The Rabbit Hunter

82

The park is silent, and everything is glowing gently in the muted light from the lampposts. Saga approaches one of the buildings, and stops to listen.

Just as she starts walking again a light goes on in one of the windows, falling across the freshly mown grass.

Saga moves cautiously into the cover of a large tree. There’s a snap as she stands on a dry branch.

A naked woman appears in the window.

She can’t be more than twenty years old.

Saga watches her pale face as she stares out into the night before turning and tottering away from the window.

Saga waits a little while, then hurries across the grass to the path that leads to Grace’s building.

Only now does she notice that her jeans are soaked through to her knees.

She’s close to the art studio now, and hears her own footsteps echo softly off its stone façade.

Saga is planning to tell Grace that Rex didn’t participate in the rape, that he was locked up all night.

Maybe that will prompt Grace to tell her exactly what happened.

Maybe Grace will be able to identify the unknown factor that they need.

Saga has just started to walk cautiously towards the corner of the building when she hears giggling behind her.

She turns around.

A woman in a thin nightie is standing behind her with a blonde wig in her hand.

‘My little doll!’ she says, sounding astonished.

The woman’s face is oddly unguarded, almost boundless in its expressiveness. Saga moves slowly away but the woman follows her.

‘I had to do it, Megan,’ she says, making a sad face. ‘Grandpa said I couldn’t have you.’

‘You think—’

‘I swear,’ she interrupts sternly. ‘Ask him yourself. He’s standing over there, under that tree.’

The woman points nervously towards the shadows of the park.

‘OK,’ Saga says, and turns to look.

‘He just hid!’ she gasps.

‘I have to go,’ Saga says softly.

‘Come on,’ the woman hisses, and starts walking towards the park. ‘We’ll run away together... heedless of all danger, rushing through the forest...’

Saga hurries off in the other direction, along the side of the building, and glances back to see that the woman has stopped on the path.

Saga runs across an open space, away from the studio and towards the building where she met Grace earlier.

The entrance is lit up but all the windows are dark. Saga walks up to the door and tries it, but it’s locked. She looks in through the glass, sees the dark cafeteria and the glow of the snack-vending machine.

She startles when she hears an unsettling noise behind her — like bare feet running across a wet floor — and quickly looks around.

There’s no one there. Everything is peaceful: the stillness of the pond, the park with its dripping leaves.

Saga hurries around the building and walks across the grass towards a park bench next to a large rhododendron, then stops to figure out which window is Grace’s.

She hears manic laughter and darts into the shadows, then sees the woman with the wig hiding behind a tree, waving in her direction.

Saga stands motionless and watches as the woman smiles and turns away, rubs her nose hard, then wanders off into the park.

Saga quickly drags the bench under the window, then climbs up and tries to see into Grace’s room.

Between the curtains she can just make out a bedside table with a porcelain musical box on it.

Saga barely has time to register the figure rushing towards her before she feels a jolt of pain in her back, like the bite of a raging dog. Her legs buckle and she tumbles sideways, hitting her chest on the arm of the bench and letting out a groan.

Her back is throbbing painfully, her body is jerking spas-modically, and she doesn’t know how she ended up on the ground.

She opens her eyes and stares up at the dark, rain-filled sky, assuming she’s lost consciousness.

There’s another burst of pain, like someone kicking her repeatedly in the side, and her vision fades, but she can feel herself being dragged by the legs across the path and out onto the wet grass.

Saga gasps for air, opens her eyes and sees Mark, the guard from earlier, leaning over her with his Taser in his hand.

He’s breathing hard and has a fevered look in his eyes as he stares at her.

She tries to raise one hand to push him off, but has no strength in her muscles.

‘I’m a big boy, a nice boy too, but the rules say I have to check if you’re armed.’

Saga’s heart starts to beat faster as he unzips her jacket. He finds her phone and throws it hard against the nearest tree. It shatters, and the pieces fly out across the grass.

He leans over her again and shoves his cold hand under her shirt, beneath her bra and pinches one of her nipples hard.

‘Nothing here,’ he mumbles, and pulls his hand out again.

He’s breathing hard through his half-open mouth as he holds the Taser to her neck and unbuttons her jeans. She manages to raise her right hand and grab the sleeve of his uniform, and tugs at it feebly.

‘Stop,’ she snarls.

‘I need to look for concealed weapons,’ he says.

Mark starts to pull down her jeans and underwear, but then his radio crackles. He rests one hand on her chest and presses, forcing the air out of her lungs as he stands up.

‘We’ve got an intruder — get the police out here,’ he says, walking into the light beneath one of the lamps.

Saga tries to pull her trousers back up as she sees two guards running towards them from between the buildings, and two nurses approaching anxiously from the other direction.