Legitimate Target

by Dee McInnes

  “As I explained when we spoke the last time, me and Freeman were only minnows, small fry in the grand scheme of things. Doin’ what we were instructed,” Mac said. “I’m truely sorry that yer father was the one on the receivin’ end. I’m certain Freeman will feel the same. It could have been likely T.P, Kevin’s brother Eamon. He was always the big, I am. But you’ve no chance. The Sherriff and he are mud sharks. You’d never catch them in a month of Sundays.”

  Viv watched the seconds glide past as Pete retraced their route back across the border.

  “It’ll be dark in a few hours,” he said. “Let’s hope this doesn’t turn out to be another pointless crumb-trail.”

  They followed Mac’s scooter into a small housing estate. He stopped and stood his machine up outside a semi-detached house, surrounded by a red-bricked wall and a barred gate. The top half of the front door had four opaque panes of leaded glass in a diamond-shaped pattern. Mac knocked and a dark shape approached the glass on the other side.

  “Who’s there?” a female voice called out.

  “It’s me, Mary,” Mac said.

  The door opened little by little. Mary Donnelly was overweight and breathing heavily. Walking to the front door appeared to have taken a lot out of her.

  “Terry,” she said. “If you’re… after our Dermott, he’s not here.”

  “Could we come in for a minute?” Mac said. “These two are friends of mine… after you,” Mac said, ushering Viv inside.

  Mary wore a voluminous skirt with a black and white floral pattern and a black shapeless sweater. Viv followed her along a cramped, rectangular passageway. Mary shuffled along in a pair of fluffy, worn-down slippers.

  “Will we…put the kettle on?” Mary asked over her shoulder as she led them into the kitchen.

  Viv gave Pete a look and he loitered in the doorway before ducking back out into the hallway. She hoped he’d take look around the rest of the house

  Mary lowered herself into a plump armchair squeezed into the corner. Everything about the house seemed tight for space. The kitchen smelled of an overflowing waste-bin and Mary’s body odour.

  “We’re not stopping for long,” Mac said. “Has he been here today?”

  “Aye, but he went out, not long ago,” Mary said. “There’s football training. Afterwards he sometimes gets a takeaway… or goes to Danny’s Place…or he might go up to the Galleon. Is everything alright?”

  “If Freeman comes back, tell him I’m lookin’ for him, and to check his phone,” Mac said.

  “Is this one… the English wiman he was blethering about?”

  “I just need to use the bog for two minutes,” Mac said.

  He disappeared out of the kitchen leaving Viv and Mary alone.

  “I’m pleased to meet you, Mrs Donnelly. Yes, I’m Viv. I met your son last week and we bumped into each other again on Monday night.”

  “Ye can call me Mary. I’ve been so worried about Dermott… these past months. Too much drinkin’… moping around. I’m glad he’s… found a new friend.”

  “This is my telephone number,” Viv said, holding out her business card. “Give me a ring please, if Dermott turns up, no matter when. I’m only here for another couple of days and I’d like to have the chance to say goodbye.”

  Mary squinted at the card. “You’re… a newspaper reporter?”

  “For my sins.”

  Mary tucked the card between the cushion and the side of her chair.

  Viv found Pete and Mac on the pavement outside the house. They didn’t seem to have come to blows.

  “There’s no sign of him here,” Pete said.

  “We could try the football ground,” Mac said. “It’s only ten minutes away.”

  “This could be a wild goose chase,” Pete said. “Something to eat wouldn’t go amiss?”

  “Let’s try one more place,” Viv said. “If we draw a blank, food’s next on the list anyway.”

  Viv and Pete waited in the car park while Mac limped across the turf. About thirty teenagers were sprinting up and down between two lines of orange agility cones, floodlights batheing the pitch. Viv couldn’t spot anyone who looked like Dermott. Mac stopped to talk to a man in a sports coat, who pointed back towards the way they had come in.

  “Doesn’t look too promising,” Pete said, rubbing his chin. Since they had spent the night together on the couch, she had noticed an edginess to him that hadn’t been there before. Like he was living on tender-hooks.

  “Are you okay about all of this?” Viv asked.

  “I feel a bit of a spare part,” Pete said, staring out of the front window. Serious for once.

  “I couldn’t do this without you.” She hesitated. “After this is all over, we’ll…”

  They would do what? Live happily ever after?

  “Did anything else happen at the party?” Pete asked, turning to face Viv. His eyes searching her face.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Between you and…this Dermott.”

  “Pete…I…”

  Mac rapped on the passenger window. Pete turned on the ignition and she powered down the window.

  “Same thing here,” Mac said. “No joy. Do you wanna keep lookin’?”

  Viv looked at Pete and he shrugged his shoulders. “Up to you.”

  “We’ll meet you at Danny’s place,” she said to Mac. “I know the way.”

  Mac turned towards his scooter and Pete put the car into gear.

  “Hold on a minute,” Viv said, covering Pete’s hand with her own. She could see the hurt nagging at the corners of his eyes. “We had a… a fling, Dermott and I, before I found out who he really was. We were both pretty drunk…I know that’s no excuse. It didn’t mean anything. Afterwards, I felt sick to my stomach. It still makes me want to throw up. I’m sorry I didn’t know how to tell you.”

