I walked towards the open door, my legs beginning to lose their feeling. Was this how people felt before facing a firing squad? Unable to run away even if they wanted to?
Gus stepped back and allowed me to stand in the doorway, with the curtains just touching me, fanned by a faint breeze coming off the garden.
‘It was you, wasn’t it?’ said Lilly-Mae. ‘You killed Frank.’ She sounded angry, her voice almost a whisper. Yet it cut across the room like a knife. I stopped and looked back at her, forgetting about the rifle. She was staring at Gus with an intensity which was frightening, and I turned and looked at him. He was still pointing the gun at me, but his eyes had switched to Lilly-Mae and his mouth had gone slack, as if the muscles in his face had lost all flexibility.
I thought about what she had said. It didn’t seem logical. Why would Gus kill his own man? And why leave a body in his own pool, waiting to be discovered by the first person to happen along? He could have claimed it was the result of a break-in gone wrong, but why disappear, immediately throwing all the suspicion onto himself?
Gus evidently felt the same way. ‘Don’t be stupid, girl.’ It was a warning, loud and clear.
But she wasn’t listening. ‘It was you,’ Lilly-Mae insisted. ‘There was no attacker; no men in the woods with guns. If there had been they would have come into the house for us before we even woke up.’ She advanced towards him, her boots scuffing on the carpet. ‘You’d been working downstairs that night. Anyone who wanted to get to you would have had hours to do it. They could have done it through the window with a squirrel-gun. Was that what you were working on, Gus? How to get out from a Federal investigation? How to get even with Selecca?’
‘Honey, you’re dreaming,’ Gus growled. He didn’t sound too convincing, but at least he wasn’t concentrating on shooting me for a moment, which was something. The only problem was, I had no idea if I could do anything to stop him when he got back on track, which he was likely to do the moment Lilly-Mae stopped talking.
Or the moment she pressed the wrong button.
‘No, Gus. I’m not dreaming.’ Lilly-Mae stopped a couple of feet from him. She looked statuesque and imposing, and Gus backed up a few millimetres, a look of surprise on his face. Maybe he’d never seen her like this before. ‘You think I’m just a pea-brained lil’ girl, don’t you? That I can’t tell a rifle bullet from a lip gloss. I’m just a trophy you picked up along the way and kept around because it made you look good among those back-country corn-suckers you call friends. Well, I’ve got news for you, Gus. I’m not dumb. And just because I wasn’t in the room didn’t mean I never heard what was said.’
Not now, Lilly-Mae, I wanted to shout. You’ve just said the wrong thing.
‘Heard?’ Gus’s face hardened and he glared at her as if he was talking to a backward child. ‘You heard what, hon?’ He lifted the gun and pointed it at her. ‘You heard… exactly… what?’
‘The deals. The calls late at night. I heard you getting nowhere with those gun nuts up in the hills, and those other losers who used to buy stuff from you. You think I didn’t hear some of the calls from – where were they – Nicaragua? Venezuela? You’ve been selling to terrorists, Gus, did you know that? Those people… Jesus, how many laws have you broken? You think framing Selecca’s going to get you out from that?’
‘Lilly-Mae,’ I tried to butt in but she had the bit between her teeth, and I guessed it was months, maybe years of tension and anger and heaven-knew-what finally coming out. She’d been living under the same roof as someone who’d been playing with matches and had finally set light to the whole box and was about to get scorched. As a time to choose to let him have a broadside, it couldn’t have been worse, but it was too late now.
‘Let me finish,’ Lilly-Mae said with exaggerated calmness. ‘Let me finish this. Gus, I didn’t say anything before because I couldn’t believe you were doing this. You’ve been dealing in guns – okay, so that’s bad enough… It isn’t what your average guy does for a living, but it started off legal, right? Then selling to those assholes in the hills… they never hurt anyone except themselves. But in the last – what, two months – you’ve been losing it. And now you’ve gone over the edge. I mean, Gus, you cannot sell to those people down south and think you can get away with it. And now the cops and probably the FBI and Homeland Security have got Selecca, do you think he’s going to keep quiet? Do you think he’s going to protect you? Like he owes you a favour?’
