The Outback (27 page)

Chapter 35

‘Have you got a plan or
are we just going in blind?’ asked Colin, as he steered the commandeered patrol
car through the deserted streets.

‘I haven’t had time to
think about any of this,’ replied Matt. ‘I guess that we will just break into
the house, overpower Rhett and then get Rose out.’

Colin indicated his
approval with a nod. The simpler the plan; the more he liked it.

‘Do we have any
weapons?’ he asked. ‘We should have looked for a gun cabinet back at the
station, but once I heard about Rose, I stopped thinking straight.’

‘There are guns in the
back of the car,’ replied Matt. ‘We brought them from the caravan park. There
is a shotgun and a pistol; both of which had belonged to the deputy.’

‘What about Rhett; do we
know if he’s packing?’

Matt tried to remember
what Jenny had told him.

‘I think that he took
the sheriff’s gun, but I can’t be sure.’

‘In that case, we’ll
have to assume that he did. I clocked the sheriff’s gun each time he turned up
at the park and he carried an old six shooter. This means that we have more
firepower than Rhett, which gives us the advantage.’

‘If we can make it
count,’ Matt replied, sceptically.

‘Have you ever fired a
gun before?’ asked Colin.

‘No, have you?’

‘I tried a bit of clay
pigeon shooting at a ranch I stayed at in New South Wales. It wasn’t much; I
only got five shots, but it’s still something, so I’ll take the shotgun. That
leaves you with the pistol and we’re going to have to figure out how to use it
before we go in there.’

Colin slowed the car and
pulled over at the corner of a deserted street. It seemed as good a place as
any to indulge in a spot of target practice. Before getting out of the car he
took the Glock from the back seat. The weapons were all that the pair had to
use to their advantage and if they wanted to make them effective, they had to
familiarize themselves with them first.

‘Here,’ he said,
offering the gun to Matt. ‘Take a practice shot at that brick wall over there.
Do you see the chipped brick in the centre? Try aiming for that.’

Matt extended his right
arm, which was holding the gun, and placed his left hand under his right elbow
to provide extra support. He then closed one eye and brought the sights into
line with his target. As he pulled the trigger, he felt a slight upward pull
from the handgun. Though the recoil was not great, it did take him by surprise
and lifted his arm as he fired. The shot blew a small hole into the wall a good
two feet above the chip that he had been aiming for.

‘Now you know what it
feels like, do you think that you can correct your aim for the next time?’

Colin assumed that the
gun had a full magazine, but he did not want to waste one bullet more than
necessary.

‘I should be able to,’
replied Matt. ‘I think that I missed because I pulled rather than squeezed the
trigger. That’s what they always say in the movies, right? I cannot believe
that I made such a stupid mistake.’

‘We’ll be fine,’ Colin
assured him. ‘Now get back in the car. You probably woke half the neighbourhood
with that shot.’

One practice shot was
not ideal training to take into a hostage situation, but it was all that they
could afford. The next shot to be fired would be at a live target and that
would be a different proposition altogether. The only consolation was that both
men now knew what it felt like to pull a trigger. That experience, though
slight, could save their lives.

As they drove away, a
dog began to bark and several house lights were turned on. Fortunately for the
two backpackers, nobody had managed to see the cause of the disturbance.

It did not take them
long to reach Rhett’s street and as the pair approached, Colin turned off the
car’s headlights and slowly brought it to a standstill. He did not want the
vehicle’s engine to alert the Australian of their presence and decided that
they would complete the rest of the journey on foot.

‘Check the glove
compartment for any spare ammo,’ advised Colin. ‘I would prefer to have more
than two shots when we go in there.’

Matt opened the small
hatch and found a box of shotgun cartridges. There were no extra magazines for
the pistol, but that was of little consequence as he did not know how to reload
the weapon anyway. He passed the cartridges to Colin.

‘Here you go,’ he said.
‘Jenny told me that the deputy shot the sheriff with the shotgun, so it’ll
probably need reloading before we go in.’

‘Thanks,’ replied Colin.
The Irishman placed a hand on the door handle ready to exit, but briefly paused.
‘Are you ready for this?’

‘Not really,’ replied
Matt, ‘but do either of us have a choice?’

Colin slowly shook his
head.

‘Not if we want to save
Rose.’

Both men were scared,
but the fear that they felt could be much more easily overcome than the guilt
that would replace it should they back out at this late stage. They attempted
to fortify their minds against self doubt as they stepped out of the car, ready
for the deadly showdown with their former supervisor.

The neighbourhood was
run down, even by Birribandi standards and neither of them was sure which house
was the one that they wanted, because there was no street lighting to
illuminate the door numbers. As he scanned the avenue for clues, Matt spotted
something that he recognised.

‘It’s that one there,’
he said. ‘That car parked outside is the same one that was outside the caravan
park earlier.’

Colin took a deep
breath.

‘This is it,’ he said.
‘Once we go through that door, there is no turning back.’

‘I already killed one
man tonight,’ replied Matt. ‘If I have to kill a second, then so be it.’

Colin nodded. He did not
want to ask his friend about the earlier killing at such a critical time, but
he knew that after the ordeal that Matt had already been through, he would not
let him down. It was not only the lives of the two men at stake, but also that
of Rose and mistakes were unthinkable.

The two men approached
the house with their weapons at the ready. Both of them were equally excited as
they were terrified. The adrenaline gave them a sense of invulnerability as it
coursed through their veins. It was as if they were each ensconced within an
invisible sphere of hypersensitivity. Every sight, sound and smell within a ten
foot radius was intensified, but beyond the sphere the world had faded into
nothing more than an insubstantial shadow.