  Pete leant over and kissed her softly on the lips. “Viv. Ye must know that I love you. I always have…”

  Noreen wasn’t working and there was no sign of Dermott inside the restaurant. Viv looked at her Breitling and watched the red tipped second-hand around the dial. Time was running out. There was a football match showing on the TV screens around the bar. Mac and Pete discovered they supported the same side and the atmosphere improved. The two of them devoured a mountain of food between them.

  “We could try Maeve’s place next,” Mac said between mouthfuls. “I was just saying to Pete here, The Galleon Club is in a very rough part of town. If we split up, we could cover more bases.”

  “I can swing by. No problem,” Pete said, smiling at Viv across the table. “You go on with Mac.”

  “If you’re sure?” she said.

  “Apparently there’s live music and a karaoke,” Pete said. “Right up my street.”

  “I’ve no spare helmet,” Mac said. “But Maeve’s is only a couple of minutes away, if you’re willing to risk it?”

  Viv settled the bill and Mac went off to get his scooter. When they got outside, Pete grabbed her hand and pulled her around the corner of the restaurant, into the smoking area.

  “Please be careful, okay? And I’ll see ye later.”

  She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him back. It felt just as good the second time.

  Pete climbed into his car and pulled away. Mac showed her the pillion seat grab rails. “I don’t expect you’ll want to give me such a big hug,” he said with a grunt.

  Viv swung her leg over the seat and felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. “Hang on, please,” she told Mac. It was an unknown number. “Hello?”

  “It’s… Mary. Dermott’s come back, but I can’t get no sense out of him... and he’s been drinking.”

  “Keep him there,” Viv said. “We’re on our way.”

  “I got it,” Mac said. “Hold on.”

  Viv zipped her phone into her pocket. There was no time to let Pete know. Mac had the scooter at full throttle. The wind streaked through her hair. The streetlights a blur.

  The door to Mary’s house was sta
nding wide open. The yellow light shone out, attracting a swarm of midges. Mary was sitting where they had left her. “He’s… gone,” she said, breathing hard. “I tried to go after him, but he wouldn’t listen. He was upstairs for a wee while… he didn’t even put his coat on.”

  Viv knelt down and clasped Mary’s hands. “Did he say anything, anything at all about where he was going?”

  “Not really. But he said… you know Ma, you always said if I was born to be shot… I’d never be drowned.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It’s something I used to tell him, whenever he was younger, back when they…” Mary paused looking up at Mac.

  “She already knows,” Mac said.

  “My Cara would be about the same age as you now… if she had lived,” Mary said, studying Viv’s face. “This is her.” Mary picked up a small, framed photo from the kitchen countertop and passed it over. “They say time heals. But I miss her, just as much as ever.”

  The photo showed a girl of about five or six years old, standing in a narrow garden that could have been the one to the rear of Rosemount Street. She had a straight fringe of dark hair and a pale face. She grinned at the camera. There were some similarities between Cara and Anna Rose, the teenager on Maeve’s Facebook page, despite the fact that Viv now knew they were not blood relatives.

  “Dermott checked his phone before he left… he said to let ye know… he got yer message,” Mary wheezed.

  Whose message? Viv hadn’t been able to get through to him. Mac?

  “Did you contact him? You didn’t tell him…” Viv said. The expression on Mac’s face told her everything she needed to know. For fuck’s sake.

  “Can I have a look upstairs, please?” she asked.

  Mary nodded.

  Viv took the steps two at a time. There was a small room at the front of the house. It had a single bed with a pink, chenille cover. Dermott’s bedroom was at the back. She tripped over an empty whiskey bottle just inside the door. The bed was a tangle of sheets and there was an upright chair heaped with dirty clothes. A white envelope had been propped up on the bedside table. It was leaning against a football trophy.

  She carried it downstairs between her thumb and forefinger, as if it might explode.

  “I found this…”

  Chapter Forty

  The three of them stared at the envelope in silence.

  “What’re ye waiting for?” Mac asked.

  ‘To Ma’, was written on the outside. “This is addressed to you,” Viv said to Mary. “It’s private…”

  “Go on,” Mary said. “We’re all friends here…”

  Viv opened the flap and took out the scrap of paper. The three uneven lines of handwriting were in blue ink.

  Dear Ma, I’m sorry for everything. Please don’t think badly of me for taking the cowardly way out but I can’t do this anymore. I’m sorry for all the pain I’ve caused. I’m sorry I killed that English woman’s father and all the rest of them that came afterwards. I’ve nothing to live for. Dermott.

  “Oh. Sweet Jesus,” Mary wailed, making the sign of the cross across her chest with her fingertips.

  “Where would he go?” Viv asked.

  “There’s only one place near here,” Mac said. “Where they all end up…”

  Mary grabbed Viv’s arm in a vice-like grip. “Go after him. Please. Please save him…save my son, save yourself.” Her voice trailed off to a whisper.

