Page 116 of The Square

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE - CHRISTINE

There is no suchthing as silence in the moments after a gun goes off. Especially indoors. So that’s not what I hear in the wake of Lars’ brains being splattered against a wall.

It’s an echo of silence. Some facsimile of silence. Laced with ringing and scented with blood.

“I don’t understand,” Eliza says. “What’s going on?”

“What the fuck just happened?” Brenden adds.

I turn away from the remains of Lars and don’t know who to look at first. I don’t have any answers for them. I don’t really understand it myself. But I choose Charlie to focus on. And for some reason I say, “Payback.” Because it’s the only thing that makes sense.

“Who in bloody hell is David?” Russell says, having stepped forward and grabbed up the note.

Danny opens his mouth to say something but ends up just giving his head a slight shake.

Which means: Leave us now. We don’t need you.

And somehow Russell hears our secret language. Understands it immediately. Because he says, “Right then. Let’s go.” And turns away.

Eliza follows immediately. Like she can’t get out of this room fast enough. Brenden turns too. But Charlie and I are still locked together with our eyes. He holds out his hand and says, “Come with me, Christine.”

And I hear his secret language in that moment. His hidden words. But even if I couldn’t read him, it wouldn’t matter. I can see it all in his eyes.

What the fuck have they gotten you into, Christine?

I don’t want to go with him. I can’t go with him. Because it’s me who’s gotten us all into this, not them.

“Go with your family,” I say. “We need—”

I stop because Russell is talking out in the hallway. On the phone, I realize. Has to be with Theo. Talking quickly in ruptured sentences that make no sense. Telling him—or trying to tell him—exactly where we stand.

Then he says, “Theo, brother. What’s that noise? What’s going on?”

And it’s the tone of his voice, not even words, that makes the rest of us in this room turn to look at the door leading out into the hallway.

“Theo?” Russell says again. “Theo!” he yells.

He panics. I can only see half of his face through the doorway, but I don’t need to see more. Because he puts the phone on speaker and we hear it all go down in real time.

More gunshots ring through the echo of silence after Lars.

Theo yelling and then…

… and then Andra screams.

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO - DANNY

There is no discussionafter Andra’s scream. No silent conversations necessary either. We leave Lars up in that room. Feet pounding down the stairs in a rush. Running as a group across the lawn, back into the woods to the vehicles. I stay with Alec and Christine this time and Brenden and Charlie go alone.

Inside the car there is true, true silence. The drive is long and Christine is sitting between Alec and me in the back seat as Russell takes curves at breakneck speeds. He flies through roundabouts like a maniac and Eliza jostles back and forth next to him with one hand braced on the door and the other flat on the dashboard.

We have all come to the same conclusion.

This is no rescue mission.

Whatever happened at the cottage is over. Finished. Can’t be undone.

All we are doing now is making our way back to see the fallout.