As they neared the
house, they could see that it resembled something out of a bad horror movie.
The ground floor windows were boarded up and slats were missing from the porch
floor. Despite the old man’s strong determination not to let a termite
infestation take a hold of the caravan park, he had let the little critters get
more than a foothold on his own property. Like an outward projection of its
occupier, the house was a twisted and dilapidated mess.

Colin crossed the
driveway first, before crouching down low by the front door, ready to force his
way in. He then beckoned for Matt to take a peek through the gaps in the window
coverings. There was only a small opening, but it was enough to give the
Englishman an unrestricted view directly into the killer’s living room. He saw
Rhett standing by a torn and tatty sofa stuffing some belongings into an
equally scruffy holdall. The Australian seemed composed and Matt surmised that
the old killer was as yet oblivious that his scheme was not going to plan. Rose
was nowhere in sight and Matt assumed that Rhett had her held captive on the
upper floor.

‘He’s in the living
room,’ Matt whispered. ‘It’s open plan so once we’re through the door, we will
have him in our sights.’

‘Is Rose there?’

‘No. I’m guessing that
he must have her in the bedroom.’

Colin clenched his jaw
at the mention of his girlfriend being held prisoner in the bedroom of such a
vile pervert. He knew exactly how he wanted to handle the situation and did not
intend to show the old man any mercy.

‘On the count of three,
I’m going through that door and as soon as I see that bastard, he’s getting
both rounds in the chest,’ he said. ‘You follow me in straight after and start
shooting as soon as you are inside. I’m taking no chances with this.’

Matt nodded his
agreement and then quietly took his place behind the Irishman. Colin double
checked that his shotgun was ready and then began to mouth a silent countdown.
As soon as he reached one, he violently kicked the door open and brought the
gun down to bear on the area where Matt had told him that Rhett would be
standing.

The Australian was
caught completely by surprise and Colin did not bother with any words of
warning as he quickly let off two quick-fire shots, which shook the very
foundations of the building. The first missed its target by just inches,
hitting the sofa behind where the Australian was standing, but the second was affected
by the recoil of the powerful firearm and blew apart a small lamp a good few
metres from the target.

Matt followed his friend
through the door while the earlier shots continued to reverberate around the
room, but amidst the smoke from the shotgun barrels and exploding fragments of
sofa and lamp, the Englishman was not as quick to get a fix on the old man as
his friend had been. Rhett had leapt behind the sofa when the shooting started
and this cover bought him a brief moment to think.

His own gun had been
tucked into the belt of his trousers and easy to reach. It was in his hands
before his feet even touched the ground. He heard the second man enter and knew
that both of them were standing in the vicinity of the doorway. Without
looking, he quickly let off three shots of his own and then ducked out of the
room and ran up the staircase.

When Matt saw Rhett rise
from behind the sofa with a gun in his hand, his first instinct was to dive for
cover rather than to fire his own weapon. He safely made it behind the shelter
of the kitchen counter, but his friend was not so lucky.

As Matt looked back, he
saw two of the shots impact into the wall of the house in an explosion of
plasterboard, but there was no third impact against the structure. Instead, he
saw Colin slump to the ground with a swiftly expanding patch of crimson on his
shirt. Matt got back on his feet and ran towards his fallen friend, whilst all
the time keeping his gun trained in the direction that Rhett had been, but the
space behind the sofa was now empty.

‘He made a run for it,’
said Colin, who was in considerable pain and struggled with his words. ‘He’s
gone up the stairs. You have to get to him before he hurts Rose.’

Matt crouched down to
inspect his friend’s injury. The bullet had hit Colin on his left shoulder. It
was an extremely messy wound, but he was unable to tell if it was life
threatening. Matt then reached across to the battered couch and tore a strip of
material from the damaged covering. He wrapped it around his friend’s shoulder
and under his arm twice, before tying it tightly to stem the flow of blood.

‘This should help for
the time being, just don’t try and move,’ he said. ‘I’m not having that bastard
add you to his list of victims.’

‘Don’t worry about me,’
replied Colin. ‘It’ll take more than a bullet to finish me off.’

The Irishman was
sweating profusely as if he had a fever. Matt did not want to leave him in such
a precarious position, but they were almost out of time. Rhett had gone
upstairs to where Rose was and if Matt did not follow immediately, she would
surely die.

‘I’ve got to go,’ he
said.

‘I know,’ replied Colin.
‘Just promise me that you’ll get Rose out of there.’

Matt nodded.

‘If you can reload - do
it,’ he said, ‘and keep your gun pointed at the bottom of the stairwell. If I
don’t make it down, you have to take that bastard out.’

Colin reluctantly agreed
to let his friend go it alone. As long as he was able to remain conscious and
pull a trigger, he could still make sure that Rhett did not escape via the
staircase.

After leaving his
friend, Matt double checked his weapon and then crossed over to the other side
of the room. As he approached the stairwell he made sure to keep his back to
the wall, before peering around the corner to take a look. Rhett was crouched
on the top step waiting and quickly let off two rounds. Both shots missed him,
but Matt could actually feel the heat of the bullets as they passed just inches
from his face.

Being on the higher
ground undoubtedly put Rhett in a stronger position than Matt. However, the
Englishman had now counted five shots that the Australian had fired. If Colin was
correct and the sheriff’s gun was a six shooter, this would mean that Rhett was
down to his final shot. Whilst Matt had already lost the element of surprise,
he could certainly still outgun his foe. He quickly swung his arm around the
corner and started to fire upwards. After three shots, he moved into the
stairwell hoping to see the bloodied corpse of the kidnapper. The staircase was
now empty.