by Shaun Baines
Behind him, Monica stood. He sensed her approaching and turned to warn her to stay where she was. He caught her eye and in an instant, he saw it all, confirming his father’s fears. Shame. Guilt. Remorse. It was all there. She couldn’t be as sure as Ed appeared to be, but she had her suspicions. Her doubt was evidence enough for Daniel. He looked away and she did too.
Ed started laughing. He had seen the moment between them. He wiped his face clean of tears and replaced them with a sneer. “I’m finished with both of you. Everywhere I turn, people are sharpening their knives, but it was the two of you who really stabbed me in the back. You broke my fucking heart.”
Supporting his broken wrist, he shuffled to the door, stopping to take a final look at his wife. “I’m sterile. I’ve never been able to have kids. That’s how I knew it wasn’t mine.”
Ed looked over his shoulder at Daniel.
“You and your brother are adopted mongrels from a dirty back street clinic. There’s nothing of me in you.”
Before anyone could stop him, Ed was out of the door. Daniel and Monica stared at each other in amazement when they heard a gunshot from the hallway.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Daniel was out first and found his father leaning over the railing looking into the hallway below. He could see Reaver sitting awkwardly on the stairs. His hands were still bound, but the rope around his neck had been loosened. A young man ascended the stairs, a rifle pressed into his shoulder and the sights aimed at Daniel. He wore a Tweed jacket, dark moleskin trousers and riding boots, as if he had abandoned a deer hunt to stalk humans instead. His bulbous eyes never left Daniel’s face.
Monica rushed out of the bedroom, but jolted to a halt when she saw the man with the rifle. She pressed into Daniel’s side while Ed hung onto the railing for support.
“You shouldn’t have brought Mr Reaver here. I’m not keen on hatching escape plans.”
Daniel took a step forward. He’d found Fairbanks at last. “I guess we’ve under-estimated you again. How did you know he was here?”
“I’m guessing you’re Daniel? The prodigal son?”
Daniel didn’t know what prodigal meant and fixed him with a cold stare rather than answer. Fairbanks smiled in response.
“GPS,” he said. “My men are tagged like animals. I don’t like them going astray.”
“What do you want?” Ed asked. His skin was grey and his legs were shaking.
“Ed, I want you to stay where you are. I’ll explain what I’m doing to you, but you’re in no fit state to move.”
Daniel followed Fairbanks’ gaze to where his father – his adoptive father – struggled to stay on his feet, pitching from side to side. He saw a patch of blood flowering in his father’s stomach where the gunshot they’d heard had hit its target. Ed was upright, but it was only pride that kept him there.
There hadn’t been time to process what Ed had told him. He was adopted. He was a mongrel. He didn’t belong. Daniel shut the thought process down before it gained momentum. This was another life or death situation. There could be no distractions. If they lived through this, then he’d figure out what the fuck was going on afterward.
“It takes a long time to die from a stomach wound, but I won’t keep you,” Fairbanks said. “Daniel can call for an ambulance for you as soon as I leave.”
Daniel cast his eyes away from his father, a gesture that Fairbanks noticed immediately. “You will call for an ambulance, won’t you, Daniel? I need your father alive. For a little longer, anyway.”
“Tell us why you’re here and then fuck off,” Daniel said.
Ed slipped to the floor. He groaned through clenched teeth before using his good hand to pull himself back to his feet. He swayed unsteadily, like he was standing on the deck of a sinking ship. “Answer my son,” he said.
“I’m not your son, Ed.”
Fairbanks watched them both for a long while. The great hall of Five Oaks was silent, except for Ed’s laboured breathing. Finally, Fairbanks shrugged. “It’s simple really. I want ten million pounds. As head of the Daytons, you are the only one who can issue that to me.”
“You don’t want to take over?” Ed asked.
Fairbanks blinked repeatedly. “I have a handful of men at my disposal. You have hundreds. Why would you even think that?”
“Because men like Ed believe everyone wants what he has,” Daniel said. “It never occurred to him that this was nothing more than a hostage demand.”
“And it occurred to you?”
