Sacrifice

Richard stiffened. 'Please don't presume to preach at me. Those babies would have died before birth – would have been murdered before birth – without us. Because of us they will have a good life, with parents who love and want them.'

I was close to speechless. 'It's totally illegal.'

'The law is a complete mess, Tora. The law allows us to inject potassium chloride into an infant's heart, right up until the moment of birth. Up to twenty-four weeks we can do it for no other reason than that the pregnancy is inconvenient to the mother. Yet if a child of twenty-four weeks is actually born, we have to do everything in our power to preserve its life. Where's the sense in any of that?'

'We don't make the law,' I said, knowing I was sounding lame. 'And we certainly don't exploit its weaknesses for commercial-'

'Do you have any idea how many terminations go wrong every year, when the babies come out alive, often severely handicapped?' Richard came back at me angrily. 'Because I've come across several in my time; babies whose mothers abandoned them even before birth. What kind of life are they going to have? Surely our way is better than that.'

'You're trading in human beings,' I almost hissed at him.

'We help women out of difficult situations. We provide childless couples with hope for the future. And we save dozens of babies who would otherwise be murdered for social expediency. We are preservers of life.'

I couldn't believe he was seriously trying to take the moral high ground. 'And Dana? Are you planning on preserving her life?'

He seemed to shrink a little into himself. 'Sadly, no. That's out of my hands. I hear she was a fine young woman. I'm sorry she had to get involved.' Then he pulled himself up again. Although, frankly, if anyone's responsible for Miss Tulloch's death, it's you. If you hadn't been so determined to meddle in the police investigation, she'd never have learned enough to put her life in danger.'

'Out of your hands, you sick shit? It's your hands that will be weighting her down and throwing her overboard.'

Richard shook his head, as though dealing with an unreasonable child. I began to wonder if he was mad. Or if I was.

'This is so typical of you, Tora. You can't reason your way out of an argument, so you resort to abuse. Is it any wonder we've never been close?'

'Shut up! This is not family therapy time. I can't believe you're preaching to me about saving lives. You tried to kill me last Sunday. You sabotaged my boat and my life jacket.'

'Actually I knew nothing about that.'

'Stop lying to me. You're about to kill me: the least you can do is tell me the truth.'

'He isn't lying. I sawed though the mast.'

I whipped round. Stephen Gair stood in the doorway of the port cabin. His face was crumpled, slightly red. My eyes dropped to his feet. Black brogues.

'Jesus,' he said. 'What do you have to do to get some decent kip around here?'

38

I DROPPED THE ROPE AND BACKED UP OUT OF GAIR's REACH, AND came up sharply against the chart table. Gair stepped to one side and leaned against the steps. No way out. 'You look like you've seen a ghost, Tora,' he said, smiling sleepily.

I took hold of the zip on the pocket of my waterproofs and started to inch it down. 'Don't tell me,' I said, 'reports of your death have been exaggerated. Where's Duncan?'

'Duncan had a change of heart. He won't be joining us tonight.'

I risked taking my eyes off Gair to look at Richard.

'What have you done with Duncan?' I demanded.

Richard leaned over and fumbled on the shelf that ran around the cabin's interior. He straightened up again and I thought I saw the wrapping of a hypodermic concealed in his large hand.

'And no one's about to kill you,' said Gair, his arms stretching high above his head. 'At least, not any more,' he continued when he'd done yawning. 'You're going back to Tronal.'

I stared at him, not sure what he meant. Then I got it; as a strong, cold hand took a grip on my heart, I got it.

'Not this time,' I managed. 'I think one or two people might just notice I'm gone.'

Gair shook his head, seemingly unable to take the grin off his face. 'That boat you stole will be found drifting some time in the next couple of days,' he said. 'Some of your things will be discovered in the cabin, traces of your blood on the deck. People will assume you had an accident and went overboard. They'll look for your body, of course. Hold a very tasteful memorial service when they don't find it.'

I bit my tongue to keep from blurting out about the note I'd left for Helen. If they knew about that, they'd break into Dana's house before dawn and destroy it. Without the note, without Duncan, who would doubt that I'd taken out a boat in storm conditions – for unfathomable reasons of my own, but I had been pretty disturbed of late – and hadn't made it back? Without the note, the bastards might just get away with it. I couldn't let them know about the note.

'If it's all the same to you,' I said, glaring at Gair, 'I'd just as soon you drowned me now.'

Without my noticing, Richard had moved closer. 'She has a weapon, Stephen. Something tucked down the front of her suit.'

Gair glanced at Richard, then back at me. His eyes dropped to my stomach. 'I'll say she has. Sorry, love, you and your little friend are far too valuable.'

My right hand was ready to slip inside my waterproofs. 'What are you talking about?'

'You're pregnant, Tora. Congratulations.' His grin got even wider. He looked like a wolf.

'What?' For a second I was so amazed I forgot to feel afraid. 'In the club, up the duff, bun in the oven.'

'You're insane.'

'Richard, is she pregnant?'

I risked a glance at Richard. 'I'm afraid you are, Tora,' he said. 'I took a blood sample last Sunday while you were sedated. There were significant levels of hCG. I guess Duncan got careless with his medication.'

hCG, or human chorionic gonadotropin, is the hormone produced by the body of a pregnant woman. It is hCG that home-testing kits are designed to detect, but a blood test can pick it up a matter of days after conception.

Gair was still smiling at me but I could hardly see him. It didn't occur to me to doubt what they were saying. I'd felt like shit for days: nausea and exhaustion are classic symptoms of early pregnancy, but I'd put them down to stress. I was pregnant. After two years of trying and failing, I was finally pregnant. I was carrying Duncan's child and these guys – these monsters – thought they were going to take it away from me.

'How did you get into my office?' I said, feeling a surge of hatred for Gair as I remembered the drugs I'd unwittingly taken the night I'd discovered Melissa's identity. Drugs can do any amount of damage to a young foetus. 'I know how you got into the house; how did you get into my office?' Even as I spoke, I realized how he'd done it. My office keys had gone missing. Gair had stolen them the night he left the strawberries and the pig's heart in our house. He was a petty thief as well as everything else.

'Pick up that rope and tie up Richard,' I said, gesturing to the rope I'd dropped minutes before. 'Do it quickly and properly and he won't get hurt.'

Gair looked back and the emptiness in his eyes was perhaps the most terrifying thing I've ever seen.

'And why would I do that?' he asked.

I pulled my hand out from my pocket. 'Because a two-inch iron bolt ramming into your brain is going to hurt a bit.'

Gair glanced down, looking, to my immense satisfaction, slightly less sure of himself.

'What the hell is that?'

'My grandfather's humane horse-killer. Except you're not going to think it very humane when it's pressed up against your temple.'

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Richard drop his head into his hands, rub his face and then straighten up. As a gesture it was so completely Kenn I wondered why I hadn't guessed immediately the two of them were father and son.