Better the Devil

by Solomon Carter

  “What kind of danger?” His face fell and eyes became intense.

  “You remember Maggie Gillespie?”

  “Oh no. They threatened us, but I didn’t believe the old man would waste his time on us anymore. He had bigger fish to fry.”

  “It isn’t the old man, Dan. It’s the queen bitch. Brian Gillespie traded her in for a new model, and dumped her off. But instead of using a solicitor he hired a hitman”.

  “And?”

  “And Maggie Gillespie had her self-defence team. An ex-soldier woman as a bodyguard, and a half-wit cousin. She paid Eva a late night visit after Eva had been drinking. She’s drunk a lot since you’ve been gone, Dan.”

  Dan’s face was peppered with fading scars. In spite of it all, Dan still managed to look handsome. His brow was creasing and his eyes widening. He nodded for Jess to get to the point. Already she could see Dan in the process of blaming himself.

  “You can blame the financial trouble. The drink. You can blame anything you want.”

  “You can blame me for leaving.”

  Jess shrugged. “Whatever. But Eva made a deal with the devil that night. In return for the promise of fifty thousand pounds to save the business she agreed she would work for Maggie Gillespie’s personal security team, ensuring she would protect her from the hitman, and get her to safety.”

  “Tell me she’s okay. Please tell me.”

  “I can’t do that Dan. That’s why I’m here. Maggie Gillespie’s bodyguard turned on her. She was one of Brian Gillespie’s people after all. Eva found out she was a rat just in time, so Maggie Gillespie killed her.”

  “That’s nothing to do with Eva, she’s innocent.” Dan’s head was already in the courtroom. Jess wanted him back in the present.

  “Dan. Maggie Gillespie killed her cousin too. Now Eva is trapped with Maggie. The woman is absolutely insane. If she snapped for any reason Eva will be next, and that’s not all.”

  “That’s not it?”

  “There’s another hitman on the loose. They tried to shoot Eva too.”

  Dan’s face turned pale. His eyes flickered and Jess thought she saw a glimmer of the dark emotion, the tell-tale edginess they’d seen on him only a few weeks back. When Dan spoke it was through tight lips and gritted teeth.

  “What the hell was Eva thinking?”

  “She wasn’t thinking at all, Dan. She was messed up.”

  “This is because of me, isn’t it?”

  “Don’t pretend you’re the centre of the universe Dan. I know you like to think you are, but really, you’re not. Eva can make her own mistakes without you around.”

  But Jess’s tone didn’t sound convincing to either of them.

  “I’ll help. I’ll fix this. I’ll make sure you’re both okay, then I’m out. Then I’m back in the wilderness for good. Okay?”

  “So you’ll help us?”

  “Don’t even dare asking me that question. I’m going to fix this. I’m going to make it good again, Jess. Watch me.”

  Simon walked in from the side. Dan turned to face him, his body angular, limber and ready to move into attack. Dan was ready for the attack. Simon dropped a leg back turned to his side, ready to defend and parry. The two men took a second to study each other. Both men saw a fighter in the other. They waited another second and then Simon spoke first.

  “I wasn’t going to strike you,” said Simon.

  “That’s good. For you,” said Dan.

  Simon smiled and bared his teeth. “I heard your conversation.”

  “So you’re a nosey bastard as well as a dickhead.”

  “Jess asked me to help save your friend Eva.”.”

  “Fine. We don’t need you. Go away.”

  “It’s too late for that. I know all about it now. And now I know enough, I know I have to help. I have no choice but to help.”

  “Who the hell is this guy, Jess?”

  “You been reading the papers much, Dan?”

  “All the time. Hang on.”

  Jess didn’t need to say a word. Dan read the posture, looked at the man’s feral face, the clothes, the hat. He knew it all.

  “Listen to me. There’s always a choice, pal and I’m offering you one now. Get out of my face and go away or accept the consequences.”

  Simon half laughed, half snarled. “I’m not going to accept that challenge. Not today. Eva Roberts needs our help.”

  “My help, bucko.”

  “I’m not backing out now, Mr Bradley. I train for events like this. We’ve got work to do.”

