Shooting in the Dark

of them together were being taken to the frozen swimming pool. Above them the stars were pressing down out of the night sky.
    ‘Shhhhh,’ Sam said, maintaining his grip of Geordie. ‘Wait.’
    Where was Janet, then? Geordie looked back at the house but there was no movement or sound to suggest that she was there. If Janet was conscious, she’d be screaming at the top of her voice. If she was tied to a bed or a wardrobe she’d find the strength to drag the thing after her. Janet wouldn’t let anyone take Echo away from her.
    In the back of his mind was a dark pebble that suggested Janet was lying dead in the house. He knew that if he gave that thought any credence, the pebble would metamorphose into a rock large enough to crush him. That’s not happened, he told himself. She might be in the house or she might be somewhere else, but wherever she was she was safe. Still safe, waiting for him to come for her.
    The blond guy led Angeles to the edge of the ice-covered swimming pool. He stood behind her while the tremor of her lips unfurled into her face and spread along her limbs until she was shaking from head to foot. Geordie felt Sam easing himself into a springing position beside him. He moved slowly, careful not to disturb the undergrowth or draw attention to himself in any way. The guy adjusted his hold of Echo and she made an appreciative sound that almost ripped Geordie’s heart out.
    The three of them were ten metres away, but the ground between them was shrubbed and uneven. It would not be an easy task to get to them before the guy could shove Angeles or Echo on to the ice.
    Rod Jenkins said something that Geordie didn’t catch and it seemed that Angeles didn’t hear him either. He repeated it: ‘Take a step forward.’
    She shook her head.
    ‘It’s you or the kid.’
    ‘No, stop,’ Angeles said. She put a foot forward and then withdrew it. She took control of her body, the shaking stopped and she stepped forward on to the ice.
    ‘Further,’ Jenkins said.
    Angeles took another step and the ice groaned under her weight. The scream that came from her lips was like a bandsaw.
    Jenkins swung the crowbar and it caught her on the shoulder. She tottered for a moment then went down, face-forward on the ice. Jenkins dropped Echo and the child rolled into the grass verge, only really complaining when she had come to a stop.
    The tall blond man was berserk now. He strode around the swimming pool hacking away at the ice with the crowbar. He was shouting at Angeles, telling her how it would be when the black water sucked her under. His voice was competing with the cries of Angeles and the baby and the fracturing of the ice as his crowbar chopped away at it.
    ‘Go,’ Sam said, and he and Geordie reared up in the bushes and leapt out into the open. Geordie went straight for Echo, retrieved her and held her close to him. He turned to watch as Sam hurled himself at Rod Jenkins. The blond turned in time to see him and he raised the crowbar over his head. But Sam’s velocity carried him forward with the momentum of an express train. His foot connected with Jenkins’ chest and the guy was hurled backwards on to the ice. The crowbar spun away from his grip and was lost in the night.
    ‘OK,’ Sam said to Angeles. ‘Don’t worry. We’ll get you out of there.’ He went on to the ice and stepped gingerly towards her. He reached out to her and she plunged towards his hand as though she could actually see it.
    Although the impact of Sam’s boot and his fall to the ice had stunned Jenkins, he still wasn’t out of the equation. He pulled himself to his feet and searched in the undergrowth for the crowbar. When he couldn’t find it he turned back to the swimming pool and ran towards it. He jumped high in the air like Geordie used to do when he was a lad in Sunderland, pulling up his legs and wrapping his arms around them, ready to bomb the water. As he landed the already weakened ice cracked apart like a shattered windscreen that has been punched through.
    Jenkins disappeared immediately. He didn’t make a sound, the dark water sucked him below the surface and he was gone. Geordie looked towards the patio door and took a few steps in the direction of the house. But his attention was drawn back towards the swimming pool.
    The combined weight of Sam and Angeles at the other end of the pool capsized the now broken ice. The free end of the plate of ice rose up in a jagged silhouette and both Sam and Angeles called