Page 83 of The House Guest

A moment later, they appeared in the living room – Callum first, then Emilio behind him, the gun pressed into his spine. Callum had his hands up but his eyes darted around. I wondered if he had his gun on him, but then noticed Emilio was holding it in his other hand.

‘Sit down,’ Emilio said, nodding towards the chair he’d been sitting in.

Callum obliged. He shot me a searching look and I wanted to tell him about the tracking device in Krugman’s phone, but of course I couldn’t.

‘I’ve heard so much about you,’ Emilio said to Callum.

‘I’m sure,’ Callum replied, darting another look in my direction.

‘Yeah. I’ve heard all about what an asshole you are.’ He raised his gun and pointed it at Callum’s forehead. ‘This is from Eden,’ he said.

Callum was calm. He stared at Emilio as if daring him to do it.

‘Eden? How is she?’ Callum asked. ‘How is my daughter?’

Chapter 36

The van’s rear doors opened and two pairs of arms – Emilio and the man he had called for assistance – threw me inside. I landed on my front, scraping my cheek on the metal floor. My wrists were still cuffed behind my back and I lay still for a moment, gathering my breath before rolling on to my side and struggling into a sitting position.

‘Are you all right, son?’ said Callum, who was over in the corner of the van, behind where the driver would be.

I was still reeling from what he had said.How is my daughter?‘Why didn’t you tell me that you’re Eden’s dad?’

The van lurched into motion, sending me rocking backwards, only just able to keep my balance. Nearby, a car engine started up, presumably Emilio. And then we were moving.

After lowering the gun, Emilio had laughed in Callum’s face. ‘Don’t worry,Dad. I’m not going to shoot you. I wanted to see if you’d piss your pants. Eden wants to kill you herself.’

‘She knows I’m looking for her?’ Callum had asked.

‘Of course she does.’ Emilio had taken a couple of steps away, then had second thoughts. He’d gone back and spat in Callum’s face. ‘That’s from me, for Krugman. But also for what you did to Eden. You deserve everything that’s coming your way.’

He had gone into the other room and made a call, then come back and switched on the TV, settling on ESPN, where two men were talking about baseball. Despite everything, I noticed that the show caught Callum’s interest.

‘We’re staying here till sunset,’ Emilio had said.

Now, in the van, I repeated my question to Callum, adding, ‘Why did you lie to me?’

‘Because I didn’t think you’d help me if you knew Eden was my daughter. I knew that you blamed Eden, or would soon blame her, for making off with your girlfriend. I needed you to think we were in exactly the same situation.’

I tried to wrap my head around this. I remembered the story Callum had told me the day he’d stopped me from being run over. The story about raising his daughter on his own after his wife died. He’d said that his daughter, Sinead, had met Eden and run off with her to join the cult. ‘Did you make up the part about your wife dying?’

‘No. That’s all true. But it was Eden who went off the rails after her mom died.’

‘Not the fictional Sinead.’

‘That’s right. And I don’t know who recruited Eden. It might have been this Gabriel asshole himself. Or the jerk driving this van.’

‘And what about the rest of it? The anonymous guy on Facebook who told you about the cult. Is he real?’

In the gloom, I could only see Callum’s outline, but I saw him hang his head a little. ‘No. I invented that part.’

‘So what happened?’

‘Does it really matter?’

‘Yes, it fucking does.’

The van swung around a bend and I leaned against the side to stop myself from toppling over.

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