  Dan looked the man up and down. Yes, he looked unusually fit and strong. Yes, he looked good for a fight. The man was right about one thing. Dan didn’t need to waste his energy on a hard looking fight until Eva was safe and sound. But after that, if this bearded nut job was still hanging round, a lesson would need to be dealt. Dan shifted into a calm pose, and walked away to Laura. Dan was speaking to her now. Laura gave Jess a look she didn’t like, and didn’t deserve.

  “Laura, I’ll be away a day, maybe two at worst,” Dan told her. “Look after yourself. Don’t let any of those gang scum bags get you down.”

  Jess looked at Simon. It was time for him to go. “Listen. Thanks for helping me find him. But we can handle it from here, Simon.”

  The man shook his head. “No, I can’t do that anymore. Things have changed. This is about a ruthless killer now. And this killer person is holding your friend hostage. I have to be sure that this woman doesn’t get the chance to kill again.”

  “Like I said. We can handle that.”

  There was the sharped toothed smile again, wonderful to behold and patronising all in the same moment. He looked across at Dan and gave a wave of his head which suggested some doubts. “Are you sure about that?”

  More sure than I am about you, Jess thought.

  Dan said his goodbyes and began to walk back towards them. Dan’s face got serious again when he saw Simon’s hawk eyes and rakish smile aimed his way. “Without a further word, the man in black turned away from them and headed towards the arcing foot bridge that led back to the town. Jess was a little relieved to see him go.

  “I’ll catch you later…” he said as he drifted away.

  “You won’t know where to go…”

  “Oh, don’t worry, I will…” he said without turning back.

  Jess’s gut began to burn with shame. Some mistakes just won’t go away until they’re finished. And some mistakes just don’t ever stop going wrong. Jess had an obligation to make sure this one did…

  Dan gave her that same old Dan look. It was a mix of amusement and mild condemnation. They both knew she’d made a mistake by involving the man in black. But Dan didn’t say a word. She saw the barely restrained anger simmering below the surface – anger about Eva’s plight. It was the reassurance Jess had.

  Twenty-three

  Eva was playing the game just as she planned. But this was her game, and her rules. During the night Maggie hadn’t tried to force the bedroom door. Not even once. Surprised and relieved, Eva was unscathed. She had closed her eyes through the night and managed to get some fitful sleep here and there. By six am it was almost light and she was tired but alert. She was going to call Jess, and chances were the girl was still asleep. Instead she sent a text. “I’m still alive. Going to the Galvans today. Will update later.” As soon as the texting was done the urge to take a pee outweighed the danger of an encounter with Maggie. She made it to the toilet unchallenged, and so felt brave enough to lock the door and take a shower too. The restorative properties of the hot water and tea tree shower gel took her mood to another level. Not happy, no way, but ready for business. She remembered the awful sight of the dark pool of blood on the pristine tiles around Gerrard’s body. She remembered being overcome by disgust and fear. Yet she knew she had it within her to survive. Eva had survived Eva once, and she would do so again. The only way she could defeat Maggie was through her wits, and through Maggie’s weakness. It wasn’t going to be easy, but it had to be d
one. Eva was full of steely determination.

  Without fulfilling every single duty of her predecessor, Eva moved effortlessly into Kendra’s shoes. She adopted the business-like nature, and her attentiveness to Maggie’s care. Inside she was disgusted to be near the woman, but the show had to go on. The tiles in the kitchen were clean and white again this morning. The body was gone. Maggie mentioned neither Gerrard nor Kendra. It was as though Eva had only imagined them and they had never existed at all. But the smell of bleach and disinfectant told its own story. Cousin Gerrard had been deleted from history, but evidence of his deletion could not be removed.

  Maggie took up residence at the small fold-out dining table by the back window, which was still sheathed by the translucent voile curtain. Maggie was getting brave. The curtains had been peeled back in the middle to reveal a central strip of daylight and blue sky. Unfortunately Maggie was in the business of peeling back too. This morning she sat relaxed in a dark green dressing gown, the gown exposing an unnecessary amount of thigh. Eva saw this detail and immediately strived to ignore it. It was 8am. Eva saw that Maggie was awake, made up, cleaned and dried, and yet she still sat in her dressing gown. It was psychology maybe designed to freak Eva out. Or it was possible Maggie thought her seductive powers could overcome all the sickness that had happened before. Eva went into dutiful mode as she served herself. “You want a coffee?”