Daniel shook his head. “I didn’t know what you were up to. I just knew you weren’t after the throne. Had he listened to your earlier demands, I imagine you would have taken the money and ran.”
Fairbanks lowered his rifle an inch. “There would have been no need for all this unpleasantness.”
“But he ignored you so you tightened the screws. It’s a classic interrogation technique. You don’t go in hard and then let your subject relax.”
“It’s my scorched earth policy. Give them nowhere to run.”
Fairbanks was relaxing. He was enjoying himself. Daniel could see it in his eyes. Good, he thought. It wasn’t a victory, but he only needed him to shelve his defences for a second. Then he could show the little freak what scorched earth really was.
Fairbanks dropped his rifle lower and climbed a step higher. “You’re more intelligent than you’re given credit for. I gather you don’t work for the family firm, do you? I’m my own boss these days and now that Dougherty has been fired, so to speak, there’s an opening on my team.”
“He’ll never work for you. He’s a Dayton,” Ed said.
Daniel tried to hide his anger. Even though Ed had cast him aside in the cruellest of ways, the greed of the man wouldn’t relinquish its hold. No distractions, he reminded himself. He breathed deeply and smiled. “Actually, all ties to the Dayton family have just been severed. I might take you up on your offer after all.”
He shuffled forward, closing down the distance between them. Fairbanks whipped the rifle butt into his shoulder and aimed at Monica. As she screamed, Daniel ran back to her side and leapt in front of her, his bulk easily hiding her from the bullet destined to kill her and her baby.
“Interesting,” Fairbanks said, talking to Ed, but looking at Daniel. “No matter what your son says, no matter what’s going on between you, you’re correct, Ed. This man is a Dayton through and through.”
“I decide my own destiny. Not you or him,” Daniel said, jabbing his finger at his father.
“He thought by lowering my rifle, I was giving him a chance to grab me, but it was a test. You see, I’m still not sure about him. If he’d been serious about joining me and hating you, he would have let me shoot your wife. He’s quite homicidal in that regard, but there is something keeping him here, possibly something he doesn’t quite understand himself.”
“Leave them alone,” Ed said. His voice was weak, sounding like the slurred words of a drunk. “It’s me you need. Not them. Let them be.”
All three of them turned their eyes to Ed. He was standing on the wrong side of the wooden railing, his good hand holding him firm. Below was a deadly drop and while his feet were chocked on the floor, his legs were buckling. He was gasping for breath.
“Eddie, don’t.” Monica tried to rush to his aid, but Daniel wrapped an unyielding arm around her.
“Don’t be a fool,” Fairbanks said.
“Let them go. I’m the only one who can get you your money. You don’t need them.”
Fairbanks bit his lip. It was the first time Daniel had seen him express a genuine emotion. Stepping to one side, he pointed down the stairs.
“You two, get out.”
Daniel led Monica down the staircase. He paused briefly when he came to Reaver sitting in a heap on a stair. “Worried your master is going to punish you for going astray?”
Reaver didn’t meet his gaze. “No.”
“I said, get out,” Fairbanks shouted and Daniel led Monica to the door. She s
truggled in his grasp, digging her heels into the floor like a child. “We can’t go, Daniel. Not like this.”
She wouldn’t leave and he wouldn’t leave without her, but there was something else; something in what Fairbanks had said earlier. Deep down in a part of him he didn’t understand, something was preventing him from abandoning his father. The door out of Five Oaks was open, but he knew he had to stay.
Fairbanks rubbed his fingers along the creases in his forehead. “Are you satisfied, Ed?”
“I’m pretty fucking far from satisfied.”
Fairbanks sidled closer, taking a few cautious steps toward Ed, preparing to pull him back over the railing. “Look at it this way. In five minutes, this will all be over. You transfer the funds to my designated account and I’m gone. What’s ten million pounds to you? I bet you could recoup that within six months.”
“You think? Without my two sons? Without a wife or a family to support me?”
“At least, you’ll be alive enough to try. I’ll call an ambulance for you on the way to my next job.”
“Don’t do me any favours.”
