Stanton Box Set

“A work party thing.” He sighs.

I raise my eyebrows. “Meeting the work friends, very domesticated Cam.”

He looks at me deadpan in the rear-view mirror. “It’s a work party, not a wedding, you cock,” he replies.

I smile as I throw my head back against the seat. It’s now about ten at night and the rain is hammering down. They have been gone for what seems like hours. The car windows are all fogged up and I’m starving.

“Do you think she did this? Amelie I mean, do you think she is really capable of this?” Cameron sighs.

I shrug. “I wouldn’t have thought so,” I reply.

“How would she know that, the Cinderella thing?” he asks.

I shake my head. “I don’t know, did she even say it or did I imagine it?” I ask.

“She said it, I heard her. She knows that name but maybe she has just heard you call Tash that.”

I nod. “Maybe.” My mind goes to Tash and whether I have ever been with her and Amelie in the same room. I really don’t think I have.

Max bangs on the door in the darkness and Cameron nearly jumps through the roof in fright. “Scared the shit out of me,” he whispers as he opens the door.

Max jumps into the car out of the rain. He’s out of breath and panting heavily.

“What’s wrong?” I frown. “Did you see anything?”

Max shakes his head. “Something’s going down, I don’t know what. They are at a huge house at the end of the road and Amelie and a young man are searching the forest around the house with floodlights and Amelie is screaming at the kid.”

“Screaming what?” Cameron whispers.

“I don’t know. We can’t hear what they are saying over the rain, but Amelie has a gun.”

“A gun,” Cameron shrieks. “Why the hell does she have a gun?”

“Call the police,” I snap. “This bitch is tapped.”

“No. We have no proof of anything. All that will do is alert Amelie that we are onto something. You two go and find a hotel close by, we can’t let her see the car and it’s

only a matter of time before they find you both,” he replies.

“You can’t stay out here in the rain all night. You will freeze to death,” I murmur, horrified.

“We are ok. This is what we are trained to do. But we need you close in case we need the car. Give me a charged phone in case ours runs out,” he replies.

I fumble the code off my phone and hand it over.

“We are just going to follow them and see what they do. Is the phone on silent?” he asks as he passes it back to me.

I switch the sound off and hand it back.

“Stay close but out of sight,” he replies. “Find a hotel and then tomorrow start checking the neighbours to see if we can find out who owns that house at the end of the street.”

He leaves the car and runs off into the darkness and into the rain. Cameron jumps into the driver’s seat and starts the car and I jump out and into the front seat. “Where to?” Cameron asks.

I shake my head. “I don’t know,” I whisper.

We pull out onto the dirt road with the windscreen wipers going full speed and head off in the direction we came from. After about another five kilometres in the darkness we see a driveway off the main road disappearing up the hill. “What do you reckon is up there?” I ask.

Cameron slows down in the torrential rain and we both crane our necks to see up the hill. “I don’t know, a house it looks like,” he replies.