Page 64 of The Rising Tide

Locke rolls his neck, stares at the ceiling. ‘I’m assuming you know I did.’

‘It would be really useful if you could answer the question.’

‘Yes,’ he says, through clenched teeth.

‘Did you park your Volvo XC90’ – Abraham pauses to read out the number plate – ‘in the car park beside Skentel’s quay?’

‘Yes.’

‘Do you own a yacht called theLazy Susan?’

‘Last time I checked.’

‘Please could you—’

‘It’s my yacht.’

‘And where’s the yacht usually moored?’

‘Skentel harbour.’

‘Was it there yesterday?’

‘Yes.’

‘After parking the car, did you take Fin aboard theLazy Susan?’

Locke licks his lips. He closes his eyes, opens them. ‘Yes.’

‘Thank you. I’m grateful for your honesty. You’ll find it stands you in good stead. Did you take your stepdaughter, Billie Locke, with you on the boat?’

Daniel Locke laughs, a savage expulsion of breath. He shakes his head, sucks down air, blows it out through his cheeks. Then he looks up and nods.

Abraham feels something shift inside his chest. ‘For the tape, please.’

‘Yes.’

2

Cold, suddenly, inside this windowless room.

‘Where are they now, Daniel?’

At the question, Locke goes so still it appears he’s not breathing. Abraham feels like he’s watching a predator frozen before the strike. Only the table separates them. He’d like nothing better than to catch an attempted assault on camera.

Finally, Locke laces his fingers together. ‘I drowned them,’ he says. ‘I drowned them both.’

Abraham feels an itching in his knuckles, his eyes. He thinks of everything he’s learned about Billie Locke, her passion and her activism; her yearning for a better world. He thinks of Fin, the little storyteller. Even now, his recollection of those curvy chimp ears and lopsided glassesmakes him want to smile. But he can’t smile because then he’d roar, and then he might do something inside this room that would destroy any chance of justice. So he swallows down his rage, waits until he’s sure his voice is steady, then asks, ‘How did you drown them?’

Daniel Locke sighs, as if he’s savouring the heat inside a sauna. ‘I tied them up and put them in the water. And when they … when they were gone, I jumped in after.’

They’re difficult words to hear. To counter them, Abraham conjures a fragment of Psalm seven:See how wicked people think up evil; they plan trouble and practise deception. But in the traps they set for others, they themselves get caught.‘Why did you drown them?’

‘You remember what I said? At the hospital?’

Abraham consults his notes. ‘In the hospital, yesterday, you said to me, “I have a message. A message for that bitch. Tell her she deserves every fucking thing she gets.” Is that what you’re referring to?’

‘I’m not going to say it twice.’

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