“At least I’d make the call. I don’t think Daniel will bother.”
“Me neither,” Ed said, catching Daniel’s eye as he lingered in the hallway. Daniel was the first to look away. “You brought me so low, Fairbanks. I was arrogant enough to think that it was impossible. Of all the sins I’ve committed, it’s that one that’s brought me here.”
“I think you have a right to be arrogant,” Fairbanks said. “Look at everything you’ve done.”
Daniel opened one of the front doors, urging Monica through it, sensing his father was about to make a move. She tried to skirt by him and he shoved her in the chest. She staggered backward over the threshold. He swung the door shut and locked it to the sounds of her fists beating against the other side.
“If I had my time again, I might make other choices,” Ed said.
“I’m here to give you that time.” Fairbanks laid down his rifle and moved forward a step, fidgeting with his earring.
Glancing over his shoulder, Ed looked to the ground below and then to Daniel. He shrugged his shoulders and Daniel saw something wash out of him, as if he suddenly realised his life had taken the wrong course.
His eyes screwed into pinpricks and he looked at Fairbanks. “I’ll never give you that money. There’ll be no cheques, no transfers. You’ll never get a penny off me. Not as long as there are clouds in the sky.”
Daniel saw what he was about to do and pounded up the stairs. His father watched him run. “I shouldn’t have asked you to do it, son. I’m sorry.”
Reaching out, Fairbanks’ fingertips brushed Ed’s as he let go. He tumbled through the air, arms across his chest, his clothes whipping by his side. Daniel stood on the stairs and watched him sail by.
It was over in a heartbeat. From the dive to the crack of his bones on flooring that had cost forty-seven pounds per square metre. His head splintered loudly and his torso split open with the impact, spilling his bloody innards in a graceless pool spreading outwards in a red ring.
Daniel blinked twice. The air was still. His father was dead and for a moment, he had forgotten how to breathe. Finally, he gasped, pressing his hand to the side of his face. He wanted to look around the hall, check if anything else in his world had changed, but he couldn’t tear his eyes from the twitching corpse below.
The creak of the railing woke him and he saw Fairbanks staring at what remained of his father. Stunned into paralysis, he barely noticed Daniel bounding up the stairs until it was too late. Turning to face him, Fairbanks ducked quickly under his arm. He scooped up his rifle and took off down the corridor with Daniel in pursuit.
The door of a room slammed shut. Daniel reached it seconds later and found it was his old bedroom. He hadn’t been inside for years. His father had bought him a flat not long after Eisha was born. To aid the bonding process between father and child, he’d said at the time. Daniel saw a red ring of blood in his mind’s eye and shook his head clear of the image.
“You can’t get out, Fairbanks,” he said through the door, “and you can’t climb down from my window. Believe me, I’ve tried.”
Two shots erupted, bursting through the door and spraying Daniel in splinters of wood. Fairbanks was trapped inside, he thought, but he was trapped outside. He could wait him out, but Daniel wanted to be the first to make Fairbanks bleed. The sole purpose of his return to Newcastle was revenge. Behind the door was the man who hurt his daughter, hounded his father to his death and held his family to ransom.
Daniel wouldn’t be denied and ran back down the staircase. Reaver was struggling against his restraints. Daniel untied the knot at the post and punched him in the stomach, knocking any further fight out of him. He dragged up the stairs by the rope around his neck.
Returning to his bedroom door, Daniel clamped a hand over Reaver’s mouth. “I’m going to count to three, Fairbanks and then I’m coming in.”
Daniel didn’t count. He didn’t even think. He kicked open the door and barrelled inside using Reaver as a shield. Fairbanks had upended his bed, crouching behind it for protection, his rifle pointed at the door. Reaver tried to twist free as a shot rang out. He suddenly felt heavy in Daniel’s arms. Fairbanks fired again, the bullet thudding into Reaver so hard Daniel was forced to brace against the impact. Reaver grunted and spluttered blood. Daniel didn’t wait for a third shot. He threw Reaver’s limp body at the bed, knocking Fairbanks off balance. Leaping over a tangle of bed sheets, Daniel wrenched the rifle from Fairbanks’ hands and heaved him to his feet.
