The Assassin's Gift

by C. P. IRVINE, IAN

  People like McNunn and himself always managed to pull a rabbit out of a hat at the last minute, or more likely, find a way to get to the jury or bribe a judge.

  Ivor was reasonably confident that he would get a light sentence and with good behaviour and an appeal, may be out in six years. Which was better than the full life sentence he was facing currently, for a murder which McNunn had committed and pinned on him.

  Ivor and Tommy had always been rivals, fighting to take over leadership of the largest and most lucrative area in Scotland. For years there had been an almost unwritten truce between them, but McNunn had unexpectedly grown impatient, and taken matters into his own hands.

  By blaming the murder of a corrupt policeman on Ivor, McNunn had declared war.

  Despite how it may look right now, Petrovsky was not yet finished. He would get out of prison and he would take over the whole of McNunn's criminal empire.

  Before, McNunn was just an annoyance, but now he was the single purpose that got Ivor up every morning.

  McNunn had become the reason he managed to survive in prison.

  He was the centre of Ivor's attention, his every thought being spent on planning how McNunn would die.

  Already, two pathetic attempts on McNunn's life had been made in his prison, but they were both botched jobs and McNunn had easily survived them. McNunn had seen to it that both the men who had been caught trying to kill him had been blinded. Rumour had it that McNunn had even personally gouged the eyes out of both of them by himself. Although when Ivor had heard that he doubted it. Such brutality was more his own style than McNunn’s.

  Ivor also knew that if he'd managed to put out contracts on McNunn, that McNunn would have also put out contracts on him.

  Which was why Ivor had paid an arm and a leg and used all his influence to get hold of a new laptop and be moved to a cell with access to a local Wi-Fi connection that was switched on for an hour each day.

  Only his cell had the Wi-Fi and it was costing him five thousand pounds a month.

  He knew that the prison officer who'd arranged it for him was taking the piss, but Ivor couldn't argue. Take it or leave it. And Ivor knew he had no option but to take it, whatever the cost.

  One day he'd be free again and then he'd hunt down the guards who’d profited from his misery, and he'd personally cut their testicles off, one by one.

  But for now, it was a seller's market and he had no choice but to smile when he arranged for the money to be transferred into their bank accounts each month.

  Five thousand was a lot, but nothing in comparison with what he could continue to earn by managing his lucrative criminal empire from within his own prison cell. So long as he had an internet connection, crime continued to pay, regardless of the fact that he was in prison and shortly facing a murder charge which could keep him out of circulation for years to come.

  By the time Ivor had managed to boot the laptop up, log on to the Tor browser and access the Dark Web, he had already used up fifteen minutes of his time.

  It took him another few minutes to log on to 'Hitsforbits', but once there he was able to work rapidly.

  He was offering a target contract price of two million pounds.

  Ivor knew it was a lot. Probably the most anyone had ever been offered to kill someone in Scotland. Ever.

  But McNunn was a difficult, and infamous target. He was in prison. Always surrounded by security, who by this time would probably all be under McNunn's influence, financially or through blackmail or threats made to their families in the world outside. And people were almost as scared of McNunn as they were of himself, Ivor Petrovsky, one of the most brutal crime lords in the whole of the United Kingdom.

  Calling up the contract form, Ivor began to fill it in, online.

  He filled in the four most important boxes first.

  Name of Target: Tommy McNunn

  Contract Price Offered: £2 million.

  Location: HMP Stirling

  Target Death Time: As soon as possible.

  Petrovsky knew how the HitsforBits process worked: he'd used it professionally many times before.

  Now all he had to do was sit back and wait for the fish to bite.

  For the money he was offering, he was confident there would be lots of offers. But Ivor needed to find the right offer. From someone who was capable enough to get the job done.

  He might have to wait a while. To be patient.

  However, for someone in HMP Shotts, who was going nowhere soon, that would be no problem at all.

  Chapter 13

  Scotland

  Loch Ness

  Tuesday

  8.38 a.m.

  Alessandra stirred. The banging she was hearing in her dream was getting louder. It was coming from somewhere else. She struggled to open her eyes, but when she did was confused as to what was going on.

  Someone was knocking on the door to her caravan again.

  Slowly, she sat up and edged off the bed, wondering why her left leg was hurting so much.

  She stretched, and then as she put some weight on her foot and moved towards the door, the pain vanished.

  Curious.

  "I'm coming. Just a second..." she cried loudly.

  Fumbling with the key, and then the handle, she pushed open the door and yawned, wincing in the bright, summer sunshine.

  "Are you okay?" Lisa asked, smiling, and seemingly bouncing full of energy. "I was worried about you, a little... you just disappeared yesterday."

  "I came back to the caravan and fell asleep. What time is it?"

  "Almost quarter to nine."

  Alessandra frowned, "In the evening?"

  "No dummy, the morning. It's Tuesday morning. Are you okay?"

  "Tuesday? I can't believe it. I've slept the whole day, and right through the night? I must be coming down with something."

  "You look fine. Great, in fact. Listen, maybe it's a bad idea, but I was wondering if you fancied joining us for our morning swim in the loch?"

  Alessandra glanced sideways towards Loch Ness.

