Death Message

‘You have to stop now, and think how foolish you are being.’

Trying to look unconcerned, while his heart smashed against his chest…

‘You are too smart to do this.’

Ignoring the noise as he stepped down: the shouting and the swearing; the sounds of a man losing control. Focusing instead on the voice of the woman; the notes of her song rising to a perfectly pitched scream of joy, or agony, as he walked quickly down the stairs, and out through the grey, metal door.

He took his time walking along the alleyway to the street; then back on to the main drag. It wasn’t far short of one in the morning, but there was still plenty of traffic on Green Lanes. Drivers heading north towards Turnpike Lane and beyond, or south towards the City.

Thorne watched the cars, cabs and lorries go past, and wondered how many of their occupants felt part of anything; were really co

Where death – violent death, certainly – had become part of the city’s fabric, like the extortionate house prices and the impossibility of parking.

Where life expectancy in boroughs like Islington, Camden and Haringey could be as much as ten years less in some parts than it was in others.

Where people like Arkan Zarif could make plans and grow fat.

Thorne walked slowly past the front of the estate agent’s and stopped for a second time outside the window of the restaurant. He could see the bottle and the glass on the table, hear the music from inside. The place looked empty now. He presumed that Brooks had either moved Zarif into the room at the back or taken him downstairs. He wondered if he had been thinking about the noise.

‘Sounds good,’ he’d said before Thorne had walked out. He’d looked as though he’d meant it.

Thorne turned from the window, feeling empty, and OK about it. He had decided the first time round that where Zarif and others like him were concerned, his moral compass would have to be… adjusted. He had a line, of course, same as everyone else, and there were people who had forced him into stepping over it more than once.

Psychopaths, sadists, users of children.

But Arkan Zarif had fucked with Thorne’s view of the world; with his grasp of what was just and decent. Had redefined it…

A squad car raced past on blues-and-twos. Thorne blinked and saw Louise’s face; flushed as it might be after love-making, or in temper.

He heard her voice, and his own.

And how bent does what you’ve been doing make you? Or what I did last night make me?

We haven’t murdered anyone.

The image dissolved, drifted, and he walked on, happy enough. When it came to Arkan Zarif, getting the right result was the only thing that mattered.

Waiting, Thorne looked at his watch many times. It was seventeen minutes from when he’d left the restaurant, to the moment when his phone rang.

His old mobile phone.

He took it from his pocket but didn’t answer. Let it go to voicemail.

Marcus Brooks, calling the number he’d been given. Saying what Thorne had told him to say.

Thorne listened to the message, knowing that he was not the only one that would be doing so, then walked back behind the parade of shops and down towards the service entrance.

He met Brooks at the end of the alleyway.

‘What did he say?’ Thorne asked.

The light from the streetlamp made Brooks look even more jaundiced. ‘He said “please”. Not for too long, though.’ He carefully handed Thorne his prepay mobile. The one Thorne had left behind on the counter when he had turned up the volume on the CD player. The one which Brooks had then picked up.

Thorne looked at the screen. The phone’s voice recorder function was still ru

‘The names of the men who ran Angela and Robbie over are on there,’ Brooks said. He looked down at his training shoes for a second. ‘And the men who set fire to your father’s house.’

A lurch in the stomach like a spasm of indigestion. Rage and relief cancelling each other out. Nothing more, for now.

‘I made sure he knows we’ve got it,’ Brooks said. ‘He’s not going to be telling anyone we were there.’

Thorne nodded. ‘We should get going.’

Brooks swung the plastic bag as they walked back on to Green Lanes and across to where Thorne had left the BMW. Brooks climbed into the back. Thorne pressed a hand into the small of his back to help him inside, then stood, leaning against the car. Stared at the phone for a few seconds before he slipped it into his pocket.

‘Thank you’ seemed inappropriate. The stuff about being under arrest would come later.

He took the car across the main road and pulled it round; drove at walking pace past the window of the restaurant. Arkan Zarif was shuffling slowly, painfully, towards the glass on his backside. It looked as though something had been stuffed into his mouth. Napkins, Thorne guessed.

‘You don’t know how much I wanted to kill him,’ Brooks said.

Thorne flicked his eyes to the rear-view, then back to the figure that was begi

He knew very well.

It had not been easy to convince Brooks, or himself, but eventually it had been agreed that they should do whatever it took to get the necessary information, but no more. That Zarif would suffer far more behind bars. That they were being anything but merciful.

‘You’ve no… fucking idea,’ Brooks mumbled.

Thorne eased the car from the kerb and pointed it north, letting the thoughts settle in his mind as he picked up speed. Most of the story was already straight, and would be simple enough to tell. He would put the rest of it together on the way back to Colindale.

Marcus Brooks was asleep on the back seat by the time the car reached the first set of lights.

PART FOUR. ‘DELETE’

THIRTY-SEVEN

The Kard Kop checked, then raised over the top of the last player left in the hand. The thirty seconds ticked away, but at the death the other player folded what were almost certainly the wi

‘I won,’ Louise shouted. ‘Forty dollars.’

Thorne walked across, looked at the screen as the next hand was dealt. Louise got a jack and a four, unsuited. She quickly folded and sat out of the game.

‘How much are you up tonight?’ Thorne asked.

‘A hundred and eighty-two dollars,’ Louise said.

‘Fuck…’

Not only had Louise picked up the game ridiculously quickly, she was already a better player than Thorne. Her game was aggressive without being reckless. And she was better at sussing out the real characters of the players around the table, able to see past their cartoon images.

She read them quicker than Thorne had read Marcus Brooks.

Better than he had read the police officer who had once called himself Squire.

Most importantly of all, win or lose, Louise knew when to walk away from the table.

‘You going to play for a bit?’

Thorne shook his head, so Louise logged off; wandered through to the kitchen to get the food started. Hendricks was bringing a new man for di

Thorne followed and leaned against the kitchen door. ‘What do we know about this bloke of Phil’s?’

‘He’s a “cardiologist with a nice arse”,’ Louise said. ‘That was Phil’s first description anyway.’

‘That it?’

‘He seems nice.’

‘You’ve met him?’