  They ran outside and Mac fired up his scooter. Viv got Pete on speed dial. “Don’t say anything. Just listen. Get out to Foyle Bridge. Right now. We’re following Dermott.” She put her phone away and hopped onto the pillion seat. The conversation she’d had with Carmen on the way to Grianan Fort came to mind. There was a dedicated search and rescue team patrolling the river. Maybe they had already spotted Dermott and were talking him down.

  Viv wondered what time it was…maybe close to midnight? Mac had the engine at full throttle. She didn’t dare to take her hands off the grip-bars.

  The roads were quiet. She felt the crosswind in her hair as they began their approach, climbing the long, concrete slip-road that led to the three cantilever spans. A hundred feet above the water. On the east bank were the bright yellow and orange city lights. To the north and west there was only the cold, black distant darkness.

  “You’re going too fast,” she shouted into Mac’s ear. “I can’t see properly.”

  Mac called something over his shoulder and began to slow. Harsh, white streetlights punctuated the gloom. A car sped past them on the outside lane of the bridge, hooting its horn. The tall, galvanised lamp-heads were like stars, their light reflecting off the slick, tarmac surface.

  Mac stopped the scooter and turned around. “Climb over the barrier and run along the footpath,” he bellowed. “Check carefully along the railing.”

  Viv jogged, her breath tight in her chest, until she reached the apex. Holding onto the frigid, metal railing with both hands she peered over the side. It was a long way down. A solitary gull swooped below. The bend of its wings caught in the artificial light. The wind had dropped. She thought about her mother, walking out into the rippling, black water and remembered the fire at the industrial park, how she had sensed her life drifting away But, that was before…

  “Don’t you jump.”

  Dermott’s voice came out of the darkness.

  Thank…God.

  “Where are you?” Viv asked.

  “Keep walking…that’s close enough,” he said.

  “There’s a patrol, they’ll be out here very soon,” Viv said, catching a glimpse of his silhouette. Creeping further forward, taking baby steps. “Hang on. Please.”

  “There’s nothing to hang onto, on this side,” he said with a hollow laugh. “It takes them ten minutes to get out here once you’re captured on candid camera. So, I’ve another few minutes, before I’ll have to go.”

  “No.” she said. “I’ve just come from your mother’s house. I left her in pieces. I promised her I’d bring you back home.”

  “And you’d do that, after everything I’ve done to you?” Dermott asked. “I got a text from Mac. I can hardly believe my luck.”

  “I know. He’s a good friend. Think about your daughter. Think about Anna Rose. As far as she’s concerned, you’re still her father”.

  “She’ll get over it.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong. I should know…”

  “Save your breath. Don’t waste it… on a shit like me.”

  Viv was close enough to hear the slosh of liquid in a bottle.

  “I wouldn’t mind a drink,” she said.

  “Nice try.”

  “Please, Dermott. Mac told me what happened. I know about your sister, about Cara. That wasn’t your fault. You were only a boy.”

  “And afterwards? When I topped your father, and all the others that came after him. Are you able to wave a magic wand, and wipe out all the lives that I’ve taken? All the pain that I’ve caused?”

  Viv tried to get the right words out, but they wouldn’t come. She was relieved to hear the sound of sirens in the distance.

  “I thought as much,” his voice said out of the darkness. “I don’t blame you. I really enjoyed our time together. I thought we had something special…although I don’t expect you to say the feeling was mutual.”

  She heard the bottle tip up again.

  “You know being here, on the wrong side of the fence, is where I’ve spent most of my adult life. It’s like having a gun to my head, with my finger on the trigger, the first round locked and loaded. Say goodbye. Just say the word and I’m as good as gone. You can have your revenge.”

  “You know this bridge is a crossroads. It’s like no man’s land,” Viv said, edging closer. “Someone once told me that the river, although it’s black tonight, is like the white in the Irish flag, between the east and west bank. The Protestants with their orange banners on one side and the Catholics wearing the green on the other. I’m a mixture of both, a Pro
testant mother and an Irish Catholic father. I was brought up not to take sides.”

  “Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

  The emergency vehicles were on the approach. The blue flashing lights closing in. Viv fingers brushed the back of Dermott’s neck and she sensed him stiffen.

  “When I was nine years old, my mother got cancer,” Viv said. “She had a lot of medication, to help her with the pain. It made her...confused. She suffered from dizziness and blurred vision. She was dying inside. She often told my father she could hear the spirits calling her. One night she walked out into the river, further up from here, and she never came back. Please don’t do that to Anna Rose. Don’t do that to your mother, or to me.”

  Viv took a deep breath.

  “I forgive you. For everything you’ve done.”

  Dermott didn’t reply. One second he was there and the next he had gone.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Dee McInnes was born in Derry ~ Londonderry and grew up at the height of The Troubles. She studied English and Public Media at Leeds Trinity University. Afterwards she lived in and around London, where she worked in data analytics as a project manager. She moved back to Northern Ireland in 2006, where the idea for her debut novel took shape.

  A sequel to Legitimate Target is in the pipeline.

  What will happen when Viv’s best friend, Carmen, is viciously murdered? Will Viv and Pete’s fledgling relationship survive? Will Viv ever track down the terrorist leaders responsible for targeting her father?