  "Are you kidding? It must be freezing."

  "Don't be a wimp. I thought Americans were made of sterner stuff than that. Anyway, I'll leave you just now, because you're not feeling great, but any day you fancy a swim, some of us get together about nine on the beach. As long as it's not raining. It's a fabulous way to start the day."

  Alessandra thought about it for a second, and as Lisa turned to leave, she gave in.

  "I need about ten minutes. I'll see you down there. I'll catch you up."

  Stepping back into her tiny new world, she felt the sudden need for the bathroom and locked herself inside the cubicle.

  What was happening to her? That was twice she'd fallen asleep so deeply, overwhelmed with exhaustion.

  Alessandra didn't like doctors. They asked too many personal questions, and she 'didn't do' personal.

  But she felt fine now, and that was the main thing. Alessandra's mentality and training was always to soldier on, regardless. As long as no one told her she was ill, then she wasn't. Simple as that.

  Grabbing a quick glass of water, a towel and her swimming costume, she hurried down to the beach. The others were already in the water.

  Alessandra stopped and stared in disbelief. For an instant she questioned what she was seeing.

  There were nine of them wading out into the water.

  Including Sally and an old man, who Alessandra immediately recognised.

  It was Robert.

  He wasn't hobbling. On crutches. Or in plaster.

  She stared at him incredulously.

  "Your leg!" she heard herself cry out loudly.

  Robert turned and waved at her.

  "Come on in, it's not that bad."

  Throwing her towel onto a rock near the others, Alessandra hurried out towards him. Probably numbed by the shock of seeing Robert, she didn't initially feel the cold, but as she got further out, she quickly began to waken up, and the vestiges of last night's deep sleep left h
er.

  "Robert, I don't understand. What happened to your leg?"

  "Actually, it's fine. And I owe you some thanks for taking charge of the situation and calling the ambulance just in case."

  "But it was broken!"

  "Turns out it wasn't. Just a graze. They took an X-Ray just to make sure, but it's all okay. They were more worried why I fell in the first place, but they gave me a full examination and said they couldn't find anything wrong with me. Even the cold I had yesterday seems to have vanished!"

  Alessandra was beside him now and without thinking about it, she reached out as if to touch his left leg. The one that was broken in two, but no longer was.

  "May I?" she asked, catching herself at the last moment.

  Robert turned, put a hand to steady himself on Sally's shoulder, and lifted his leg up out of the water, stretching it out straight.

  For an elderly man, his leg was surprisingly sturdy.

  Alessandra placed a hand on his thigh and stroked it gently. There wasn't even a scar.

  She shook her head.

  She felt slightly odd.

  "Are you okay?" Sally asked.

  "I was sure it was broken. I was positive it was broken..."

  "Well, luckily it wasn't. Which means that I can still enjoy the swim this morning."

  Lisa pointed to the others. "We'd better catch up with the others."

  Alessandra blinked, bent down and scooped some cold water up over her face.

  She laughed.

  "I can't believe it, I honestly thought it was broken, Robert. I was really worried for you... Normally a break like that would put you out of action for months."

  "But I'm fine. Which is the main point. And I'm grateful for everyone worrying about me, even though it all turned out to be a false alarm. Anyway," he said, turning, "I'm not going to be last today, so you'd better catch up." And with that he dived forward and quickly took up the breast stroke. A strong steady stroke, surprisingly powerful for a man his age.

  Lisa put a hand on Alessandra's shoulder.

  "Are you sure you are okay? I can walk you back to the caravan if you wish?"

  Alessandra turned to her, smiling. "I was so sure, really sure it was ..."

  "Broken? So was I. But it's not. Something funny happened yesterday morning that you or I can't explain, but that's normal round here. Crazy, but normal. Welcome to the madhouse."

  Alessandra search Lisa's eyes. "You thought so too? So I'm not going mad?"

  "No."

  They stood together for a moment, Sally not saying anything, Lisa looking at Alessandra and Alessandra still staring incredulously after Robert.

  Alessandra didn't understand any of this, but in the past week a lot of things had begun to happen which she didn't understand.

  She blinked, smiled, and then dived forward into the water calling out, "Last one to catch the group buys lunch."

  As she swam, for a few moments she again noticed the pain in her own left leg, but then it was gone.

  Never to return.

  --------------------

  Tuesday

  Western General Hospital Edinburgh

  3.00 p.m.

  Fiona McKenzie stood outside the front of the Edinburgh Cancer Centre at the Western General looking up at the sign above the door.

  The word "Cancer" beamed down at her. Her appointment with the Oncology Consultant was in 15 minutes time, but she couldn't quite seem to make it past the entrance.

  She would be late.

  She couldn't afford to be late.

  "The first step is the hardest." A soft voice beside her broke her concentration.

  She turned to find a friendly face smiling at her. A lady, the same age as her. Warm blue eyes.

  "I'm scared." She said to the stranger.

  "So was I. The first time. Shall we go in together?"

  Fiona nodded, and the woman rested a hand on her arm.

  Fiona swallowed, wiped away a tear, and took the first step forward towards recovery.