Holding him by the lapels of his ridiculous Tweed jacket, Daniel expected to feel a grim satisfaction. Instead, he was unnerved. The man before him was smart enough to know he was about to be tortured to death, but there wasn’t a glimpse of fear in him. His glassy, bulbous eyes. The pink tinge to his cheeks. The half-smile on his lips. Fairbanks was amused and Daniel didn’t know why.
“I’m going to take a wild guess,” Fairbanks said. “You’re an orphan too.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Daniel had never thought about this room in all the time he’d been away. Now that he was back, he saw it had been left as a shrine. Nothing had changed. The carpet was still ocean blue, though patches had faded in the sun, and the walls were still cream. Even the view from the window was familiar. As a child, he would often while away the hours staring at the grey lake and its island of evergreen shrubs. Scott had told him there were bodies buried out there and Daniel believed him. He had put two there himself.
The posters he’d chosen as a child remained pinned to the wall. Oasis, the Killers and Eminem were mounted on his friend’s recommendations, but there was no CD player or iPod. Daniel didn’t like music.
He pulled a chair into the centre of the room from the desk where he once sat struggling with his homework. Fairbanks sat down, adjusting his trousers to make himself more comfortable. Taking the rope from a motionless Reaver, Daniel tied his arms over the back.
“It was clever of you to use him as a shield,” Fairbanks said. “Do you think I killed him?”
The body lay face down on the bed, blood soaking into the same blankets Daniel had gripped as he tried to sleep at night. If he wasn’t dead, he thought, he soon would be.
“Reaver was an orphan like you,” Fairbanks said. “We all were. Abandoned by our families. Left to roam the streets. It was dangerous out there, I can tell you, but being adopted by the Daytons? I bet they messed you up. You’d have been better off with us.”
Daniel wanted to prolong Fairbanks’ pain without killing him. He dismissed the idea of taking him down to the room in the cellar. There were too many cool toys and he didn’t want to get carried away.
“How did you know I was adopted?”
“Just the things you were saying. Plus you have the look of a man seeking a home. You only ever see it in people without a family.”
Daniel tested his knots. Happy that they were tight, he
went to his desk looking for something he was sure would still be there. Opening the top drawer, he found a pen with multi-coloured nibs and a collection of erasers smelling vaguely of fruit. There was a maths textbook and a photocopied hand-out from a chemistry lesson he’d never attended. He brushed them all aside and found his Swiss Army knife, the one he carried with him every day of his school life.
“I wonder what would have happened if I’d been adopted,” Fairbanks said. “Maybe I would have taken a truer path. Perhaps I’d have been a librarian. I’ve always liked books.”
Extending the blade on his knife, he wiped it clean on his shirt. “I’m not much of a reader.”
“My uncle read a lot. He was the one who taught me to fish. Every Saturday afternoon while my father drank himself insensible watching football, he’d take me to the local river and we’d fish for chub or bream.” Fairbanks stared out of the window and looked at the lake. “I think that’s the happiest I’ve ever been.”
The glass in Fairbanks’ earring caught the light and drew Daniel toward it. He pressed the tip of his knife into his ear and Fairbanks stiffened. “If you cut off my ear, can I ask you to place it in the top pocket of my jacket afterward please? That earring is very precious to me.”
“Relax,” Daniel said, moving behind him. “We’re not doing that today.”
The material of Fairbank’s jacket was heavy and it took time to cut through it. He cursed himself for not removing it first. Taking the knife, he slowly sliced through the sleeves so they hung in tatters from his arms. Then he started on the shirt.
“Dougherty told me about the earring. You must have really loved that dog.”
“Dogs,” Fairbanks said.
He paused in the middle of the second sleeve. “What?”
“When I first met Dougherty, he tried to drown me in a bag with a Jack Russell. The poor thing was terrified, but it was biting and scratching me. I had no choice but to strangle it. I didn’t want to. I love dogs.”
“You made it into an earring?”