Dan looked at the man intently, trying to answer the question truthfully. “Because… I’ve only once known a man as terrible as you, as inhuman, as despicable… and I never thought I could ever meet one again. People like you don’t fit in with the rest of the human race. You’re anomalies. You shouldn’t exist.”
“But I exist.”
“You do. And that’s what makes me scared. I shouldn’t have met another one of you so soon.”
“I find you amusing, Mr Bradley.”
“Really? I find you unbearable. And now I find a use for my fear.”
The thin man made a quizzical face, and dipped a hand inside his jacket. He pulled out a black pistol.
“I don’t think any man has ever found fear useful, Bradley.”
“Don’t you want to know how I find it useful?”
“Not really, no.”
“Because it helps me realise that I have no choice. For the sake of every person who deserves a chance, every person who you people write off as subhuman, foreign, or whatever… for the sake of all the kids you haven’t brainwashed yet… for the sake of this country…
“Please, do go on,” said Peter Serge, smiling, as he began to raise his gun.
“…and to prove to myself that fear is no reason to run from the devil, I have no choice.”
“You did have one. Just one. But you wasted it in blathering at me, Mr Bradley.”
“No, Councillor. I didn’t.”
Dan lunged forward to punch the gun hand, to keep it aiming the wrong way. The risk was he got his hand blown off, but there really was no choice. The fear had to be conquered. The blackness was all over him now, and Dan succumbed to it, growling as he heard the gun go off, his body pressing hard into Peter Serge until the bastard fell down with Dan on top of him. There was no pain. In the grip of the burning anger, and the desperate blackness, Dan knew finally he had won.
“People like you will never, ever win.” Dan grabbed the wrist, held it as hard and tight as he could until the gun came free. “Never. Never. Ever.” The gun flew to the side, skittering into the hedge by the pond. Peter Serge’s eyes changed now. For the first time, Dan saw panic in them, and it made him smile.
“Too late, Councillor. You made your bed. Now you’re going to die in it.” Dan shook the man and slammed his head down onto the grass. He shook him again and slammed his head harder, and harder still, with his eyes wide open. Dan crushed the man’s face down with his finger and slammed it down hard into the mud, and now the man was dazed, his eyes rolling. He slammed it down again, harder still.
“Dan.”
Dan lifted a fist and clattered it through into the man’s jaw. Teeth broke and splintered. The man coughed and blinked and gargled on blood.
“Dan.”
Dan knelt upwards and raised his two fists ready to drop the coup de grâce onto Peter Serge’s lolling head.
“It stops here.”
Eva laid a hand on Dan’s bloody fists, and he looked back at her. He took a breath. His eyes glistened and he snatched an emotional breath into his chest. His arms fell slack. He looked into Eva’s eyes.
“It’s over, Dan.”
“I know it is. I know.” Dan stood up, slack shouldered, eyes watering, and at the same time he was powerful, monstrous and strong. Eva looked into his eyes, and felt no fear. Dan took a slow deep breath. His eyes glistened and he made a half smile.
“We were the best partners, weren’t we?”
“We were incredible,” said Eva, her own eyes filling up.
“I was scared Eva. But I didn’t let the fear win, did I? And you know what, it’s gone. The blackness has lifted.”
“It’s okay to be afraid, Dan.”
“Not of people like him, it’s not okay. Not ever.”
Eva looked at Dan and studied all the rough handsome looks, the stubble, past the scars inflicted on his face back in London, and the new fresh cuts. She fought back her tears as best she could but they came anyway.
“At least we got to fight again, Eva.”
“Dan. Please…” she wanted him to stop talking, and at the same time she wanted him to keep on… “Dan, Give me a hug.”
Dan moved close and wrapped his arms close around her, and pressed her tight against him. They closed their eyes and revelled in the touch of each other, both feeling, wondering if this was going to be the very last time.
“I’ll always…”
“I know it. I know. Dan. Me too.”
Gently Eva pulled away as the sirens filled the air from the seafront nearby.
“Maybe you can get some help, Dan.”
“No, honey. I just had all the help I’ll ever need. I’ve got the scars to prove it.”
The bright white headlights announced the arrival of Eva’s Alfa Romeo. It roared and bounded along the grass, breaking sharply at the small metal fence by the edge of the green. Dan gave Eva a hand lifting Jerry Burton into the car as a glow of blue lights filled the night above the park. And then with a wry smile, Dan took Jess’s hand and shook it. “See you round.” Before the police cars made it into the park, Dan Bradley began to walk away. Eva watched him for a full ten seconds, his figure diminishing in the blackness before she remembered poor Jerry Burton. She got in the car, and reversed it quickly, spinning it around and then bolted for the exit. Jess was beside her. Just before she made the exit, she slowed and took one last look back, but in the darkness Dan Bradley was nowhere to be seen. Dan was gone. Eva blinked and bit her lip, then pressed the gas pedal and shot away towards Southend hospital, not knowing if she would ever see Dan Bradley again. And already, it hurt like hell.
Twenty-nine
Ten days later, life still wasn’t normal, but it was almost normal. The Conservatives won the election with their replacement candidate. Jerry Burton survived, and was going to make a full recovery under the care of his mother, while police supervised his father’s recovery far out of town.
Eva always tried to avoid the spotlight, but her thinking was skewed in the aftermath of the Will Burton fiasco, and Eva managed to crack a joke about a lack of fee for her work on the Burton case live on a TV news bulletin. Over the next few days six envelopes arrived from across the town with anonymous payments totalling more than three times what Serge and Burton had ever intended to pay. But it was a small consolation for the loss of Dan.
She hadn’t heard from him in ten days. It hurt, but Eva was a big girl and Dan had left scars before. So now she spent her time planning how to start over but she couldn’t bear to think about permanently closing the door on Dan. It was silly, and it was weak, but true all the same.
Ten days had been painful and slow. But on the tenth night, things changed.
On the tenth night, Eva sat with another half empty bottle of Pinot Grigio pressing against her leg, glass in her hand, the TV chattering in front of her glazed eyes. It was late, around 2am when the office door got rattled downstairs. Eva leapt up from the sofa and peered down to the pavement, but whoever knocked was hidden in the porch way.
“You bastard,” Eva whispered with a smile, enjoying Dan’s playfulness.
She opened the door to the flat and skipped down the stairs, then flicked on the light, illuminating only the back half of the office. It was only then she knew something was wrong. The silhouette pressing against the door was tall and slim, but the comparison with Dan ended there. The silhouette had a cone of long hair and a body covered in a long dark coat. Eva couldn’t make out her face as yet, but the chilling sensation which held her breath told her all she needed to know. But Eva didn’t want to believe the evidence of her eyes.
“Let me in!” called the figure, the door bucked against the hinges and the glass steamed from her breath. Eva let another second pass, hoping it would all go away. She stared into the black shadow. She was alone. Without courage, Eva approached the front door.
To be continued in…
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-Solomon
The Long Time Dying Series
by Solomon Carter
Thrilling adventures featuring Eva Roberts & Dan Bradley, private detectives
Series list - in reading order
Out With A Bang
One Mile Deep
Long Time Dying
Never Back Down
Crossing The Line
Divide and Rule
Better The Devil
On Borrowed Time
The Dirty Game
Only Live Once
Behind The Mask
The Dark Tide
Lucky For Some
Divide and Rule Page 21