  Chapter 14

  Scotland

  Loch Ness

  Tuesday

  6.00 p.m.

  Alessandra knocked on the door of Lisa's caravan, cradling the bottle of red wine in her arms.

  The door opened outwards towards her, and she stepped back automatically so she wouldn't get knocked off the metal steps.

  "Come in, we're all here!" Lisa greeted her warmly.

  Alessandra stepped inside. Robert was already sitting at the table at the other end of the caravan, with another man called Nicholas and a woman called Corinna, both of whom she had met during the swim that morning.

  Sitting down, Alessandra had just finished saying hello when the bedroom door opened and Sally stepped out. She smiled at Alessandra and then went towards Lisa who was standing beside the cooker. They exchanged a few words, and Lisa laughed, then kissed Sally gently on the cheek.

  It was a gesture of intimacy that caught Alessandra by surprise, especially since it came so soon after Sally had emerged from the bedroom.

  "They're together," Robert whispered. "They moved into together last year."

  Alessandra blinked, letting it sink in for a while.

  "They might not have found the monster," Robert continued. "But they've found happiness. And each other."

  "Wine?" Sally asked, holding up a bottle of white. "We're having fish. Is that okay?"

  "Absolutely." Alessandra replied. "It's good, because I'm on a sea-food diet. I see food, and I eat it."

  The others laughed.

  "No seriously," Alessandra continued. "The whole day, I've been starving. I've spent most of the day eating and I'm still famished. For some reason, my appetite's doubled. It must be the mountain air or something."

  "Well, good. Lisa will sort you out. She's a brilliant cook." Sally said, pouring wine into their glasses.

  Alessandra looked up at Sally. She was an attractive woman, but probably older than Lisa by about ten years. For a moment, a random picture flashed through her mind of the two of them naked and kissing passionately, but she quickly flushed it away.

  "So, Alice," Corinna said, raising her glass. "Here's to you. And to you finding whatever it is that you came here in search of."

  The others raised their glasses too, and Lisa rushed over from the cooker, grabbed a glass and lifted it quickly.

  "And to escaping whatever it is you're running away from!" Nicholas added, which met with a stern slap on the arm from Corinna who was sitting beside him.

  "Don't be so negative! Or rude!"

  "I'm just saying, - observing - that we're all here for different reasons. That's all. I'm not casting any judgements. But if you look around at everyone else, most of us are hiding from something."

  "Or maybe we're just fed up hiding and want to be seen." Alessandra quipped, before she could catch herself.

  "Is that what you've been doing?" Corinna probed. "Hiding?"

  Alessandra felt everyone's eyes on her and realised she was almost blushing. She never blushed. The sensation caught her off guard. "Possibly. A little bit. To be honest though, I don't really know exactly why I'm here or why I just said that."

  "You've only been here a few days. You have to settle in first. Stripping off all those layers of crap that have settled on us over the years takes time. And only then, when we've shed all the layers of shit, can we start to figure it all out. It takes time." Lisa shouted from the other end of the caravan.

  "Yes, don't stress yourself out worrying about what you're here for. You're defeating the object of being here! The whole point of being here is to get away from the stress." Nicholas added.

  "I thought we were all here to see the Loch Ness Monster?" Alessandra probed.

  "Originally, yes. That's what draws us here. But it's not the reason people stay."

  Nicholas and Corinna nodded.

  "And where have you come from, Corinna? Is that a German accent I detect?" Alessandra wondered.

  "I'm from Bavaria. Near
Ingolstadt. One of the big cities in southern Germany."

  "And what brought you here?"

  "The fish and chips. And the clean water."

  Alessandra raised her eyebrows, not knowing if Corinna was joking or not.

  "Okay, so I'm joking about the Fish and Chips, but the bit about the water is true. I love the water. It's pure. Tastes fantastic."

  "But where did you learn to speak such good English?"

  "All Germans speak good English. So we can vun day rule ze world."

  Nicholas looked across at her. It was his turn to give Corinna a little slap on the arm.

  "Would you two stop it?" Sally joked. "You'll scare Alice off. The truth is that Corinna is an English teacher. And she's practically more Scottish now than German. She's been living here for years."

  "Have you seen her?"

  "We've all seen her, Alice. Or we wouldn't be here."

  "But have any of you seen her again since you've been here?"

  A round of silent shaking heads.

  "Paul has!" Nicholas remembered.

  "And Davina. She says she saw it last year."

  "Is she still here? Can I talk to her, or Paul, about it?"

  "Sure, they'll be excited to tell you all about it, no doubt."

  "Nicholas, so what makes people stay? You just implied a minute ago that people come for the monster, and then stay for another reason... And if Paul and Davina have seen it again, why are they still here?"

  "Maybe because they've found the monster but they haven't found themselves yet, and they can't leave until they have?" Sally suggested.

  "I think that some people come here not knowing what they're actually looking for, consciously using the monster as the excuse, but subconsciously being driven by something they don't understand."

  "Is that what happened to you?"

  "Looking back, now, yes, but I was also running from a failed marriage and knew it at the time."

  "Have you found anything else yet then? The real you?" Alessandra asked, almost regretting the question before she'd even finished the sentence.