‘Selecca’s never going to see the light of day. He’s finished.’ Gus spoke with quiet certainty, as if Lilly-Mae’s tirade had gone right over his head. And maybe it had. Instead of the expected retort at being pinned down like that by Lilly-Mae, he didn’t seem to be affected in any way. Quite the opposite, in fact. It was unnerving.
Lilly-Mae looked at him. ‘Why? What did you do? What was on that stick, Gus?’
Gus grinned suddenly, as if the prize had popped out of the box for all to see. He looked from Lilly-Mae to me, and I braced myself in case he decided to start shooting. But instead he shrugged like it was a perfectly reasonable question. ‘The one the boy scout from England, here, took to Palm Springs for me? Well… everything, I guess.’
‘Everything?’ I asked, since we all seemed to be getting on so well. Might as well join in now he’d mentioned me. It seemed only fair.
‘Everything. Names, dates, amounts, shipments – the whole nine yards. Once they open that baby, they’ll have enough dirt to put Selecca away for a thousand years. All linked to him, shipped by him, paid for by him.’
‘The arms deals?’ Lilly-Mae looked stunned, and puzzled.
‘That’s right. I figured if my business was going down the toilet and Selecca was moving in – ’cos that’s what he was planning on doing, you know, moving in – then there was only one way to get him out of the way. Set it all up so it would look like he was top dog.’ Gus looked pleased with himself, like he’d pulled a rabbit from a hat. ‘It’ll take ’em months, maybe years to unravel it all, by which time Selecca will be dead of frustration and I’ll be… well, I’ll be a long way from here.’
‘You’d give up this house and everything?’ I asked. I guessed he had other resources tucked away for this kind of eventuality.
He looked around at the room and shrugged. ‘This isn’t mine any more. I sold it months ago as collateral to set up the deal. Come another month and I’d be out of here, anyway, so what’s to lose?’
‘Something you forgot to mention to me, Gus?’ said Lilly-Mae with heavy irony.
He gave her a look devoid of any interest. ‘I’d have told you, Lilly-Mae… eventually. But hell, you’d have soon found something else, right? Let’s not pretend we ever had anything going, the two of us.’
The comment was meant to be as cold as it was low, and Gus probably expected it to strike Lilly-Mae like a slap in the face. But she brushed it off without flinching.
‘And Frank? What about him?’ Her voice nearly cracked, and it was obvious to anyone with a brain that Frank’s murder had left an indelible mark on her. Tied in with everything Gus had just said, it was the final straw.
‘Frank got in the way. Turns out he was a light sleeper. He heard me on the phone to some people. He didn’t like it and threatened to split. I couldn’t let him do that.’
‘The freezer,’ I muttered. ‘And the pool.’
Lilly-Mae looked at me. ‘What?’
‘The house near Charlotte: the air conditioning was switched on, remember? When we walked in the air was cold. And the pool heating was on. Why heat the pool in a deserted house? And why stock the freezer?’ It meant Gus had been using the house as a base – and probably planned on doing so for some time. Since few people knew he owned it, it was unlikely he would have been discovered unless someone happened to stumble on the connection. Or unless Lilly-Mae returned. And perhaps even then he’d reckoned on her siding with him. Or maybe not.
‘You’ve been to my house?’ he asked softly, and looked at Lilly-Mae. ‘Y
ou took him there?’ His eyes swivelled towards me, and I realised that apart from everything else – as if that wasn’t enough to be contending with – and in spite of his comments moments before, Gus was suffering from an acute attack of an emotion as old as the hills around us: jealousy. Insane and dangerous jealousy. And it was aimed right at me.
‘Yes.’ Lilly-Mae glanced at me, an urgent pleading in her eyes as if there was something I could do.