  “Yes. That would be nice. And some breakfast. What did they send you?”

  Why don’t you take a look you sick old bitch.

  Eva opened the fridge. There was eggs and bacon, bread, butter, tomatoes, onions and mushrooms.

  “Toast. You want some toast with your coffee?”

  “Galvan really spared no expense, did he? Toast it is.”

  Eva took her time. She brewed the coffee and made the toast the way she liked it until she could put off the inevitable no longer. Without fuss she moved into the red room and took the seat in front of Maggie, immediately across the table. Maggie accepted her toast and coffee. Slowly she laid her tablet down, and shifted in her chair. Eva knew that the motion had made Maggie’s gown expose another couple of inches of leg, but she was not going to notice that. Maggie put her face forward and cradled her chin in her hand like a teenage flirt with middle-aged wrinkles. She was all mascara and lip gloss. “So! What are we going to do, Eva?”

  Eva kept her gaze emotionless and robotic and as she returned Maggie’s gaze full of innuendo. Dan used to call her a Vulcan. Right now she was playing exactly to type.

  “The Galvans want to fix the deal today. So after breakfast, when you’re dressed and ready to go we will need to go and arrange terms.”

  “Terms? You still haven’t fixed that yet?”

  “Coming here was an emergency, Maggie. We weren’t in a position to start negotiations then. Kendra was all set to kill you, and there was the other hitman on the prowl. I took what we could get on the basis we would negotiate later. Today is later. We negotiate now.”

  “You’re all business, Eva. I wonder what it would be like to see you play?”

  Maggie smiled coquettishly and let the words hang in the air before she laughed. It didn’t wash with Eva. To play the tart there had to be an illusion, a possibility of fun and innocence on show, but Eva knew Maggie too well. She offered bitter madness dressed up as joy. Twisted depravity dressed up as fun. She killed if you loved her, and she killed if you didn’t.

  “I’m on duty, Maggie. I don’t ever mix business and pleasure.”

  “Oh, but now you’re lying. Your partner, the man who ran away from you twice. He was your business partner and your bed partner, wasn’t he?”

  Eva looked away. She needed, she missed Dan more than ever right now as she stared down the barrel of Maggie’s bullying eyes. “I knew him before we started our business, Maggie. Not afterwards. If I knew then what I know now, it would never have happened that way. But this is business and only business. After breakfast and coffee we should get ready and leave for the Galvans.”

  “I thought we would spend some time getting to know each other today. Like you promised me in Hammersmith.”

  Hammersmith was off limits. Maggie was trying to rattle her cage. What for? Did Maggie want her to react? Did she want to get her in bed or kill her? She was unpredictable. Far too unpredictable to be safe. Eva produced a thin fake smile.

  “We can talk later. As a professional to a client.”

  “I could always pay you more.”

  “We agreed terms. We agreed a fee. That’s all I need.”

  “Don’t you want more, darling? I find that I always want more.” Maggie sat back and snatched up a piece of toast.

  “You’re determined to be boring, aren’t you? But you’ll conform eventually. They all do.”

  Eva stopped smiling, and left her toast on the plate. Coffee. All she wanted was the coffee, and to get out of this beautiful hell-hole as quickly as she could before she killed Maggie or Maggie killed her. They sat in silence gazing at each other until Eva dropped her eyes. For a few minutes Eva wondered where the gun might be hidden, thinking through the possible locations. Then she wondered about the ways she might leave with the fifty thousand she was promised. She saw the situations playing out different ways. When she finally returned to reality, she found Maggie watching her with lust, pride and hate. Maggie had finished her toast and was sipping her coffee.

  Eva stood. “I’ll call Alex Galvan. How long shall I say we’ll be?”

  “How long do you think we’ll need?” “It’s a five minute drive. I’ll say twenty minutes.”

  “This stalling won’t work, Eva. Not all day. Not all night.”

