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Spigarelli .
To his credit his voice did not waver even in the face of this whole bunch of
betrayals at once.
    "Why?"
shouted Davey. "You blind idiot. This moron was never going to be good
enough for her, no-one ever would be. I tried to protect her, show her how I
cared. She never wanted me, once she was old enough she threatened to tell you
what I'd done to her when we were kids, she thought it was disgusting. It
wasn't. It was an expression of our love but her mind had been poisoned against
me, she didn't understand. I saw this, this . . . pathetic little boy become
her lover and I was supposed to stand by? I couldn't. But she wouldn't
understand. She fought me. I had no choice." His face was bright purple
with the effort of shouting so much, spittle hung from his lips. Then a shot
rang out and a circle of blood appeared on his forehead a moment before the
back of his head exploded all over the wood panelling on the wall behind him.
One of the traitorous security guys dropped his gun, the others raised theirs.
Three rapid shots and Spigarelli and I were the last ones standing in the room,
four bullet holes gaped in the biggest window in the room. After a moment of
the loudest silence I have ever known the door burst open and more goons rushed
in, they looked around and then . . . I don't know because one of them knocked
me silly and they dragged me off and locked me in a small windowless room
somewhere. Soon I lost consciousness altogether.

 
    By
the time I awoke and was led from the room to a nice dining room where I was
seated across a small table from Spigarelli it was morning. Spigarelli looked
at me with even more hatred than before. What now? I had brought him the truth
about his daughter's murder but at a heavy cost, would he kill the messenger?
Had he, like me, spent the night wondering if he should have spotted something
in all the awkwardness between Carmen and Davey over the years. The way she had flinched if he touched her, the way she always
seemed to be looking for an exit when they were in the same room. Should
we have seen it coming? Could we have ever believed it was possible?
    He
started by explaining that he never had a meeting with desperate people that
wasn't monitored, Kaseem had been sitting in another room listening and
watching everything. One of his most trusted henchmen had been sitting on top
of a van parked outside with a hunting rifle, ready to kill me if I tried
anything. Kaseem had read the situation and changed the henchman's instructions
mid meeting. Spigarelli made it clear that the right thing had been done and
that the CDs and evidence bags (containing all the forensic evidence necessary)
had been passed to the Police. He also stated that there had been a man left
outside by Davey’s associates to stop anyone getting in, Kaseem and the more
loyal goons had managed to subdue him without killing him. Apparently it had
taken some "vigorous effort" to convince him to give all the details
to Spigarelli during the night but he had now managed to locate the men Davey
had hired to set me up in London, the murderers of Emily and Fingers were now
in Police custody - the unfortunate traitor had apparently not survived his
confession. At no point did Spigarelli speak directly about what Davey had done
or the more . . . unsavoury . . . aspects of what had happened to Carmen. Two
of his henchmen entered the room and were ordered to escort me from the
premises.
    As I
climbed into my car I was handed a package, inside was a large wad of cash and
a note saying "For your work. Do not come back." Once I was back on
the motorway heading for London I breathed a huge sigh of relief, finally my
nightmare was over, finally I knew what had happened, finally I could build a
new life - but I would be doing it alone. I had to pull over onto the hard
shoulder for a while as I could not see through the tears. Tears of joy and
tears of grief mingled and ran down my face.

 
 
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    C T
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