Suddenly it was as if the conversation was at an end, as if all the points had been covered, all the balls dropped into position and the explanations made. Now we were three people in a room without much to say to each other. Except Gus wasn’t quite finished.
And he was holding the gun.
He turned towards me and lifted the rifle, his knuckles whitening around the stock. I saw his forearm tense with the first movement. But while he’d been exchanging confidences with Lilly-Mae, the barrel had gradually drifted away towards the floor, leaving me by a good foot and a half.
It was the only chance I was going to get.
I took my small travel flashlight out of my pocket and threw it as hard as I could straight into his face. It was barely six inches long, about an inch wide, but it was made of metal. I hurled it with desperation and fear and a sudden burst of anger, and it hit Gus right between the eyes.
I’d never hit anyone before, and I had no idea what to expect. So when Gus went down with a crash as if he’d been smacked with a brick instead of a tiny flashlight, I was nearly as stunned as he was. One second he was huge and unmoveable and thinking about killing me, the next he was stretched out on the carpet like a corpse, a small round area of vivid red skin mushrooming in the centre of his forehead. The rifle clattered to the carpet beside him.
The next moment the night was split by the wail of a police siren and I heard the roar of car engines approaching along the drive. Then I noticed a tiny red light blinking up in one corner of the room. The place had been wired with an alarm – probably activated by the lights being switched on.
‘Something you forgot to mention?’ I said to Lilly-Mae, picking up my flashlight.
‘That’s not part of the system,’ she replied. ‘The cops must have installed it.’
Which meant they were watching for Gus after all. So much for his being able to stay out of their hands. And we’d walked right into their trap.
‘Come on!’ I said. I grabbed Lilly-Mae with one hand and picked up her rucksack with the other. Waiting around to see if they would believe our story wasn’t an option in my book. Had it been me in the blue uniform, I wouldn’t have believed me either. It was time to be travelling.
I just hoped she remembered the way back through the trees, because I didn’t.
THIRTY-THREE
We scooted across the lawn to the trees as lights flared at the front of the house and car tyres screamed along the drive in true Hollywood fashion. Luckily there were no security lights on at the back and, as we hit the wire fence and scrambled through into the undergrowth, we had darkness to swallow us.
There was a lot of shouting from inside the house, and the lights began to go on as all the rooms were searched. A couple of figures in uniform appeared by the pool and stared into the darkness towards us, but they made no move to come any further.
‘Thank Christ for that,’ I breathed, and sank down on one knee, drained by all the excitement and tension. Life in London NW9 just wasn’t like this. ‘Anyone for a walk in the woods?’
Then I heard a dog barking. That wasn’t good.
‘Does Gus have a dog?’
When Lilly said no, we jumped up and started running.
Whatever we had hit on the way down was small beer in comparison to our return journey. Every mud hole, every fallen branch, every obstacle nature could possibly put in our way was there for us to fall over and step in. By the time we were halfway up the hill we were both gasping and sweating, skin burning from dozens of tiny cuts and scratches. It was only adrenalin and desperation which kept us going the rest of the way.
We emerged not far from the car and clambered aboard, out of breath and looking like we’d been run over by a truck.
‘What in hell,’ I gasped, throwing Lilly-Mae’s rucksack on the back seat, ‘have you got in there?’
‘Everything important that’s mine,’ she replied. ‘You don’t think I’m ever going back, do you?’
Fair comment. The way things were looking, Gus was unlikely to ever see freedom again, and anyone associated with him was in line to join him. It took me a few seconds to realise that included me.
‘Is there a back way out of here?’ I asked. If we went down to the main road we’d most likely find it blocked by the police. And while we both looked as if we’d been rolling in the heather, I didn’t think it would convince anyone for very long that we’d been canoodling in the bushes.
Lilly-Mae nodded as I climbed behind the wheel. ‘Over the top of this range. Do we risk going back to the house outside Charlotte?’
‘We have to. My stuff’s there – including my passport.’
