winding road into Lyrebird Lake could be treacherous for those who didn’t know it. But then if they were Italians as she expected they were, they’d be used to driving on treacherous winding roads. Damn them. She pushed the pedal down harder and she flew past a gliding Maserati she barely recognised coming into town. A minute later her mobile phone rang and she snatched it up and didn’t even consider it unusual she knew who it was. ‘I can’t drive and talk.’
‘Put it on speaker.’ Leon’s order was calm, yet brooked no refusal. She flicked the speaker on impatiently and his voice echoed in the cabin. ‘Stop your car, Tamara. Do not chase these people.’
Her foot lifted off the accelerator and then pushed down again. ‘No. I won’t stop.’ She hung up and pushed the pedal down harder. And nearly ran over Stinky, who appeared as she rounded a bend.
She skidded to a halt, reversed, leaned over to the passenger’s side and opened the door. She breathed deeply in and out several times. She wasn’t surprised when she looked in the rearview mirror and Leon’s car was behind her.
Stinky’s tongue was hanging twice its length as he gulped air. ‘Get in, Stinky.’ Stinky leaned his paws on the frame and sighed. Such was his dedication to chasing the boys he didn’t have the energy left to jump in.
Tammy pulled on the handbrake, opened her door, dashed around the car and picked up the little dog, but before she could bundle him in, Leon pulled up behind her. He was out of his car in a flash.
‘Do not follow them. That’s an order. You do not understand and will cause more harm than help.’
His words dashed over her like a bucket of cold water and she didn’t reply as he went on implacably. ‘Your son will be safer if you do not confront them.’ His voice lowered. ‘And so will mine.’
Her footsteps stopped beside her car, as did the frozen focus that had consumed her, and she slumped, horrified again at what had happened and chillingly aware of how the fear in her chest was almost choking her. She turned and leaned her face on her arm against the roof of her vehicle and then she felt Leon’s hands as he pulled her back into his body.
She almost sank into him until she remembered he’d brought this