  The bitch was right. Stalling wouldn’t work forever. But there was still a chance that it would work just long enough…

  In order to keep Maggie sweet, and to keep her distance, Eva played her own version of the drill sergeant. When Maggie was showered and dressed she returned to the front room with her Samsonite. Eva could have escaped while she was in the shower, but what good was freedom without the money she was owed. So she played the game. Eva had to see this through or it wasn’t going to be worth all the hurt, the fear and the pain.

  Maggie was resplendent, dressed to the nines in an expensive suit with her cleavage all pushed up like a presentation pack. Today was a day to do business. Maggie’s cleavage said so. “Are you still in a hurry?”

  Eva nodded. “I’m ready. Let’s go.”

  The drill sergeant. There was still a job to do. Eva opened the door a crack and looked out. She felt the cold wind push at the door and the feeling sent a chill into her body. She closed the door and looked around. “If you want me to have any chance of defending you – or myself – I’m going to need that gun back.”

  Maggie looked at Eva, looking for the lie, the double cross, but it wasn’t there to see. Eva let the woman inspect her pale green eyes. “Are you plotting against me, Miss Roberts? You should know by now, plotting against me is never very wise.”

  “I’m a gun for hire, Maggie. A mercenary, just like Kendra said. I’m on side until you’re safe, which I think you’ll be very soon. But I can’t ensure your safety without that gun. Think about it.”

  Maggie took a few more seconds to dramatise her power. “It’s not here. I’ll fetch it. You’d better not run. If you run, I will shoot you from the window. Do you understand?”

  Eva nodded and Maggie turned away. Before Maggie reached the first step, Eva’s eyes were on the Samsonite. Maggie climbed the stairs steadily. Eva’s heart rate climbed. All the options before her were potentially fatal. As Maggie got to the top of the steps, Eva gave into temptation. She bent double, and put her thumbs against the click-locks of the red case. She pressed and held the mechanism so it didn’t make a sound, and the front of the case came loose in her grasp. She opened it quickly and lightly, and saw the clothes, the underwear, the cosmetics, and there was a dark green canvas bag full of currency. Eva stuck her hand in and pulled out four more neat batches.
As she moved to shut the bag, she saw a small pistol glint at her from behind the green bag. Another gun. But the footsteps upstairs were moving quickly. She closed the case, stuffed the forty grand into her inside jacket and stood tall, sweeping her red hair behind her ears. Now she had the whole fifty. She tried to look normal, to breathe normal, but she felt heat showing in her cheeks and the defiance leaking from her eyes. Yes, she had defied Maggie, but she had only taken what Maggie had promised her as a fee. Maggie drew up at the foot of the stairs and looked at Eva. The large hand gun Gerrard had given her was in Maggie’s hand. The threat was unspoken, but they both knew it was there. If she chose, Maggie could have killed her. She stepped forward and handed the gun over. Eva nodded, took it and slid the gun into the free jacket pocket.

  “Remember where you’re pointing that, won’t you?”

  “It’s for self-defence only Maggie. If we see a threat, stay behind me and I’ll deal with it.”

  Maggie’s lips crinkled into an appreciative smile. Then Eva opened the door, and the cold wind swept in.

  Conscious of motorbikes throughout the whole short journey, Eva’s eyes were everywhere until they made it to a row of vast houses overlooking the best view of the Estuary in Leigh-on-Sea. The Estuary looked silver-blue now, yet the light kept changing as the wind whipped the clouds past ever faster. The large houses here were at the pinnacle of a hill, and opposite them was a cliff dropping down towards the fishing boats moored at the beginning of Old Leigh. It was picturesque in the extreme, but neither woman was relaxed as they arrived. There was the sound of a motorbike on the wind, a whining growl, but Eva couldn’t see any sign of it. She waited. She looked. No sign. She parked the Alfa at the bottom of a steep brick driveway beneath a large house covered in crisp white ship lap. The driveway was long and steep. They climbed together up a winding flagstone staircase, the wind whipping at their hair, finding Maggie’s more resistant from the ton of hairspray she’d applied. They were both ludicrously exposed to all kinds of attack as they climbed the steps. Would it have been so bad if Maggie was killed out in the open here, she wondered. But the bullets never came.