Neither of us said much for the first twenty miles of winding, bumpy back road. I was too busy watching out for bears – the kind driving patrol cars, not the furry kind – and I think Lilly-Mae was trying to come to terms with what had happened with Gus and her disintegrating life. She couldn’t even go back to the place she had called home.
I knew how she felt.
We hit the main road and I drove as sedately as my jangling nerves would allow all the way back to Charlotte, one eye on the rear-view mirror for signs of pursuit. There were a few other cars around, all minding their own business, and I figured as long as I didn’t break a law, there was no reason why we should stand out from anyone else.
‘What will you do?’ I asked Lilly-Mae.
She checked her face in the visor mirror before replying. It was quite a question, and one which I guessed needed careful thought. You can’t have your life turned upside down and simply rush off into the blue as if nothing had happened. I should know – I’d tried it.
‘Move on, I suppose. I’ve done it before.’ The way she said it sounded pretty desperate, and I felt for her. ‘How about you?’
‘I’ve been thinking about that. I have to go back to England at some stage. I can’t keep moving around the globe in the hope it will all go away. Better to get back and sort it out. Anyway, it’s not as though my problems compare with what we’ve just been through.’
Lilly-Mae smiled and put a hand on my arm. ‘Thank you, Jake. For back there.’
‘Don’t thank me,’ I said modestly. ‘If you hadn’t stood up to him I’d never have got the opportunity. Anyway, I don’t think he’d have harmed you. It was me he was annoyed with.’
She shook her head and threw her half-smoked cigarette out the window. ‘I think he would have – hurt me, I mean. I knew him better than he thought. He wouldn’t have meant to, but it would have happened anyway. Did you see the look on his face at the end? That wasn’t the Gus I used to know. I think he’d gone over the edge. We’d never have got out if it hadn’t been for you.’ She pushed the seat back and within minutes I could hear her breathing steadily.
A little while later, when I was sure she was in deep sleep, I took the opportunity to call Marcus. I figured he’d be up and about by now, but I had to make sure he was all right. Being woken up by me, if that’s what happened, was better than having Basher kicking in his door.
Surprisingly he answered the phone sounding almost chirpy. ‘What do you want?’ he asked. ‘I thought you’d be away longer.’
‘I am,’ I said. ‘I just wanted to check in, see how you were doing… and ask if you’d seen Basher.’
‘Basher? Hell, no – I’m relieved, to be honest. I’ve been hearing some strange stuff about him. I think the investment thing is off. Why do you ask?’
My relief was massive. The idea that Basher might have decided to take out his anger on Marcus hadn’t occurred to me before I’d spo
ken to Clayton, but so far, at least, the beast had stayed in his cage. ‘Same as you, really,’ I said airily. ‘I’d heard a couple of things and wanted to warn you to be careful.’
‘Well, big brother, I’m not a kid any more, but thank you. Are you sure you’re all right? You sound weird.’
‘I’m fine,’ I lied. ‘We’ll catch up when I get back.’ I cut the connection before he could ask more questions, and focussed on driving.
When we arrived back at the house I half woke Lilly-Mae and helped her inside, gently lowering her onto one of the beds and covering her with a blanket. I took off her boots but that was as far as decency allowed me to go. Then I went back out for her rucksack and put it down nearby where she would see it the moment she woke.
After that I made a cup of coffee and prowled the house, staring through the large windows at the darkness outside. All I saw through my own reflection were images of Gus and his rifle, and the way he had looked at me; as if I was something about to end up on a marble slab. I realised then that Lilly-Mae had been right; Gus hadn’t been sane right at that moment. He probably hadn’t been for some time – certainly not the first time I met him. And in his frame of mind, whatever that was, he was unlikely to have let Lilly-Mae go, especially if he was thinking about her and me in this house together.
It made me wonder if he would tell the police about this place. If he did, they would be round there sooner or later looking for information. On the other hand, if we tried to find a hotel to stay in, two dishevelled people looking for a room at this time of the night would likely attract the attention of the cops.
Smart Moves Page 22