Wilder Country by Mark Smith

Author:Mark Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Text Publishing Company
Published: 2017-07-28T04:00:00+00:00

Douglas looks like a scared animal. His hands are tied behind his back and his eyes dart around the room. Harry and Jack walk either side of him, almost lifting him off the ground with their grip on his arms. They pull an empty chair into the middle of the circle and push him into it. He cowers like he’s expecting to be hit.

Harry sits next to us and says, ‘Tell us the truth, Douglas, and I promise no harm will come to you.’

He nods but he’s shit-scared.

‘Were you in Longley at the start of the winter?’ Harry begins.

‘Y-yeah,’ he says.

‘Ramage was there?’

‘I s-seen him a couple of t-times, yeah.’

‘You know about the baby he brought back with him?’

Kas sits forward, straining to hear Douglas. His voice is nervous and whiny.

‘Everyone knew about the b-baby. F-fuckin’ thing never stopped c-crying.’

Kas is on her feet. Harry holds his hand up to her and nods. ‘It’s okay,’ he says.

But Kas can’t contain herself. ‘Where’s the baby, now?’ she demands. ‘Where’s Hope?’

Douglas’s lip curls up and he snarls, ‘W-wouldn’t you l-like to know?’

Kas is ready to leap at him; I can feel it. I pull her back into her chair.

But Jack reacts as well. He squats in front of Douglas, grabs him by his shirt and pulls him in close. ‘You need to think about something, you dumb prick. Yesterday I buried four of your mates. And you know what I felt when I shovelled the dirt onto their shitty bodies?’ He leaves the sentence hanging.

Douglas’s whole body shakes.

‘Nothing,’ Jack says. ‘That’s what I felt. So if you think I’ll hesitate to dig another hole next to them, think again. Now,’ he says straightening Douglas in his chair, ‘Kas asked you a question and if you don’t answer it I’m going to get my spade and start digging.’

‘B-but you said…’ he pleads to Harry.

‘I said, if you tell the truth, you won’t be harmed.’

Douglas shrinks in front of us. All the defiance leaves his body and he starts to whimper.

Jack’s in his face again. ‘Should I get my spade, then?’

‘N-no,’ Douglas mumbles. He wipes his nose with his shirt, leaving a trail of snot on the sleeve. ‘A f-few days before I left,’ he says, ‘the b-baby disappeared from the f-feedstore. The M-monahan woman, Bridget, sh-she took it.’

Kas is on her feet again, pacing up and down in front of him. ‘You mean she stole her?’

‘N-no. Ramage. He t-told her to t-take it.’

‘Take her where?’ Kas says.

‘I d-dunno. He never said.’

‘Swan’s Marsh?’

‘I d-dunno. Maybe.’

As Douglas is marched out of the room, I pull him aside. He cocks his chin at me and curls his lip but Robbo stands behind him and wrenches an arm up his back until he squeals.

‘Did you hear anything about a raiding party down on the coast, maybe before winter?’ I ask. ‘A friend’s house was burnt down. His name was Ray.’

‘I h-heard n-nothin’ about that. N-no one t-turned up at L-longley, that’s for sure.’

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